Does II Peter 3:8 mean God’s days are different from people’s days?
Question:
"But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day" (II Peter 3:8).
I don't understand this verse? Didn't you say that God's days and people's days weren't different?
Answer:
"Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 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, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (II Peter 3:3-9).
Peter is addressing the question of when is Jesus returning. He warned that people would claim that it will not happen because it has not happened yet. However, they are purposely forgetting that God did once destroy the world in the days of Noah, thus proving that God is capable of destroying the world again.
The real problem is that people are impatient. People have a tendency to think that if something is going to happen in the future, then it must be happening in their own future. Since none of us live that long, something that is 50 to 100 years out seems like forever. Thus Peter's point. God doesn't hold time in the same significance as we do. It isn't that God is unaware of the flow of time, but a day or a thousand years is not that big of a difference to a being who lives eternally. This completely different from men who think there is a huge difference between a day and a thousand years. It is a mistake to assume that God thinks the same way we do. " "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts" " (Isaiah 55:8-9).
