<p>3:6 <i>By which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished</i>- The &quot;means&quot; is that of God's word, &quot;by which&quot; the present world was created, by commanding the waters to recede to let the dry land appear (Gen. 1:9). Peter had previously made the point that the promised judgment of God in Noah's time was delayed in order to allow the maximum scope for repentance by that wicked world (1 Pet. 3:20). The false teachers were ignorant of this fact through having forgotten what they once knew- i.e. that a similar delay was being experienced by their generation in the coming of the Lord's day. Because of this, they were now squarely matching those who mocked Noah. The times of Noah are a definite type of the 'last days' of the Jewish system leading up to AD70. &quot;The <i>world</i> that then was... perished... the <i>Heaven and the earth</i> which are now, by the same word (of God) are... reserved unto fire&quot; (cp. water; :6,7). Thus Peter equates the &quot;world&quot; with the present &quot;Heavens and earth&quot;, implying that a &quot;Heavens and earth&quot; were destroyed in Noah's time. It was &quot;all flesh&quot; that perished (Gen. 6:11-13). This indicates a clearly figurative interpretation of &quot;Heavens and earth&quot; as meaning an order of things. This line of argument has yet to be answered by Pentecostals, Catholics and others, over-enthusiastic to see in these verses a destruction of God's own perfect dwelling place as well as this beautiful planet. The quotation of Is. 65:17 in :13 should also be appreciated- the new &quot;heavens and earth&quot; is a new system of things to come upon this (already) beautiful earth. The literal heavens and earth were hardly destroyed in Noah's time.</p><p>Elements of this prophecy refer to the ending of the Jewish system in AD70; the world of Noah &quot;perished&quot; (:6) as the Jewish world would. The same Greek word occurs in Heb. 1:11 concerning the 'perishing' of the Jewish heavens and earth due to the unchanging ministry of the Lord. This would indicate that the Law itself was in some way ended in AD70, although of course it was 'taken out of the way' on the cross (Col. 2:14-17). The same word for &quot;perish&quot; occurs in 2 Pet. 3:9 in the context of God's punishment of the wicked within the ecclesia- He is unwilling that &quot;any (of them) should perish&quot;. Jude 11 matches this by warning the same class of how their prototypes &quot;perished in the gainsaying of Core&quot;. It appears that the judgments which were to bring the Jewish system to a close would therefore be the same as those which would punish the false teachers. We can conclude from this that many of the first century false teachers were Jews or Judaist-influenced.&nbsp;</p><p>We are told by the Lord Jesus and Peter that the second coming is typified by the flood. There is therefore a similarity between the world of Noah's time, and our last days. It is easy for us to fail to appreciate the carnage of the flood; the Sunday School image of happy giraffes with extra long necks poking out of the ark really isn't correct. The destruction wrought by the flood was absolute and devastating. This gives us a clue to the huge amount of change which the Lord's coming will suddenly bring on the earth. 2 Peter 3 draws a parallel between Noah's world being destroyed by water, and ours being ended by fire. The flood water changed the climate, and totally remoulded the topography. We can safely assume that even <i>greater</i> physical changes will be brought about by the Lord's return. Is. 54:9 speaks of the latter day judgments upon Israel being &quot;as the waters of Noah unto me: for the <i>mountains</i> shall <i>depart</i>, and the <i>hills</i> be <i>removed</i>; but my <i>kindness&nbsp;shall</i> not <i>depart</i> from thee, neither shall the <i>covenant</i>... be <i>removed</i>&quot; . Thus in the future, the mountains and hills <i>will</i> depart as they did at Noah's time; but God's kindness and covenant will not.</p>