2 Peter 3

Moffatt(i) 1 This is the second letter I have already written to you, beloved, stirring up your pure mind by way of reminder, 2 to have you recollect the words spoken by the holy prophets beforehand and the command given by your apostles from the Lord and saviour. 3 To begin with, you know that mockers will come with their mockeries in the last days, men who go by their own passions, 4 asking, "Where is His promised advent? Since the day our fathers fell asleep, things remain exactly as they were from the beginning of creation." 5 They wilfully ignore the fact that heavens existed long ago, and an earth which the word of God formed of water and by water. 6 By water the then-existing world was deluged and destroyed, 7 but the present heavens and earth are treasured up by the same word for fire, reserved for the day when the impious are doomed and destroyed. 8 Beloved, you must not ignore this one fact, that with the Lord a single day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a single day. 9 The Lord is not slow with what he promises, according to certain people's idea of slowness; no, he is longsuffering for your sake, he does not wish any to perish but all to betake them to repentance. 10 The day of the Lord will come like a thief, when the heavens will vanish with crackling roar, the stars will be set ablaze and melt, the earth and all its works will disappear. 11 Now as all things are thus to be dissolved, what holy and pious men ought you to be in your behaviour, 12 you who expect and hasten the advent of the Day of God, which dissolves the heavens in fire and makes the stars blaze and melt! 13 It is new heavens and a new earth that we expect, as He has promised, and in them dwells righteousness. 14 Then, beloved, as you are expecting this, be eager to be found by him unspotted and unblemished in serene assurance. 15 And consider that the longsuffering of our Lord means salvation; as indeed our beloved brother Paul has written to you out of the wisdom vouchsafed to him, 16 speaking of this as he has done in all his letters — letters containing some knotty points, which ignorant and unsteady souls twist (as they do the rest of the scriptures) to their own destruction. 17 Now, beloved, you are forewarned: mind you are not carried away by the error of the lawless and so lose your proper footing; 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory now and to the day of eternity: Amen.