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Friday June 19 2026
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2 Peter 3:5-6-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, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.
The Apostle Peter reminds us that during the Christian dispensation there will be some people who deny that the Second Coming of Christ and the Day of Judgment will occur. These “willfully forget” the sacred promise of Christ’s Return, just as they “willfully forget” that there was a time when the Earth was “standing out of water and in the water,’ and that at that time “the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.”
What is Peter talking about here?
The most likely explanation is that Peter is expounding on the world that existed in the time of Noah. After all, the Apostle had previously mentioned Noah and the Flood (2 Peter 2:5). However, there is another possibility to consider: Peter could be referring to the events of Genesis 1.
It is written:
Genesis 1:2-The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:6-10-Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 7 Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. 9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
Some of the ancient Jewish rabbis believed that Genesis 1;1 refers to God’s original perfect creation of the universe, but that by verse two a “gap” of time had ensued, between which the Earth had become devastated and was rendered“without form and void.” They based this especially on the word “was” (the Hebrew word hayah) and its’ usual definition “became,” throughout the Old Testament.
The following further references will also be found in the Versions noted. Revised Version. Gen. 2.10; 3.22; 19.26; 21.20; 37.20 Exod. 8.17 (2x); 9.10; 23.29; 36.13 Jud. 15.14 1 Sam. 16.21; 18.29; 28.16 1 Ki. 11.24; 13.6,33 2 Ki. 24.1 1 Chron. 18.2,6,13 Psa. 69.8; 79.4; 83.10; 109.25 Isa. 7.24 Jer. 26.18 Lam. 1.11 Ezek. 17.6 (2x); 19.3,6; 23.10 Micah 3.12 Revised Standard Version. Gen. 39.2 (2x) Exod. 9.10 Lev. 13.24 Deut. 33.5 Josh. 9.21 Jud. 11.39; 15.14 1 Sam. 14.15; 16.21 1 Ki. 1.4 2 Ki. 17.3 1 Chron. 18.2,6,13 2 Chron. 13.9 Psa. 83.10 Isa. 18:5 Ezek. 19.3,6,11; 23.10; 36.3 Dan. 2.35 Hosea 9.10 Berkeley Version. Gen. 3.20: “(Eve) became the mother of all living”. 4.2: “Abel became a herder of flocks”. 4.20: “Jabal became father of all tent dwellers”. 4.21: “Jubal became the father of all (musicians)”. 17.5: “Your name shall become Abraham”. 21.19:”…. became an expert bowman”. 25.27: “Esau became an expert hunter”. 28.22:”… this stone… shall become a house of God”. 37.20:”… we shall see what becomes of his dreams”. All the above are cases where the translation of as “became” is not merely admissible but virtually mandatory in order to give the true sense of the original: and not one of them is followed by the proposition . There are times almost without numberin the Old Testament where “became” would have been better but was for some reason not adopted by translators in the English versions. In Genesis alone there are hundreds of examples. Thus in Gen. 4.20 we should have the words “And he became the father of such as dwell in tents” and in verse 21, “And he became the father of such as handle the harp and the organ”. The LXXhas correctly translated both passages. English versions simply say, “He was the father, etc.”, which clearly is not nearly as meaningful, historically speaking. In Gen. 5 a recurrent phrase reads “And all the days of so-and-so came to be (i.e., became) such-and-such”. The Hebrew has the verb in the original, and the LXX correctly renders this and so forth. The Hebrew scholars in Alexandria had no hesitation in equating with. Thus if one were to allow all versions to speak with equal voice it would never again be stated categorically that the translation of as “became” is so rare as to be “inadmissible”—as Leupold, for example, holds in his Exposition of Genesis at Gen. 1.2 (Wartburg Press, Columbus, Ohio, 1942, p.46). (Arthur C. Custance, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.A.I. ,E. M. White and R. G. Chiang, Editors, Without Form And Void The Biblical And Scholarly Argument For The Gap Theory: A Study Of The Meaning Of Genesis 1:2, 225-226 (PDF Kindle Version) Ancaster, Ontario, Canada: Doorway Publications)
Hence the events of Genesis 1:2-31 could be God “recreating” the Earth. This interpretation is also strengthened by the fact that the phrases “without form and void” are joined together only two other times in Scripture (Isaiah 34:11; Jeremiah 4:23). Both of these instances describe how God destroyed the land in question and left it “without form and void” as Divine punishment for the sins of its inhabitants. In that light, Genesis 1 could very well be describing God punishing the inhabitants of the Earth (who existed before Adam and Eve were created) for their wickedness, and that consequently the Earth was globally flooded (as it was again later during the time of Noah).
Perhaps Peter is referring to both that Flood and the Flood during the time of Noah (Genesis 6-9)?
This quote from 2 Peter 3: 5–6 is often assumed to be a reference to the Flood of Noah’s day, but I’m not surprised to see some scholars take it farther back and accept it as a reference to pre-Adamic times. First, consider Peter’s words as they appear in English, and note the italics I’ve added: “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” (The use of both “out of water” and “in the water” is confusing, and this description has often been a matter of much debate. After consulting many sources, I found this can be interpreted one of three ways: 1) Earth was made out of water and was also covered with it entirely at this time; 2) Earth had two sources of water, the heavens [rain] and the springs that came up from within Earth in Genesis 2: 6; or 3) vast regions of land appeared and came up from of the water on the third day of Creation, as Genesis 1: 9–10 describes. Our study of this passage doesn’t rely on a solid solution to this debate, as none of these interpretations are critical to our emphasis on a “perished” Earth.) Not wishing to be sensational, I cannot guarantee that this is a reference to the “void,” as Peter could very well be viewing the Flood event. However, in the previous chapter, Peter talks about the fallen angels under Lucifer’s leadership and the Flood together in a single sentence, though they are two separate events: God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. (2 Peter 2: 4–5) Similar to the prophets’ words (tackled next), Peter is clearly amplifying a link between the day the “angels… sinned” and “the flood upon the world” in a dualistic linguistic pattern: They are two different things, but he sees them sharing the element of God’s judgment. So, when we happen upon his words in 2 Peter 3: 5–6, we cannot insist he’s referring only to the Flood. The late Marvin Richardson Vincent—New Testament word-study expert, professor of New Testament exegesis and criticism at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and author of the Word Studies series—acknowledges Peter’s mention of “the world that then was… perished” could be a “reference to the original liquid condition of the earth—without form and void.”[ 202] Since Genesis 1: 2 also describes a world that is covered with liquid (water), it appears to fit. Thus, the “void” era shows that, obviously following God’s corrective response to what Earth had “become,” the planet was covered in water… from time immemorial before Adam was ever formed. (Donna Howell & Dr. Thomas Horn, BEFORE GENESIS: The Unauthorized History of Tohu, Bohu, and the Chaos Dragon in the Land Before Time, 250-251 (Kindle Edition): Crane, MO: Defender Publishing Company)
Whichever event Peter is referring to (or perhaps both), the message is the same: there will be those who “willfully forget” that God is righteous and therefore deny that He will one Day judge the people of the world. In His grace, God gives us opportunity to prepare for that Day (Acts 2:37-47; 1 John 1:7-2:2).
Are you ready for the Day of the Lord?
Thank You for Your mercy, Lord. Amen.