They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago and an earth was formed out of water and by means of water. (2 Pet 3:5 NRSV)
This is one of the verses from the Bible that LDS apologists and scholars point to in support of our doctrine of creation, and our rejection of the classical doctrine of creatio ex nihilo. As I briefly discussed in a book review on the topic of creation ex materia vs. ex nihilo:
2 Peter 3:5 reflects ancient traditions of the Near East. In the NIV, we read, “But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and with water,” showing that the author subscribed to creation ex materia.
That this is not a marginal view, but instead, is the modern scholarly view, is not hard to prove. Consider the following exegesis provided by two non-LDS scholars on 2 Peter:
ὅτι οὐρανοὶ ἦσαν ἔκπαλαι καὶ γῆ ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ δι᾽ ὕδατος συνεστῶσα τῷ τοῦ θεοῦ λόγῳ, “that long ago there were heavens and an earth, created out of water and by means of water by the word of God.” This clause contains no implication that the heavens were created before the earth (against Spitta) but simply echoes the reference to “the heavens and the earth” in Gen 1:1. According to the creation account in Gen 1, and in accordance with general Near Eastern myth, the world—sky and earth—emerged out of a primeval ocean (Gen 1:2, 6-7, 9; cf. Ps 33:7; 135:5; Prov 8:27-29; Sir 39:17; Herm. Vis. 1:3:4). The world exists because the waters of chaos, which are now above the firmament, beneath the earth and surrounding the earth, are held back and can no longer engulf the world. The phrase ἐξ ὕδατος (“out of water”) expresses this mythological concept of the world’s emergence out of the watery chaos, rather than the more “scientific” notion, taught by Thales of Miletus that water is the basic element out of which everything else is made (cf. Clem. Hom. 11:24:1). The second phrase δι᾽ ὕδατος (“by means of water”) is more difficult to explain. Since the reference is to the creation of the world, it cannot refer to the sustenance of life on earth by rain (Bigg, Green). Some give δια a local sense, “between, in the midst of the waters” (RV, JB; Mayor, James, Chain, Wand, Spicq), which accords well with the creation account (Gen 1:6-7, 9), but would be an unusual sense of the preposition (Gen 1:6 LXX expresses this thought by ἀνὰ μέσον ὕδατος καὶ ὕδατος), especially as δι᾽ ὧν in the next v means “by means of which.” So it is best to translate “by means of water” (Knopf, Windisch, Kelly; Chaine, RB 46 [1937] 210 n. 3); the writer means that water was, in a loose sense, the instrument of creation since it was by separating and gathering the waters that God created the world. This also provides a parallel with the next v, which states that by means of water he afterward destroyed the world. (Richard J. Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter [Word Biblical Commentary 50; Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996], 297-98)
The reference to “word” as the immediate agent of creation is taken directly from Gen 1. Moreover, this unique role of the word of God becomes the standard narrative in Jewish accounts of creation (see, e.g., Pss 33:6; 148:5; Herm. Vis. 1.3.4.). Less obvious is the role given to water. The imagery of the earth being created “out of water and through water” probably refers, first of all, to the waters of chaos that are separated in Gen 1:6-7 and now reside above the firmament. However, the dual phrases may also include a reference to water as the, or one of the, constituent elements of creation. There is probably no reference here to Greek philosophical discussion of the cosmic elements. It is more likely that 2 Peter is simply reading the Genesis account, with its complex references to water. (Lewis R. Donelson, I & II Peter and Jude [New Testament Library; Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2010], 268)
Instead of being a doctrine that is unbiblical and marginal, the Latter-day Saint view of the nature of creation, as taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith, has much scholarly backing. For further reading, one should pursue the following books by non-LDS scholars:
Thomas Oord, ed. Theologies of Creation: Ex Nihilo and its new rivals
Gerhard May, Creatio Ex Nihilo
