and earth, and in v 8 the author exhorts his group not to ignore God’s sure promise to destroy the heavens and earth, despite the human difficulty of reckoning time. The latest challenge to the Lord is found in the way the scoffers reckon the slowness of the Lord to come and judge. Because God is slow to come, this means that he will not come to exercise power and judgment. The Lord’s honor, then, is challenged on two fronts, as impotence in regard to judgment and as the failure of the Lord’s promise