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Post by Cindy on Nov 15, 2015 10:50:25 GMT -5
By Cameron Buettel
I grew up in a remote Australian community. Our relative isolation meant there was a noticeable delay in the arrival of big-city trends, technology, and television. But it wasn’t all bad—the upside of our perceived backward lives was that the erosion of values and views moved more slowly in our little corner of the world than it did in the cosmopolitan cities.
But those days are long gone, even in the outback of Australia. We now live in an age of instant information and awareness. The Internet has demolished many of the geographical and cultural barriers that used to restrain the spread of changing trends.
Today, information technology is a powerful tool to apply immediate pressure to our thinking and beliefs. Our culture is shaped by those who are most persistent and aggressive in bombarding us with their worldview. And vocal minorities cloud the truth as they steer societal change.
Armed with a robust Christian worldview, evangelicals should be the best equipped to confront those challenges. Instead evangelicalism belies its commitment to Scripture as it wanders in a fog of spiritual opinions that lack biblical convictions. John MacArthur rightly highlights the problems in his book The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception: “Far from being a strong voice and a powerful force for the cause of truth, the evangelical movement itself has become the main battleground.”[1]
The marketplace of evangelical ideas is now overrun with diverse and competing agendas. Even the most seasoned believers can struggle to navigate it. Making matters worse, there are now many evangelical voices spreading dangerous error mixed with a dose of biblical truth. Many believers have been lulled into a false sense of security under once-orthodox preachers and teachers who have veered away from true, biblical north.
John MacArthur doesn’t hold back in his assessment of the situation:
I am convinced that the greatest danger facing Christians today has infiltrated the church already. Countless false teachers already have prominent platforms in the evangelical movement; evangelicals themselves are loath to practice discernment or question or challenge anything taught within their movement; and many leading evangelicals have concluded no doctrine or point of theology is worth earnestly contending for. The evangelicalism movement as we speak of it today is already doomed.[2]
Those false teachers contribute to the problem every time they enter the pulpit. The sermon content in many popular churches leaves congregations at the mercy of prowling wolves:
Bible teaching, even in the best of venues today, has been deliberately dumbed-down, made as broad and as shallow as possible, oversimplified, adapted to the lowest common denominator—and then tailored to appeal to people with short attention spans. Sermons are almost always brief, simplistic, overlaid with as many references to pop culture as possible, and laden with anecdotes and illustrations. (Jokes and funny stories drawn from personal experience are favored over cross-references and analogies borrowed from Scripture itself.) Typical sermon topics are heavily weighted in favor of man-centered issues (such as personal relationships, successful living, self-esteem, how-to lists, and so on)—to the exclusion of the many Christ-exalting doctrinal themes of Scripture.[3]
MacArthur’s sober commentary on the decline into evangelical ignorance also implies the solution. If the abandonment of biblical fidelity has plunged Christians into biblical ignorance, then the embrace of Scripture’s authority and sufficiency will result in the ascent out of that dark pit.
Paul and Silas saw that high view of Scripture exemplified and applied in the church at Berea:
Now these [the Bereans] were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed. (Acts 17:11–12)
The Berean believers were commended as “more noble minded” than the Thessalonian Christians. They didn’t gullibly swallow what Paul and Silas preached, nor were they swayed by the prevailing winds of their culture. Scripture, carefully studied, was their sole barometer—and it should be ours too. Next time we’ll take a closer look at who those noble Bereans were.
Posted with permissionwww.gty.org/blog/B150810/finding-your-way-in-the-evangelical-fog
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Post by Cindy on Nov 15, 2015 10:53:49 GMT -5
Meet the Bereans
By Cameron Buettel
I am convinced that the most dangerous lie is the one that is almost true. The regenerate believer can usually see through most pseudo-Christian scams, whether they be online, on TV, or in the pulpit. But Satan doesn’t always deploy his deceptions through shallow charlatans—he also carefully cloaks them in the garb of orthodox Christianity.
More and more false teachers conceal their heresies in the Trojan horse of sound doctrine. And like termites ravaging a house, the signs of trouble are evident only after the damage is done.
We need razor-sharp biblical discernment as our frontline defense against the stealth invasions of theological error. Paul and Silas encountered that type of discernment on their missionary travels when they ministered to the Jews in Berea. Luke reported on their ministry there and described the Berean Jews as: “More noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed” (Acts 17:11–12).
The Berean’s familiarity with the Old Testament Scripture equipped them for embracing the new teaching they were hearing from Paul. They weren’t gullible, but neither were they incapable of learning something new—provided it could be corroborated by God’s Word. John MacArthur describes it this way:
The Bereans received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether the things preached by Paul were so. They were open to the truth and searched their scrolls for themselves. No wonder Luke describes them as more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica.
Examining is from anakrinō, a word sometimes used of a judicial investigation. The noble Bereans carefully sifted the evidence and concluded that the gospel Paul proclaimed was the truth that fulfilled Old Testament promise.[1]
Scripture clearly held the highest possible authority among the Bereans. It was the final arbiter on their evaluation of Paul’s preaching and, as such, they were able to weigh Paul’s words on the scales of their thorough biblical analysis.
Scripture was the Bereans’ accurate and effective filter for receiving truth and rejecting error. The fact that they read Scripture “daily” also points to a high degree of biblical literacy. They didn’t merely dip their toes in the reading of favorite stories and the memorization of “life-verses.” They were fully immersed in God’s Word and studied it as a collective whole, being able to identify the story of Christ woven throughout the Old Testament.
It is also telling that there is no mention of the Bereans consulting with any sources other than Scripture. Their belief in the sufficiency of Scripture is evident by their use of it as the sole, necessary plumb line of truth.
The church in Berea may no longer be in existence but their legacy ought to live on in the church as we carefully examine Scripture in discerning truth from error. Modern wolves now roam among God’s flock in sophisticated sheep-skins. The seriousness of such a threat demands that we be present-day Bereans, and develop the necessary discernment to intercept these wolves at the point of entry into our churches.
To naively assume that these threats don’t apply in your church context is to buy into the lie that the enemy wants to sell you. In the words of John MacArthur,
Christians are not supposed to be gullible. We are not to turn a blind eye to the danger. We are not to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them (Ephesians 5:11). We simply cannot be all-embracing without allowing false teachers to infiltrate and be destructive.[2]
In the days ahead we’ll lay out a more detailed biblical battle plan to emerge victorious in the war for truth.
Posted with permissionwww.gty.org/blog/B150812/meet-the-bereans
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Post by Cindy on Nov 15, 2015 10:55:52 GMT -5
Your Berean Battle Plan Remember
By Cameron Buettel
Christianity was never meant to be a haven for theological pacifists. Christ’s pure gospel is not only worthy of a vigorous defense, His chosen people have been enlisted for that very purpose (Jude 3). Doctrinal peacetime has been rare during 2,000 years of church history, as spiritual terrorists relentlessly attack and infiltrate the body of Christ. Precious truths have been tested and proven on the battlefield of worldviews. That is why the lives of men like Athanasius, Augustine, and Luther are largely defined by the doctrines they fought for.
As we lay out the battle plan for biblical discernment, the first step is to remember and heed the warnings of Scripture regarding the reality of the war on truth. The history of the church is marked by fields where epic doctrinal battles took place. And the war still rages. The enemies of Christ have continue their feverish operations to this present day.
Tragically, the church’s resolve to fight has rapidly diminished as it yields to the niceties of twenty-first century civility. Too many churches prize diplomacy over doctrinal purity—they’re content to dialogue with damnable error. As John MacArthur explains, when it comes to attacks on the truth, the church is following the dangerous example of the world:
Western society, by and large, does not have the will or the inclination to construct boundaries for its own self-defense. Years after the terror war supposedly got serious, America’s borders are still basically open to all comers. Much of European society still opposes the idea of any military response to the terrorist threat. Postmodern values and political correctness rule out profiling, monitoring the conversations of suspicious people, targeting illegal residents, and other means that would help identify who the terrorists are. . . .
The evangelical movement has been similarly naive. Spiritual terrorists are plotting the destruction of the church. Scripture expressly warns us about this. Yet evangelicals in recent decades have done very little to restrain apostates or expose them. False teachers are not stopped at the border anymore. The rankest apostates now have almost complete freedom in the evangelical movement. Unhindered, they have infiltrated evangelical churches, denominations, and Christian colleges and seminaries.[1]
When it comes to lessons from church history, Christians have become dangerously forgetful. Too many shepherds are ill-equipped and unprepared to respond to the modern attacks, and as a result, church history is repeating itself. New perspectives are old errors, fresh revelations are ancient regurgitations, and modern innovations have merely been salvaged from the scrapheap of historical heresy. The constant threat from wolves and snake oil salesmen is nothing new.
As we saw previously, when it comes to biblical role models for discerning truth from error, the Bereans are the benchmark. The Jews in Berea needed to be able to distinguish the truth of apostolic preaching from the pseudo-spiritual lies competing for their attention. God’s Word was their measuring stick for truth because they carefully examined it on a daily basis (Acts 17:11).
In his short epistle, Jude stressed the need for God’s people to cultivate the same kind of discernment as the faithful Bereans. He warned his readers to avoid the folly of ignoring the past, and called to memory the words of Jesus and His apostles:
But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, “in the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly minded, devoid of the Spirit. (Jude 17–19)
MacArthur explains:
Jude urges his readers to remember what was prophesied. . . . Jude is stressing that God is sovereign and has not lost control. He’s reminding his readers once more that the influx of false teachers into the church doesn’t mean the plan of God has gone awry. God is not surprised by this development; it is what His Word prophesied. Even in the worst of times, we can be certain that nothing is happening that wasn’t already foreknown by God. He even told us we should expect an influx of apostasy. We were warned about it, and here it is.
Our duty, then, is to respond rightly. Not only should we not be surprised when false teachers appear in the church; we ought to have anticipated and prepared for the reality of it. It is a wake-up call. When an absolutely reliable source tells us terrorists are coming, it then behooves us to find out who they are and expose them before they do their damage.
Today’s evangelicals have no excuse for not being vigilant. We have been warned—repeatedly. Jesus commanded us to be on guard against false christs and false prophets. The apostolic era was filled with examples of wolves in sheep’s clothing. Church history is strewn with more examples, one after another. Only sinful and willful unbelief can account for the refusal of so many in the church today to heed those warnings.[2]
Failure to remember the past is a guarantee to misread the present. As Christians, we cannot plead ignorance concerning biblical warnings and the vigilance they demand. We may not be under direct persecution or the threat of martyrdom, but the enemy is still at work undermining truth. He is never on vacation. We must be on constant alert, ready to identify error and contend with those who promote it.
Like the Bereans, our chief weapon is the sword of the Spirit. It doesn’t only teach us lessons from the past but also how to remain faithful in the present and how to reach those under deception. We’ll examine those other lessons in the days ahead.
Remain
By Cameron Buettel
If your Christian life is devoid of persecution, hardship, and fighting against false teaching, then you probably need to re-evaluate your faith (John 15:20; 2 Corinthians 13:5; 2 Timothy 2:3; Jude 3-4). The race we are called to in Hebrews 12:1–2 is not run on the path of least resistance. Yet that’s where many believers live today—blown around by the winds of church trends and without testing them against Scripture.
That’s not to say modern Christians are passive in every regard. We’re happy to contend in our careers and among our peers. We’ll work hard for a promotion, we’ll argue our political point of view, and we’ll defend our honor and credibility. But we don’t always expend the same kind of energy to defend God’s Word or His people. In a tidal wave of trendy theology and novel doctrines, many believers simply lack the resolve to stand firm in wisdom, discernment, and theological conviction. “Examining the Scriptures daily,” like a Berean (Acts 17:11) seems like too much hard work when we’re offered our best life now.
Jude wrote his epistle with the express purpose of calling Christians to remain faithful to the truth and vigorously oppose the seductive teachers who had infiltrated their camp. Jude instructed them to remember the warnings that Jesus had given them so that they would not be surprised by a stealth attack (Jude 17–19).
Jude then exhorted the church to remain faithful to the truth and not fall under the spell of damnable lies: “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life” (Jude 20–21).
John MacArthur describes this as a call to remain:
We ought to respond to apostasy by remaining faithful. We need to build one another up in the faith and maintain our spiritual stability. Above all, stay committed to the truth. Don’t waver.
Jude includes four aspects of this principle. First, he says we must seek to remain faithful by “building yourselves up on your most holy faith.” He is urging us to edify one another by the Word of God. The phrase “your most holy faith” is a reference to sound doctrine—a right understanding of the truth as it is revealed in Scripture. Build yourself up on that, Jude says. Here’s how Peter says it in the parallel passage:
“You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:17–18 NKJV).
Be strengthened. Become mature. This is a call to the spiritual discipline of studying the Word.[1]
One of the chief arguments from leaders in the Emergent Church was that striving for orthodoxy (right doctrine) comes at the expense of orthopraxy (right actions). But Jude states the opposite—that good practice is dependent upon good doctrine. A stable, consistent, and unshakable spiritual walk can only be built upon and sustained through the disciplined study of Scripture. The modern Berean is steadfast in his faith because it is informed and empowered by eternal truths rather than experiential evidence.
MacArthur continues:
Second, maintain your spiritual stability and equilibrium by “praying in the Holy Spirit.” Commune constantly with the Spirit of God, going before God in the power and the will of the Spirit to demonstrate your dependence on God and to cry out for His protection, His grace, His insight, and His power. The faithful life is kept steady through means of the spiritual disciplines of study and prayer.
Third, Jude says, “Keep yourselves in the love of God” (Jude 21). That is a way of reminding us to be obedient. Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him” (John 14:21). “Abide in My love,” He told the disciples. “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (John 15:9–10, emphasis added). Jude 21 is simply echoing that commandment. It is a call for obedience.
Finally, Jude says, keep “looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” That speaks of an eager expectation of Christ’s second coming.
All of those are ways of reminding us to set our minds on heavenly things, not on the things of this world (Colossians 3:2). That is the only way to survive in a time of apostasy. Ultimately, only what is eternal really matters—and that means the truth matters infinitely more than any of the merely earthly things that tend to capture our attention and energies.[2]
Remaining faithful to God and His Word is dependent upon His power and demonstrated through our obedience. And it is motivated by the reality of His imminent return. In a sea of doctrinal confusion, our anchor in the truth is our commitment to Christ.
When Jude discusses the battle plan for exposing error, he doesn’t provide an option for conscientious objectors. Those who try to argue that they’re not called to contend against false teaching are essentially deserting their post in the war on truth. All believers are enlisted in Christ’s army (2 Timothy 2:3-4).
It’s worth noting that the ultimate enemy in this battle is not people but ideologies and worldviews. Our goal, after remembering and remaining, is to reach those who have fallen under the deception of the enemy. Unbelievers and those with wrong beliefs are not to be destroyed, they are to be won over to the truth. We’ll consider that element next time.
Reach
By Cameron Buettel
Prior to the advent of the Internet and social media, the life of a religious charlatan was easy. Ministries built on preposterous prophecies, outlandish miracle claims, and bizarre Scripture twisting could continue unabated without the fear of any serious scrutiny.
And while heresy is still lucrative, the modern heretic has to be shrewd about disguising his schemes and covering his tracks. They could once trade on spiritual gullibility, short-term memories, and isolated audiences. Now, the Internet—and social media in particular—offers a global and perpetual platform to expose false teachers and warn against their teaching. Today, the long-term survival of false teachers hinges on their ability to cloak their error in enough truth to avoid zealous bloggers and to clear customs at the church gate.
The bar has been raised—doctrinal deception requires going to a whole new level. And it has. Shallow and spiritually immature churchgoers are not the only victims. Solid, biblically grounded believers are also vulnerable to dangerous doctrines when they’re packaged in enough truth. The spiritual casualties in the church are widespread, creating a mission field right under our noses.
We have already discussed the need for Christians to detect and expose false teachers by sharpening their discernment with Scripture, remembering the warnings from church history, and remaining steadfast in the truth. But in the midst of this war for the truth, we also need to faithfully and compassionately care for the wounded.
There are few responsibilities more challenging than evangelizing those under spiritual deception. But the difficulty of such a task in no way excuses us from this critical mission field. John MacArthur points this out in his study of Jude: “Our duty in the Truth War is not only to oppose the false teachers but also to rescue those who have been led astray by them.”[1]
Jude describes three types of victims requiring three types of evangelistic response: “And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh” (Jude 22-23).
The first type Jude mentions are “some, who are doubting” and in need of mercy. John MacArthur explains:
They have been exposed to false teaching, and it has shaken their confidence in the truth. They aren’t committed to the error yet, just doubting. Perhaps they aren’t truly committed to the truth yet either. These may well be people who have never fully and savingly believed the gospel. On the other hand, they could be authentic believers—either young or spiritually feeble. Either way, exposure to false teachers has revealed a dangerous weakness in their faith by causing them to doubt.
Have mercy on them, Jude says. Don’t write them off because they are weak and wavering. They are confused because they are absolutely open to any and every teacher, and they are utterly devoid of any discernment. They are the most accessible and the most vulnerable. They need truth, but they are being offered (and duped by) almost everything else. . .
And, of course, the chief mercy they need is the mercy of the gospel. Once they lay hold of that truth, they will have a foundation for true discernment and the endless cycle of confusion will be halted.[2]
Genuine believers can go through temporary seasons of wavering or confusion. These are true victims who require the ministry of gentle truth and generous patience. Biblical truth can and will prevail in their lives as you bring it to bear on the lies of the enemy.
The apostle Paul described that approach in his second epistle to Timothy:
The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. (2 Timothy 2:24-26)
While it is critical that our lives exhibit that sort of character as we reach out to the victims of deception, Jude 23 commends a far more urgent and abrupt approach when dealing with the deceivers themselves and those who unreservedly buy into their lies. They are toxic with deception and on the precipice to hell. Next time we’ll discuss how to operate in that dangerous corner of the mission field.
Rescue
By Cameron Buettel
Deception from heretical infiltrators has been an ever-present threat throughout 2,000 years of church history. Fighting that deception is a war for the truth that all Christians have been called to wage (Jude 3). But in the heat of battle we must never neglect our primary calling as missionaries (Matthew 28:19–20).
That is why Jude, in his call for Christians to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” (Jude 3), also exhorted us to evangelistically exercise that faith. We are to reach out to the casualties of the truth war: “And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh” (Jude 22-23).
Last time we considered the true victims of doctrinal deception who have had their faith drastically shaken by unbiblical lies. They are those “who are doubting” (Jude 22) and their vulnerable state requires gentle and gracious correction when we reach out to them. But the mission field created by the truth war does not end there.
Jude 23 goes on to discuss those who need to be plucked from the precipice of hell. They are people who have bought into the deception to such an extent that they require “snatching out of the fire” (Jude 23). Of these, John MacArthur writes:
The fact that these people are in the fire suggests that they have bought the lie. They have (to some degree) owned the false doctrine. They are already being singed by hell. They need something more than mere mercy; this is an urgent rescue operation. Jude is urging us to use any means—every legitimate means—to pull them from the fire. These circumstances call for aggressive action. . . .
At the same time, you cannot embrace someone as a part of the true fellowship who rejects essential aspects of gospel truth. You don’t offer someone who is convinced of a serious falsehood unconditional acceptance as a believer. But Jude is very specific about how we should respond to such people: go after them in a very critical rescue operation. Try to snatch them out of the fire.
Again, snatching them from the fire means giving them the truth—but with accents of urgency befitting the serious danger such people are facing. You come with force. You don’t toy with such error or invite the purveyors of it to a dispassionate discussion over tea and biscuits. You treat the situation with an urgency and sobriety that is commensurate with the evil of apostasy.
That is exactly how Jesus responded to the Pharisees.[1]
Jude then reserves his harshest language for the most dangerous part of this mission field. These are the deceivers themselves. God is so merciful that He even includes an evangelism strategy for reaching those who deliberately pervert His truth. These people represent the most hazardous zone on the mission field requiring “mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh” (Jude 23). MacArthur elaborates:
Obviously, pulling people from the fires of apostasy requires us to get close to them. Jude suggests there is severe danger in this. We can’t always tell the difference between the merely convinced and the fully committed. Some are deceived; others are deliberate deceivers. Some are disciples of error; others are the propagators, the leaders—the false teachers themselves. Jude suggests that we ought to show even the false teachers themselves a kind of mercy (for sometimes even the deceivers themselves are, to a degree, deceived, and occasionally, by God’s grace, even they can be pulled from the fire). So show them mercy, Jude says. But do it with fear, despising the defilement of their evil.
The expression Jude employs is shocking. It is as coarse as any expression in Scripture. Jude uses a Greek word for “garment” that signifies underwear and a word for “polluted” that means “stained in a filthy manner; spotted and stained by bodily functions.” He is comparing the defilement of false teaching to soiled underwear.
If you have ever questioned what God’s own view of false religion and apostasy is, that is it. One of the most important aspects of Jude’s entire message is this theme, which runs through the whole of it: false teaching is the deadliest and most abhorrent of evils, because it is always an expression of unbelief, which is the distillation of pure evil. . . .
These passages not only give insight into what God thinks of apostasy; they give us explicit instructions about how to deal with apostates. False doctrine and the wickedness of those who believe it stain the soul. Don’t get close enough to be corrupted. Paul said something similar at the end of Romans: “I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them” (Romans 16:17, NKJV). You can’t build a real friendship with a false teacher. You cannot pretend to accept such a person as a fellow believer. You have to understand that people who buy into apostasy and damnable error are (either wittingly or unwittingly) agents of the kingdom of darkness and enemies of the truth. Don’t risk being defiled by their corruption.
Nevertheless, there is a place for showing apostates mercy. It is a fearful mercy, and once again it involves giving them the light of truth. Confront their error with the truth, for that is the only hope of freeing them from the bondage and defilement of their own apostasy. But do it with the utmost care, always mindful of the dangers such an evil poses.[2]
It is easy to overlook our evangelistic responsibilities in the heat of conflict. But Jude delivers us a vivid reminder of the demands and dangers involved. Rather than fear such a necessary task, we should approach it immersed in Jude’s initial words of encouragement to us as God’s elect: “To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ” (Jude 1). Yes, there are dangers and hazards. But those whom God calls are beloved by Him. And those who are beloved by God are in His eternal safekeeping. May we boldly approach this mission field in the rich comfort of that promise.
Posted with Permisionwww.gty.org/blog/B150814/your-berean-battle-plan-rememberwww.gty.org/blog/B150817/your-berean-battle-plan-remainwww.gty.org/blog/B150819/your-berean-battle-plan-reachwww.gty.org/blog/B150821/your-berean-battle-plan-rescue
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