END TIMES 2 | SCOFFERS OF GOD

1. End Times: Are We in the Last Days?

a) What are the signs that we are living in the last days before Jesus Christ’s return? Are we in the end times?  Are there signs in the Bible which we can read that tell us that we are living in the days just prior to His coming again?  What Scriptures reveal that we could be living in the very last days before Jesus comes to judge the world?

2. Scoffers of God

a) When someone scoffs at the idea of there being a God they ridicule believers even more when they say that people have been talking about Jesus’ coming for hundreds of years.  This persecution has not been helped by the many false prophets who have claimed to have special revelations from God and set dates for Jesus’ return.  Not one of them of course has been right because no one knows the date of Christ’s Second Advent (Matthew 24:36).

b) The longer the period of time of Christ’s return is, the more skepticism will increase, but Peter warned us about this natural tendency in 2 Peter 3:3-4, “Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 

c) What Peter is saying in his last letter is that people have been saying this ever since his ancestors were around.  It is much like in the days of Noah, prior to the flood, in which Noah spent 120 years warning people of an impending flood of judgment to come. If they laughed at Noah, they will laugh at believers. But believe God, judgment is coming as Peter warned by the comparison of Noah’s time saying, “By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Peter 3:6-7).