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Awaiting the “New Heavens and a New Earth”Man’s Salvation out of World Distress at Hand!
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and by those means the world of that time suffered destruction when it was deluged with water.”—2 Peter 3:5, 6.
19. (a) To what does Peter refer by the expression “the world of that time”? (b) What were “those means” by which the world of that time suffered destruction?
19 “The world of that time,” that is, the world up to the year 2370 B.C.E., was destroyed by the “word of God” just as much as the creation of the heavens and the earth had been thus accomplished. The expressed “word of God” created the possibilities for such a global deluge, for the creation account says: “God went on to say: ‘Let an expanse come to be in between the waters and let a dividing occur between the waters and the waters.’ Then God proceeded to make the expanse and to make a division between the waters that should be beneath the expanse and the waters that should be above the expanse. And it came to be so. And God began to call the expanse Heaven. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a second day.” And on the fifth creative day “God went on to say: ‘Let the waters swarm forth a swarm of living souls and let flying creatures fly over the earth upon the face of the expanse of the heavens.’” (Genesis 1:6-8, 20) Those heavens and the waters above and beneath were the means that God’s word called into operation and “by those means” He deluged the “world of that time.”
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Awaiting the “New Heavens and a New Earth”Man’s Salvation out of World Distress at Hand!
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In 2 Peter 3:6 the “world of that time” that suffered destruction in the Deluge is not set off in contrast with invisible heavenly spirits, the demons, the angels disobedient to Jehovah God; and these are not there figuratively referred to as “the heavens.” The spirit demons were not destroyed by the Deluge. Ungodly people on earth suffered death.
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