1 The Holy Spirit tells us clearly about things that will happen in the last days of this world. He says that some people will stop believing the true word from God. Instead, they will believe lies that come from bad spirits. Those bad spirits will trick them, and they will believe those lies.
1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
1 BUT THE [Holy] Spirit distinctly and expressly declares that in latter times some will turn away from the faith, giving attention to deluding and seducing spirits and doctrines that demons teach,
1 The Spirit clearly says that in latter times some people will turn away from the faith. They will pay attention to spirits that deceive and to the teaching of demons.
1 Now the Spirit has clearly said that, in the end times, some persons will depart from the faith, paying attention to spirits of error and the doctrines of devils,
In God’s book we read about his people a long time ago. Sometimes some liars started to teach God’s people things that were wrong. They reckoned they were saying God’s words, but they were lying. And the same sort of thing will happen now. There will be people among you that will teach things that are wrong. If you listen to them, you will go wrong, and it will be bad for you. Those people will even turn against Jesus. He is our leader, and he died to save them. And one day soon, God will punish them for that wrong thing they do.
They said, “In the last times, some people will laugh at God, and they will laugh at Christians. They will only think about the bad things they want for themselves, and they will do whatever bad things they want to do.”
And this is very important, so I want you to understand it. These days are the last days of this world, and now some people will come and laugh at you, and they will say that you are stupid. Those people always do any bad thing they feel like doing. They laugh at God’s true story.
I talk like this because there are some bad people that secretly came into your group. That mob don’t want to do the things that God wants. Instead, they do all the bad things that they want to do. They reckon it is all right to do those bad things. They say, “God is good to us, so he lets us do these bad things.” Whenever they say that, they are really trying to change God’s true message. And they are turning away from Jesus, our only true boss. But God says in his book that he will punish those bad people.
After the Holy Spirit comes, he will tell you what is true. He will teach you everything that is true about God. He will not say his own words, but only the words he heard from God. He will also tell you about things that will happen later on.
A long time ago, before God made the world, he picked Jesus to set you free. Then, later, Jesus came into the world. And now you know about him. You know that he died for you, and so you believe in God too. After Jesus died, God made him alive again, and God made him very great and gave him a lot of power. Now you can trust God and wait for everything he promised you.
There are some people that tell lies and say, “God has shown us special things.” Those people think up their own ideas, and that makes them feel smart. But they tell you that they are not smart, and then they tell you to show respect to God’s angel messengers, as if those angels are God. But they are trying to trick you. Don’t take any notice of those people, and don’t believe those lies.
Really, those people are showing respect to bad spirits, not God, and they are joining themselves to bad spirits. Don’t do that. I don’t want you to join up with bad spirits.
So they started to argue with each other, and then they got up to go home. Then Paul told the people that didn’t believe his message, “The Holy Spirit said a true word to your grand-fathers, a long time ago. He told God’s man, Isaiah, to write this, and it is in God’s book. He wrote,
Some of that Athens mob always thought about the best way to live, and they always talked to other people about it. Some of them were called Epicurians, and some of them were called Stoics. They talked to Paul, and he told them about Jesus. Paul said that Jesus died, and that God made him alive again. Some of that mob said, “This man is just talking rubbish.” Others said, “We think he is talking about gods from other countries.”
At one time, Barnabas and Saul, and those other men, they stopped eating food for a while, and they prayed to God. At that time, the Holy Spirit said to them, “Pick out Barnabas and Saul for me now. I’ve got special work for them to do.”
Jesus said to his followers, “You know, there will always be somebody that will try to make you go wrong and do bad things, but God will punish the person that does that.
He came to us, and he took off Paul’s belt. Then he tied his own feet and hands together with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says this, ‘See the man that owns this belt. The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will tie him up, just like this, and they will give him as a prisoner to the people that are not Jews.’ ”