1. This is now, beloved, the second epistle that I write unto you; and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by putting you in remembrance;
2. that ye should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles:
3. knowing this first, that in the last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their own lusts,
4. and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5. For this they wilfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water, by the word of God;
6. by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7. but the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.