2 Peter 3:6
“Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →By that same word, the ancient world was flooded with water and destroyed.
What Does 2 Peter 3:6 Mean?
Peter delivers the decisive counter to the scoffers. "The world that then was" — the world before the Flood — was "overflowed with water" and "perished." The same divine word that formed the earth from water also brought the waters that destroyed it. History already records one world-altering judgment.
The scoffers' claim that "all things continue as they were" (verse 4) is simply false. The Flood proves that God has intervened catastrophically before, undoing an entire corrupt world by His word. Time and apparent constancy are no guarantee against divine action. For the believer, this is a powerful answer to mockery: the past judgment guarantees that the promised future judgment is no idle threat. God has spoken the world into being and once spoken it into ruin; He can and will act again. The quiet of the present does not mean God is idle. The word that made and once unmade the world stands behind every promise of His coming.