What events in our time were foretold in the Scripture? What does God's Word say people would be like in "the last days"?
The 2nd Letter from Peter is addressed to a wide circle of Christians. Its main concern is to combat the work of false teachers and the immorality which results from such teaching. The answer is found in holding to the true knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, knowledge which has been conveyed by persons who themselves have seen Jesus and have heard Him teach. The apparent delay in Christ's return is due to the fact that God does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins.
2 Peter 3 says: "My dear Friends, this is now the 2nd Letter I have written you. In both Letters I have tried to arouse pure thoughts in your minds by reminding you of these things (1). Our ancestors have already died, but everything is still the same as it was since the Creation of the World! (4). First of all you must understand that in the LAST DAYS some people will appear whose lives are controlled by their own lusts (3). They purposely ignore the fact that LONG AGO God gave a Command, and HEAVENS and EARTH were created (5). The EARTH was formed OUT OF WATER and BY WATER. And it was also by water, the Water of the Flood, that the OLD WORLD was destroyed (6).
(Genesis 1: God said, "Let there be light"... God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the Midst of the Waters, and let it separate the Waters from the waters and God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day). But the HEAVENS and the EARTH that NOW exists are being preserved by the same Command of God, in order to be destroyed by Fire (7). The people whose lives are controlled by their own lusts are being kept for the DAY when godless people will be JUDGED and DESTROYED (7). There is no difference in the Lord's sight between one day and a thousand years; to HIM the two are the same." (8)
1 John 2 says: "My children, the END is near! You were told that the enemy of CHRIST would come; and now many enemies of CHRIST have already appeared, and so we know that the end is near." (18)
(Isaiah 45: 9-13 "Woe to him who strives with His Maker, an earthen vessel with the potter! Does the clay say to Him Who fashions it, 'What are you making'? or 'Your work has no handles'? Woe to him who says to a father, 'What are you begetting'? or to a woman, 'With what are you in travail'?". Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and His Maker: "Will you question ME about My children, or command ME concerning the Work of My Hands? I made the Earth, and created Man upon it; it was My Hands that stretched out the Heavens, and I commanded all their host. I have aroused Him in righteousness, and I will make straight all His Ways; He shall built My City and set My exiles free, not for price or reward," says the Lord of hosts). "We write to you about the WORD of LIFE, which has existed from the very beginning. We have heard it, and we have seen it with our eyes, and our hands have touched it. (1:1) We write this in order that our joy may be complete. Now the MESSAGE that we have heard from God's Son and announce is this: 'God is light, and there is no darkness at all in Him.(1:4) If, then, we say that we have fellowship with Him, yet at the same time live in the darkness, we are lying both in our words and in our actions. But if we live in the light -just as He is in the light- then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, purifies us from every sin." (1: 5-7) "If we obey God's Commands, then we are sure that we know Him. If we say that we know Him, but do not obey His Commands, we are liars and there is no Truth in us. But if we OBEY HIS WORD, we are the ones whose love for God has really been made perfect. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God: if we say that we remain in union with God, we should live just as JESUS CHRIST did." (2: 3-6) "Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to His service and pleasing to Him."(Ro.12:1) "Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this World, but let God transform you INWARDLY by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the Will of God -what is good and is pleasing to Him and is perfect." (Ro. 2:2) "We are not like so many others, who handle GOD's MESSAGE as if it were cheap merchandise; but because God has sent us, we speak with sincerity in His Presence, as servants of CHRIST."(2Cor.2:17) "You yourself are the Letter of recommendation we have, written on our hearts for everyone to know and read. It is clear that CHRIST Himself wrote this letter and sent it by us, It is written, not with ink but with the Spirit of the Living God, and not on stone tablets but on human hearts."(2 Cor. 3: 2-3)"The capacity we have comes from God; it is He who made us capable of serving the New Covenant, which consist not of a written law but of the Spirit." (2 Cor. 3: 2-3)
James 4 says: "What causes wars, and what causes fights among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. Unfaithful creatures! Do you not know that friendship with the World is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the World makes himself an enemy of God." (1-4)
Isaiah 46 says:"Bel bows down, Nebo stoops, their idols are on beasts and cattle; these things you carry are loaded as burdens on weary beasts. They stoop, they bow down together, they cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity. "Hearken to ME, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by ME from your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I AM HE, and to grey hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.
To whom will you liken ME and make ME equal, and compare ME, that we may be alike?"(1-5)
"Those who lavish gold from the purse, and weigh out silver in the scales, hire a goldsmith, and makes it into a god; then they fall down and worship! They lift it upon their shoulders, they carry it, they set it in its place, and it stands there; it cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble. Remember this and consider, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I AM GOD, and there is no other; I AM GOD, and there is none like ME, declaring the END from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My Counsel shall Stand, and I will Accomplish All My Purpose.' " (6-10
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