the world of that time, which has perished

In the 2nd Peter letter, in the last chapter, Peter speaks about the then world, which has perished, being flooded with water. What world is he talking about? Some read in this that there must have been a world before ours that was judged by a flood.

hole
This would not be about Noah’s flood, but about a flood before it, namely between Gen.1:1 and 1:2, because between these two verses a gap is assumed. God initially created the heavens and earth (1:1) and through a supposed judgment the earth became desolate and empty (1:2).

The six days in Genesis 1, which are generally seen as days of creation, are in that view days of re-creation. In these six days, the idea is that God restored a world that He had previously judged and destroyed. This theory is called the doctrine of restitution, because of these days of restoration. In English it is known as the Gap Theory, because of the supposed gap between Gen.1:1 and 1:2.

judged and saved
Earlier in 2 Peter, Peter warns of deceivers, false teachers, and says that there have always been false prophets among the people (2:1). They will be judged (2:9), but the righteous will be delivered. He gives examples of this, such as Lot was rescued from Sodom and Gomorrah when these cities were judged (2:6-7). And Noah is of course also such an example.

2 Peter 2
5 And he spareth not the world of the beginning, but preserveth the eighth, Noah, the herald of righteousness, when he bringeth the flood upon the world of the wicked.

original world
The world of the beginning is in Greek: archaiou cosmou and that means: the world of the origin, the first world. We know the first part archaiou from the word patriarch (Greek: patriarches). This is how the twelve sons of Jacob are called (Acts 7:8-9). They are the first and therefore the origin of the twelve tribes of Israel. Abraham is also a patriarches (Heb.7:4), he was the first to receive the promises from God. Another example is that of the angel Michael, who is called the archangel (Greek: archaggelos), the first angel.

no world for this one
Because Peter here calls the world in the days of Noah the first world, or the world of the origin, he excludes the possibility that there would have been a world before this world. Then that world would have been a first.

once more
A chapter later, in 2 Peter 3, Peter speaks again about a judgment by flooding of water. He does this in connection with the Lord’s parousia (:6). Usually translated as (re)coming, literally it means presence. In “the last days” scoffers would come (:3), saying: where is the promise of His presence? For everything remains the same as it has been from the beginning of creation (:4). Peter then points out that it is not true that everything remains the same, because God has indeed intervened and this world has already been judged by God.

2 Peter 3
5 For this is knowingly unknown to them, that the heavens were of old, and that the earth was made of water and by water, by the word of God.
6 whereby the world that was then perished, being flooded with water.

the world of origin
Peter does not explain what the world at that time was and he does not need to explain it, because he had already done so before. It concerns the world of the origin, from the days of Noah (2 Peter 2:5). That world has been judged and although scoffers say that nothing changes from the beginning of creation, this present world will also be judged and people who do not take God into account will not escape God’s judgment (:7).

It is remarkable that Jesus, in Matthew 24 in “the speech concerning the last things”, just like Peter, also refers to the days of Noah when He speaks about His parousia.

Matthew 24
37 And as the days of Noah, so shall the presence (>parousia) of the Son of man be.
38 For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, 39 and they knew it not until the flood came and took them all away , so also will be the presence (>parousia) of the Son of man.

just like in the days of Noah
The period preceding the establishment of the Kingdom by the Son of man will be as the days of Noah. Most of humanity will continue with the life they live without a second thought. Judgment will come upon them, as it came in the days of Noah, and they will have no part in the kingdom for a thousand years.

taken away and left
In the parousia of the Son of man, there will be a removal of the unbelievers, as is described in the remainder of these verses. The unrighteous will be taken from the earth (Matt. 13:40-41, 49) and the believers will be left, in the sense of being left behind or left alone (Matt. 24:40-41). The latter must be interpreted positively, because the Kingdom is dawning on earth. The righteous are not taken away from the earth, because they have endured until the end of the age. They are saved, remain on earth and enter the aeon to come (Matt.24:13), the thousand years.

After the thousand years the last aeon begins, the era of the new heavens and earth (Rev.21-22).

Revelation 21
1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away. And the sea, it is no longer there.

new creation
The present earth is the first earth. This verse also leaves no room for a world that would have existed before ours. A Biblical principle is that God takes away the first, that He might establish the second (Heb. 10:9). So it is with this first creation. It will make way for a new creation.


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