Revelation 20

The Thousand Years

1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the abyss and a heavy chain.

2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent—that is, the Devil, or Satan—and chained him up for a thousand years.

3 The angel threw him into the abyss, locked it, and sealed it, so that he could not deceive the nations any more until the thousand years were over. After that he must be set loose for a little while.

4 Then I saw thrones, and those who sat on them were given the power to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been executed because they had proclaimed the truth that Jesus revealed and the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image, nor had they received the mark of the beast on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and ruled as kings with Christ for a thousand years.

5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were over.) This is the first raising of the dead.

6 Happy and greatly blessed are those who are included in this first raising of the dead. The second death has no power over them; they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they will rule with him for a thousand years.

The Defeat of Satan

7 After the thousand years are over, Satan will be set loose from his prison,

8 and he will go out to deceive the nations scattered over the whole world, that is, Gog and Magog. Satan will bring them all together for battle, as many as the grains of sand on the seashore.

9 They spread out over the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people and the city that he loves. But fire came down from heaven and destroyed them.

10 Then the Devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had already been thrown; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

The Final Judgment

11 Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sits on it. Earth and heaven fled from his presence and were seen no more.

12 And I saw the dead, great and small alike, standing before the throne. Books were opened, and then another book was opened, the book of the living. The dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books.

13 Then the sea gave up its dead. Death and the world of the dead also gave up the dead they held. And all were judged according to what they had done.

14 Then death and the world of the dead were thrown into the lake of fire. (This lake of fire is the second death.)

15 Those who did not have their name written in the book of the living were thrown into the lake of fire.

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Revelation 21

The New Heaven and the New Earth

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth disappeared, and the sea vanished.

2 And I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared and ready, like a bride dressed to meet her husband.

3 I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne: “Now God’s home is with people! He will live with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them, and he will be their God.

4 He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. The old things have disappeared.”

5 Then the one who sits on the throne said, “And now I make all things new!” He also said to me, “Write this, because these words are true and can be trusted.”

6 And he said, “It is done! I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end. To anyone who is thirsty I will give the right to drink from the spring of the water of life without paying for it.

7 Those who win the victory will receive this from me: I will be their God, and they will be my children.

8 But cowards, traitors, perverts, murderers, the immoral, those who practice magic, those who worship idols, and all liars—the place for them is the lake burning with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

The New Jerusalem

9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came to me and said, “Come, and I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

10 The Spirit took control of me, and the angel carried me to the top of a very high mountain. He showed me Jerusalem, the Holy City, coming down out of heaven from God

11 and shining with the glory of God. The city shone like a precious stone, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates and with twelve angels in charge of the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of the people of Israel.

13 There were three gates on each side: three on the east, three on the south, three on the north, and three on the west.

14 The city’s wall was built on twelve foundation stones, on which were written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15 The angel who spoke to me had a gold measuring stick to measure the city, its gates, and its wall.

16 The city was perfectly square, as wide as it was long. The angel measured the city with his measuring stick: it was fifteen hundred miles long and was as wide and as high as it was long.

17 The angel also measured the wall, and it was 216 feet high,according to the standard unit of measure which he was using.

18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city itself was made of pure gold, as clear as glass.

19 The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation stone was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald,

20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh yellow quartz, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chalcedony, the eleventh turquoise, the twelfth amethyst.

21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls; each gate was made from a single pearl. The street of the city was of pure gold, transparent as glass.

22 I did not see a temple in the city, because its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.

23 The city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God shines on it, and the Lamb is its lamp.

24 The peoples of the world will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their wealth into it.

25 The gates of the city will stand open all day; they will never be closed, because there will be no night there.

26 The greatness and the wealth of the nations will be brought into the city.

27 But nothing that is impure will enter the city, nor anyone who does shameful things or tells lies. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of the living will enter the city.

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Revelation 22

1 The angel also showed me the river of the water of life, sparkling like crystal, and coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb

2 and flowing down the middle of the city’s street. On each side of the river was the tree of life, which bears fruit twelve times a year, once each month; and its leaves are for the healing of the nations.

3 Nothing that is under God’s curse will be found in the city.

The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him.

4 They will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads.

5 There shall be no more night, and they will not need lamps or sunlight, because the Lord God will be their light, and they will rule as kings forever and ever.

The Coming of Jesus

6 Then the angel said to me, “These words are true and can be trusted. And the Lord God, who gives his Spirit to the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must happen very soon.”

7 “Listen!” says Jesus. “I am coming soon! Happy are those who obey the prophetic words in this book!”

8 I, John, have heard and seen all these things. And when I finished hearing and seeing them, I fell down at the feet of the angel who had shown me these things, and I was about to worship him.

9 But he said to me, “Don’t do it! I am a servant together with you and with your brothers the prophets and of all those who obey the words in this book. Worship God!”

10 And he said to me, “Do not keep the prophetic words of this book a secret, because the time is near when all this will happen.

11 Whoever is evil must go on doing evil, and whoever is filthy must go on being filthy; whoever is good must go on doing good, and whoever is holy must go on being holy.”

12 “Listen!” says Jesus. “I am coming soon! I will bring my rewards with me, to give to each one according to what he has done.

13 I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

14 Happy are those who wash their robes clean and so have the right to eat the fruit from the tree of life and to go through the gates into the city.

15 But outside the city are the perverts and those who practice magic, the immoral and the murderers, those who worship idols and those who are liars both in words and deeds.

16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to announce these things to you in the churches. I am descended from the family of David; I am the bright morning star.”

17 The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come!”

Everyone who hears this must also say, “Come!”

Come, whoever is thirsty; accept the water of life as a gift, whoever wants it.

Conclusion

18 I, John, solemnly warn everyone who hears the prophetic words of this book: if any add anything to them, God will add to their punishment the plagues described in this book.

19 And if any take anything away from the prophetic words of this book, God will take away from them their share of the fruit of the tree of life and of the Holy City, which are described in this book.

20 He who gives his testimony to all this says, “Yes indeed! I am coming soon!”

So be it. Come, Lord Jesus!

21 May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with everyone.

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Jude 1

1 From Jude, servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James—

To those who have been called by God, who live in the love of God the Father and the protection of Jesus Christ:

2 May mercy, peace, and love be yours in full measure.

False Teachers

3 My dear friends, I was doing my best to write to you about the salvation we share in common, when I felt the need of writing at once to encourage you to fight on for the faith which once and for all God has given to his people.

4 For some godless people have slipped in unnoticed among us, persons who distort the message about the grace of our God in order to excuse their immoral ways, and who reject Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord. Long ago the Scriptures predicted the condemnation they have received.

5 For even though you know all this, I want to remind you of how the Lordonce rescued the people of Israel from Egypt, but afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

6 Remember the angels who did not stay within the limits of their proper authority, but abandoned their own dwelling place: they are bound with eternal chains in the darkness below, where God is keeping them for that great Day on which they will be condemned.

7 Remember Sodom and Gomorrah, and the nearby towns, whose people acted as those angels did and indulged in sexual immorality and perversion: they suffer the punishment of eternal fire as a plain warning to all.

8 In the same way also, these people have visions which make them sin against their own bodies; they despise God’s authority and insult the glorious beings above.

9 Not even the chief angel Michael did this. In his quarrel with the Devil, when they argued about who would have the body of Moses, Michael did not dare condemn the Devil with insulting words, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

10 But these people attack with insults anything they do not understand; and those things that they know by instinct, like wild animals, are the very things that destroy them.

11 How terrible for them! They have followed the way that Cain took. For the sake of money they have given themselves over to the error that Balaam committed. They have rebelled as Korah rebelled, and like him they are destroyed.

12 With their shameless carousing they are like dirty spots in your fellowship meals. They take care only of themselves. They are like clouds carried along by the wind, but bringing no rain. They are like trees that bear no fruit, even in autumn, trees that have been pulled up by the roots and are completely dead.

13 They are like wild waves of the sea, with their shameful deeds showing up like foam. They are like wandering stars, for whom God has reserved a place forever in the deepest darkness.

14 It was Enoch, the seventhdirect descendant from Adam, who long ago prophesied this about them: “The Lord will come with many thousands of his holy angels

15 to bring judgment on all, to condemn them all for the godless deeds they have performed and for all the terrible words that godless sinners have spoken against him!”

16 These people are always grumbling and blaming others; they follow their own evil desires; they brag about themselves and flatter others in order to get their own way.

Warnings and Instructions

17 But remember, my friends, what you were told in the past by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

18 They said to you, “When the last days come, people will appear who will make fun of you, people who follow their own godless desires.”

19 These are the people who cause divisions, who are controlled by their natural desires, who do not have the Spirit.

20 But you, my friends, keep on building yourselves up on your most sacred faith. Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit,

21 and keep yourselves in the love of God, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy to give you eternal life.

22 Show mercy toward those who have doubts;

23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; and to others show mercy mixed with fear, but hate their very clothes, stained by their sinful lusts.

Prayer of Praise

24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to bring you faultless and joyful before his glorious presence—

25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, from all ages past, and now, and forever and ever! Amen.

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3 John 1

1 From the Elder—

To my dear Gaius, whom I truly love.

2 My dear friend, I pray that everything may go well with you and that you may be in good health—as I know you are well in spirit.

3 I was so happy when some Christians arrived and told me how faithful you are to the truth—just as you always live in the truth.

4 Nothing makes me happier than to hear that my children live in the truth.

Gaius Is Praised

5 My dear friend, you are so faithful in the work you do for other Christians, even when they are strangers.

6 They have spoken to the church here about your love. Please help them to continue their trip in a way that will please God.

7 For they set out on their trip in the service of Christ without accepting any help from unbelievers.

8 We Christians, then, must help these people, so that we may share in their work for the truth.

Diotrephes and Demetrius

9 I wrote a short letter to the church; but Diotrephes, who likes to be their leader, will not pay any attention to what I say.

10 When I come, then, I will bring up everything he has done: the terrible things he says about us and the lies he tells! But that is not enough for him; he will not receive the Christians when they come, and even stops those who want to receive them and tries to drive them out of the church!

11 My dear friend, do not imitate what is bad, but imitate what is good. Whoever does good belongs to God; whoever does what is bad has not seen God.

12 Everyone speaks well of Demetrius; truth itself speaks well of him. And we add our testimony, and you know that what we say is true.

Final Greetings

13 I have so much to tell you, but I do not want to do it with pen and ink.

14 I hope to see you soon, and then we will talk personally.

15 Peace be with you.

All your friends send greetings. Greet all our friends personally.

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2 John 1

1 From the Elder—

To the dear Lady and to her children,whom I truly love. And I am not the only one, but all who know the truth love you,

2 because the truth remains in us and will be with us forever.

3 May God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, give us grace, mercy, and peace; may they be ours in truth and love.

Truth and Love

4 How happy I was to find that some of your children live in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.

5 And so I ask you, dear Lady: let us all love one another. This is no new command I am writing you; it is the command which we have had from the beginning.

6 This love I speak of means that we must live in obedience to God’s commands. The command, as you have all heard from the beginning, is that you must all live in love.

7 Many deceivers have gone out over the world, people who do not acknowledge that Jesus Christ came as a human being. Such a person is a deceiver and the Enemy of Christ.

8 Be on your guard, then, so that you will not lose what wehave worked for, but will receive your reward in full.

9 Anyone who does not stay with the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God. Whoever does stay with the teaching has both the Father and the Son.

10 So then, if some come to you who do not bring this teaching, do not welcome them in your homes; do not even say, “Peace be with you.”

11 For anyone who wishes them peace becomes their partner in the evil things they do.

Final Words

12 I have so much to tell you, but I would rather not do it with paper and ink; instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you personally, so that we shall be completely happy.

13 The children of your dear Sistersend you their greetings.

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1 John 1

The Word of Life

1 We write to you about the Word of life, which has existed from the very beginning. We have heard it, and we have seen it with our eyes; yes, we have seen it, and our hands have touched it.

2 When this life became visible, we saw it; so we speak of it and tell you about the eternal life which was with the Father and was made known to us.

3 What we have seen and heard we announce to you also, so that you will join with us in the fellowship that we have with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

4 We write this in order that ourjoy may be complete.

God Is Light

5 Now the message that we have heard from his Son and announce is this: God is light, and there is no darkness at all in him.

6 If, then, we say that we have fellowship with him, yet at the same time live in the darkness, we are lying both in our words and in our actions.

7 But if we live in the light—just as he is in the light—then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin.

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us.

9 But if we confess our sins to God, he will keep his promise and do what is right: he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all our wrongdoing.

10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make a liar out of God, and his word is not in us.

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1 John 2

Christ Our Helper

1 I am writing this to you, my children, so that you will not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have someone who pleads with the Father on our behalf—Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

2 And Christ himself is the means by which our sins are forgiven, and not our sins only, but also the sins of everyone.

3 If we obey God’s commands, then we are sure that we know him.

4 If we say that we know him, but do not obey his commands, we are liars and there is no truth in us.

5 But if we obey his word, we are the ones whose love for God has really been made perfect. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God:

6 if we say that we remain in union with God, we should live just as Jesus Christ did.

The New Command

7 My dear friends, this command I am writing you is not new; it is the old command, the one you have had from the very beginning. The old command is the message you have already heard.

8 However, the command I now write you is new, because its truth is seen in Christ and also in you. For the darkness is passing away, and the real light is already shining.

9 If we say that we are in the light, yet hate others, we are in the darkness to this very hour.

10 If we love others, we live in the light, and so there is nothing in us that will cause someone elseto sin.

11 But if we hate others, we are in the darkness; we walk in it and do not know where we are going, because the darkness has made us blind.

12 I write to you, my children, because your sins are forgiven for the sake of Christ.

13 I write to you, fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you have defeated the Evil One.

14 I write to you, my children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you are strong; the word of God lives in you, and you have defeated the Evil One.

15 Do not love the world or anything that belongs to the world. If you love the world, you do not love the Father.

16 Everything that belongs to the world—what the sinful self desires, what people see and want, and everything in this world that people are so proud of—none of this comes from the Father; it all comes from the world.

17 The world and everything in it that people desire is passing away; but those who do the will of God live forever.

The Enemy of Christ

18 My children, the end is near! You were told that the Enemy of Christ would come; and now many enemies of Christ have already appeared, and so we know that the end is near.

19 These people really did not belong to our fellowship, and that is why they left us; if they had belonged to our fellowship, they would have stayed with us. But they left so that it might be clear that none of them really belonged to us.

20 But you have had the Holy Spirit poured out on you by Christ, and so all of you know the truth.

21 I write you, then, not because you do not know the truth; instead, it is because you do know it, and you also know that no lie ever comes from the truth.

22 Who, then, is the liar? It is those who say that Jesus is not the Messiah. Such people are the Enemy of Christ—they reject both the Father and the Son.

23 For those who reject the Son reject also the Father; those who accept the Son have the Father also.

24 Be sure, then, to keep in your hearts the message you heard from the beginning. If you keep that message, then you will always live in union with the Son and the Father.

25 And this is what Christ himself promised to give us—eternal life.

26 I am writing this to you about those who are trying to deceive you.

27 But as for you, Christ has poured out his Spirit on you. As long as his Spirit remains in you, you do not need anyone to teach you. For his Spirit teaches you about everything, and what he teaches is true, not false. Obey the Spirit’s teaching, then, and remain in union with Christ.

28 Yes, my children, remain in union with him, so that when he appears we may be full of courage and need not hide in shame from him on the Day he comes.

29 You know that Christ is righteous; you should know, then, that everyone who does what is right is God’s child.

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1 John 3

Children of God

1 See how much the Father has loved us! His love is so great that we are called God’s children—and so, in fact, we are. This is why the world does not know us: it has not known God.

2 My dear friends, we are now God’s children, but it is not yet clear what we shall become. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is.

3 Everyone who has this hope in Christ keeps himself pure, just as Christ is pure.

4 Whoever sins is guilty of breaking God’s law, because sin is a breaking of the law.

5 You know that Christ appeared in order to take away sins,and that there is no sin in him.

6 So everyone who lives in union with Christ does not continue to sin; but whoever continues to sin has never seen him or known him.

7 Let no one deceive you, my children! Whoever does what is right is righteous, just as Christ is righteous.

8 Whoever continues to sin belongs to the Devil, because the Devil has sinned from the very beginning. The Son of God appeared for this very reason, to destroy what the Devil had done.

9 Those who are children of God do not continue to sin, for God’s very nature is in them; and because God is their Father, they cannot continue to sin.

10 Here is the clear difference between God’s children and the Devil’s children: those who do not do what is right or do not love others are not God’s children.

Love One Another

11 The message you heard from the very beginning is this: we must love one another.

12 We must not be like Cain; he belonged to the Evil One and murdered his own brother Abel. Why did Cain murder him? Because the things he himself did were wrong, and the things his brother did were right.

13 So do not be surprised, my friends, if the people of the world hate you.

14 We know that we have left death and come over into life; we know it because we love others. Those who do not love are still under the power of death.

15 Those who hate others are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life in them.

16 This is how we know what love is: Christ gave his life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for others!

17 If we are rich and see others in need, yet close our hearts against them, how can we claim that we love God?

18 My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.

Courage before God

19 This, then, is how we will know that we belong to the truth; this is how we will be confident in God’s presence.

20 If our conscience condemns us, we know that God is greater than our conscience and that he knows everything.

21 And so, my dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, we have courage in God’s presence.

22 We receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.

23 What he commands is that we believe in his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as Christ commanded us.

24 Those who obey God’s commands live in union with God and God lives in union with them. And because of the Spirit that God has given us we know that God lives in union with us.

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1 John 4

The True Spirit and the False Spirit

1 My dear friends, do not believe all who claim to have the Spirit, but test them to find out if the spirit they have comes from God. For many false prophets have gone out everywhere.

2 This is how you will be able to know whether it is God’s Spirit: anyone who acknowledges that Jesus Christ came as a human being has the Spirit who comes from God.

3 But anyone who denies this about Jesus does not have the Spirit from God. The spirit that he has is from the Enemy of Christ; you heard that it would come, and now it is here in the world already.

4 But you belong to God, my children, and have defeated the false prophets, because the Spirit who is in you is more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world.

5 Those false prophets speak about matters of the world, and the world listens to them because they belong to the world.

6 But we belong to God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us. This, then, is how we can tell the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

God Is Love

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God.

8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

9 And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him.

10 This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.

11 Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another.

12 No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in union with us, and his love is made perfect in us.

13 We are sure that we live in union with God and that he lives in union with us, because he has given us his Spirit.

14 And we have seen and tell others that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

15 If we declare that Jesus is the Son of God, we live in union with God and God lives in union with us.

16 And we ourselves know and believe the love which God has for us.

God is love, and those who live in love live in union with God and God lives in union with them.

17 Love is made perfect in us in order that we may have courage on the Judgment Day; and we will have it because our life in this world is the same as Christ’s.

18 There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear. So then, love has not been made perfect in anyone who is afraid, because fear has to do with punishment.

19 We love because God first loved us.

20 If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen.

21 The command that Christ has given us is this: whoever loves God must love others also.

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