2 Peter 3:3-7 : “3 Knowing this first, that in the last days there shall come deceitful scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 Saying: Where is his promise or his coming? for since the time that the fathers slept, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5 For this they are wilfully ignorant of, that the heavens were before, and the earth out of water, and through water, consisting by the word of God. 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.”
St. Peter prophesied that we would not believe in a world wide flood and it is true today within the so called “scientific” community. Many scientist do not believe that many of the geological formations that we have today such as the Grand Canyon are the result of a world wide flood. These individuals are the fulfillments of the first Popes prophesy.
yes, but the primary sense of this verse is probably not that. what is probably going on here, although undefined by the Church, is the Scriptural basis for the Fathers’ Catholic “dispensational” view of the days of creation as pertaining to all of Salvation history. That is, the primary metaphor of the seven (eight) days of creation is not about the physical creation of the world, but, rather, the REcreation of the world in human history, that is, the Redemption of man from the fall to the end of the world.
Consequently, the seven (eight) days of Creation, each consisting of first darkness (“evening came”) and then light (morning followed), implies that beginning with the Fall through to the New Creation itself, inclusive, Savlation History shall consist in eight primary ages, each beginning with a major manifestation of sin (“evening came”) followed by a great Redemptive epoch (“morning followed”). Similarly the beast in Revelation 17 has seven heads that are extended to eight, even as the days of creation are extended to eight in Tradition.
Hence, just as in the week, you traverse seven days, and in the eighth day, you return to the first (like in music: there are seven notes in a key, when you reach the eighth, you return to the first), so humanity will “return” to where it started in the eighth epoch of salvation history. Revelation 17 suggests this. The beast “was and is not, and will be again.”
The first head of the beast is the Fall. In this first age of Savlation history, prior to the Flood, the fall “reigned” in humanity, seeing as most of humanity was wicked, and that God had not begun any Redemption of the human race in history. Hence, the “beast was.” But with the Flood, God began the great Redemptive process of human history, destroying the world, by water, that is, an act of cleansing the world from sin. Hence, the world in which the “Fall” reigned, came to an end and a “new world” started, that is, a world that God is progressively restoring unto Himself, culminating with the Messiah. Hence, the beast"is not."
Fast forward to the great apostasy, the “eighth” day. The Great Apostasy follows the glorious triumph of God in human history, the fullness of the Gentiles in Catholicism. hence, when humanity falls away after this, they are irredeemable and unforgivable. As a consequence, the beast will be “again” then, seeing as the Fall will once again hold dominion over the world. But it is now different! In the eighth day, which is the same as the first, in that the Fall is the primary force of human history, the Fall however now is here to stay. It’s back, but back to stay, incurable. Back in Black! Hence, the only Divine Response can be
destruction of the world, like the Flood, but now by FIRE, seeing as it is a condemnation and judgement, not a Redemptive act.
Hope this helps.
