The word ‘elements’ found in 2 Peter 3:10 is στοιχεια (stoicheia) which can be applied both figuratively or literally to mean a basic constituent or fundamental element. It’s the same word from which chemists derive stoichiometry (also spelled stoicheiometry) which literally means ‘element-measure’ and is defined as,

‘the branch of chemistry that deals with the numerical proportions in which substances react.’

It is a fundamental process every chemist must master because it determines the amount of every reagent used in any reaction. If we think of a lot of chemistry as analogous to cooking, a chemical formula is a recipe in which the reagents are the ingredients. Too much of one ingredient or too little of another and a chemist might end up with more than just a mess or a failed reaction; he could blow himself up or poison a whole community.

A very simple example of stoichiometry is the mixing of caustic soda and hydrochloric acid, which produces salt and water and is chemically notated like this:

NaOH + HCl ---> NaCl + H₂O

Each molecule is a mixture of atoms which react to re-form into new substances, which we identify before and after as chemical elements by their symbols. Na is sodium (from the chemists’ Latin Natrium meaning salt, O is Oxygen, H is Hydrogen and Cl is Chlorine. So, a chemist reads the formula as: 'Sodium Hydroxide (caustic soda) plus Hydrogen Chloride (a gas which becomes hydrochloric acid when in solution) reacts to form Sodium Chloride (salt) plus Oxygen Hydride (water)' (although you may have heard H₂O called by the technically incorrect 'Hydrogen Oxide'). And for all you other chemistry pedants out there, yes, I know that ionic compounds do not form actual molecules, but it’s a more readily understood term for a theological analogy. Another example that shows how stoichiometry works is the reaction of hydrochloric acid with sodium bicarbonate, to produce salt, water and carbon dioxide:

HCl + NaHCO₃ ---> NaCl + H₂O + CO₂

Again called a balanced reaction; all the atoms that we start with are accounted for when we finish: two hydrogen, a chlorine, a carbon and three oxygen atoms go in; which is precisely what comes back out, now rearranged into new chemical compounds. Now see the slight difference when mixing hydrochloric with sodium carbonate:

2HCl + Na₂CO₃ ---> 2NaCl + H₂O + CO₂

Here two molecules of hydrochloric acid are neutralised instead of one to produce twice as much salt, but the reaction is still balanced because what goes in must come out one way or another. And another way of saying we can neutralise twice as much acid with sodium carbonate is that it takes twice as much sodium bicarbonate to do the same job – hence the bi- prefix in its common name. So stoichiometry is very much seen as science involving the physical elements while the word stoicheia occurs in three New Testament epistles – as element in Galatians 4:3 & 9 and again in 2 Peter 3:10 & 12. However, it is being used differently in each instance. In Galatians 4, Paul speaks figuratively of ‘the stoicheia of the world’ (v. 3) and ‘the weak and beggarly stoicheia’ of works-based religion to which the Galatians were turning back and abandoning faith in Christ. This is much closer to Paul’s use of stoicheia in Colossians 2:8 & 20, where it is sometimes translated rudiments:

Beware lest anyone rob you through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the stoicheia of the world, and not according to Christ.

And,

If then you died with Christ from the stoicheión of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to its ordinances:

However, this is not at all how Peter uses stoicheia, and the reason we can be sure is the context. Look again at 2 Peter chapter 3:

‘Beloved, I now write this second letter to you, in which I stir up your pure mind by reminder to remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of the Lord and Saviour by us, the apostles. First, knowing this, that there will come in the last days scoffers walking according to their own lusts and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. For this is hidden from them by their willing it, that the heavens were of old, and the earth out of the water, and through water, being held together by the Word of God, through which the world that then was, being flooded by water, perished.

‘But the present heavens and the earth being kept in store by the same Word, are being kept for fire until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But, beloved, let not this one thing be hidden from you, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some count slowness, but is long-suffering toward us, not purposing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

‘But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a rushing noise, and the stoicheia will melt with fervent heat. And the earth and the works in it will be burned up. Then, all these things being about to be dissolved, what sort ought you to be in holy behaviour and godliness, looking for and rushing the coming of the Day of God, on account of which the heavens, being on fire, will melt away, and the stoicheia will melt, burning with heat? But according to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Notice in v 3, that Peter is quite scathing in his assessment of those he calls scoffers (false teachers) who will come along and deride the Bible’s account of how God destroyed the world with a Flood in the days of Noah, both of which themes he has already visited in chapter 2:

‘But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

‘And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

'For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

'Bold and wilful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.’

So, when Peter speaks in chapter 3, of God destroying the whole world in fire, he is not spiritualising the idea to mean some esoteric cleansing of wrong thinking. He means that the present world is going to be melted down and recreated. Hence his reference to ‘new heavens and a new earth’, which exactly mirrors Jesus’ revelation to John in the Apocalypse.

‘And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And the sea no longer is.

'And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her Husband. And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.” (Revelation 21:1-3)

It’s the culmination of the whole New Thing, really: We have New Covenant in Jesus’ Blood; were are New Creations in Christ Jesus; and one day God the Father is going to dwell with us in the New Jerusalem on a New Earth under a New Heaven. There is, of course, a figurative sense in which all of this refers to a new epoch, but the word Peter uses to refer to the world that is ripe for destruction is not kosmos but ge, exactly the same word found in Genesis 2:7, in the Septuagint – the Greek translation of the Old Testament scriptures often quoted by Jesus.

‘Then Yahweh Elohim formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.’

In the original Hebrew, ground is adamah, from which Yahweh formed Adam. In the Septuagint ground is 'ges', the same term Peter uses in his epistle.

The thing about the Word of God is its infinite depth. It’s not just one-dimensional but often carries amazing layers hidden and awaiting discovery. One of my favourite scriptures for over thirty years has been Proverbs 25:2.

'The glory of God is to hide a thing; but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.’

The thing about it is that God does not hide things ‘from us’ but ‘for us’. God doesn’t hide things because he doesn’t want us to discover them but precisely because he does. It’s just that he wants us to desire them enough to go looking. Or, as Jesus puts it in Matthew 7:7,

“Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.”

So I’m never content merely to read a scripture, glean some understanding from it and leave it there: I go back and back and back again, and often discover new depths and dimensions I never imagined from previous readings. And so it was many years ago that I read a straightforward passage in Romans 8:18-25, which speaks eloquently of our New Covenant relationship with the Father through his Son Jesus Christ. What I noticed though, is that while much of Romans 8 is in the present tense and speaks of the salvation we have already obtained, this portion is in the future tense, speaking of something we have yet to experience.

‘For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creation was not willingly subjected to futility, but because of Him who subjected it on hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

'And we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruit of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, awaiting adoption, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope; for what anyone sees, why does he also hope for it? But if we hope for that which we do not see, then we wait for it with patience.’

This is a theme Peter visits also: The idea that our salvation is yet incomplete because we still have to receive our immortal, incorruptible, glorified bodies. This should not come as too great a surprise because the Bible reveals that one aspect of God having created man in his own image and after his own likeness is that, like him, we are trinitarian in nature: in his case, Father,Son and Holy Spirit: in our case, spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). When a believer is first saved our spirit becomes a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) and our mind begins a process of renewal that is also called repentance, which in Greek is metanoia meaning ‘change of mind’. In the meantime, however, it should have escaped no-one’s notice that our bodies continue to age and eventually die. This is because the final stage of salvation is the Resurrection at Jesus’ Second Coming, which hasn’t happened yet. That’s what Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 5:4-5.

‘For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened – not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.’

So, the fact that we’re Born Again – that we now have God’s Holy Spirit dwelling within us, is God’s guarantee that we shall receive that new body one day. And when is that? Look no further than 1 Corinthians 15:50-57.

‘And I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

' Behold, I speak a mystery to you; we shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed; in a moment, in a glance of an eye, at the last trumpet. For a trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

'But when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and when this mortal shall put on immortality, then will take place the word that is written:

"Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?"

‘The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’

And, if that’s not clear enough, check out 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17.

‘But I would not have you ignorant, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, that you be not grieved, even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will also bring with Him all those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. For we say this to you by the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall not go before those who are asleep.

'For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall ever be with the Lord.’

So, is that when the world burns? No. Jesus’ return merely heralds the start of the Millennium, his thousand-year reign on earth before the Last Judgement, after which there shall be no more mortal human beings left on earth. That’s when I believe we shall see the fulfilment of that scripture in Romans 8:18 & 19.

‘For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.’

There is, as ever, a present fulfilment of this scripture in the way that Christians are supposed to live in this world today, representing and manifesting the truth of their faith in Christ. However, Paul unmistakably uses the future tense to describe something that neither he nor the rest of the New Testament Church has yet attained, which is why I believe it remains yet to come. Imagine, at the End of the Age when The Last Judgement is over and every demon and every unrepentant sinner has been consigned to Gehenna. What happens now? Who remains? The Bible answers both questions. The earth is incinerated and recreated and the glorified, immortal saints suddenly burst into light – indeed, I wonder if the two things are not more than co-incidental. Might not the earth’s becoming a blazing inferno be a direct consequence of the glorified Church manifesting in its full crescendo of incandescence, like billions of stars appearing at once? Or is it connected to God the Father coming down to dwell on the New Earth, on his throne in the New Jerusalem? Because the Bible suggests that God’s glory will be so bright that there will no longer be any need for the Sun or Moon, as described in Revelation 21:1-11 & 21:22 to 22:2.

‘And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And the sea no longer is. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her Husband. And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there will be no more death, nor mourning, nor crying out, nor will there be any more pain; for the first things passed away.”

'And He sitting on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

'And He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who thirsts I will give of the fountain of the Water of Life freely. He who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. But the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, will have their part in the Lake burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

'And one of the seven angels who had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife.”

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God, having the glory of God. And its light was like a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal…And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty is its temple, even the Lamb. And the city had no need of the sun, nor of the moon, that they might shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb. And the nations of those who are saved will walk in the light of it; and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honour into it. And its gates may not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no way enter into it anything that defiles, or any making an abomination or a lie; but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

'And he showed me a pure river of Water of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of its street, and of the river, from here and from there, was the Tree of Life, which bore twelve fruits, each yielding its fruit according to one month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

'And every curse will no longer be; but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will serve Him. And they will see His face, and His name will be in their foreheads. And there will be no night there. And they need no lamp, or light of the sun; for the Lord God gives them light. And they will reign forever and ever.’

The imagery is a familiar Hebrew form known as apocalyptic literature and undoubtedly has a strong figurative element, but I believe it is also literal because it integrates very well with other accounts throughout Scripture. Also, I believe that the melting of the elements only precedes and does not accompany the Father's arrival, which follows the recreation of the earth.

So, is the earth going to end in fire? – Yes and no. Yes, inasmuch as the present fallen and corrupt order of things is concerned will be utterly consumed. But no, in the ultimate sense that a New – or is that Renewed – World will take its place, this time to last forever: This time to remain unspoiled.