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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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" -

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.

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

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.

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 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;

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;

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,

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

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.

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."

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

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

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:

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

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.

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.

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:

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,

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.