For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
2 Peter 3:5-7
Peter answers here the contention of the scoffers that 'all things continue as they were'. It is not true that things have always gone on as they were from the beginning, without any intervention from God. Look at the judgment of the Flood. The life of the antediluvian world was brought to an end by that disaster; chaos for a time supervened, and, so to speak, a new world emerged from the crisis. Now, says Peter, just as formerly water was God's instrument of destruction, so fire will be used in the judgment of this present age, and from the crisis God's new order will emerge, the new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness (see 13).
But, he indicates, this is something that they are 'willingly ignorant of': The proverb says that 'there are none so blind as those that will not see', and this is as true here as elsewhere: It is a striking fact that men - even Christian men - are often blind to God's plain dealings in judgment with them, and they will place almost any interpretation on a situation rather than face the obvious one that the hand of God is heavy upon them for their sins. O for the grace of discernment to enable us to understand the events that surround us and the things that happen to us!