Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

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22:6-9 Final Warnings and Blessings (22:6-21) 6 And he said to me: These words are faithful and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His servants the things which must shortly take place. 7 And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. 8 And I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. 9 And he said to me: Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who keep the words of this book; worship God. 10 And he said to me: Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. 11 Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and let the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and let the one who is holy, still keep himself holy. 12 Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. 14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the Tree of Life, and may enter by the gates into the City. 15 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the fornicators and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying. 16 I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star. 17 And the Spirit and the Bride say: Come. And let the one who hears say: Come. And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. 18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Tree of Life and from the Holy City, which are written in this book. 20 He who testifies to these things says: Yes, I am coming quickly! Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! 21 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints. Amen. 6-7 The apostle’s final section reviews and summarizes the central messages of the book. Appropriately, St. John’s angelic guide begins by testifying that these words are faithful and true, in keeping with the character of their Author (1:5; 3:14; 19:11; cf. 19:9; 21:5); they cannot fail to be fulfilled. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His servants the things which must shortly take place. The word spirits here may refer to the “Seven Spirits” (cf. 1:4; 4:5), i.e. the Holy Spirit in His manifold operation through the prophets (cf. 19:10: “the Spirit of prophecy”), but it is possible also to understand the expression in the sense of 1 Corinthians 14:32 – the spirit of each prophet in particular. In any case, St. John has repeatedly emphasized throughout his prophecy that “all the LORD’s people are prophets” in this age, having ascended with Christ to the heavenly Councilchamber. The function of the Book of Revelation is that of an official “memo” to all members of the Council, telling them what they need to know regarding imminent events. The consistent message of the whole book is that the things of which it speaks – the final end of the Old Covenant and the firm establishment of the New – are on the verge of fulfillment, irrevocably destined to take place shortly. Speaking on behalf of Christ, the angel repeats the theme of the prophecy, underscoring its immediacy: Behold, I am coming quickly (cf. 1:7; 2:5, 16; 3:11; 16:15); in fact, the word come or coming (erchomai) is used seven times in Chapter 22 alone: “The frequency of the assurance now before us, shows with what earnestness it was made.” 8 Our study of the New Testament is drastically off-course if we fail to take into account the apostolic expectation of an imminent Coming of Christ (not the Second Coming) which would destroy “this generation” of Israel and fully establish the New Covenant Church. This message was not to be taken lightly, and there is an implicit warning in Revelation’s Sixth Beatitude, a promise that echoes the First (1:3): Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. Again, St. John stresses the ethical response of his audience to the truths they have heard. He has given them commandments to obey (cf. v. 14), not only explicitly but implicitly: He has revealed the activity of heaven as a pattern for life on earth (cf. Matt. 6:10). 8-9 St. John emphasizes that he, the Apostle, is the one who heard and saw these things (cf. his similar language in 1 John 1:1-3; 4:14). And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. And he said to me: Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who keep the words of this book; worship God. As at 19:10, it is the angelic declaration of a Beatitude which causes St. John to fall down in reverence before the messenger. As we saw on that passage, St. John was not offering divine worship to the angel, but rather honor to a superior. Even so, in the New Covenant age that is no longer appropriate. Angelic superiority over man was intended only to be temporary, an expedient after Adam forfeited his responsibility as guardian of the sanctuary (Gen. 2:15; 3:24). Now that Christ has ascended to the Throne, His people are saints, with access to the sanctuary as God’s counselors and confidants; indeed, says St. Paul, the saints are destined to rule not only the world but angels as well (1 Cor. 6:1-3). The angel, though exalted and powerful, is no more than a fellow servant of the apostle and his brethren the prophets – the other members of the Christian Church, all those who keep the words of this book. The believer is a member of the heavenly council, and is able to worship 8. Moses Stuart, Commentary on the Apocalypse, 2 vols. (Andover: Allen, Morrill, and Wardwell, 1845), Vol. 2, p. 390. 226
22:10-16 God face to face (cf. v. 4). Again, this shows that the blessings enumerated in these closing chapters are not reserved for the consummation alone, but have already been granted to God’s people; otherwise, the angel would have accepted St. John’s act of reverence. We have direct access to God’s Throne. That this incident had to be repeated almost word-forword demonstrates both the centrality of this concern to the apostle, and how hard it is for us to learn it. It may well be said that the most important teaching of the Book of Revelation is that Jesus Christ has ascended to the Throne; and the second most important lesson is that we have ascended to heaven with Him. 10 And he said to me: Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Again the angel emphasizes the imminence of the prophecy’s fulfillment. For this reason St. John is forbidden to seal up the words of the book. We have already had occasion (on 10:4) to contrast this with the command to Daniel to “conceal the words and seal up the book until the time of the end” (Dan. 12:4). Because his prophecy spoke of the distant future, Daniel was ordered to seal it up; because St. John’s prophecy refers to the imminent future, he is ordered to set it loose. “Indeed, these are the very days for which Daniel wrote, and St. John has been inspired to ‘unseal’ him.” 9 11 Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and let the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and let the one who is holy, still keep himself holy. The great battle of the first century was reaching its climax, and the angel calls for the differentiation of the righteous and the wicked, the attainment of “epistemological self-consciousness” through differing responses to God’s grace; 10 it constitutes a prayer “that the world may come out black and white, so as to be ripe for judgment.” 11 Self-consciousness on both sides of the contest is always a prelude to judgment (cf. Ezek. 3:27: “He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse”). 12-13 The Lord again promises the imminence of His coming judgment on Israel and deliverance of His Church: Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done (cf. 2:23; 20:12-13). Christ had promised that this would be the result of His first-century Coming in His Kingdom (Matt. 16:27-28). Confirming the promise with an oath, He swears by Himself as the Lord of history, the sovereign Controller of all things: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. 14 Continuing to speak through the angel, Christ pronounces the Seventh Beatitude of Revelation: Blessed are those who do His commandments, the present participle emphasizing the ongoing duty of obedience. God requires not just a one-time profession of faith, but a continuing life of repentance and confessing Christ. Obedience characterizes the redeemed, as St. John declares elsewhere: And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His Word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. (1 John 2:3-6) These alone have the right to the Tree of Life (promised to the overcomers in 2:7) and may enter by the gates into the City (promised to the overcomers in 3:12). Again, we should note that the nations of the earth will enter into the City (21:24-26), which means that the nations and their rulers will be characterized by righteousness, by the world-conquering faith of the overcomer. 15 Christ provides another catalogue (cf. 21:8), a sevenfold one this time, of those who are excluded from blessing, banished outside the City, into the fiery Gehenna (Isa. 66:24; Mark 9:43-48). First are mentioned the dogs, scavengers that are regarded with disgust and revulsion throughout the Bible (cf. Prov. 26:11). In Deuteronomy 23:18, sodomites are called “dogs,” 12 and Christ equated dogs with the unclean nations (Mark 7:26-28). St. Paul applies the term, in what must have been a shocking reference, to the false circumcision, the Jews who had betrayed the Covenant by rejecting Christ (Phil. 3:2) and have thus joined the heathen and the perverts. That is probably the reference here (cf. 2:9; 3:9). God does not give what is holy unto dogs (Matt. 7:6). The other categories mentioned in this verse, the sorcerers and the fornicators and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying, are also listed at 21:8, 27. Christians have renounced all these ungodly actions by their baptism to newness of life. 16 I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches; the word you is plural, meaning that St. John’s audience is directly addressed by the Lord; and the message is for the churches generally (“all the saints,” v. 21). Christ repeats the lesson of 5:5, that He is the bringer of the New Covenant, the “Charter for Humanity” through which all nations will be blessed: I am the Root and the Offspring of David, both the Source and Culmination of the Davidic line. Hengstenberg comments: “Because Jesus is the root, he is also the race of David. In him alone is the race preserved; while otherwise it would have vanished without a trace. The race of David is more than his offspring; it indicates that the race of David should, save for Christ, have ceased to exist. The race of David is here brought into view in respect to the 9. Austin Farrer, The Revelation of St. John the Divine (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1964), p. 225. 10. See Gary North, “Common Grace, Eschatology, and Biblical Law: Appendix C (below). 11. Farrer, p. 225. 12. See Rousas John Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law (Nutley, NJ: The Craig Press, 1973), pp. 89f. 227
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But when you see Jerusalem surround
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Copyright @ 1987 by Dominion Press
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FOREWORD Foreword Readers of the Bo
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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE Publisher’s
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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE case for esch
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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE this book bec
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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE In contrast,
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INTRODUCTION St. Irenaeus is somewh
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INTRODUCTION we must be saved” (A
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INTRODUCTION previous relationship
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INTRODUCTION You have lain down as
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INTRODUCTION are only elaborating a
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INTRODUCTION early churches had suc
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INTRODUCTION actions mean more than
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INTRODUCTION Some will complain tha
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INTRODUCTION Outline of Revelation
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1:1-3 that must shortly take place.
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1:4-6 accomplishment. We probably h
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1:7-8 observe that a central aspect
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1:9 14 And His head and His hair we
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1:16 That all the peoples, nations,
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1:20 things that must shortly take
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INTRODUCTION TO PART TWO Part Two H
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INTRODUCTION TO PART TWO The confli
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2:4-6 endure evil men. . . . And yo
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2:9-10 dead, and has come to life:
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2:14-16 expression (none of which m
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2:18-23 and leads my servants astra
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2:26-29 end, to him I will give aut
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3:4-6 church, or even against a nat
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3:8-11 And I will clothe him with y
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3:14-16 sons disinherited and cast
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3:21-22 the elders of a church, and
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INTRODUCTION TO PART THREE The laws
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4:2-3 numerous names and descriptio
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4:5-8 superseded and transcended; t
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4:5-8 19) led Biblical writers to s
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5:1-4 family worship; it is radical
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5:5-7 St. John; and it seems as if
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5:8-10 have gained the victory for
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6:1-2 6 IN THE PATH OF THE WHITE HO
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6:3-4 forth conquering, and to conq
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6:9-10 And authority was given to h
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6:15-17 that Israel’s time has ru
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7:4-8 Though he flourishes among th
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7:4-8 they were listening to the Ap
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7:9 is presumably deliberate, for i
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7:10-14 inheriting the Kingdom (Mat
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7:15-17 They will not hunger or thi
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8:3-5 for that would be about the l
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8:6-7 rout the Midianites, in Judge
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8:12 13 And I looked, and I heard a
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9:13 The vegetation of the earth is
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9:20-21 lations advanced by some co
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9:20-21 men much more atheistical t
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10:2-4 beyond reasonable doubt that
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10:8-10 the Spirit at Pentecost was
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11:1-2 angelic priest measures the
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11:7 have the power to shut up the
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11:11-14 climax with the murder of
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11:16-18 month in the liturgical ye
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12:1-2 12 THE HOLY WAR The Book of
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12:1-2 birth to the Christ, to brin
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12:4 Daniel repeats the same idea i
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12:5-9 Chronologically, this explan
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12:12 And when we see the Lord warr
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12:17 for the action of Pharaoh, wh
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13:3-4 of the ten imperial province
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13:8-10 The Beast was given authori
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13:13-14 character and office (1 Co
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13:18 work throughout Revelation ar
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13:18 ✩ ✩✩ ✩★✩ ✩★
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14:1 14 THE KING ON MOUNT ZION St.
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14:6-7 have seen, the Church on ear
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14:9-13 understanding (Prov. 9:1-6)
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14:14-16 I may find them prompt; na
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14:19-20 And now, O inhabitants of
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their Chalices of wrath, one of the
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15:3-4 sacrifices; and the Glory of
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15:8 We should be reminded in this
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16:1-3 5 And I heard the Angel of t
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16:10-11 the heat of the sun by the
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16:15-16 established here, for the
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16:19 thereof, concerning which the
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17:1 17 THE FALSE BRIDE While some
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17:3 action throughout history in s
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17:8 Jerusalem’s whole history, i
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Page 186 and 187: 19:1-2 19 THE FEASTS OF THE KINGDOM
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Page 194 and 195: 19:16-18 of wealth, or wasting dise
Page 196 and 197: 20:1 20 THE MILLENNIUM AND THE JUDG
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Page 212 and 213: 21:1 21 THE NEW JERUSALEM The Bible
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Page 218 and 219: 21:9-11 The New Jerusalem (21:9-27)
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Page 222 and 223: 21:24-27 And deep darkness the peop
Page 224 and 225: 22:3-4 Paradise is not, therefore,
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Page 230 and 231: CONCLUSION the pure Bride-City, is
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Page 234 and 235: APPENDIX A it is reflected in “It
Page 236 and 237: APPENDIX A make him a pillar in the
Page 238 and 239: APPENDIX A and wine the night befor
Page 240 and 241: APPENDIX A Babylon, falsely priestl
Page 242 and 243: APPENDIX A B. CHRISTIAN WORSHIP 1.
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Page 246 and 247: APPENDIX B The Bible teaches us tha
Page 248 and 249: APPENDIX C APPENDIX C Common Grace,
Page 250 and 251: APPENDIX C for all eternity because
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Page 254 and 255: APPENDIX C be destroyed. The two ex
Page 256 and 257: APPENDIX C universe. It is governed
Page 258 and 259: APPENDIX C completed, the world was
Page 260 and 261: APPENDIX C deceive the nations. The
Page 262 and 263: APPENDIX C creeds and theological u
Page 264 and 265: APPENDIX C coherence that at least
Page 266 and 267: APPENDIX C There is continuity in l
Page 268 and 269: Athanasius. On the Incarnation of t
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