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¹ This is now, beloved, the second epistle that I write to you; and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by putting you in remembrance;² that you should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandments of the Lord and Savior through your apostles:

³ knowing this first, that in the last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their own desires,⁴ and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.⁵ For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and amid water, by the word of God;⁶ by which means the world that then was, being overflowed in water, perished:⁷ but the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

⁸ But do not forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

⁹ The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is long-suffering toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.¹⁰ 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 found.

¹¹ Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in [all] holy living and godliness,¹² looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?¹³ But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.¹⁴ Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent that you may be found in peace, without spot and blameless in his sight.¹⁵ And account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you;¹⁶ as also in all [his] epistles, speaking in them of these things; wherein are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and unstedfast wrest, as [they do] also the other scriptures, to their own destruction.¹⁷ You therefore, beloved, knowing [these things] beforehand, beware lest, being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness.¹⁸ But grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. To him [be] the glory both now and forever. Amen.