Part 2 of The Last Days from 2nd Peter 3

As you will soon see Peter is no longer quoting Joel in 2 Pe 3:3, but he does tie “The Last Days” to “the day of the LORD.” If you have read my book or some of my blog posts you know that the day of the LORD is Yahweh’s day, not the day of Christ or the day of the Lord Jesus. In Joel as well as the rest of the Old Testament through Malachi, when God, who is The Holy Spirit, wanted YHWH mentioned the word LORD in all capital letters was used.

Unfortunately when the New Testament translators referred to the day of the LORD they did not put the word in all caps, but as Lord, which has caused much confusion. All one really has to do is look back and see what a time calamity the day of the LORD is when the day of the Lord Jesus is a time of rejoicing.

2 Pe 3:10 says But, the day of the LORD will come like a thief, and then (sometime later) the heavens will pass away with a loud noise and the elements will be dissolved with fire and the earth and everything that is done on it will be burned up…..waiting for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God.

Old Testament prophets didn’t know anything about The Gathering Together, the episunagoge, of the church of God. They didn’t know there would be a Church of God, or that salvation would be available by undeserved divine favor, because God kept it secret from them. If He had not kept it secret from them, the devil would never have allowed Jesus Christ to be crucified and die! (See 1 Cor 2:8).

2nd Thessalonians 2 tells us implicitly in verses 2-3 that the day of the LORD will not come unless the departure, the apostasia, comes first. “And then (and not until then) will the lawless one be revealed!” The revealing, apokalupto, the unveiling of the False Prophet, an Antichrist, marks the beginning of the Great Tribulation and the day(s) of the LORD. The Departure, the Gathering Together, marks the end of salvation by grace.

No one knows when the last days will be or the end times,  but we should all live like they are here now since none of us are promised tomorrow. When I say we should live like these are our last days I mean operating the ministry of reconciliation like there was no tomorrow. We are our friends’ and acquaintances’ last best chance to believe in Christ as their Savior. Romans 10:9 and 10 is the number one best scripture for persuading someone to be saved and how to be saved. Let us not be weary in well doing.