For there will rise up false Christs and false prophets, displaying signs and prodigies with a view to lead astray –if indeed that were possible– even God's own People.
»You yourselves must be on your guard. They will deliver you up to Sanhedrins; you will be brought into synagogues and cruelly beaten; and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to be witnesses to them for me.«
»But take heed to yourselves, lest your souls be weighed down with self-indulgence and drunkenness or the anxieties of this life, and that day come upon you, suddenly, like a falling trap;
»See to it,« He replied, »that you are not misled; for many will come assuming my name and professing, `I am He,' or saying, `The time is close at hand.' Do not go and follow them.
You, therefore, dear friends, having been warned beforehand, must continually be on your guard so as not to be led astray by the false teaching of immoral men nor fall from your own stedfastness.