Peter wrote of certain mockers in his day saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:4). This is specifically describing those of Peter’s day. The preceding verse 3 reads, “…you must understand that scoffers will come in the last days, scoffing and following their own evil desires.” We have already identified on numerous occasions that the last days refer to the last days of that age.” Peter explains in verse 5-7 that these scoffers “deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of the ungodly.”
Peter contrasts the “world at that time” with “the present heavens and earth.” We confuse the world with the cosmos, thinking that when the Lord returns, he’s going to destroy the universe and no living soul will be living on planet earth, afterward. However, Peter is talking about a new world order, era, or age. Some defining event alters the “world,” or “age” so that a new system is about to replace the old. The Anti-Diluvian world or the Jewish age was destroyed but it did not end life on earth. The destruction of the first was not total annihilation but the end of that evil world system. Peter assures his readers that the same promise of God (by His word) promised that the present world system of evil is reserved for the Day of Judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But, what is the meaning of the “heavens and earth”, the world that then was, the earth and the works in it being “burned up,” and the “elements dissolving with fervent heat”?
First, God’s vengeance upon the nations, in Isaiah 34:1-4, describes the wrath of God upon their armies, the stink of the slain will come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood, and all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down…” Here is an example of mixing metaphors with literal descriptions in the same text. It is not accurate to say, therefore, that one text should be understood either entirely literal or entirely figurative. What is telling about the verse is that if the “heaven” is referring to the literal heavens and it was literally dissolved, we couldn’t be dwelling under it, today.
Second, the word “elements” have been traditionally taught to be the heavenly bodies that will be dissolved when the Lord returns. This meaning is well attested among the second-century church fathers. Yet, the word can be translated, “fundamentals” like with the basic components of philosophy, structure, etc.; (figuratively) “first principles,” like the fundamentals of a system of teaching. It has been translated “rudiments” as in the “rudiments with which human beings were indoctrinated, the elements of religious training or the ceremonial precepts common alike to the worship of Jews and of Gentiles” (J. Thayer). There are other interpretations given to this word, but the view of the literal elements of the physical universe is not an accurate description of the word.
Third, the translation, “burned up” concerning the earth and the works in it in verse 10 has found a lot of support in the English translations. A word study, however, will show a great deal of debate over its meaning. Some authors prefer “will be found.” For a defense of this view, see Lenski’s Commentary on 2 Peter (pg. 317-19). Others prefer the words, “will be discovered.” In verse 14 of the same text, Peter encourages the vigilant faithful to be “diligent that you “be found of Him without spot or blemish in His sight”. Evil deeds will be found by God to their condemnation (v. 10), while Peter encourages his readers to strive to be “found” innocent (v. 14). The idea of God discovering, unveiling, or revealing the condition of the earth and its works are not new. There are similar contexts (Mark 4:22, Luke 18:17; John 3:21; 1 Cor. 3:13; 14:25; Eph. 5:13).