Common English Bible CEB
New International Version NIV
1 My dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both letters to stir up your sincere understanding with a reminder.
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Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.
2 I want you to recall what the holy prophets foretold as well as what the Lord and savior commanded through your apostles.
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I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
3 Most important, know this: in the last days scoffers will come, jeering, living by their own cravings,
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Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.
4 and saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? After all, nothing has changed—not since the beginning of creation, nor even since the ancestors died."
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They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”
5 But they fail to notice that, by God's word, heaven and earth were formed long ago out of water and by means of water.
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But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
6 And it was through these that the world of that time was flooded and destroyed.
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By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.