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(1)
"In the beginning" (Gen. 1: 1) Primal Creation.
(2)
"In six days" (Gen. 1: 3 - 2: 3) Present Creation.
(3)
"In the day of God" (II Pet. 3: 12, 13). New Heavens and new earth.
The primal creation of Gen. 1: 1 is separated by the chaos of Gen. 1: 2 from the
present creation; this statement has yet to be proved, while the present creation is again
separated from the New Heavens and Earth by the dissolution of II Pet. 3: 10, and the
following diagram visualizes this feature in the great purpose of the ages.
Gen. i.1
Gen. 1: 3 to Rev. 20: 13
Rev. 21: 1
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"Before the
foundation (or overthrow)
of the world"
"Before age-times"
Age-times
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Gen. 1: 2
II Pet. 3: 10
Rev. 20: 14, 15
Peter, as a minister of the Circumcision, is particularly concerned with that portion of
the purpose of the ages that impinges upon the hope of Israel. There is however in the
history of Israel much that is typical of vaster things, and we are not surprised therefore
to discover features that foreshadow the larger issues dealt with by Paul alone. This vast
sweep of the ages which we have suggested in the diagram given above, finds an echo in
the words of Peter when he speaks of past, present and future heavens and earth, as they
appear in the prophetic view of Israel and its hope.
We may use Peter's language as a guide to the wider purposes of the age thus:
For Gen. 1: 1
we may use the words,
"The world that then was".
For Gen. 1: 3 to Rev. 20: 13
we may use the words
"the heavens and the earth which are now".
For Rev. 21: 1 onwards
the words
"the new heavens and the new earth",
providing we remember all the time that vaster issues than those visualized in II Peter
are in view. Peter wrote his epistles to:
"The strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia"
(I Pet. 1: 1).
As II Pet. 3: opens with the words "This second epistle, I now write unto you" it is
evident that the chapter before us was addressed to the `circumcision'. The term diaspora
`scattered' became a name to designate `the twelve tribes scattered abroad' (James 1: 1),
or the `dispersed among the Gentiles' (John 7: 35 R.V. margin). This term had become
fixed during the two hundred years before Christ that the Septuagint had been in use, for