This summer my wife and I had the opportunity to travel to Europe. In every city we found old and magnificent cathedrals. They were reminders that at one time Christianity had a great influence on Europe. While we enjoyed touring through many of these beautiful buildings, it was also striking that many have been turned into museums and tourist attractions. Occasionally a special service might be held, but generally the Christian church has seen a great decline.

What accounts for this decline? One might blame it on the Enlightenment or the Industrial Revolution. And while these did have some influence on the secularization of society, ultimately the blame for this decline does not rest with our society, but it rests with the church that has robbed the Word of God of its power.

Peter shows how devastating it is for God’s people when we rob the gospel of its power. At the end of his second letter, he is dealing with scoffers who question the coming of the Lord in judgment; they say,

Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.2 Peter 3:4

They scoff at God’s promise that He will come to judge the world. They become bold in their assertions, for they believe that they will never need to give account to God for their wicked way of life. They say, “Nothing has changed since our fathers died, so why do you take God’s promise seriously?”

Peter reacts to this charge: “They deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water” (v. 5). What nonsense these scoffers are spouting! They forget that it was through God’s intervention that the world came into existence. It was by God’s Word that the heavens were called into being. And it was by the power of his Word that God formed the earth by separating the water from the land.

These scoffers also forget that it was by the power of his Word that God released the waters He had separated from the land at creation, so that waters destroyed the earth in the great flood. God came to this world to punish mankind for their great wickedness. And so for scoffers to say that nothing has changed since the fathers died is to ignore deliberately that God has acted powerfully in the past through his mighty Word.

So Peter concludes in verse 7 that we can be certain that “by the same Word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.” He argues that God’s actions in the past give us the firm foundation to believe that one day God will come in judgment as he has promised.

The scoffers that Peter refers to have not gone away but have become even more vocal today. The reason so many beautiful cathedrals have become museums and tourist attractions is because the leaders in the church have robbed the Word of God of its power. They have done so by scoffing at the idea that God by the power of his Word created the heavens and the earth, and that by his power he also brought judgment with the great flood.

Many biblical scholars will say Peter is just basing his message on old myths. But you will understand that if these scoffers are right, then that which Peter writes amounts to nothing more than a house of cards. His whole argument is undermined and his message loses all credibility. If God did not really create the world by the power of his Word, and if he did not really destroy the world with the flood by the power of his Word, then we no longer have a basis to believe that one day God will come to destroy the world in the final judgment by the power of that same Word.

When the truth of God’s Word is undermined by the wisdom of mankind, the Word of God is being robbed of its power. And when the Word of God is robbed of its power, the church can no longer exist. Therefore if the church is to remain a powerful force in this world, she needs to maintain the truth of the gospel. We do not need to be ashamed to proclaim the Word of God as the Lord has revealed it to us. When the church is faithful in proclaiming the great and mighty deeds of God, her message will be the power of God by which he will transform the hearts and the lives of his people.