The Daily Audio Bible
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36 The king will do whatever he wants to do. He will say that he is greater than any god. He will even say proud things to insult the God who rules all other gods. He will be successful until the time when God's anger finishes. God will finish doing what he has decided to do. 37 This king will not respect the gods that his ancestors worshipped. He will not even respect the god that women love. He will not respect any god. He will think that he is greater than all the gods. 38 Instead, he will give honour to the god that makes cities strong and safe. His ancestors did not know that god. But he will give gold, silver, jewels and other valuable gifts as offerings to that god. 39 He will ask a foreign god to help him as he attacks the strongest cities of his enemies. He will give great honour to those people who accept him as their leader. He will give them authority to rule many people. He will give them land because they have helped him.
40 At the time of the end, the king of the south will attack him. The king of the north will fight against him very strongly. He will march out quickly with chariots and soldiers who ride on horses. He will also have many ships. His army will attack many countries. He will go through those countries like a strong flood of water. 41 He will march into the Beautiful Land. He will kill many thousands of the people there. But these people will escape from his power: the people of Edom and Moab, and the leaders of Ammon. 42 He will have power over many countries. The country of Egypt will not escape. 43 He will take away from Egypt the gold, silver and other valuable things. The people of Libya and Ethiopia will be under his power.
44 But he will become afraid when he hears news from the east and the north. It will cause him to be very angry. He will go with his army to destroy many people. 45 He will put up his royal tents between the seas, at the holy mountain.[a] But he will die there and nobody will help him.’
This world will come to an end
12 Then the angel said to me, ‘At that time God's great angel Michael will come. He is the leader who takes care of your people. There will be a time of great trouble. It will be worse than any trouble that has happened since God first made your nation. But many of your own people will escape from that trouble. Those are all the people whose names are written in the book.[b] 2 Many dead people who lie under the ground will become alive again. Some of them will receive life that continues for ever with God. But other people will receive shame that continues for ever. 3 People who are wise will shine like the bright sky. Those who help many people to do what is right will also shine brightly for ever. They will shine like the stars in the sky at night.
4 Daniel, you must now close this message. Put seals on the book so that nobody can open it until it is time for the end of this world. Many people will try to understand about these things. They will travel everywhere to get more knowledge.’[c]
5 After the angel said this, I, Daniel, looked up. I saw two other people. One of them stood on the same side of the river as me. The other one stood on the other side of the river. 6 One of them spoke to the man who wore linen clothes and who now stood above the river. He asked that man, ‘How long will it be until these wonderful things finish?’ 7 The man who wore linen clothes lifted up both his hands towards the sky. I heard him make a strong promise with the authority of God, who lives for ever. He said, ‘It will continue for three and a half times.[d] Then the enemies of God's holy people will finally lose their power. That will be the end of all these events.’
8 I heard the man's words, but I did not understand. So I said, ‘Sir, how will all these things finally finish?’ 9 He said to me, ‘You must go now, Daniel. This message will remain secret until it is time for the end of this world. The seals will keep the book closed. 10 The time of trouble will cause many people to become clean and pure. But wicked people will continue to do evil things. No wicked people will understand what God is doing. But wise people will understand.
11 People will suffer for 1,290 days during that time of trouble. It will start from the time when people can no longer offer their sacrifices each day in the temple. That is when the enemy will put a disgusting thing that causes trouble in the holy place.[e] 12 But God will bless all those people who remain faithful until the 1,335 days come to an end.
13 You yourself must serve God faithfully until the end of your life. You will die. But at the end of time you will rise to live again. Then you will receive the good things that God has prepared for you.’
The Holy Spirit and false spirits
4 My friends, do not believe everyone who says that they speak God's message. There are many false prophets who are travelling around everywhere. They say that they have a message from God's Spirit, but the message comes from a false spirit. So check each message carefully to see if it is really from God.
2 How do you know whether a person has God's Spirit in him? He must agree that Jesus is God's Messiah who was born as a human baby. If someone says that, then he has God's Spirit. 3 But if someone does not agree to say that about Jesus, he does not have God's Spirit. That person has a spirit that comes from the enemy of Christ. You have heard that this enemy of Christ would come among us. Now this spirit is already here in the world.
4 My little children, you belong to God. You have won against those people with a false message. You have been able to do that because God's Holy Spirit is in you. He is more powerful than the spirit that belongs to this world. 5 Those false prophets belong to this world. Their message comes from the ideas of people of this world. So the people of this world believe what they teach. 6 But we belong to God. Everyone who knows God believes our message. But anyone who does not belong to God does not believe it.
So that is how we know if someone's message comes from God's Spirit or not. God's Spirit brings us a true message, but false spirits tell lies.[a]
Love each other because God loved us
7 My friends, we should all love each other. It is God who makes us able to love other people. Everyone who loves other people has become a child of God. That person knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love other people does not know God. We know this because God's own nature is love. 9 This is how God showed that he loves us: He sent his only Son to come and live in the world. He did that so that we could have true life with God because of his Son. 10 This shows what love is: It is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us. He loved us so much that he sent his Son to save us from sin. He sent Jesus to die as a sacrifice, to take the punishment for our sins.
11 My friends, this shows how much God has loved us. So we should also love one another.
12 Nobody has ever seen God. But, if we love each other, it shows that God lives in us. As a result, we can love people completely, in the same way that God loves us. 13 God has given us his Holy Spirit to live in us. Because of this, we know that we live together with God. And we know that he lives with us. 14 God the Father sent his Son to come into the world. God sent him to save the people of the world from their sins. We apostles have seen that this is true. So now we are telling people about it.
15 If anyone says clearly that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in that person. And that person lives together with God. 16 So we know the kind of love that God has for us. We believe that God has put that love in us. God's nature is love. So, if someone continues to love other people, he is living together with God. And God lives in him. 17 That is how we are able to love other people completely. Then, we will not be afraid on the day when God will judge all people. We can be sure that God will not punish us. We know this because we have lived in this world in the way that Jesus lived.
18 If we really love God, we will not be afraid of him. We cannot love him completely and also be afraid. We would only be afraid of God if we thought that he would punish us. So, if someone is afraid that God will punish them, it shows that they do not completely know God's love.
19 We are able to love God and other people because God loved us first. 20 Someone may say, ‘I love God.’ But if he says that and he hates another Christian, he is telling a lie. He sees other believers but he does not love them. So he surely cannot love God that he has not seen. 21 This is the command that God has given us. He has told us that anyone who loves him should love other Christians too.[b]
A song to sing as we climb.
Servants of the Lord
123 I look up to you, God,
as you rule from your throne in heaven.
2 Yes, our eyes look up to the Lord our God.
We want him to be kind to us, so we wait for his help.
We wait like servants who want help from their master.
3 Please be kind to us, Lord. Please forgive us.
People have insulted us more and more!
4 We have had too much!
Proud people laugh at us,
and they do not respect us.
Please stop them!
2 When righteous people are doing well, everyone is happy.
But when wicked people rule, everyone is sad.
3 A man who loves wisdom makes his father happy.
But anyone who is a friend of prostitutes is wasting his father's money.
4 A king who rules with justice makes his country strong.
But a king who takes lots of taxes destroys his country.
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