In 2 Peter 3:10, Peter writes about the second coming of Jesus, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (NKJV). This verse explicitly states that the cosmos will be destroyed when Jesus comes again. People then read this in conjunction with 1 Thess. 4:17 that “we…will be caught up together with [the resurrected Christians] in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” The assumption is that when Jesus comes again, all the Christians will be taken out of the world and Christ will set it ablaze and take us with him to the heavenly realm.

However, this interpretation may not be the correct one. First, the 1 Thess. 4:17 passage does not have to be understood that way (see next week’s article). Secondly, 2 Pet 3:10 has a textual variant, in other words, the manuscripts have different words. The majority of manuscripts have “will be burned up,” which is reflected in the KJV, NKJV, and NASB. The oldest manuscripts have “will be found” (ESV, cf. NRSV), which does not appear to make much sense in this context. It is most likely that the latter reading’s difficulty is what caused later scribes to change it. Thus, it is more likely that the more difficult reading, “will be found,” is what Peter wrote.

How do we make sense of the earth being “found” after it is set ablaze? Many have proposed that Peter is using purification imagery. For example, Peter uses the same word, “found,” in 1 Pet 1:7 when talking about the purification of Christians, “so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (NASB). A similar word and image are used in the early Christian work Epistle of Barnabas (2^nd century). Therefore, Peter is most likely saying that God will purify the earth rather than destroy it. Just as God purified the earth with water in Genesis for Noah and his family, so also, he will purify the earth by fire for us (see the flood analogy earlier in 2 Pet 3). This purification will essentially be a “new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet 3:13).