3 knowing this first, that there will come scoffers in the last days, going on according to their own desires, 4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things so remain from the beginning of the creation"; 5 for this they willingly conceal, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth having been established by the word of God out of water and through water, 6 through which the world then, having been flooded by water, was destroyed; 7 and by the same word, the present heavens and earth, having been stored up for fire, are being preserved until [the] day of judgment and destruction of impious men.