II PETER 3:9

Peter explains to those scoffers in the church who were beginning to doubt that Christ would ever return, “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.”

Some ancient manuscripts replace the underlined phrase with “on your account” or “with us.” The first of these variants conveys pretty much the identical concept as “with you.” But “with us,” as in the KJV, extends Peter's thought to include himself as well as his audience. That reading can be safely discarded from further consideration since the textual scholar Bruce Metzger notes that “with us” is based on no Greek manuscripts of II Peter at all, only on secondary sources who quote from II Peter.

The first important issue to settle concerns the implication, if any, of Peter's words in supporting the concept of universalism. Since other translations say that God is not willing for any to perish. This has caused some to latch on to this verse as proof of the idea that everyone is going to be saved in the end. But most theologians deny this implication vehemently. To explain why, they generally invoke the concept of the different types of wills under God's purview. These include God's ideal will, sovereign will, permissive will, and individual will.

But one does not have to resort to theological language to understand that wanting or wishing something to happen is quite different, even for God, from decreeing it to happen.

“This verse has been cited as an argument for universalisam: in fact it teaches the opposite. The plain thrust of it is that after the second coming, ushering in Christ's judgment, there will be no further opportunity for repentance, and so God in His mercy is giving men as long as possible to repent.” (Wheaton)

Block notes that this is a restatement of the truth in Ezekiel 33 in which God sent a watchman to warn the people before it was too late to repent.

Much more could probably be said addressing this matter, but I would like to move on to another apparent problem with this verse which is not nearly as obvious. It was pointed out to me one day by someone in a Bible study I was teaching, and at the time I really didn't have any acceptable answer to give him. This person pointed out that delaying the Judgment Day would seem to be the kindest thing for God to do in order to assure that more people become saved. But on the other hand, every day that a new person is saved also means that a great many more that are probably being condemned to Hell. So if God really were kind, He would bring about that Day as soon as possible to minimize those lost eternally.

I will certainly not attempt to second-guess God or criticize the wisdom of His actions in any way. So one way to address the problem is simply to say that this is another of those mysteries of the faith that we will never understand this side of the grave. It ranks up there along with the question of why God needed to even create mankind in the first place. All we can do is speculate. So here are some speculations.

A very important consideration to begin with is the specific context of Peter's words, If we do so, some of the meaning will begin to come to light. One problem is that II Peter is usually classified among the “general letters,” causing us to feel that it is addressed to all Christians of all times. But as D. Payne points out, II Peter 3:1 “tells us that Peter had written to his readers once before, so no doubt he did have a particular church or area in mind” and it was more than likely a predominantly Gentile church. In that context, it is addressed to the scoffers of Peter's time, warning them to repent before it is too late. Thus, it is not a blanket statement for all time.Peter “portrays the present age as being an urgent time for repentance and salvation.” (Dictionary of Biblical Imagery) And Davids states, “The special focus of this concern in 2 Peter is the Christian community, which is being polluted by sin.”

Therefore this is a pastoral letter written to address a particular situation in a particular church, warning the congregation that God's judgment could come at any time. To extend Peter's comments beyond that point would be like taking God's OT commands for mankind to “fill the earth” as a current dictate from God to continue to overpopulate the earth even though it has already been filled.

Keep in mind that Peter was writing at a time when the Gospel had not yet begun to infiltrate the whole earth. So if we take seriously the need for God's Great Commission today, it was even more important in the early days of Christianity.

The difficulty remains that the more time God allows for people to repent, the more time also for others who do not respond to be lost. But one could argue that those people were destined to be lost in any case. That brings up the whole question of predestination versus free will, which is another mystery, at least to me.

There is one other Bible passage to cast light on, or perhaps further confuse, the issue. In Romans 11:25, Paul talks about a hardening which has come upon Israel “until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.” N. Elliott explains that these are “those destined to trust in God.”

John Murray discusses this verse in more detail and comes to the same general understanding: “The verb of which 'the fulness of the Gentiles' is the subject, namely, 'be come in', is the standard term in the New Testament for entering into the kingdom of God and life...The thought is, therefore, that of Gentiles entering into the kingdom of God...The only way whereby those who had already entered could be included is to suppose that 'the fulness of the Gentiles' means the total number of elect from among the Gentiles.”

Murray goes on to state that (a) there is no way to avoid the implication that a particular number of saved is in mind and (b) it seems to indicate a massive turning to God at some future time for both the Jews and Gentiles. We can only suppose that for such a large number of people to be saved in the future, God knows it can only occur at a particular time in history, much as He brought Jesus into the world “in the fullness of time” during the Pax Romana (Galatians 4:4).

In conclusion, B.J. Dodd deals with both of these problem issues in a rather succinct manner: “The wording of 2 Peter 3:9 is suggestive along the lines of universalism...[However, the] “syntax does not address all people everywhere. Rather the author speaks of a limited sphere of concern: 'but He is forebearing toward you, that is 2 Peter's auditors.”