Then spoke Jesus to the crowd, and to his disciples, "…He that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

"But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither allow you them that are entering to go in.

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore you shall receive the greater damnation.

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel sea and land to make one convert, and when he is made, you make him twice more the child of hell than yourselves.

"Woe unto you, you blind guides, which say, ‘Whoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!’ You fools and blind: for which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And, ‘Whoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.’ You fools and blind: for which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Whoever therefore shall swear by the altar, swears by it, and by all things on it. And whoever shall swear by the temple, swears by it, and by him that dwells in it. And he that shall swear by heaven swears by the throne of God, and by him that sits on it.

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone. You blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. You blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter that the outside of them may be clean also.

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like unto whited tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outside, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets, and adorn the tombs of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ Therefore you be witnesses unto yourselves, that you are the children of them, which killed the prophets. Fill you up then the measure of your fathers.

"You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell? Therefore, look, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall you whip in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zachariah… whom you killed between the temple and the altar. Truly I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets, and stone them which are sent unto you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not! Look, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, you shall not see me from here on, till you shall say, ‘Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.’"

And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and watched how the people threw money into the treasury: and many that were rich threw in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two small coins…. And Jesus called unto him his disciples, and said unto them, "Truly I say unto you, that this poor widow has thrown more in, than all they which have thrown into the treasury: For all they did throw in of their abundance; but she of her want did throw in all that she had, even all her living."

And as Jesus went out of the temple, one of his disciples said unto him, "Master, see what sort of stones and what buildings are here!"

And Jesus answering said unto him, "See…these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."

And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Jesus privately, saying, "Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the world?"

And Jesus answered and said unto them, "Take care that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, ‘I am Christ’; and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

"Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because lawlessness shall increase, the love of many shall become cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

"When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoever reads, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that are nursing in those days!

"But pray you that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

"Then if any man shall say unto you, ‘Lo, here is Christ,’ or ‘there’; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

"Look, I have told you before. Therefore if they shall say unto you, ‘Behold, he is in the desert’; go not out: ‘look, he is in the secret chambers’, believe it not. For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wherever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the ‘sea’ and the ‘waves’ roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

"And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

"And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds*, from one end of heaven to the other." And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draws near."

* The phrase ‘four winds’ is a way of saying, North, South, East, and West.

REFERENCES

Matthew 23:1; Matthew 23:11-39; Mark 12:41-44; Mark 13:1-2; Matthew 24:3-31; Luke 21:28.

CHAPTER 84