13 When Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said, `Look Master, see those big stones and the wonderful houses!'
2 Jesus said, `You see these big houses? I tell you, not one stone here will be left on top of another. They will all be thrown down! `
3 Afterwards, he was sitting on the hill called the Mount of Olives, near the temple. Peter, James, John, and Andrew came to him alone.
4 They said, `Tell us, when will this happen? What will be the sign when these things are going to be done?'
5 Then Jesus began to talk to them. He said, `Take care. Do not let anyone fool you.
6 Many men will come in my name. They will say, "I am Christ." They will fool many people.
7 You will hear about wars. You will hear that war is coming. But do not fear. These things must happen, but that is not yet the end.
8 One tribe will fight against another tribe. And one country will fight against another country. The earth will shake in many different places. People will have no food to eat. These troubles are only the beginning of the troubles that will come.
9 `But you must take care. Men will take you to court. They will beat you in their meeting houses. They will take you to rulers and kings because you are true to me. You will talk to them about me.
10 The good news must first be told to all people.
11 When men take you to court, do not be troubled about what you will say. Say whatever comes to your mind at that time. It is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit.
12 A brother will take his brother to be killed. A father will take his child. The children will talk against their father and mother and have them killed.
13 All people will hate you because you are true to me. But the person who keeps on being true to me until the end will be saved.
14 `Daniel the Man of God said that people would put something very bad in the temple.' (Let the one who reads this understand it.) `When that happens, the people in Judea must go quickly to the hills.
15 A person who is on the top of a house must not go down into the house to get things.
16 Those who are working in the fields must not go back to get their coats.
17 In those days it will be very hard for women who are to have a child. It will be very hard for mothers who have babies.
18 Ask God that you may not have the trouble in the cold time of the year.
19 The trouble then will be bigger than any trouble since God made the world. And there never will be any trouble as big as that.
20 No person would be saved if the Lord did not make the time of trouble shorter. He will make it shorter for the sake of his chosen people.
21 `If anyone says to you then, "Look, here is the Christ!" or, "There he is!" do not believe it.
22 People will come and say they are the Christ. People will come and say they are prophets of God. But they are not true to themselves. They will show big signs and do wonderful things that will fool people. They will fool God's chosen people if they can.
23 Watch! I have told you all these things before they happen.
24 `In that time of trouble, the sun will be dark. The moon will not shine.
25 The stars will fall from the sky. And the powers in the sky will be shaken.
26 Then people will see the sign of the Son of Man in the clouds. He will have much power and be very great.
27 He will send out the angels to gather his chosen people. They will gather them from everywhere all over the earth.
28 `Learn a lesson from the fig tree. As soon as its branches begin to grow and the leaves come, then you know it will soon be the warm time of the year.
29 `It is the same when you see all these things. You will know that the time is very near, right at the door.
30 I tell you the truth. The people who are living then will not die before all these things happen.
31 The sky and the earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
32 `But no one knows the day or the hour when the Son of Man will come. Even the angels in heaven and the Son do not know. Only the Father knows.
33 So watch! Stay awake and talk with God. You do not know when the time will be.
34 It is like a man who went to a country far away. He left his home and told each one of his servants what work he must do. Then he told the man who guards the door to watch.
35 So watch! You do not know when the master of the house will come. You do not know if he will come in the evening, or at midnight, or when the cock calls, or in the morning.
36 Watch, so that you will not be sleeping if he comes quickly.
37 What I say to you I say to everybody, and this is "Watch".'
