2 Peter 3:3-12

Amplified Bible

The Coming Day of the Lord

³First of all, know [without any doubt] that mockers will come in the last days with their mocking, following after their own human desires ⁴and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming [what has become of it]? For ever since the fathers fell asleep [in death], all things have continued [exactly] as they did from the beginning of creation.” ⁵For they willingly forget [the fact] that the heavens existed long ago by the word of God, and the earth was formed ^[a]out of water and by water, ⁶through which the world at that time was destroyed by being flooded with water.^(A) ⁷But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly people.

⁸Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day.^(B) ⁹The Lord does not delay [as though He were unable to act] and is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is [extraordinarily] patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

A New Heaven and Earth

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will vanish with a [mighty and thunderous] roar, and the [material] elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and the works that are on it will be ^[b]burned up.

¹¹Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be [in the meantime] in holy behavior [that is, in a pattern of daily life that sets you apart as a believer] and in godliness [displaying profound reverence toward our awesome God], ¹²[while you earnestly] look for and await the coming of the day of God. For on this day the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the [material] elements will melt with intense heat!^(C)

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Footnotes

2 Peter 3:5 Peter is not referring to the creation of earth from water, but to the appearance of land masses from the water that had covered the earth in the early stages of creation. His point is that the mockers who will claim that things continue to be just as they always have been will be overlooking the fact that the status quo, as they see it, took an act of God to create in the first place, and God has already intervened in the history of the world once to wipe out mankind by a cataclysmic flood (v 6; cf Gen 6; 7).
2 Peter 3:10 Two early mss have “discovered” instead of “burned up.” It is possible that Peter means something like “discovered for what they really are—temporary creations.”