1 This is the second epistle that I now write unto you, my dearly beloved, wherewith I stir up and warn your pure minds,
2 to call to remembrance the words which were told before of the holy prophets, and also the commandment of us; the apostles of the Lord and Saviour.
3 This first understand: that there shall come in the last days mockers, which will walk after their own lusts
4 and say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers died all things continue in the same estate wherein they were at the beginning."
5 This they know not - and that willingly: how that the heavens a great while ago were, and the earth that was in the water appeared up out of the water by the word of God:
6 by the which things the world that then was perished, overflowen with the water.
7 But the heavens verily and earth which are now, are kept by the same word in store, and reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 Dearly beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, how that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack to fulfill his promise as some men count slackness: but is patient to us ward and would have no man lost, but would receive all men to repentance.
10 Nevertheless, the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which day, the heavens shall perish with terrible noise, and the elements shall melt with heat, and the earth, with the works that are therein, shall burn.
11 If all these things shall perish, what manner persons ought ye to be in holy conversation, and godliness:
12 looking for, and hasting unto, the coming of the day of God, in which the heavens shall perish with fire, and the elements shall be consumed with heat.
13 Nevertheless, we look for a new heaven, and a new earth, according to his promise, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
14 Wherefore, dearly beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and undefiled:
15 And suppose that the long suffering of the Lord is salvation, even as our dearly beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given unto him, wrote to you,
16 yea, almost in every epistle, speaking of such things: among which are many things hard to be understood: which they that are unlearned and unstable pervert, as they do other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know it beforehand: Beware, lest ye be also plucked away with the error of the wicked, and fall from your own steadfastness;
18 but grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord, and saviour Jesus Christ. To whom be glory both now and forever. Amen. {Here ends the Second General Epistle of Peter}