⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built^(A) into a spiritual house^[a](B) to be a holy priesthood,^(C) offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.^(D)

⁹ But you are a chosen people,^(A) a royal priesthood,^(B) a holy nation,^(C) God’s special possession,^(D) that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.^(E)

¹⁶ Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple^(A) and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?^(B)

¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

²⁰ built^(A) on the foundation^(B) of the apostles and prophets,^(C) with Christ Jesus himself^(D) as the chief cornerstone.^{(E) 21} In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple^(F) in the Lord. ²² And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.^(G)

The Man of Lawlessness

2 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ^(A) and our being gathered to him,^(B) we ask you, brothers and sisters, ² not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter^(C)—asserting that the day of the Lord^(D) has already come.^{(E) 3} Don’t let anyone deceive you^(F) in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion^(G) occurs and the man of lawlessness^[a] is revealed,^(H) the man doomed to destruction. ⁴ He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God^(I) or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.^(J)

The Beast out of the Sea

13 The dragon^[a] stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea.^(A) It had ten horns and seven heads,^(B) with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.^(C)

⁵ The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies^(A) and to exercise its authority for forty-two months.^{(B) 6} It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.^{(C) 7} It was given power to wage war^(D) against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.^{(E) 8} All inhabitants of the earth^(F) will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life,^(G) the Lamb^(H) who was slain from the creation of the world.^[a](I)

¹⁵ “So when you see standing in the holy place^(A) ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’^[a](B) spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—