8. These things are like the first pains when something new is about to be born.
9. “Then men will arrest you and hand you over to be hurt and kill you. They will hate you because you believe in me.
10. At that time, many who believe will lose their faith. They will turn against each other and hate each other.
11. Many false prophets will come and cause many people to believe false things.
12. There will be more and more evil in the world. So most people will stop showing their love for each other.
13. But the person who continues to be strong until the end will be saved.
14. The Good News about God’s kingdom will be preached in all the world, to every nation. Then the end will come.
15. “Daniel the prophet spoke about ‘the horrible thing that destroys.’ You will see this terrible thing standing in the holy place.” (You who read this should understand what it means.)
16. “At that time, the people in Judea should run away to the mountains.
17. If a person is on the roof of his house, he must not go down to get anything out of his house.
18. If a person is in the field, he must not go back to get his coat.
19. At that time, it will be hard for women who are pregnant or have nursing babies!
20. Pray that it will not be winter or a Sabbath day when these things happen and you have to run away.
21. This is because at that time there will be much trouble. There will be more trouble than has ever happened since the beginning of the world. And nothing as bad as that will ever happen again.
22. God has decided to make that terrible time short. If that time were not made short, then no one would go on living. But God will make that time short to help the people he has chosen.
23. At that time, someone might say to you, ‘Look, there is the Christ!’ Or another person might say, ‘There he is!’ But don’t believe them.