1 Consider, most beloved, this second epistle which I am writing to you, in which I stir up, by admonition, your sincere mind,
2 so that you may be mindful of those words that I preached to you from the holy prophets, and of the precepts of the Apostles of your Lord and Savior.
3 Know this first: that in the last days there will arrive deceitful mockers, walking according to their own desires,
4 saying: "Where is his promise or his advent? For from the time that the fathers have slept, all things have continued just as they were from the beginning of creation."
5 But they willfully ignore this: that the heavens existed first, and that the earth, from water and through water, was established by the Word of God.
6 By water, the former world then, having been inundated with water, perished.
7 But the heavens and the earth that exist now were restored by the same Word, being reserved unto fire on the day of judgment, and unto the perdition of impious men.