2 Peter 3:9 is often cited by those who do not affirm the doctrine of election. But when one looks at the context, immediately one sees that unlike such passages as Ephesians 1, Romans 8-9, or John 6, this passage is not speaking about salvation as its topic.
The topic of 2Peter 3 is the coming of Christ to remove the Old Covenant and establish the New Covenant. Peter referred to the scoffers who were mocking the teaching of the church that the Old Covenant was passing away. The scoffers were pointing to the Temple in Jerusalem and using it as an example of the fact that the Old Covenant was still in operation. Peter assured believers that the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and it will come at God’s own time. In fact, the day of the Lord did come very soon afterwards in the events of 70 AD.
Peter addressed God’s elect in his letter, encouraging them to not be distracted or deceived by the scoffers from following Christ. Peter was writing to a specific group, not to all of mankind. In the first verse of chapter one Peter describes his audience as “those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours.” There is nothing in chapter three that indicates a change in audience, but there is much in the context to tell us the audience remains exactly the same.
Since this is so, it becomes quite clear that the Arminian is badly misusing this passage by ignoring what Peter is really saying. The patience of the Lord is displayed toward His elect people (the “you” of verse 9). Furthermore, the “not wishing any to perish” is logically and contextually limited to the same group already in view: the elect. In the same way, the “all to come to repentance” must be the very same group. In essence Peter is saying the coming of the Lord has been delayed so that all the elect of God in the Old Covenant system can be gathered into the New Covenant. The Book of Acts, the Book of Revelation, and church history give us a sufficient record that none of the Old Covenant elect perished but all did come to repentance and embraced by faith the New Covenant church.
This truth gives us great encouragement today that the Lord will not come again to bring a consummation to redemption until all the elect have repented. He is graciously patient and perfectly punctual.
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Jason Robertson is a husband and a father and a pastor. He is dedicated to leading and equipping his the Church with God’s word and biblical theology for life ministry, using a combination of pastoral, church planting and evangelism experience. He holds a Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is experienced in church planting, evangelism, missions, and the training of pastors and Bible teachers.
Jason has been preaching the gospel since 1985, serving the first ten years of ministry as a Southern Baptist itinerant evangelist out of Milldale Baptist Church in Zachary, LA which ordained him in 1993. He has preached in hundreds of churches in over 30 States and 4 countries. He planted churches in Siberia, Russia in the summers of 1993 and 1994. He founded Murrieta Valley Church in California, which he planted in cooperation with the SBC NAMB in 2001. He also teaches ministry students at California Baptist University.
You can hear his sermons and read his manuscripts on sermonaudio.com. Just follow the link to "sermons" at the top of this page.
Hi,
Quote: In essence Peter is saying the coming of the Lord has been delayed so that all the elect of God in the Old Covenant system can be gathered into the New Covenant. The Book of Acts, the Book of Revelation, and church history give us a sufficient record that none of the Old Covenant elect perished but all did come to repentance and embraced by faith the New Covenant church.
Would you mind providing some detail here? I’m very interested in this argument.
What part of the argument in particular are you wanting detail about?