2 Peter 3:5

2 Peter 3:5, in plain English

But these scoffers are willfully ignoring something crucial: God spoke the universe into existence by his word, and he formed the earth from water—he's shown his power over creation before.

Why it's here

Peter is reminding you of Genesis 1. God didn't just start a process and let it run; he spoke creation into being. If God can do that, don't you think he can do what he promised about the future? The mockers aren't ignorant—they're deliberately looking away from evidence they don't want to see.

Who's speaking

Peter, building a logical case from Scripture

Where it sits in the story

This traces back to the very beginning of the Bible, to God's creative power. Peter wants you to see that the God who made everything has the power to remake everything.

The scholarly reading

Peter counters by pointing to cosmic creation itself as evidence that God's word actively shapes reality; the scoffers deliberately suppress this knowledge of God's formative power.

Language and setting

The Greek verb eklelousaleuō (deliberately escape notice) is a strong term—it implies willful suppression rather than mere ignorance. Peter invokes the Genesis cosmogony, specifically the role of water in creation (Genesis 1:2, 1:6-10), to establish that God's word (logos) is not merely promissory speech but cosmologically constitutive reality. The Stoic commentators (such as we find in Philo) understood logos as the animating principle of the cosmos. Peter draws on this framework but insists it demonstrates God's capacity to remake creation according to divine purpose, not mechanistic determinism.

Voice

Peter, offering philosophical rebuttal grounded in creation narrative.

Significance

Creation becomes evidentiary—the first act of God's verbal power over matter becomes the template for understanding the final act. The continuity Peter establishes between 'once created by word' and 'will be destroyed by word' reframes Genesis not as distant past but as prototype of eschatological transformation.

3Most importantly, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

4“Where is the promise of His coming?” they will ask. “Ever since our fathers fell asleep, everything continues as it has from the beginning of creation.”

5But they deliberately overlook the fact that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water,

6through which the world of that time perished in the flood.

7And by that same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

Read all of 2 Peter 3 — Scoffers will say: where is the promise of his coming? But God isn't slow — he's patient, not wanting anyone to perish. The day will come like a thief.