Ecclesiastes vs 2 Peter in the Narrative of Earth’s Durability

Video: “12 Contradictions in the Bible” by Holy Koolaid
The texts in question: Ecclesiastes 1:4 and 2 Peter 3:10

Below are Mr. Koolaid’s statements (in bold) followed by my response.

“But what about Ecclesiastes 1:4, “A generation goes and a generation comes but the earth remains forever?” But will it? Because 2 Peter 3:10 says that the earth will be burned up. In this case the genre of the book is important. Ecclesiastes is a poetic book of wisdom and pithy sayings, packed with analogies and metaphors. This is a poetic way of contrasting the earth a human lifespan. You’re not meant to take every figure of speech literally. I mean, he anthropomorphizes the sun, for God’s sake.”

While I’m happy for Mr. Koolaid finding some sort of answer, it’s not even close. No soup for you, Mr. Koolaid. The two texts are referring to two different things that should both be taken literally within their own genre.

Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes as a biography, of sorts, to show how for most of his life he squandered God’s blessings to chase after personal pleasure instead. He wrote to future generations to warn them not to make the same disastrous error of substituting pleasure for obedience to God. In 1:4 he was comparing permanence with impermanence; how an endless cycle of work and activity repeats itself continuously and how that does not bring security or meaning to man’s experience in a world that is constantly moving on.

Peter was writing of eschatological events. He was encouraging his readers not to lose hope in the face of antagonistic mockers who were deriding them (or will deride them) over the fact that Jesus had not returned yet. He was reminding them that both Old Testament and New Testament history and prophecy are reliable, and that the history of God’s judgment in the past sets the stage for the reliability of future prophecy that is yet to be fulfilled. In 2 Peter 2:10-11, Peter was reminding his fellow believers how the judgment of God will come swiftly and unexpectedly. Therefore, they should live godly lives continually so that that judgment will not fall upon them without warning.

They are two different genres and two different topics that have no direct relation to each other, thus there’s no contradiction here that needs to be resolved.