READY TO GET BLOWN AWAY??
Okay, now let's take a deeper dive into the language used in their day. An important word to understand is "works." Works is not "deeds" as most of us might think but rather "works" was the temple itself.
Again, quoting Josephus:
WHILE the holy house was on fire, every thing was plundered that came to hand, and ten thousand of those that were caught were slain; nor was there a commiseration of any age, or any reverence of gravity, but children, and old men, and profane persons, and priests were all slain in the same manner; so that this war went round all sorts of men, and brought them to destruction, and as well those that made supplication for their lives, as those that defended themselves by fighting. The flame was also carried a long way, and made an echo, together with the groans of those that were slain; and because this hill was high, and the works at the temple were very great, one would have thought the whole city had been on fire. Nor can one imagine any thing either greater or more terrible than this noise; for there was at once a shout of the Roman legions, who were marching all together, and a sad clamor of the seditious, who were now surrounded with fire and sword.
So now look again at 2 Peter 3:
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up...
Translation? The "earth" is Jerusalem and the "works" are the temple. Therefore Peter is telling us that the city and the temple will be destroyed with fervent heat. Josephus also tells us that its destruction will be with a "GREAT NOISE" just as Peter predicted.
Another key word in understanding much of prophesy including 2 Pet 3 is "earth."
Isa 62: And give Him no rest till He establishes And till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
Lam 2: How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion With a cloud in His anger! He cast down from heaven to the earth The beauty of Israel, And did not remember His footstool In the day of His anger.
All who pass by clap their hands at you; They hiss and shake their heads At the daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that is called ‘The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth’?”
While we are at it, let's see if "heaven" is also related to "earth" and "Jerusalem." Heaven can also mean sky.
1 Chr 21: Then David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, having in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. So David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
Let's not forget Gal 4:
but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.
So when Jerusalem was utterly destroyed in 70 AD, the "heavens and earth" passed away.