For it was not mere stories of fancy that we followed when we told you of the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of His majesty.

For when He received such honor and glory from God the Father, when from the majestic glory there was borne to Him a voice like this, "This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I take delight,"

and if He condemned, by burning them to ashes, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, making them an example to godless people of what was coming to them,

and saved the upright Lot who was constantly distressed by the immoral conduct of lawless men --

for as long as that upright man was living among them, his upright soul, day and night, was always being tortured by what he saw and heard in their lawless actions --

but was reproved for his offense; a dumb animal spoke with a human voice and stopped the prophet's madness.

and saying, "Where is His promised coming? For ever since our forefathers fell asleep everything has remained exactly as it was from the beginning of creation!"

by which also the world, through being deluged with water, was destroyed.