Author: Floyd Kelley

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A.A.’s 3rd Step……..Joining the Mars Hill Group

In the beginning, Yahweh said that Adam and Eve could eat from any tree in the garden, except for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He said that if they ate from that tree, they would die. Essentially, Yahweh gave Adam and Eve revelation, which told them how to relate to Him, and live the Abundant Life.

One day, the Serpent got Eve to question the revelation that Yahweh had given concerning the nature of the fruit that was on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Yahweh had revealed that the illicit fruit would kill, but the Serpent got Eve to question Yahweh’s revelation and evaluate the forbidden fruit for herself.

This was a trick. Yahweh did not give Eve the ability to define ultimate reality, that is, He did not give Eve the ability to define good and evil. Eve fell for the Serpent’s trick, and used her senses and logic to evaluate the illicit fruit. In essence, Eve put her understanding above Yahweh’s revelation, and decided to eat the illicit fruit. Then, Adam chose to follow Eve, instead of obeying Yahweh. Consequently, Eve was deceived, but Adam rebelled.

Here is the bottom line: Yahweh revealed how Adam and Eve were to have a relationship with Him, but they disregarded His revelation, and tried to have a relationship with Him that was based on their own understanding of Him.

This was a tragic error!

Adam and Eve’s spirits disconnected from Yahweh’s Spirit, and His Spirit lifted from their bodies, and they knew that they were naked. Adam and Eve figured that they could cover themselves in fig leaves and fellowship with Yahweh, but their understanding of His Holiness was sorely lacking. When Yahweh came to fellowship with them, they realized that their solution was lacking, and hid.

Yahweh cursed the Serpent, and said He would put enmity between him and the woman and between his seed and her seed. Yahweh said the woman’s seed would bruise the Serpent’s head, and the Serpent would bruise the heel of the woman’s seed. Then, Yahweh killed an animal and clothed Adam and Eve in its fur.

Adam and Eve believed Yahweh’s new revelation, and took off their fig leaves. In other words, Adam and Eve believed Yahweh’s new revelation and put their trust in it, and repented for what they had done. So Yahweh clothed them in fur coats.

Adam and Eve had tried to serve Yahweh according to their own understanding, and had eaten the forbidden fruit and covered themselves in fig leaves. Adam and Eve’s reliance upon their own understanding of Yahweh, rather than trusting in the revelation that He had given about Himself, is what caused their spiritual death.

Yahweh revealed how He was going to solve this problem. Yahweh said that He was going to put hostility between the Serpent and the woman, and between the Serpent’s children and the woman’s children and He would give the woman a child, who was going to defeat the Serpent, and the Serpent would wound him.

After Yahweh gave this revelation, Adam and Eve looked for the promised Seed (the promised Child). Adam and Eve thought Cain was the Promised Seed, until he proved otherwise. How did Cain prove that he was not the Promised Seed?

Adam and Eve taught their children how to worship Yahweh, by teaching them what Yahweh had revealed about worship. Abel believed Yahweh’s revelation of worship and killed a lamb to approach Him. Cain rejected Yahweh’s revelation of worship and relied on his own understanding to approach Him. Yahweh accepted Abel’s worship, but rejected Cain’s. So Cain got angry and murdered Abel.

We tend to think that Cain’s murder of Abel is what identified him as the Serpent’s seed. It is not. Cain proved that he was the Serpent’s seed when he rejected Yahweh’s revelation of worship, and chose to worship Yahweh according to his own understanding. When Cain rejected Yahweh’s revelation of worship, and tried to worship Yahweh according to his own understanding of Him, he bowed to the Serpent, and the Serpent brought death into the world through Cain’s hands.

The hallmark of the woman’s seed (Yahweh’s children) is that they put their trust in, and live by, the revelation that Yahweh gives during their dispensation. The hallmark of the Serpent’s seed (Satan’s children) is they put their trust in, and live by, their own understanding. The Scriptures are very clear about this principle.

Here, is another example of this principle. The Hebrews lived in Egypt for 400 years. During this time, the Hebrews began to worship Egyptian gods. At the appointed time, Yahweh delivered the Hebrews from Egypt and took them to Mt. Sinai, where He revealed, Who He was, and how they were to worship Him.

Right after the Hebrews received Yahweh’s revelation of worship, they built a golden calf, and worshiped it! Why? They thought they could worship Yahweh by worshiping the golden calf. So, the Hebrews disregarded Yahweh’s revelation of worship, and attempted to worship Yahweh according to their own understanding.

See, the Egyptians thought that “the gods” rode on sacred animals. Whenever the Egyptians wanted to worship a god, they worshiped the animal that the god rode on, so that the animal would come near to them, and bring the god near to them. This is why the Hebrews, who came out of Egypt, built the golden calf and said that these were the gods who brought them out of Egypt. (Exodus 32:4)

Clearly, the Hebrews were worshiping “a god of their own understanding”.

Did Yahweh overlook the fact that they disregarded His revelation, and tried to worship Him according to their own understanding? No! Yahweh got angry and thought about destroying them, and ended up plaguing them for their rebellion. Why did Yahweh get so angry? He was angry because He had given the Hebrews a lot of revelation, but still they chose to follow in the footsteps of Adam and Eve.

Like Adam and Eve, the Hebrews shunned the Tree of Life, and embraced the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Like Adam and Eve, the Hebrews disregarded Yahweh’s revelation of worship, and worshiped Him according to their own understanding. Like Adam and Eve, the Hebrews worshiped the Serpent by worshiping Yahweh according to their own understanding.

Fifteen-hundred years later, Yahweh clothed Himself in flesh and walked on the earth with us. Yahweh reveled Himself in the person of Yeshua, and summed up everything when He said that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of Yahweh’s mouth, that is, we are to live by what He reveals.

A few years later, Paul traveled to Athens. When Paul entered Athens, his spirit was troubled because the city was full of idols. Every god that the people of the nations (the gentiles) worshiped could be found in Athens. Paul came to a place in Athens called Mars Hill, where a lot of pious people worshiped an unknown god.

On Mars Hill, there was an altar to an unknown god. The people who came to this altar were seeking “God,” but they were not sure who he was or what he expected. Consequently, these people worshiped the unknown god according to what they thought he was like, and what they thought he expected. In other words, these people assembled on Mars Hill to worship “a god of their own understanding.”

Who did Paul find on Mar’s Hill? He found the Epicureans and the Stoics worshiping on Mars Hill. Who were the Epicureans and Stoics?

Around 307 B.C., a philosopher named Epicurus said the gods lived in a remote part of the universe, and did not intervene in our affairs, so there was no need to pray to them or offer them sacrifices. He coined the phrase “higher powers” to describe the gods. Epicurus said the goal of life was to reach a state of godhood in which we experience tranquility and freedom from fear by living a moral life and pursuing peace with all men. For Epicurus, ethics was a means to an end, and the end was a good life. Epicurus hated religion and said it was a form of ignorance.

Around 300 B.C., Zeno of Citium began teaching a philosophy called Stoicism. In Stoicism, the Cosmos, Logos or Universal Mind, was “God”. The Stoics believed that they could still their mind and meditate, and the Universal Mind would give them knowledge and the power to rule over their lower emotional nature. For stoics, virtue consisted of a will that was surrendered to, and, in agreement with, the Universal Mind (“God”). And it also consisted of moral relationships that were free of envy, anger, hatred, jealousy, bitterness, resentment and un-forgiveness.

Therefore, on Mars Hill, the Apostle Paul was dealing with a group of individuals, who believed in “a God of their own understanding”, and meditated to hear from this God, while cleansing themselves of resentment and other negative emotions so that they could control themselves and live a virtuous and moral life. On Mars Hill, the Apostle Paul was also dealing with a group of individuals who acknowledged a “higher power” but did not think that this higher power would change their lives, so they adhered to a set of moral principles that enabled them to attain peace.

The objective of the people on Mars Hill was not so much to worship the unknown god, as it was to “do the right thing” by acknowledging the unknown god, and in doing so, live a moral life, so that they could arise above the forces in their lower natures that threatened to enslave them and destroy their lives. In other words, acknowledging the unknown god was a means to an end, and the end was to rise above the addictions of the flesh (lust, greed, gluttony, alcoholism, etc).

So, in essence, Paul visited the Mars Hill Group of Alcoholics Anonymous!

What did the Apostle Paul say to the Mars Hill Group when he visited it? Did Paul approve of their philosophies and tell them they would find Yahweh by worshiping a god of their own understanding? Did Paul say that Yahweh would meet them where they were, and it didn’t matter if they called Him a higher power? No!

Paul told the members of the Mars Hill Group of A.A. that in times past Yahweh overlooked some of the things that they were doing because He had not given man a full revelation of Himself, but now that He has fully revealed Himself in Yeshua, and resurrected Him from the dead to prove His identity, they must repent. Paul told the members of the Mars Hill Group of A.A. that Yeshua would judge them one day, and so they had better repent and get right with Him! (Acts 17:30-31)

Essentially, Paul told the members of the Mars Hill Group of A.A. that since Yeshua has come to the earth and showed us who Yahweh is, it is unacceptable to worship an unknown God, because God has made Himself known to all men.

Consequently, it is wrong for the people in A.A. to worship a higher power or a god of their own understanding because Yahweh fully revealed Himself in the person of Yeshua, and Yeshua has been preached for the last 2,000 years.

Notice also that Paul did not tell these people they could call Yeshua their “higher power”, and continue to live and worship the way they had been living and worshiping. No, Paul told them to repent. Paul expected the people, who named the name of Yeshua, to come down from Mars Hill, and enter the Assembly to learn His Word, fellowship with the saints, and worship Him in Spirit and Truth.

It is beyond dispute that Yahweh has told us not to worship a “higher power” or a “god of our own understanding” and mistakenly think that we are worshiping Him. It is beyond dispute that Yahweh has told everyone, who has worshiped a “higher power” or a “god of their own understanding”, to repent. It is beyond dispute that we cannot call Yeshua a “higher power” and worship Him on Mars Hill right along with the pagans who are worshiping their higher powers.

With this in mind, why would anyone take the 3rd Step?

Here is A.A.’s 3rd Step: “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.”

Yahweh says that when we bow to an unknown god (a higher power, or a god of our own understanding), we are not bowing to Him. So who are we surrendering our will, and our life to when we bow to a god of our own understanding? We are surrendering our will, and our life, to the Serpent, and joining the Mars Hill Group!

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A.A.’s 1st Step……A Step in the Wrong Direction

I live in a small town, where there is a church on nearly every corner, and most everyone claims to follow Yeshua (Jesus). Yeshua is well-known, in this part of the world, and, in this part of the world, if a person wants to be normal, he has to follow Him, or, at least, say he does. Consequently, it is often hard to tell the difference between a real Christian and a fake one.

In this part of the world, it is hard to tell a Christian from a non-Christian, because being a Christian is a cultural norm, and this cultural norm integrates itself into our individual paradigms, which gives us the ability to masquerade as a Christian.

The Apostle Paul said that we had to believe in our heart that Yeshua rose from the dead, and confess Him as Lord with our mouth in order to be a Christian.

How do we know if we have believed in our heart?

We have a paradigm shift when we believe in our heart.

A paradigm is an a priori (a previously held) commitment to a point-of-view (a worldview), which serves as a framework for interpreting the information that we encounter in life. We construct a paradigm (a context for interpreting information) at a very early age by integrating our experiences with the prevailing paradigm within our culture. This integration occurs, directly, through the transmittal of knowledge, and, indirectly, through how our culture defines and uses words.

A paradigm shift is a sudden change in the contextual framework that we use to interpret information. Since, we use our paradigm to interpret the information that other people transmit to us, via written or spoken words, the information that other people transmit to us about their paradigm, will not produce a paradigm shift in us. The only thing that will produce a paradigm shift is a “violent” encounter with truth. When our paradigm is exposed to a truth that shakes it violently, then we “experience” that truth, and it alters the framework of our interpretative context.

When a person is confronted with God’s law, and made to realize that he is an inmate in Satan’s kingdom, who is held captive by chains of sin, then he is ready to hear the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. When he hears the Gospel, the Holy Spirit confronts him with Truth. At this point, he has a choice to make. He must choose to harden his heart and reject Truth, or humble himself and embrace it.

If a person humbles himself and embraces the Truth, the Truth will shake his old paradigm down and build a new one. In the old paradigm, everything revolved around this person and what he wanted. In the new paradigm, everything revolves around Yeshua and what He wants. In short: The paradigm shift called repentance causes us to stop following our selfish desires, our plans, our lusts, the world and Satan, and start following Yeshua by pursuing His Will, righteousness and holiness.

When we accept the Truth that the Holy Spirit confronts us with, and bow our knee to King Yeshua, we repent. Without repentance, there is no remission of sin. Without repentance, there is no procession of kings. Without repentance, there is no change in kingdom citizenship. Without repentance, there is no salvation.

Repentance produces a change in direction. Before repentance, we pursued our will, that is, we pursued our lusts and the things of the world. After repentance, we pursue God’s Will, that is, we pursue righteousness and holiness.

When we realize that we are a sinner who is trapped in Satan’s kingdom and call upon King Yeshua to rescue us, He will save us. Then, when we confess our sins, that is, when we agree with Him and call our sin, sin, His grace washes us and empowers us to change and grow until we overcome that sin.

Do you see the common element in getting saved and overcoming the sin patterns of the past? It is recognizing sin, acknowledging sin, and confessing sin. God’s law highlights sin, so we can recognize it. If God says a thought pattern or a behavior is sin, we must agree with Him and call it sin, and seek His remedy for it.

This brings us to A.A.’s 1st Step: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.”

If an unbeliever takes A.A.’s 1st step, is he any closer to a Holy God, who calls his behavior sin? No! Is the unbeliever any closer to realizing that he is trapped in the kingdom of Darkness and Satan is destroying him, and he needs to be saved? No!

What about the Christian who takes the 1st Step? When a Christian says that he is powerless over alcohol and his life is unmanageable, does the Lord cleanse his conscience and give him the grace to overcome alcohol and manage his life? No!

1 John 1:9 says that if we will confess our sin, Yeshua will forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. These Christians are not confessing their sins, that is, they are not agreeing with the Lord’s assessment of their behavior so that He can forgive them and give them the grace that they need to overcome their sin.

These people say they are powerless, and they cannot manage their life. Is it a sin to be powerless over something? No! Is it a sin to not be able to manage your life? No! There is no way that we can say that we are confessing our sins when we say that we are powerless, and that we can’t manage our life.

No, it is a sin to drink too much alcohol and get drunk. The powerlessness and the un-manageability are byproducts of the sin of drunkenness, they are not the sin that we need to confess.

God created us, and gave us a free will. Consequently, we are not powerless over alcohol, and we can manage our lives. At some point, however, we chose to exercise our free will by drinking too much alcohol in order to get drunk and escape from life, which is a sin. After we chose to sin, our body developed a chemical environment that compelled us, or pushed us towards drinking again, and as we did, we burnt patterns in our brain that created an obsession to drink again. When the compulsion and obsession matured, we were addicted to alcohol. Then, we were powerless over alcohol and, as a result, our life became unmanageable.

The problem is not alcohol, or powerlessness over alcohol, or the un-manageability of our life. The problem is not a mythical disease called addiction, or an allergy to alcohol. The root problem is sin. The root problem is disobeying God.

Some people may think that I am being too dogmatic about the precision of terminology. I am not. Words have meaning. The words that we use to quantify reality, shape our perceptions of that reality, and influence how we interact with it.

Terminology is important. The terminology that God uses to describe alcoholism is sin….the sin of drunkenness. God says that drunkards will not inherit His Kingdom because they continue in sin and refuse to repent. A lot is riding on terminology. So, we had better use the terminology that God uses to describe our behavior.

In the small town that I live in most of the people, who go to A.A., claim to be Christians. And, in fact, I have some Christian friends, who go to A.A. The issues that I have raised may not seem that important to these small-town people. The distinctions I have made may not seem like critical distinctions in their eyes because they have already experienced the paradigm shift of repentance.

For the people in my small town, the issues I have raised and the distinctions I have made, may not be critical, because, we have a church on every corner, and everyone is a Christian, or says they are. But what about the people in New York, Los Angeles, or Las Vegas? What about the people in India, Indonesia or Japan? These issues and distinctions are critical for these people, because Christianity is not their cultural norm, and their paradigm points them away from Yeshua.

The problem with A.A. is that it uses terminology that sounds biblical, until you examine the philosophy behind it. When you examine the philosophy behind A.A’s biblical language, A.A.’s theology comes into focus. The theology of A.A. goes along with the paradigm that the sinner uses to interpret information, in order to ensure that he is not offended. The theology of Christianity, however, brings the sinner into a violent confrontation with Truth that offends him in order to destroy his old paradigm and build a new one and rescue him from Satan’s kingdom.

The science, philosophy and theology that A.A. promotes points people away from God’s Kingdom. Thus, when an unbeliever takes A.A.’s 1st Step, he is one step closer to Hell. And when a Christian takes A.A.’s 1st Step, he is one step further from the abundant life that he is seeking. Oh sure, a person’s life may improve after he takes the 1st Step, but this does not mean that he has left Satan’s kingdom, or that he is any closer to doing so. It means that he is marshaling the power of his will to manage his life. It means that he has taken a Step in the wrong direction.

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A.A.’s 2nd Step…..Welcome to the Pantheon

Marcus grew up in the Roman Empire. Marcus had a tough life. When Marcus was eight years old, his parents were killed in a horrible accident. After this, Marcus lived on the filthy streets of Rome, and begged for food. Each day as the sun began to set, Marcus began a pilgrimage to the outskirts of Rome where he found a safe place to sleep.

When Marcus was fourteen years old, a vile old man found his safe spot, and raped him. After this demeaning event, Marcus refused to beg for food, because begging for food put him in a vulnerable position. Instead, Marcus began to rob people, because robbing people enabled him to dominate them, which meant that they could not hurt him.

Marcus got into a lot of fights. One night, a man stabbed Marcus in the leg, and he nearly bled to death. After this, he walked with a limp that was very painful. To kill the pain, he started drinking, and robbing more people to support his habit. Marcus grew increasingly violent, and one night, he killed a man. Marcus, now had to drink to numb his leg and his conscience.

Marcus was a mess, and his life was a living Hell.

One evening, as Marcus walked to the outskirts of Rome, he was feeling especially defeated. Marcus was 40 years old, cold, dirty, tired, hungry, and tormented by his conscience. Marcus was out of wine, and the authorities were closing in on him. Marcus was on the brink of losing his sanity. It was obvious to Marcus that he was powerless, and his life was unmanageable, and he accepted this unpleasant reality in his heart.

In desperation, Marcus stepped into Rome’s Pantheon. A Roman priest welcomed Marcus into the Pantheon, and he looked at the images of the powerful supernatural gods in the Pantheon, and, he suddenly realized that he needed a power greater than himself to restore him to sanity.

Essentially, Marcus had just taken A.A.’s 2nd Step, which says, “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity”

After Marcus came to this conclusion, was he any closer to Yahweh? No, the Romans did not have an image of Yahweh in the Pantheon. See, when the Romans defeated a nation, they kidnapped the images of their gods, and put them into Rome’s Pantheon. After that, the subjugated people would have to submit to the Roman high priest to worship their gods. But since Yahweh did not allow Israel to make images of Him, when the Romans defeated Israel, there were no images of Him for them to kidnap.

Yahweh was not in Rome’s Pantheon. The only gods that were in the Pantheon were the gods that the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans had embraced. In other words, the Pantheon was full of demons who were pretending to be gods.

The Bible says that Yahweh is God, and there is no other. Yahweh could not be found in the Roman Pantheon because He is holy. Yahweh refused to stand in line with a bunch of demons and wait for Marcus to decide who it was that he was going to follow. Yahweh refused to join the Pantheon, so Marcus did not find Him there.

After he took this Step, Marcus felt peace because he had accepted the fact that he was powerless and his life was unmanageable. Yahweh did not give Marcus this peace, however. The peace came from a psychological force that Marcus released as he eliminated the cognitive dissonance that he was creating by denying reality. In other words, the peace was a result of Marcus stepping out of the darkness of denial into the light of reality.

Moreover, Marcus came to realize that he was the problem, and that he needed a power greater than himself to restore him to sanity. This took the burden of change off his shoulders and put it on some stronger ones. Marcus now had a reason to hope. Marcus hoped that a power greater than him would restore him to sanity. Marcus was turning away from himself and his sufficiency, and this released the psychological force of hope.

Marcus felt better because hope and peace refreshed him, and energized him. Nevertheless, Marcus was still estranged from Yahweh, and on his way to Hell.

How does Marcus’ plight relate to us?

A.A. is a modern-day pantheon. It is an institution that embraces people from all religious traditions. This ecumenical institution embraces Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans, Spiritist, Witches, New Agers, Atheists and all others.

Like Marcus, we find it difficult to live in a fallen world, where people hurt us, so we turn to alcohol to numb the pain. Our drinking makes our life unmanageable, and we realize that we are powerless to stop drinking. Then, one day we feel especially defeated and step into the pantheon of A.A. In the pantheon, we can choose any god that we want, but we usually gravitate to an image of the god that is commonly accepted in our culture.

It doesn’t matter which god we ask for help, any god will suffice. We can even choose not to ask one of the supernatural gods for help, and ask a natural object for help. It doesn’t matter who or what we believe to be a power greater than ourselves…all that is really important is that we ask something or someone outside of ourselves for help.

How can A.A.’s 2nd Step be effective if we ask the “wrong” supernatural god for help? How can it be effective if we do not ask a supernatural being for help, and, instead, ask a natural object, such as the group or a doorknob, for help?

It doesn’t matter, who, or what, a person asks for help, because, as he comes out of denial, and decides to ask for help, he unleashes the psychological forces of peace and hope. The peace and hope, even if it is false peace and hope, energizes and refreshes a person and changes their outlook on life (for a while). This step prepares a person for the next step, which is a big one that has far-reaching effects and consequences.

What about Yeshua (Jesus)? Does Yeshua hang out in a pantheon, and line up with all the demons, who pretend to be the gods of the nations? No!

Around 321A.D., a Roman Emperor realized that a large percentage of the people in his empire were accepting Yeshua as their Lord. So the Roman Emperor tried to kidnap Yeshua and bring Him into the Roman Pantheon. Yeshua cannot be kidnapped or held hostage, however. So the Roman Emperor did the next-best thing, he carved an image of Yeshua that he could use to control the people in his empire.

The Roman Emperor had an image of Yeshua hanging on a cross in his Pantheon, but the Yeshua in the Roman Pantheon was not the Yeshua of the Scriptures. Hence, when the people of the Roman Empire came into the Pantheon to submit to Yeshua, they submitted to the wrong Yeshua, that is, they submitted to a demon, who was pretending to be the Yeshua of the Scriptures!

The same is true of the modern-day Pantheon of A.A. The Yeshua, who lines up with the demons, who are pretending to be gods, in A.A.’s pantheon, is not the Yeshua of the Scriptures. Thus, a person will not find the Yeshua of the Scriptures in A.A., they will find an image of a demon, who pretends to be Him.

Some real Christians go to A.A., and tell people about the real Yeshua. These iconoclasts attemp to shatter the false image of Yeshua that is promoted by A.A. because that Yeshua cannot deliver or save anyone.

These Christians must walk a fine line because Paul warned us not to put up with anyone who preaches a Gospel that is different from his, or promotes a Yeshua, who is different from his, or embraces a spirit that he did not embrace. (2 Corinthians 11:4) If we believe another gospel, then we will accept another Yeshua, and he will give us another spirit!

The pantheon is a confusing and scary place where demons masquerade as gods. If we are brave enough to step inside the pantheon and take the 2nd Step, we will feel peace and hope that will prepare us for the all-important 3rd Step. The priests in A.A.’s pantheon will tell us that the peace and hope we feel is a spiritual experience that lets us know we have asked the correct entity for help. These priests will say that this spiritual experience validates truth, and hence we are on the right path.

Spiritual experiences do not validate truth. The Scriptures validate truth, and they say that the path we must travel to know God is narrow, and only a few will find it. So, what is this wide path that allows everyone to know “God” by bowing to an image of a demon? It is the path that leads to Hell!

Welcome to the pantheon.

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