As I continued watching in my vision that I had that night I saw one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.
As Jesus was leaving the Temple his disciples came to him, pointing proudly to the Temple buildings.
But Jesus replied, “You see all these buildings? I tell you the truth: there won't be one stone left upon another. Every last one will come crashing down!”
As Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him in private, and asked, “Please tell us when this will happen. What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the world?”
Then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven, and all the peoples of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and in brilliant glory.
The time when the Son of man comes will be like it was in Noah's day.
People went on eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day Noah went into the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
It will be like it was in Lot's day. People went on eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.
But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
The day when the Son of man appears will be just like that.
If you're up on the roof that day don't go down and get your things; and if you're out in the fields don't go back home either.
Remember Lot's wife!
If you try to hold on to your life you'll lose it; but if you lose your life you'll save it.
I tell you, at that time two will be in bed at night; one will be taken and the other left.
Two women will be grinding grain, one will be taken; and the other left.”
“Where, Lord?” they asked. “Where the carcass is, that's where the vultures gather,” Jesus replied.
“Men of Galilee, why are you standing here staring at the sky?” they asked. “This same Jesus who has been taken up from you to heaven shall come in the same way you saw him go into heaven.”
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the cry of the archangel, and with the sound of God's trumpet, and those who have died in Christ will rise first.
Then those of us who are alive and still here will be carried up together with them into the clouds, and we shall meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever!
Be aware that there will be troubled times in the last days.
People will love themselves and love money. They will be boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, and without God in their lives.
Heartless and unforgiving, they'll commit slander and have no self-control. Brutal people who hate what's good,
they will betray others and be totally thoughtless. They are absurdly full of themselves, living so much for pleasure that they don't care about loving God.
They may give an outward impression of being religious, but they don't actually believe it works. Stay away from these people!
Above all you should know that derisive people will come in the last days, full of mockery and following their own evil desires.
“So what happened to this coming he promised?” they ask. “Right from the time our ancestors died, everything's continued as it always has, ever since creation began.”
But they deliberately ignore the fact that by God's command the heavens were created long ago. The earth came into existence from the water, and was surrounded by water.
It was through water that the world that then existed was destroyed—through being flooded by water.
But by means of that same divine command the heavens and the earth that now exist are reserved for destruction by fire at the day of judgment when the wicked will be destroyed.
However, my friends, don't forget this one thing: that for the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day.
The Lord is not delaying the fulfillment of his promise, as some define delay, but he is being very patient with you. He doesn't want anyone to be lost, but everyone to come and repent.
However, the day of the Lord will come, unexpectedly like a thief. The heavens will explode with a thunderous roar, and the elements will be destroyed as they are burned up. The earth and everything in it will vanish.