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- [00:02]
A
No one likes to wait, especially for 2,000 years. But friends, I want to encourage you with this. Jesus may not be returning on your timeline or mine, but the fact is he is returning and there's increasing evidence that he's coming soon. Welcome to Christ in Prophecy. I'm Tim Moore, director and senior evangelist for Lamb and Lion Ministries, and I'm joined, as always, by our Internet evangelist, my good friend Nathan Jones. Today, together, we're continuing our Inquiring Mind series, tackling tough questions people have asked us over the years, dealing with hard to understand subjects in Bible prophecy.
- [00:36]
B
Today's topic is about people the Bible calls mockers or scoffers. Christians are repeatedly warned that many people will scoff at the promise of Jesus coming back, including some who really should know better. So who are these mockers and what specifically are they mocking?
- [00:50]
A
You know, we're going to talk about that today. And Nathan, as you know, over the years we've had some interesting interactions with people who scoff at the idea that Christ is coming back. They look around and say, everything just keeps going on. I've had people that said, you know, my grandparents were expecting Christ to come in their lifetime and he didn't come, so why should I get all worked up or excited? And I tell them, well, your grandparents had a blessing for anticipating the Lord's return and they would have received a crown of righteousness if they've gone to be with him. So there's reason enough for us to be excited about the Lord's soon return.
- [01:24]
B
I remember our very first Bible prophecy conference at Lamb and Lion Ministries 18 years ago. I was out outside and we were next door to a plumbing company and the plumber comes out and says, what's going on in that church there? And I said, well, we're having a Bible prophecy conference. And he gets this look on his face and he says, oh, come on. Things have been going on the same as they always have. And folks, that's the verse that we're going to deal with later that mocking Jesus is never coming back. The mocking in and of itself does not discourage us, though Scripture tells us it will happen. But the source, the reason and the danger of the mocking is something every Christian should guard against. So today we're examining why some people, even Christians, scoff at the promise of Christ's return and what we can do to guard against falling into this dangerous trap ourselves. So stay with us. We'll be right back.
- [02:14]
C
Recently, a listener named Jim contacted Christ in Prophecy to say, whenever I feel discouraged, your ministry reminds me of the temporary nature of it all and the eternal promises that await us. Thank you for blessing us for so many years. We want to hear from you. Let us know how understanding Bible prophecy has shaped your faith by sharing your story@christinprophecy.org contact
- [02:41]
A
welcome back to Christ in Prophecy. Today we're talking about mockers and their mocking well, the Apostle Peter warned believers about three great denials that would prevent people from recognizing the signs of Christ's return. So let's turn to two Peter 3:3:9 and Peter writes, know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the Word of God the heavens existed long ago and and the earth was formed out of water and by water through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His Word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. So how about it, Nathan? What do you notice as we unpack these verses out of two?
- [03:54]
B
Peter well, there's a few things. For one, we are living in the last days before Christ's return. So this is a prophecy about what the people's mindset would be like leading up to the days when Jesus came back. Second, Peter is also writing to believers through the church, so he's warning the church about this. And third, he he's warning that this apostasy isn't from unbelievers. It's coming from actually inside the church itself. Now, when we read the Book of Revelation, Chapter three, it tells us that the end time personality of the church is just like the Church of Laodicea, apathetic. It thinks it's got everything, you know, big churches, big buildings, big programs. But spiritually it's a mile wide and an inch deep. And so this is where the apostasy starts creeping in when the church isn't grounded in the Word of God.
- [04:40]
A
I think you're exactly right, and I think it's very telling that Peter Identifies three great denials, as I'll call them, that we see manifesting today right before our eyes. The first denial is a denial of creation. Peter says it escapes their notice that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water. And mockers today embrace what we call uniformitarianism and evolution. In other words, they think things have always been just the way they are today, a very naturalistic progression over eons and eons of time. But that's not what the Bible describes. The Bible describes God intervening at a moment in what we call time. In other words, the beginning. And he created the heavens and the earth ex nihilio out of nothing. And yet these mockers, some even in the church today, Nathan, would deny the creation order or account as told by the only eyewitness, the Lord God himself.
- [05:35]
B
Yeah, when you've got the guy who built everything, who created everything, giving you a firsthand account, you should listen to him. But in four, unfortunately, we expect the world to deny that God created the world. But, Tim, I remember one of my very first sermons that I preached with the ministry. I was about creation and a young earth. And I had this young guy come up to me afterward and say, you are the problem with the church today. You make us look ridiculous by saying that the earth is only 6,000 years old. And he just berated me for believing in creationism and not in evolution. But, folks, evolution is a lie. It takes God out of creation, takes his glory away from him, and it puts it on unnatural processes, yet it deifies these natural processes.
- [06:17]
A
You know, I watched a podcast recently with a Christian astrophysicist who was talking about all the evidence throughout the universe that the universe itself is very young. You can talk about the proximity of the moon to the Earth. The moon is actually regressing. It's moving away from the Earth. And if you went back millions and millions and millions of years, the moon would be touching the Earth or actually inside the orbit of the Earth. That's impossible. But it shows you that there is not a uniform set of parameters that are still being followed today. He talked about the heat that are within planets that should be ice cold after all these eons of time. Even the existence of comets, which are losing mass every time they get close to the sun. They could not be here for millions and billions of years. So Christians who try to harmonize evolution with scripture really are going down a slippery slope that undermines biblical authority. The second one of the denials here in this passage is the denial of the Flood and so many scoff at the idea of a global flood as recorded in Scripture. But yet there's more and more scientific evidence that points to, well, we know there are great expanses of sediments across the entire globe. And so it is evidence of the flood as accounted in Scripture, obviously.
- [07:34]
B
Yeah. The Bible again says that the Lord judged the world by bringing the waters from the deep and from the sky together for flooding the world and starting over again. And Tim, I think you see a lot of it at times is that people deny the flood because they deny the fact that God judged the world at one point and he will again in a period called the tribulation, is what the Bible teaches.
- [07:53]
A
It certainly is the denial of the coming judgment. I love the point you make that people want to deny the flood because that was God's original judgment over all the earth. And yet there is pronounced in Scripture a coming judgment. Peter says the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. And so the mockers want to deny that Jesus will ever judge the world, and they certainly want to deny that he'll ever judge any individual. That's why we get these false Christs who are perpetrated as being someone who loves everybody and is kind of like Santa Claus winking at everyone's naughty behavior. That's not the God, the holy and righteous God of scripture. So the ungodly world simply doesn't want the real and true God to interrupt their lives, and they don't want to deal with the thought of judgment hanging over their head. But that's what Scripture testifies. Those who reject Christ have the wrath of God abiding on them now, and eventually it will be poured out in full measure.
- [08:51]
B
So we've seen these three great denials, the creation, the flood, and judgment that cause believers and unbelievers to just mock Christ's promise of his second coming. Well, folks, next we're going to take a look at current events in a segment which we call what's really Going On. Stay tuned.
- [09:07]
C
With all the uncertainty in the world today, it's good to know that God's promises never fail. As you listen to Christ in prophecy each week, we'll explain what God has revealed in his prophetic word. Join us as together we look forward to his imminent return. To listen to more programs and to hear more, hopefully Future, go to christinprophecy.org.
- [09:35]
A
Well, as we talk about what's really going on, Nathan, I think one of the most dangerous aspects of the skepticism we see all around us is the fact that the skeptics are not just out in the world. We know that the atheists are always going to be skeptical of God's word, but they're inside the church, people who claim to be Christ followers who are skeptical of his testimony of what happened in the past and what lies ahead in the future. Right.
- [09:58]
B
They seem to think that modern day scientists have disproved the Bible and therefore. Well, I even had a Catholic priest once who was visiting the church I was at and I was talking to him. He says, well, you can't take Genesis 1:3 seriously. It's clearly just a symbolic story of creation. Because going back to 2 Peter 3, where it says about being like a thousand years with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day. I said to him, well, notice the comparator there. It says like or as. That means that for the Lord, one day isn't 8,000 years, it's just for God, time is different than us. So this is where we see Christians get into trying to merge the Bible with science. I have nothing against science, I love science. But sometimes these guys get it wrong because they come in with preconceived notions. So you get something like the day age theory that, that says that every day of creation was like a million years. Well, then how in the world do you have plants growing without sunlight? Or the gap theory that there was another world before our world and that's how everything was made. It gave time for evolution. And it's really silly because it's so easy to disprove these theories.
- [11:07]
A
Look at medicine. There was a time when they thought you had to bleed a patient to heal them. Yes, with leeches. And yet we're coming back. In some cases, they find that there is a use for leeches. So medicine, science, that changes over time. But I go back to what I said. There was only one eyewitness at creation. That was the Lord God Almighty. He has revealed how he created in terms of the order. He didn't tell us exactly how things came into being other than he spoke it. It happened. And yet, as you said, too many Christians deny it. I'll never forget teaching through the Old Testament chronologically and with an overarching narrative. Young people and some very seasoned ladies of the church were there listening as I was teaching this group of young people. And when I described how dinosaurs were on the earth prior to the flood, they pulled me aside afterward and said, do you actually believe dinosaurs were on the earth while mankind was here. And I said, well, of course they said, where did you get that idea? I said, well, God created the heavens and the earth and in six days he formed all the plant, animal kingdom and mankind. We were here together. And they said, but that's not what they teach in school. And I said, well, where did they get their information? And they were just dumbfounded to think that behemoth and Leviathan are two examples, for instance, of dinosaur like creatures described in scripture because they had separated their Bible knowledge from what they thought was their public schooling knowledge, even from many years ago. I think that's tragic. It is because they overlap. God is the God who has revealed in Scripture the entirety.
- [12:46]
B
And you find a lot of mistakes too, because people don't take the literal interpretation of the Hebrew. When you look at day, in the creation account, it's the word yom. And yom is interpreted always, not as an age or an era, but a literal 24 hour day. And in the creation account, God goes out of his way to say evening and morning for each day to the point that, yeah, it's not an era or a time period, it's an exact 24 hour day, folks. If God can make a universe, why can't he do it in six days? I think, Tim, it's not a matter of facts or figures, it's a matter of belief. And these people have lost their faith that God has given us his word and we can trust it that it's his firsthand account.
- [13:27]
A
You sure can. You know the thing, I also confess I love to read about science. I love to read about space exploration, the engineering of it, the physics of it. And I do think it's fascinating because the mathematics, the physics, those are hard science and, and those do not change over time. The interpretations often do. But I'll never forget a close friend of mine who went off to college as a faithful, believing Christian and drifted. He drifted hard into evolutionary thought and morphed all of his Christian beliefs to comport with evolution. And I finally asked him why. And he said, well, I've read all these books dealing with evolution and my answer to him, yes, well, you've read all the wrong books. And I think back to C.S. lewis's character, Clarence Eustace Scruggs. This was in the Chronicles of Narnia. And he was a real menace to all of the people around him. But C.S. lewis summed up his character by saying he had read all the wrong books. Folks, no matter what books you like to read, make sure that you are grounded in the only book that contains absolute truth revealed by the eyewitness, the Creator, the Lord, God himself, and that is the Holy Bible. And if your science, if your understanding doesn't align with the Word of God, guess what? Your science is wrong. And I will stand on that truth because I stand on the Word of God. Well, Nathan, let's come back in just a moment and continue discussing the mockers and their mocking. As we finish out this episode,
- [14:56]
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people are desperately searching for answers online and there are many voices trying to get their attention. At Christ in Prophecy, we point people to God's Word. It's the only Source that is 100% reliable and from the beginning to the end times. To help us teach others about Bible prophecy, please consider making a generous donation to support this ministry. We rely on the fervent prayers and sacrificial giving of fellow believers to continue broadcasting Christ in Prophecy on tv, radio and online. The Bible has already revealed what we need to know. Help us share the truth with others by giving today at Christ in Prophecy.
- [15:40]
B
Welcome back to Christ in Prophecy Radio. I'm Nathan Jones and I'm here with Tim Moore. We're looking at mockers and scoffers who are denying Christ's return. And we're looking particularly at 2 Peter 3 as our source passage. Now we learn from Peter that who are the scoffers? He says it's not the unbelievers he's referring to, but the Christians within the church. They've heard the promise of his coming. But you know, Tim, they've just grown impatient. I think of the Jesus movement of the late 60s and 70s. And I had a boss at a church once, wonderful woman, but she says, you know, I was so excited about Christ returning in the 70s, and then the 80s came and he didn't come and I just gave up. And I said, well, you know, as humans we're so finite that, yeah, if something doesn't happen in a year or two, we're like, oh, it's never going to happen and give up. But does not. 2 Peter 3 says, A thousand years is like a day for the lord. So yes, 2000 years and years is just like two days for God. The passing is coming. He will come soon. But we're not to give up.
- [16:39]
A
There is a righteous impatience. That's why we pray Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus. We're eager for him to come. But that impatience should not blend over into dismissiveness of, well, he hasn't come in the last five minutes or the last five years. And so I'm done anticipating. No, we need to constantly be alert, as Jesus warned us. And yet we know that this personality of last days coffers is. Is described in so many places. You can turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3, where Paul talks about the difficult times that will come in the last days. And he says people will be lovers of many things. We've talked about this before. They're loving of self money. They are boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips without self control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And he describes these people holding to a form of godliness. But. And so that would suggest that they are within the realm of the church or at least have a faith of some sort. But they have denied its power and we should avoid such people. Nathan and I look around and I see our church is filled with people who, I wonder, are you really trusting in the Lord God and trusting in his power? Are you beginning to deny his power? And I don't want to besmirch any individual, but it just seems that that attitude is becoming more and more rampant in our church of Laodicea today.
- [18:02]
B
Yeah, and even worse, Tim, is when the pastors openly mock the return of the Lord from the pulpit. I used to go to a church for a few years. The pastor was. I started going to the church because the pastor was teaching through revelation. And something just changed over the few years. He just kind of gave up on the Lord returning. And then I remember at one point there was a sermon where he started making a comparison of Bible prophecy conferences to Star Trek conventions. And everybody in the crowd was laughing. And then he started making fun of Hal Lindsey and all this. And I was like, well, that's it. I'm done with this church. Because they're openly mocking the return of Jesus Christ. Did not Jesus in Luke 21 say, look up and be watchful? He wants us to look for his return.
- [18:47]
A
He certainly does. I think we have to be so careful not to do that, even subtly in our own thinking. The Lord is clear about what he means. But Nathan, let's peel back a little bit of perspective on what God, God's understanding of time is versus our understanding of time.
- [19:03]
B
But for God, what is time to him? He lives outside of time. He gives us prophecies which are called proleptic prophecies, prophecies that are future to us, but are written in past tense, meaning to God, time is done for him. So this idea that, well, you know, oh, it's been. So it's 2,000 years and everything's going to keep going. There are so many prophecies in the Bible, folks. There are 500 general prophecies in the Old Testament, 1 in 25 verses in the New Testament prophesy, the return of Christ. It's the most prolific prophecy in the entire Bible. So when God makes a promise, he will go through it. And I think that's. That's kind of the issue, Tim, here is that people begin losing their trust that God is going to fulfill his promises.
- [19:47]
A
They do. They don't believe the promises because again, we are impatient by nature. That is just being finite creatures. We want things to happen now. I want it now. And that's why Amazon became very popular, because people can order something, it can be delivered either today or tomorrow. We want immediate gratification. And yet the Lord teaches us patience because there is character building in having patience. I like to say I can't wait till I get some patience because I know myself, I am by nature impatient. But the Lord gives me lots of practice. Let's just say I appreciate what you're saying about God being outside of time. I have encouraged people to say God hears the prayers. You pray today, yesterday. In other words, God is not limited to a moment in time. And he does expect that we will align our will with his through prayer. But he heard our prayers from the foundation of the earth. He is so far outside of time that he can look down on the timeline we're plotting along at and say, there is creation, there is the end of the age, and he sees it all with equal clarity. We cannot. And so I believe here Peter is trying to communicate that truth, that great reality to us. So again, a thousand years like a day is just an effort to make that point. God is so far above and outside of our realm that he is timeless.
- [21:12]
B
And why is 2 Peter 3:9 beautiful? It says, the Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but he is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but all to come to repentance. You know, if the people who were impatient back 200 years ago and the Lord came, Tim, you and I wouldn't exist and we wouldn't be saved. So, folks, the fact that the Lord is patient gives us opportunities to accept his salvation. Peter realized that time was short when he wrote his second letter almost 2,000 years ago. And what seems to many like an endless wait, will indeed come to an end. So the question is, are you ready? Well, next Tim has a final word of encouragement about how we should live while we wait for the Lord's return. Stay with us.
- [21:57]
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Many churches avoid Bible prophecy, but it's a valuable part of God's Word. For more than 45 years, Christ in prophecy has provided reliable insight into all of God's Word. We're talking about passages and prophecies God recorded so you and I can know what to expect. If you'd like to hear Tim Moore and Nathan Jones speak in person, consider attending one of our upcoming events or invite them to come and speak at your church. Get in touch to find out more and make your request@christinprophecy.org contact let's take God at His word. All of it. Connect with us@christinprophecy.org contact well, I could
- [22:37]
A
say that I can't wait till Jesus comes again. But the reality is I am waiting. And I am trying to wait patiently, but I am waiting expectantly. You know folks, no one likes to wait, especially for 2,000 years. But can you imagine when we've been gathered together with Christ to live and dwell with him for a billion trillion years? 2000 years will seem like the blink of an eye. Every day that passes without Christ's return gives doubters another reason to stop believing he's coming at all. But what skeptics call delay is actually God's strategic pause. The Lord has set aside this time because he doesn't want anyone to perish, including you. While scoffers mock and patience run thin, God extends His mercy, allowing more people to come to saving faith. Peter warned that in the last days mockers would come, denying creation, denying the flood, and denying the coming judgment. These scoffers interpret God's patience as absence. But those who trust in Christ see something different a compassionate God giving humanity every possible chance to repent. We face the same choice God laid before Israel in life, war, death, blessings or curses. And God pleads with us. Choose life. As eager as we are for Jesus to rapture us to heaven, we must remember why he is waiting. The Lord has given us a mission to proclaim the gospel and share the good news with everyone we encounter while there is still time. On that note, we would welcome you to join with us, partnering with us to proclaim the soon return of Jesus Christ and that glorious gospel message with as many as possible, as quickly as possible. Just contact us@christinprophecy.org and we would be delighted for you to partner with us to that end. So don't become discouraged or disillusioned while you wait. Don't be carried away by the philosophies of this world or the mockery of scoffers. Instead, stay focused on God's truth and be about his business. God repeatedly warns us about mockers because the enemy wants to undermine our confidence in his promises. But we can stand firm. God's word is trustworthy and his timing is perfect. Peter closes his letter, declaring to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. Keep looking up, friends, for our redemption is drawing near. Maranatha Come, Lord Jesus, and as always, Godspeed.