It Is Written

The Ghosts of Gettysburg

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: John Bradshaw

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Series Code: IIW

Program Code: IIW001256


00:07 It has stood the test of time, God's book,
00:13 the Bible.
00:17 Still relevant in today's complex world.
00:21 It Is Written...sharing hope around the globe.
00:37 I'm John Bradshaw and this is It Is Written.
00:40 Thanks for joining me today.
00:42 I'm here behind the GAR Hall, the oldest church building in
00:47 the City of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
00:50 It was built in 1822 by Methodists.
00:53 It was the first church in this area to allow Blacks and
00:56 Whites to worship together.
00:57 The church is still in use today.
01:00 In 1863, during and after the Battle of Gettysburg, most
01:04 public buildings and most church buildings were pressed
01:06 into emergency service.
01:08 Many college buildings, seminary buildings, even
01:11 private homes were converted into hospitals to take care
01:15 of the many wounded and dying.
01:18 Behind the GAR Hall here you find this little cemetery.
01:22 There is no shortage of cemeteries here in Gettysburg
01:25 and that is because so many people died in battle.
01:28 During the course of the American Civil War, more than
01:31 700,000 soldiers died, almost 8,000 alone during this one
01:37 battle here and more following the battle.
01:42 If you plan to make a trip to come and visit Gettysburg and
01:45 you do a little bit of research you are probably
01:48 going to discover this interesting fact.
01:51 The number one money making tourism enterprise in
01:54 Gettysburg is ghost tours.
01:59 In fact, one company that operates ghost tours here in
02:02 Gettysburg has this to say on its website: Of all the
02:06 forlorn countless souls awash in time, none reach out to us
02:11 more than those of the dead at Gettysburg.
02:14 They were young men, mostly, with hopes for a bright
02:18 future and moved by sincere, patriotic dreams, caught up
02:22 and cruelly thrown down again in that great hot world of
02:26 mortal combat.
02:27 Their presence on earth was silenced forever by death, or
02:34 maybe not.
02:35 What's really going on here?
02:39 Are the ghosts of dead soldiers really wandering
02:42 around Gettysburg?
02:44 Lost in some sort of purgatory?
02:46 And if they really are, what stranded them here?
02:49 Was it the tragedy of war?
02:51 Or was it as the website says, their intense desire
02:55 for a bright future?
02:56 Did nobody tell them that the battle of Gettysburg ended a
02:59 century and a half ago?
03:02 When it comes to the subject of what happens to the dead,
03:04 the only place you can go to for reliable answers is the
03:09 Word of God.
03:10 It is the only thing we can really trust.
03:12 The Ghosts of Gettysburg.
03:15 I'll have more in just a moment.
03:20 In Matthew 4:4, the Word of God says, " It is written,
03:23 man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that
03:27 proceeds from the mouth of God.
03:29 Every Word is a one-minute Bible-based daily devotional
03:33 presented by Pastor John Bradshaw and designed
03:35 especially for busy people like you.
03:38 Look for Every Word on selected networks or watch it
03:41 on-line everyday on our website, itiswritten.com.
03:45 Receive a daily spiritual boost.
03:48 Watch Every Word.
03:49 You'll be glad you did.
03:55 Today, we're talking about the ghosts of Gettysburg.
03:58 It is big business around here.
04:00 In fact, let me tell you a local ghost story.
04:05 The word is that not that many years ago, two men in a
04:08 multistory building somewhere around here in Gettysburg got
04:11 onto an elevator and they headed down to the bottom
04:13 floor.
04:14 When they got to the bottom floor, the doors of the
04:16 elevator opened and they looked out and they were
04:19 shocked to see right before their eyes, in vivid color,
04:23 larger than life, a battleground scene from
04:27 Gettysburg.
04:28 They looked out there and they could hear the groans of
04:31 the dying and they could smell warfare and death and
04:35 they could see doctors and medical people scurrying to
04:38 and fro and they could experience it all and they
04:41 looked at this ting and they looked at each other and they
04:43 pressed the button and as the elevator doors were closing,
04:46 one of the doctors looked up at them with an appealing
04:48 look in his eyes.
04:50 Do you think it was true?
04:54 Well, keep listening.
04:55 Today's program is going to answer that question really
04:58 very clearly.
05:01 The idea of people dying and leaving spirits here on the
05:05 earth to wander to and fro is an old idea.
05:08 As a matter of fact, people have been believing in ghosts
05:11 since before human beings started leaving written
05:15 records.
05:16 Today, most people fall into one or the other of two main
05:20 camps when it comes to this question of what happens when
05:22 you die.
05:23 Many people believe that when you die, you go straight to
05:25 heaven or straight to hell or perhaps purgatory.
05:28 In other words, you survive bodily death.
05:31 You go on living after you die and then there is a
05:33 school of thought that says that when you die your spirit
05:36 goes back to God like your hopes and dreams and thoughts
05:39 and desires and aspirations all cease to be.
05:44 As Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 9:5, the dead
05:48 know not anything.
05:49 Well, whatever you believe about that, there's one thing
05:52 everybody ought to be able to agree on and that's this.
05:56 That when you die, you don't leave a spirit behind that
06:00 roams the earth.
06:01 The dead don't come back to visit their families or haunt
06:05 houses.
06:07 In the Bible, the only spirit beings that roam the earth,
06:10 at least in the Old Testament, were angels.
06:14 Interestingly, even in the Bible there were people who
06:18 believed in ghosts.
06:20 Let's consider a New Testament Story.
06:22 We get it from Matthew, Chapter 14.
06:25 The disciples were out on the lake, on the Sea of Galilee.
06:28 It was night time, a big storm had came up.
06:30 The wind was blowing and these guys were in a fight
06:33 for their lives.
06:34 Keep in mind they were tough guys.
06:36 Many of them fishermen, some of them at least, and they
06:39 had spent, a number of these disciples, a lot of time out
06:43 there on that lake.
06:44 But this night they actually thought that they were going
06:48 to die.
06:49 They were scared stiff.
06:51 Let's pick up the story in Matthew 14:25, 26.
06:57 Now in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went to them
07:00 walking on the sea, and when the disciples saw him walking
07:03 on the sea, they were troubled, saying 'It is a
07:06 ghost', and they cried out for fear." Did I read that
07:11 right?
07:12 Did the disciples actually believe in ghosts?
07:16 The ones who spent many of their waking days, in fact,
07:19 every day for several years with Jesus, the divine Son of
07:23 God, did these guys believe in ghosts?
07:26 Evidently so.
07:27 And it wasn't just the disciples who believed this
07:32 either.
07:33 There is a very curious story found in the Old Testament
07:36 concerning a man named Saul, that is, King Saul, the King
07:41 of Israel.
07:42 King Saul believed that he had an encounter with a ghost
07:45 as well.
07:47 You find the story in 1 Samuel 28 and the fact is,
07:50 it's the only real ghost story that you find in the
07:54 Bible.
07:55 Understanding this story gives us some real insight
07:59 into the supernatural.
08:00 Let's pick it up in 1 Samuel 28:8.
08:05 So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes and he
08:09 went and two men with him.
08:11 And they came to the woman by night and he said, "please
08:15 conduct a séance for me and bring up for me the one I
08:18 shall name for you.
08:20 Then the woman said to him, 'look, you know what Saul has
08:23 done, how he has cut off the mediums and the spiritists
08:26 from the land.
08:27 Why then do you lay a snare for my life to cause me to
08:31 die?
08:32 And Saul swore to her by the Lord saying, as the Lord
08:35 lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.
08:39 Then, the woman said, whom shall I bring up for you?
08:42 And he said, bring up Samuel for me.
08:45 When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud
08:49 voice, and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, 'why have you
08:53 deceived me?
08:54 For you are Saul!' And the King said to her, 'do not be
08:58 afraid.
08:59 What do you see?' And the woman said to Saul, 'I saw a
09:02 spirit ascending out of the earth.' So he said to her,
09:06 'what is his form?' and she said 'an old man is coming up
09:10 and he is covered with a mantle,' and Saul perceived
09:13 that it was Samuel and he stooped with his face to the
09:17 ground and bowed down.
09:19 Now, Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by
09:24 bringing me up?" Interesting, isn't it?
09:27 Now, the question we want to ask ourselves is this.
09:30 Was that actually the ghost of Samuel?
09:35 Evidently looked like Samuel, apparently talked like
09:38 Samuel.
09:39 This Samuel figure evidently recognized Saul and Samuel
09:44 wasn't too happy about having been brought back from the
09:47 dead.
09:48 So how do we understand this?
09:49 First thing you want to do is consider the context in which
09:52 this took place.
09:53 King Saul was talking to a medium and this was something
09:57 that God had expressly forbidden his people from
09:59 doing.
10:00 Leviticus 19:31, "Give no regard to mediums and
10:04 familiar spirits.
10:06 Do not seek after them to be defiled by them.
10:09 I am the Lord your God." Then we read this in Deuteronomy
10:13 18:9-13, "when you come into the land which the Lord your
10:18 God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the
10:21 abominations of those nations.
10:24 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes
10:26 his son or his daughter pass through the fire or one who
10:29 practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who
10:32 interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures
10:35 spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls
10:39 up the dead, for all who do these things are an
10:44 abomination to the Lord and because of these
10:47 abominations, the Lord your God drives them out from
10:49 before you.
10:51 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.
10:54 And then Leviticus 20:6, "And the person who turns to
10:59 mediums and familiar spirits to prostitute himself with
11:02 them, I will set my face against that person and cut
11:05 him off from his people."
11:06 Spiritualism is one of Satan's most overwhelming and
11:11 most effective deceptions and it was cooked up in the
11:15 theological seminaries of hell itself.
11:19 There is no question something was going on and
11:21 what was going on was this: Saul the King was speaking to
11:25 the medium and the medium was communicating with the devil.
11:30 It's important that we know this, especially in this
11:34 world where psychics are big business and mediums have
11:38 their own television programs.
11:40 It wasn't that long ago that a cable TV channel came here
11:43 to Gettysburg and they filmed the show on paranormal
11:46 activity in Gettysburg.
11:48 They brought high tech electronic equipment that
11:51 they hoped was going to help him capture communication
11:55 with spirits from the other side.
11:58 How successful were they in doing so?
12:01 Well you and I both know.
12:02 People say Gettysburg is haunted.
12:05 People refer to hearing strange things and seeing odd
12:07 things from time to time.
12:09 Activity they can't really adequately explain.
12:12 But you know, that's true for just about anywhere in the
12:15 United States.
12:16 You hear something, you see something, if you hadn't been
12:20 told that there are spirits roaming around, you'd never
12:23 have even thought it was a spirit.
12:26 You would have thought that noise in your attic was a
12:29 racoon, you would not have been worried about some
12:31 departed Gettysburg soldier.
12:32 It is said that Gettysburg is the most haunted place in the
12:36 United States.
12:38 True or False?
12:39 Well, it's true that it's said that, but I think we
12:42 both know why it is said.
12:44 You know why?
12:46 Because it's good for business, that's why.
12:51 Now, God does have a means of assisting those of us living
12:56 on the earth, even sometimes communicating with us here on
13:00 earth.
13:01 How does God doe that, supernaturally?
13:03 1) Through the Holy Spirit; 2) Through the Word of God;
13:07 and 3) Through angels.
13:14 One thing that is consistent in the Bible about angels is
13:18 that when angels interact with human beings, they have
13:21 this tremendous capacity to be able to fill human beings
13:24 with awe.
13:25 They are awe-inspiring.
13:26 I will share with you a couple of verses from the
13:28 Bible that make that point very, very clear.
13:31 Matthew 28:5, the angel answered and said unto the
13:37 women, "fear not for I know that you seek Jesus, which
13:43 was crucified." These are the women who came down to Jesus'
13:46 tomb.
13:47 The angel appeared and they were awestruck.
13:50 Now, the word used is "fear" and I've got to be honest
13:53 with you and tell you that I'm not sure how much terror
13:55 filled these people as much as wonder and awe ... a
13:59 heavenly being.
14:00 We are in the presence of somebody who has come from
14:03 God.
14:04 They didn't have to be terrified of God, but I tell
14:06 you, the word is not inappropriate any how, they
14:09 were afraid, they were awestruck.
14:12 I'll give you another verse that makes the same point and
14:14 we'll discuss a couple of others again.
14:16 Luke 1:12, when Zacharias, that's the father of John the
14:22 Baptist, saw him, the Angel, he was troubled and fear fell
14:29 upon him.
14:30 So the angels of heaven have this ability to instill fear
14:34 or inspire awe in those people who encounter the
14:38 angels of heaven.
14:39 You read in Daniel 8, Daniel said "when the angel appeared
14:43 to him, he was afraid and he fell on his face." So point
14:48 #1, angels inspire, let's say fear or awe.
14:52 You choose which word works best for you.
14:56 Point #2 angels are powerful.
14:59 I want to share a little story with you from Isaiah
15:02 37, how powerful are the angels?
15:05 Well, let's look at this.
15:08 At Gettysburg in 1863, the Battle at Gettysburg ended
15:12 with 8000 or thereabouts deaths.
15:16 Many more casualties when you take into account the wounded
15:18 and the missing and so on, and then about another 8000
15:21 people died shortly after the battle of Gettysburg and it
15:24 is interesting to just say that as though it is of no
15:26 consequence but it was of colossal consequence.
15:29 Then you had the battle of Antedum, the bloodiest single
15:32 day in the history of the American civil war.
15:35 But look at this.
15:36 How powerful is an angel of heaven?
15:39 I'll read in Isaiah 37 starting in verse 33.
15:42 Listen to this.
15:43 God says, therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the
15:46 King of Assyria.
15:47 He shall not come into this city nor shoot an arrow there
15:50 nor come before it with shields nor cast a bank
15:53 against it.
15:54 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return and
15:57 shall not come into this city, saith the Lord.
15:59 For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake,
16:03 and for my servant David's sake.
16:06 And then what did God do?
16:08 God commissioned an angel who went forth and ... well, let's
16:14 read.
16:15 Let's read and see what happens in verse 36: Then the
16:18 angel of the Lord went forth and smoke the camp of the
16:22 Assyrians 185,000 and when they arose early in the
16:29 morning, behold they were all dead corpses.
16:35 One angel, so powerful, that 185,000 soldiers were killed
16:44 in one fell swoop.
16:47 How powerful are the angels of God?
16:50 They are tremendously powerful.
16:53 Now there is another point I want you to look at
16:56 concerning the angels of heaven.
16:58 God's messengers sent to this earth, and that's this.
17:01 2 Kings 6:13, He, the king, said, go and spy where he is
17:07 that I may send and fetch him.
17:09 And it was told him saying behold he is in Dothan,
17:11 therefore he sent there horses and chariots and a
17:14 great host and they came by night and encompassed the
17:17 city about and when the servant of the man of God was
17:20 risen early and gone forth behold, an host compassed the
17:24 city both with horses and chariots.
17:27 And his servants said unto him, Alas my master, how
17:30 shall we do?
17:32 And he answered Fear not for they that be with us are more
17:35 than they that be with them and Elisha prayed and said
17:40 Lord, I pray thee open his eyes that he may see and the
17:46 Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and
17:51 behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of
17:56 fire round about Elisha.
18:00 In 2 Kings 6 the angels appeared as brilliant beings.
18:05 What a display to see the mountain full of horses and
18:08 chariots of fire sent from God and angels.
18:13 The word of God said a great host was there.
18:16 How impressive that must have been to the view of Elisha's
18:20 servant, to walk out there and look out and see what God
18:24 had sent, all sent by God to assist and aid and help God's
18:28 people and bring encouragement and assure
18:30 God's people that he was with him.
18:33 God was there with his people and the angels appeared as
18:38 messengers of God to bring strength and hope.
18:41 Now, about the way angels appear.
18:45 The word of God makes clear that angels are able to
18:49 assume other forms.
18:50 Now, here is what I mean by that.
18:53 I will give you a couple of very Biblical examples.
18:55 In the NT, the Word of God says that Satan is able to
18:58 appear as an angel of light.
19:00 Now, he is an angel of darkness.
19:02 He is the Devil.
19:03 Nevertheless, he can disguise himself in such a way as he
19:08 can appear to be an angel of goodness, an angel of light.
19:13 Let's get an even more graphic example than that.
19:15 We go back to Genesis.
19:17 The creation story just after the creation story in Genesis
19:21 3.
19:22 In Genesis 3:1, the Bible says "Now the serpent was
19:28 more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God
19:31 had made and he said unto the woman, Yay, hath God said you
19:35 shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
19:38 And the woman said unto the serpent, "we may eat of the
19:42 fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of
19:45 the tree which is in the midst of the Garden, God has
19:48 said ..." and so on.
19:49 The devil appeared as a snake.
19:55 Must have been a very beautiful creature, because
19:57 Eve was enticed.
19:59 She was beguiled.
20:00 She was drawn.
20:01 She was attracted to what was taking place.
20:03 And maybe there is something about a talking snake.
20:06 A little hard for me to relate to because I was
20:09 raised in one of the very few countries in the world where
20:12 there are no snakes.
20:13 There are only three of them and I was raised in one of
20:15 those three countries ....no snakes at all.
20:18 I wasn't raised with any affinity for snakes in any
20:22 way, shape or form.
20:23 Now I've developed a working toleration with them.
20:28 I can't imagine what I would ever have done if I would
20:31 have heard a talking snake.
20:32 I'd like to think that I would not have hung around.
20:36 Eve heard the voice, looked and saw the snake, the
20:40 serpent, it must have been a beautiful creature and she
20:45 entered into a discussion with it and where did that
20:48 discussion lead?
20:49 It led to where we are today.
20:51 Plunged into misery and sin, and depths of despair as a
20:54 planet hoping for a better day and we know that better
20:57 day is the return of Jesus.
21:00 Lucifer, now Satan, changed his form and he did that to
21:06 draw Eve and Adam and this whole planet into the depths
21:12 of the misery of sin.
21:14 Now, there is another point I want to make about angels,
21:18 and that's this.
21:19 You know God created us in such a way that we can be
21:22 inhabited.
21:23 The Bible says that we are the temple of the Holy
21:26 Spirit.
21:27 We were created to be filled with the presence of God.
21:31 In Revelation 3, Jesus says 'Behold, I stand at the door
21:35 and knock.
21:36 If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come
21:39 into him and dine with him and that person will dine
21:42 with me.
21:43 Jesus wants to come into us and live his life in us.
21:48 We read that again and again and again in the word of God.
21:51 We were made to be inhabited.
21:55 However, you have also read in the Word of God that there
21:58 are people who have been inhabited by the wrong spirit
22:03 and there are probably several places we could go in
22:05 the Bible to illustrate that, but I want to go to Luke 11
22:09 and there is an interesting passage in Luke 11 that
22:13 demonstrates this.
22:15 Luke 11, I'm going to read in verse 24 and on.
22:21 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh
22:27 through dry places seeking rest and finding none, he
22:30 saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out and
22:35 when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished.
22:38 Then he goes and he takes to him seven other spirits, more
22:43 wicked than hiself and they enter in and dwell there and
22:48 the last state of that man is worse than his first.
22:53 Isn't that something?
22:55 You wee, we were made to be inhabitated, inhabited by a
22:58 spirit.
22:59 God is a spirit and that is who we want to fill us up.
23:02 Jesus wants to live his life in us and he would do that
23:04 today through the Holy Spirit.
23:07 But if we are not filled with the Holy Spirit, we are going
23:11 to be filled with something.
23:13 Notice, the demon was cast out or went out of a man, he
23:17 came back to that person and found the man empty ... empty
23:22 and because he was empty, there was room inside that
23:26 person's mind or heart or life for that demon and many
23:30 of his associates.
23:31 We were made to be filled up.
23:33 We were made to be filled with the Spirit of God.
23:37 However, if we are not, we can be filled with the Spirit
23:41 of Satan.
23:42 We can be filled with demons.
23:44 People can be possessed.
23:45 You know, that's one of the reasons why it's so very,
23:48 very important not to go to mediums, not to consult
23:52 mediums, not to consult with psychics, to stay away from
23:54 psychic phenomena, to stay away from that dangerous,
23:57 unbiblical paranormal activity.
24:00 Why?
24:01 Because it is not of God.
24:02 And if you will give the enemy of Saul a toehold, he
24:05 will take it.
24:06 If you give him an inch, he will take a mile.
24:08 If you give him access to your life at all, before you
24:11 know it, he has taken over our life completely.
24:14 The only safe thing to do is to stay away from that dark
24:17 side, to stay away from the mediums and the psychics, to
24:22 stay away from the ghosts and the ghost stories and run to
24:25 Jesus and hang on to Jesus and just don't let go.
24:33 You can't always explain things that go bump in the
24:35 night, except you can know this.
24:37 The Devil is a liar.
24:39 Jesus called him the father of lies and to get a world
24:42 full of people to believe that the spirits of the dead
24:45 come back to the earth and roam the streets and haunt
24:48 houses, really ... that's quite an achievement, especially
24:51 when the Bible says plainly and simply in the Book of Job
24:54 7 that the dead return no more to their house.
24:59 So, are there demons roaming the streets of Gettysburg?
25:04 I wouldn't doubt it for a moment, not for a moment.
25:08 But are they the spirits of dead soldiers wandering
25:11 around, troubling people and bothering lives?
25:13 It absolutely cannot be that way, at least, not if you
25:18 want to believe the Bible.
25:21 I will never forget the experience I had visiting a
25:23 lady in her home a number of years ago and she told me
25:25 this story: She said that her uncle lived with her family
25:30 in the last years of his life and that he died right there
25:33 in her home.
25:35 It was not but a couple of days after the funeral and
25:37 she went back into uncle Larry's bedroom to straighten
25:40 something up or return something or retrieve
25:42 something and as she stepped into that room, music started
25:47 playing.
25:49 She looked around.
25:50 She didn't know how to explain that.
25:52 She stepped out of the room and the music stopped.
25:55 So she stepped in and it started and she stepped out
25:58 and it stopped, and she had a little fun with this for a
26:00 while and she wondered what was going on and she wondered
26:02 if she was hearing things and then she realized that's the
26:06 kind of music Uncle Larry used to live.
26:08 That's what is going on here.
26:11 Uncle Larry is back and he is telling us everything is
26:14 okay.
26:16 Well, you can believe that if you want to but it's not what
26:20 the Word of God says.
26:21 The Bible does not tell us that the dead come back to
26:24 the earth, haunt houses, scare people and roam the
26:29 streets of cities like Gettysburg.
26:31 In fact, that's far from the truth.
26:34 It just doesn't happen and we have that on the authority of
26:39 the Word of God.
26:42 The Mystery of Death is a book that will help you
26:45 discover the truth of the after-life, death whenever it
26:48 happens is a tragedy and people wonder what happens
26:52 next.
26:53 In this week's free book, the mystery of death, pastor
26:56 Bradshaw explores this often misunderstood subject and
26:59 provides answers directly from the Bible.
27:01 Just call 1.80.253.3000 and ask for the book The Mystery
27:05 of Death.
27:06 You can call anytime, day or night.
27:09 If the line is busy, please keep trying.
27:11 You can also request this free book by writing to It Is
27:15 Written, Box O, Thousand Oaks, California, 91359 and
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27:21 Please note this free book is limited to the supply on
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27:26 For immediate access, you can download a free electronic
27:28 version of the book, The Mystery of Death, from our
27:32 website itiswritten.com.
27:33 It Is Written is a faith-based ministry made
27:35 possible by viewers like you.
27:37 Thank you for your letters and your continued support.
27:40 Thanks for joining me today.
27:42 I look forward to seeing you again next time.
27:44 Until then, remember, it is written, man shall not live
27:48 by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the
27:53 mouth of God.


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Revised 2015-02-06