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.

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."

So that ye first know this: That no prophecy in the scripture hath any private interpretation.

For the scripture came never by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy ghost.

According as his godly power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us by virtue and glory:

There were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you: which privily shall bring in damnable sects, even denying the Lord that hath bought them, and bring upon themselves swift damnation.

and in knowledge, temperance; and in temperance, patience; in patience, godliness;

Yea, and by this means an entering-in shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ.

in godliness, brotherly kindness; in brotherly kindness, love.

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}

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.

We have also a right sure word of prophecy, whereunto if ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, ye do well; until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts.

For if these things be among you, and are plenteous, they will make you that ye neither shall be idle nor unfruitful in the knowledge of the our Lord Jesus Christ.

by the means whereof are given unto us excellent and most great promises; that by the help of them ye should be partakers of the godly nature, in that ye flee the corruption of worldly lust.

Notwithstanding, I think it mete, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;

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.

forasmuch as I am sure how that the time is at hand that I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me.

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down into hell, and delivered them in chains of darkness, to be kept unto judgement;

And hereunto, give all diligence: In your faith, minister virtue; and in virtue, knowledge;

But he that lacketh these things is blind and gropeth for the way with his hand, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them which have obtained like precious faith with us in the righteousness that cometh of our God and saviour Jesus Christ.

For we followed not deceitful fables when we opened unto you the power, and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but with our eyes we saw his majesty:

This first understand: that there shall come in the last days mockers, which will walk after their own lusts

Nevertheless, we look for a new heaven, and a new earth, according to his promise, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Even then, verily, when he received of God the father honour and glory, and when there came such a voice to him from that excellent glory. "This is my dear beloved son, in whom I have delight" -

I will enforce, therefore, that on every side ye might have wherewith to stir up the remembrance of these things after my departing.

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.

Grace with you, and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.

This voice we heard when it came from heaven, being with him in the holy mount.

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,

Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence for to make your calling and election sure. For if ye do such things, ye shall never err.

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and how to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment for to be punished:

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.

For if they, after they have escaped from the filthiness of the world through the knowledge of the Lord, and of the saviour Jesus Christ, they are yet tangled again therein and overcome: then is the latter end worse with them than the beginning.

This is the second epistle that I now write unto you, my dearly beloved, wherewith I stir up and warn your pure minds,

For he being righteous and dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds -

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.

And just Lot, vexed with the uncleanly conversation of the wicked, delivered he -

But these, as brute beasts, naturally made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of that they know not, and shall perish through their own destruction,

when the angels, which are greater both in power and might, receive not of the Lord railing judgment against them.

and have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, which loved the reward of unrighteousness:

having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease to sin, beguiling unstable souls. Hearts they have exercised with covetousness. They are cursed children,

and receive the reward of unrighteousness. They count it pleasure to live deliciously for a season. Spots they are, and filthiness, living at pleasure, and in deceitful ways feasting with you:

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.

And many shall follow their damnable ways, by which the way of truth shall be evil spoken of;

but was rebuked of his iniquity. The tame and dumb beast, speaking with man's voice forbade the foolishness of the prophet.

For when they have spoken the swelling words of vanity, they beguile with wantonness through the lusts of the flesh them that were clean escaped: but now are wrapped in errors.

These are wells without water, and clouds carried about of a tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever.

It is happened unto them according to the true proverb, "The dog is turned to his vomit again, and the sow that was washed, is returned to her wallowing in the mire."

For it had been better for them, not to have known the way of righteousness, then after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment given unto them.

If all these things shall perish, what manner persons ought ye to be in holy conversation, and godliness:

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:

neither spared the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth preacher of righteousness, and brought in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

They promise them liberty, and are themselves the bondservants of corruption. For of whomsoever a man is overcome, unto the same is he in bondage.

Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of such things, though that ye know them yourselves and be also established in the present truth.

and turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, overthrew them, damned them, and made of them an example unto all that after should live ungodly;

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;

and through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment is not far off, and their damnation sleepeth not.

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:

namely, them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise the rulers. Presumptuous are they, and stubborn, and fear not to speak evil of them that are in authority;

by the which things the world that then was perished, overflowen with the water.