When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. But he laid his right hand upon me, and said, "Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last,

I know what you have done; your hard work and your endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, and that you have tested those who claimed to be apostles when they were not, and have found them to be impostors.

You show endurance; you have undergone much for my sake, and you have not grown weary.

But I hold it against you that you do not love as you did at first.

So remember how far you have fallen, and repent and do as you did at first, or else I will come to you and take your lampstand from its place, if you do not repent.

I know of your distress and poverty??hough you are rich!?? know how you are slandered by those who claim to be Jews when they are not so, but only a synagogue of Satan!

Do not be afraid of what you are going to suffer. See! The devil is going to put some of you into prison to be tested there, and for ten days to endure persecution. Prove faithful even unto death and I will give you the crown of life.

Let everyone who can hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. He who is victorious will not be hurt by the second death.'

I know where you live; where Satan has his throne! Yet you cling to my name and did not renounce your faith in me even in the days when my faithful Antipas, my witness, was put to death among you??here Satan lives.

But to the rest of you at Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching and have not learned the "deep things" of Satan, as they call them??o you I say, I have no fresh burden to lay on you,

So remember what you received and heard, and obey it, and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I am coming upon you.

Yet you have a few at Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me clad in white, for they deserve to.

He who is victorious will be clothed thus, in white clothing, and I will not erase his name from the book of life, but I will acknowledge him as mine in the presence of my Father and his angels.

I know what you are doing. See! I have put before you an open door that no one can close. I know that you have little strength, but you have obeyed my message and you have not disowned my name.

I will make some who belong to that synagogue of Satan and claim to be Jews when they are not so, but are lying?? will make them come and bow down at your feet, and learn that I loved you.

I will make him who is victorious a pillar in the temple of my God; he shall never go out of it again. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God??he new Jerusalem, which is to come down out of heaven from my God??nd my new name.

Because you say, "I am rich, I have become wealthy, I need nothing," and you do not know that it is you that are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked,

The four animals have each of them six wings, and they are covered with eyes all over and underneath their wings. And day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and is and is coming."

But one of the elders said to me, "Do not cry! See! The lion who is of the tribe of Judah, of the line of David, has been victorious so that he can open the roll and break its seals."

and I heard a voice which seemed to come from the midst of the four animals say, "Wheat at a dollar a quart, and barley three quarts for a dollar, but you must not injure the oil and wine!"

"Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we mark the slaves of our God on their foreheads."

That is why they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple, and he who is seated on the throne will shelter them.

Then the fourth angel blew his trumpet, and one third of the sun was blasted, and one third of the moon and one third of the stars, so that one third of them were darkened, and there was no light for one third of the day and of the night.

They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only the men who did not have the mark of God's seal upon their foreheads.

They were not allowed to kill anyone, but only to torture them for five months, and the torture they inflicted was like that caused by a scorpion when it stings a man.

Yet what was left of mankind, those who escaped being killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands and give up worshiping demons and gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wooden idols, which cannot either see or hear or move,

and they did not repent of their murders, or their magic arts, or their immorality, or their thefts.

When the seven thunders had spoken I was going to write it down, but I heard a voice from heaven say, "Seal up what the seven thunders have said! Do not write it down!"

but leave out the court outside the temple; do not measure that, for it has been given up to the heathen, and for forty-two months they will trample on it.

For three days and a half, men of all peoples, tribes, languages, and nations will look at their bodies, and will not let them be buried.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, "The deliverance and power and reign of our God, and the authority of his Christ have now come, for the accuser of our brothers, who kept bringing charges against them day and night before our God, has been hurled down.

They have conquered him because of the Lamb's blood, and the message to which they bore testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death.

All the inhabitants of the earth whose names have not from the foundation of the world been written in the slain Lamb's book of life, will worship it.

It is also allowed to impart life to the animal's statue so that the animal's statue can speak, and to have all who do not worship the animal's statue killed.

They are the men who have not been defiled by relations with women; they are celibates. It is they who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been ransomed from among men as the first-fruits for God and the Lamb,

The smoke of their torture will go up forever and ever, and they will have no rest night or day??hese worshipers of the animal and its statue, and any who bear the mark of its name."

Who will not fear and give glory to your name, Lord? For you alone are holy. All the heathen will come and worship before you, for the justice of your sentences has now been shown."

and they were dreadfully scorched, but they reviled the name of God who had control of these plagues, and would not repent and give him glory.

and reviled the God of heaven for their sufferings and sores, but they would not repent of what they had done.

(See, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who keeps awake, and keeps hold of his clothes, so that he will not have to go naked and be put to shame!)

The animal that you saw was, and is no more; it is going to come up out of the abyss, but it is to go to destruction. The inhabitants of the earth, whose names from the foundation of the world have not been written in the book of life, will be amazed when they see that the animal was, and is no more, and yet is to come.

They are also seven kings; five have fallen, one is reigning, the other has not yet come, and when he does his stay must be brief.

The ten horns that you saw are also ten kings, who have not yet begun to reign, but for a single hour they receive authority as kings along with the animal.

Then I heard another voice from heaven say, "Come out of her, my people, so that you may not share in her sins, and suffer from her plagues.

The more she has given herself to pride and luxury the more you must give her torture and grief. Because she says to herself, 'I sit on a throne; I am not a widow, I shall never have any sorrow,'

and cinnamon, spices, incense, perfume, frankincense, wine, olive oil, flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, carriages, slaves??nd human lives!

I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, "You must not do that. I am only a fellow-slave of yours and of your brothers who have accepted the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is what inspires prophecy."

Then I saw thrones with beings seated on them, who were empowered to act as judges. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded on account of the testimony of Jesus and the message of God, who refused to worship the animal and its statue, and would not have its mark put on their foreheads or on their hands. They were restored to life and reigned with the Christ a thousand years.

The rest of the dead were not restored to life until the thousand years were over. This is the first resurrection.

and the devil who led them astray was flung into the fiery, sulphurous lake, where the animal and the false prophet were, there to be tortured day and night forever and ever.

Then I saw a great white throne with a being seated on it from whose presence earth and sky fled so far that they could not be found.

Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was flung into the fiery lake.

The city does not need the sun nor the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God lighted it, and the Lamb is its lamp.

Its gates will never be shut by day??or there will be no night there

There will no longer be any night and they will have no need of lamplight or sunlight, for the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.

But he said to me, "You must not do that. I am only a fellow-slave of yours and of your brothers the prophets and the men who heed the words of this book. Worship God!

"Do not seal up the words of prophecy that are in this book," he said to me, "for the time of their fulfilment is very near.