Mockers will come with their mocking.

2 Peter 3 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, ² that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.

³ Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, ⁴ and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” ⁵ For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, ⁶ through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. ⁷ But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

⁸ But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

¹¹ Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, ¹² looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! ¹³ But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

¹⁴ Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, ¹⁵ and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, ¹⁶ as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. ¹⁷ You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, ¹⁸ 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.

“Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts,  and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?”       There can be debate about whether we are actually in the last days, but certainly there is no question that we are in a time when there are mockers, those who mock both the faithful and God Himself. Our culture and our society certainly favors; “following after their own lusts.” The very words their own lusts speaks so much of  what our culture promotes, each one has the right to choose for themselves, to follow their own lusts in their own way. There is also of course a very prevalent lust for money and control throughout the entire world. That lust for money and control manifests in everything from materialism, to workaholics, to economic and political struggles and war. None of these things are new. They have existed as long as man has. The text says:  “For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”      So we cannot prove that these are the last days because of these things as evidence. We can and should acknowledge that they do exist and seem to be increasing in our culture and in the world.

“Where is the promise of His coming? This is a question which is asked both by the mockers, who doubt that Christ either came or will return and also by many believers who see the condition of the world and believe that perhaps He should have already come. Many look forward to the rapture of the church spoken of in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18.

 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Other believers simply recognize that the return of Christ is not the end of the world but rather the recreation and the restoration of all of creation to God’s plan and will.  

The text says:  “ But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”     We err when we try to put the eternal and infinite God into our own finite limits of time as we know it. Jesus says: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." (Revelation 22:13) It is difficult, perhaps impossible for us, with our finite minds to comprehend something that has no visible beginning or end. If we see a line we see both the beginning and the end. Perhaps we can better understand the eternal never ending God if we take that line and fashion it into a circle. We no longer are focused on where the beginning or the end is, but rather on the line itself. We should not try to focus or determine the beginning or the end of God’s plan, or even worry so much about where we are on the line. Rather we should focus on God Himself, trusting that:  ^“The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

Peter encourages us regardless of the place where we are in God’s time saying:     “Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless”      Mockers will come. They have always been here and always will be until Christ returns. They mocked Him while He was on the cross and they continue to mock both Him and those who follow Him today. At His return though, the mocking will cease.    "AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD."(Romans 14:11)     …at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.(Philippians 2:10-11)     We should not condemn or revile the mockers, remembering that: The Lord is… not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.   We then as believers, as followers of Christ, as those looking forward to His return should:  ^“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

Mockers will mock. False teachers and false doctrines and philosophies, aligning with the lusts of men, will rise.

“You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness,  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.”