2 Peter

[Guest]

2 Peter 3:8-9

With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Please feel free to give your interpretations.

[Guest]

I guess i like The Message paraphrase (gasp!)

Don't overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn't late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn't want anyone lost. He's giving everyone space and time to change.

TK

[Guest]

I agree with what you said TK.

I would like give my opinion.

I would like to focus on 2 peter 3:8 specifically the phrase
" 1000 years is like a day and a day is like a 1000 years " to the Lord.

What I don't understand is that people with Phd. use this verse to justify their prophecies. First of all even if we translate this phrase literally we can not use this for mathematical equation because the phrase suggest an
"indefinite time" . You can plug into an equation an indefinite time but it will give you an indefinite answer or infinity. A definite time is when I say 1 hour I meant one hour. Peter could easily say that to the Lord 5000 years is like an hour and an hour is like 5000 years and the meaning of the verse in its' context will not change.because I believe Peter is telling us that God is not limited by time or He is not controlled by time rather it is God who control the time and He is the Lord of the time. Which also supports the idea that Christ can come anytime.

[Guest]

Paul, I don't think we can infer from this passage that God is outside of time, or "controls" time, etc.

In my simple view, "time" is simply a measurement of the passing of the occurence of events. When the first event occurred, time began.
God was there right from the beginning of time until the present. We human beings normally exist a mere 70-100 years. So with us, for example, 30 years is a long time. But with God, it's but a moment. In addition, God has a different perception of a small amount of time.

This difference in concept of time is true even between people. To a 10 yr. old child, a year seems a lot longer than it does to a 50 year old person. Perhaps that is because a year comprises 10% of the child's life, but only 2% of the 50 year old's life.

So, I think Peter has in mind the fact that God's perception of time is different from ours, different with respect to both very long periods and very short periods. I don't think Peter had in mind our modern concept of God being "outside of time" (whatever that means) or that "time" is some sort of subtance that God controls.

[Guest]

I agree with you Paidion somehow I'm seeing more in this verse. I'll try to squeeze my brain maybe I'll come up with new idea.

[Guest]

2 Peter 3:8-9

With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Please feel free to give your interpretations.

I think that it's just Peter's way of stating that the period of time we live in, the time before the judgment mentioned in this context (verse 7) seems long to us (note the scoffers in verses 3-4) but it is only long because God is patient, not wanting any to perish.

So it's not that God is slow or that the judgment will never come, bit it is that God is patiently waiting for more people to come to repentance.

IMO, that's all it means. Nothing mystical and nothing about the "millennium".