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Heart Language

November 7, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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On Bart Ehrman and Jesus Interrupted:

These is a message in the Bible that speaks to the heart of a man or woman and meets intimate, personal needs of the person who is open to that message.  I know no greater works on love or joy or peace or contentment.  There is also a great felt need on the part of many people to be relieved of the oppression of sin in wickedness found in their hearts.  Many people long to escape the oppression of sins of the heart and the sins from other’s hearts.  The message and the language of the Bible work in these areas of need of the human heart.  Jesus meets the deepest needs of the heart of love, acceptance and forgiveness among many others.

Henri J.M. Nouwen points out what HEART language is all about:

In our world of loneliness and despair, there is an enormous need for men an women who know the heart of God, a heart that forgives, that cares, that reaches out and want to heal. In that heart there is no suspicion, no vindictiveness, no resentment, and not a tinge of hatred. It is a heart that wants only to give love and receive love in response. It is a heart that suffers immensely because it sees the magnitude of human pain and the great resistance to trusting the heart of God who wants to offer consolation and hope.

Henri J. M. Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership (New York: Crossroads, 1989), 24.

Banish the thought that someone missed to message because they stumbled on the grammar or misspellings they find in the Greek manuscript copies. I hope the Dr. Ehrman can get past this in his personal life.

Categories: Apologetics · God · Jesus · faith
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What is your view of The Son?

June 15, 2009 · 1 Comment

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Take my Son
A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.
When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.
About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands. He said, ‘Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art..’ The young man held out this package. ‘I know this isn’t much.  I’m not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.’
The Father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. ‘Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It’s a gift.’
The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.
The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.  On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. ‘We will start the bidding with this picture of the son.. Who will bid for this picture?’
There was silence.
Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, ‘We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.’
But the auctioneer persisted. ‘Will somebody bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100…,$200?’
Another voice angrily was heard. ‘We didn’t come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Gogh’s, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!’
But still the auctioneer continued. ‘The son! The  son! Who’ll take the son?’
Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. ‘I’ll give $10 for the painting.’ Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.
‘We have $10, who will bid $20?’
‘Give it to him for $10. Let’s see the masters.’
The crowd was becoming angry. They didn’t want the picture of the son.
They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.
The auctioneer pounded the gavel. ‘Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!’
A man sitting on the second row shouted, ‘Now let’s get on with the collection!’
The auctioneer laid down his gavel. ‘I’m sorry, the auction is over.’
‘What about the paintings?’
‘I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned.. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who took the son gets everything!’
God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is: ‘The son, the son, who’ll take the son?’
Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything..
FOR  GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN  SON, WHO SO EVER BELIEVETH, SHALL HAVE ETERNAL  LIFE…THAT’S LOVE

Take my Son

A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.

When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.

About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands. He said, ‘Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art..’ The young man held out this package. ‘I know this isn’t much.  I’m not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.’

The Father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. ‘Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It’s a gift.’

The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.

The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.  On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. ‘We will start the bidding with this picture of the son.. Who will bid for this picture?’

There was silence.

Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, ‘We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.’

But the auctioneer persisted. ‘Will somebody bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100…,$200?’

Another voice angrily was heard. ‘We didn’t come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Gogh’s, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!’

But still the auctioneer continued. ‘The son! The  son! Who’ll take the son?’

Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. ‘I’ll give $10 for the painting.’ Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.

‘We have $10, who will bid $20?’

‘Give it to him for $10. Let’s see the masters.’

The crowd was becoming angry. They didn’t want the picture of the son.

They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.

The auctioneer pounded the gavel. ‘Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!’

A man sitting on the second row shouted, ‘Now let’s get on with the collection!’

The auctioneer laid down his gavel. ‘I’m sorry, the auction is over.’

‘What about the paintings?’

‘I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned.. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who took the son gets everything!’

God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is: ‘The son, the son, who’ll take the son?’

Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything..

For God loved the world so much that He gave is one and only son, that whoever believes in Him, will not perish but they will have Eternal Life….That’s real love

Categories: Jesus · faith
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Is the problem the Bible or our response to it?

April 21, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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The USA Today reporter/blogger, Tom Krattenmaker, has put out some points in his blog regarding how Bart Ehrman is giving us Christians questions to ponder.   Ehrman is out with a new book, Jesus Interrupted.  Though I have not read it, based on the reviews, this is more of the same from Ehrman.  There is no additional insight here from Misquoting Jesus,  his previous book.   Ehrman thinks because there are apparent differences in the gospels, say Matthew, written to a Jewish audience, and John, written later and to a non-Jewish audience, that means there are discrepencies and thus errors.   That is not the case at all.  The Gospels were each written to a different audience and thus emphasize different points about the same events in Jesus’ life in some cases.

Krattenmaker indicates that within the New Testament we find “varying perspectives and changing interpretations.  Yes we do find varying perspectives among the writers of the Gospels and over the years and even today there are changing interpretations of what is written in the New Testament.

The extreme that Krattenmaker goes to is that he assumes that the data coming from Bart Ehrman, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan are authenticated and valid and they may not be.

These men intend on rewriting history and revising the Bible.  The Bible is not simply a collection of writings of men,  they are that, but more–they reveal God’s mind and show us what He wants us to understand about Himself and previous events in history.


Categories: Apologetics
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Who is Jesus? — Bottom Line

March 28, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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image01413If  He, Jesus is God-Incarnate, the God-Man, then, He is superior to all!!! No other man on earth claimed deity. No other man or prophet on earth proved or backed up the claim to deity. We, the followers of Jesus, simply believe that He is who He claimed to be and that He backed that up in the most forceful way by His life on earth. The largest proof is His resurrection from the dead and ascension into Heaven. There is much proof supporting His resurrection from the dead.

You must understand that Christians who accept the Word of God, do not choose to believe that Jesus is the unique way to God. Once we believe He is God in the flesh, we simply have to see Him as the only way to know and serve God truly. Once that is understood—nothing else–no other prophet, no other religion, compares to Him.

What are your thoughts?

Categories: Apologetics · God · Jesus · Jesus' Divinity
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Who is Jesus and will you ever know who He is?

March 27, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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Who is Jesus? Do you think you know who He is? Will you ever know who He is? Until you have really contemplated Him and looked at the recorded history of Him, you will never know.

Paul’s friend and companion wrote precise details about his life. That would be one place to go and read if you want the history. Read it as history. Ignore the supernatural if you like for the moment and just find out what happened in his life. You owe it to yourself. What have you got to loose? Get an opinion or belief about him based on fact.

If He, Jesus is God-Incarnate, the God-Man, then, He is superior to all!!! No other man on earth claimed deity–that is, no other sane man. No other man/prophet on earth proved or backed up the claim to deity. We, followers of Jesus, simply believe that He is who He claimed to be and that He backed that up in the most forceful way by His life on earth. The largest proof is His resurrection from the dead and ascension into Heaven.

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Who is Jesus? — The Incarnation-Implications for you

March 27, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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Actually, the incarnation points to a truth that the cross will make clear, namely, that our salvation is by sheeeeeer grace. I can’t stress that enough. In every other religion the founder is a human being sent by God to show us what to do to be saved. But Jesus is God come Himself. Now if God only needed to inform us what to do for salvation, he could have sent a prophet!!!!!! His personal coming means He will not just tell us what we have to do to be saved, but will do for us all that we cannot do ourselves. He will live the obedient life we should have lived but did not. He will die to pay the penalty for the disobedient life we shouldn’t have lived but did. He came himself to accomplish our salvation for us.

If Jesus is God, there is endless hope for the world and for you! The Bible tells us that Jesus brought “the kingdom of God.” That means that Jesus, the true King, has returned and has begun to put the world right with His power. Right now, that healing is only partial but some day all deformity, decay, sin, disease and imperfection will be complete taken away from here. This means we live with infallible hope (Romans 8:18-25) Whatever problem we face-whether disease or injustice or some other suffering-eventually God’s power will triumph over it. Weeping may remain for the night but Joy comes with the morning (Ps 30:5) Jesus is God. That means God has landed!!! The ideal has penetrated the real and is transforming it into his likeness. The world is destined for joy sooner or later.

I savor these thought and will for my lifetime. Whatever your state today, I hope and pray you have a wonderful day and are overcome by joy in Him.

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Who is Jesus? — The Incarnation-Implications for Followers

March 27, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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I have looked at the specific passages in the Greek New Testament which outline the circumstances in Jesus’ life and have implications for all who will listen to Him. He is still speaking today and to those who follow His voice.

This video is designed primarily for those who already follow Him and have a relationship with Him or those actively seeking Him.

If Jesus is God, he is not simply to be admired and respected but to be worshipped and adored. The purpose of our lives is to behold his glory and beauty and that certainly means more than to believe in Him or even to obey him. He is the ultimate object of worship (II Corinthians 3:18). He is to be reveled in, savored and rejoiced in. Jesus is God. Therefore, he should be the ultimate beauty and satisfaction for our hearts.

If Jesus is God, he is to be absolutely obeyed and given the central priority of our lives. Jesus’ claim to be God polarizes the only possible response to him. No one can respond to him casually or moderately. If he is not who he said he is, he should be hated or utterly ignored. If he is who he said he is then he should be adored completely. We should center our lives entirely on Him. Jesus is the Creator and the Almighty God. He is not someone you can ask into your life as an assistant or consultant-he must be Lord. Jesus is God-and therefore he should be the pre-eminent concern of our choices, the ultimate Lord over our wills.

If Jesus is God, his salvation is of infinite value. His sufferings were of infinite value. His blood was shed as a ransom ( Mark 10:45) to pay for our sins. But his blood was the blood of God (Acts 20:28)! Imagine how valuable that is!

He was forsaken by the Father ( Matthew 27:46) as a way to take the penalty we deserved (II Corinthians 5:21; II Thesalonians 2:9). But the Father and Son knew one another from all eternity and have perfect love for each other. So the loss that Jesus experienced on the cross was infinitely greater the loss any other being would have experienced. The deity of Christ means that his salvation is super-abundantly sufficient for us. He is able to save “to the max, to the uttermost” (Heb. 7:25). No sin is too great to be forgiven; no corruption is too great to be healed. Jesus is God-and therefore he should bring complete rest and assurance to our consciences.

I will pause here to say if you are seeking Him or have come to know Him and do not have that rest and assurance—by all means get in touch. We can help in that way.

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Who is Jesus? — The Incarnation, a Retake

March 26, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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I realized after getting into the Incarnation of Jesus, the God-Man,  I had left much on the table that was said in the passages I used in the previous blog.  So,  I want to review them again and go much deeper.

John 1:1-3, 14

Here John challenges the pagan and the jewish views with these statements about the incarnation.   How does the incarnation challenge your world view?

The Incarnation in Jesus challenges the empiricist view.  This view denies that there is any eternal, supernatural world, or that the supernatural can ever break into and violate natural laws in the form of miracles.  The Incarnation, is THE Great Miracle of all time!

The incarnation challenges the post-modern view of the world.  What I hear from post- moderns is more mood than a coherent philosophy, but the post-modern view is that all depictions of reality are social constructs to serve the purpose of the dominant group, that there is no such thing as Truth with a capital T.

The incarnation, teaches that there is an absolute Truth and that Truth has become a human being.  Also, the incarnation challenges the modernized versions of religion which consist almost entirely of ethical behavior rather than focusing on the being, that is, what is inside a person.

The focus on ethical behavior puts in the background what is believed or the bases of that belief by saying “All religions basically believe in the same God. What really matters is that you are a good, loving and honest person.”

This pervasive view makes God a very vague and impersonal being.  God becomes a mysterious life-force and not a person we can know and relate to.  God is referred to in a very generic way.  Due to influence of eastern thought, many focus on meditation rather than verbal prayer-communication in order to “touch the divine.”

The incarnation, however, tells us that we have a palpable God—one who can be known, talked to, listened to, served, and loved.  The Incarnation gives us the most personal God in the face of modern efforts to depersonalize Deity.

John 14: 6,  I Timothy 2:5
How does the incarnation of God lead one to understand Jesus as the only mediator, the only way to reach God?

There is very strong opposition to the idea that Jesus is the only way to know and reach God.   This is seen as extreme narrow-mindedness.

This one aspect of the incarnation could take hours and hours of devotion and discussion.  Here I will only give a very brief summary.

If He, Jesus is God-Incarnate, the God-Man, then, He is superior to all!!!   No other man on earth claimed deity—that is, no other sane man.  No other man/prophet on earth proved or backed up the claim to deity.  We, followers of Jesus, simply believe that He is who He claimed to be and that He backed that up on the most forceful way by His life on earth.  The largest proof is His resurrection from the dead and ascension into Heaven.

You must understand that Christians who accept the Word of God, do not choose to believe that Jesus is the unique way to God.  Once we believe He is God in the flesh, we simply have to see Him as the only way to know and serve God truly.  Once that is understood—nothing else–no other prophet, no other religion, compares to His life and revelation.

Matthew 9:2-3

Here Jesus takes the authority to forgive sins.  The teachers of the law very correctly believed He was claiming a right that only God has.  When Jesus forgives this man’s sin,  he is saying that all sins are AGAINST HIM.  How can He say that if He is not God?  He can’t.  Only God can claim that all sins are against Him, since He made the world and everything in it and all sins are against His creation.  This scene makes it clear who Jesus claims to be.  He claims are radical as demonstrated by the reaction He got from Jewish leaders.

Matthew 11:27

“All things have been committed to me”   Wow!!  That is a staggering claim that he has the right and power to control everything that exists.

“No one knows the Father but the Son”  He claims to have complete knowledge of the Father in a way that no one else in the universe does.

“…no one  knows the Father”    He cannot mean that no one has any knowledge or any relationship to God.  Many know God in a limited way, so Jesus must be claiming absolute knowledge of God.  He is saying, “Compared to the exhaustive way I know the Father, no one knows him at all.”    But that raises a question—how could any mortal human claim to completely know the infinite God?

“…no one knows the Son but the Father.”  This may be more startling that all the statements he made here.  He is saying that He alone is capable of knowing the Father, so, the Father alone is capable of knowing him!!!  This is a flabbergasting claim that the Son, Jesus, is at an equal level and standing with the Father.

John 8:52-59
He claims to have existed well before Abraham was on earth.

John 20:28-29
Jesus accepts Thomas’ worship of Himself as God here.  Did you know that John repeatedly falls at the feet of an angel in worship in the book of Revelation??   The angel forbids it each time he does.  Jesus never forbids worship of Himself.

Mark 1:2-3
(Isaiah 40: 3-5)

Mark is saying that John the Baptist is the messenger predicted in Is 40:3-5.  There Isaiah says that the messenger is paving the way for YAHWEH ie, the LORD of glory!!!!!!   Therefore,  Mark is saying in the most unmistakable terms that in Jesus is the Lord God Himself.

Acts 20:28

Luke recorded Paul speaking about the church which “God…bought with his own blood.”  Think about that–the only person who shed blood, on the cross, was Jesus.  This means that Jesus was God and that His blood was God’s blood.  This shows that Luke and Paul believed that Jesus was full deity by the way this is recorded.

Colossians 2:9-10

This is unmistakable:  “All the fullness of the Deity (the only Deity) dwells in bodily form.”   Who was that?  It was and is Jesus.  Paul could have used a greek word that simply means divine qualities or godlike-ness.   Instead he uses the actual word for God   Theos.  Which means that God in all his fullness is in Jesus.  We can’t say that Jesus has part of the divine nature, but that all of it is in Him.

Hebrews 1:1-3

I said this before but I will say it again.  Jesus is the “exact” representation of God’s glory and being.  He is a mirror image, an absolute equal to the reflected object in every way—shape, brightness, clarity, etc.   Jesus holds the entire universe together;  he sustains it with the “word of his power.”

I believe there is only one conclusion we can take away from these scriptures.  Jesus is the supreme, the Majesty. He is to be honored, reverenced and worshiped because He is God.

I’d love to discuss with you further.

Categories: Apologetics · God · Jesus · Jesus' Divinity
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Who is Jesus? — the Great C. S. Lewis Quote

March 24, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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He claims to forgive sins.  He says He has always existed.  He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time.  Now let us get this clear.  Among Pantheists, like the Indians, anyone might say that he was  part of God, or one with God:  there would be nothing very odd about it.  But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean that kind of God.  God, in their language, meant the Being outside the world Who had made it and was infinitely different from anything else.  And when you have grasped that you will see that what This man said, was,  quite simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips..
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him.  “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim  to be God.”  That is the one thing we must not say a man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell.  You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us.  He did not intend to…Jesus was never regarded as a mere moral teacher.  He did not produce that effect on any of the  people who actually met Him.  He produced three effects – Hatred, Terror, and Adoration.  There was no trace of people expressing mild approval.  — C. S. Lewis

Categories: Apologetics · God · Jesus · Jesus' Divinity
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The Only Creed that Matters

March 20, 2009 · 1 Comment

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Wow! I did not realize this!! I am in my fifties and I am just finding this out. Oh, My God, why didn’t someone tell me sooner.

Someone asked: “What are you talking about?” “What did you need to know sooner?”

I did not know until recently that the earliest description of the life of Jesus was not included in any of the Gospels. The earliest description is found in the Apostle Paul’s writings—I Corinthians 15.

A creed was developed by the early Christians and the Apostle Paul received it from other Apostles, Peter and James. Critics believe he received it when he first went up to Jerusalem, see Gal 1: 18-19.

So what is this creed and how do we know it was a creed?

How do we know? Form criticism experts have done the research to determine that within these verses is the creed delivered to Paul.

What is the creed? I Corinthians 15: 3b-6a, and verse 7
…that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…
…and that he was buried…
…and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…
…and that he was seen by Cephas, then by the Twelve…
…then he was seen by over five hundred brethren at once…
…then he was seen by James, then by all the apostles…
So, there it is. A statement of faith by the earliest Christians going back to just after Jesus rose from the dead.

What is a creed? It is generally a summary statement about an event or set of beliefs. In this case it is both, because events were involved and these events established facts related to beliefs.

Could this be legend? I think not. This is a news flash of what happened right after it happened. It was coded and stated by Christians to one another and to others around them.

Do you believe these statements about Jesus? Do you want to investigate the earliest writings about him? Here it is. Read 1 Corinthians 15 and then move to the next documentation: the Gospel of Mark or any of the other gospels.

More lengthy research on the creed.

Categories: Apologetics · Jesus' Divinity
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