Peter is addressing people who've been waiting for Jesus's return for generations now. Scoffers are saying 'Where's the promise? Everything stays the same as it's always been.' Peter takes them seriously. He doesn't dismiss them as obviously wrong. He engages with their actual argument.
He points out that scoffers are willfully ignoring two cosmic events: creation and the flood. God spoke creation into being. God also acted decisively in judgment. To say God doesn't intervene in history requires forgetting both of those things. You have to be actively choosing blindness.
Peter also says the heavens and earth are reserved for fire. That's not pleasant. But it's the culmination, not a disaster that breaks God's promises. The end of the world as we know it is part of God's plan, not a failure of it. Understanding that changes how you live in the meantime.
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