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Kenneth Copeland's land of Biblical Revelations
Kenneth Copeland has risen to Christian stardom by being on TV for numerous years. Many people I talk with say they never heard him say the things that are in the books written on the Word Faith Teachings. This is highly unlikely since he is consistent in his teachings. So either they are not paying attention or they do not see what many are saying, because they are buried deep in it. This is to make people more aware of the abberant theology and practices he promotes. Alongside everything that is said we will look at the Scriptures to see if is the truth or error that is being spoken.
"Now he said in Jn.3:5 verily I say unto you except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (video) Now when you study that out about the kingdom of God it means he cannot enter into the way God does things .The way God does things in his word in the anointing and that that’s really what being connected to the supernatural is all about."
Comment: Does God have an anointing? Is not God himself the holy spirit who is the anointing that was upon Jesus and lives inside the believer. The kingdom of God does not mean what he says he is twisting it to a completely to new meaning. it means to be born again from the spirit (from above) so that one can enjoy eternal life with the savior. The implication is our doing things the way God does by speaking his word and causing things to come into existence.
Relating a story about someone he knows "I know of a little dog that got saved (laughter from audience ) now don't argue to me about this, In Jasmin Alabama…He's now a pastor of a Church, I dunno his church may not know his dog got saved I dunno His son came in there and said daddy I want you to lay hands on this, he called this dog by name, I don't remember what the name of the dogs was. He said I need to lay hands on him he said why he said I got him save but I need baptized in the holy Ghost (laughter from the audience Copeland laughs as well)…you can laugh if you want to but that means something to God."
Comment: He is serious, he was not kidding. Doesn't the Scripture say to preach the Gospel to every creature in Mk.16:15 so there you have it, its scriptural. Never mind that the creature is to believe, (I guess he barked for the pastor to know). It is this kind of stories that is disturbing, but there are more.
Copeland having a conversation with God as he's preaching "He said you weren't dying, I said what do you mean I wasn't dying my spirit was coming out of my body he said that's right you were fixin', he said you were just about to come out of your body and I was going to allow you to minister that congregation without your BODY, you were gonna go through that congregation like a whirlwind, of the power and glory of God. I said your gonna have to show me that in the Scripture, he said and showed me 2 Cor. Chpt.1, 2, 3 ,4, 5,and 6 the apostle Paul said I bear, I carry around with me the dying of in my body for you that the life of God might be manifest in my mortal flesh. He said the one that raise Jesus from the dead is in you and he will make alive your mortal body . He said you missed that opportunity for that experience . I said what was I going to do, he said I'm not going to tell you, you missed it."
Comment: The bible teaches in James 2:26 that the body without the spirit is dead, death is the severing of the inner-man the spirit from our body. The Scriptures Copeland cites as the Lord showing him does not teach what he is proposing, the apostle Paul did not minister without his body. This whole figment of his imagination is a mockery of God and his word, by what he says God spoke and how he speaks back to God.
Copeland said before the spirit was leaving his body he grabbed hold of it by his will, Eccl.8:8 tells us no one has power over the spirit to retain it. This is similar to astral projection by occultist's.The texts he cited do not teach traveling without your body to minister to people, these texts and any others teach nothing like this!
" Pray to yourself , because I'm in your self and you're in My self. We are one Spirit, saith the Lord." (Kenneth Copeland, "Believer's Voice of Victory", Feb. 1987, p.9)
Comment: Think about what he's saying! to pray to yourself. This is what the new age teaches as well as the the occult, that we are God. This is Copeland's God, himself, because he is one with God. This is why he can say the things he does, he can speak things into existence because he is one with God.
"Words create pictures, and pictures in your mind create words. And then the words come back out your mouth....And when that spiritual force comes out it is going to give substance to the image that's on the inside of you. Aw, that's that visualization stuff! Aw, that's that New Age! No, New Age is trying to do this; and they'd get somewhat results out of it because this is spiritual law, brother ." (Believer's Voice of Victory (television program), TBN, 28 March 1991.)
Comment: This spiritual law he believes anyone can use it believer or not. The evidence of his theology betrays his occult interpretations of the Scriptures.
God is a "spirit-being with a body, complete with eyes, and eyelids, ears, nostrils, a mouth, hands and fingers, and feet." (Kenneth Copeland ministry letter, 21 July 1977.)
Comment:
This is Mormonism, in the OT God says not to make any image of him since
they saw no form.
There is no such teaching as this in Scripture. Deut. 4:15-16 "Take
careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to
you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, "lest you act corruptly and
make for yourselves a carved image i n the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female,"
The bible says God is spirit Jn.4:24.
Isa. 40:18-20 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will
you compare to Him?
Isa. 40:25 "To whom then will you liken Me, or to whom shall I be
equal?" says the Holy One. Rom. 1:23 and changed the glory of the
incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man--God is not
in a
shape of a man, invisible Christ alone is " the image of the invisible God, Col 1:15" No man has seen God in Spirit.
"Gods reason for creating Adam was his desire to reproduce himself." I mean a reproduction of himself. And in the garden of Eden he did just that. He was not a little like God, he was not almost like God, he was not subordinate to God even…Adam was as much like God as you can get, just the same as Jesus when he came to earth, he said if you have seen me you have seen the father .He wasn’t a lot like God he’s God manifested in the flesh, I want you to know something Adam in the Garden of Eden was God manifested in the flesh." (Kenneth Copeland, Following the Faith of Abraham I (Fort Worth, TX: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1989), tape #01-3001, side 1.
Comment: Was Adam Jesus? Adam had a beginning Jesus is eternal, at least according to the Bible. When it states we were created in his image it does not mean that God is a physical being and that we are like him in that manner. Adam had moral and spiritual qualities of God in a limited finite way.
Jesus has a beginning and an end. (What Happened From the Cross to the Throne, Tape #00-0303)
"All of God's attributes and abilities were invested in Adam." (The Authority of the Believer IV; Tape #01-0304) "Adam was God manifested in the flesh." (Following the Faith of Abraham, Tape #01-3001) "You see Adam was walking as a God, Adam walked in God's class, Adam did things in the class of god's, hallelujah..." (Following the Faith of Abraham, Tape #01-3001)
Comment: How many Gods are there? A God who is every bit like the one who made him, but fell. What does this mean for his creator? That he can fall too! Adam was man, not God with a big G or little "g".
"You are not a spiritual schizophrenic -- half-God and half-Satan -- you are all-God" (Now We Are in Christ Jesus 1980, 16-17)
"There is a god class of beings." (Force of Love; Tape #02-0028), (Praise the Lord broadcast (TBN), recorded 2/5/86)
Comment:
No one is in Gods class, he alone is eternal. Who is like the Lord?
Ps 71:19 Also Your righteousness, O God, is very high, you who have done
great things; O God, who is like You? 2 Sam. 7:22 "Therefore You are great,
O Lord GOD. For there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You,
according to all that we have heard with our ears. Jer.10:6 Inasmuch as
there is none like You, O LORD (You are great, and Your name is great in
might). If we are all God why do we sin? This is making God in the image of
man.
Listen to Copeland mock God, saying that God is a the biggest failure in the Bible. (After listening to
this, ask yourself has God ever failed?)
On CHRIST
Christ "had no innate supernatural powers. He had no ability to perform miracles until after He was anointed by the Holy Spirit." (Kenneth Copeland, "Question & Answer," Believer's Voice of Victory, August 1988, 8.)
Comment: This means Jesus was not God. Phil 2:6-7 "who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men." The phrase means he did not cease being God , but took on another nature as man adding it to his nature of God. He had the ability, he just chose not to use it.
Jesus "has got to be all man. He cannot be a God and come storming in here with attributes and dignities that are not common to man. He can't do that. It's not legal." ("The Incarnation", side 1, audiocassette #01-0402, emphasis in original, Fort Worth, TX: KCM, 1985.)
Jesus Christ supposedly told Copeland in the following prophecy: "Don’t be disturbed when people put you down and speak harshly and roughly of you. They spoke that way of Me, should they not speak that way of you? The more you get to be like Me, the more they’re going to think that way of you. They crucified Me for claiming that I was God. But I didn’t claim I was God; I just claimed I walked with Him and that He was in Me. Hallelujah." (Kenneth Copeland, Take Time to Pray, Believer’s Voice of Victory 15, 2 (February 1987) .
Comment: If Jesus did not claim to be God then the Pharisees certainly misunderstood him by saying he did in Jn.5 and 10, and all he had to do is correct them.
Why didn't Jesus openly proclaim Himself as God during His 33 years on earth? For one single reason. He hadn't come to earth as God, He'd come as man." (K. Copeland, Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, Aug. 8, 1988. p.8)
Comment: Copeland proves that he does not hold to the fundamentals of the faith by denying God came in the flesh Jn.4:1-3, 1 Tim.3:16.
"Jesus existed only as an image in the heart of God, until such time as the prophets of the Old Testament could positively confess Jesus into existence through their constant prophecies." (Kenneth Copeland, The Power of the Tongue, pp. 8-10) So Jesus did not exist prior to the prophets words manifesting him. how did he come to be? By the words of their mouths, glory be to man!
"God is injecting His Word into the earth to produce this Jesus," Copeland explains. "This [sic] faith-filled words that framed the image that's in Him...." (Kenneth Copeland, The Image of God in You III, side 2.)
Comment : This contradicts what he previously attributed to the prophets. What does the bible say," Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever " Heb.13:8.
On BELIEVERS
"As a born-again believer, you are equipped with the Word. You have the power of God at your disposal. By getting the Word deep into your spirit and speaking it boldly out your mouth, you release spiritual power to change things in the natural circumstances." (The Power of the Tongue, 15.)
"Jesus is no longer the only begotten Son of God." ( Now We Are In Christ Jesus, 1980, p24)
comment: Really what does the bible say all one has to do is look up the word for sons to see that the word son for Jesus is completely different than the one for us as children. we are called sons by adoption through his work, he is a Son by nature, never changing. "Only begotten" means unique ONE of a KIND, but Copeland says this is not so. How much of the bible meanings can one man change.
Every Christian is a god. … "You don't have a God in you; y ou are one," (The Force of Love (Fort Worth: Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1987, audiotape #02-0028), side 1.)
"Am I a god? Man was created in the god class, was not created in the animal class, it was the gods class. He has a uniqueness about him that even angels do not have...Now Peter said by exceeding great and precious promises, you become partakers of the divine nature. Alright, are we gods? We are a class of gods." (Praise the Lord, TBN, 2/5/1986)
When I read in the Bible where He says I AM, I just smile and say, 'Yes, I AM too.'" (Believer's Voice of Victory Broadcast, 7/9/1987)
comment: Copeland takes the sacred name given to Moses at the burning bush and applies it to himself, this is blasphemy! We are not Gods unless we want to confess that we are false ones. Jeremiah 17 says the Gods that have not made the heavens and the earth will perish. Say goodnight Mr. Copeland.
Well friends after reading just some of the quotes one may first wonder who does this man think he is, the answer is a God by the admittance of his own lips and practices.
Money
Kenneth Copeland writes, "Do you want a hundredfold return on your money? Give and let God multiply it back to you. He urges his supporters, "Invest heavily in God; the returns are staggering, ... "Every man who invests in the Gospel has a right to expect the staggering return of one hundredfold." (Laws of Prosperity , pg.67)
His teaching is that one can tithe their way out of a situation and it has worked so well that many have adopted the scheme. But none are so bold as to lead the congregation in a affirmation "Money come unto me NOW" three times. (Dec.4, 1999 Voice of victory telecast) Everyone applauded because they confessed that money would be attracted to them.
FAITH
"As a born-again believer, you are equipped with the Word. You have the power of God at your disposal. By getting the Word deep into your spirit and speaking it boldly out your mouth, you release spiritual power to change things in the natural circumstances." (Kenneth Copeland, The Power of the Tongue, 15.)
"As a believer, you have a right to make commands in the name of Jesus. Each time you stand on the Word, you are commanding God to a certain extent because it is His Word." (Our Covenant with God [Fort Worth, TX: KCP Publications, 1987], 32.)
Kenneth Copeland had revelation knowledge and said: "The Spirit of God spoke to me and He said, ‘Son, realize this. Now follow me in this and don’t let your tradition trip you up.’ He said, ‘Think this way—a twice-born man whipped Satan in his own domain.’ And I threw my Bible down…like that. I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘A born-again man defeated Satan, the firstborn of many brethren defeated him.’ He said, ‘You are the very image, the very copy of that one.’ I said, ‘Well now you don’t mean, you couldn’t dare mean, that I could have done the same thing?’ He said, ‘Oh yeah, if you’d had the knowledge of the Word of God that He did, you could’ve He said, ‘Oh yeah, if you’d had the knowledge of the Word of God that He did, you could’ve done the same thing , ‘cause you’re a reborn man too." (Kenneth Copeland, Substitution and Identification (Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1989), tape #00-0202, side 2.)
Comment: Knowledge of the word means he could do exactly what Jesus did even obtaining for us the atonement which he believes happened in hell, incredible! Is this really the Spirit of God speaking?
" God used words when He created the heaven and the earth....Each time God spoke, He released His faith -- the creative power to bring His words to pass." (Kenneth Copeland, The Power of the Tongue (Fort Worth: KCP Publications, 1980), 4.)
"You can stop the force of it and cause it to be feeble even though its the very faith of Jesus Himself. The very faith that God used when He created, and what we read there in the first 2 chapters of Genesis, is the faith that’s burning in your spirit...Well, He created all those planets, h ow come you can’t create something? You don’t know as much about it as He does. He has a greater working knowledge of that faith than you do . But we’re learning. Our time is coming. And in some ways its already here."( Aug 18, 1999, John Hagees church TBN)
Comment: Notice Copeland actually admits that they are only learning and this is why they are unable to create like God ( Rom.4:17 is not a reality?) even though he's been teaching on this as a present reality for years. Again the only difference between you and God is that he has a working knowledge of things now. The comment of "Our time is coming" is ominous, to think some soon will have God like powers to create reality is not a comforting thought imagine a million people with creative powers springing things into existence, wonderful isn't it. just like the New ager's have been saying all along.
"God cannot do anything for you apart or separate from faith. Faith is God's source of power." ("Freedom from Fear," KCM, 1980, pg. 11-12)
Comment: This is simply not so! Gods source of power is who he is, nowhere does it say he used faith. The very nature of faith means the lesser is trusting in the greater. This would mean faith is greater than God himself. This is what has been practiced in Christian Science for years. God's source of power is found in who he is as GOD!
"Faith is a spiritual force....It is substance. Faith has the ability to effect natural substance." (Forces of the Recreated Human Spirit ( Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1982, 8.)
"When we use the spiritual laws that God has set up, God must obey what we request." (Praise the Lord, TBN, 2/5/86)
Comment: Really! Is God our butler or genie in the sky where we get as many wishes as we want. Who are we to order him around. Doesn't the bible say to surrender yourself to him and lean not on your own understanding acknowledging him in all your ways.
"What you are saying is exactly what you are getting now. If you are living in poverty and lack and want, change what you are saying.... The powerful force of the spiritual world that creates the circumstances around us is controlled by the words of the mouth." (The Laws of Prosperity, Kenneth Copeland, Ft. Worth: Kenneth Copeland Publications, 1974).
Comment: Whose in charge if we can use faith the same way God did? Not even the early heresies had the content that Copeland teaches. Nowhere does the bible teach God had faith nor that we can create things as he does.
"You can negate your faith. You can stop the force of it and cause it to be feeble even though its the very faith of Jesus Himself . The very faith that God used when He created, ... is the faith that’s burning in your spirit..." "Well, He created all those planets, h ow come you can’t create something? You don’t know as much about it as He does. He has a greater working knowledge of that faith than you do. But we’re learning. Our time is coming. And in some ways its already here."( John Hagee's Church Aug 18,1999)
Comment: This is a contradiction of everything he has been teaching because he has claimed it works but now he says their time is coming. He seems to think that the power and ability of God depends on ones knowledge to do the God kinda stuff. Iv'e got a revelation for Mr. Copeland, God is God and he is not. And the difference between man and God in everything, including faith is the difference of infinity.
Does Copeland know the real Jesus or the Scriptures, I can only judge by his statements that his words prove he twists the meanings and makes himself to be equal with Christ in nature and power, which to me says he is antichrist despite his teaching on the anointing and other biblical terms. One needs to look beyond the presentation and bible words to hear what he is ACTUALLY saying.
The defeat of Jesus at the cross, the becoming of sin
"When His blood poured out it did not atone." (Kenneth Copeland: From a personal letter to D.R.McConnell, dated 12/3/79. from A Different Gospel, p.120)
Comment:
the bible teaches the very opposite, Eph 1:7 In Him we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of
His grace
Col 1:14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins.
Heb 9:18 Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without
blood.
"He allowed the Devil to drag Him into the depths of Hell as if He were the most wicked sinner who ever lived. He submitted Himself to death. He allowed Himself to come under Satan's control....For three days in the belly of the earth,He suffered as if He'd sinned every sin that exists." ( K. Copeland, Believer's Voice of Victory, September 1991, p.3)
Comment: The Bible clearly teaches he suffered on the cross and defeated the enemy there Col.2:14-15. There really is no discussion on this
"The day that Jesus was crucified, God's life, that eternal energy that was His from birth, moved out of Him and He accepted the very nature of death itself." (Kenneth Copeland, "The Price of It All," Believer's Voice of Victory, Sept. 1991, 3.)
Comment : What he is saying is that God ceased to be God. The life that was in him was the light of the world, eternal life itself.
"He [Jesus] allowed the devil to drag Him into the depths of hell....He allowed Himself to come under Satan's control...every demon in hell came down on Him to annihilate Him....They tortured Him beyond anything anybody had ever conceived. For three days He suffered everything there is to suffer." (Kenneth Copeland, "The Price of It All," 3.)
"For three days He suffered everything there is to suffer. Some people don't want to believe that. They want to believe that after His death, Jesus just stayed in that upper region of Sheol that the Bible calls paradise, but they're mistaken! If He had simply stayed there, there would have been no price paid for sin." (Believer's Voice of Victory, Vol. 19, No. 9, Sept. 1991)
"Jesus was dragged down into the bowels of Hell where He was beaten and
bruised by Satan and his demons until Jesus could finally fight His way out
of Hell 3 days later.
(Believer's Voice of Victory, September 11, 1991) (Classic Redemption,
p.13)
Comment: How does he know this? The bible does not hint at any of this, so who is telling these revelations?
How did Jesus then on the cross say, ‘My God.’ Because God was not His Father any more. He took upon Himself the nature of Satan. And I’m telling you Jesus is in the middle of that pit. He’s suffering all that there is to suffer, there is no suffering left . . . apart from Him. His emaciated, little wormy spirit is down in the bottom of that thing and the devil thinks He’s got Him destroyed. But, all of a sudden God started talking." (Kenneth Copeland, Believer's Voice of Victory (television program), TBN, 21 April 1991.)
"That Word of the living God went down into that pit of destruction and charged the spirit of Jesus with resurrection power! Suddenly His twisted, death-wracked spirit began to fill out and come back to life....Jesus was born again -- the firstborn from the dead the Word calls Him -- and He whipped the devil in his own backyard." (Kenneth Copeland, "The Price of It All," 4-6.)
"The death of Jesus Christ was not a physical death alone. If it had been a physical death, Abel would have paid the price for mankind. He was the first man that died because of honoring God and His Word. If it had been a physical death only, it wouldn't have worked! And if He hadn't died spiritually, that body never would have died." (What Happened From the Cross to the Throne, Tape #00-0303)
Kenneth Copeland: "He [Jesus] was literally being reborn before the devil's very eyes. He began to flex His spiritual muscles.... Jesus was born again-the firstborn from the dead the Word calls Him-and He whipped the devil in his own backyard. He took everything he had away from him. He took his keys and his authority away from him." ("The Price of it All," Believer's Voice of Victory [September 1991 p.4-6.)
"Satan conquered Jesus on the Cross and took His spirit to the dark regions of hell" (Kenneth Copeland, Holy Bible: Kenneth Copeland Reference Edition Kenneth Copeland Ministries, 1991), 129.)
"...Got Him (Jesus) in there. Jesus said three days and three nights the Son of Man will suffer in the heart of the Earth like Jonah in the belly of the whale. Suffered there. suffered your penalty. Suffered my penalty...And there’s this emaciated suffering sin. I mean He-listen folks- He went deeper into that pit than any man had ever gone. He suffered all sin. No man has ever committed "all" sin, but that One suffered all sin, all sickness, all disease - the entire curse of the Law. "Made a curse for" - we don’t have any concept of what He went through down there in the bowels of that place called Hell... one born again man defeated all of Hell....took all that bunch in Paradise. They heard Him preach. The Bible says Jesus preached in Hell. When I get to heaven, I want a video of that, man. I gotta see that. ...All that bunch got born again." (9/4/97 Copeland's program, TBN)
Comment: Not only does Jesus get born again in hell, but so do others! What kind of Spirit led teacher goes so far beyond the Scripture that he can speak where God himself is silent. The suffering is not finished on the cross (the altar) blood is not enough for the atonement. To me this is a very scary Jesus who does not fulfill the prophecies and typology of the Old Testament but is instilled with more suffering beyond his death and needs to depend on the Spirit like all of us to come back to life.
"He allowed the devil to drag Him into the depths of hell as if He were the most wicked sinner who ever lived ... Every demon in hell came down on Him to annihilate Him ... [They] tortured Him beyond anything that anybody has ever conceived ... In a thunder of spiritual force, the voice of God spoke to the death-whipped, broken, punished spirit of Jesus ... [in] the pit of destruction and charged the spirit of Jesus with resurrection power! Suddenly His twisted, death-wracked spirit began to fill out and come back to life ... He was literally being reborn before the devil's very eyes. He began to flex His spiritual muscles ... Jesus Christ dragged Satan up and down the halls of hell ... Jesus ... was raised up a born-again man ... The day I realized that a born-again man had defeated Satan, hell, and death, I got so excited ...!" (Believer's Voice of Victory , September, 1991)
Comment: Why would Copeland be so exited on this point, because he is a born again man. this means he has the same powers that Jesus did. That certainly is exciting but its certainly NOT TRUE! the bible teaches we are servants and followers f Christ, if what is presented by Copeland is true than we have no need of submission, we can use our faith powers to do what we like.
"How did Jesus then on the cross say, ‘My God.’ Because God was not His Father any more. He took upon Himself the nature of Satan. And I’m telling you Jesus is in the middle of that pit. He’s suffering all that there is to suffer, there is no suffering left . . . apart from Him. His emaciated, little wormy spirit is down in the bottom of that thing and the devil thinks He’s got Him destroyed. But, all of a sudden God started talking." (Believer's Voice of Victory (television program), TBN, 21 April 1991.)
Comment:
Once again the bible says differently. And this is no small issue, but
a matter of ones salvation what they believe on this matter. If
salvation is obtained in any other way than by the cross it becomes
another gospel, a condemned one according to the Apostle Paul.
Col.1:20 " and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him,
whether things on earth or things in heaven, h aving made peace through the blood of His cross.
"
1 Pet. 1:19 "but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."
Heb 9:14-15 " how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the
eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason
He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death,
for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that
those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal
inheritance."
Christ said it is finished before he died, it means paid in full, the debt of sin is completed . Where? AT THE CROSS. Heb 10:29 "Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace ?"
If you think Copeland's teaching is biblical or glorifies Christ's sacrifice, i'm sorry it doesn't, it mocks it. It is not any different from what the Mormons or the Masons say about Christ or the cross.
There is only two choices one can make, believe Copeland or believe the Bible. They are both on the opposite ends of the spectrum, both cannot be true.
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