The Christian community in the UK and around the world are devastated today because of a tragedy at a festival that happened yesterday. One man has died, and 6 people are seriously injured.

https://bigchurchfestival.com/2026-public-statement

This morning I didn’t want to simply carry on with reading through Exodus. I needed to pause because on top of this horrible incident, I am totally shocked by the thousands of anti-Christian comments on social media that are mocking the incident. I read a few and couldn’t believe how people would take the opportunity to say such horrendous comments.

It’s one thing to grieve alongside a community in shock. It’s another to watch, in real time, people using someone else’s tragedy as an excuse to mock the faith of those grieving. But should any of us actually be surprised? Peter warned us this would happen. He gave this kind of person a name: scoffers.

Peter focuses on a group of people who have been ridiculing, in particular, the belief in the return of Christ. He calls them scoffers. Having reminded God’s people to hold on to the truth of what the prophets wrote in the Old Testament, the words of Jesus, and those of the apostles, he now focuses on addressing those who mock our faith.

“Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, ‘Where is this “coming” he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’ But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” (2 Peter 3:3-7)

Here is what yesterday’s and this morning’s scroll through social media confirmed all over again.

1. Scoffers were always going to be here.

The last days will contain scoffers as well as the family of God. Since the ascension of Jesus Christ, the world moved into the last days. During this last 2,000 years, the ‘brothers and sisters’ (1:10) will exist alongside those who ridicule the faith, the ‘scoffers’. It was always going to be. Just because they exist and ridicule this belief doesn’t change the fact that Jesus is returning soon. The comments I read yesterday weren’t a new phenomenon — they were the oldest phenomenon in the book, playing out on a new platform.

2. Scoffers follow their own evil desires.

These are not just the last days, but they are days of evil. Not only do they scoff at the Coming King, but they also scoff by their behaviour at the Lordship of the King. Look around you and see what is happening to the Church. The scoffers, with their behaviour, scoff at the Lordship of Jesus, and they do it from within the Church.

3. Scoffers reject the promise.

They won’t accept the promise found in the Old Testament, the Gospels, Acts or what the Apostles Paul, James, Peter and John confirm. They will turn their back on the Communion/Lord’s Supper that we regularly partake of until He comes, and they will reject the eternal promise which is in the heart of every born-again believer.

4. Scoffers say ‘there has been no change’.

They will rule out the divine intervention of God through Jesus Christ, and they will say God has not intervened since Creation, and He does not, and He will not bring any change to this world. A grieving festival crowd, praying for the injured, means nothing to a scoffer — because they’ve already decided nothing means anything.

5. Scoffers forget the story of Noah.

There were scoffers in Noah’s day and in Peter’s day, and so there is no surprise also in our day. Scoffers may talk of the love of God — “God loves everybody so live how you want.” But they deliberately forget. They choose to forget God’s judgment with the Flood. Ignore the Flood, and you don’t have to worry about future judgment nor any return of Jesus.

Yesterday a community lost one of its own and six more are fighting to recover. Today that same community is being mocked. It is grim, and the grief makes the mockery cut deeper, but it is not new, and it is not the last word.

The promise remains even if the foolish scoffers do.