14 Furthermore, the good message about my ruling over people’s lives will be preached in every part of the world, in order that people of all ethnic groups may hear it. Then the end of the world will come."

29 "Immediately after many people have suffered during those days, the universe will become dark. The sun will become dark. The moon will not shine. The stars will fall from the sky. And the powerful objects in the sky will be shaken. (OR, And the spiritual beings in space will be deposed.) 30 After that, something will be seen {people will observe something} in the sky that indicates that I, the one who came from heaven, am returning to the earth. Then unbelieving people from all ethnic groups of the earth will mourn because they will be afraid of God punishing them. They will see me, the one who came from heaven, coming on the clouds with power and great glory as I return to the earth. 31 I will send my angels to the earth from everywhere in the heavens. They will be blowing trumpets loudly. Then from throughout the whole earth [DOU] they will gather the people whom I have chosen."

42 So, because you do not know what day I, your Lord, will return to the earth, you need to be ready for me to return at any time. 43 You know that if the owners of a house knew at what time in the night thieves would come, they would be awake and prevent the thieves from breaking into their houses. Similarly, I will come just like unexpectedly as a thief. 44 So you need to be ready for my return, because I, the one who came from heaven, will return to the earth at a time when you do not expect me to come."

20 Teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember that by the Spirit I will be with you always, until the end of this age."

32 But no one knows the exact time when I will return. The angels in heaven also do not know. Even I do not know. Only my Father knows.

1 You need to realize that during the last days [MTY] before Christ returns, evil people will make it difficult for believers to behave as they should. 2 This is because such evil people will be habitually loving themselves and loving money. They will habitually boast about themselves, they will be proud, and will often say bad things about others. They will disobey their parents. They will not be thankful, nor will they respect anything that is good. 3 They will not even love their own family, nor agree with anybody (OR, they never forgive anyone). They will tell lies about people. They will not control what they say and do, nor allow anyone to control them. They will not love anything that is good. 4 They will ◄betray others/hand others over to their enemies► and act foolishly. They will be overly/very proud of themselves, and they will love to please themselves instead of loving God. 5 And, although they will pretend that they worship God, they will not let God’s Spirit work powerfully in their lives. Do not associate with such people (OR, Do not let such people join your congregation),

17 ‘During the last/final days before I judge all people, I will give my Spirit abundantly/generously to people [SYN] everywhere. As a result, your sons and daughters will tell people messages from me, the young men among you will see visions from me, and the old men among you will have dreams that I will give them. 18 During those days I will abundantly/generously give my Spirit even to men and women believers who are my slaves/servants, so they can tell people messages from me. 19 I will cause amazing things to happen in the sky, and I will do miracles on the earth that will show that I am powerful. Here on the earth [CHI] I will cause wars with blood, fire and thick/dark smoke everywhere. 20 In the sky the sun will appear dark to people and the moon will appear red to them. Those things will happen before the important and splendid/amazing day [MTY] when I, the Lord God, will come to judge everyone. 21 Before that time, all those who ask me [MTY] to save them from the guilt of their sins will be saved {I, the Lord, will save all those who ask me [MTY] to save them from the guilt of their sins.}’"

28 "Some time later, I will give my Spirit to many [HYP] people.

Your sons and daughters will proclaim messages that come directly from me.

Your old men will have dreams that come from me,

and your young men will have visions that come from me.

29 At that time, I will give my Spirit even to servants, both men and women.

1 The angel also said to me, "After those things happen, the great angel Michael, who protects the Israeli people, will appear. Then there will be a time when there will be great troubles/suffering. The troubles will be greater than any troubles/suffering since the nations began. At that time, all of your people whose names have been written in the book containing the names of those who have eternal life will be saved. 2 Many of those who have died [EUP] will become alive again. Some of them will live eternally with God, and some will be eternally shamed/disgraced in hell. 3 Those who were wise will shine as brightly as the sky is bright when the sun is shining. And those who have shown to others the way to live righteously will shine forever, like the stars [SIM].

15 I write this because the Lord Jesus revealed to me what I am now telling you. Some of you may think that when the Lord Jesus comes back, he will consider that we believers who are still living will be superior to those believers who have died [EUP], because we will meet Jesus first. That is certainly not true! 16 It is the Lord Jesus himself who will descend from heaven. When he comes down, he will command all of us believers to rise from their graves. The chief angel will shout loudly, and another angel will blow a trumpet for God. Then (OR, As a result), the first thing that will happen is that the people who trusted in Christ before they died will live again. 17 After that, God will powerfully take up into the clouds all of us believers who are still living on this earth. He will take us and those other believers who have died, in order that we all might together meet/welcome the Lord Jesus in the sky. As a result of that, we all will be with him forever. 18 Because all this is true, encourage/comfort each other by reminding each other of this teaching.

6 So we believers must be aware of what is happening. We must be watching carefully, as people who are awake watch for a thief [MET]. We must be self-controlled, as people who are ◄sober/not drunk► are able to control what they do [MET]. People who sleep [MET] are unaware of what is happening, and unbelievers are like that. 7 It is at night when people become drunk and they do very wrong actions/things, and are unaware of what is happening because they are asleep. 8 But we believers are people who should do what is right [MET], so we must be self-controlled, as people in the daytime are usually not drunk and are able to control what they do [MET]. As Roman soldiers protect themselves by putting on breastplates and helmets [MET], we believers must protect ourselves by continuing to trust and love the Lord Jesus and by continuing to confidently expect that he will save us from God’s punishing us at the time when he will punish other people.

9 When God chose us, he did not plan for us to be people whom he will severely punish [MTY]. On the contrary, he decided that he would save us because of our trusting in what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us.

34 "But be on guard. Do not be getting drunk with carousing or let yourselves be distracted by worries concerning your lives [SYN] {or let worries concerning your lives [SYN] distract you}. If you do wrong things like those, you may be suddenly surprised by my return [MTY], like a trap suddenly catches an animal in it. 35 You need to know that my return will surprise everyone all over the earth. 36 So be ready at all times. Pray that you will be able to endure without being afraid of all these difficult things that will happen, so that you will then stand confidently before me, the one who came from heaven."

8 Dear friends, I want you to understand well that the Lord God is willing to wait a long time to judge the people in the world! How much time passes before the Lord God judges the people in the world does not matter to him! He considers that one day passes no more quickly than 1,000 years, and he also considers that 1,000 years pass as quickly as one day passes to us! 9 Therefore, you should not think that because Christ has not yet come back to judge people, the Lord God is ◄delaying/slow to do► what he promised. Some people think that this is so, and they say that Christ will never come back. But you should understand that the reason why Christ has not yet come back to judge people is that God is being patient with you, because he does not want anyone to be lost eternally. Instead, he wants everyone to turn away from their sinful behavior. 10 Although God is being patient, at the time [MTY] that he has chosen, the Lord Jesus Christ will certainly come back to judge people. He will come back unexpectedly, like a thief [SIM] comes unexpectedly. At that time there will be a great roaring sound. The heavens will cease to exist. ◄The elements/The parts of which the universe consists► will be destroyed by fire, and the earth that God made and everything on it that people have made will disappear (OR, will be burned up).

11 Because God will certainly destroy all these things like I just said, you certainly know how you should behave. [RHQ] You should behave ◄in a godly manner/in a manner that pleases God► 12 while you eagerly/expectantly wait for Christ to return on the day that God has chosen [MTY], and you should try to make that day come soon. Because of what God [PRS] will do on that day, the heavens will be destroyed. ◄The elements/The parts of which the universe consist► will melt and burn up. 13 Although all those events/things will happen, we rejoice because we are waiting for the new heavens and new earth that God has promised. The only people who will be in the new heavens and on this new earth will be people who are [PRS] righteous.

51 But I will tell you something that God has not revealed before: Some of us believers will not die [EUP]. However, all of us will be changed {God will change all of us}. 52 It will happen suddenly, as fast as someone can blink his eye [MET], when we hear the sound of God’s trumpet for the last time. When we hear that trumpet, all the believers who have died will come back to life and will have bodies that are changed {that God has changed}, bodies that will never decay.

17 "Note this: Some day I will create a new heaven and a new earth.

They will be very wonderful, with the result that you will no longer think about all the troubles you had previously.

18 Be glad and always rejoice because of what I will do:

Jerusalem will be a place where people rejoice;

the people who live there will always be happy.

19 I will rejoice about Jerusalem,

and I will be delighted with my people.

People will no longer weep or cry because of being distressed.

1 This is also what the Commander of the armies of angels says: "There will be a time that I will judge and punish people. When that happens, it will be like [SIM] a very hot furnace. At that time, all the proud and wicked people will be burned up like [MET] stubble burns. They will be burned up completely, like roots and branches and everything else on a tree burns completely in a very hot fire. 2 But as for you who revere me [MTY], the one who will save you will come to you like [MET] the sun shines in the morning, and enable you to become righteous (OR, do what is righteous); he will restore you and protect you like a bird protects its chicks [MET] under its wings. When he comes, you will be very joyful, like [SIM] calves that go out from a barn into the pasture leaping joyfully.

1 Then in the vision I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had disappeared, and the oceans no longer existed. 2 I saw God’s holy city, which is the new city of Jerusalem. It was coming down out of heaven from God. The city had been prepared and decorated {God had prepared and decorated the city} as [SIM] a bride is decorated {decorates herself} beautifully in order to marry her husband. 3 I heard a loud voice that spoke from the throne of God. It said, "Listen to this! Now God will live with people. He will live right in the midst of them [DOU]! They will be his people. God himself will be with them, and he will be their God. 4 As a result, he will cause them to no longer be sad. It will be as though he will [MTY] wipe every tear from their eyes. None of them will ever again die or mourn or cry [DOU] or suffer pain, because the former things that make us sad will have disappeared."