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The day of judgment we believe will be a day long prepared and planned by God. His
written Word we also believe will be present and play a major part in convictions and
condemnation or approval and reward.
"But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 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. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and
the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein
shall be burned up" (3: 8-10).
Verse 8 "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years". How often have these words
been used to twist the 6 days creation into a longer period of time. It should be noted that
if you continue the text the reverse is stated. The true conception of time is outside man's
limited understanding. Before God created this world He knew how each of the millions
of mankind that would be born would act and respond to the dictates of conscience or
divine revelation. Because He possesses such supernatural foreknowledge He could and
has planned how He will deal with the world and its inhabitants throughout the ages to
come.
The concordance gives 10 occurrence of katabole in phrases "before or since the
foundation of the world" (Matt. 13: 35; 25: 24; Luke 11: 50; John 17: 24; Eph. 1: 4;
Heb. 4: 3; 9: 26; I Pet. 1: 20; Rev. 13: 8; 17: 8). The Ephesian reference is
"According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world". If you look
up the other references you will find they are all important milestones in His eternal
purpose. They prove the miraculous ability of God to foreknow how we and all others
will behave. Remember we are free, He does not manipulate us to make it come right,
although He will, when necessary, overrule events. All His other creatures apart from
man in their natural state behave perfectly in their planned and predictable fashion. Only
man has a free choice to do otherwise. God desires the worship of man from a free and
willing heart. It is for and to this end that the painful probation period for angels and men
has to proceed through the ages. The parable of the sower and his seed shows that only a
small part of the seed sown will produce the desired harvest and even this will be of
varying quality and success. But success there will be, thanks be to God through His Son
the Lord Jesus Christ.