2 Peter 3:5
“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:”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →The scoffers deliberately overlook that long ago God's word formed the heavens and the earth out of water.
What Does 2 Peter 3:5 Mean?
Peter answers the scoffers by exposing what they choose to forget. They are "willingly... ignorant" — their ignorance is deliberate — of the fact that "by the word of God the heavens were of old" and the earth was formed "out of the water and in the water." Creation itself came by God's spoken word, a decisive act that shaped the world.
The scoffers claimed all things continue unchanged from the beginning, but Peter points to the beginning itself: God's word brought the heavens and earth into being. The world is not a self-running machine immune to God's intervention; it exists because He spoke. Their argument collapses because it ignores the Creator. The believer is steadied here. The God whose word made the world can certainly act within it again, as His promise of Christ's coming declares. Nothing about creation supports the idea that God is absent or that His promises will fail. The same word that formed all things still governs and will accomplish all He has said.