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

Those who are good are rewarded here on earth, so you can be sure that wicked and sinful people will be punished.

I will begin my work of destruction in my own city. Do they think they will go unpunished? No, they will be punished, for I am going to send war on all the people on earth. I, the LORD Almighty, have spoken.

"But if a righteous person stops doing good and starts doing all the evil, disgusting things that evil people do, will he go on living? No! None of the good he did will be remembered. He will die because of his unfaithfulness and his sins.

And I will test the third that survives and will purify them as silver is purified by fire. I will test them as gold is tested. Then they will pray to me, and I will answer them. I will tell them that they are my people, and they will confess that I am their God."

But God has already reduced the number of days; had he not done so, nobody would survive. For the sake of his chosen people, however, God will reduce the days.

For false Messiahs and false prophets will appear; they will perform great miracles and wonders in order to deceive even God's chosen people, if possible.

But the Lord has reduced the number of those days; if he had not, nobody would survive. For the sake of his chosen people, however, he has reduced those days.

For false Messiahs and false prophets will appear. They will perform miracles and wonders in order to deceive even God's chosen people, if possible.

For if such things as these are done when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?"

They strengthened the believers and encouraged them to remain true to the faith. "We must pass through many troubles to enter the Kingdom of God," they taught.

and said, 'Don't be afraid, Paul! You must stand before the Emperor. And God in his goodness to you has spared the lives of all those who are sailing with you.'

But Paul said to the army officer and soldiers, "If the sailors don't stay on board, you have no hope of being saved."

The soldiers made a plan to kill all the prisoners, in order to keep them from swimming ashore and escaping.

the rest were to follow, holding on to the planks or to some broken pieces of the ship. And this was how we all got safely ashore.

If you think you are standing firm you had better be careful that you do not fall.

Now, God has offered us the promise that we may receive that rest he spoke about. Let us take care, then, that none of you will be found to have failed to receive that promised rest.

My righteous people, however, will believe and live; but if any of them turns back, I will not be pleased with them."

We are not people who turn back and are lost. Instead, we have faith and are saved.

But evil people are not like this at all; they are like straw that the wind blows away.

Sinners will be condemned by God and kept apart from God's own people.

God's anger is revealed from heaven against all the sin and evil of the people whose evil ways prevent the truth from being known.

For when we were still helpless, Christ died for the wicked at the time that God chose.

God did not spare the ancient world, but brought the flood on the world of godless people; the only ones he saved were Noah, who preached righteousness, and seven other people.

God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, destroying them with fire, and made them an example of what will happen to the godless.

But the heavens and the earth that now exist are being preserved by the same command of God, in order to be destroyed by fire. They are being kept for the day when godless people will be judged and destroyed.

to bring judgment on all, to condemn them all for the godless deeds they have performed and for all the terrible words that godless sinners have spoken against him!"

whose people were wicked and sinned against the LORD.

and he sent you out with orders to destroy those wicked people of Amalek. He told you to fight until you had killed them all.

One day when many tax collectors and other outcasts came to listen to Jesus,

But God has shown us how much he loves us---it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us!