Book of Common Prayer

¹⁹ You will say to me then, So why does he still blame us? For who can resist his will? ²⁰ But, O man, what are you to dispute with God? Shall the work say to the workman, Why have you made me this way? ²¹ Does the potter not have power over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? ²² Accordingly, God, intending to show his wrath and to make his power known, suffered with long patience the vessels of wrath fitted to damnation, ²³ in order to show the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had prepared for glory – ²⁴ that is to say, us, whom he called not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles.

²⁵ As he says in Hosea: I will call them my people who were not my people, and her beloved who was not beloved. ²⁶ And: It will come to pass in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, that there the children of the living God shall be called. ²⁷ But Isaiah cries concerning Israel: Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet shall but a remnant be saved. ²⁸ He carries out the word to the end, and makes it short in righteousness. For a short word will God make on earth. ²⁹ And as Isaiah said before: If the Lord of Sabaoth had not left us a seed, we would have been made as Sodom, and would have been likened to Gomorrah.

³⁰ What shall we say then? We say that the Gentiles, who did not follow righteousness, have found righteousness; I mean, the righteousness which comes of faith. ³¹ But Israel, who followed the law of righteousness, could not attain to the law of righteousness. ³² And why not? Because they sought it not by faith, but as if it were by the works of the law. For they have stumbled at the stumbling stone. ³³ As it is written: Behold, I put in Zion a stumbling stone, and a rock that will make men fall. But none who believe on him will be ashamed.

Christ reveals to his disciples the destruction of the temple, the end of the world, and the signs of the latter days. He warns them to awake, for the world will suddenly perish.

24 And Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple. ² Jesus said to them, Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that will not be cast down.

³ And as he sat on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us when these things will be, and what sign will be of your coming, and of the end of the world.

⁴ And Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in my name saying, I am Christ! and will deceive many. ⁶ You will hear of wars and of the infamy of wars. But see that you be not troubled. For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. ⁷ For nation will rise against nation, and realm against realm. And there will be pestilence, hunger, and earthquakes in all quarters. ⁸ All these are the beginning of sorrows.

⁹ Then they will put you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. ¹⁰ And then shall many fall into offence, and will betray one another, and will hate one another. ¹¹ And many false prophets will arise, and will deceive many. ¹² And because iniquity will have the upper hand, the love of many will abate.

¹³ But he who endures to the end, the same will be saved. ¹⁴ And this glad tidings of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness to all nations; and then shall the end come.