Key passage
2 Peter 3:7-13
The present order kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
The text
7But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 8But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11Therefore since all these things will be destroyed like this, what kind of people ought you to be in holy living and godliness, 12looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, which will cause the burning heavens to be dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
The immediate context
Peter answers scoffers who ask where the promise of Christ's coming has gone. He points back to the flood, says the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire, explains the delay as patience toward those who have not yet repented, and describes the day of the Lord coming like a thief.
Where it sits in the canon
The comparison with the flood is Peter's own. He also promises new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, which the case sets beside Revelation 21 and reads as excluding a surviving population of the unrighteous.
Why it matters
It ties the judgment and the destruction of the ungodly to one day, and it supplies the reason the case gives for why the unrighteous are sustained at all before that day.
How the passage is interpreted
The eternal conscious torment reading
Defenders of eternal conscious torment note that Peter is describing the dissolution of the present created order rather than the annihilation of persons, and that destruction of the ungodly on the day of judgment can name the beginning of a sentence as easily as its completion. What Peter delays is the judgment, and what follows the judgment is not stated in this passage.
The conditionalist reading
Conditionalists take the flood comparison as controlling. Peter sets the destruction of the ancient world by water beside the coming destruction by fire, and no one reads the flood as the opening of unending conscious suffering. The source document also uses this passage to explain why the unrighteous are preserved beforehand: they are kept until that day, which is a reason for their continued existence rather than evidence of an immortal nature.
Where the readings agree
- The delay in judgment is the patience of God and is meant to lead to repentance.
- A real day of judgment is coming and the present order will not survive it.
- The new heavens and the new earth are where righteousness dwells.
- The ungodly are kept until that day rather than judged piecemeal before it.
Where the disagreement lies
Whether destruction of the ungodly on that day names the opening of an unending sentence, or the judgment and its execution within the same day.
Editorial notes
- The source document reads 2 Peter as running roughly in chronological order, so the darkness of 2 Peter 2:17 falls before the day described in chapter 3.
- The case uses this passage together with 2 Peter 2:9 to argue that the wicked are sustained until judgment rather than for ever.
Where this passage appears in the case
- S08 The Wicked Will Be DestroyedThe weight of the destruction vocabulary taken together, and why redefining it requires the traditional view to be established first from elsewhere.
- S09 Why Final Judgment Is DelayedWhy continued existence before judgment is evidence of God sustaining, not of inherent immortality.
- S23 The Day of JudgmentThe language of a day, and what it means for when full justice is administered.
- S28 Are the Wicked Still Present After Revelation 20?The recapitulation reading, the promise that righteousness dwells in the new creation, and the tree-of-life argument for anyone who reads it literally.
Related passages
- 2 Peter 2:6Sodom and Gomorrah turned to ashes and set out as an example of what is coming to the ungodly.
- Revelation 21:1-8The new heaven and new earth, the second death, and the tree of life inside the city.
- Luke 16:19-31The rich man and Lazarus, the passage most often cited as a picture of conscious suffering after death.
Sources consulted for this passage
- Phil Welch. My case for Conditional Immortality/Annihilation (CI) instead of Eternal Conscious Torment (ECT). Working document, revised through 2026. 2023-03-01 Details
- Joseph Dear. The Bible Teaches Annihilationism. 1st edition, PDF version. 2016. approximately 590 pages View original of The Bible Teaches Annihilationism (opens in a new tab) Details
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