Many Adventists suggest that the second coming has not taken place because God is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9). True, the Lord does want all to come to salvation. But such a premise ignores what the text actually says. If God had His way, no one would be lost. Indeed, He is not willing that any should perish yet millions will perish because of their deliberate choice to rebel against Him. In His sovereignty He cannot disdain His own integrity and force anyone to accept His righteousness. This is the magnificent truth of forensic justification which provides the free gift of justification to come upon all men, a gift they need only to receive. (Rom. 5:18).
Furthermore, if the premise is valid that God must wait until "all should come to repentance," there can never be a second advent. The reason is that with every passing year the world population increases so that the potential for more people coming to repentance never ends. There will always be another generation called from sin. This waiting indefinitely for more and more to repent sabotages God's original plan to have children made in His image. The universe is waiting for a generation re-created by the power of the gospel, a generation that fulfills His original purpose--evidence that the gospel is the "power of God unto salvation."
There are others who proclaim that the delay is only a misperception on our part, and we need simply to accept God's timetable. The way they read the schedule is that "He hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world" (Acts 17:31), meaning that God has marked on His calendar a certain day for the second coming, and when that day comes He will arbitrarily return. If this is true, it is utter nonsense to talk about, "why the delay?" On this basis there has been no delay, and there never will be. The day on God's calendar simply has not arrived. In the meantime the human race continues to wallow in sin, physical suffering, immeasurable sorrow and distress, ail because we have not arrived at the date God marked on His calendar. In reality this charges Him with the present world turmoil.
On the other hand this text has present practical significance for what it says when read in the context of the problem facing the universe--the sin problem. God "hath appointed a day," not arbitrarily by divine fiat from some remote point in the distant past, nor yet a future day fixed on the calendar that only God knows. The appointed day is when the church, His bride, is willing to accept Christ as the heavenly Bridegroom and be married to Him for eternity. In that day He will come to "judge the world." (See: Adventist Review, Oct. 12, 1993, pp. 11-13.)
For now, ignorance and impenitence in "the house of David" and among "the inhabitants of Jerusalem" prevent His return. But His bride will yet hear His knocking at the door and learn a supreme regard for Him and for His character and dedicated to His vindication she will take up her cross in mutual love without regard for reward or concern for the reward of heavenly mansions. That is the "appointed day" when He will come. That "day" fulfills the whole plan of salvation. He cannot come before that day because otherwise His people would be destroyed by the brightness of His holy presence.
The issue must be settled before the event can take place. God is not responsible for the delay. Rather, He is compelled to wait until Laodicea knows how wretched she is and is willing to believe the counsel of the True Witness and repent.
No crisis in all history compares with this.