⁴ and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of ^(A)creation.” ⁵ For this they willfully forget: that ^(B)by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth ^(C)standing out of water and in the water, ^6 (D)by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.