Albert Barnes Commentary 2 Peter 3:4

"and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." — 2 Peter 3:4 (ASV)

And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? That is, either where is the fulfilment of that promise, or where are the indications or signs that he will come? They evidently meant to imply that the promise had utterly failed, that there was not the slightest evidence that it would be accomplished, and that those who had believed this were entirely deluded.

It is possible that some of the early Christians, even in the time of the apostles, had undertaken to fix the time when these events would occur, as many have done since; and that as that time had passed by, they inferred that the prediction had utterly failed. But whether this was so or not, it was easy to allege that the predictions respecting the second coming of the Saviour seemed to imply that the end of the world was near, and that there were no indications that they would be fulfilled. The laws of nature were uniform, as they had always been, and the alleged promises had failed.

For since the fathers fell asleep. Since they died—death often being represented in the Scriptures, as elsewhere, as sleep (see notes on John 9:11 and 1 Corinthians 9:30). This reference to the "fathers," by such scoffers, was probably designed to be ironical and contemptuous.

Perhaps the meaning may be expressed this way: "These old men, the prophets, indeed foretold this event. They were much concerned and troubled about it, and their predictions alarmed others and filled their hearts with dread. They looked out for the signs of the end of the world and expected that that day was drawing near. But those good men have died. They lived to old age and then died as others; and since they have departed, the affairs of the world have gone on very much as they did before. The earth is allowed to have rest, and the laws of nature operate in the same way that they always did."

It seems quite likely that the immediate reference in the word fathers is not to the prophets of former times, but to aged and pious men of the apostles' times, who had dwelt much on this subject and made it a topic of conversation and preaching. Those old men, said the scoffing objector, have died like others; and, despite their confident predictions, things now move on as they did from the beginning.

All things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. That is, the laws of nature are fixed and settled. The argument here—for it was doubtless designed to be an argument—is based on the stability of the laws of nature and the uniformity of the course of events.

So far, all these predictions had failed. Things continued to go on as they had always done. The sun rose and set, the tides ebbed and flowed, the seasons followed each other in the usual order, and one generation succeeded another, as had always been the case; and there was every indication that those laws would continue to operate as they had always done.

This argument for the stability of the earth, and against the prospect of the fulfilment of the Bible's predictions, would have more force with many minds now than it had then, for eighteen hundred more years have rolled away, and the laws of nature remain the same. Meanwhile, the expectations of those who have believed that the world was coming to an end have been disappointed; the time set for this by many interpreters of Scripture has passed by; men have looked out in vain for the coming of the Saviour, and worldly affairs move on as they always have done.

Still, there are no indications of the coming of the Saviour; and perhaps it would be said that the farther men search, with the aid of science, into the laws of nature, the more they become impressed with their stability, and the more firmly they are convinced of the improbability that the world will be destroyed in the manner predicted in the Scriptures. The specious and plausible objection arising from this source, the apostle proposes to meet in the following verses.