Willful and Despicable

Such ridiculers ignore a vital fact.  They deliberately ignore it and try to cause others to forget it.  Why? In order more easily to seduce the people.  "For, according to their wish," Peter writes, "this fact escapes their notice."  What fact?  "That there were heavens from old and an earth standing compactly out of water and in the midst of water by the word of God; and by those means the world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water."  (2 Peter 3:5, 6) Yes,  Jehovah did rid the earth of wickedness during the Flood in Noah's day, a fact that Jesus also emphasized.  (Matthew 24:37-39; Luke 17:26, 27; 2 Peter 2:5) So, contrary to what ridiculers say, all things have not continued "exactly as from creation's beginning."

Ridiculers may have mocked faithful Christians because these had as yet unrealized expectations.  Shortly before Jesus died,his disciples "were imagining that the kingdom of God was going to display itself instantly."  Then, after his resurrection they asked whether the Kingdom would be set up right away.  Also, about ten years before Peter wrote his second letter, some were "excited"  by "a verbal message" or  "a letter," reputedly from the apostle Paul or his companions, "to the effect that the day of  Jehovah is here."  (Luke 19:11; 2 Thessalonians 2:2; Acts 1:6)  Such expectations of Jesus' disciples, however, were not false, only premature.  Jehovah's day would come!

Next time: God's Word is Dependable

The Watchtower, 1997