1This, dear friends, is my second letter to you. In both of them I have tried, by appealing to your remembrance, to arouse your better feelings. 2I want you to recall what was foretold by the holy Prophets, as well as the Command of our Lord and Savior given to you through your Apostles.¶ 3First be assured of this, that, as the age draws to an end, scoffers, led by their own passions, 4will 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!' 5For they wilfully shut their eyes to the fact that long ago the heavens existed; and the earth, also--formed out of water and by the action of water, by the fiat of God; 6and that by the same means the world which then existed was destroyed in a deluge of water. 7But the present heavens and earth, by the same fiat, have been reserved for fire, and are being kept for the day of the judgement and destruction of the godless.¶ 8But you, dear friends, must never shut your eyes to the fact that, to the Lord, one day is the same as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.¶ 9The 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. 10The Day of the Lord will come like a thief; and on that day the heavens will pass away with a crash, the elements will be burnt up and dissolved, and the earth and all that is in it will be disclosed.¶ 11Now, since all these things are in the process of dissolution, think what you yourselves ought to be--what holy and pious lives you ought to lead, 12while you await and hasten the coming of the Day of God. At its coming the heavens will be dissolved in fire, and the elements melted by heat, 13but we look for 'new heavens and a new earth,' where righteousness shall have its home, in fulfilment of the promise of God. 14Therefore, dear friends, in expectation of these things, make every effort to be found by him spotless, blameless, and at peace. 15Regard our Lord's forbearance as your one hope of Salvation. This is what our dear Brother Paul wrote to you, with the wisdom that God gave him. 16It is the same in all his letters, when he speaks in them about these subjects. There are some things in them difficult to understand, which untaught and weak people distort, just as they do all other writings, to their own Ruin. 17Do you, therefore, dear friends, now that you know this beforehand, be on your guard against being led away by the errors of reckless people, and so lapsing from your present steadfastness; 18and advance in the love and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. All glory be to him now and for ever.¶