Tag Archives: sin

February 13, 2016 · 4:32 pm

Life Comes Out of Death of Old Nature

“You Gotta Die Before You Live” is the name of the song [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeDb5WdFHS0 ].

That really sums up the gateway into the Christian walk. The old sinful self must die on the cross with Christ, and then by believing in His resurrection, we, too, are “raised to walk in a newness of life.” There is no watering it down; no excuses. “The soul that sins must die.” That’s the law laid down in the beginning. Man is born with unwanted sinful compulsions. In the Adamic nature, he is born into a slavery to sin. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Sin dwells in the unregenerated human, making them do incredibly selfish sinful things to others. Who can deliver man from such bondage to sin? (Rom. 7: 15-25).

We Christians know that  it is God through His Son that has provided the key to unlock the chains of sin from our hearts. He said that He would deliver us from sin, but we have been told that you’ll be a sinner till the day you die, that you cannot stop sinning; just ask forgiveness. Many precious Christian souls are wrestling with the sin question as we speak.

“Sinner till the day you die…” The irony would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. For death is the way out of the slavery of continual sinning. Not the physical death of the body, but it is the spiritual death of the old Adamic heart and nature within. That is the ticket to freedom.

What again is the answer to this dilemma?

Our Old Nature Must Die on the Cross

So how does one get out of the bondage of sin and sinning?  How do we deal with this sin problem in our lives?  The scriptures say that  “He shall save His people from their sins.”  How does this happen?  Can we ever get in a “right” state with God?  What must we do?  There is only one thing to do with the carnal sinful self and that is to confess our depraved state, identify it with Christ on the cross, and let it die.  There is only one way for the body of sin to be destroyed for the old sinful Adamic nature; it must be crucified.  But we cannot really do anything to bring this on.  It is a total work of God that has already been done—at the cross.  We cannot do anything to deserve this wonderful deliverance from this death caused by sin and sinning.  All He wants us to do is believe what He has already done to deliver us from the bondage of sin.

First, we must know this one thing: our old man, our old ego, our old self, our old nature, our old heart, our old carnal nature, the flesh, the depraved body of sin within us—it is put to death with the sacrificial Lamb.  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Romans 6:6.

Paul did not say that our old sinful nature was going to be taken care of some day when we all get to heaven.  No!  He said that it is dead, already put to death on the cross! That is not a misprint or a mis-translation.  The sacrificial Lamb of God took our sins upon Him at the time of His death.  He was our scapegoat, as when the Levitical priest laid hands on the goat transferring the sins of the people onto it.  Christ died as a sinful lost man that day, for He “was made to be sin for us, who knew no sin that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21).

He wants us to believe this—that our sinful nature died with Him on the cross, and that we was buried with Him, and that we were raised up with Him as well.  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Romans 6:5.

Is this hard for us to believe?  Is it hard to have faith in this teaching?  Yet the elect will believe this word.  The others will fall as the children of Israel did through unbelief.  For you see that God is not asking us to do anything except believe what He has already done for us.  He first believed in His work in us long before we got here on this earth.

Entering the State of Being Right with God

And if we believe His word on this, then He will reckon a righteous status unto us. He will lay to our account that we are righteous in His eyes.  For it is God who makes the dead-in-sin come to life and imputes righteousness unto them because they believe Him.  Even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.  Romans 4:17.

Our part is to surrender our old sinful selves unto the cross.  Because of our faith in His redemptive sacrifice by surrendering unto death our own sinful heart, then He says, “You are now my child, and you are now righteous in My sight.  You are welcome into my arms of love and mercy.  Just walk in it by forgiving others and doing my words.  For it is not you that are doing it, for you are dead now, my sons and daughters.  It is the Spirit of the living God that I have dispatched into your hearts.  It is the Spirit of Christ within you who I recognize as the one motivating spirit of your life.  And soon you will be able to truthfully say what Paul said to the Galatians.”  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Gal. 2:20.

When we simply believe His apostle’s word and identify  our  depraved  carnal  nature with the Lamb that day, and surrender to the punishment of death to that old selfish way of life, then He is pleased.  That faith pleases Him very much, for we believe the report that He has given us concerning the Savior.

“Righteousness” is the upright walk in God’s ways and laws.  If one is righteous in God’s eyes, then He approves of their walk of faith.  Our old carnal Adamic nature can never please God, for it cannot keep the ten commandment law.  But there was one who did, even the Savior Himself.  Our part is to just believe that He is living within, for He is the Spirit, and His Spirit within keeps us in that righteous condition in God’s eyes.  Remember that He is the one who “calls those things that be not as though they were.”  He believes in His own sacrificial power; He can’t go back on it.  If we believe what He believes about us in our redeemed position with Him within, then we are walking in faith.

[The above is an excerpt from The Unveiling of the Sons of God. You may read a portion of it here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/ebook-the-unveiling-of-the-sons-of-god/ or you may order a free copy of the trade paperback–details here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/donate/ ]  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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February 6, 2016 · 6:45 pm

The Difference Between 1st and 21st Century Christianity

The difference between 1st and 21st Century Christianity is vast. The God worshiped is the same, of course. But it is a question of focus.

The central point of the early church teachings was to introduce to both the followers of Judaism and to the pagan masses the Savior and His Passion. Neither of the two audiences believed the story of the Savior and His death, burial, and resurrection upon first hearing.

In the early disciples’ writings preserved for us in the New Testament, we find the “apostles’ doctrine,” which is the teachings of Christ concerning His kingdom and our place in it. To the Jews they taught that Christ was the Messiah prophesied of old and that He is the Son of Yahweh of the Old Testament writings. To the Gentiles they taught that Christ is the true God and Savior of the whole world. They were powerful advocates with His Spirit confirming with many signs and wonders.

The Difference

The early church was starting at ground zero. Most Jews rejected the Messiah, and the pagan masses clung to their false gods. So they told them about Jesus Christ of Nazareth and His love for them. This was a message that they had not heard before.

But today it is different. Hundreds and hundreds of millions of professing Christians reside all over this planet. It’s like that commercial: Q: Did you know that Christ is the Savior of the world?  A: Yes. Everyone knows that.

Today billions of Christians don’t need to be introduced to Christ and Him dying for us. What we need to know are the spiritual intricacies of what His death, burial, and resurrection mean in our own lives and how that ties into the greater plan and purpose of God reproducing Himself–in us! We need to know how His plan and purpose will come to pass since we as Christians are smack dab in it; we are, after all “the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that fills all in all” (Eph. 1:22-23). Oh, we do need to know how to get from being puny and powerless little babes in Christ to being the “fulness of Him.” In other words, to be like Christ.

And the early apostles planted the seeds on how to get there in our spiritual growth. But man’s religious Christian leaders have been stuck in the First Century, continually teaching their flocks today about Christ, seldom mentioning how to ignite the power of the Spirit in a believer’s heart and how to grow to become part of the “manifested sons of the living God.”

Why are the pastors and priests today still preaching sermons about Christ and not about how to become like Christ? Most don’t know, for they were never taught by their mentors. And if they do find out, they become afraid of their jobs, for most are hirelings, and they did not “count the cost” to fully follow Him. They are purveyors of weak pablum, for they have not “purged out the old leaven” of hypocrisy and falseness.

And yet, the early apostles sowed seeds for our growth as Christians in the 21st Century. They told us what would thwart our attempts to grow spiritually. Yes, they gave us the timeless truths of His salvation, but they also warned us of the treacherous times to come. They warned us of the blasphemy of some in the last days who would be selfish, ungrateful, unholy, hateful, and be “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” They warned of evil seducers and how it would get worse and worse in their deceiving of Christians (II Tim. 3: 1-13). They called them “false prophets” and “false teachers” that will definitely “bring in damnable heresies” into the church congregations (2 Pet. 2; Jude 3-12).

And this is the tough one to swallow; they warned us that these deceivers would come to us as Christian pastors and teachers. Even in Paul’s day, the heresy had already begun. “False apostles and deceitful workers” were already “transforming themselves into the apostles of light. And no marvel: for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11: 13-15). I believe that many pastors today are sincere and have been deceived through the false teachings that started way back in the day.

And so these old leaven teachings are passed on down from generation to generation. That is why the deeper things are not taught. Our adversary does not want them taught; he does not desire God’s plan for His body to come to fruition. Satan does not want us to grow. He does not want us to dig deep and grow up into Him.

Some Deeper Things

We all know that through His great love for us, Christ offered up Himself on the cross unto death. However, it is not enough to believe that He died, was buried, and was raised from the dead. We must believe that our old sinful nature died with Christ on the cross. When He died, all the sins of every human being died, also. When He gave up the ghost, our old heart, old spirit, and old nature died along with Him. Then we are buried with Him, and then we are “raised to walk in a newness of life.” It is all right there in Romans 6.

“He that is dead is freed from sin.” When we truly believe in His resurrection, we are believing in our own resurrection. For at the moment of Christ’s death, He took on Himself the sin of us all. He died as a sinner. He was our scapegoat offering for sin. That was us up there on the cross. That’s why the apostle Paul tells us, “You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3: 3).

But this message is not preached very often. Not many anymore want to be told that they have to “reckon themselves dead” on the cross and let their old sinful selves die, and then by faith in Christ’s resurrection, be risen with Him (Col. 2: 12). Not a popular message. Most would rather hear about Christ dying, not them dying.

Now when we really believe this, astounding things happen. The hand that stole, steals no more. The eye that lusted and coveted no longer yearns for things it cannot have. Cursing vanishes. Joy replaces bitterness and despair. We become new creatures in Christ.

This transformation, of course, is provided by our Savior through His great love and mercy. This is wonderful, but it is only the first step in “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” But this puts us on the right track, on the way to growing up and maturing into the full grown sons and daughters of God.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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January 3, 2016 · 5:28 pm

“Our Father”–God Is Everyone’s Creator, Not Everyone’s Father

We have learned that the “Lord’s Prayer” is a blueprint for our communication with God. It is not a  chant nor hollow words mouthed in repetitious recital. It is rather the “manner” that we should speak with our Father. In other words, we should pray with the understanding of the concepts presented in this model prayer.

And the first words that we should speak to Him when addressing Him is “Our Father.” Our Father. As we stop and savor these words, we see that God is the closest of our kin. He engendered us. We have His spiritual genes in our spirit. In our spiritual family tree, He is just above us. He is our closest family member.

Our closest family member. We are not an only child of the King. This is the second big take away in our meditation on the first two words of God’s example prayer. We have brothers and sisters that He loves as much as He loves us. It is a pretty big family.

The Father and the Creator

God is “our Father.” God is not everyone’s Father.  He is the Creator of all, but not the Father of all. The Pharisees claimed God as their Father. They said to Christ, “We have one Father, even God.” But Christ told the Pharisees, “If God were your Father, you would love me…You seek to kill me, a man that has told you the truth…You are of your father the devil…a murderer from the beginning…a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:40-44).

We see, then, two spiritual fathers at work in the earth: “Our Father”  and “your father the devil.”  And to help the sons and daughters of God, Christ left us the salutation in His Blueprint Prayer, “Our Father” to distinguish our Father from their father.

Describing their father the devil, Christ said that there was no truth in him, that he is the father of all lies. Earlier, Christ told the Pharisees that the truth–not the lies–would make you free. Free from what? they responded. We’ve never been a slave to any man. Then Christ told them that their slavery to sin and sinning was what the truth would free them from. And that truth was Him (Jn 8: 32-36)   To read more on them, see https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/parable-of-the-tares-in-the-field-who-are-these-children-of-the-wicked-one-part-ii-conversations-with-the-seer 

The words, “Our Father,” also signify an engendering by God, begetting several spiritual offspring. The LORD (Yahweh in the Hebrew), told the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee” (Jer. 1:4-5).  God knew Jeremiah before his earthly conception and gestation.  And God chose him and ordained him a prophet before he “came forth out of the womb.”  Jeremiah was “born from above”–begotten by God long before coming to earth.  Jeremiah was in the very heart of God–and so were we, His sons and daughters, before the time of our earthly, fleshly sojourn.

Our Father “has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4).  He knew us before and has predestined us “to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29).   He has given us a destiny to be like Christ before the world was ever founded.  This is nothing less that God’s purpose–reproducing Himself.

And so the cycle goes: seed time and harvest.  God the husbandman has great patience waiting for His children to grow up until they are “conformed to the image of His Son.”  He will endure the “vessels fitted unto destruction” in order to create His “royal priesthood,” His ruling offspring.  This is our destiny, ordered for us by “our Father.”

For make no mistake.  Christ told it like it is.  He warned that in the last days, many will be deceived by false prophets and false teachers who lead the sheep through the wide and broad gate to destruction.  They are wolves in “sheep’s clothing.”  They show themselves as God’s spokesmen, but are really modern day Pharisees, whose father is not “our Father.”

And to the many who are deceived by them Christ warns: “Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name done many wonderful works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:13-23).  Let’s see: God knew Jeremiah–even before he was born. But these He never knew. He knew all things with foreknowledge and knew that they would not believe Him and His words. And yet they mouthed a bunch of half-truths about Him, but they didn’t do the will of our Father “which is in heaven” (v. 21).

There is a lot in the phrase “Our Father.” We must begin to pray with the understanding of His words.  It is a great privilege to call Him “our Father.”  Not everyone truthfully can.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

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November 14, 2015 · 5:24 pm

Gay Marriage–A Stench in God’s Nostrils

The Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage fulfills perfectly this passage: “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” Man’s secular governments have rejected the King of glory. They say, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” Consequently, they do what they think is right and do not consult God their Creator as to His thoughts on marriage (Judges 21: 25; Lk 19: 14).

Yet, they say that Christ was a great teacher. But they will not obey His teachings. Those in favor of gay marriage are judging the issue from their own vantage point. But mankind’s morality comes from God’s viewpoint.

Christ’s Teaching on Marriage

Christ told the corrupted Pharisees, “Have you not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh?”

You secular progressives out there, have you not read in Genesis where “God created man in His own image…male and female created He them” (Gen. 1: 27). That bears repeating. Man was created by God in God’s own image. God fashioned man as a male-female joining. This is a likeness of God and His wife, Wisdom.

Proverbs admonishes, “My son, hear the instruction of thy Father, and forsake not the law of thy Mother (1: 8). Our spiritual Mother is Wisdom, which is the “fear of Yahweh (the LORD). “Fear” is reverential awe of God. And Yahweh possessed our Mother Wisdom “in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was…I was by Him…and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him” (Prov. 8: 22-30).

This is our spiritual Mother speaking to us.  Wisdom is crying out to us to turn away from the evil and to cleave to that which is good. When we are in reverential awe of the great Creator Father, then we will “hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate” (Prov. 8: 13).

God Created Us in This Image–In the Likeness of Himself and Wisdom

Christ continues His teaching on marriage. God in the beginning made them male and female, which is the likeness of our Father and our Mother, Wisdom. “For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh….What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” Mankind was to emulate God’s spiritual relationship with our Mother Wisdom (Mt. 19: 4-6).

God has joined together in His likeness only male and female. Not male and male. Not female and female. This is God’s vantage point. This is how He sees it. He created it this way. Gay marriage is an attack on the very heart of God. That is the reason it is so sinful in God’s eyes.

Woe Unto the Pastors Who Lead the Sheep Astray

Those who support homosexual marriage are wringing the nose of God–especially churchianity’s pastors and priests.  They are burning fetid incense. In Christ’s stead they perform gay weddings, which is totally against Christ’s teachings. And now the secular governments of man give political backing to such a stinking affront.

For all this, I fear that a sword is coming on the land. That sword will be permitted by Yahweh Himself. The men of Sodom wanted to have sex with the two angels visiting Lot. Lot told them, “Do not so wickedly…I have two daughters which have not known man; let me bring them out unto you, and do to them as is good in your eyes; only unto these men do nothing.” The sodomites rushed upon them, and the two angels had to blind them in order to deliver Lot and his family from them. After getting clear of the city, “the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire…” The stench of homosexuality wafted no more, being extinguished by the sulfurous cataclysm that enveloped them (Genesis 19: 1-24).

Judgment is coming upon our nation who has turned away from God, like the children of Israel did in olden times. The things that happened to them are written down to admonish us. When they sinned against Him, He permitted oppression to come upon them.

His judgement may be an economic collapse of the US dollar. Perhaps it will be a war, an asteroid, an earthquake, civil unrest, or all of the above. But this Supreme Court decision is a stench in God’s nostrils. And when He comes to the end of His patience with the evil inclinations of His people, severe judgement will come.

We as a nation and world must repent. But I know that all of us who stand up against this abomination–our words will be rejected, as He foretold. “If they rejected Me, they will reject you.”

Yet, He also said that a remnant will respond and the rest were blinded. We who see, then, must brace ourselves for the rocky days of judgement that shall come. We must examine ourselves and “strengthen the things that remain” to be done.

President Obama has already taken the words “under God” out of the pledge. The gay marriage ruling by the Supreme Court has in effect replaced those words with “against God.”

 

 

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August 1, 2015 · 2:44 pm

How to Repent from Sin–Once and for All

Most Christians are taught that they are sinners. They have never heard this verse preached: “He that is born of God does not commit sin, for His seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God” (I John 3: 9). They will be browbeaten about their sinful state but they will never hear this verse taught.

When one hears this verse for the first time, it is shocking.  And yet, there it is, the Spirit of Christ Himself writing through His apostle this astonishing doctrine. It was there all the time, but man’s traditions have been smeared over it, so much so that few have eyes have ever seen it.

This righteous message thrusts us to a crossroads–whether to believe it or not. Someone is thinking…Well, nobody at church has ever brought this out. Not straightforward like this. The preacher never quoted or preached on this verse. If he ever said anything about sin, it was that we are all “sinners saved by grace.” But we already knew that. He said that we would definitely keep on sinning, but the good news is that now we have a Savior to pray to, and He would forgive us. Just confess your sins–confess them. It kind of sounds like the same set up the Catholics have except they confess their sins to a priest, but we Protestants confess them direct to the Savior. But we are still going to sin. No getting around that, according to the preacher. You just got to confess them to get rid of the guilt. It’s like we have sin hanging over our heads just waiting to jump on you and make you do things you really don’t want to do. Bad things. Hurtful things to others. Selfish things that are lurking there in the back rooms of your heart. Just waiting to jump out and take over for a spell, and then, they recede after you confess them. You are going to sin; you just have to confess them. At least, that’s what they teach…

And that is the doctrine concerning sin that we have been taught. This teaching is not astonishing! It is frustrating and depressing. It does not make you want to shout, HalleluYah! There is nothing astonishing about it. It is just old and unenlightened and powerless. There is no liberty and freedom there. No deliverance. No saving them from their sins. No freedom from being a slave to sin. Christ did say, He who commits sin is a slave to sin. And no man can serve two masters.

But Christ also taught that we are more than conquerors through Him. He came to save us from our sins (Matt. 1: 21). He is not the minister of sin. When our old sinful nature dies with Christ on the cross, sin within our hearts is “destroyed, that we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.”

How to Repent from Sin

When our old sinful nature dies with Christ on the cross, sin within our hearts is “destroyed, that we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.”So we reckon ourselves dead to sin but alive to God through Him (Rom. 6: 1-11). Freed from the slavery and bondage to sin. Free! Now that is astonishing!

The key is just believing this. God said it; I didn’t. It is all in His written word. We must study it out and believe it. Here is some more on this from my book Yah Is Savior: The Road to Immortality: 

Chapter 28  How the Old Self Dies–Baptism into His Death

     We may not realize it yet, but we are blessed, for we have seen that our old self needs to go.  Many try to redirect or re-channel its activities.  Sometimes we try to clean it up, but He wants it to die.

     He said to repent and be baptized in water.  Yes, water baptism is a symbol of something else, yet we should still do it.  But few know what the real baptism is.  Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Messiah Yahshua were baptized into His death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Messiah was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Rom. 6:3-4. NIV.

     Going down into the water is a symbol of the mortal life we now live in this flesh.  Coming up out of the water is a symbol of the new spirit-being life we shall live, which is the immortal life that we are called to.

Water is a symbol of our mortality.  Our first physical birth is an immersion in a bag of water.  We are born of water.  We mortals are about 75% water.  We  begin  in  our  mother’s  womb in water.  During water baptism we are baptized into His death.  To live in this mortal body is to die.  This watery entombment we call a body is really a deathtrap.  It by its very nature has to die.  The Messiah’s body was composed of the same watery stuff that our bodies are.  And He died.  He had to die by reason of the nature of his shell during His earthly tenure.  This watery, flesh and blood body cannot inherit immortality and go into the kingdom of the Eternal One.  To be made of water is to be mortal, to be awaiting death, for water is extremely unstable, subject to every whim of nature’s forces.

To sin is to die.  Mortality is to be able to die.  Therefore, our mortality is to sin. Sinning insures a human of not receiving a new spiritual heavenly body.  But now He has enabled us to live a life where we do not have to sin, if we receive His Spirit.  “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust (desires) of the flesh (this old mortal body)” Gal. 5:16 NKJV.

He was made to be sin for us

We, then, when we go under in water, are symbolically being immersed into this watery mortal state of sin with Him.  We “are buried with him by baptism into death.” Rom.6:4. God calls those things that are not,  as though they were.  We are dead already (Yahshua told the disciples, “Let the dead bury their dead”).  He calls it before its actual physical death when we consent to and experience it (in revelation).  The water is the symbol of our earthly mortal bodily state.  This spiritual death of our old self comes now in this revelation before the fruit of death comes to our earthly bodies.

     In conjunction with this, few know that the Messiah, the day of His death, actually became sin for us—he who had never sinned.  He was the sacrificial  Lamb who was set to be sacrificed  before the world ever came into existence.  God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. II Cor. 5:21. NIV. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Rev. 13: 8.

     The levitical priest, in types and shadows, laid his hands on the sacrificial goat, thereby transferring Israel’s sins upon it.  So did the Father place all of mankind’s sins upon the body of Messiah.  When He died, the body of sin died; our sin died that day.  To whom is the arm of Yahweh revealed?…Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all…It pleased Yahweh to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see His seed. Isa. 53:1,6,10.

     We make the Lamb’s soul an offering for our own sins by realizing that it was us in our sinful state hanging on the tree that day.  We must be immersed in this knowledge.  We must believe that our old self—that old monkey on our back, that old demon that we were, that selfish, egotistical, self-absorbed, sorry excuse for a human being—that old thing that we were is now, in God’s eyes dead.  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  For he that is dead is freed from sin. Rom. 6: 6.
[You can read more of this book on line or order a free hard copy found here: https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/book-yah-is-savior-the-road-to-immortality/  and https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/donate/ ]

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June 10, 2015 · 4:40 pm

Sin Is a Heart Condition

Pneumonia is a lung condition. One’s lungs are either infected with the diplococcus pneumoniae bacteria or they are not.

Leukemia is a blood condition. If someone has cancer of the white blood cells, then they have this condition. One either has this blood condition or one does not.

Sin is a heart condition. However, it is not a physical condition of the fleshly muscle that pumps our blood. But rather it is a condition of the spiritual heart, the very center of a person, the spiritual core and center of being. And sin is the condition of natural man’s heart.

This condition of the spiritual heart called sin is an all or nothing condition, like the examples above. Either the lungs are invaded by the bacteria causing pneumonia or they are not. The same thing applies to sin. It either resides in a person’s heart or it does not. They have a heart that sins or they do not.

It is not a pick and choose thing in God’s eyes. Sin occupies the old nature of mankind, the natural man. Sinning is in unregenerated man’s nature. The selfishness exhibited in sinning comes, well, naturally. It is what the old man, the old self does—sin. Sin is the breaking of the 10 Commandment Law (I John 3: 4). So it is in man’s old nature to break these laws.

Someone will say, “Well, I don’t go around murdering people and committing adultery.” Of course, Christ magnified the law when He said that if you hate someone, you have the heart of someone who could kill. He knew that in this spiritual law, murder grows from the seed of hate. Adultery grows from the seed of desire and lust. It is spiritual law and it will take a new heart with a new spirit to obey it. And this new heart and spirit comes from our Father Yahweh [translated “the LORD” in most versions].

For mankind is born into a sinful world, and he fits right in with it because he has this innate sinful nature. The condition of sin in one’s old nature is the spirit of getting for the self. Mankind is born with this sinful nature. It is a condition of mankind’s heart.

Sin is a heart condition. It is either a spiritual condition of sin and sinning in a human being’s heart, or it is not. God looks on the heart—not on the outward appearance. Christ said for us to either make the tree evil or make it good.

I know that many will balk at this teaching, for it is new to their ears. Not many are speaking on sin. In fact, it is not politically correct to bring up the word. And it is rare that pastors will preach against it from the pulpit today. People don’t want to hear it. They get their feathers ruffled and feelings hurt. Most are content to dress up the old nature within themselves. Clean it up a little bit. Go to church. Try to stop the obvious unacceptable things. But for many, the old heart is still there.

Why? Because the old sinful heart has not died yet. And this does not get done in most churchgoers because they are following a pastor who does not tell them how it is done. The pastors either do not know how to get rid of the sin condition in themselves and their flock, or they know and have chosen to withhold that information; I hope it is the former.

Indeed, it is a major undertaking to get the sin question straight; it can be a real upheaval in a person’s life. But the bottom line is this: God has provided a way to get rid of sin and sinning in our lives. Our old selfish sinful nature dies when we reckon it dead with Christ. When He died on the cross, our old sinful nature died there with Him. When we spiritually make His soul the sacrifice for our sin, then we die with Him. And we are then buried with Him. And then through belief in God’s power that raised Him from the dead, we also are raised up with a new nature and a new spirit from our heavenly Father. Baptism in water symbolizes this act of faith, being “baptized into His death” (Romans 6; 3).

We have to reckon our old selves dead with Christ. It is this spiritual death that frees us from that bondage to keep breaking the 10 commandments. We are freed from the slavery to sin. But it takes faith to believe it. I am not imagining this teaching. I have lived it. It is in the Holy Bible, although it is seldom, if ever, taught. Just read Romans 6: 1-13 and Colossians 2: 11-12, 20 for starters. It is there.

And this is just the beginning of the “milk of the word.” Just the first two principles—repentance from sin and faith toward God. We have got to get this into our hearts. Be shocked. Be astonished. Study it out thoroughly. Read more of these articles. Be fed the milk that you may grow up into Christ. That’s in there, too. Later the “meat of the word” will help us grow into full spiritual maturity to become just like Christ. There—I said it. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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May 30, 2015 · 5:36 pm

The Meat of the Word of God–The Harvest of Souls

Spiritual babes and young children of God need the milk of God’s word in order to grow spiritually into young men and women of God. They are “dull of hearing” and have need to be taught again the “first principles of the oracles of God.” They are “unskilful in the word of righteousness,” and need to be taught the “principles of the doctrine of Christ” so that they may “go on to perfection.” Yes, perfection–complete spiritual maturity–just like Christ and His apostles (Hebrews 5: 12-6: 2).

This spiritual milk that they need is the foundation of repentance from sin, faith in God, baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. These concepts need to be solid in a young Christian’s life, and are taught by God’s gift to mankind–His apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.

These five offices are in His body “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,” until the whole body of believers grow unto “the stature of the fulness of Christ.” Until we all grow to become just like the early apostles and just like Christ Himself! That is what it says. The Spirit of God writing through the apostle Paul makes our destiny very clear.(Eph. 4: 11-14)

So these “first principles” above are the milk of the word that will help us grow spiritually. With them working in our lives, we grow and no longer are children, “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.”

Ever wonder why young Christians (and those with several years attending church) jump from “one new teaching” to another, from one TV evangelist to another, from one interpretation to another? It is because they can’t spiritually tell the difference between the false and the true.

But the meat of the word “is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (v. 14 NIV).

But like any babe that sees his dad and mom eating a T-bone steak, he begins to want a more substantial meal than what the bottle is providing. They want some of that meat.

So What Is the Meat of the Word?

As we grow in Christ out of childhood, we get our strength from the meat of the word and not the milk. Milk will just not sustain us. We need solid food. Grown up, spiritually mature food is what we need for nourishment–especially in these latter days just before the King’s return to set up His kingdom. We need His strength; we need to eat what the King eats. What is it?

Yahshua, called Jesus in the English speaking world, said that there was a certain food, a certain meat, that He ate to keep Him going while here on earth. He said, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4: 34).

Most Christians have read this, and most stop right there and do not read the next verse. They will surmise that the Father’s will is for Him to go to the cross and shed His blood for our sins. This is what most understand about Christ, having heard this every Sunday. And it is a very important thing, no doubt.

But we need to read the next verse to see what the Father’s will is and the unfinished work to be done. In verse 35, He reveals that the harvest of souls at the time of the end is His meat, His food. That goal and what it takes to accomplish that goal is the food that strengthens Him for the task. He goes on to say that we are fellow laborers with the prophets of old who sowed the seed for the final harvest of souls, and now we reap (v. 36-38).

Those of us who have learned and walked in the first principles of Christ’s doctrine will only be nourished by doing the Father’s will and finishing His work. And that work is the harvest of souls in these last days.

Working toward this goal and purpose is doing what He did. It is eating that bread. It is taking in our Example’s actions and doing the same thing, with the same drive and determination. Doing the harvest is what will give us strength to continue and not be “tossed to and fro” like little children.

We will be fed spiritually by making His vision for this world ours. We have got to own it. When this harvest becomes our vision, He will give us the power to accomplish it. This is the meat we are to eat: to do the Father’s will and finish His work, which is the harvest. The same power He gave to His early apostles will be given to us to prepare a harvest of people to populate His kingdom that He will establish here on earth at the end of the age.

This is the reason to be seeking the gifts of the Spirit, which include the ability to speak and write the word of wisdom and knowledge, faith, healings, miracles, prophecies, and discerning of spirits, among others. These are all manifestations of God working through us for one reason: to help us harvest the souls that will populate His kingdom.

But Some Will Say…

There will be some who say, I am already doing that. The moment I came to God I started telling everyone about Christ and telling them about Him and His love for us. I’ve been a Christian now for several years and preach and teach my heart out for Him. And our church is growing and we are helping the poor and needy, and…and I am already busy doing the harvest of souls…

Really? I know many mean well, but they are still grappling with the sin in their own lives, teaching others that they will be sinners till the day they die. They never teach true repentance from sin, which is complete and utter freedom from sin and sinning. That is what He and His apostles taught. They don’t teach that “our old man (self) is crucified with Christ” and how we do not continue sinning in Christ, for “in Him is no sin” (Rom. 6: 1-12). This is “repentance from dead works,” the very first of Christ’s doctrines, the first bottle of milk we are to drink and get down pat in our lives as newborn babes in Christ! And yet they ran and taught and preached about Christ and did not teach the message that He taught.

I am reminded of what Jeremiah told the people. “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD…I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied” (23: 16, 21).

Do we have a New Testament parallel of this?  Did Christ speak of devout ministers with the wrong message? Yes. He said that “not every one that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.” This is the same will of our Father, which is the harvest of souls. But wait. This person that calls on Him believes that he is doing God’s will. Christ continues: “Many will say to Me in that day [of the harvest], Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity” (Matt. 7; 19, 21-23). “Iniquity” is translated from the Greek word meaning “breaking the ten commandment law,” which is sin (I John 3: 4). This person was still breaking the law and making up excuses as to why it was impossible to keep the law, but this is not the message that He taught. This person was sinning; that’s the reason that Christ did not know him as a righteous co-laborer in the Father’s harvest.

For one is not working in His harvest of souls when he is gathering people together and teaching them the wrong message. He makes that clear, warning us over and over about false doctrines taught by false teachers. We must did deep and not believe every teaching about Christ that is out there. We must “prove all things” and not be drawn to teachers that preach things that is the smooth and comfortable way, which is the “broad way that leads to destruction.” We must seek and cry out for the truth, even if the message is not what we want to hear. We must stick with the word.

Finally, It Is Not About Us and What We Would Want for This Earth

It is so easy to get lost in the weeds and lose sight of what God is doing and what we should be doing. It is all about the harvest. Period. It is not our harvest. We did not sow the seed. It is our honor to help reap for the Father.

It is not about us. This is how a little child looks at life–mostly alive for what they can receive from the Father. Do you want to know where you are at in your Christian growth. Reread the previous sentence. Young adults in God, however, are mostly alive for what they can do for the Father. And spiritual fathers and mothers are mostly alive for what they can be for the Father. This is your 30 fold, 60 fold, and 100 fold growth levels God taught us in Matthew 13.

“One plants, one waters, and God gives the increase,” says the Spirit through Paul. And now, we reap. And we are all nothing, and God is everything. It is all Him. We are just humans that He has chosen to finish His work through. And that work is His harvest, which includes feeding them the milk and meat of the word. That is the food that will sustain us and feed us and nourish us during the rough times ahead.

Christ said for us to pray for more laborers to help in the harvest (Matt. 9; 37-38).

Getting this vision, consuming it, and making it our daily bread is eating His flesh. His flesh or His body did at all times the will of our Father and finished His work. His flesh is food indeed. When we do what He did, then we are eating His flesh. Those of us who do this will “abide in Him.”

And this abiding in Him is huge! He said that if we abide or remain in Him, then we could ask what we will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15: 7). Whatever we need in order to complete the harvest and bring in the kingdom to this earth–that request He will grant to those on the same page as He. He has our backs because we have His back.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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April 25, 2015 · 5:29 pm

Christ’s Doctrine Is Astonishing

The most distinguishing characteristic of Christ’s doctrine is that it is astonishing. “And they were astonished at His doctrine, for His word was with power” (Luke 4: 32).

The word “astonished” in the Greek means “to be struck with amazement as by lightening.” The Latin roots of our English word is “to be thunderstruck.” In both, there is an attack on our complacency. We are shocked and shaken, as when a lightening bolt and its deafening blast of thunder hits so close that it frightens us and shakes us to our core. That is what the doctrine of Christ does to the hearer.

He owned the words He was saying, and they had a force that shook up the hearers. His word was with power because He did not speak words about  the word of God, but He spoke God’s words. Big difference. Christ’s mouth was God’s mouth, and His words were “spirit and life” to the hearers. And God is still speaking by His Spirit, now desiring to speak through us.

However, most preachers today, at best, speak about God. Many speak only about themselves. Just briefly listen  to them. They go on and on numbingly about their personal lives, and you keeping waiting patiently, but precious few have God speaking His words through them. Their teachings are not astonishing, for their words are not with power. Their doctrine is filled with words about God, not words from God. If the message spoken by modern ministers is not astonishing, then it needs to be re-examined to see if it really is the word of God or just words.

But Christ spoke the Father’s words, the word of God. And we know that the word of God is powerful (Heb. 4: 12). And the hearers of it will be astonished!

The Teachings that Bring Astonishment

What exactly did Christ say to them that shook them out of the rut of their everyday lives? He told them, “Repent,” the first of His doctrines [1]. And the hearers were “astonished at His doctrine.” Why?

When you and I bear witness to the heart-changing doctrine of true repentance from sin, when we stand up and testify before others that this hand that stole steals no more, and this tongue that cursed, swears no more, and these eyes that lusted after women desires them no more, and this mouth that lied in self-promotion and delusions of grandeur now issues forth the sweet waters of love and encouragement to those that thirst–this is an astonishing miracle of transformation of the human heart.

This is an astounding change that God has wrought in my heart–a change totally sustained by the heart that He has given me, a heart that is new, a heart that is born from above, a heart transplanted from heaven by the Great Physician who has done a truly marvelous work, a lasting work founded upon His great love and mercy in that while we were yet sinners, “Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5: 6).

That is astonishing! To be in such a state of grace (favor from God) that I am now free from the slave master called Sin! “For he that is dead is freed from sin” (Rom. 6: 7). Dying with Christ on the cross is how we repent of our sins and how we are made free by faith in Him. I am now free from the bondage of sin and sinning! That is astonishing!

And you are free now, too. He has already secured our liberty from the bondage to sin! We just need to believe it! Which is, of course, the second principle of Christ’s doctrine, which is the milk of the word that helps us to grow up and be another Peter, John, James, or Paul. I know this is what we all want–to walk in power. But first things first.

First, we need to surrender our old self to the death of the cross with Christ, die with Him, be buried with Him, and by believing that He was raised from the dead, we too can walk in a “newness of life.” What’s newer than being freed from sin and sinning?

You know that Christ came to take away our sins, thus destroying the works of the devil. “Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for His seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” [2].

That is astonishing! That is earth shaking and heart rending. This is it. No more playing around. This is repentance from sin, the first of the principles of the doctrine of Christ, the first cup of the milk of the word, and it is astonishing!

{Send this milk on to all you know and love. They are hungry for righteousness; they need it. Feed His lambs, brothers and sisters. Feed them…Visit my new blog The Milk of the Word devoted to the first principles of Christ’s doctrine found here: https://themilkoftheword.wordpress.com/ } Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. Matt. 3: 2 & 4: 17; Mark 1: 15, 6: 12; Luke 13: 3 among others

2. I John 3: 5-9

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October 3, 2014 · 2:49 pm

“The Truth Shall Make You Free”–Free from What?

These are very famous words of Jesus Christ. They have been spoken in Christian and secular circles for millennia. “If you continue in My word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8: 31-32).

But free from what? Free from stress? Free from debt? Free from worry? Free from a bad work place? Free from what?

Christ was speaking to those who believed on Him (v. 31). The Pharisees overheard His words. They, of course, were looking after the flesh, thinking that Christ was referring to physical slavery. “We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man,” they indignantly responded. How are you going to make us free? they asked.

And with those words, soaked in that attitude, they revealed who they really were. They were offspring of Abraham, all right, for he was the father of many nations: nations from his son Ishmael by Hagar, and nations by his sons through Keturah, and nations by his grandsons Jacob and Esau.

If the Pharisees counted their lineage from Jacob/Israel, then they would have surely known that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt for 400 years until the time of Moses. The Holy Bible is after all Israel’s story. Yet, they told Christ that they had never been in bondage.

Because of this confession, they  could not be Jacob/Israel’s descendants. But they could be descended from Esau who was known as Edom. The Edomites  were converted to Judaism in 125 B.C. under John Hyrcanus’ reign  [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edom ]. And Esau/Edom assumed the seats of power in Jerusalem, parading around as the chosen people during the next 150 years.

Later in their conversation, Christ would tell these imposters that they were of their “father the devil [who] abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him; he is a liar and the father of it” (8: 44). The devil then is the father of those Pharisees, “which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 2: 9).

So What Slavery Are We Talking About?

Christ was talking to those who believed on Him about the truth making us free. Free from what? Christ clears that up in that same passage. “Whosoever commits sin is the slave of sin” (John 8: 34 NKJV). If you sin, then you are a slave, bound in chains to sin. Sin is the master of one who sins. Sin has him in bondage. And the truth will free you from that slavery. The Savior was named Yahshua in Hebrew because “he shall save His people from their sins.”

And yet, most Christians will readily say that they still sin. Some will almost proudly declare their propensity to sin saying, “I am a sinner saved by grace; I sin every day!”

Is that, really, the confession God wants to hear from our lips? Especially when the Spirit speaks and says, “He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin” (I John 3: 5).

“In Him”–Exploring the Phrase

“In Him is no sin.” How can five simple words be so powerful as to cause the reader to examine the very core of their new existence in God?

“In Him.” In Christ. Brothers and sisters, if God is our Father, then God “has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1: 4). Chosen us! We are the elect that He and His apostles speak of all the time. For at the “fulness of times,” God will “gather together in one all things in Christ, even in Him” (1: 10).

It is already done. God has already picked us out of all the human beings on the planet; it is His doing, His choosing, and His electing us–“elect” and “chosen” being translated from the same Greek word. It is God’s plan, and it is already done in His heart and mind. So if we purport to be in Christ, then we simply must get serious about the sin question. We must get this straightened out.

Straightening It Out

Christ has said very plainly that “whosoever commits sin is the slave of sin.” Period. Sin is his slave master. Sin says, Do this, and the slave obeys.

However, “in Him is no sin.” So, because of a lack of teaching on getting rid of the old sinful nature, the Christian is in an existential dilemma. He has been taught just the opposite of what the scriptures say about sin.

He is taught that remorse for past sins equals repentance from sin and that baptism is necessary to join the church. He is not taught that feeling sorry for past sins merely leads us to repentance. Repentance from sins that bring death comes at the cross when our old sinful nature dies with Christ, who was the sacrifice for all of our sins. Christ died; we died. Christ was buried; we were buried. Christ was raised from the dead; we were raised up with Him to walk in “newness of life.”

It is this belief in Christ that lands us in Christ! The death of our sinful nature, the burying of all the guilt and recriminations of our sinful past, and the belief in His word of promise that we now have received a new nature, a new Spirit, a new direction, a new purpose, a new vision through belief that He is raised up in us–it is believing all this that puts us in Him and He in us. Halleluyah! Praise Yah!

Now We Are Free!

Believing all this brings us into Him and in Him. Now, we are free–made free by the Spirit of God that Christ has given us. Free from the slave master Sin. Free! For God has “purged our consciences from dead works to serve the living God.” No more guilty consciences for faults and shortcomings. For God has restored us back into His heart. He knows that our condition is weakness. Yet through His great love and mercy, He has seen fit to impute righteousness unto us. For us believing what the Son of God has done for us, the Father counts us right with Him, righteous in His eyes, on the right side of His ledger. It is God’s gift to us through His great mercy and love, and it is without repentance.

Why does God reckon us righteous? Because we just flat believe Him and what He says He has done for us and His people! Now  1 John 3: 9 makes sense. Read it for yourself. You are free now. For it is all Him, and we are in Him. And we have been in Him since before He founded the worlds.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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March 20, 2014 · 6:15 pm

Doctrine of Baptisms–Baptized into His Death Frees Us from Sin

The early apostles taught their third doctrine–the “doctrine of baptisms–with an “s.”  For there are several baptisms in the Christian walk–not just the one with water.

The first baptism mentioned was John the Baptist’s “baptism unto repentance.”  He encouraged the people to repent of their sins, be baptized in water, thus pointing them to the Lamb of God, who would soon become the Sacrifice for all men’s sins.  “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I…he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Mt. 3:11).  Here we have three baptisms in one verse.

The baptism in water is symbolic of the death of our old sinful heart (see post on this at https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/2008/04/17/baptismempty-ritual-or-symbol-of-death-of-self/ ).  Paul taught that it was symbolic of being immersed into Christ’s death.  “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?” (Romans 6: 3).

Just How Are We Immersed into Christ’s Death?

     Just before Christ died, this perfectly sinless man took upon Himself the sins of the whole world, past, present, and future.  Sin was transferred onto this sin offering, and He died with all our sins upon Him.  Consequently, when He died, my old self died.  When He died that day, our old selfish egos died.

When He was literally buried in the tomb, our old lives were buried.  Gone.  Over with.  And when He rose from the dead, we rose from the deadness of our sinful existence, into a brand new wonderful life, energized with God’s Spirit now within (for more on this, see “Introduction” of my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God  found at the top of this page).  All this has already been done for us by God.  We have to only believe it when we read it in Romans 6: 3-7 :

“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.  Because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.”

We are now free from sin–if we really believe it.  Free!  We are no longer slaves to the pulls, urges, and demands of that old spiritual nature that held us in bondage to do sinful acts!  I’m talking about revolutionary freedom here!  We were dead to sin, but now we live unto God by faith in the Spirit that He has given us.

Water baptism is just the symbol of this immersion into Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.  Believing and walking in this truth is the reality.  But God has promised his sons and daughters more and greater baptisms–the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of fire, which takes us into the very presence of God’s transformative power.     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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