2 Peter 3 - part 1 — John Meekin

Okay, there's a question, I think it was answering this for Brother William. This morning there was made mention of the spiritual man, the carnal man, and the natural man. Can you explain these terms?

If explanation was made and I missed it, please disregard this question. I don't know if you missed it or not. Anyhow, scripture, I would look at 1 Corinthians 2, you read of the natural man. That's a person that never was saved.

And then you read of the spiritual man in chapter 3, and that's a person that's led by the Holy Spirit. It's not a fixed state, but it's something we would all like to be more spiritual. So carnal means a Christian acting more like an unsaved person, like persons in the world.

The Day Star, the Day Dawn, and Christ’s Kingdom

Question from the early Bible reading, just for clarification from chapter 1, verse 19. Is the day star the Lord Jesus? What exactly is the day dawning? When and what is the day star arising? In our hearts or otherwise, thank you, you're welcome, 2 Peter 1 .19.

I would take it from the question, what you'd like to know first of all is a light that shines in a murky place until the day dawn. I would take it the day shining through is actually the kingdom. It is the millennial kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ here upon earth, and the day star is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I did not have time with the spur of the moment to check, but Zacharias speaks of the day spring from on high visiting us. I'm not sure, I don't think it's the same word just rummaging through my mind, but you do remember that Malachi speaks of the sun, S-U-N, of righteousness arising with healing in his wings.

So the sun will one day dawn upon this dark and murky world, dispelling all of its darkness and all of its confusion and all of its religious error. And for a thousand years upon earth, the sun will shine in all of its beauty.

I was just noticing this week. Remember when Jacob leaves Penuel, it says, and the sun shined upon him. A picture of Israel back in the land, enjoying all the beauty and all the blessings of the presence of Christ upon earth.

Reading and Overview of 2 Peter 3

Our reading now is 2 Peter 3 and at verse number one. This second epistle, beloved, I now write on to you in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming?

For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. For this, they willingly are ignorant of that by the word of the Lord or by the word of God, the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water were by the world that then was being overflowed with water perished.

But the heavens on the earth, which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved onto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly man. But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years is one day.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long suffering to us word, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 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, seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved. What manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastening onto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.

Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless and account that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which there are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable rest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware, lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to him be glory both now and forever.

Amen. Now, the Lord bless the reading of the sacred scriptures and give us help and utterance as we seek to consider it together for the glory of the Lord Jesus. Now, just to give a short introduction into this chapter, I think it would only be fair to suggest again something of the setting of the chapter.

Again, an opening was given, a valuable opening was given to the book this morning, and yet we approach the chapter and I think we would recognize that this chapter is again so different and so distinct from chapter 2.

Looking at chapter 1, we were reminded of the believer as an heir. Chapter 2 reminded us of the believer and the heretics, and now, here in chapter 3, we have the believer and his hope. When we looked at chapter 1, we were on the mountaintop, and as we were on the mountaintop, we heard the voice of God.

We were introduced not only on the mountaintop to the voice of God, but we saw something of glory. Then in chapter 2, we descended into the valley, and in the valley, we heard not now the voice of God, but we heard the voice of the false prophets.

And you will remember in the valley, we were introduced not to glory, but to destruction. I would suggest that, if you'll allow me, we're coming back up to the mountaintop in chapter 3. In fact, we go far beyond the mountaintop, and again in chapter 3, we are introduced to the voice of God.

We're introduced right at the beginning to the prophets and the apostles. We're introduced later on, I'll touch it in a moment, to the Scriptures. And so again, we have the voice of God, and of course, you know, before we'll be done this afternoon, we're introduced again to glory.

So what a beautiful balance is found. That's the setting of the chapter. As I've intimated, we could hardly look at the chapter without noticing the Scriptures in the chapter. Look with me at verse number 5.

We have a reference to the law, creation. Look with me at verse number 8. We have a reference, or at least an allusion, to the book of the Psalms. Then we come down to verse number, which verse is it now?

Verse number 13, and we've got a quotation there from Isaiah. And so we're coming, all of the Old Testament Scriptures are represented, or alluded to at least, right here in this chapter. One of the things that our brother Higgins mentioned, just at the close of his chapter, there was reference to the apostles, we.

And then there was reference to prophets, Old Testament prophets, the holy prophets. So we have the apostles and the prophets at the end of chapter 1. Notice how chapter 3 starts. Peter mentions here the holy prophets and the apostles.

So we have a beautiful balance again, linking back to chapter 1. As I've intimated, verses 16, it mentions then the Scriptures, the other Scriptures. And the wonderful thing, without going over the ground, is Peter elevates the writings of Paul to the Old Testament Scriptures.

And so right here in the chapter, we've got the Scriptures. Now you might be wondering, why is it that Peter brings that in in the chapter? You will remember in chapter 1 he told us, he's going after my decease.

Apostolic witness on earth will soon be over. It's kind of like 2 Timothy. What will be left for the believers when the apostles are gone? What resource will they have when the apostolic witness has disappeared?

Oh, he says, listen, you won't be bereft. You will have the Scriptures. The Scriptures in the chapter. We should mention the subject of the chapter. The false teachers, the premise of what they are teaching in verse 4 is, where is the promise of His coming?

All things continue. The whole point of this chapter is to show that that premise is wrong. All things hasn't continued. Where is the intervention of God? The whole subject of chapter 3 is to show that at this point, God has intervened in the past, and God will yet intervene in the future.

We noticed a day, well, our brother has just answered the question. The day star, chapter 1. We noticed in chapter 2, day to day. We notice in this chapter, there's a day of judgment. We notice the day of the Lord.

We notice the day of God, and that's the whole subject of the chapter. It's to show that God will yet fulfill His purpose, and God's purpose will be realized in the day of God, the eternal state. That's the subject of the chapter.

The Fourfold Structure of 2 Peter 3

I would like to speak for a moment, I was going to mention other things, but just for sake of time, the structure of the chapter. What we'll do is divide the chapter into four components. You'll notice in verse 1, Peter says, this second epistle, beloved.

Then we get down to verse 8, and Peter says again, but beloved. You'll notice then verse number 14, and Peter says, wherefore, beloved. And then again, verse number 17, and Peter says, ye therefore, beloved.

In the first section, we're going to consider the precepts of the Lord. When we look at the second section, we will look at the program of the Lord. When we look at the third section, we are going to see the purpose of the Lord.

And if you'll allow me, in the last section, we will see the perception of the Lord grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So having mentioned those, boy the clock's just, it's just gone crazy on the back wall my brother.

So, so that gives me as much time as I want. I've mentioned four things there, don't worry, I'll keep an eye on the clock. But so, so stay with me. The last thing I mentioned there was the structure of the chapter.

The last thing I want to mention is sleeping in the chapter. Because you will know this is the third Bible reading. In the third Bible reading, eyelids get a little bit heavy. And people, well, they say, you know, we've heard, we've heard Mr. Lavery, and we've heard Mr. Higgins, maybe take a sleep.

Well the one thing I would like you to remember is I have a good friend here, he's sitting over there, Mr. McCandless, and he has a thing called a spanking spoon. Now if anyone sleeps, I'm going to refer you to him.

And he will take care of it. But we'll commence in verse number one, and I trust with the blessing of the Lord. Any general comments? I'll make a few comments if there are no general comments on the first section or on the chapter itself.

Peter’s Beloved Readers and the Need for Remembrance

So the fact that he calls him beloved, it would be the deep love of the shepherd and the sheep.

So would you agree, Bill, that Peter himself is picking up from chapter one, and he remembered what God called his own son. He said beloved. Peter is picking that up, and Peter is referring to these believers.

In verses one and two here, we have the encouragement, which is in view in the section. In verses three and four, you'll notice the evaluation that Peter gives that's in view in the section. Verses five and six, we have the examples that Peter mentions in the section.

And then in verse number seven, we have the end that Peter has in view, and he mentions in the section. So we'll commence as our brother has done at verse number one.

So these to whom he's writing stand in contrast to the last verse of chapter two, those that turned like a dog to its own vomit, and the sow to its wallowing in the mire. These believers, he's going to seek to awaken them and stir up their pure minds, their uncontaminated minds, by way of reminder.

Very good.

And it doesn't suggest in any measure that these believers were slipping. It is the idea of continuing to be aware and continuing to be exercised about these matters. So not to imply failure or any deficit on the part of the believers.

So he's also picking up the subject from the first epistle, and he says, this second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you. Now both is not in the text. We know that. But he's saying in which, the which is plural.

He says in both the first letter and in the second letter, the purpose that I was writing unto you was to stir up, to keep you believers awake. Why would he want to keep them awake in light of what he's just taught them in chapter two of this, what we've heard.

Brother Murray. Yeah. Brother John, it's not the only second epistle that we have in our New Testament, as we know. Any suggestions as to why he actually refers to it? It's the only time we have this expression in our New Testament, second epistle.

Go ahead and help.

It's one of, our brother knows as well as I do, that it's one of five second epistles in the New Testament. And it tends to be that the first tends to be pristine. The second tends to introduce conditions of contamination and leads on to the last days.

And I take it that that's what's being preempted here, that Peter himself is acknowledging this is a second epistle. The purpose of it, it's going to anticipate coming days. He calls them the last day in the chapter.

Yeah. And, and just, I think you actually answered the question before I asked it. I don't think there's another epistle in our New Testament that goes back to the first as much as Peter's second epistle does.

Sure. Very good. Because you constantly are picking up from the first epistle all the way through. Very good.

Sure. Verse two, be mindful of the words, the words, the importance of the words. I recall the, the, the people of Israel, as Moses was leaving them and he gave them the words in Deuteronomy, the Lord Jesus in the upper room, Luke chapter 24.

These are the words I spoke while I was yet with you. And here's Peter in his last letter. And again, he's emphasizing the words that have been spoken. Good.

Now that's followed through in the chapter because you'll notice he says the sayings are the words which were spoken. And then when we come down to verse number 16, he speaks about Paul as also in all his epistles speaking.

So you can see the link which is being drawn very beautifully back to the Old Testament and then forward into the writings of Paul in the New Testament. Brother Higgins.

You would agree then that when you have holy prophets and apostles, that's referring to Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles. When you have apostles and prophets, it is rather New Testament, New Testament.

Good. Just the order is important to see.

And it is important to note that because if you go to the book of Luke's gospel, Luke's gospel chapter 11, I think it's verse number 49. In there, it says what our brother has said, prophets and apostles.

And that's Old Testament. Go over to the book of Ephesians and something like three times in the book of Ephesians, we read of the apostles and the prophets. And that's the New Testament order. The New Testament apostles who were followed by New Testament prophets.

So why does he, with all that has gone before, why does he give them the credit so affirmatively that it's pure minds?

It's an interesting thing, isn't it, Murray, that it's actually a singular term. It is. So he doesn't say you're pure minds, plural. I take it that it's a company or the group he's writing to, he is aware of themselves that they are sincere.

That's really the word or it's exposed to the sunlight is the idea behind the word. And I take it that he's telling us here, they're pure not only because of their own motivation, but they're pure because they have a definite link to the person of the Lord Jesus.

Right. So would he be addressing maybe the people that are outside of the many that follow their pernicious ways? Very good.

Okay. Yeah. So, so again, we've got to, we've got to contrast with the false. That's right. These are true and they are pure.

And the word that is used so often, corrupt, corrupt, corrupt, relative to the world, relative to the others. Now, in contrast, pure.

If the thought has been unsullied, there's never been sullied by the evil teaching. And as you pointed out, exposed to sunlight, the thought is a potter makes a vessel and sometimes there's a crack in it and you'll fill it up with some material and the sunlight will show up the crack and exposed to the delight of the word of God.

These people, their minds are pure.

Yeah. Very good. Had you a thought about why it is introduced as the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and savior?

As you know, again, this is a singular term. One of the reasons why I asked our brother Bill in the last Bible reading about the holy commandment was I was hoping that that would preempt this question in this Bible reading.

But I think that what we're learning here is, first of all, it's the singularity of what was delivered by the apostles, but it didn't originate with the apostles. I take it the originating source of this is the Lord and savior, the Lord Jesus.

Would you like to add to that?

No, I would agree. But I think also, um, perhaps it's in light of what is going to be said in verse four and on down, um, Lord and savior, that he is going to ultimately save his people out of this corrupt world and judge it.

And, uh, that is his character. Very good.

One thing we should mention is the fact of the order of the titles here. Is it something like four times five? Well, he mentions Lord and savior right here in this book. And one of the things that's coming in from a denominational source is they speak about the savior and the Lord.

The new Testament never does that. The new Testament always gives it in its proper order. We have acknowledged the authority of the Lord Jesus. We have bowed to that authority. You'll remember in the upper room, he spoke to the disciples and he said, ye call me master and Lord.

And you say, well, if I then your Lord and master, never forget brethren and sisters, he is our Lord and he is our savior.

So help us there because what you've touched on is vital. Can a person get saved without acknowledging Lordship? No. Okay. Even, even though they may not be conscious, this is what I am doing. That's right.

They are bowing to the authority of the word of God. Their repentance is an acknowledgement of Lordship. Exactly. Okay. Very good.

I would agree. True repentance. The changing of mind is a changing of mind about who Christ is as well as about who I am. And so he is Lord and we don't make him Lord at some later point in life when we decide we want to become more spiritual.

So we have to confess Jesus as Lord, not our sins. There's a problem where I was over in Zambia. A lot of the people profess to be saved and what they do is they confess their sins. Never confess Christ as Lord and a key for salvation is confessing Christ as Lord.

So an unbeliever in the New Testament, Duncan, is never told to confess his sins. In first John, it's a believer who was told to confess his sins and yet Paul, I guess, is the pattern of conversion who confessed Jesus as Lord.

Another place where the commandment is singular, as you well know, John, is 1 Corinthians 14. Let those who are spiritual acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandment, singular, of the Lord.

Now that was right after a controversial area that some people would like to have thrown out. And I think what Paul is reminding us is that the gospel is a singularity, the apostle's doctrine is a single unity, and that you don't cherry pick your way through Bible truths and take the ones you like, but you take the whole of it.

Now it is true that in 1 Corinthians 15, for example, Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, was buried and raised again. That's the core of the gospel. But the gospel doesn't end there.

And God never intends us to take the saving parts of the gospel and ignore the other parts that are precious to him that exalt his Son in the Christian life. So one of the things that we need to do to protect ourselves against error back to this context is to remember that it is the whole word of God that we need.

Interesting that Peter already regards it that way, even though he is finishing up the canon here, or nearly so.

This verse too would be a big contrast to the previous chapter. Holy prophets, false prophets, and the apostles, where did they get their word from? The Lord. That's right.

Very good. So it contrasts very nicely with what you took us into in chapter 2. Now can we move into verses 3 and 4? Knowing this first. Now at the end of our brother Higgins' reading, we actually had that expression, knowing this first.

And someone might say, well, why would he state it now? Well I take it that knowing this first in this chapter goes back to verse number 1, I now write. Because of what is happening, because of the introduction of these false teachers, the false teaching in chapter 2, he says, I'm now writing, and as a consequence I want you to know this first of all.

Is it, could it be, it's the preeminent matter that he's referring to, that even though men will deny the coming, he is coming.

Scoffers, the Last Days, and the Promise of Christ’s Coming

What coming is in view here? I personally, whilst we're not explicitly told in some of the texts, I personally think it's the manifestation of the Lord Jesus, but. His coming in judgment. His coming in judgment.

Right. I think that's what's in view.

Verse 10. Yeah. Yes. The day of the Lord will come. Will come. He'll establish his Lordship, though they deny it. Sure.

So in the last days, now some may wonder what this phrase, the last days, mean in verse number 3. When we go to the book of Hebrews, we're told that the last days commenced with the person of the Lord Jesus.

God hath in these last days spoken unto us in some. One thing that we should note is the period of the last days began with the Lord Jesus and will run right to the end. And yet the last days here is a period which is after, I take it it's after Peter's days himself.

Would you be happy with that?

These scoffers, I'm sorry. Go ahead. The scoffers are just the same, I think, false teachers that we've been confronting right along.

I mean, is that all right? Well, I'm maybe taking them slightly differently, but go ahead.

I should have asked it as a question instead of making a statement. Well, you'll be able to. You might ask, why would anyone who purports to be a Christian teacher deny the coming of the Lord? I mean, that seems to be a very basic thing.

But then again, that fits better with their lusts because the coming in judgment will call them to account for the way they live. And if you think this isn't very relevant, it is today. You read Brian McLaren, read some of these men, they're anti-Paul, they're pro-Jesus.

They say that really we spend far too much time thinking about the future and so-called heaven, whatever that is, when all of the Bible really points to how we ought to live on earth and giving to our fellow man and being good citizens.

And so they say that all of Christianity really is about this life, not the next. But Peter tells us in this chapter, seeing all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be?

Your view of whether Christ is coming will strongly influence how deep your roots go down in this world and what you think of this life versus the next. This is very, very common teaching today.

I had wondered now, this is actually the same word used in Jude for mockers, as you know. And I had wondered, some have taken it that these are theists and they're not atheists. And so verse number five, they say, this is the false teachers and the false teachers are acknowledging creation.

I wonder about that. What I wonder is that through calling into question the coming of the Lord Jesus, are they not calling into question all of the revelation of God? Would some of you brethren want to come in and comment on that?

Well, that would be the logical end of the line that they're taking. There is in the epistle a contrast, isn't there? There is on the one hand, the false teachers, their false teaching, the resultant ungodly behavior and no hope for the future.

Whereas there is the truth, the word of truth, there's the godliness that it should engender and will engender. And there is the bright hope for the believer that lies ahead. Very good.

The other link I should point out with the previous chapter is these scoffers are walking after their own lusts. In our brother Bill's chapter, we had a reference, they're walking after the flesh. And so that may give credence to our brother Valens that these are a similar group or the same group.

And here they're described as scoffers.

So what actually is their philosophy, their theology, that actions do not carry consequences, that God is not going to hold them in account for their lifestyle? Sure.

That's the whole point, that God hasn't intervened. God hasn't intervened in this creation. Why would God intervene in our lives in the future?

Would you take it in verse number four, brother John, he says, where is the promise of his coming. Is, it's not really a question to ask is where do you find it in the scriptures, but how come he isn't here?

Sure, sure.

It hasn't been fulfilled. So is it ever going to be fulfilled? It's calling into question the whole of the basis of authoritative commandment of the Lord.

It's an unreliable promises and unchanging conditions. Sure.

Going to go on the same as they were. Right. There is an expression in the world that men use if they're talking about something iffy, something very doubtful, something way out there, like the second coming of Christ in a rhetorical way, you see, and that fits, they're fulfilling scripture.

Sure.

The very fact that it's doing it is actually in contrast to what this, they themselves are saying, where's the promise? The fact that they do it is actually manifesting scripture is true.

In chapter one, this was a fundamental of Peter's teaching, the coming of the Lord and that would be the manifestation again.

Is this expression, the justification these men have for their thinking, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. Is that prevalent in our society as a philosophy? Help us with what you have in mind, Charles.

David, go ahead.

Uniformitarianism? Sure. Yeah. If you, right. So first of all, uniformitarianism assumes that things have always continued, that physical forces and laws and the nature of radioactive decay and all kinds of scientific parameters have not really changed at all.

And we can predict exactly how they were a thousand or a billion years ago with precision. Now that assumes that God has never intervened, that things have never changed and that the past is exactly the same as the present.

But Peter's telling us, no, the past and the present are not the same. And God has, after long periods of, shall we say, plateau, had some very cataclysmic, catastrophic interventions, the flood being the major one here.

So if you listen to the debate between Bill Nye, the science guy, and Ken Ham, Bill Nye denies that there's two kinds of science. He says that the forensic science or the reconstruction science that relates to the ancient past and the kind of thing that we would do in a lab today are the same, but they're not the same because we know the conditions with which we work in experimental science when we can reproduce findings and measure them.

But to go back to the beginning of time and to assume you know everything and all of the numbers are what you think they are and the conditions are what you imagine them to be is folly. And therefore, this takes us back to chapter one.

Is it experience or is it God's word? There it was the experience of seeing even the wonderful manifestation of Christ on the mountain. It was still an experience and therefore cannot match up to the infallibility of God's unchanging word.

Now in this chapter, it's God's unchanging word versus assumptions that people make about the past. So in your science classes, remember that assumptions that men make who are fallible, sinful, finite, who weren't there cannot match the certainties of the God who is infinite, infallible, and who was there.

Very good. And that's important. We need to stress that because that's the whole point that Peter is making here. These false teachers are saying all things continue. Where is the promise of his coming in the future?

All things continue in a uniform way in the present. And Peter is saying here in verse number five, that is not true. God has intervened and God has intervened in a dramatic and in a cataclysmic way. Now verses five and six, if we can.

Creation, the Flood, and Divine Intervention

What do they mean? Brother John, I have to hold you back. Notice they're saying the father's fell asleep. They don't say our father's fell asleep.

I personally just thought, Murray, that those were just the first progenitors of humanity. Just from the beginning of time, the first fathers, Adam and go right through them. They have all fallen asleep.

Now generally, when the fathers are referred to in scripture, it generally has a Jewish context. That's right. Acts chapter three, Romans chapter nine. It generally speaks about those who were the first Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the fathers of the nation.

Here I think it's wider because we're going to creation.

And the other is often our fathers. Yes.

Now for this, they willingly are ignorant. I take it that this is another focal point. You'll notice in verse number eight, he says, beloved, be ye not ignorant, but these men are actually willfully ignorant.

They speak about science, but the very thing that they are speaking about willfully, they are denying what is observable. That God has moved and God has given a flood and things have changed.

Therefore, the world is not in a uniformitarian process, right? God intervened in creation, in an explosive six-day creation, and then again at the flood, and he will intervene again. And the remarkable thing is he built into that first creation the very elements that would cause its destruction in the flood, the water.

And in this present creation too, there is the fire in the middle of the earth and all around us in the heavens.

So we have a number of worlds. Our brethren have, we might as well mention it again here. You'll notice verse number five, he speaks about verse number six, the world that then was. That's the antediluvian world.

That is the world from creation right up to the days of Noah. Then we've got another world that is the heavens and the earth, which are now, that's verse number seven. And when we come down, verse number 13, we have a third aspect, new heavens and a new earth.

I was just wondering about willingly ignorant. How could they be willingly ignorant if they had a Bible, you know, and read about the flood? Or did they think the flood never happened or they'd not believe all the Bible or I'm looking at it with closed eyes or what?

They're looking at it with closed eyes. They're not prepared to accept the evidence which God has given.

Some of them would say to you, and they've been quoted to this extent, that we believe our scientific facts because the alternative is totally unthinkable to them, that there is a God that they are accountable to.

Just won't even think about it. The advice is they willfully forget. They know it, but they've placed it out of their mind. They're not recognizing it. Some this might be different, but some today they think these are only allegorical.

You know, the Old Testament didn't really happen.

Even some religious leaders and some prominent ones do, who write on the book of Genesis.

And Einstein's supposed to have said that the universe with all its order and so on, to say that that happened by chance would be like saying that there was an explosion in a print shop and all the type came down in the form of a dictionary, right?

He can recognize the order in creation, but yet he denied the reality of a personal God.