THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

50 The Hope of Israel: What Is It?
they who follow their teaching, were (and are) looking
for the very same things which were in the vision
of the fathers of Israel; for as Peter writing "to
them that have obtained like precious faith with us"
(the apostles of Christ) says: "We, according to His
promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein
dwelleth righteousness" (2 Pet. 3:13).
Thus the outlook of the true "Israel of God," that
"holy nation" which is, and always was, composed only
of those who are "of the faith of Abraham, who is the
father of us all" (Rom. 4:16), was ever the same.
And it was, as we should expect, a radically different
outlook from that of the degenerate and apostate Jews,
who looked for an age (or "dispensation" as it is now
called) of earthly glory for the reconstituted Jewish
nation; an age in which that nation will occupy the
place of dominance over the Gentiles. Manifestly
Peter could not have written the above quoted verse
if he had held the now current doctrine of a millennium
of earthly greatness for the Jewish nation.
Indeed the entire chapter bears strong testimony
against that doctrine. The general subject of the chapter
is "the promise of His coming" (v. 4) ; and its special
purpose is to warn the Lord's people of what would
seem to them a long delay in His second coming and
to assure them that the Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some would regard it, but that the
reason for the seeming delay was because of the long
suffering of God, and of His desire that not any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance (w. 3-9) .
To all who give due attention to this passage it must
surely be evident that what is immediately to follow
this day of salvation for all men is "the day of judgment
and perdition of ungodly men" (v. 7), "the day