The Late, Great Planet Jerusalem: A Historical, Canonical Reading of II Peter 3 (Part IV)

Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (II Peter 3:14-18)
Throughout this study, multiple arguments have been made with little or no indication of synthesis; perhaps they even seemed to lack similarity. Presently, I will attempt to show how, I believe, these seemingly arbitrary arguments correspond and can be synthesized.
To begin, as posited above, II Peter 3 is referring to the imminent judgment on Jerusalem and the Temple. Jerusalem, as argued, is viewed as a microcosm “representing the whole creation in its hostility toward God”[1] and the Temple “[represents] the very structure of Creation”[2]. Therefore, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple “is portrayed as a judgment that is passed on the entire Old World Order.”[3] This coming judgment is not referring to a still future eschatological event, but the fall of Jerusalem that occurred in 70 A.D..
However, to identify this historical event as simply “judgment” somewhat misses the point. II Peter 3 is not simply a passage concerning judgment, but also parousia; the divine presence of God. Therefore, the use of the word “fire”, I argued, has a binary metaphorical meaning; referring both to God’s judgment and God’s divine presence. Furthermore, God does not become present exclusively or primarily to destroy Jerusalem and the Old World Order. As argued, Peter is also applying a binary meaning to λύω; representing both destroying and freeing. Therefore, God’s judgment on Jerusalem is a deliverance of the “New Jerusalem”. As Ansell writes, “The death-throes of the Old World Order marked the birth-pangs of the New Creation.”[4] Following the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, the “new heavens and a new earth” is established. Similar to the prophecy in Isaiah of the destruction of Jerusalem in 587-586 B.C.E. and the subsequent establishment of “the new heavens and the new earth”, Peter is prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and the subsequent genesis of the “new heavens and a new earth”; the new creation within which we know live.
[1] Ansell, “An Apocalyptic Appendix”, 415.
[2] Ansell, “An Apocalyptic Appendix”, 413.
[3] Ansell, “An Apocalyptic Appendix”, 415.
[4] Ansell, “An Apocalyptic Appendix”, 416.