II Peter 3:3-4
“Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with {their} mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For {ever} since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation”
By the time Peter wrote this (scholars date II Peter in 64 AD), the world was in real turmoil. The world seemed to be falling apart. Jerusalem, especially, was on the verge or erupting into revolt. Christians were being blamed for the trouble being incited in Rome.
However, the New Testament writers reveal to us that they saw the church going to sleep. At the most critical juncture of history for the church, the Parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25 shows the church asleep—all ten were asleep, not just five of them. The parable specifically spotlights the virgins slumbering and sleeping at the time of the end, and it happened in the first century too, just before the destruction of the Temple, which was “an end.” The main point of the Parable of the Ten Virgins is we are to be on the alert. While, we may be aware of the season or general times (Matthew 24:32-33), we will not the day or hour of Jesus Christ’s return (Matthew 25:13; Matthew 24:36; Mark 13:32).
It is an incongruity that seems almost impossible to believe. With all this excitement going on, instead of being stirred up to press on toward the Kingdom of God, the church instead—much of it, anyway—was doing what the Thessalonians were doing, just waiting it out. Not everybody did that, and it is a good thing or Christianity would have died out.
The apostles were certainly stirred up. There is no doubt about it because they wrote about it. These people were doing exactly what the apostles were warning them of: They were walking after their own lusts or desires. The Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13) demonstrates the importance of overcoming. The difference between the wise and foolish virgins is their supplies of oil. While water represents the power of God’s Holy Spirit to cleanse, oil represents its power to work, to do good. Thus, the difference between the virgins is their good works (“I know your works”), how much they overcame their selfish human natures by acting in love toward God and man
Things are not continuing as they were, and the reason we know this is because God has given us discernment of the times and seasons in which we are living. Life is not going to continue the way it is: It will get worse before it gets better. So Peter is reminding us.
