THE END: The Regeneration of Creation

Read 2 Peter 3:10-13.

The day of the Lord is the great prophetic period of the end times. It is not a 24 hour day, but encompasses the era from the rapture of the church to the end of the current creation.  As we use the word, “day,” in the sense of, “The Civil War took place in Lincoln’s day,” meaning a wider period of time—that is the usage here. It is a day of judgment, seven years of tribulation—the fearful judgments described in Revelation 6-19, and the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth by force with Christ’s return and the battle of Armageddon, His reign and the gathering and blessing of Israel, a final rebellion ending with the Great White Throne Judgment, and the dissolution of creation.

This all begins “as a thief in the night,” with Christ taking the church into heaven—suddenly, unexpectedly. The world will not be looking for the judgments to come.  The saints, however, will not be taken unaware. We will be noting the signs of the times, (see 1 Thess.4:13-5:11), preparing for the rapture. The wicked will be unprepared for the doom that will descend.

How does it all end?  That is what Peter turns to next. After the Millennium and the Great White Throne Judgment, he speaks of the regeneration of creation. In ancient mythology, there was a bird called the Phoenix, that at the end of its life would consume itself in fire and then rise from the ashes reborn. Similarly, this old creation will come unglued at the command of God who holds it together. The fission of the atoms will unleash incredible heat—imagine nuclear explosions of an incalculable number. God will purge all the sin from the old creation and then regenerate new heavens and a new earth.

How should we live in light of that?  Don’t give yourself to the stuff around you—it won’t last. It’s going up in smoke. Give yourself to the eternal. Store up treasure in heaven where it endures forever!