“But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”
But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved
We get our word “thesaurus” from the Greek word for “preserved.” A thesaurus is a place of treasure, a place of words. It is a place of storage. God stores the “heavens and earth” as a treasure. He put them on layaway.
The “heavens” here is the universe as we know it. God is in the process of preserving the heavens and earth for ultimate judgment.
by the same word
The “same word” that caused creation and Noah’s Flood will cause the last great conflagration. The latter catastrophe is as inevitable as the former.
are reserved for fire
Only three verses in the New Testament say that the world will be destroyed by fire (this verse and verses ten and twelve).
“Reserved” means kept. God keeps heaven and earth for future judgment. God is great at making reservations. He has made a reservation for the unjust unto the Day of Judgment. Peter predicts a coming conflagration.
until the Day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men
God judged the earth in a universal judgment by the flood. He has another cataclysmic and universal judgment coming to the world, a judgment by fire. This will be a conflagration of incredible magnitude. This fire is a fire of cosmological purging.
Re 20:14-15, “Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the “lake of fire.”
PRINCIPLE:
God has made a reservation for those who do not come to Christ.
APPLICATION:
The final termination of the world will be awful devastation. No one will escape. It is a universal judgment except for those who come to Christ as their Savior. To see the world as we know it destroyed is not pleasant. No single person will escape; there will be no place to flee. This will be the most awful judgment yet.
