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Question: What is the Bible teaching us in 2 Peter 3:8?
"Porri, ne hoc unum nos lateat, dilecti, qụd unus dies apud Dominum perinde est ut mille anni, et mille anni ut dies unus."
"But let not this one thing be hidden from you, beloved, that one day with the Lord is "as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Psa. 90:4" - 2 Peter 3:8 LITV.
This verse is emphasizing, as the entire Bible does, that God is not subject to time as mankind is. God is from everlasting and to everlasting:
"Blessed be Jehovah God of Israel, even from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen!" - Psalm 41:13 LITV.
"Blessed is Jehovah God of Israel, from everlasting even to everlasting. And let all the people say, Amen! Praise Jehovah!" - Psalm 106:48.
Peter here cites Psalm 90:4 and suggests that the LORD does not view time as mankind does. Humans, given their limited knowlege of spiritual things cannot possibly understand God's timetable.:
"The secret things belong to Jehovah our God; and the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may do all the Words of this Law." - Deuteronomy 29:29.
In other words, what may seem an extremely long period of time to the human whose knowledge in no way compares to God, is only brief and for a moment to God. Several centuries may seem a very, very long time to Christians and the world to wait for the return of Christ; but as Peter implies this on the other hand is but a very short time from the LORD's perspective.
Some feel God delays too long, others that God acts too quickly.
or "Your righteousness is like the hills of God; Your judgments are a great deep; O Jehovah, You preserve animal and man." - Psalm 36:6 LITV.
Concerning 2 Peter 3:8, the excellent comment of Calvin should be here noted:
"This then is what the Apostle calls our attention to, so that we may know that the day of resurrection does not depend on the present flow of tine, but on the hidden purpose of God, as though he had said, “Men wish to anticipate God for this reason, because they measure time according to the judgment of their own flesh; and they are by nature inclined to impatience" - John Calvin, commentary on 2 Peter 3:8.
"When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shalt not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times,or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with firmiliar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God." - Deuteronomy 18:9-13 KJV.
It couldn't have been said much clearer than that!
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