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.
24. False Christs and false prophets will come and perform great things and miracles. They will do these things to the people God has chosen. They will fool them, if that is possible.
25. Now I have warned you about this before it happens.
26. “If people tell you, ‘The Christ is in the desert’—don’t go there. If they say, ‘The Christ is in the inner room’—don’t believe it.
27. When the Son of Man comes, he will be seen by everyone. It will be like lightning flashing in the sky that can be seen everywhere.
28. Wherever there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.
29. “Soon after the trouble of those days, this will happen:‘The sun will grow dark.And the moon will not give its light.The stars will fall from the sky.And everything in the sky will be changed.’ Isaiah 13:10; 34:4
30. “At that time, there will be something in the sky that shows the Son of Man is coming. All the peoples of the world will cry. They will see the Son of Man coming on clouds in the sky. He will come with great power and glory.