Contradiction between Paul and Peter Regarding God's Sovereignty

Dr. Couch, is there a contradiction between what Paul says in Acts 17:31 and what Peter says in 2 Peter 3:12, about God's sovereign plan in history, and our hastening the "coming day of God"? ANSWER:  Good question. And this is where only a student of the Greek text can give a definitive answer. The apostle Paul says God has a plan, "He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, ... raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:31). God is in charge of when the day of judgment will come. It is an exact moment in His eternal decree of all things! But then the English in 2 Peter 3:12 reads: "... looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, ..." This sounds as if we can hasten the coming of the day of final judgment. Is this right?    No, it is not! Both "looking for" and "hastening" are Present Active Participles in the Greek text, but more, the word "hastening" is not a good translation in this context of the word speudo. The "looking for" is better translated "expecting" and the word "hastening" is better translated "earnestly desiring." As translated "hastening" it sounds as if we are causing the day of God to come quickly. Instead, the point is that we are "earnestly desiring" that it will arrive soon.    A problem like this is why I spent some 35 college and graduate hours in Greek, with some of the best Greek teachers in America, so that I could know exactly what the biblical text was saying! After I came to my conclusion I checked out the great old Greek scholar A. T. Robertson, and, he translates the verse the same way. We are not causing the coming of the day of God, we are anticipating its arrival!    Thanks for asking.    Dr. Mal Couch (Oct., 09)