1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
Everything that you see here will be completely destroyed.
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
When will these things happen?What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the world? [1]
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
Don't let anyone fool you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
For many will come in my name, saying, "I am Christ", and many will believe them.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
There will be wars and rumors of wars, but don't worry; it won't mean the end has come.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
There will be wars between nations and kingdoms, with famines, diseases, and earthquakes.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
These things are just the beginning of sorrows.
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
You will be afflicted and killed, and will be hated by everyone because of me.
10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
Many will stop believing and will betray and hate each other.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
False prophets will deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
Evil will be everywhere and love will be rare.
13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
But whoever endures to the end will be saved. [2]
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
The gospel will be preached throughout the world, and then the end will come. [3]
15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
When you see the abomination of desolation (that Daniel talked about) standing in the holy place (If you read this, make sure you understand) [4]
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
then whoever is in Judea should run to the mountains. [5]
17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
And if you are on your housetop, don't come down to take anything from your house.
18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
If you're in the field, don't go back to get your clothes.
19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
And woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days! [6]
20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
Pray that it doesn't happen in winter or on the sabbath. [7]
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
For then there will be great suffering, worse than any that the world has seen or will ever see.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
If it lasted, no one on earth would survive. But God will end it before his favorite people die.
23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
If anyone tells you, "Here is Christ", don't believe it.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.
There will be many false Christs and false prophets who will show great signs and wonders. [8]So many, in fact, that God's favorite people would (if it were possible) be deceived.
But I've told you all this before.
26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
If they say to you, "He is in the desert", don't go there.Or if they tell you, "He is in the secret place", don't believe it.
27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
When the son of man comes, it will be like lightning that comes from the east to the west.
28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Because eagles will gather wherever there's a dead body.
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
After the time of suffering, the sun will darken, the moon won't produce light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly powers will be shaken. [9]
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Then the son of man's sign will appear in the sky, all the tribes will mourn, and they'll see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory. [10]
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
And he'll send angels to blow a trumpet. Then they'll gather his favorite people from the earth's four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
Learn the fig tree parable: When its branch sprouts new leaves, summer is coming.
33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
When you see these things, it's about to happen. [11]
34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
This generation will still be alive when all these things happen. [12]
35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Heaven and earth will end [13] but my words will last forever.
36 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
No one knows when any of these things will happen, not even the angels, but only my Father. [14]
37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
The coming of the Son of man will be like the days of Noah. [15]
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,
Before the flood, everyone ate, drank, and got married, until Noah entered the ark.
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
They didn't know the flood was coming until they all drowned. It'll be like that when the Son of man comes.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
There will be two in the field: one will be taken and the other left. [16]
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Two women will be grinding: one will be taken and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
So watch out and be ready, because you'll never know when your Lord will come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
If a man knew when his house would be robbed, he would watch and be ready.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
So be ready, because the Son of man will come when you least expect it.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
Who is the faithful and wise servant? [17]
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
Blessed is that servant who will be watching when his lord comes.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
He will put him in charge of all of his things.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
But the evil servant says, "My Lord is late in coming."
49 And shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
So he hits his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunk people.
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
The lord of that servant will come when he least expects it.
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And he'll throw that servant in with the hypocrites, where they'll cry and gnash their teeth. [18]
The end of the world will be signaled by false prophets (5), wars, famines, disease, and earthquakes (6-7). And that's just "the beginning of sorrows" (8).
Next believers will be hated and killed by unbelievers (9), believers will hate and betray each other (10), false prophets will fool people (11), iniquity will abound and love wax cold (12). But hey, if you make through all that, you'll be saved (13).
Only one more thing will happen before the end comes: the gospel will be preached throughout the world (14).
Well, that and the abomination of desolations will stand in the holy place (15), many false Christs and false prophets will show great signs and wonders (24), the sun and moon will be darkened and the stars will fall (29), the sign of the son of Man will appear in the sky, everyone on earth will mourn, and then, finally, the great and powerful son of Man will come in all his glory (30).
Oh, and all these things will happen within the lifespan of Jesus's contemporaries (34).
Or maybe not. Jesus was talking about things he knew nothing about (36). (See Mark 13:32.)
But in Matthew 10:23, he said the end would come before the gospel was preached to all the cities of Israel.
In any case, this is a false prophecy since the gospel has been preached throughout the world (as Paul says in Romans 10:18) yet the world hasn't ended.
If you see the abomination of desolation in the holy place, try to understand. God is trying to say something.
Here's what Daniel had to say about it (whoso readeth, let him understand):
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. Daniel 9:27And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. Daniel 11:31
And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Daniel 12:11
Why? Can't God find and kill them there, too?
Why? Does God especially hate pregnant and nursing women?
Jesus himself, according to Acts 2:22, fits this description.
Apparently, Jesus believed that the moon produces its own light, and that the stars are lights held in place by a firmament only a few miles above our heads.
Based on these verses, Hal Linsey's The Late, Great Planet Earth predicted that the end of the world would occur before 1988. The fig tree represents Israel, Israel came back to life in 1948, and Jesus said the end would come within one generation (40 years). [Wikipedia: The Late Great Planet Earth]
Jesus was a false prophet, since he predicted that the end of the world will come within the lifetimes of his listeners.
The world didn't end then, and according to Ec.1:4 it never will.
What the Bible says about the end of the world
Speaking of false prophets, the Jehovah's Witnesses used to interpret this verse to mean that some of those who witnessed Jesus's return in 1914 would still be alive when Armageddon happened. Now that those alive in 1914 are now pretty much dead, the JWs have given up on this prediction.
The best and earliest Greek manuscripts say, "not the angels of heaven, neither the son, but the Father only." But apparently it bothered the scribes that there were some things Jesus didn't know, so they fixed it by omitting the phrase, "neither the son." [Bart D. Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus (2005), p.95]
Jesus believed that Noah's flood actually happened and he had no problem with drowning everyone on earth. It'll be just like that when he returns.
These verses are often used to say that Jesus was talking about the rapture here. But, in fact, it's just the opposite. See Dan McClellan's video below.
This is the basis for the central dogma of the Jehovah's Witnesses, that the governing body of the Jehovah's Witnesses is the "faithful and wise servant," or as the New World Translation puts it "the faithful and discrete slave." As such, the governing body must be obeyed in all matters and all of their teachings must be accepted. Those who do so will survive Armageddon; those who do not, will not.
God will come when people least expect him. Then he'll "cut [them] asunder." And "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
24:1-51