‘For this they wilfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth having been brought together out of water and amidst water, by the word of God. By which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.'
Furthermore one thing that these false teachers were overlooking was that the world did not continue on as it was from the beginning of creation. They had a false view of the eternal nature of creation. They were, for example, deliberately overlooking the cataclysm of the Flood, after which there had had to be the equivalent of a new creation. (Peter has drawn attention to it twice, once in 2 Peter 2:5, and once in 1 Peter 3:19-21). They were deliberately forgetting that by the word of God the heavens were made from of old, and that the earth was brought together out of water and through or amidst water. For it appeared out of the primeval water, and was surrounded by water and had water above it, and was maintained by water. And they are forgetting that it had only been in this state because of God's word. And that once He had withdrawn His word the earth was suddenly overflowed with water, and the world of men perished.
His continual inclusion of ‘the heavens' suggests that as well as sinners on earth he has in mind the heavenly beings that were involved in the judgment of the Flood (2 Peter 2:4; Genesis 6:1-2), and those which were at present the enemies of God's people (Ephesians 6:12).