The only way to be saved is by personal faith in Christ.
In the beginning, God created Adam out of dust and breathed LIFE into him. God gave everything Adam needed on earth as a free gift in grace and love.
But Adam’s sin was to trust in himself.
He wanted to become like God in his own knowledge and strength.
The sin of Adam was self-sufficiency – trusting in human strength/wisdom rather than God’s grace.
Adam’s sin condemned every human being.
Romans 5:18
18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.”
Was Adam’s sin just passed on to every human being unconditionally, without any choice for man? Not at all.
Romans 5:12
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, BECAUSE ALL sinned”
Paul wrote here that every human being does the same sin as Adam – and this is why Adam’s sin was imputed to all people – it’s because this world teaches us to trust in ourselves and not in God.
So then does it mean that Christ has automatically saved everyone? The answer is no.
Christ has forgiven everyone on the cross.
But people are only saved by their personal faith as Paul writes here:
Romans 5:1
“Therefore, since we have been justified through FAITH, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”
Now let’s look at the case of Abraham.
He was an old man who did not have children.
But God showed him the stars and promised him descendants like the stars.
Abraham BELIEVED and was credit righteousness.
Abraham was unable to have children with Sarah, but He believed God and was made righteous.
Abraham was under the Adamic race but became righteous by personal faith.
Abraham’s faith is THE example of salvation.
Abraham’s inadequacy to have children represents man’s inability to live forever. (we all die like Adam)
So then what does God tell us to do?
Jesus died on the cross for our sins and was raised from the dead. If we BELIEVE in JESUS then we are saved and made righteous – we receive eternal life to live forever with God and Jesus.
Romans 4 “23 The words “it was credited to him (Abraham)” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who BELIEVE in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son – Jesus Christ that whosoever believes in Him will have eternal life – freely as a gift.
But eternal life is given to ALL who believe in Christ.
Everyone who believes in Jesus receives the forgiveness of sins, the righteousness of God and eternal life FREELY.
John 6
“68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Eternal life is found only in Christ and no other name.
The eternal life is the love of God revealed as Daddy through His Son Jesus Christ to all who believe will live forever even after physical death.
1st John 5
“12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life”
No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
John 1:18
Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
John 6:28-29
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
John 14:23
Jesus came from the bosom of Daddy God.
When we trust in Jesus and his love then we are embraced in the bosom of Daddy with Jesus in their loving embrace !!!
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Matthew 13:45-46
Jesus gave up everything to save you.
You are the pearl in his eyes
– so precious to him
Believe and receive his love ❤️
All it takes is simple faith in Christ
Luke 23
39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
John 6
47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.
48 I am the bread of life.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ:
Acts 10:36-43
“You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37 You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. 39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that EVERYONE who BELIEVES in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Acts 13:38-39
“Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39 Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.”
Romans 3
“21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”
Romans 4
“Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness…..God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
John 11 “25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 14 “6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
John 6 “whoever comes to me I will never drive away.“
Revelation 22 “17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.”
Jesus is the Resurrection Life for all who believe in Him
– by grace through faith.
Everlasting life is the Free gift of unconditional love in Christ.
Receive the gift by faith in Christ.
We will all die on earth but God offers the free gift of eternal life by grace through faith in Christ. The free gift is given to all who are thirsty – we can receive it by faith in Christ.
God does not kill anyone but gives ETERNAL LIFE to all who believe in Jesus Christ.
It’s like a Doctor giving the cure to a dying man for free, but the man has to take it in faith. If the man refuses, then the Doctor cannot help no matter how much he loves the patient.
God SO loved the world that He gave His only Son Jesus that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)
Mathew Simon 
I see you got tripped up the by words “because all have sinned” in Romans 5:12. Once again you ignore the greater context. Paul says very clearly in verse 14 – “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a [a]type of Him who was to come” (NASB). Even those who didn’t sin in the same manner as Adam had the death he introduced reign over them. You said everyone does the same sin as Adam, but verse 14 specifically says they didn’t. It says that not everyone did the same sin as Adam, and yet had the sin and death he introduced affect all of them. When Adam sinned, all humanity that would come after him would be included in his sin, even those who didn’t sin by trusting in themselves and breaking a commandment. That is all verse 12 is saying when it says “because all have sinned.” People then start committing their own personal sins on the basis of that law of Sin and Death that was introduced by Adam alone. Here’s a good presentation of what this passage is saying.
“The day Adam transgressed this commandment was the day the principle, law, gene, of death became activated in him, and he began the process of dying, death working within him. This death Paul refers to as the death in 5:12. The sin and the death become for Paul “The Law of the Sin and the Death” (see Rom. 8:2 Greek texts).
Paul, then, concludes,
and thus into all men passed through the death, upon which [death] all [humanity] sinned. (Romans 5:12b my translation. FOR COMPLETE AMPLIFIED TRANSLATION AND STRUCTURE OF ROMANS 5:12-21, SEE APPENDIX 11.)
When Adam had sinned, he had activated the Law of Death within him. Consequently, this law, this gene, now activated within him, would be passed on to all his progeny through his sperm. Every child generated by a sperm of Adam would come into the world altered by the Law, the gene, of Death activated within his or her body. As such, all men at the time of Adam’s sin had sinned, that is, all humanity generated by Adam, at the moment of Adam’s sin, missed the mark of soulish life, since each one would now be born with the activated law/gene of death.
This means, for Paul, every generated child of Adam comes into the world no longer a pure soulish man like Adam before his sin, but a contaminated soulish/soilish man, a dying man. All those generated by Adam are now contaminated from birth by this law/gene of death. It is upon this principle/law of death that Adamic men and women commit their own personal sin. In the members of their bodies operates the seductive influence of The Law of Sin and Death, the mind of the flesh which seduces through the prostitution of the normal functions and desires of the soul (the five senses) and the mind.
Paul does not accuse all men of the guilt of Adam’s sin. They are the victims of his sin. Nevertheless, they are responsible for their own personal sins which produce unrighteousness. Men, though committing personal sin, do not have to be characterized as unrighteous. Sin need not make them evil. Men have the capacity to choose, will, practice, and produce that which is upright in the eyes of Yahweh.
Though The Law of Sin and Death operates within them seeking their destruction through seductive lies of deception, they have the capacity, the freedom, to reject these seductive impulses, desires, thoughts, by refusing to compute such false and destructive data coming from the enemy, the enmity, within. The Law of Sin and Death functions as a distorter of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Man has the capacity to recognize and apply, perform, practice, and produce both the good and the evil, so as to practice and produce the righteousness of Yahweh which contributes to the welfare of humanity, both to the individual and the collective whole.
Hence, all men die the death common to all men, not because of their own sins, but because of the affect of the sin of Adam. Adam alone is responsible for the death common to all men. He alone is guilty of the sin which had brought this fate, this verdict, affecting all his progeny. Justification by faith has to do with the sins of individual men and women. Justification of life (Rom. 5:18, first and only time used in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures) has to do with the sin of Adam. Justification by faith requires faith and faithfulness and promises a Celestial Allotment for a select, elect group of human beings. Justification of life requires neither faith nor faithfulness on the part of Adamic soulish/soilish men and women and guarantees all humanity, without exception, a right to immortal life.”
(John Saggio, Twilight of Religion, chapter 24).
twilightofreligion.com
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Danny,
Let me simply ask you this question.
If everyone is universally saved, then there is simply no need for 99% of the Bible.
You might as well throw it out.
If everyone is already saved, then there is NO NEED for telling anyone about Jesus.
There was no need for John to say this
John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
There was no need for Jesus to say this
John 5 “24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.”
John 6 “46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life.”
John 20 “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
You are REJECTING the very words of Jesus Christ who you claim has saved everyone without any need for faith.
Why did Paul spend most of his life facing torture and persecution if everyone is already saved?
You CANNOT make an entire doctrine out of one verse in Romans 5 or 1 Corinthians 15.
Look at the verse in Romans 5 where Paul said that he was JUSTIFIED BY FAITH
Look at the verse in 1 Corinthians 15
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.”
Yet you ignore ALL the other countless passages.
Why did Paul say that UNBELIEVERS had NO HOPE ?
1st Thessalonians 4 “13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him”
Universalism and Israel-Only are BOTH anti-Christ messages.
With Universalism, there is no need to believe in Jesus because He has already saved everyone. If that’s the case, then the Apostles were the biggest fools in the world.
With Israel-Only, Jesus Christ loses all relevance and there’s no need to believe in Him either. It makes God look like a racist.
Preterism has resulted in two false doctrines – universalism and Israel-only.
Both are FALSE.
You cannot cherry-pick 2-3 verses when you IGNORE 1000s of verses where salvation was by faith alone.
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Are you for real? You’re the one with the anti-Christ message who believes that Jesus fails to save the very human race He created. All things were created by Him and for Him. He reconciled all things, and for some reason, He annihilates the people He reconciled, but who don’t believe the right message – according to your corrupt line of thinking. I can’t believe that the person who so eloquently showed how thousands upon thousands of denominatons can’t agree on what believing in Jesus means, has now fallen for the Joseph Prince and Paul Ellis crap. You think your simple faith doctrine is simple? I’ve been there just like you, Free Grace vs. Lordship Salvation and all that crap. I used to argue for Free Grace salvation, and just simply believing Jesus’ promise to give you eternal life. I even used to believe that you had to believe in eternal security to be saved! You say Israel-Only makes God look racist. God spent most of the Old Testament with Israel being His highest interest, and one can argue that makes God look racist. In fact, they do argue that. Your God discriminates in another way, He only chooses to give immortality to the people who believe the right message, which no one can figure out. Hence divided Christianity.
You know darn well that all of those passages about believing in Jesus were before the Second Coming in 70 AD. I don’t ignore them. I just understand the context, like you used to understand! In what way did those who have no hope, actually have no hope? Their minds were darkened, but that doesn’t meant Christ was of no effect when it comes to them having immortality in His Kingdom. And you quote from 1 Thess 4, right before Paul talked about the coming as a thief in the night in the next chapter, and you know that’s 70 AD. The apostles gave their lives because their message was focused on the the Church, the Bride of Christ who through faith and love would be the firstfruits in His Kingdom. They had the power and privilege to play an active part with Jesus for the benefit of the rest of mankind. They would take part as co-rulers with Christ in His Kingdom, and play a role in the rest of mankind progressing further and further, without the confines of the ancient world order. As for John 3:16, it’s obvious that the “world” in the context is Israel. Read the whole chapter! Let the context determine what “world” we’re talking about. I can’t believe I have to tell you these things. I’m not Jason De Costa. I don’t believe that every reference to world in spiritual contexts is only Israel. The world can refer to Israel, it can refer to the Roman Empire, or it can refer to the whole world. The context determines everything. Just because Israel-Only gets some things wrong, doesn’t mean they get everything wrong. Another excerpt that might put things in perspective for you.
“How long shall men and women now living in the Global Village remain encumbered by the religious customs, ceremonies, rituals, myths, superstitions, and (too often) misguided teachings of their past and present religious childhood? The biblical literary journey now offered the reader with the publication of The Destiny of Israel and the Twilight of Christianity: In Quest of the Meaning and Significance of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures guides the sons and daughters of the Global Village on a safari through the perplexing (but very relevant) territories of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. These holy scriptures of the ancient nation of Israel claim to encounter the One, True, Living God of humanity. Yahweh Elohim the Creator of man and his habitat has not left mankind in the dark. He has revealed Himself by providing an historical account of His relationship with the ancient nation of Israel which He created and generated out of ancient Egypt for this very purpose.
In these scriptures, mankind encounters the One, True, Living God responsible for his creation and destiny. Ancient Israel, no better or worse than any other ancient nation, was chosen to be Yahweh’s instrument by which He would instruct all men and women of all nations in His ways, His laws, and His character. Man has been created for freedom, the freedom of his Creator. Freedom, however, demands responsibility. Freedom demands the use and application of knowledge and wisdom. Freedom demands intelligent creativity. Freedom demands decisions and activities based upon truth, both relative and absolute truth. Freedom demands responsible pursuit and application of truth in man’s God-given endeavor to actualize his God-given potential.
According to the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, man has been created in the image and likeness of God. This means each man and woman has been created to be a creator, to be intelligent, to be wise, to be just, to be an explorer and orderer of both his or her terrestrial habitat and his or her celestial habitat. The God revealed in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures is the God guiding humanity as a corporate man in his journey to obtain his responsible, intelligent, and just adult potential. History does not end. Time does not end. Each man and woman does not end. Each man and woman is a continual journeyman continually exploring, creating, ordering the terrestrial as well as the celestial world in which each man and woman lives, continually developing his and her God-given potential either during this life or the life following. Through Jesus the Anointed One of Yahweh, the biological Only-Generated Son of God, man has been set free from his past mistakes (sins); his rebellious journey into the darkness of myth, superstition, and idolatry; his journey through childhood and adolescence. Mankind, as a result of the kingship of Jesus the Christ, is on the verge of entering into his adulthood. He has much to learn and much to discard if he is to free himself from injustice, dishonor, greed, hubris, pseudo-selfishness, and false pride.
Man must, in the Global Village of the 21st century, turn back to the truth; turn back to the belief in and commitment to the transcendent world of absolute truth; turn back to the One, True, Living God; turn back to His ways, His laws, His love in order to escape his foolish attempts to become his own god instead of becoming God-like, instead of attaining to the image and likeness of the One, True, Living God and Father of humanity. In the long run, each man and woman will achieve this goal. For God is the God of the living, not the dead; for God is the God of time, and there will be time enough for each man and woman to attain to the image and likeness of God. The One, True, Living God is the God of success. Mankind (both corporate and individual) will succeed in spite of his/their numerous failures and setbacks.
The Hebrew and Greek Scriptures tell the story of antediluvian man’s beginning; his exposure to the principle of death, his departure from truth into destructive evil policies and behavior; his watery judgment; and his survival through this judgment in the person of Noah (and his family). These scriptures continue the story of the generations of humanity by recording in an abbreviated form (micro-cryptically) the initial development of the nations and their devolution from (not evolution to) truth into the disqualified mind of mythopoeic myth, superstition, and idolatry. This period represented the initiation of man into the ancient world of the gods, worship of the transcendent through a distorted understanding of the elements of the world order: the sun, the moon, the stars, mountains, vegetation, animals, and hand-made idols representing the gods associated with these elements.
In spite of this failure of man to pursue truth through God’s revelation and man’s God-given intelligence, God did not abandon man. The biblical story continues to reveal the supervision of God in man’s journey toward his welfare achieved through the development of his God-given potential. This is the significance of the call of Abraham; the promises given him; and the creation/generation of the ancient nation of Israel, the only nation given a covenant relationship with God and given His statutes, judgments, instructions, and testimonies.
God’s accomplishments through Israel and Israel’s Messiah (Jesus the Christ, the Only-Generated Son of God) on behalf of humanity have been recorded in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. Consequently, an accurate and practical understanding of the knowledge conveyed in these writings is vital to the welfare and development of the God-given potential possessed by the present sons and daughters of the Global Village. With this in mind, the reader can now understand why the meaning and significance of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures are the subject of the safaric quest of the literary journey encountered between the covers of this volume.”
(Back Cover, John Saggio, Twilight of Religion)
twilightofreligion.com
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Please don’t leave me such long comments especially cut-n-paste from somebody else’s work.
That is why I stopped responding to your Emails.
Yes, Jesus did reconcile the whole world. God did not judge anyone for their sins.
Reconciliation does not mean AUTOMATIC salvation.
It simply meant that God judged Christ (Himself) on the cross with our sins.
But man has to be respond in faith to accept the FREE GIFT otherwise He remains in sin and
dies – that is not annihilation.
Annihilation is when somebody kills someone else.
God did not kill any man. He gave FREE choice to man – just like He gave Adam the choice.
Adam killed himself by his self-sufficiency instead of trusting in God.
So then God did not kill Adam.
God killed Himself in SUCH GREAT LOVE…reconciling the world .
But we have to RESPOND and be reconciled back to Him !
Read the passage here:
2nd Corinthians 5
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
We were dead in our sins….and we receive LIFE when we RESPOND by FAITH…and that is when we
receive the GRACE to be SAVED.
Ephesians 2 “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Our Faith simply means that we do not boast in our works but we TRUST in what JESUS DID.
When we BELIEVE ….then we RECEIVE ETERNAL LIFE.
Rejecting it is to perish in our unbelief.
It’s like a sick man who is given the FREE GIFT of medicine by a Doctor
and then rejecting it – the sick man dies in his own unbelief in the Doctor….
You cannot blame the Doctor for the sick man’s death….especially when the Doctor was giving the CURE for FREE.
You quote Paul in Romans 5 saying everyone is saved automatically
but then you ignore the COUNTLESS verses of Paul’s other writings were He says that salvation is ONLY by FAITH in Christ.
You can’t have it both ways – either it’s automatic or it’s by faith.
Please…don’t twist Paul’s words…when he said that unbelievers had NO HOPE after death….don’t play with the words and say that he was talking about mindset or some other imaginary theory in your mind.
Faith never ended in 70AD.
People still have faith even after 70AD.
People get healed by faith even after 70AD.
People get saved by faith even after 70AD.
It is ANTI-CHRIST to make imaginary delusional statements about universal salvation
that was NEVER UTTERED by the LORD JESUS Himself.
By doing so, you are taking the place of Jesus Himself and saying that faith is not needed
when He Himself said that faith is needed.
I trust in JESUS and not any man.
Universalism and Israel-only are both heresies that take people away from JESUS.
I have repented from these false doctrines and will trust in what Jesus Himself said and not add my own
imaginations to His gospel.
I recommend you do the same.
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Mathew, I love you but you waver so much in your beliefs. You had it so right in your books and audio about Preterism and Universal Christian Salvation. What’s happening to you man? Jesus is the Faith that saves us not our faith. It’s because of His Faith on behalf of all men. We are saved by Faith and that not of ourselves it is a gift of God(Christ) so no one can boast. You know this.
The first century believers needed the Holy Spirits power and strength to instill enough faith(trust) in them to get through the great tribulation. God gave varying amounts of Faith to each as He felt they needed it. You had it so right until you went astray with Israel only etc. 1st Tim. 4:8-10 — “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. 9 This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. 10 That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.”
Come on man you had it right. For this reason we don’t need the Bible to be saved, Christ has already saved us but we should show Jesus’ Love and receive the Joy by how and what He did for the world by reading and studying if one desires. No man seeks God unless the Spirit draw and moves one to know Him. God moves men through His Spirit to know Him if He desires or call out to Him. But all are Saved and all will bow their knee to Him.
We all drift at times but man you had it sooooo right. I pray God get’s you back on course again.
Blessings to you and yous!
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Love you brother. God bless you always.
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