:1

     Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to

call his attention to its buildings. "Do you see all these things?" he asked. "I tell you

the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown

down."

:3

     As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately.

"Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your

coming and of the end of the age?"

:4

     Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in

my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. You will hear of wars

and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must

happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom

against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All

these are the beginning of birth pains.

:9

     "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will

be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the

faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and

deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will

grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the

kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and

then the end will come.

:15

     "So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes

desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel - let the reader understand -

then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of his

house go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back

to get his cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and

nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the

Sabbath. For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the

world until now - and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut

short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be

shortened. At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There

he is!' do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and

perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect - if that were possible.

See, I have told you ahead of time.

:26

     "So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he

is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east

is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever

there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.

:29

     "Immediately after the distress of those days

" 'the sun will be darkened,

     and the moon will not give its light;

the stars will fall from the sky,

     and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.'

:30

     "At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the

nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds

of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud

trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of

the heavens to the other.

:32

     "Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its

leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these

things, you know that it is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this

generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

:36

     "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the

Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming

of the Son of man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and

drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;

and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took

them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men

will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be

grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

:42

     "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will

come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of

night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his

house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will

come at an hour when you do not expect him.

:45

     "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge

of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will

be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell

you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that

servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master is staying away a long time, and

he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.

The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at

an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with

the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.