2 Peter 3

₁My friends, this is the 2nd letter that I write to you. In this letter and in my first letter I want to help you remember to think correctly, ₂so that you can remember what the holy prophets said a long time ago. You must also remember the laws of our Lord and Saviour, the laws that He gave the apostles to give to you.

₃It is important that you must know this: In the last days of the world there will be people who will mock and laugh at other people. They will mock them and do all the bad things they want to do. ₄They will say: ‘The Lord promised that He would come again, but why hasn't He come? Our forefathers died long ago, but everything stays the same as it was from the beginning when God made everything.’

₅Those people who mock will say these things because they do not want to remember that the heaven was there long ago and that the earth came out of water like God said it should. He made the earth from water. ₆God said the water must flow over the world of that time and destroy it. ₇It is God who told the heaven and earth, that we can see now, to be there, and He will burn it on the day of judgement when He destroys the sinners forever.

₈My friends, there is this one thing that you must not forget: For the Lord one day is like 1 000 years, and 1 000 years is like one day to Him. ₉Some people think the Lord takes a long time to do what He has promised, but that is not_true. God feels sorry for you and He is patient because he does not want any people to be lost. He wants everyone to turn to Him and live as He wants them to.

₁₀But the day_of_the_Lord will come when no one thinks it will come. That day will come like a thief who comes when no one thinks he is coming. On that day there will be a loud_noise and a roar and the heaven will disappear. The stars in the sky will melt and disappear. The Lord knows what everyone on earth has done and He will judge them all.

₁₁God will make all these things disappear and that is why you must consecrate your lives to God and serve Him. ₁₂You must wait for the day when God will judge the world, and you must wish that the day would come soon. On that day the heaven and the stars will burn, melt and disappear. ₁₃But we wait for the new heaven and new earth that God has promised, where people will always do what God wants.

₁₄So my friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, your lives must be completely right. When the Lord comes, you will stand before Him. That is why you must try not to do anything that you will be ashamed of and you must live in peace. ₁₅You must also know that our Lord is patient because He wants to save people. He gave wisdom to our friend, Paul, who also wrote these things to you. ₁₆He wrote this in all his letters in which he talked about these things. In his letters there are some things that are difficult to understand. People who do not understand everything that believers must know, and people whose faith is not strong enough, may understand some of it in the wrong way. They understand the other books of the Bible also in the wrong way. That is why they will be lost.

₁₇My friends, now you know that these things will happen later. That is why you must be very careful, because there are people who do not listen to the laws of God. Do not let them deceive you to live like they do because then you will no longer be sure of the things that you believe. ₁₈No, you must keep on believing more and more in the grace of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and you must know Him better and better. That is why we must praise Him, now and forever. Amen.