Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’” The woman answered the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You must not eat of it or touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not surely die,” the serpent told her. “For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” . . .

“For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.

“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of the One who holds the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive, yet you are dead. Wake up and strengthen what remains, which was about to die; for I have found your deeds incomplete in the sight of My God. Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you. But you do have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments, and because they are worthy, they will walk with Me in white. Like them, he who overcomes will be dressed in white. And I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and His angels. . . .

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts gain rich understanding. His praise endures forever!

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.

Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more, because God had taken him away.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.”

“I heard Your voice in the garden,” he replied, “and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”

So He told them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness as well. Indeed, sin is lawlessness.

And God looked upon all that He had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

These are the sons of Ham according to their clans, languages, lands, and nations.

These are the sons of Shem, according to their clans, languages, lands, and nations.

“You will not surely die,” the serpent told her. “For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

My tongue sings of Your word, for all Your commandments are righteous.

And on her forehead a mysterious name was written: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury.”

And if anyone was found whose name was not written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.

“Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made them. Now no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, nor had any plant of the field sprouted; for the LORD God had not yet sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. . . .

On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!”

Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?

For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;

With one accord they all continued in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”

“Very well,” said the LORD to Satan. “Everything he has is in your hands, but you must not lay a hand on the man himself.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me.

Then a second angel followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.”

He will rule them with an iron scepter and shatter them like pottery—just as I have received authority from My Father.

and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.

Consequently, he does not live out his remaining time on earth for human passions, but for the will of God.

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise.

but test all things. Hold fast to what is good.

Furthermore, he must have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the snare of the devil.

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.

And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.

With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error.

But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its works will be laid bare.

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to conduct yourselves in holiness and godliness

Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed. He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now restrains it will continue until he is taken out of the way.

Then they will come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, who has taken them captive to his will.

This Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son,

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, which is the church.

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous when God gave approval to his gifts. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he did not see death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.

Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless.

Then John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and resting on Him.

I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming, and he has no claim on Me.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment (for he had removed it) and jumped into the sea.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with him.” Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. . . .

God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

Beloved, although I made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt it necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted once for all to the saints.

Many have undertaken to compose an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by the initial eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah, and whose wife Elizabeth was a daughter of Aaron. . . .

Demons also came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But He rebuked the demons and would not allow them to speak, because they knew He was the Christ.

“If You are the Son of God,” he said, “throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

I say to you that many will come from the east and the west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seven royal crowns on his heads.

Then another sign appeared in heaven: a huge red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seven royal crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars from the sky, tossing them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, ready to devour her child as soon as she gave birth.

And the great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

Then I saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the sea. There were ten royal crowns on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.

Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. This beast had two horns like a lamb, but spoke like a dragon. And this beast exercised all the authority of the first beast and caused the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed.

Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.” And the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, where I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls. She held in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead a mysterious name was written: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. . . .

And the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, where I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.

And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable beast.

He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen.

Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, or to obedience leading to righteousness?

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope

that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.