The Second Letter of Peter- 11

Subtitle: The Impact of Judgment Day

A link to the audio can be found at the bottom of this article.

2 Peter 3:11-13.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, October 4, 2026.

Peter has reminded us that the Day of the Lord will come upon the world like a thief.  They will not be ready for it, even though they have been warned for twenty centuries and more.  He even warns us that these heavens and this earth are going to be melted down in which all bonds are broken apart.  He then ties this to the promise that God will create new heavens and a new earth (generally understood to be from the same material).

Let’s look at our passage.

The proper response to this (v. 11-13)

In verse 11, the phrase “all these things” refers back to all that he has just mentioned about God’s judgment and the melting down of the universe.  It is then followed up with an exclamation declaring how we should then live in the light of those things.

Some versions translate this as a question, “What manner of persons ought you to be…?”  The sentence goes through verse 12, so the question mark is generally found at the end of it.  It is true that a word is used that implies a question.  However, there is another word present that causes this to be more of an exclamation and exhortation simultaneously.  This has a more powerful exhortative feel to it as opposed to a simple question that he seems to answer for them within the question itself.  “What manner of people ought you to be…!  Peter can see no other proper response to the judgment of the universe than to embrace the holy conduct and godliness of Jesus himself.

This is in contrast to the earlier response of the scoffers to these matters.  They did not believe it, and so they are among those who will be caught by surprise.  Our response is in contrast.  We do believe it, and it affects how we live our lives in the present.  We are not among those who will be caught by surprise at these events.

What sort of people ought you to be is not so much a question but a declaration that we should be inspired by these things to follow Jesus with even greater zeal.

He first mentions that we should respond in holy conduct or behavior.  It should be holy because we have been called to God’s purpose in Jesus.  Our life should be to accomplish his purpose and for his glory.  Technically, all of humanity was created for such a holy purpose.  However, in our sinfulness, it takes the redemption of Jesus and our response of faith in that redemption to secure our holy purpose in this life.

Holy conduct also carries the connotation of being pure.  The destruction of all that we see and is around us should inspire a conduct that is different from those who do not believe.  This is not a holier-than-thou attitude.  Rather, it is a head down, doing what Christ told us to do, which is to love people with the same love that Christ gave to us.  Jesus told his disciples to love one another as he had loved them.  Jesus loved them, loved us, sacrificially and at his own cost.

Peter adds another description of our life, Godliness.  The underlying word refers to the good response (good piety) of a person to God.  Godliness is a reminder that we were created as image bearers of God.  We can fight against this nature and use this imaging ability to image the devil, but it is our true nature to image God, regardless.  The man Jesus was the perfect imager of God the Father.  To see him is to see the Father.   Doing things the way that Jesus would do them is the definition of godliness.  We could also recognize that this is the same thing that the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, leads us to do from within us.

I know that a new believer may feel like praying is unnatural.  However, that is more a product of your upbringing than it is of your true nature.  It is a product of the broken way of life that you have lived for so long.  There is nothing more natural than to address the Creator who made us all.  Just like a newly wed couple may feel strange in each other’s presence for a while becoming accustomed to one another, so we can come to enjoy talking with God about our lives each day.

In verse 12, Peter mentions that we should live with an expectation of the coming of the Day of God.  It is not just a looking of trying to find something, i.e., when is this going to happen.  It is a looking forward to in the sense of an excited expectation that affects our life today.  This is a promise given to us from God which gives us great hope in the present.

This is not so much an expectation that He is supposed to come today.  This is not about a daily disappointment that He didn’t come back today and then pinning our hopes on tomorrow.  No.  This is a deep-seated confidence that it is coming.  It is a deep-seated confidence that our response is proper.  It is a confidence that we do not need to fear that day but can rejoice as God removes wickedness from our daily experience.

It is important to realize that the things around us are not as real and solid as they seem to us now.  In a moment, everything on this planet could melt down at God’s command.  Yes, we must deal with them as they are substantially here, but we want to be on the good side of the future melt-down that is coming.  In fact, God wants us to be on the right side of that as well.

It is good to note that Peter refers to the “coming” of the Day of God.  The word here speaks of a coming of presence.  Christ is here by the Spirit of God, but on that day, his presence will come to this earth to deal with the rebels and their rebellion.  Such a coming has several stages to it.  It is not so much about an instant in time when he arrives.  It is a series of events that initiates the removal of wickedness and the recreation of all things.  Christ is coming back physically.  This will initiate a series of events that will eventually lead us into new heavens and a new earth.

Peter also mentions that we should be “hastening” the coming of the Day of God.  Hastening is the idea of speeding something along as opposed to slowing it down or as opposed to being an observer only.  Our holy conduct, godly lives and looking forward to his coming will actively participate in the coming of Christ and the Day of God.  Somehow, it speeds up this coming.

We may not know all the ways that it speeds it up, but we can use Scripture itself to gain some understanding.  Jesus mentions that the end of this age will not come until the Gospel goes to the ends of the earth (Matthew 24:14).  Thus, as we take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, we bring the world closer to the end of this age.

Another aspect to note is that Scripture speaks of God restraining the devil’s plans for this earth (2 Thessalonians 2:5-12).  As we take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, it not only triggers the end of the age in the coming of Christ, but it also triggers the end of the restraint of great evil.  The breaking forth of the Antichrist with multitudes taking his mark and pledging allegiance to him will also speed up the coming of the Day of God.

The Gospel saves some, but it also provokes others.  Satan does not like humans at all, but he hates true Christians deeply.  Many who side with him will become channels of his vehement vitriol.

Though the destruction of this universe should inspire godly living today, there is a good hope on the other side of that judgment.  Verse 13 reminds us that we are looking for (excitedly expecting) the fulfillment of God’s promise of new heavens and a new earth.  God is not just going to judge all things.  He is also going to re-create all things in which no evil thing can reside!

Though we are excitedly looking forward to such things, it should not inspire an attitude that discounts this world, e.g., “Good riddance!”  Jesus did not do that.

I have seen some Christians accuse those who promote righteousness as trying to “polish the brass on a sinking ship.”  Jesus taught his generation the truth.  They crucified him for it.  However, he taught them knowing what they would do to him.  He laid his life down for them knowing that many of them would not believe.  Was he polishing brass on a sinking ship?  Or what was he doing?  He was offering the love of God to people who didn’t deserve it, to people who would cast it aside.  Yet, many did believe.

There is a tension between this world being your hope and this world being the field in which you labor for Christ.  If all of your hopes are on the things of this world, then maybe you are simply polishing the brass on a sinking ship.  However, if you are attempting to save some of the people on that ship so that they do not perish, then you are doing more than polishing brass.  You are being a channel of the love of God to a perishing people.

We are to share the Gospel and demonstrate right living to the world.  How this impacts our neighbors, city, Republic, or world, is between them and God.  Our is to be faithful.  This life is good and meaningful when it is lived in Christ.  Yet, God has something even better ahead!

Notice that Peter describes the new heavens and new earth with the phrase, “where righteousness dwells.”  This description of them reminds us that God will have removed all unrighteousness.  The word “dwells” may even intentionally tie back to Peter’s theme of Christians being sojourners in this world.  We are only passing through this temporary world.  While we live here for a season, we witness to the world around us of a city, a universe, whose builder and maker is God.  A place where no wicked thing is allowed (see Revelation 21:27).  It is a dwelling place for The Righteous (those who believe in Christ) and for only righteousness.  Imagine a place where we will never experience evil from another person or spirit again!  Or even better, where we will be made perfectly like Jesus and not interested in giving ourselves to wickedness at all towards one another!

This is God’s plan for us, for you!  Let us be the righteousness of Jesus sojourning on this planet until He brings us into our permanent and perfect home!

Impact audio

The Second Letter Of Peter- 10

Subtitle: Has God Changed His Mind About Judgment Day?

A link to the audio can be found at the bottom of this article.

2 Peter 3:8-10.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, September 27, 2026.

In this chapter, Peter has referenced scoffers in the last days who would particularly ridicule the Second Coming of Christ and the Day of the Lord.  They will say [are even now saying], “Where is the promise of his coming?”

The scoffer’s problem is partly willful ignorance and partly a blindness that comes from willfully ignoring the Word of God.  The cycle starts by pushing away truth and turning towards a desired lie.  However, this then hardens a person’s heart and leaves them insensitive.  It takes more and more powerful conflicts with truth to break through to their heart; and yet, they can just ignore that too.

Peter in these verses turns his focus from the scoffers to believers.  We must not let ourselves be affected by the scoffers.  We must hold fast to faith in God’s promise to judge the wickedness of this world, both spiritual entities and humans in league with them (knowingly or unknowingly).

Let’s look at our passage.

The issue of time with the LORD (v. 8-9)

We generally understand how time limits and affects us as humans.  However, it is easy to blindly insist that those same limitations are effective upon God.  Scoffers are not just willfully ignorant of the reality of God’s Word, but they do not understand the relationship between God and time.

We experience time as those who are being carried along by it and only have so much of it to do what we want to do.  If something takes longer than a lifetime, then we have difficulty waiting for it or working for it.  Our modern age has only exacerbated this reality.  If we do not have an immediate effect, we look for alternative ways to make it happen.  Or we give up completely and go in a different direction.

We might be able to conceive how angels think of time.  They were created at the beginning and have existed all this time, millennia.  They can think about long periods of time without becoming impatient.  However, God is not a high-powered angel.  He is the Creator of all things including time itself.  It has no control over Him and holds no fear to Him.  It is something that He imagined and brought into being.  He is the Lord of time and yet, works within it.

In verse 8, Peter tells us not to let “this one fact escape your notice…”  Unlike the scoffers who willfully ignore and become blind to these matters, we are not to let the following fact escape our notice.  We are not to travel down the same path as the scoffers.  The long period of waiting for God to keep His promise about the Second Coming and the Day of the Lord does not logically support the contention that it somehow disproves the promise or God Himself.  Instead, we are to keep in mind that “with the Lord” 1 day is like 1,000 years, and 1,000 years is like 1 day!

Let’s contemplate the second part of that, “1,000 years is like 1 day.”  This is not meant to be some kind of equation that we can use to crack the meaning of prophecy.  God does use symbolism in the length of time of His works, but we must be careful of treating this as a law of the prophetic universe.  It simply means that long periods of time to God are shrugged off like one day to God. 

It is probably even greater than Peter states because he is probably thinking of Psalm 90:4. “For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night.”  Notice that Moses doesn’t treat it as an equation.  It is not only like yesterday (i.e., one day), but it is also like a watch in the night.  This would have been about four hours. 

The point is that it is something short (though for humans a watch in the night might seem to take forever when you are sleepy).  In fact, when it is dark, it is easy to let the eyelids rest for just a moment.  Many an army has been caught off-guard by their enemy with such men on watch.

Because we are talking about the Promise taking so long, this is the salient part of Peter’s statement.  However, we should note that he also makes the opposite contention.  “1 day is like 1,000 years.”  God’s ability with time is beyond our imagination.  He not only takes long periods of time to do something, but when He does it, He can accomplish 1,000 years of work in a day, or even one hour!  His ability is beyond our imagination, but it should not be beyond our belief!

When a human delays decades, or even the majority of their life, it is easy to give up hoping for what they promise.  God is not like us.  He keeps His Word.  We should not read into the long period of time in which He works the idea that it is no longer going to happen.

Verse nine tells us that God is not delaying His promise as men consider delays.  The word for delay here is not just about something being late as in being tardy.  It also has the connotation of being so late as to non-fulfillment, i.e., that God has changed His mind about doing it or is unable to do it (it’s too late!).  It is one thing to make such determinations about human endeavors (though we can easily be wrong), but it is quite another to make such judgments about God and His works.

Now listen.  Scoffing is not just something that comes from outside of the Church.  There are plenty Christians who scoff at this promise.  Some have gone so far as to treat it all as an allegory about a person gaining enlightenment about the genius of Jesus and the path of love.  This is what Peter is nipping in the bud.  People coming up with alternative ideas within the Church.

God means to keep His promise.  So why is the coming of Christ taking so long?  Peter’s answer is that God is being patient with humanity.  The word for patient here has the sense of having a long fuse.  His patience comes from the fact that He does not want anyone to perish.  Some versions say that He does not wish for people to perish, but I think this is nonsensical with God.  He does not desire anyone to perish, so He has planned a long period of time.  For Jesus to come back is to shut the door on this age of grace.  It is to seal the fate of so many people.  Only God can righteously make such a call.

It is also His desire that people come to repentance [and faith in Jesus].  This is His path of escaping the path of perishing on which we are careening into the future.  Yet, God will not force people to repent and be saved.  This issue of freedom, desire, and power is at the root of all that we are facing today.

In any project, taking too long is not seen as good.  However, when it comes to issues of love, taking too long, or being unimaginably patient, is not seen as bad.  Rather, it is remarkable as a great goodness that is not deserved.  God’s long “delay” in sending Jesus is precisely such.  It is a powerful testament to His patient love towards us.

It seems that modern man wants its cake and to eat it too.  We want to blame God for the evil in the world, saying that He has taken too long, and yet, we repel at the idea of a God that will hold us accountable for our sins.  How dare God be so patient!  Yet, the true nature of God is perfect in these matters.  He is not quick to judge sinners, and in fact, does what He can to help them avoid the fate that is only right for those who cause pain and suffering in this world. 

The Day of the Lord will come (v. 10)

In verse 10, Peter emphatically states that the Day of the Lord will come.  The Second Coming of Jesus is not equivalent to the term “Day of the Lord.”  It is only one aspect of the larger concept of the Day of the Lord.  It can be thought of as the event that initiates the Day of the Lord, but there are also events that lead up to the Second Coming, having been triggered by its timing.

The Day of the Lord is an all-encompassing phrase that refers to the judging of the world by God.  Revelation 19-20 reveals that this will be initiated in the years leading up to the Second Coming, often referred to as the Great Tribulation.  The pouring out of the wrath of God culminates in the Appearance of Jesus to remove the devil, and his angels, and the kings and powers of the earth.  This leads to 1,000 years of peace under a direct rule of Jesus and His resurrected administrators on this earth.  At the end of this time, the devil will be released from his prison and allowed one last deception upon humanity.  The ensuing rebellion will perish in fire.  The fire engulfs the heavens and the earth as all beings are brought before the throne of God for judgment.  Following this judgment, God creates New Heavens and a New Earth for those who proved righteous.  Those who did not prove righteous will be walled off from that good creation.  The Day of the Lord encompasses all of that.

Some may protest that there are places in the Old Testament where the Day of the Lord is used for a judgment that was in the past and not for all nations.  This may be true, but it is not what Peter is talking about.  Peter is looking ahead to a time when the elements of the heavens and the earth will melt with intense heat.  It is the ultimate Day of the Lord, of which all previous and smaller days of the Lord were only harbingers.

We must never let ourselves doubt that the day will eventually come when God triggers these events.  In fact, through Christians, the peace terms of Christ are going out to the whole world.  We are planting the seeds of truth, watering them, and harvesting as people respond with faith.  We don’t know when this time will be closed, but we can be faithful to God’s grace being extended through us.

Peter also describes the Day of the Lord as coming like a thief.  It is going to catch the world by surprise.  This is surprising since they will have been warned about it for thousands of years!  Paul makes this same point in 1 Thessalonians 5.  However, he adds something in verse 4. “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.”  We have been given the truth so that we can be saved, so that we are not taken by surprise on that day.  We will not be surprised by it because we live our lives holding on to the promise of the coming of our lord and His perfect judgments.

Sodom and Gomorrah were surprised on that day, but they didn’t have to be.  They could have remembered The Flood and God’s clear warning of judgment to humanity.  They could have taken note of the man Lot who testified to them that they were going too far in their sin.  Yet, they scoffed at such things and cast-off restraint.  They ignored God’s Word and so judgment caught them by surprise.

Peter speaks about the heavens passing away with a roar, or a sudden loud sound.  This seems to be a clear reference to the picture found in Revelation 20.  At the end of 1,000 years of peace under Jesus on this earth, there will be a rebellion.  This will lead to a rapid series of events.  Revelation 20:9 says that fire will come down from heaven and devour the rebellion.  Verse 10 states that the devil who deceived them will be cast into the Lake of Fire forever, never to return.  Verse 11 then states that heaven and earth “fled away” from the Great White Throne and Him who was seated upon it.  I believe that the fleeing away is connected to the fire that falls out of heaven in verse 9.  It doesn’t just engulf the wicked; it engulfs all of creation, melting it down as all beings are brought before the throne.  Thus chapter 21 opens with the presence of new heavens and a new earth, walled off from the wicked by a great firewall called the Lake of Fire.  Heaven will pass away with a sudden noise.

Then the elements (2 Peter 3:10) will be destroyed with intense heat.  The word translated “elements” refers to the underlying things that hold something else up.  In this case, we are talking about the creation.  Thus, the elements here can be thought of as the underlying things of matter itself, whether molecules, atoms, quarks, etc.

The word “destroyed” does not mean to go out of existence.  It is the idea of breaking the bonds of something that exists to the point that it is no longer what it was.  Like the temple of Jerusalem being pulled apart stone by stone and cast into the valley below is a destruction, so this destructive event will separate the bonds of matter itself.

How do you survive such an event?  You don’t, at least not as a mortal human.  Only those who have put their faith in Christ will come out the other side into the goodness that God has for them.  You survive it by knowing Jesus!

Finally, Peter says that the earth and its works will be burned up.  This is not just talking about the wicked works but works in general.  It goes beyond human works.  It involves even the work of God in the prior creation, or even post flood.  The mountains, the seas, the animals, and all living things on the earth will be burned up.  This is the final judgment of God upon this creation.

There is a textual issue with the word translated “burned up.”  There are some manuscripts that have a different word that means to be laid bare and exposed in a destructive sense.  Burned up could be expected due to the previous “intense heat.”  However, some older manuscripts have the word that pictures the works of the earth being uncovered and laid bare.  This is a concept that is often connected with judgment in the Bible.  It is a day of finding out the hidden realities of something and judging them.  Regardless, we end up at the same place.  A creation that will be so judged by God that it will be broken apart to the smallest degree and laid bare before the God who created it.

Has God changed His mind?  The short answer is no.  Believers do not need to fear the coming of the Lord.  For us, this is a promise that is meant to be our hope while we live in this life, often in the face of great wickedness.  God will judge all these things.  Yet, He doesn’t want to catch people by surprise.  He doesn’t want to catch you like a thief. 

May God help us to be the expression of His patient desire that none perish.

Has God Changed His Mind audio

The Sun of Righteousness

We apologize that there is no audio for this sermon.

As we reach the last chapter of Malachi, we are given the assurance of God’s Judgment.  Just as chapter 3 guarantees that the promised Messiah would come, so chapter 4 unequivocally states that the promised “Day of the Lord” would come.  In similar ways we were told that the Messiah’s coming would be a “cleaning” time and the Day of the Lord would be a time when the wicked are removed.

So let’s look at this prophecy of the Day of the Lord.

God Has An End For The Proud

Vs. 1 refers to “The Day.”  Throughout the prophet you find the long form of this phrase, “The Day of the Lord.”  It refers to a time when God rises up and judges the world.  It is sometimes shortened to just “The Day,” but the context always makes clear that the same issue is at hand- Judgment Day.  Just as we would use D-Day in our society and it is clearly understood, even when used metaphorically, The Day of the Lord was understood to be a day of raising up the righteous and putting down the wicked.  Though it may seem like it, God’s judgment never tarries forever.  He has a particular end planned for those who refuse to turn from their wicked ways.  It would be well for our generation to recognize this timeless truth that God’s judgment always comes.  Thus what goes around comes around.

Now verse one particularly refers to the proud.  This term refers to their puffed up nature.  They are filled with the air of their own ideas or the ideas of other men.  This causes them to stick out among other people.  However, when judgment comes they will wish that they didn’t stick out so much.  When God’s judgment comes, the wicked are not as substantial and big as they seem.  Like a balloon filled with hot air, so they are quickly deflated and destroyed.  They are removed quickly and swiftly in whatever means God sends.  A great picture of this for our era is a man like Hitler.  He makes a big substantial impact upon this world but, when judgment comes, he and all his plans are gone in a day.

The imagery of an oven is used.  God’s judgment is like an oven that burns up the wicked.  No matter how great the tree in this world, it is nothing when the judgment of fire begins to reduce it to ash in a great conflagration.  In fact the burning is so great that no branch or root is left for them.  They are completely removed from the equation with nothing to remain.  Now compare this to the words of Jesus, “I am the vine and you are the branches.  He who abides in me and I in him, bears much fruit.”  “If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”  Thus Jesus employs this metaphor as well for his followers.

Now we can see how pride is connected.  It was pride that kept many in Israel, and especially the religious leaders, from even connecting to Christ, much less remaining in Him.  Those who reject God’s offer of salvation are left to go into Judgment Day swelled up with their own pride.  It will not go good for them.  You can save yourself such a demise by putting your faith in Jesus and what He did at the cross, rather than the empty ideas that you or other “great men” have come up with.

Now some will point out that these words were written to Israel and were fulfilled in  70 AD when Jerusalem was sacked by Rome.  Was it fulfilled?  If you go through the passages regarding “The Day of the Lord,” you will notice that even though much of the passage is to Israel, often it scopes out to the surrounding nations, and ultimately to even the whole world.  To help us understand this I would ask you to picture the type of telescopes that can collapse to a small length.  Usually they are made up of 3-5 pieces that look alike, but differ in their size.  The smallest piece fits into the next larger piece, which fits into the next larger piece, etc…  The warning of judgment is not just a single prophecy whether for Israel in AD 70 or for the whole world in AD 2013.  Rather it is a reminder of a principle that applies to every scope of our existence: God will come and judge.  I need to take this truth to heart as an individual.  However, we need to take this to heart as a community, and as a nation, and as a world.  Thus the Day of the Lord did come for Israel.  In that Day the righteous went out and were blessed while the wicked were cast down and all their great pomp turned to ash.  This does not mean there is no more day of the Lord.  In fact the Apostles not only warned of the Day of the Lord before AD 70, but through the Apostle John we are warned after it, that the Day of the Lord for the whole earth is still coming.  God will come and He will execute judgment on those whose pride cause them to cast His ways aside and plunge into wickedness.  God warned that this present time of the Gentiles will end with a Day of Judgment.

A New Beginning For Those Who Fear God

In verses 2-3, God turns to those who followed Him.  Though they lived in a time when wicked men walked in pride and held the reins of power, and though they lived in a time when righteousness made you a target while wickedness helped you get ahead, this appearance would not last.  God would eventually intervene.  This “Day of Truth” would reveal the reality of the power of the wicked and the “good” they had obtained.  When the wicked were being destroyed under judgment, God would bring the righteous through it and give them a new beginning.  In fact, beyond this life, we need to understand that the “bad” we have endured in this life is not the totality of our experience.  God has great good for those who trust Him and fear Him.  There is a new beginning.

Malachi uses the imagery of a dawning day.  A new sun will rise on that morning and it will be a sun that shines its light on all the wickedness.  It will be a day when the righteous are exalted and the wicked are removed.  There will be no big struggle.  Darkness will be gone as quickly as you turn the light on in a room.

Notice that this sun of righteousness is personified when it states it will rise with healing in HIS wings.  Thus the light is connected to the coming Messiah.  His coming will be like the rising of a righteous sun that brings healing to those who have trusted God, the land, even the whole earth.  This healing includes physical but is intended to speak to those deeper wounds of our heart and soul.  In fact, the physical healings that Jesus did were to be a sign that He in fact could heal the wounds of their soul, especially the deep, festering wound of sin.  Don't get too hung up on the word "wings."  If the context was talking about a bird or building then it might be a good interpretation.  However the word points to the extremities of something.  Thus in context the messiah would have healing in his "hands" or the "hem of his garment."  This again points to Jesus and his ability to heal.

Now many conspiracy theories would jump on a verse like this and say that Judaism and Christianity just borrowed their theology from the ancient sun religions and this is proof.  However, the truth is that the ancient religions were the twisting and “progressive” ideas of men in collusion with fallen angels.  What were they twisting?  The original truth that God gave Adam, Eve, and Satan in Genesis 3:15.  The day will come when the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize that Satan would have a vested interest in co-opting this idea and trying to twist it to his purposes.  And, it doesn’t stretch the imagination to see that men who quickly grew tired of waiting on God, had itching ears for “better interpretations.”  The ancient sun religions were cheap copies of the prophecy God gave at the fall and from demonic sources.

Lastly it will be a day of release.  The image is that of a young calf who has been cooped up in a pen.  When they are released they go jumping forth, kicking, and mooing their delight.  When it speaks of trampling the wicked, the image is that the wicked have become so insubstantial that they are like ash on the ground, or salt in the street.  In the present day, no one would dare tread on the wicked.  But in the Day of Judgment their great pomp, power, and presence will be reduced to ash as the righteous go forth simply kicking it up like a child.  The beauty of this is in its equity and simplicity.  The wicked are like the chaff that will be blown away and not remembered, but the righteous shall join in a new day and be given new strength and joy.  This is our heritage and our inheritance.  Let’s walk in faith!