Book of Common Prayer

10 My dear family, the longing of my heart, and my prayer to God on their behalf, is for their salvation. ² I can testify on their behalf that they have a zeal for God; but it is not based on knowledge. ³ They were ignorant, you see, of God’s covenant faithfulness, and they were trying to establish a covenant status of their own; so they didn’t submit to God’s faithfulness. ⁴ The Messiah, you see, is the goal of the law, so that covenant membership may be available for all who believe.

The fulfillment of the covenant

⁵ Moses writes, you see, about the covenant membership defined by the law, that “the person who performs the law’s commands shall live in them.” ⁶ But the faith-based covenant membership puts it like this: “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who shall go up to heaven?’ ” (in other words, to bring the Messiah down), ⁷ “or, ‘Who shall go down into the depths?’ ” (in other words, to bring the Messiah up from the dead). ⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we proclaim); ⁹ because if you profess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ Why? Because covenant membership comes by believing with the heart, and salvation comes by professing with the mouth. ¹¹ The Bible says, you see, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” ¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich towards all who call upon him. ¹³ “All who call upon the name of the Lord,” you see, “will be saved.”

The desolating sacrilege

¹⁵ “So when you see ‘the sacrilege that desolates,’ as Daniel the prophet put it, ‘standing in the holy place’ (the reader should understand), ¹⁶ then those who are in Judaea should take to their heels and run to the mountains. ¹⁷ If you’re up on your roof, don’t go down into the house to get things out. ¹⁸ If you’re in the fields, don’t go back to pick up your cloak. ¹⁹ It’s going to be terrible for pregnant and nursing women during those days. ²⁰ Pray that it won’t be winter when you have to run away, or for that matter a sabbath. ²¹ Yes: there’s going to be such great suffering then as has never been since the start of the world until now—no, and won’t ever be again. ²² And if those days had not been shortened, nobody at all would have been rescued. But for the sake of God’s chosen ones those days will be shortened.

²³ “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look! Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘Look! There he is!’ don’t believe them. ²⁴ False messiahs will arise, you see, and false prophets too. They will provide great signs and portents, so as to deceive even God’s chosen ones, if that were possible. ²⁵ Remember, I’m telling you this beforehand!

²⁶ “So if someone says to you, ‘Look! He’s out in the wilderness,’ don’t go out. If they say, ‘Look, he’s in the inner room,’ don’t believe them. ²⁷ You see, the royal appearing of the son of man will be like the lightning that comes from the East and flashes across to the West. ²⁸ Where the carcass is, there the vultures will gather.”

The coming of the son of man

²⁹ “Straight away,” Jesus continued, “after the suffering that those days will bring,

³⁰ “And then the sign of the son of man will appear in heaven; then all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see ‘the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory. ³¹ He will send off his messengers with a great trumpet-blast, and they will collect his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.