³ First of all you must understand this: In the last days mockers will come and, following their own desires, will ridicule us^{[a] 4} by saying, “What happened to the Messiah’s^[b] promise to return? Ever since our ancestors died,^[c] everything continues as it did from the beginning of creation.” ⁵ But they deliberately ignore the fact that long ago the heavens existed and the earth was formed by God’s word out of water and with water, ⁶ by which the world at that time was deluged with water and destroyed. ⁷ Now by that same word, the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire and are being kept for the day when ungodly people will be judged and destroyed.