1 This, a second letter, beloved, I now write to you, in both which I stir up your sincere mind by way of remembrance;
2 that ye remember the words spoken before by holy prophets, and the commandments of the Lord and Savior by your apostles.
3 Knowing this first, that there will come in the last days scoffers with scoffing, walking after their own desires,
4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? for, from the day the fathers fell asleep, all things remain as they were from the beginning of the creation."
5 For this escapes them willingly, that there were heavens of old, and an earth set together out of water, and through water, by the word of God:
6 through which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished;
7 but the present heavens and the earth, by the same word, have been stored up for fire, being kept unto the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, let not this one thing escape you, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slow respecting the promise, as some account slowness; but He is long-suffering toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a rushing noise, and the elements, being intensely hot, shall be dissolved, and the earth and the works therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing, therefore, that all these things are thus to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conduct and godliness,
12 looking for, and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens, being on fire, will be dissolved; and the elements, being intensely hot, shall melt!
13 But, according to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness,
14 Wherefore, beloved, since ye are looking for these things, give diligence that ye be found in peace, without spot and blameless in His sight.
15 And account the long-suffering of our Lord salvation; as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you;
16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17 Ye, therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, be on your guard, lest, being carried away with error of the wicked, ye fall from your own steadfastness.
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever.