Quotes on II Peter 3:9
John Knox: "The Apostle Saint Peter saith, 'The Lord that hath promised is not slow, but he is long suffering towards us, while that he will none to perish, but will receive all to repentance' [II Peter 3:9]. The Apostle here meaneth not that all, without exception, shall be received to life by true repentance, but that the cause why God so long deferreth (as it were) the extreme judgement, is, that the Elect number of God’s children may be complete (as answer was given to those that cried under the altar, to be revenged of the tyrannies that dwell on the earth) of these his Elect children God will none to perish, as before is said" (On Predestination, in Answer to the Cavillations by an Anabaptist, pp. 417-418).
John Owen: "'The will of God,’ say some, ‘for the salvation of all, is here set down both negatively, that he would not have any perish, and positively, that he would have all come to repentance ...’ Many words need not be spent in answer to this objection, wrested from the misunderstanding and palpable corrupting of the sense of the words of the apostle. That indefinite and general expressions are to be interpreted in an answerable proportion to the things whereof they are affirmed, is a rule in the opening of the Scripture ... Will not common sense teach us that us is to be repeated in both the following clauses, to make them up complete and full,—namely, ‘Not willing that any of us should perish, but that all of us should come to repentance’? ... Now, truly, to argue that because God would have none of those to perish, but all of them to come to repentance, therefore he hath the same will and mind towards all and every one in the world (even those to whom he never makes known his will, nor ever calls to repentance, if they never once hear of his way of salvation), comes not much short of extreme madness and folly ... I shall not need add any thing concerning the contradictions and inextricable difficulties wherewith the opposite interpretation is accompanied ... The text is clear, that it is all and only the elect whom he would not have to perish” (The Works of John Owen [Great Britain: Banner, 1967], vol. 10, pp. 348-349).
Francis Turretin: "[The will of God here spoken of] should not be extended further than to the elect and believers (for whose sake God puts off the consummation of ages until their number shall be completed ... Now to this it is evident that the apostle looked: (1) from the pronoun 'us' (which precedes with sufficient clearness designating the elect and believers, as elsewhere more than once) and to explain which he adds 'not willing that any,' (i.e., of us) 'should perish’; so that the pronoun should be repeated apo koinou as is often the case; and (2) from the fact that Peter wishes to give the reason of that longsuffering through which God puts off the consummation of the ages (which cannot be drawn from his command, but for his wise counsel for the sake of the elect, by which, as on account of the elect alone, he preserves the world, so he puts off the promise of his coming, even until each and every one of them is brought unto salvation, Rev. 6:11). Nor is it astonishing that, on account of the elect (no one of whom God wills to perish), the end of the world should be put off. For in like manner Christ observes 'except those days would be shortened' (which were about to come to the whole of Judaea) 'there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened' (Mt. 24:22). As therefore here the days of evil should be shortened on account of the elect Jews (that they might not be overwhelmed with the burden of calamities), so the last day is put off on account of the elect (who are to be brought to Christ, until their whole number be made up). Finally, he speaks of them whom God wills to come to repentance, not only by inviting to it by the precepts and promises of his word, but by working it by the efficacy of the Spirit (since he speaks of those in whom the promise of God should be fulfilled [Mt. 24:9, 13], who are no other than the elect)” (Institutes of Elenctic Theology, trans. George Musgrave Giger, vol. 1 [Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R, 1992], pp. 412-413).
John Gill: "It is not true that God is not willing any one individual of the human race should perish, since he has made and appointed the wicked for the day of evil [Prov. 16:4], even ungodly men, who are fore-ordained to this condemnation [Jude 4], such as are vessels of wrath fitted for destruction [Rom. 9:22]; yea, there are some to whom God sends strong delusions, that they may believe a lie, that they all might be damned [II Thess. 2:11-12] ... Nor is it his will that all men, in this large sense, should come to repentance, since he withholds from many both the means and grace of repentance ... The key, therefore, to open this text lies in these words ... to usward ... called beloved [II Peter 3:1, 8, 14, 17]. Besides the design of these words is to establish the saints in, and comfort them with the coming of Christ, until which, God was long-suffering towards them, and which they were to account salvation [v. 15]” (The Cause of God and Truth [Grand Rapids, MI: Sovereign Grace Publishers, 1980], pp. 62-63).
Abraham Kuyper: "But notice carefully how all that profit is lost, and the sense of it becomes debatable if, for other reasons, the idea of general grace is injected into the text, for I arrive, then, at this absurd reasoning: 'Jesus cannot come yet, because God's will must be fulfilled, and according to God's will, all individuals must first come to conversion!' Yet ... if Jesus cannot come until all men come to conversion, 'then Jesus will never come,' because, first, there are already hundreds and thousands of people no longer living who died unconverted and for whom, therefore, that postponement of Jesus' return to this world no longer has any significance. Second, there are millions more who will die tomorrow and the day after or in another year without ever having heard of Jesus, and for whom that delay has no benefit, either. Finally, this return of Jesus can be unfulfilled indefinitely. If God allows new generations of people continuously to be born without setting a maximum number of inhabitants, the return of Jesus will have to be delayed until these people, too, are converted. And that delay would be indefinite, since the population of the world continuously increases in an astonishing manner and the possibility multiplies daily that not all will come to conversion. This line of thinking does not ring true. It does not make sense. It is the most absurd thinking one could imagine and is without rhyme or reason. No, if I want to demonstrate why the Lord God, according to human wisdom, fulfills the promise of Christ's return somewhat later than we had first imagined, then that is only intelligible if I have a firm point of reference from which to calculate. If the total number of people that will be born is fixed, and if God knows for whom, from among all men, a place must be prepared in his heaven, yes, then I understand very well that Jesus cannot return before all have safely arrived. The line of thought is completely sound, clear and transparent when I say, 'God is delaying because there are some unconverted who are elect, and God does not want any of the number of the elect to be absent one day, even if it be only a few, but he wants all of them to have come to repentance before Jesus appears.' ... Literally nothing of this entire objection of general grace remains. In II Peter 3:9 nothing else can be meant but this: 'Jesus cannot come until the number of the elect is full, and since many of the elect are not yet converted, he is postponing his second coming by being longsuffering. He does not want some of them to perish through his premature return, but he wants all of them to come to conversion first" (Particular Grace [Grandville, MI: RFPA, 2001], pp. 47-48)
Gordon Clark: "Arminians have used the verse in defense of their theory of universal atonement. They believe that God willed to save every human being without exception and that something beyond his control happened so as to defeat his eternal purpose. The doctrine of universal redemption is not only refuted by Scripture generally, but the passage in question makes nonsense on such a view ... Peter is telling us that Christ’s return awaits the repentance of certain people. Now, if Christ’s return awaited the repentance of every individual without exception, Christ would never return ... This is no new interpretation. The Similitudes viii, xi,1 in the Shepherd of Hermas (c. A.D. 130-150) ... says ‘But the Lord, being long-suffering, wishes (thelei) those who were called (ten klesin ten genomenen) through his Son to be saved.’ ... It is the called or elect whom God wills to save” (I & II Peter [Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R, 1980], p. 71).
R. C. Sproul: "The text says more than simply that God is not willing that any should perish. The whole clause is important: 'but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.' What is the antecedent of any? It is clearly us. Does us refer to all of us humans? Or does it refer to us Christians, the people of God? Peter is fond of speaking of the elect as a special group of people. I think what he is saying here is that God does not will that any of us (the elect) perish" (Chosen by God [England: Scripture Press, 1987], p. 197).