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.

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

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

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,

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.

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

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:

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.

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.

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

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;

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}