II Peter 3:5-6 Denial Ain’t A River in Egypt Part III

My mother only allowed us to listen to country music until I was probably 11 or so. Therefore, I was in college before I ever heard a song by Meatloaf. It was called “I would do anything for love” and they chorus is quite amusing. He sings:

I would do anything for love
I would do anything for love
I would do anything for love….but I won’t do that

You can imagine that his lady was somewhat less than reassured by his promise. The false teachers and mockers in the verses we have examined in II Peter thus far are much like our man Meat, or is that Mr. Loaf? They assert that life goes on just as it has always gone on and that nothing will ever change (i.e. God will not judge the world) because nothing has ever changed. Peter points out the fact that in order to make this claim, they have to ignore or make an exception for the activity of God much as Mr. Loaf has to make an exception for his promise to do anything for love in his song.

First of all, notice with me the attitude these mockers have toward the truth. Peter says there are some important truths that escape their notice (v 5). Now this translation (NASB) didn’t choose the best word when they used “escapes” in this verse. The KJV renders the verb better when it says “they are willingly ignorant of”. This isn’t like they just missed the exit on the interstate because they weren’t paying attention. They are constantly, willfully ignorant of the truth—they deny it to their own doom. They have the word of God and disregard what it reveals. Any attack on orthodox bible teaching has to ignore, dismiss, or discount the word of God as the source of divine revelation. In this case, Peter tells the believers that these false teachers will ignore the truth in order to make their claims.

Peter specifically says that they ignore two facts: God created the world and God destroyed the ancient world with a flood during the time of Noah. Now, do you want to be branded a “fundamentalist” and sneered at by fellow Christians? Tell them you believe the first 11 chapters of Genesis are historically and scientifically accurate. Some people will look at you like you’re at least a few bricks shy of a load for making such an assertion. And I don't mean unsaved folks, I mean some people in the church. To top it all off, Peter predicted this would happen 2,000 years ago. Of course, the heresy of denying the truth of scripture happened during the lifetime of those to whom Peter wrote but listening to pastors and theologians in the church you could apply the exact same text today and find it just as true.

Genesis tells us that God created the world (“the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed”). Further, beginning in Genesis 6 we read about the worldwide, cataclysmic flood that killed everyone except Noah and those in the ark (“the world at the time was destroyed, being flooded with water”). Therefore, for these false teachers to maintain that “Nothing ever changes. God’s not going to judge us because He’s never judged us” demonstrates they are completely self deluded. They have to disregard the record of biblical revelation to make their claim. If Meat Loaf were to sing a song about their philosophy, the lyrics might be

Nothing ever changes and there’s never been a judgment
Well, except for that time when God destroyed the earth with a flood and killed everybody except Noah and his family, but let’s not talk about that.

I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t have a good beat, and I don’t think I can dance to it.