II Peter 3:10

II Peter 3:10: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the 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.”

Traditionally this passage has been interpreted as having something to do with the ultimate destruction of the Earth during the Great White Throne judgment. However, I believe that interpretation is wrong. Notice that Peter is talking about the “Day of the Lord” – in other words, the Tribulation. Peter is quite specific here.

Peter states that the Tribulation will come upon the world unexpectedly, “as a thief in the night”, and during that terrible period of time “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.” The destruction of the planet by fire, then, is not some remote event that happens after the Millennial Reign, but something that will occur in the near future, during the Tribulation itself.

Interestingly, the word ‘fire’ comes up quite a few times in Revelation:

Revelation 8:7: “The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.”

Revelation 9:18: “By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.”

Revelation 11:5: “And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.”

Revelation 16:8: “And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.”

Since Peter associates the destruction of the world by fire with the events of “the day of the Lord”, that leads me to think that what he is talking about happens during that period. It is worth nothing that Jesus said that if He did not cut short the Tribulation, every living thing on the Earth would die.

The Tribulation will be a uniquely terrible time. Billions of people will die and the planet will be utterly trashed. The forests will be burned to the ground, the planet’s freshwater supply will be poisoned, and every living thing in the oceans will die. It will be truly horrific. It will not be just another time of persecution, or just another time of hardship. It will be unlike anything else – Jesus Himself stated that it would be the worst period in all of human history, a time when hundreds of millions of demons would openly roam the planet, tormenting people. It will, quite literally, be the end of the world.