Question: Please comment on II Peter 3:6, which says, “Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.”
Answer: In the first place, let us notice that it was the “world” and not the “earth” that was overflowed with water and perished. There is a difference. The earth is this terra firma on which we live. The people who live on this earth constitute the world which God loved and gave His Son to save. II Peter 2:5 says, “And spared not the old world,…bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.” The term world is also used to designate the system under which the unsaved portion of humankind operates. When Jesus said “Ye are not of the world,” He did not mean that His disciples were not “of the earth, earthy” the same as other people were, but they were not dominated by the spirit, pattern of life, and mannerism of worldly, unsaved people. When Paul said, “Be not conformed to this world,” he meant for saints to not follow the course of the unsaved portion of mankind and imitate them in our lives. All these texts as well as others which refer to the “world” have no reference to the “earth,” but to the people on it and their manner of life.
In Genesis 6:5 we read, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,…” Genesis 6:12-13 says, “And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Where this text says “with the earth,” the margin says “from the earth.” This latter is clearly the correct rendering which is evident from what follows. In fact, Genesis 7:23 says, “…and they were destroyed from the earth:…” In Genesis 6:17 God told Noah, “…Every thing that is in the earth shall die.”
The seventh chapter of Genesis gives an account of the flood and a description of it. Verse 17 says, “…the flood was forty days upon the earth;…” Verse 19 says, “And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.” None of these texts mention the earth being destroyed. In verses 21-23, it says, “And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth:…”
All this makes it clear what the destruction and the extent of it was at the time of the flood, and is an answer to II Peter 3:6. It was not the earth that was destroyed, but the living creatures including man upon the earth. The verses quoted from the seventh chapter of Genesis make this entirely clear.
Let us, however, make no mistake about it the day of this earth and all appurtenances to it will surely be destroyed by fire in that day. Going on from II Peter 3:6, Peter presents the truth regarding the future of the heavens and the earth. “…The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” This will be the complete and total dissolution of all things literal. There is no such thing described or even hinted at in the description of the flood. Peter said in II Peter 3:7, that the earth is “…reserved unto fire…”
