To Encourage You

2 Peter 3:9 (KJV) “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

Have you heard the term “universalism”? If not, perhaps you’re familiar with the idea and you may unknowingly even subscribe to it. The term refers to a system of belief of some people who call themselves Christians, but who do not believe in hell, at least hell in the sense of a place where some people will end up someday.  They believe that while sin may have negative effects on a person in this life, it will not affect them in the next.  No matter who they are, what they’ve believed, or what they’ve done, everyone will end up in heaven someday, according to the universalists.  It’s a nice thought, and it makes a lot of people comfortable.  It removes the element of fear from religion.  It makes us feel good, so it must be the way it really is.  And it’s not that universalists don’t hold to the Bible.  They have a number of verses to which they refer in order to support their position. One of them is the verse above.  In this verse we are told that the Lord is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”  They then say that because this is God’s will, then God will fulfill His will, and all people will come to repentance. 

However, in its context, this verse is talking about just the opposite.  They pluck this verse out of its context, which talks about how so many people mock the idea of the judgment of God.  It talks about how men at the time of the final judgment will be just like those at the time of Noah’s judgment.  It says “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.’ For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:3-7).   It is only after this that we are told about God’s desire that all men come to repentance and not perish, but by this it is referring to the reason God waits to judge mockers.  He has incredible patience.  He warns over and over again that just as He judged the world by a world-wide flood at the time of Noah, and as He judged Sodom and Gomorrah by fire as a result of their sin, He will certainly judge sin in our day and destroy the world and all who have rejected Him by fire.

While it is true that it is God’s desire that all men repent, many definitely will not.  We are told that in the final tribulation, as God pours out His wrath on a wicked unbelieving world, that the following will happen: “The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds (Revelation 16:10-11).” 

It was Jesus who warned us of the judgment that was coming against those who had rejected Him and lived a life of unrepentant sin.  In that day He will say to those people: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:41-46).  And then this, as Paul prophesied a time “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). 

And as for the universalists’ efforts to rid the world of any fear of God, we are told “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10), and “God is the one you must fear” (Ecclesiastes 5:1-7).  In describing the marks of the ungodly, Romans 3:18 tells us “there is no fear of God before their eyes.” 

Universalism – it sounds nice, but it is anything but, since it is lie that is being promulgated to deceive men.  That’s the way it is with deception. We don’t believe it because it sounds bad to us, but because it makes sense and makes us feel good. But it is a trap of the enemy of our souls to lull sinners into sleep and soothe any concerns they might have of God’s righteous judgment in the end. It is only the believer, i.e., those who believe everything God has said, who have heeded His call to “flee the wrath to come” (Matthew 3:7).  It’s a harsh-sounding warning, but it is true, and it comes from a loving God who warns us rather than deceives us, for deception is the trick of the Deceiver, the enemy of our souls.