Here's what 'Christ is King' REALLY means
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Summary
The feast of Christ the King has been celebrated every year since 1925, and since then, it has changed dramatically. In this episode, we take a look at the original meaning of the feast, why it was established, and how it changed in the 1960s.
Transcript
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this weekend is the feast of christ the king wait stop i know most of you are thinking john henry
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you're like a month early it's the end of november and so it's on the last day of sunday
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before advent right well so it might surprise you to learn that this weekend is actually the
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original date of this great modern feast of christ the king which has been established or was
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established in 1925 this feast its movement from this weekend to the end of the liturgical year
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and what the feast itself has come to mean today all tells us so much about the current state of
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the church in the world it's like a key to understanding what's going on in the church
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in this video i'm going to tell you the original meaning of the feast of christ the king and why
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the pope established it in the first place what happened to it in the 1960s and how this fundamentally
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changed the meaning of the feast and how these changes have affected the faith of catholics
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throughout the world sounds big for a feast that still has less than 100 years behind it well by
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the end of this video you're going to be shocked at what has happened stick around you're not going
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to want to miss this pope pius 11 said men must look for the peace of christ in the kingdom of christ
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and he urged that the faithful give public honor to christ the king so that individuals and states
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would submit once more to the rule of their savior and that is why life site news is raising up the
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image of christ the king across the united states and you can help us reach millions more please
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pledge your support today for these billboards at lifefunder.com slash christ is king this show
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is going to give you a real insight of how we got to where we are and perhaps the road back to where
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we need to be in the church so let's begin as you always do with the sign of the cross in the name of
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the father and of the son and of the holy ghost amen in the 1920s the world was a different place
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a whole generation of europe's men had been slaughtered in the trenches of the first world war
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formerly catholic countries were marching towards secularism and even atheism for example in mexico and
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portugal openly masonic governments were in control and more or less persecuting the church
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in mexico it was a persecution unto blood in the cristero war in portugal we all know about the
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freemason mayor persecuting the three children of fatima threatening to put them in a pot of boiling oil
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in the weimar republic of germany all sorts of immorality and decadence was being openly promoted
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to a truly horrifying degree the similarities with our own day are quite remarkable in russia
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the communist revolution was spreading itself and no one knew how far that might go it was in this
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climate 99 years ago in 1925 that pope pious the 11th established the feast of christ the king he told
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the world that all these great evils had come because men had and i quote thrust jesus christ and his holy
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law out of their lives end quote both in the private sphere and in society as a whole specifically he
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said that this had happened because society had secularized and naturalized itself so what does that
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mean even many catholics had come to treat the church as simply one religion among others even if it
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happened to be the true one the idea that the church as the church of christ and not just a religion has
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rights which civil society is obliged to respect was being forgotten more and more some of the less
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hostile forces were happy to let the church exist but definitely not as the state religion the idea
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that there was no salvation outside the church was also being quietly forgotten and replaced with nicer
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views but when the church pope pius said is put on the same level as false religions the inevitable
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result is indifferentism and the idea that all religions are a path to arrive at god pope pius said that
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indifferentism inevitably leads to the subjection of the church to the state and to an agnostic or
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atheist state which holds that it can dispense with god altogether that's why a few decades earlier pope
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leo the 13th had actually called religious liberty the idea that the state and individuals are free to
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profess any or no religion and to treat all religions equally is quote legal apostasy from god end quote
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now it might sound surprising to some today but pope pius was extremely clear that he set up
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the feast of christ the king specifically to address those problems which are only worse in our day and
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he wanted to remedy those problems this feast the feast of christ the king was supposedly to remedy
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these evils by reminding mankind that christ is king if you celebrate the feast of christ the king
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at the end of november the chances are you've heard a lot about how christ is the king of our hearts
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and how he will fully manifest his kingship at the end of time both of which are of course true
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but there's something missing here something big is missing jesus christ is king as god and as man
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he is king as man because he has shed his precious blood for us and ransomed us from the devil and from sin
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he is the king not just of the faithful but of or even of the baptized he is king over all humanity
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whether humanity wants him or not as he is king over every individual person he's also king over every
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group of society that means he's the king over our families our societies but most especially the king
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of our nations nations and governments therefore have a duty to recognize his kingship and to offer
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him the proper homage due to their king and as he is god this proper homage is adoration or worship
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pious the 11th taught that explicitly when he said that quote not only private individuals but also
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rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to christ end quote this is found most
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perfectly in the offering of holy mass he didn't mean that rulers and princes are bound to honor christ
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as individuals but rather as the representatives of the state and christ has a right to this homage
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some people talk of god as if god is so much bigger than us and so we have no need to be concerned about
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giving him what is his due but no as pope leo the 13th said that putting his religion on the same level
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as false religions is legal apostasy from god and working against this is what pious the 11th feast of christ the
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king is all about another really important part of this doctrine of christ is king is king or the
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kingship of christ relates to the laws of a nation pious the 11th taught that in quote christ's kingly
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dignity demands that the state should take account of the commandments of god and of christian principles
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both in making laws and in administering justice and also in education it means that
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the catholic religion should be established as the state religion that the church should be free to
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carry out her mission and that the laws of the nation should be christian not in the sense of
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punishing eating meat on friday with death or anything but in the sense that all laws should be
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in accordance with right reason and natural law and don't go against any aspect of divine law or
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revelation this phrase christ is king has become very popular today but i can't help wondering if
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those who are using it saying it as a slogan really realize what it is that they are saying
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let's be honest a catholic confessional state and having a problem with so-called religious liberty
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these are what christendom and christ the king actually means christ is king now and must reign
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as saint paul says you don't have to take my word for it that is the original doctrine of christ's
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kingship you can go look it up in quas primas the encyclical but i'll tell you somewhere that you'll
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actually find it hard to find you'll struggle to find this doctrine expressed with any kind of clarity
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when christ the king is celebrated on its new date in a few weeks truth has a power of its own
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it moves hearts and saves lives i'm pleased to announce the launch of the new lsn tv app which
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so that you can bypass the sensors and keep fighting with us for life faith family and freedom
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don't be alone in the darkness we've been cancelled fight the cancellation download the app
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they didn't just move the date they actually changed a whole lot of the prayers readings and variable
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parts of the mass and these changes convey a radically different emphasis to what you'll find in the
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encyclical quas primus the theology books and the original mass texts even the new date shifts the
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emphasis originally the feast was placed on the last sunday of october which is necessarily the last
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sunday before all saints this date was explained by writers at the time as conveying christ reigning in
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all his saints and his elect christ is king and that is he is king now and must reign over society and all
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nations what about the new date the last sunday of the liturgical year has been associated with
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the end of the world for a very long time on its own moving the feast to that date might not be such
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a big deal however it's not on its own it's part of a broader set of changes which tell a different
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doctrine one that allows christ to be king for sure but only at the end of time there was always
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something about the end of the world associated with the feast of christ the king but it's now
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become the main feature and the meaning of the of the feast let's take a look at these changes
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the original first reading is all about the present reality and what has already been accomplished that
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christ is now the head of the body of the church and he has already transferred us into his kingdom
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the original gospel presents christ declaring his kingship before pilate crowned with thorns and
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showing what kind of king he really is you might get that very same gospel reading depending on the
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year but the general sense of the readings following the change is that they are pointing to the future
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or to eternity christ will seek out his sheep in the future and judge the faithful in the future
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there is no denial of anything here it would of course be too obvious to deny the facts after all
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it's part of an overall general shift of emphasis with a lot of plausible deniability in the old office
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of matins the office of readings and in the divine office every priest was presented with extracts from
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the encyclical quas primas and these extracts ended with the following statement of doctrine and i quote
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it would be a grave error on the other hand to say that christ has no authority whatever in civil affairs
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since by virtue of the absolute empire over all creatures committed to him by the father
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all things are in his power it then goes on to say that combating this error is the very purpose
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of the feast itself and all that is gone on the new date of the feast the new office of readings
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as only some reflections about the importance of christ reigning over our souls such a reign is no
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doubt supremely and eternally important for each one of us but it's a different emphasis to what pious
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the 11th and the original feast wanted nonetheless most stunningly the changed feast had an official
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hymn for the use in the divine office which wonderfully expressed the doctrine which we've been discussing
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here here's what it said the wicked protest wail and cry christ jesus reign they would deny
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rejoice we at thy glorious name thou highest king we do proclaim let nations leaders lift thy name and
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give thee public praise may judges teachers do the same our laws arts embrace thy ways may kings submit
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and brightly shine in pledging all to thee and to thy scepter sweet and mild submit we as a little child
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shall i tell you what happened to those verses they're gone they're deleted they're just cancelled
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the hymn actually remains in the official latin for vespers with all the other verses but with these
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verses deleted it's stunning when you actually see it for yourself so why is this important most
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catholics are taught primarily not through encyclicals but through the sermons at mass and the mass itself
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each sunday that's precisely why pious the 11th didn't just release an encyclical but established a feast
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in that encyclical he said and i quote people are instructed in the truths of the faith and brought
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to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred
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mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the church such pronouncements
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usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful feasts reach them all and the former
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speak but once and the latter speak every year in fact forever he continues the church's teaching
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affects the mind primarily her feasts affect both mind and heart and have a salutary effect upon the
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whole of man's nature he continues again man is composed of body and soul and he needs these external
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festivities so that the sacred rites in all their beauty and variety may stimulate him to drink more
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deeply of the fountain of god's teaching that he may make it a part of himself and use it with profit for
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his spiritual life we can see evidence of all this in the catastrophic distortion in understanding of christ's
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kingship following these liturgical changes it is abundantly no surprise that christ's kingship has been reduced to his
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kingship over our hearts or to a future in eternity even though that is exactly not what the encyclical intended in the
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but it's also hard to avoid concluding that these changes were deliberate calculated to remove christ from
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his this public sphere and to play his own embarrassing claims you know these these kind of
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in claims over society civil society which is so rejected today but in the encyclical pious the 11th teaches that
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christ will ultimately not tolerate being pushed aside and uncrowned as king and that judgment
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pious says quote christ who has been cast out of public life despised neglected and ignored
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will most severely avenge these insults end quote this vengeance has already started and it's been going on
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for a long time if no one is out there defending christ's rights and the liberty of the church if they're
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actually doing the opposite how can we be surprised if the state steps into the place left behind and it
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starts interfering with the life of the church and suppressing her activities does anyone remember the
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covid lockdowns when the government presumed to suppress all public worship it's been said that we can't say
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christ is king if we don't let him reign or if we try to change the nature of his kingship we'd be making
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him into a figurehead and putting the real authority on somewhere else but to say it again christ who has
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been cast out of public life despised neglected and ignored will most severely avenge these insults end quote
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so the next time any of us use christ is king let's know what it really means and let's really mean it
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for life site news this is john henry weston may god bless you
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hi everyone this is john henry weston for life site news we hope you found this video insightful
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