1 This is the second letter, dearly beloved, that I have already written to you, in both of which I am trying by reminders to stir up your unsullied minds
2 to remember the things foretold by the holy prophets, and the command of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles.
3 First of all, you must understand this, that in the last days mockers will come with their mockeries, living in accordance with their evil passions,
4 and saying, "Where is His promised coming? For ever since our forefathers fell asleep everything has remained exactly as it was from the beginning of creation!"
5 For they willfully ignore the fact that long ago the heavens existed and the earth that had been formed by God's command out of water and through water,
6 by which also the world, through being deluged with water, was destroyed.
7 But by the same command the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire and are kept for the day when godless men are to be doomed and destroyed.
8 But you must avoid forgetting this one fact, dearly beloved, that with the Lord a single day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a single day.
9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, in the sense in which some think of slowness, but He is really dealing patiently with you, because He is not willing for any to perish but for all to have an opportunity to repent?
10 The day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a roar, the heavenly bodies will be destroyed by being burned up, and the earth with all its works will melt away.
11 If all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what men you ought to be! What holy and pious lives you ought to lead,
12 since you are awaiting and hastening the coming of the day of God, which will cause the heavens to blaze and dissolve and the heavenly bodies to burn up and melt away!
13 In accordance with His promise we are expecting new heavens and a new earth, in which uprightness will have its permanent home.
14 Therefore, dearly beloved, since you are expecting this, be in earnest to be found by Him without a blot, without reproach, and at peace.
15 Always think of our Lord's patience as salvation, just as our dearly beloved brother Paul, with the wisdom granted him, wrote you to do,
16 speaking of it as he does in all his letters. In them are some things hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsteady twist to their ruin, as they do the rest of the Scriptures.
17 So, dearly beloved, since you have been forewarned, you must always be on your guard against being led astray by the errors of lawless men, and so against falling away from your present firmness;
18 but instead, you must continue to grow in the spiritual strength and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory now and forever!