Chapter II The Coming of Christ, etc.
1 3:1THIS second epistle, beloved, I now write to you, in which I excite your pure minds by remembrance, 3:2to remember the words spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour, 3:3knowing this first, that in the last days scoffers shall come with scoffing walking after their inordinate desires, 3:4and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the world. 3:5For of this they are willingly ignorant, that the heavens were of old, and the earth was made of water and by water by the word of God, 3:6by which the world that then was, being overflowed with water, was destroyed. 3:7But the present heavens and the earth have been preserved by his word, being kept for fire, at the day of the judgment and destruction of wicked men.
2 3:8But let not this one thing escape you, beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 3:9The Lord is not slow in respect to his promise, as some men account slowness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to a change of mind.
3 3:10But the day of the Lord will come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with a crash, and the elements be melted with heat, and the earth and the works in it be consumed. 3:11All these things therefore being dissolved, what persons ought we to be in holy conduct and piety, 3:12expecting and hastening the coming of the day of God, in which the heavens being burnt up will be dissolved and the elements be melted with heat. 3:13But we, according to his promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth, in which dwells righteousness.
4 3:14Wherefore, beloved, looking for these things, be diligent that you may be found in him without a spot and blemish, in peace, 3:15and consider the long-suffering of the Lord our salvation; as also our beloved brother Paul according to the wisdom given to him wrote to you, 3:16as also in all his epistles speaking of these things, in which are some things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they also do the other Scriptures to their destruction. 3:17Do you therefore, beloved, knowing [these things] before, be on your guard not to be carried away with the error of the wicked and fall from your steadfastness, 3:18but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever.