In Death or Life
A site dedicated to teaching sound Christian doctrine
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The Challenge to Reformed Theology by Scriptural Fact
Updates:
May 16, 2009 - Posted a supplement to the Challenge to Reformed Theology entitled, The Calvinist Mitigation of the Divine Warnings Given to the Saints .
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May 5, 2009 - Been busy with graduate school, a new job, and a new baby! You can still find me active at Arminian Perspectives every now and again. For now, we'll just have a little fun by revealing Triablogue's secret method for winning any argument!
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November 16, 2008 - Posted a response to Steve Camp's essay How Wide is the Narrow Road?.
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October 12, 2008 - Put up a reply to John Hendryx's continued distortions.
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September 30, 2008 - At long last, Turretinfan finally put up his rebuttal essay. I fire off my rebuttal essay as we approach the final round.
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September 22, 2008 - John Hendryx tries to deflect my answer to his challenge by attempting to change the subject to prevenient grace/the reformed view of regeneration, a fallacy otherwise known as a red-herring. As if.
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September 18, 2008 - Put out a somewhat humorous Response to a Challenge to all Synergists by John Hendryx.
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September 15, 2008 - Put up an article entitled, Why I Reject Determinism and A Model of God's Atemporal Perspective in Relation to Contrary Choice. My debate with Turretinfan has all but ground to a halt. I answered his last cross-exam question almost a month ago (August 19), and am still waiting on his rebuttal.
UPDATE: Otis has published his bio. Be very afraid.
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July 18, 2008 - The debate with Turretinfan is still going; we're now doing cross-examination. In the meantime, I've had another debate with an eager Calvinist over at Reformed Mafia (not one of their members) on the issue of original sin, and have written a rebuttal to an article by Desiring God Ministries on the same subject.
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June 20, 2008 - The challenge debate is on, as I present my opening statement to Turretin Fan.
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June 5, 2008 - The Trinity debate is still going, and turning out quite well. Well, it looks like the complete and utter trashing we gave Triablogue earlier this year has some of their fans a bit miffed, and now one of them is out to avenge their defeat: Turrentinfan has counter-challenged me to a written debate over the issue of my challenge, which I've accepted. Let's hope he proves more adept than Sockpuppet-Central.
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May 28, 2008 - Last Sunday I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Mr. Joshua Hitchcock (formerly of Reformed Mafia) in person. Josh is a hard-working seminary student in Louisville, KY, and a very diligent student of scripture. He's also great company, and my family and I enjoyed our visit immensely. But it doesn't stop there, my monergist mob ties are running even deeper now: Sam Meza (aka 'Scribe,' currently of Reformed Mafia) and I have teamed up in a forum debate against a Modalist (anti-Trinitarian, Jesus only) debater who's just itching to condemn all Trinitarians as polytheists. I'll be posting more on the debate in a few days, but suffice it to say that it's going extremely well. The synopsis promises to not only be very revealing about Modalist doctrine, but our opponent lends an element of comedy relief that's unparalleled.
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May 7, 2008 - Wannabe prophet and Cult leader Victor Hafichuk gets wasted again, as he attempts to display his psychotic, er psychic powers with this little gem,
You think your name "Joshua" and your initials, "J. C." represent some virtue? In thinking so, all the more will you be held accountable for taking His Name in vain....
This week on 'False Prophets Gone Wild.'
Update:
Also posted more about the Wine Debate, as well as some interaction with a response from a reader.
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May 5, 2008 - The Junkyard gets some new dumpees, this time a crazy cult that calls itself 'The Path of Truth' run by a certain Victor Hafichuk gets skewered with a double header post.
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April 3, 2008 - The Junkyard finally lowers the hydraulic press on Triablogue's trash. In the end, not only is Steve Hays unable to combat the crushing weight of evidence against his arguments, his evasions to the question of Triablogue's sockpuppetry that we posed on March 13 have degraded into sheer logical fallacy. He instead insinuates that we're being dishonest, and to bolster this, in an appeal to ignorance declares:
As far as that goes, we have no evidence that Ben and J.C. haven’t been sockpuppeting.
Classic. More of the brilliant reasoning I've come to expect from them, which firmly establishes what role within the Synergism/Monergism debate it is that Triablogue fulfills: Waste of bandwidth.
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April 1, 2008 - More non-answers from Steve Hays about the sockpuppeting issue. Big surprise there. Equally unimpressive are his arguments for such inane concepts such as 'resistibility = ineffectiveness.' We process his blabber at the usual place.
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March 31, 2008 - Back online. In the Junkyard, Steve Hays elucidates why something can only be effective if it's irresistible, which leads up to some rather funny conclusions. Still no actual answer as to whether Triablogue has been using sockpuppets, which in and of itself may constitute an answer.
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March 27, 2008 - IDL will probably be down this weekend, the company that hosts it is moving their equipment to a new location.
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March 25, 2008 - Hope everybody had a great Easter. We celebrated with some cake and ice cream, which my 3-year old daughter just loves. She said, "I like ice cream." I took her and gave her a hug, then said, "Daddy likes ice cream too, but do you know what I like even more than ice cream?" She said with no hesitation, "Chocolate."
Been busy at the Junkyard disposing of stuff by Triablogue lately. They gave a few 'responses' to our question as to whether they were using sockpuppets in our exchange, but never really an actual answer. It's pretty comical.
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March 13, 2008 - We do a bit of investigation into some of the posts made at Arminian Perspective and Triablogue recently. There appears to be a distinct possibility that someone is engaging in foul play. On a personal note to Peter Pike, if you're going to mock us, at least make it legible. That pastel pink is a formatting disaster, try a shade closer to #F59090, it still looks girly but is visible on a lighter background. Sheesh, do I have to think of everything?
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March 11, 2008 - Looks like I'm starting to develop my own fan base over at Triablogue. They just love writing about me; but with their atrocious conduct as of late, their flood of arguments is coming up just a bit shy of ankle-deep. Some of their fans are curious as to why Ben and I consider them childish, since I employ sarcasm as well sometimes: I didn't criticize them for making jokes or satire, Triablogue has stepped way over the line and resorted to cheap misrepresentation (as Hays amply demonstrates for us) and mudslinging tactics, thus forfeiting any remaining semblance of credibility. It appears that their Triabologna has devolved into the debate equivalent of spam, and will be dealt with as such. On a related note, after seeing their posts, my wife decried my comparing them to spam as being unfair, and insisted that I apologize to Hormel Foods.
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March 7, 2008 - Hays and Manata give it another go, but due to Triablogue's awful behavior, their stuff has been been dumped at the Junkyard.
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March 6, 2008 - Triablogue puts out more Triabologna. Hays gets fried up this time.
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February 22, 2008 - Otis is at it again. This time he explains why monergist regeneration is also man-centered.
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February 21, 2008 - Posted a piece based on a recent conversation with Peter Lumpkins about whether it's acceptable for a Christian to drink wine.
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February 9, 2008 - Fred Butler comes out swinging again, with even more ferocity and less accuracy than before. We dispatch Fred's irrelevant accusations here.
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February 8, 2008 - Well, it's finally happened. My server has been hacked by a bizarre creature who very closely resembles a poorly-drawn cartoon character. His name is Otis, and he claims to be teaching the only truly God-centered religion. Apparently, even the strictest forms of Calvinism aren't enough for Otis, and he's demanding that all churches everywhere renounce their inconsistent, 'man-centered' beliefs about redemption and final glorification, and convert to his doctrine that consistently focuses entirely on God, in which men will never obtain any glory at all.
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February 7, 2008 - Wrote a response to a blog post by Fred Butler from Grace to You. Kangaroodort has also posted an excellent piece on Hebrews 6.
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January 25, 2008 - Just finished an informal debate on the Team Pyro site. I discussed the issue of regeneration coming through faith, not before. One of the guys named Paul was rather tenacious, and tried to argue that regeneration precedes faith from the grammar of John 5:24 and Colossians 2:11-12. Within a few posts I had fully dismantled his point from Colossians from the context, his only defense being asserting that "circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ" refers to regeneration, with faith coming from that, despite the fact that the very next verse talks about where our spiritual life comes from,
"...having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead."
Paul tried to argue that the Greek grammatical structure of John 5:24 necessitated that being brought to life preceded believing (writing in a rather insulting manner while doing so), but his case fell apart when I cited a counter-example in 1 John 5:10. He was sure hellbent on having the last word, but by time I let him have it, the point had been so thoroughly driven home that he was reduced to dropping a red herring and merely insisting that he was right. Check out the link to see our discussion.
Update: Kangaroodort has also taken this Paul character to task on regeneration and faith in the combox of the Pyro blog. Ben drove his point home so decisively that Paul fell into a complete temper tantrum of blindly insisting that he was right and throwing accusations of heresy, which is sadly on par for quite a few Calvinists we've spoken to.
Okay, stepping out of debate mode, I have a cute story to share: Few days ago I was talking to my 3-year old daughter, and I told her that she was pretty. She said "Daddy pretty too." I corrected her and said that "girls are pretty, boys are handsome." I'd forgotten that she was familiar with this word, having watched the re-make of Charlotte's Web recently, in which the rat Templeton says, "The rat is handsome." When she heard me mention the word, she exclaimed, "Yeah! Daddy handsome -- just like rat!"
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January 23, 2008 - Now in a discussion about perseverance with Adam Murrell from Redeeming Grace Ministries. Also put up an article at Arminian Perspectives that addresses some of the questions Calvinists commonly pose.
Of further note, TheoJunkie continues to slake my thirst for the bizarre with his observations. In this post, he opens fire on a cheesy church sign while reading WAY more into its lame pun than was intended. I tried to explain that "fall" in this context usually refers to "falling from grace" and is likely not a reference to original sin, but he seems adamantly persuaded otherwise (Benefit of the doubt?? They're Baptists for crying out loud!). Of course I could always be wrong. And I'm now firmly convinced that he'd know much better than I would, after having read his very astute and shocking revelation that the song Santa Clause is Coming to Town, I quote, "proclaims a gospel of works." But I must say that TJ's inspired me: Tune in next week, as I show the true, insidious nature of the Easter Bunny and the Pelagian false gospel he represents; how his seemingly innocent little 'egg hunts' are actually analogous for fallen man seeking out the mysteries of God apart from divine revelation! Wipe that smirk off your face Tooth Fairy, your rewards based on fleshly ordinances are next!
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January 4, 2008 - Things have been pretty quiet over the holidays. I did get a response to my Challenge from a blog called TheoJunkie. Wasn't much to it, but you can read a summary of our exchange with a link to their post. In another post they ragged on one of my posts as an example of not showing grace and humility, apparently because they didn't like the 'tone' I used when addressing Triablogue's accusations. Once you've stopped laughing enough to pick yourself back up off the floor, you may want to check out the Cotton Candy Commandments, a list of the silly and often unbiblical expectations of behavior Christians tend to hold when having discussions about controversial topics. And if one dose of satire isn't enough, take a gander at The Bronze Serpent Explained: A Monergist View of Divine Healing for a look at how an anachronistically Calvinistic thinker might interpret the miracle in the wilderness.
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December 7, 2007 - Daijoubu! There's Tae Kwon Do, there's Hapki-do, there's even Hwa Rang Do; but for serious taiketsu with menacing monergist maxims, there's Thibodaux-daux! This potentially lethal, and occasionally humorous Counter-Calvinist Cajun Kenjutsu can even stop a squad of mean-spirited Triabloggers dead in their tracks. We employ the synergist sword-arts and strike a biblical battojutsu stance to unleash an Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki that sends Triablogue's desperate, last-ditch efforts at making a comeback sailing across the horizon. Banzai!
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December 3, 2007 - The fat lady has sung. After several rounds of debate with Triablogue they appear to have completely unhinged themselves. They've destroyed any chance they had of being taken seriously and gone straight off into Toon Town with some bizarre accusations against me, citing my General FAQ page, and trying to pick apart my reason for preferring to be called 'Synergist' to 'Arminian': "...I prefer not to associate my doctrinal beliefs with the name of a mortal man."
They make several very odd and childish attempts to show that since Christ was mortal (seeing as He died), that I must not want to associate my beliefs with Him. Yeah, there's some compelling evidence. Any reasonably intelligent person would have understood from my wording that I wish my beliefs to be associated only with Christ, who alone has cast off and defeated death, now risen to glorious immortality, rather than some imperfect mortal still walking the earth, or in his grave awaiting the putting on of immortality (1 Corinthians 15:52-54). You can read more about the matter at a post I made at Arminian Perspectives, which includes links to our exchanges.
But they of course won't be satisfied with any amount of clarification. In the comboxes I left Paul Manata trying to endlessly argue about the definition of 'immortal,' Steve Hays has now trumped up some ridiculous heresy charges that he's hurled at me, and Gene Bridges is backing them up. It's a rather pitiable display from several grown men who are among the more prominent posters at Triablogue. I ask anybody reading our exchange to not hold any bitterness or resentment towards the members of Triablogue, nor attempt to treat them rudely in return. Remember that despite their delinquent behavior, they are not the enemy, the Devil is. We as Christians are to treat others (especially other Christians) with charity and grace, even if they mistreat us. Jesus said,
"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you..." (Matthew 5:43-44)
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November 30, 2007 - Another installment of atrociously trashy tripe from Triablogue gets terminally toasted like Pillsbury strudels, with bonus material at the end!
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November 27, 2007 - It's now official, I'm a bully. Apparently my responses to their criticism are so compelling that I'm now actually hectoring the very gentle and considerate folks over at Triablogue. Paul Manata has issued a response to my challenge which I answer here.
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November 26, 2007 - Mr. Belvedere from Triablogue gives it another go, but his case has inherent difficulties, in that thoroughly refuting it is only slightly less difficult than sneezing. *Sigh* You can see Triablogue's accusations thoroughly trashed here. My old friends over at the Reformed Mafia continue to get funnier. Gordan seemed rather excited that someone at Triablogue was trying to take me on, at one point he claims I was "systematically undone." I've seen more 'systematic' traffic accidents, but I digress. Next, Rhett gives a big thumbs-up to John Owen's most obnoxious work of all time, A Display of Arminianism, and even includes his atrocious tagline, "THE OLD PELAGIAN IDOL FREE-WILL, WITH THE NEW GODDESS CONTINGENCY." Calvinists please note: using Owen as an advertisement for Calvinism is akin to using Stalin as a poster boy for the former Soviet Republics....keep up the good work! Lastly, Josh Hitchcock gives a stunning revelation that the secular view of God and free will as portrayed in Hollywood films such as Bruce Almighty is "consistent with Arminianism." You know an argument like that has to be good! Don't miss it!
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November 24, 2007 - Posted an article at Ben's Arminian Perspectives Blog that was just a simple explanation and clarification of what prevenient grace and free will were. It must have really distressed quite a few in the militant Calvinist crowd, because now a certain B. Belvedere from Triablogue has taken to writing a patently awful response to it, chock-full of logical fallacies, misrepresentations, and mistaken assumptions about what I believe. I provide a suitable response laced with a bit of critique on the logic he employs to spice up the crow I'm serving to Mr. Belvedere. In further response to them, I've issued all the members of Triablogue my Challenge to Reformed Theology by Scriptural Fact. Stay tuned.
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October 14, 2007 - Looks like yet another prophecy by Yisrayl Hawkins and the 'House of Yahweh' cult has failed to come to pass (big surprise, I know). October 13, 2007 has come and gone with the world's governments still standing, and 'nucular war' Hawkins with some thoroughly non-kosher egg stuck to his face.
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October 12, 2007 - Been offering the Challenge to Reformed Theology by Scriptural Fact to several more Calvinists, one of which is pastor Greg Elmquist (see the Challenge Results page). In the meantime, I've tackled Mr Elmquist's Four 'Unanswerable' Questions.
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September 16, 2007 - Posted my debate with Kent Brandenburg in its entirety:
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3,
Part 4,
Part 5,
Part 6,
Part 7
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September 12, 2007 - A satire of some of the debate techniques and ideas common among Calvinists, check out the Whole Armor of Calvinism.
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August 28, 2007 - Posted an article on how to tell if your church is too money focused, based on a recent bad church visit. Also want to call your attention to a funny site: It's about a comic strip/book called Warrior Guys, illustrated by Dustin Runyan. I personally loved the satirical humor in it, it sort of reminds me of a Christian version of Foxtrot. But don't take my word for it (especially if you're familiar with my sense of humor), take a look at the 'sneak previews' link for yourself to see a nice sample of the toons.
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August 26, 2007 - Found a great site called Examining Calvinism. It's run by former Calvinist Richard Coords, who presents the facts about both Calvinism and Arminianism and analyzes them both scripturally and logically. Though Coords is sure to maintain a Christian spirit throughout his discussions (noting that we're Christians first, and our beliefs about how we came to be second), he doesn't shy away from a good debate, having already been banned from Calvinist Gadfly for politely pwning (or should I say swatting?) the rather blustering Alan Kurschner in his home court. I went to Richard's site after some interaction with him concerning a post on Ben Henshaw's Arminian Perspectives blog, where some rogue Calvinist blogger who calls himself 'Jesus' Boy' took to becoming a spammer for Calvin by posting entire articles on Calvinism in the comments section. Coincidentally, I had sent him an invitation to answer my Challenge to Reformed Theology earlier in the day before reading his spam. Speaking of blog comments, looks like my friends at the Reformed Mafia decided that my views on election were a little 'problem' they needed to 'deal with.' They ordered the hit (as they like to put it), probably expecting to leave me at the bottom of the Delaware with a new pair of cement Reeboks, but instead met something of an ambush that wouldn't have disappointed Frank Hamer. It got to the point where I didn't even bother to rebut their comments anymore and was content to let them have the last word, ending with Machine Gun Kelley spraying a few rounds into what are essentially his own points (which I'd merely restated) in a rushed attempt at damage control before they called the whole shabang off and disabled further comments.
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August 16, 2007 - Presented my challenge to a few Calvinist bloggers, and had several good following discussions with the Reformed Mafia. Gordan Runyan and Joshua Hitchcock met the challenge directly, and Rhett Kelley presented me with a challenge of his own. Sam Meza (aka Scribe) didn't respond to the challenges, but after reading some of my site appeared convinced that I was a narcissist, which is simply not true -- I've never even seen a real drug bust before. You can check out our exchanges on the Challenge Results page.
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July 28, 2007 - Posted some afterthoughts on the Reformation Theology Challenge. Also of note, Ben Henshaw has now started up a blog on soteriology called Arminian Perspectives, check out his latest article on Does Regeneration Precede Faith?
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June 30, 2007 - Been a while since I updated, changed jobs and moved recently, plus been without regular net access for a while. Got a question from a reader about if it was a contradiction to be a Christian and a Buddhist at the same time. The short answer is yes. A fundamental tenet of Buddhism is that there is no God (or at least no supreme God), which of course runs contrary to Christianity all the way. One may argue that a Christian may simply want to borrow some Buddhist virtues to add to his Christianity: While Buddha said some things that were indeed wise and moral, there's not really anything of substance that a fallible Buddha can bring to the table that the sinless Christ has not already.
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:19
Add to that the fact that there is no salvation from eternal destruction in the name of Buddha, but only in Christ (Acts 4:12), that we can't serve two masters (Matthew 6:24), and all of the supposed 'messiahs' besides Christ He calls "thieves and robbers" (John 10:8), and there is really no place for Buddha (or Muhammad/Krishna/Moroni/Xenu/etc. for that matter) as a spiritual leader in a Christian's faith.
Got a bunch of good stuff for you: To start off with, I take on a Calvinist blogger on the definition of 'foreknowledge' in 1 Peter 1:2, next up we have an excellent essay by guest author Benjamin Henshaw on Calvinism and Free Will in Matthew 23:37, and a concise, yet effective refutation to unconditional security, the Challenge to Reformed Theology by Scriptural Fact.
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May 7, 2007 - The Mystery of the Trinity and the Rational Mind, an article refuting a common objection to the doctrine of the Trinity, by guest author Ben Henshaw.
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