Chapter 3

This, beloved, is now the second epistle that I am writing to you wherein I stir up your pure mind to remembrance,

that you may be mindful of what I formerly preached of the words of the holy prophets and of your apostles, which are the precepts of the Lord and Savior.

This first you must know, that in the last days there will come deceitful scoffers, men walking according to their own lusts,

saying, "Where is the promise or his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."

For of this they are willfully ignorant, that there were heavens long ago, and an earth formed out of water and by water through the word of God.

By these means the world that then was, deluged with water, perished.

But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by that same word have been stored up, being reserved for fire against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

But, beloved, do not be ignorant of this one thing, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord does not delay in his promises, but for your sake is long-suffering, not wishing that any should perish but that all should turn to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; at that time the heavens will pass away with great violence, and the elements will be dissolved with heat, and the earth, and the works that are in it, will be burned up.

Seeing therefore that all these things are to be dissolved, what manner of men ought you to be in holy and pious behavior,

you who await and hasten towards the coming of the day of God, by which the heavens, being on fire, will be dissolved and the elements will melt away by reason of the heat of the fire!

But we look for new heavens and a new earth, according to his promises, wherein dwells justice. Exhortation, Doxology

Therefore, beloved, while you look for these things, endeavor to be found by him without spot and blameless, in peace.

And regard the long-suffering of our Lord as salvation. Just as our most dear brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given him, has written to you,

as indeed he did in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things. In these epistles there are certain things difficult to understand, which the unlearned and the unstable distort, just as they do the rest of the Scriptures also, to their own destruction.

You therefore, brethren, since you know this beforehand, be on your guard lest, carried away by the error of the foolish, you fall away from your own steadfastness.

But grow in peace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.