002:020 For if, after escaping from the pollutions of the world
through a full knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
people are once more entangled in these pollutions and are overcome,
their last state has become worse than their first.
002:021 For it would have been better for them not to have fully known
the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back
from the holy commandments in which they were instructed.
002:022 Their case is that described in the true proverb, "A dog returns
to what he has vomited," and also in the other proverb,
"The sow has washed itself and now goes back to roll
in its filth."
003:001 This letter which I am now writing to you, dear friends,
is my second letter. In both my letters I seek to revive
in your honest minds the memory of certain things,
003:002 so that you may recall the words spoken long ago by the holy Prophets,
and the commandments of our Lord and Saviour given you
through your Apostles.
003:003 But, above all, remember that, in the last days, men will
come who make a mock at everything--men governed only by
their own passions,
003:004 and, asking, "What has become of His promised Return? For from
the time our forefathers fell asleep all things continue
as they have been ever since the creation of the world."
003:005 For they are wilfully blind to the fact that there were heavens
which existed of old, and an earth, the latter arising
out of water and extending continuously through water,
by the command of God;
003:006 and that, by means of these, the then existing race of men
was overwhelmed with water and perished.
003:007 But the present heavens and the present earth are, by the command