Scoffers in the Last Days: What 2 Peter 3:3-7 Means
Short answer: 2 Peter 3:3-7 says that scoffers will come in the last days, following their own lusts and asking where the promise of Christ's return is. Peter answers that the delay is not slowness but patience, and that judgment is certain because God has acted before in the flood. The passage does not give a date or a secret calendar; it gives a clear warning. Mockery is not proof that the faith is false. It is one of the very things the apostles said would happen. The right response is not panic or argument but remembrance, holiness, and patient trust in God's timing.
What Exactly Does 2 Peter 3:3-7 Say?
The passage begins with a marker of priority. Peter writes, knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts. The word first signals that this is not a side note but a foundational warning. Peter wants his readers anchored before the storm of ridicule arrives. The mockers are described morally before they are described doctrinally. Their error is not merely intellectual; it flows from a life ordered by desire rather than by God. That order matters. Peter is telling us that scoffing is rarely neutral. It is usually the voice of a heart that has already decided what it wants to be true.
The mockers ask a pointed question: where is the promise of his coming? They point out that the fathers fell asleep and that things continue as they were from the beginning. This is a real objection, and Peter treats it seriously rather than dismissing it. The objection is that nothing has changed, so nothing will change. It is the argument of uniform experience. If the world has always run this way, why expect an interruption? Peter does not answer with a date or a sign. He answers by exposing a false assumption about time. The mockers assume that delay means absence, and that silence means indifference.
Peter then makes a stunning claim: they deliberately forget. The word deliberately matters. This is not innocent ignorance. The mockers suppress what they know. They forget that the heavens existed long ago and that the world was formed out of water and through water, and that by these waters the world that then existed was flooded. Peter reaches back to the most obvious judgment in the story of Scripture. If God has already intervened in judgment, then the claim that nothing ever changes is simply false. The argument is historical, not speculative. The past is the guarantee of the future.
Finally, Peter says that the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. The language is sober and direct. This is not a passage about speculation but about certainty. The same word that created and judged is the word that now preserves and will judge. Peter's point is not to satisfy curiosity about the end but to steady the believer in the present. The mockers say nothing will happen. Peter says everything is being kept for the day when God acts. The difference is not in the evidence but in the heart.
Why Mockery Is Expected, Not Surprising
One of the most pastoral notes in this passage is that it removes surprise. Peter says, knowing this first. He does not say, if it happens. He says it will happen. Jude echoes the same note when he writes, But you, beloved, remember the words which have been spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. The apostles had already told the churches that mockers would come. So when mockery arrives, it is not evidence that the church has failed or that the gospel is collapsing. It is evidence that the word of God is being fulfilled. The presence of scoffers is itself a kind of confirmation.
This matters for how we read the news and our own conversations. If we expect everyone to welcome the gospel, we will be shaken when they do not. If we expect opposition, we can respond with steadiness. Peter is not asking us to be cynical, but he is asking us to be realistic. Jesus himself said that false prophets would arise and lead many astray, and that because lawlessness would multiply, the love of many would grow cold. That is Matthew 24:11-12. The pattern is consistent across the New Testament. Opposition is not an anomaly; it is part of the terrain.
There is also a pastoral comfort here. If mockery is expected, then it is not a sign that you have done something wrong. Sometimes a believer is ridiculed simply for holding to the faith once delivered. Sometimes the ridicule is aimed at the resurrection, at the return of Christ, at the reality of judgment, or at the moral commands of Scripture. Peter says this is exactly what will happen. The believer who is mocked for the hope of the gospel is not abandoned; they are walking in the path the apostles marked out. That does not make the mockery pleasant, but it does make it bearable.
And there is a warning here too. The mockers are described as walking after their own lusts. That is a diagnostic category, not just an insult. When we find ourselves dismissing what God has said because it interferes with what we want, we are moving in the same direction. The line between the scoffer and the disciple is not always as wide as we imagine. Peter's warning is for the church as much as for the world. Watch your desires; they will shape your doctrine more than you think.
The Last Days in the New Testament
The phrase last days is often treated as a code word for a future chart, but in the New Testament it is used more broadly. The author of Hebrews says that God has spoken in these last days by his Son. Peter himself, on the day of Pentecost, quotes Joel to explain that the events of that day were part of what the prophet promised for the last days. The last days, then, are not merely a distant period; they are the era that began with the first coming of Christ and will end with his return. We are living in them now. That changes how we read Peter's warning.
Paul takes the same long view. In 1 Timothy 4:1-3 he writes, But the Spirit says expressly that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. He goes on to describe teachers who forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods. The point is not that these specific errors are the only ones, but that departure from the faith is a real and predicted danger. It happens through spiritual deception, not only through open hostility. Sometimes the scoffer is not outside the church but inside it, wearing the language of faith while denying its substance.
In 2 Timothy 3:1-5, Paul says that in the last days grievous times will come, and he then paints a portrait of people who are lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. This is not a picture of obvious atheists. It is a picture of religious people whose lives contradict their profession. Paul tells Timothy to avoid such people. The last days are marked not only by external mockery but by internal decay. The danger is not always a loud denial; sometimes it is a quiet drift.
This broader frame protects us from two errors. The first error is to push the last days entirely into the future and assume the warnings do not apply to us. The second is to treat every headline as a sign that the end is next week. The New Testament calls us to live in the last days with alertness and patience, not with date-setting or panic. We are in the final era of redemptive history, and the same warnings given to the first-century church apply to us. That is both sobering and stabilizing.
Deliberate Forgetfulness: The Root of Scoffing
Peter's diagnosis is sharper than we might expect. He does not say the mockers have never heard the truth. He says they deliberately forget. That is the root of scoffing. It is not a lack of information; it is a suppression of information. The mockers do not want the truth to be true, so they push it out of mind. That is why arguments alone rarely cure scoffing. You can win a debate and lose the soul if the real issue is not intellectual but moral. Peter's answer, then, is not only to reason but to remember. He calls the church back to what God has already said and already done.
The specific thing they forget is the flood. Peter says that the heavens existed long ago, and that the world was formed out of water and through water, and that by these waters the world that then existed was flooded. This is a historical anchor. The flood is not a myth or a metaphor in Peter's argument; it is the precedent for judgment. If God once judged the world by water, the mockers have no basis for saying that judgment will never come. The past is the proof. And notice that the same creation that was judged was also preserved. The waters that destroyed were the waters through which the world was formed. God's word is active both to save and to judge.
Deliberate forgetfulness is not limited to the ancient world. We do the same thing when we quietly ignore the parts of Scripture that make us uncomfortable. We may not deny them out loud, but we live as though they were not there. Peter's warning is a call to honesty. What have we chosen to forget? The reality of judgment? The call to holiness? The return of Christ? The mockers forgot the flood. We may forget the cross. The remedy is the same: remember what God has said and let it shape how we live. Forgetting is not neutral; it is a spiritual act with spiritual consequences.
Peter's answer to forgetfulness is remembrance. Later in the same chapter he tells his readers to be diligent to be found by him in peace, without spot and blameless. He does not say, be diligent to figure out the date. He says, be diligent to be found faithful. The mockers forget; the church remembers. The mockers follow their lusts; the church follows the word. The contrast is not between clever and simple people but between those who suppress the truth and those who love it. That is the real dividing line, and it runs through every generation.
God's Patience Is Not God's Absence
The mockers interpret delay as absence. Peter interprets delay as patience. He says that the Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward us, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. That is the heart of the passage. The reason Christ has not returned is not that God has forgotten or that the promise has failed. It is that God is giving time for repentance. What the scoffer reads as indifference, the believer reads as mercy. The same delay that provokes mockery is the delay that gives the mocker time to turn.
This is a hard truth to hold alongside the certainty of judgment. Peter does not soften the judgment. He says the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat. But he also says that God's patience is real. Both are true. The God who is patient is the same God who will judge. The patience is not a sign that judgment will not happen; it is a sign that God is giving space for repentance. That is why Peter's readers should not be shaken when the mockers taunt them. The taunt itself is a misreading of mercy.
Practically, this changes how we pray and how we speak. If the delay is patience, then we should use the time the way God uses it: for repentance and for calling others to repentance. The scoffers may mock, but we are not called to mock back. We are called to live holy lives and to be ready to give an answer. The patience of God is not an excuse for complacency; it is a summons to mission. Every day that Christ does not return is a day that someone might turn. That is not a reason to fear; it is a reason to work.
And it changes how we endure. When we are mocked for believing in the return of Christ, we can remember that the delay is not a failure. It is the mercy of God at work. The same patience that sustains the world is the patience that sustains you. If God has not yet returned, it is because he is still gathering his people. That is a comfort, not a problem. The mockers will one day be silenced, but until then, the church lives by faith in the promise that has not failed and will not fail.
Standing Firm Without Arguing Like a Scoffer
It is possible to defend the faith in a way that imitates the scoffers. We can be dismissive, sarcastic, and contemptuous, treating opponents as fools rather than as people made in God's image. Peter does not do that. He treats the objection seriously, answers it with Scripture, and calls his readers to holiness. That is the model. We are not called to win arguments at any cost. We are called to speak the truth in love, with gentleness and respect. The tone of our defense matters as much as the content.
That does not mean we ignore the objections. Peter answers the mockers directly. He does not say, don't think about it. He says, remember the flood; remember the word of God; remember that time is not what you think. We should be ready to answer the honest questions people bring, and we should study so that our answers are rooted in Scripture rather than in slogans. But we should do it without the sneer that marks the scoffer. The difference between the church and the mockers is not only what we say but how we say it and how we live.
Peter's final instructions in this chapter are practical: be diligent to be found in peace, without spot and blameless; and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is how you stand firm. Not by obsessing over charts and dates, but by growing in holiness and knowledge. The scoffer is marked by lust and forgetfulness. The disciple is marked by diligence and growth. The contrast is clear, and it is daily. Every day you choose which pattern you will follow.
And when you fail, remember that the patience of God applies to you too. The same mercy that holds back the day of judgment is the mercy that forgives your sin when you confess it. You are not standing on your own performance but on the grace of Christ. That is why you can stand firm without fear. The mockers may come; they may even be loud. But the promise of Christ stands, and the God who made it is not slow. He is patient, and his patience is your salvation.
Biblical fidelity check
What does this passage establish? It establishes that scoffers will come, that they will follow their own lusts, that they will question the promise of Christ's return, and that their error is rooted in a deliberate forgetting of God's past judgment. It establishes that the delay of Christ's return is explained by God's patience, not by God's weakness. And it establishes that judgment is certain because God has judged before and will judge again. These are the clear claims of the text. They are not inferences or speculations; they are the plain sense of what Peter writes.
What does it not establish? It does not give a date for the return of Christ, nor does it give a list of signs by which we can calculate the timing. It does not say that every skeptic is a scoffer in the sense Peter describes; some people have honest questions and should be treated with patience. It does not say that Christians should withdraw from the world or treat every unbeliever as an enemy. And it does not say that the delay of Christ's return means the promise has failed. A common misreading is to treat the presence of mockers as a sign that the faith is collapsing or that the end is imminent. The text says the opposite: mockery is expected, and the end is in God's hands. The faithful response is not panic or date-setting but holiness, patience, and remembrance of what God has said.
Other passages that speak to 2 Peter 3:3-7
Several other passages fill out the picture. Jude 1:17-19 tells believers to remember the words spoken by the apostles, because mockers would come in the last time. First Timothy 4:1-3 warns that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. Second Timothy 3:1-5 describes the grievous times of the last days and the kind of people who will mark them. Matthew 24:11-12 records Jesus saying that many false prophets will arise and lead many astray, and that lawlessness will cause the love of many to grow cold. Acts 20:29-30 records Paul warning that vicious wolves would enter the flock after his departure. For further study, see What Does 1 Peter 1:13 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application, What Does 1 Peter 1:15 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application, What Does 1 Peter 1:18 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application, and What Does 1 Peter 1:2 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application.
Frequently asked questions
Who are the scoffers in 2 Peter 3:3-7?
They are people who mock the promise of Christ's return and live according to their own desires rather than God's word. Peter describes them as deliberate in their forgetfulness, suppressing what they know about God's past judgment. They may be outside the church or inside it, but their defining mark is that they treat God's promise as empty and God's delay as proof that he will not act. Their mockery is moral before it is intellectual.
Does the presence of scoffers mean we are in the last days?
Yes, in the New Testament sense. The last days began with the first coming of Christ and continue until his return, so every generation since the apostles has lived in them. Peter's warning applies to the whole era, not to one narrow window at the very end. That means scoffers are not a sign that we should start date-setting; they are a sign that we should stay faithful, because the apostles told us this would happen.
How should Christians respond to scoffers today?
We should respond with remembrance, holiness, and patient love. Remember what God has said and done, especially the cross and the resurrection. Live in a way that shows the gospel is real. Answer honest questions with gentleness and respect, not with the sneer of the scoffer. And trust God's timing, knowing that the delay is patience meant to lead people to repentance. We are not called to win every argument but to remain faithful.
