Sinais do fim dos tempos
A Bíblia descreve sinais que precederão a volta de Jesus. Guerras, falsos mestres, sinais cósmicos e a pregação do evangelho a todas as nações — tudo aponta para o fim dos tempos.
Sinais proféticos
Este evangelho do Reino será pregado em todo o mundo e então virá o fim. Os sinais dos últimos tempos já se manifestam.
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, in witnessing to all folks; and then the end shall come.
And anon after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be made dark, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the virtues of heavens shall be moved [or stirred].
And then the token of man’s Son shall appear in heaven, and then all the kindreds [or lineages] of the earth shall wail; and they shall see man’s Son coming in the clouds of heaven, with much virtue, and majesty.
And he shall send his angels with a trumpet, and a great voice; and they shall gather his chosen from four winds, from the highest things of heaven to the ends of them.
Therefore wake ye, for ye know not in what hour the Lord shall come.
But know ye this, that if the husbandman knew in what hour the thief were to come, certainly he would wake, and suffer not his house to be undermined.
And therefore be ye ready, for in what hour ye guess not, man’s Son shall come.
teaching them to keep all things, whatever things I have commanded to you; and lo! I am with you in all days, into the end of the world.
But of that day or hour no man knoweth, neither angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
Os últimos dias
Nos últimos dias virão tempos difíceis, homens amantes de si mesmos. Mas derramarei o meu Espírito sobre toda a carne.
But know thou this thing, that in the last days perilous times shall nigh,
and men shall be loving them-selves, covetous, high of bearing, proud, blasphemers, not obedient to father and mother, unkind, cursed,
without affection, [or good will], without peace, false blamers [or false challengers], uncontinent, [or unchaste], unmild, without benignity,
traitors, over-thwart [or froward], swollen [or blown]with proud thoughts, blind, lovers of lusts more than of God,
having the likeness of piety, but denying the virtue of it. And eschew thou these men.
And it shall be in the last days, the Lord saith, I shall pour out my Spirit on each flesh [or on all flesh]; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your elders shall dream swevens.
And on my servants and on mine handmaidens in those days I shall pour out of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
And I shall give great wonders in heaven above, and signs in earth beneath, blood, and fire, and heat [or vapour] of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that the great and the open day of the Lord [shall] come.
And it shall be, each man which-ever shall call to help [or in-call] the name of the Lord, shall be safe.
And it shall be, after these things I shall shed [or pour] out my spirit on each man; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your eld [or old] men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
But also I shall shed [or pour] out my spirit on my servants, and hand-maids, in those days;
Forsooth in that time Michael, the great prince, shall rise, that standeth for the sons of thy people. And time of trouble shall come, what manner time was not, from that time from which folks began to be, till to that time. And in that time thy people shall be saved, each that is found written in the book of life.
And many of them that sleep in the dust of earth, shall awake fully, some into everlasting life, and others into shame, that they see ever[more].
Forsooth they that be taught, [or wise], shall shine as the shining of the firmament, and they that teach many men to rightfulness [or rightwiseness], shall shine as stars into everlasting everlastingnesses.
Esperança e prontidão
O dia do Senhor virá como ladrão. Mas nós não somos das trevas — estejamos sóbrios, vigiliando e esperando.
And we say this thing to you in the word of the Lord, that we that live, that be left in the coming of the Lord, shall not come before them that be dead.
For the Lord himself shall come down from heaven, in the command-ment [or in the commanding], and in the voice of an archangel, and in the trump of God; and the dead men that be in Christ, shall rise again first.
Afterward we that live, that be left, shall be ravished together with them in clouds, meeting Christ in the air; and so evermore we shall be with the Lord.
Therefore be ye comforted together in these words.
Therefore sleep we not as others; but wake we, and be we sober.
For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken, be drunken in the night.
But we that be of the day, be sober, clothed in the habergeon of faith and of charity, and in the helmet of hope of health.
For God putted not us into wrath, but into the purchasing of health, by our Lord Jesus Christ,
But take ye heed to yourselves, lest peradventure your hearts be grieved with gluttony, and drunken-ness, and busynesses of this life, and that day come suddenly on you;
for as a snare it shall come on all men, that sit on the face of all the earth.
Therefore wake ye, praying in each time, that ye be had worthy to flee all these things that be to come [or that shall come], and to stand before man’s Son.
But, ye most dear, this one thing be not hid to you [or be not unknown], that one day with God is as a thousand years, and a thousand years be as one day.
The Lord tarrieth not his promise, as some guess, but he doeth patiently for you, and will not that any man perish [or not willing any to perish], but that all turn again to penance.
For the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which heavens with great rush, [or fierceness], shall pass, and elements shall be dissolved by heat, and the earth, and all the works that be in it, shall be burnt.
Therefore when all these things shall be dissolved, what manner men behooveth it you to be in holy livings and piety,
abiding and hieing into the coming of the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom heavens burning shall be dissolved, and elements shall fail by burning [or heat] of fire.
Also we abide by his promises new heavens and new earth, in which rightwiseness dwelleth.
Lo! I say to you private [or a mystery] of holy things. And all we shall rise again, but not all we shall be changed to the state of glory;
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, in the last trump; for the trump shall sound, and dead men shall rise again, without corruption, and we shall be changed.
For lo! I make new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be in mind, and shall not ascend [or go up] on the heart.
But ye shall have joy, and make full out joying till into without end, in these things which I make; for lo! I make Jerusalem full out joying, and the people thereof joy.
And I shall make full out joying in Jerusalem, and I shall have joy in my people; and the voice of weeping and the voice of cry shall no more be heard therein.
For lo! a day shall come, burning as a chimney; and all proud men, and all that do unpiety shall be stubble; and the day coming shall enflame them, saith the Lord of hosts, which shall not leave to them root and burgeoning.
And to you dreading my name the sun of rightwiseness shall rise, and health in pens or wings of him; and ye shall go out, and shall leap, as a calf of the drove.
And I saw new heaven and new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth went away, and the sea is not now.
And I, John, saw the holy city Jerusalem, new, coming down from heaven, made ready of God, as a wife adorned to her husband.
And I heard a great voice from the throne, saying, Lo! the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them; and they shall be his people, and he God with them shall be their God.
And God shall wipe away each tear from the eyes of them; and death shall no more be, neither mourning, neither crying, neither sorrow, shall be over; which first things went away.