Keep what you have heard from the beginning in your hearts; then you will always be in union with the Son and the Father.

You still retain in your hearts the anointing with the Spirit that you received from him, and you do not need to have anyone teach you. But just as that anointing of his teaches you about everything, and as it is true and no falsehood, keep in union with him just as it has taught you to do.

Now, dear children, keep in union with him, so that if he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame when he comes.

Whoever commits sin is a child of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. This is why the Son of God appeared??o undo the devil's work.

For the message you have heard from the beginning is this: We must love one another.

We know what love means from the fact that he laid down his life for us; so we also ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

From that we can be sure that we are on the side of the truth, and satisfy our consciences in God's sight,

and we obtain from him whatever we ask for, because we are obeying his commands and doing the things that please him.

Dear friends, do not believe every inspired utterance, but test the utterances to see whether they come from God, for many false prophets have come out into the world.

You can tell the Spirit of God in this way: all inspiration that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in human form comes from God,

and any inspired utterance that does not acknowledge Jesus does not come from God; it is the inspiration of the Antichrist. You have heard that it was coming, and here it is already in the world.

We are God's children. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not a child of God will not listen to us. In this way we can tell what is inspired by truth from what is inspired by error.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God, and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.

This is the command that we get from him, that whoever loves God must love his brother also.

Dear children, keep away from idols.

blessing, mercy, and peace be with us from God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, in truth and love.

And now I beg you, my lady??ot as though I were writing you any new command, but one which we have had from the beginning??et us love one another.

Love means this, that we be guided by his commands. The command, as you have heard from the beginning, is to be guided by love.

For they have started out for the sake of the cause, and they are accepting nothing from the heathen.

Of them also Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, when he said, "See! The Lord comes with his holy myriads

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in his presence irreproachable and triumphant??25 to the one God our Savior be glory, majesty, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord now and forever and ever. Amen.

John to the seven churches in Asia, blessing and peace to you from him who is and was and is coming, and from the seven spirits before his throne,

and from Jesus Christ the trustworthy witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the sovereign of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has released us from our sins by his blood

In his right hand he held seven stars; from his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword, and his face shone like the sun at noonday.

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.

To him who is victorious and continues to the end to do the things that please me, I will give authority over the heathen??27 just such authority as I received from my Father; he will shepherd them with an iron staff and shatter them like earthen jars!??28 and I will give him the morning star.

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 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.

I advise you to buy of me gold that has been tested with fire, so that you may be rich, and white clothes to put on, to keep your shameful nakedness from being seen, and salve to put on your eyes, to make you see.

Out from the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder. In front of the throne seven blazing lamps were burning; they are the seven spirits of God.

He came and took the roll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.

Then they sang a new song: "You deserve to take the roll and open its seals, for you have been slaughtered, and with your blood have bought for God men from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation,

And another horse came forth, bright red, and its rider was given power to take peace away from the earth, and make men slaughter one another; he was given a great sword.

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!"

the sky was torn apart and rolled up like a roll; and every mountain and island was dislodged from its place.

And they said to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us, and conceal us from the sight of him who is seated on the throne, and from the anger of the Lamb,

Then I saw another angel ascend from the east with the seal of the living God, and he cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who had it in their power to harm the earth and the sea,

I heard that the number of those that were marked with the seal was 144,000. They were from every tribe of the children of Israel:

12,000 from the tribe of Judah that were marked; 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben; 12,000 from the tribe of Gad;

12,000 from the tribe of Asher; 12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali; 12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh;

12,000 from the tribe of Symeon; 12,000 from the tribe of Levi; 12,000 from the tribe of Issachar;

12,000 from the tribe of Zebulon; 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph; 12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin.

After that I saw a great crowd which no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes, with palm branches in their hands,

Then one of the elders addressed me and said, "Who are these people dressed in white robes, and where do they come from?"

for the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe every tear from their eyes."

So the smoke of the incense went up before God from the angel's hand for the prayers of his people.

Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar, and emptied it upon the earth, and there followed peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

Then the third angel blew his trumpet, and there fell from the sky a great star blazing like a torch, and it fell upon one third of the streams and the springs of water.

Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen on the earth from the sky. He was given the key to the pit of the abyss,

and he opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke like the smoke of a great furnace poured up out of the pit, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the pit.

In those days men will seek death and never find it. They will want to die, but death will fly from them.

Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the corners of the altar of gold that was before God

And this was how the horses and their riders looked in my vision: Their breast-plates were fire red, dark blue, and yellow. The horses' heads were like lions' heads, and fire, smoke, and sulphur poured from their mouths.

One third of mankind were killed by these three plagues??he fire, smoke, and sulphur that poured from their mouths.

Then I saw another mighty angel descend from heaven. He was clothed in a cloud, and a rainbow encircled his head. His face was like the sun, his legs were like pillars of fire,

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!"

Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, and said, "Go and take the little scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land."

So I took the little scroll from the angel's hand and ate it, and it did taste as sweet as honey, but when I had eaten it, it made my stomach bitter.

After three days and a half, the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror seized those who saw them.

And they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a cloud, before the eyes of their enemies.

Then the serpent poured water from his mouth after the woman like a river, to sweep her away.

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 performs great wonders, even making fire come down from heaven to earth before men's eyes.

And I heard a sound from heaven, like the sound of great waters, and loud peals of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing on their harps.

They were singing a new song before the throne and the four animals and the elders, and no one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been ransomed from the earth.

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,

Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who from this time forth die as Christians!" "Yes!" answers the Spirit, "Let them rest from their toil, for what they have done will go with them!"

And another angel came forth from the altar, who presided over the fire, and he called in a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, "Use your sharp sickle and gather the bunches of grapes from the earth's vine, for the grapes on it are ripe."

And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and standing upon the sea of glass those who had come off victorious from the animal and its statue and the number corresponding to its name. They had harps that God had given them,

and the temple was filled with smoke from the glory and power of God, and no one could go into the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were over.

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple say to the seven angels, "Go and empty the seven bowls of God's wrath upon the earth!"

The sixth emptied his bowl upon the great river Euphrates, and its waters dried up to make the way ready for the kings from the east.

Then I saw three foul spirits like frogs emerge from the mouth of the dragon and from the mouth of the animal and from the mouth of the false prophet.

The seventh emptied his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, "It is all over!"

huge hailstones of immense weight fell on mankind from heaven, and men reviled God because of the plague of hail, the plague of it was so terrible.

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.

Afterward I saw another angel come down from heaven. He possessed great authority and his splendor lighted up the earth.

for after drinking the wine of the passion of her immorality all the heathen have fallen; the kings of the earth have joined in her idolatry, and the traders of the earth have grown rich from her excessive luxury!"

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 kings of the earth who have joined in her idolatry and luxury will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke from her burning.

The dealers in these things, who had grown rich from their trade with her, for fear of her torture will stand a long way off, weeping and mourning,

and cried out when they saw the smoke from her burning, 'What city was like the great city?'

Then they said again, "Praise the Lord! For smoke will go up from her forever and ever!"

And there came a voice from the throne, saying, "Praise our God, all you slaves of his, high and low, who fear him!"

From his mouth came a sharp sword with which he is to strike down the heathen. He will shepherd them with a staff of iron, and will tread the winepress of the fierce anger of God Almighty.

Then I saw an angel come down from heaven with the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.

and hurled him into the abyss and he closed it and sealed it over him, to keep him from leading the heathen astray any longer, until the thousand years are over; after that he has to be released for a little while.

When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison,

They came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the encampment of God's people, and the beloved city. Then fire came down from heaven and consumed them,

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.

And I saw the new Jerusalem, the holy city, come down out of heaven from God, like a bride dressed and ready to meet her husband.

I heard a loud voice from the throne say, "See! God's dwelling is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them,

and he will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no death any longer, nor any grief or crying or pain. The old order has passed away."

It is all over!" he told me, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end I will give anyone who is thirsty water without cost from the spring of the water of life.

He carried me away in a trance to a great, high mountain, and showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down out of heaven from God,

Then he showed me a river of living water, clear as crystal, which issued from the throne of God and of the Lamb,

and if anyone removes from this book any of the prophetic messages it contains, God will remove from him his share in the tree of life and the holy city which are described in this book.