One is false; the other three are each true but at different times in history.
The false cosmology is that of evolutionary uniformitarianism, the doctrine taught by latter-day intellectuals who will scoff: “Where is the promise of His coming? . . . all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:4). But this is altogether wrong!
The first cosmos—the heavens and the earth which were “of old . . .
the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished” (2 Peter 3:5-6).
The false cosmology is that of evolutionary uniformitarianism, the doctrine taught by latter-day intellectuals who will scoff: “Where is the promise of His coming? . . . all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:4). But this is altogether wrong!
The first cosmos—the heavens and the earth which were “of old . . .
The primeval cosmos, in which “every thing that He had made . . . was very good” (Genesis 1:31), was destroyed in the waters of the great Flood.
The present cosmos, “the heavens and the earth, which are now . . . reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7). This “present evil world” (Galatians 1:4) was to last many a long year, but “the day of the Lord will come . . . in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise . . . the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).
But then, out of the ashes of the old corrupt world, so to speak, God will make a new and incorruptible world. “We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).
That cosmos will continue forever! “The new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD” (Isaiah 66:22)."
HMM
