Mark 13:9-19

“You must be careful. People will arrest you and take you to court and beat you in their synagogues. You will be forced to stand before kings and governors, to tell them about me. This will happen to you because you follow me. But before these things happen, the Good News must be told to all people. When you are arrested and judged, don’t worry ahead of time about what you should say. Say whatever is given you to say at that time, because it will not really be you speaking; it will be the Holy Spirit. “Brothers will give their own brothers to be killed, and fathers will give their own children to be killed. Children will fight against their own parents and cause them to be put to death. All people will hate you because you follow me, but those people who keep their faith until the end will be saved. “You will see ‘a blasphemous object that brings destruction’ standing where it should not be.” (You who read this should understand what it means.) “At that time, the people in Judea should run away to the mountains. If people are on the roofs of their houses, they must not go down or go inside to get anything out of their houses. If people are in the fields, they must not go back to get their coats. At that time, how terrible it will be for women who are pregnant or have nursing babies! Pray that these things will not happen in winter, because those days will be full of trouble. There will be more trouble than there has ever been since the beginning, when God made the world, until now, and nothing as bad will ever happen again.