^{[a] 3} First of all, understand that in the last days, scoffers will come scoffing, following after their own desires ^{[b] 4} and saying, “Where is this promise of His coming?^[c] Ever since the fathers died,^[d] everything goes on just as it has from the beginning of creation.” ⁵ For in holding to this idea, it escapes their notice that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God.