For if you have these things in good measure, they will make you fertile and full of fruit in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, brothers, take diligent care to make your calling and election sure; for if you do this, you will never stumble.

For so the entrance will be furnished to you abundantly into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Therefore I will not neglect to always remind you about these things, although having known them, and having been established in the present truth.

For I am conscious that in a short time I will have to put off this tent of flesh, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.

Yea, I will give diligence that at every time ye may be able after my decease to call these things to remembrance.

So we have the prophetic word made more certain. You do well to pay [close] attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and light breaks through the gloom and the morning star arises in your hearts.

Knowing this first, that no prophecy brought by the will of man;

For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.

But FALSE prophets also developed among the people, as FALSE teachers will also be among you, who will sneak in pernicious denominations, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

And many will follow their wantonness, because of whom the way of the truth will be blasphemed.

And they will exploit you in greed with fabricated words, whose judgment is not idle for long, and their destruction will not slumber.

I say, the Lord will deliver those, who fear him, from their affliction, and reserve the wicked to be punish'd at the day of judgment.

[This fate will come upon] those people especially who corrupt themselves with physical desires and despise being ruled by others. They are daring, self-willed, and are not afraid to speak against glorious beings [i.e., angels],

But these men, like irrational beasts of nature, having been born for capture and destruction, speaking evil at which things they do not understand, will be destroyed in their corruption,

suffering harm as punishment for their wrongdoing. They take pleasure in wild parties in broad daylight. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceitful pleasures while they eat with you.

Saying that they will be free, while they themselves are the servants of destruction; because whatever gets the better of a man makes a servant of him.

They verify the truth of the proverb: "The dog turns back to what he has vomited, the sow when washed will wallow in the mire."

Knowing this first, that there will come at the end of the days, scoffers, proceeding according to their own desires,

will come and ask scoffingly-- 'Where is his promised Coming? Ever since our fathers passed to their rest, everything remains just as it was when the world was first created!'

Now by that same word, the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire and are being kept for the day when ungodly people will be judged and destroyed.

The Lord is not slow to fulfil his promise, as some count slowness; but he is forbearing with you, as it is not his will that any of you should perish, but that all should be brought to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Seeing then that all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy deportment and godliness,

anticipating and hastening the coming of the day of God, by which the heavens, being made fiery hot, will be disintegrated, and the elements dissolve, being intensely hot?

But having faith in his word, we are looking for a new heaven and a new earth, which will be the resting-place of righteousness.