‘In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.
Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings.
‘Do you see all these things?’ he asked. ‘Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.’
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. ‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?’
‘Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.
‘Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
‘It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.
But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulphur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
‘It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
On that day no-one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no-one in the field should go back for anything.
Remember Lot’s wife!
Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.
I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left.
Two women will be grinding corn together; one will be taken and the other left.’
‘Where, Lord?’ they asked.
He replied, ‘Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.’
‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord for ever.
But mark this: there will be terrible times in the last days.
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God –
having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.
They will say, ‘Where is this “coming” he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’
But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.
By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.