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Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder),
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that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,
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knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,
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and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."
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For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,
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by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.