One night, when everyone was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.

'It was some enemy who did this,' he answered. 'Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?' they asked him.

We are not like so many others, who handle God's message as if it were cheap merchandise; but because God has sent us, we speak with sincerity in his presence, as servants of Christ.

I am afraid that your minds will be corrupted and that you will abandon your full and pure devotion to Christ---in the same way that Eve was deceived by the snake's clever lies.

Those men are not true apostles---they are false apostles, who lie about their work and disguise themselves to look like real apostles of Christ.

So it is no great thing if his servants disguise themselves to look like servants of righteousness. In the end they will get exactly what their actions deserve.

At that time you followed the world's evil way; you obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers in space, the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God.

Put on all the armor that God gives you, so that you will be able to stand up against the Devil's evil tricks.

For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age.

Then the Wicked One will be revealed, but when the Lord Jesus comes, he will kill him with the breath from his mouth and destroy him with his dazzling presence.

and use every kind of wicked deceit on those who will perish. They will perish because they did not welcome and love the truth so as to be saved.

Be alert, be on watch! Your enemy, the Devil, roams around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

The huge dragon was thrown out---that ancient serpent, named the Devil, or Satan, that deceived the whole world. He was thrown down to earth, and all his angels with him.

And it deceived all the people living on earth by means of the miracles which it was allowed to perform in the presence of the first beast. The beast told them to build an image in honor of the beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet lived.

The beast was taken prisoner, together with the false prophet who had performed miracles in his presence. (It was by those miracles that he had deceived those who had the mark of the beast and those who had worshiped the image of the beast.) The beast and the false prophet were both thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.

He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent---that is, the Devil, or Satan---and chained him up for a thousand years.

The angel threw him into the abyss, locked it, and sealed it, so that he could not deceive the nations any more until the thousand years were over. After that he must be set loose for a little while.

After the thousand years are over, Satan will be set loose from his prison,

They spread out over the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people and the city that he loves. But fire came down from heaven and destroyed them.

It will be like this at the end of the age: the angels will go out and gather up the evil people from among the good

As Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him in private. "Tell us when all this will be," they asked, "and what will happen to show that it is the time for your coming and the end of the age."

They are very wicked; cut them down like grain at harvest time; crush them as grapes are crushed in a full wine press until the wine runs over."

Then another angel came out from the temple and cried out in a loud voice to the one who was sitting on the cloud, "Use your sickle and reap the harvest, because the time has come; the earth is ripe for the harvest!"

Then I saw another angel come out of the temple in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle.

So the angel swung his sickle on the earth, cut the grapes from the vine, and threw them into the wine press of God's furious anger.

"When the Son of Man comes as King and all the angels with him, he will sit on his royal throne,

and a stream of fire was pouring out from it. There were many thousands of people there to serve him, and millions of people stood before him. The court began its session, and the books were opened.

and he will give relief to you who suffer and to us as well. He will do this when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven with his mighty angels,

They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from his glorious might,

It was Enoch, the seventh direct descendant from Adam, who long ago prophesied this about them: "The Lord will come with many thousands of his holy angels