of the same God, kept stored up, reserved for fire in preparation
for a day of judgement and of destruction for the ungodly.
003:008 But there is one thing, dear friends, which you must not forget.
With the Lord one day resembles a thousand years and a thousand
years resemble one day.
003:009 The Lord is not slow in fulfilling His promise, in the sense
in which some men speak of slowness. But He bears patiently
with you, His desire being that no one should perish but that
all should come to repentance.
003:010 The day of the Lord will come like a thief--it will be a day
on which the heavens will pass away with a rushing noise,
the elements be destroyed in the fierce heat, and the earth
and all the works of man be utterly burnt up.
003:011 Since all these things are thus pre-destined to dissolution,
what sort of men ought you to be found to be in all holy
living and godly conduct,
003:012 eagerly looking forward to the coming of the day of God,
by reason of which the heavens, all ablaze, will be destroyed,
and the elements will melt in the fierce heat?
003:013 But in accordance with His promise we are expecting new heavens
and a new earth, in which righteousness will dwell.
003:014 Therefore, dear friends, since you have these expectations,
earnestly seek to be found in His presence, free from blemish
or reproach, in peace.
003:015 And always regard the patient forbearance of our Lord as salvation,
as our dear brother Paul also has written to you in virtue
of the wisdom granted to him.
003:016 That is what he says in all his letters, when speaking in them
of these things. In those letters there are some statements
hard to understand, which ill-taught and unprincipled