Then the king called for his wise men and magicians, and by their magic they did the same thing.

Then the king's magicians did the same thing by means of their magic, and the king was as stubborn as ever. Just as the LORD had said, the king refused to listen to Moses and Aaron.

But the magicians used magic, and they also made frogs come up on the land.

The magicians tried to use their magic to make gnats appear, but they failed. There were gnats everywhere,

Be on your guard against him yourself, because he was violently opposed to our message.

'How?' the LORD asked. The spirit replied, 'I will go and make all of Ahab's prophets tell lies.' The LORD said, 'Go and deceive him. You will succeed.' "

Then the prophet Zedekiah went up to Micaiah, slapped his face, and asked, "Since when did the LORD's spirit leave me and speak to you?"

That same year, in the fifth month of the fourth year that Zedekiah was king, Hananiah son of Azzur, a prophet from the town of Gibeon, spoke to me in the Temple. In the presence of the priests and of the people he told me

Within two years I will bring back to this place all the Temple treasures that King Nebuchadnezzar took to Babylonia.

Then in the presence of the priests and of all the people who were standing in the Temple, I said to Hananiah,

But listen to what I say to you and to the people.

But a prophet who predicts peace can only be recognized as a prophet whom the LORD has truly sent when that prophet's predictions come true."

and said in the presence of all the people, "The LORD has said that this is how he will break the yoke that King Nebuchadnezzar has put on the neck of all the nations; and he will do this within two years." Then I left.

to go and tell Hananiah: "The LORD has said that you may be able to break a wooden yoke, but he will replace it with an iron yoke.

Then I told Hananiah this, and added, "Listen, Hananiah! The LORD did not send you, and you are making these people believe a lie.

And Hananiah died in the seventh month of that same year.

But they were opposed by the magician Elymas (that is his name in Greek), who tried to turn the governor away from the faith.

and said, "You son of the Devil! You are the enemy of everything that is good. You are full of all kinds of evil tricks, and you always keep trying to turn the Lord's truths into lies!

We have heard that some who went from our group have troubled and upset you by what they said; they had not, however, received any instruction from us.

Actually, there is no "other gospel," but I say this because there are some people who are upsetting you and trying to change the gospel of Christ.

We have said it before, and now I say it again: if anyone preaches to you a gospel that is different from the one you accepted, may he be condemned to hell!

although some wanted it done. Pretending to be believers, these men slipped into our group as spies, in order to find out about the freedom we have through our union with Christ Jesus. They wanted to make slaves of us,

but in order to keep the truth of the gospel safe for you, we did not give in to them for a minute.

Then we shall no longer be children, carried by the waves and blown about by every shifting wind of the teaching of deceitful people, who lead others into error by the tricks they invent.

The Wicked One will come with the power of Satan and perform all kinds of false miracles and wonders,

And so God sends the power of error to work in them so that they believe what is false.

For there are many, especially the converts from Judaism, who rebel and deceive others with their nonsense.

False prophets appeared in the past among the people, and in the same way false teachers will appear among you. They will bring in destructive, untrue doctrines, and will deny the Master who redeemed them, and so they will bring upon themselves sudden destruction.

In their greed these false teachers will make a profit out of telling you made-up stories. For a long time now their Judge has been ready, and their Destroyer has been wide awake!

My children, the end is near! You were told that the Enemy of Christ would come; and now many enemies of Christ have already appeared, and so we know that the end is near.

My dear friends, do not believe all who claim to have the Spirit, but test them to find out if the spirit they have comes from God. For many false prophets have gone out everywhere.

But this is what you have in your favor: you hate what the Nicolaitans do, as much as I do.

But there are a few things I have against you: there are some among you who follow the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak how to lead the people of Israel into sin by persuading them to eat food that had been offered to idols and to practice sexual immorality.

In the same way you have people among you who follow the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

But this is what I have against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a messenger of God. By her teaching she misleads my servants into practicing sexual immorality and eating food that has been offered to idols.

You have no part or share in our work, because your heart is not right in God's sight.

Repent, then, of this evil plan of yours, and pray to the Lord that he will forgive you for thinking such a thing as this.

Because those people refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God, he has given them over to corrupted minds, so that they do the things that they should not do.

For those who do such things are not serving Christ our Lord, but their own appetites. By their fine words and flattering speech they deceive innocent people.

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.

and keep your faith and a clear conscience. Some people have not listened to their conscience and have made a ruin of their faith.

Such teachings are spread by deceitful liars, whose consciences are dead, as if burnt with a hot iron.

and constant arguments from people whose minds do not function and who no longer have the truth. They think that religion is a way to become rich.

They claim that they know God, but their actions deny it. They are hateful and disobedient, not fit to do anything good.

They want to look for nothing but the chance to commit adultery; their appetite for sin is never satisfied. They lead weak people into a trap. Their hearts are trained to be greedy. They are under God's curse!

They said to you, "When the last days come, people will appear who will make fun of you, people who follow their own godless desires."

These are the people who cause divisions, who are controlled by their natural desires, who do not have the Spirit.

Put yourselves to the test and judge yourselves, to find out whether you are living in faith. Surely you know that Christ Jesus is in you?---unless you have completely failed.

I trust you will know that we are not failures.