3:6 overflowed. The antediluvian world (Greek kosmos, meaning “ordered system”) was “overflowed” (Greek katakluzo, a word used only here, but obviously related to kataklusmos, which was the Noahic cataclysm) with the primeval waters, both above and below the firmament (“the fountains of the deep” and “the windows of heaven”—see notes on Genesis 7) and perished (not annihilated but utterly devastated and transformed).

3:6 perished. The “perishing” of the “world that then was” is especially evidenced by the vast beds of fossils of plants and animals that have been preserved in the sedimentary rocks of the earth’s crust. These fossil beds have been misinterpreted by evolutionary scientists as a record of the evolution of life over many ages (despite the ubiquitous absence of any true transitional forms in these billions of fossils). What they really represent is the cataclysmic destruction of life in one age, at the time of the great Flood. Both sedimentary rocks and unhardened sediments have mostly been deposited under water, and they now cover most of the earth’s land surface, as well as ocean bottom surface. Furthermore, flood traditions somewhat similar to the Flood record in Genesis have been found among almost all nations and tribes of the earth. The genuine facts of science and history thoroughly support the Biblical account of the flood, while only willful ignorance can warrant the evolutionary interpretation of these evidences, and Peter said it would be so in the last days! Most important of all, of course, is the divinely inspired record in the Bible itself (Genesis 6–9), confirmed by Christ (Luke 17:26,27; Matthew 24:37-39), Peter and others that the Flood indeed was a worldwide cataclysm. That being the case, the fossil record (which is the main hope of the evolutionist) is mostly a record of the Flood, not of evolution.

3:10 day of the Lord. Compare I Thessalonians 5:2. The very first phase of “the day of the Lord” will indeed be sudden and unexpected, when the great rapture of all believers, dead and living, into the heavens will take place (I Thessalonians 4:13-17; I Corinthians 15:51-53). Then the day of the Lord will continue for the seven-year period of tribulation judgments on earth (see on Daniel 9:24-27; Matthew 24:15-30; Isaiah 13:9-11) and the thousand-year millennial reign of Christ on earth following that (Revelation 20:6). Because of this thousand-year “day” of the Lord, many expositors, ancient and modern, have interpreted II Peter 3:8 to teach there would be just six thousand years of history before the millennium, thus making a total of seven thousand years to conform to the six work days plus one rest day of creation week. The main Biblical problem with this concept, however, is that it amounts to setting the day for Christ’s return, and would have discouraged any Christians during previous generations from looking for Christ’s return, as He had instructed them to do.

3:10 heavens shall pass away. The “day of the Lord” will be terminated at the end of the millennium with the long-awaited renovation of the old earth by fire. The earth will not be annihilated, any more than it was annihilated at the time of the Flood, but will be completely changed and purified, made new, as it were. All the elements themselves have been under God’s curse (Genesis 3:17-19), so they must be burned up, along with the vast evidences of decay and death now preserved as fossils in the earth’s crust. Possibly this will be a global atomic fission reaction (note the word “dissolved” in II Peter 3:11), or else simply a vast explosive disintegration, involving transformation of the chemical energy of the elements into heat, light and sound energy. What remains after the global fiery disintegration will be other forms of energy, so that, although God’s principle of conservation still holds, the solid earth will seem to have “fled away” (Revelation 20:11).