worthless. Without doubt, the writer agrees with the verdict of Genesis 1, that creation is intrinsically good (he alludes to the Genesis creation account in v. 5). Second, and most crucially, there is the fact that dissolution of the earth is understood here not as an end in itself, but as the prelude to a new earthly future. The destructive process is part of the process of renewal and renovation (conceived along the lines of the Stoic ekpurōsis), which leads to a new heavens and new earth which