³ First of all you must understand this, that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts^{(A) 4} and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died,^[a] all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!”^{(B) 5} They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water,^{(C) 6} through which the world of that time was deluged with water and perished.^{(D) 7} But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the godless.^(E)