For they willfully forget that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water by the word of God,
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 5. For this they are wilfully ignorant of. The ignorance of these unbelievers is wilful and inexcusable, when they question the existence of a Supreme Being, of a future state, wherein God will reward the good and punish the wicked; when they laugh at all the miracles, and all the extraordinary effects of God’s power and justice, such as was the general flood or deluge, by which God destroyed the wicked by an inundation of waters. And as our blessed Saviour said of those, who would not believe in the days of Noe, “They were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, … and they knew not till the flood came, and took them all away: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matthew 24:38, 39. Witham.