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was destroyed by the very water, in which and out of which it consisted, the self-same
Word of God, which had called it into being, had pronounced the words that had
accomplished its end. The heavens and the earth which are now, we know, by the
activity of volcanoes and the presence of hot springs, are stored with fire, `by the same
word', and this is purposely reserved against the day of judgment and the perdition of
ungodly men."
Josephus, in his "Antiquities of the Jews", preserves a tradition which was common
knowledge in the days of Peter. According to this, Adam predicted "that the world was
to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and
quantity of water" (Ant. 1: 2: 3), and while there is nothing to warrant this in the book of
Genesis, neither is there any statement in Genesis that would lead us to conclude that
Enoch prophesied of the second coming of Christ, yet Jude, writing by inspiration,
assures us that he did (Jude 14).
No, the scoffer must willfully forget, not only Gen. 1: 2, and the record of the Flood,
but he must deny the record of the destruction of Sodom, the plagues of Egypt, the
deliverance of Israel, the giving of the law at Sinai, the crossing of the Jordan, the fall of
Jericho--in fact the whole of O.T. testimony and the unwritten testimony of the earth's
crust.
The following analysis may be of service to the earnest student. We cannot now
pursue the detailed argument, but after giving the structure of the passages must examine
more definitely the truth about the three phases of creation, which was our purpose in
turning to II Pet. 3: