Did Peter Get It Wrong?

1 Peter 2:20-21

“For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:”

In both of his epistles, the apostle Peter writes about the Flood. In his first epistle, he wrote: “God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.” Peter goes on to compare the Flood to baptism. The account of the Flood in Genesis shows that Noah and his family were saved from the wrath of God on a sinful world by the Ark and, therefore, waterproofed through that judgment. The ordinance of baptism is, therefore, predicated on the historicity of the Flood and the necessity of it being a worldwide Flood.

In 2 Peter 3, the apostle refers to scoffers who believe that all processes have continued from the beginning at the same rate as they proceed today. This is the evolutionary principle that the present is the key to the past. Peter refutes this argument by pointing out that the whole world was created by God and that the whole world was deluged by Him. He writes that the scoffers have deliberately ignored these two world events. The application is clear. Modern evolutionists and deep time geologists are like Peter’s scoffers, interpreting the world as a gradual development of slow processes over long eons of time. Peter is clear that the biblical account of the Flood really happened, and, if he were wrong, the whole of his teaching would fall apart.

Author: Paul F. Taylor

 Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for showing us in Your word that You poured out Your wrath on the sinful early world, but also made a way of salvation, reminding us that we, too, can be saved when we repent and trust in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Ref: Turpin, S. (2016), How the Apostle Peter Relates to the Age of the Earth Debate, < https://answersingenesis.org/days-of-creation/apostle-peter-relates-age-earth-debate/ >, accessed 8/27/2018. Image: Strozzi’s Release of Peter, Public Domain image.

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