Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: (Galatians 4:3) When the context of the chapter is followed, Paul is writing of the bondage that follows the ways of the world and law. Paul tells them they are free from worldly influences in Christ where before they served those which weren’t gods. Then in verse 9 he asked them But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Then he identifies the elements in verse 10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.  He said that serving those things put them back under the bondage that they had escaped in Christ. He wrote of laws, rules and practices of society, and as such there is nothing in Paul’s message that remotely refers to elements as material objects.

Paul’s message in Colossians 2:8 is similar to Galatians Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. The Jews liked philosophy and tradition and constantly imposed them on believers in opposition to the gospel of Christ. Jesus spoke of such people in Matthew 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. That is the same message Paul delivered. Titus wrote of those who were not sound in the faith. Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth. (Titus1:14) Note the similarity of the message of Titus to that of Jesus.

Next in Colossians after Paul explained what Christ did on the cross, he wrote in 2:20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, … Rudiments is stoicheion and has the same meanings already explained. Paul links rudiments-practices of the world and ordinances-following the old Jewish practices in the verse. (Hebrews 5:12 has the Greek word stoicheion translated with the English word principles; the context clearly means spoken and written ordinances ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God;) All that is written is opposite of Christ and the freedom that he gave them. He said those things were the commandments and doctrines of men, verse 22. Again, there is no suggestion of any physical material in Paul’s message or in Hebrews 5.

In the two letters to Timothy, Paul wrote of fables and commandments of men. Each church was beset with different problems, but there isn’t any idea of material or the physical [elements] things in any of the verses that address the rules and ordinances that people follow instead of Christ. From the Day of Pentecost on, the law and the gospel were in conflict because unbelievers continued to deny Christ. God determined to end it and he did in A.D. 70.

Having examined the word stoicheion used in other verses, along with heavens and earth, the full meaning of II Peter 3:10 can be determined. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Note the repeating of the thief in the night part of the verse. Jesus and Paul used the same words as has been seen. Since the word for elements does not mean material or physical parts of the universe, the earth in this case, what does Peter mean? The Mosaic Law and its ordinances (heaven) would be destroyed-shall pass away-perish, go away; the law’s requirements (elements shall melt-utterly reduced to ashes) would be brought to nothing with fire (fervent heat); the temple and its trappings (earth) will burn to the ground-katakaio--pronounced: kat-ak-ah'-ee-o (G2618). That was Peter’s message. Jesus, Paul and Peter followed the message found in the Old Testament. David said of God in Psalms 104:5, Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. Also Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. Since the foregoing two verses plainly state that the earth will not be removed and will abide forever, Peter wasn’t saying that the earth was going to burn up. If it is the earth that would burn, how is it possible for the earth to burned to the ground when the earth is the ground?

In verse 11, after explaining the events in verse 10 that will occur, Peter asks them how they should behave to avoid the carnage as they look for the coming of the day of God. Coming in verse 12 is parousia and in keeping with the meaning of the word as discussed in the former parts of the series; it is presence, not literally coming. As shown earlier, the presence is represented by the Roman army that pillaged and plundered the temple, killed the people and burned Jerusalem to the ground.

Then in verse 13 Peter wrote Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. What is the identity of the new heavens and the new earth? It is the church/assemby. Righteousness didn’t dwell in the law, but it does in the church through believers baptized into Christ since he is the righteousness of God (2 Peter1:1)

When Jerusalem was destroyed, the Mosaic Law and its ordinances were destroyed and that which remained is the church, an assemblage of God’s people who have obeyed the gospel.  Recall that the writer of Hebrews wrote in 12:27-29 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear 29 For our God is a consuming fire. The church is the place that Christ reigns and it will never disappear. God’s grace makes the saved, the members of Christ’s body, the servants of the Lord because they are saved, and consequently they can serve others free of worry for their own salvation because of Jesus Christ. In A.D. 70, God was a consuming fire when he destroyed Jerusalem. It will never occur again. The old was gone and the new had arrived which was God’s plan since the beginning of his creation. 

© 09-18-2012 DEC

                                           Conclusion to the series