By Pastor Hal Mayer
Dear Friends,
Welcome to Keep the Faith Ministry once again. Today, we are going study the most catastrophic and devastating pandemic in history so far, a time of trouble that came upon Europe in the mid-14th century. The Black Death was the pandemic worse than the Spanish Flu pandemic in the 20th century. Fear of the disease led to extreme reactions. Fear always leads to actions that would be unthinkable in normal times. But when a crisis hits, it reveals what’s in the hearts of man. Some are controlled by the spirit of hatred and revenge. Others are controlled by a spirit of sympathy and compassion. But the gut-wrenching epoch in history gives us a clue which can help us understand the future about the attitudes towards those who keep the Sabbath.
Maybe you thought that the Nazi “final solution” was unique in history. While the rule of the Third Reich may have been a more severe time for the Jews, history’s Sabbath Keepers, there were similar events that preceded those German pogroms. And we need to understand the thinking behind the way the Jews were treated to comprehend what will come upon God’s true people that are loyal to Him and His law at the end of time. So, let’s begin with prayer.
Father in heaven, Your people have always been in the crosshairs of the enemy. The Great Adversary of mankind hates the law of God and has persecuted those who have kept it, and even those who used to keep it. His animosity has not subsided in the least. Although today we’re not under persecution, it doesn’t mean his hostility to Christ and His law has ceased. That hatred is just as virulent today as it was centuries ago. It is just as lethal and dangerous as when Christ was on earth. So please help us understand this era we’re going to discuss in history. Help us understand why Bible prophecy tells us the things that it does. In Jesus name, amen.
Please turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 24:21.
“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”
This difficult period will be upon the whole world, but God’s people will suffer differently than the ungodly people of the world. Theirs will be a unique experience. They will be extremely pressured by society and the government, but their internal struggle will be worse than they have ever experienced.
The Black Death, as the bubonic plague was commonly called, came upon Europe like a fast-moving mega storm from approximately 1347 to 1353. It was the Middle Ages and superstition abounded. People panicked in fear, and understandably so. The Black Death was carried by fleas of a variety that only infested black rats. Somehow, and the historians don’t know exactly how, but the disease jumped from the rats to the human population. Rats infested shipping vessels and came ashore in Europe bringing their fleas with them from North Africa. Some of the rats had difficulty finding food apparently. Many of them died off, and the fleas had to find another host. While this is certainly an oversimplification, we just need to know that it happened. Once the flees multiplied in the human population, the disease that they brought with them, the bubonic plague, quickly moved throughout cities and towns, indeed throughout all of society. This is what will happen at the end of time. Here is a statement from Counsels on Health, page 461.
“While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, [Satan] will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous.”
The speed with which the plague moved through the human body was shocking. You often wouldn’t even have time to get your house in order. You could be fine in the morning, feel sick at noon, and by nightfall you would be dead. While it wasn’t always that fast with the entire population, it was only a matter of a day or two from the onset of sickness to a horrible and painful death. It gives new meaning to the next verse in Matthew 24:22.
“And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”
Had not God been merciful to the population, all of Europe would have been wiped out. Back at the end of the 10th century the population of Europe was about 75 million people. Then around the year 1000 to the time immediately preceding the Black Death in 1347 there was a population boom in Europe which increased the population to 150 million. It doubled the number of people. The causes of this were varied, but one of the main causes was climate change. A warming period made conditions for growing food optimal. Crop yields were up. Winters were mild and growing seasons were longer. There was an abundance of fish in the North Sea because of the warmer waters, which made fishing not only profitable, but there was plenty more food to eat.
With better nutrition women could bear more children to term and survive the delivery. And with better nutrition and warmer temperatures, people were less susceptible to the illnesses which usually carried off quite a few, especially children under five. The future was bright with promise. But when the plague had burned itself out in 1353, approximately six years from its beginning, the population was back down to roughly 75 million people. That gives you some idea of the magnitude of the catastrophe and the potency of the plague.
The Black Death wiped out half of the population of Europe. Bodies were so numerous that they piled up in the streets. Nobody wanted to bury them because if they did, they would contract the disease and also die. When one family member would catch the disease, other family members that would assist them also caught the disease and died. Just being in the same house was a mortal danger. Sometimes there were so many empty homes where nobody lived anymore that the town looked like a ghost town. So many people had died that there weren’t enough workers or skills that could keep a town or city functioning. City fathers and leaders were wiped out too. And there was no one to carry on that work of running the city or town. Whole industries were wiped out. Some trades were almost completely destroyed and the skills that were involved were essentially lost. Listen to this about the end times from Early Writings, page 41.
“I saw that the powers of earth are now being shaken and that events come in order. War, and rumors of war, sword, famine, and pestilence are first to shake the powers of earth, then the voice of God will shake the sun, moon, and stars, and this earth also. I saw that the shaking of the powers in Europe is not, as some teach, the shaking of the powers of heaven, but it is the shaking of the angry nations.”
Interestingly, some people never got the disease, or at least the deadly version of it, though they were in contact with it. Historians don’t know exactly why, but there are some theories that suggest that they built up an immunity to the disease because they were previously exposed to a similar pathogen that wasn’t anywhere nearly as deadly that provided antibodies that protected them during the plague.
Because the appalling destruction throughout the population of Europe was so overwhelming, the economic, social and political life had to be reinvented in order to cope with the new normal. Social structures that had been in place for centuries were now only a suggestion. Lower classes of people, what was left of them, took advantage of the opportunity to develop upward mobility. This created and contributed to a more prosperous peasant class and helped create a substantial middle class. In other words, the Black Death created so much upheaval that it transformed society. And it did so in so many ways that it really wasn’t the same place anymore. It ushered in the Renaissance and led to the circumstances that were ripe for the Reformation. It took an outside force to change all that. And with the bewildering speed with which it happened, it left those who controlled the old system baffled and unsure of what to do.
The effect on the Catholic Church, especially its response to the plague, which was sometimes inept, sometimes reluctant, sometimes sincere and dedicated, was that any dissatisfaction with the church pre-plague became amplified in the aftermath. Those who were unquestioningly loyal and dedicated to the teachings and hierarchy of the church, were now questioning its validity and relevance and what the many failures of the church during the pandemic might mean. Was the church really working in the best interests of the people? many wondered. Or were they simply trying to preserve the monolithic institution? Does that sound familiar? The Black Death Back was a line that led straight to Martin Luther’s 95 theses and the Protestant Reformation some 200 years later. Were it not for the plague it might have taken much longer for the Reformation to materialize, if at all.
John Wycliffe, the Morning Star of the Reformation, was doing his work during the 14th century at a similar time that the plague was doing its awful work. People’s eyes were beginning to open to see that they were left in ignorance to suffer during the pandemic. The priests who were supposed to do their spiritual work for frightened church members who were dying right, left and center, were often neglecting their work, because they feared to contract the plague themselves. This had its effect on the trust and loyalty that was, heretofore, taken for granted.
There were many reactions. Some people resigned themselves to their fate and carried on doggedly anyway. Others turned to religion, praying, fasting and going on pilgrimage, and in some cases engaging in public self-flagellation to somehow atone for their sins. Some turned away from the church, because they believed it wouldn’t or couldn’t help them, and lived a profligate life since they were going to die anyway, and they may as well have a “good time” while they still could.
But in the face of the deadly and implacable disease that was rampaging through society and that seemed unstoppable, and which had no defense and no cure, some looked for a scapegoat, somewhere to lay the blame. And in a massive and frightening disaster, people naturally look for reasons, whether real or imagined why the disease, or the disaster, was brought upon them. And they found the scapegoat in the Jewish communities, who were traditionally Sabbath keepers, or former Sabbath keepers, that existed throughout the medieval world. This is significant, because the great enemy of humanity who hates God’s law, especially the Sabbath, has always fomented dissatisfaction with those who keep it, and even those who at one time kept it. Listen to this statement from Great Controversy, page 607.
“Conscientious obedience to the Word of God will be treated as rebellion. Blinded by Satan, the parent will exercise harshness and severity toward the believing child; the master or mistress will oppress the commandment-keeping servant. Affection will be alienated; children will be disinherited, and driven from home. The words of Paul will be literally fulfilled, “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” [2 Timothy 3:12.] As the defenders of truth refuse to honor the Sunday-sabbath, some of them will be thrust into prison, some will be exiled, some will be treated as slaves. To human wisdom, all this now seems impossible; but as the restraining Spirit of God shall be withdrawn from men, and they shall be under the control of Satan, who hates the divine precepts, there will be strange developments. The heart can be very cruel when God’s fear and love are removed.”
Antisemitism has actually been around a long time. In the year 1000 various trade cities had sizable groups of Jews, Muslims and Christians living in a relatively peaceful fashion for centuries. But by the 13th century there was less and less land available because of the increased population and people, as they have done from time immemorial, began to protect their own families first and then the group with which they identified with more broadly. This led to any marginalized groups being further marginalized. This developed a persecuting mentality towards lepers, heretics, and other non-mainstream Christians. By and far the largest marginalized group were the Jews.
Basically, if the people could find a way to deprive a demographic group of wealth, status, and property, then people found a way to do it, to secure more power and property for themselves, and for the group of which they considered themselves a part.
Suddenly, a whole crop of regulations came into being that took away from the Jews the right to farm and the right to practice other trades and crafts, and gave them only the right to practice the least desirable trades in medieval society, like money lending for example. Why was this a less desirable trade in medieval society? The whole idea of charging interest on a loan was considered to be usury, which was a sin, according to the medieval church. Catholics were not allowed to do this. But Catholics still needed loans. And the way they got around this prohibition was to assign money lending to the Jews, since they were already sinners and lost because they did not accept Catholic Christianity. This way medieval society found a neat little way too get around the problem and at the same time further place the Jews in an unenviable position.
Also, around this time the Jews in many cities were required to live in a ghetto, which was a certain part of the city often known as the Jewish quarter. This Jewish quarter was often walled off from the main community. The Jews often had a curfew which prevented them from going out of their ghetto after a certain hour of the day. Also, Jews were often expelled from certain communities or cities like Paris or London. All these restrictions made the Jews very unpopular. In addition, if a Jew had to collect money from people that didn’t have it to service a loan, or take away collateral from someone, this would make them exceedingly unpopular. This is all a recipe for anti-Semitism.
In 1095 Pope Urban II called for a crusade to take Jerusalem and depose the Muslim rulers that controlled it. Some of the crusaders, on the way to the Middle East, came to the Rhineland where several large Jewish communities existed. The Jews, being non-Christians, were considered to be infidels and the crusaders decided to force them to convert or suffer death. Many, or most of the Jews nobly stood firm and would not convert. Some of them even killed their own families as an act of mercy so that the crusaders could not torture them. Several of the Christian crusaders tried to shield the Jews, to no avail. And the bloodshed was horrific. Two centuries later when the Black Death came along, the Jews were still marginalized. In fact, it had become normalized.
Jews were accused of crimes they did not commit. For example, they were accused of poisoning the wells and springs and other water sources for the cities and towns of Europe. This was obviously false, because Jews were dying at a rate similar to the Christian population, especially in places where the Jews were not ghettoed. But many historians think some Jews in some communities were dying off at a lesser rate than the general population. This is because, it is thought, the ghettos were walled and the Jews were quarantined from the rest of the population, which exposed them less to the pestilence that was rampaging through the Christian community.
God had graciously given to the Jews health principles, some of which were still in use at the time of the plague. And these health principles are what preserved many of them from a miserable death during the plague. For instance, before Passover the Jews would clean their homes very thoroughly, by removing all food items from their houses other than Jewish flatbread or matza. They would clean the grain bins and washed them out very thoroughly. When the grain is removed from the house and there’s no other food sources, what happens to the rat population? Well, when the rats can’t find any food they have to move on and go elsewhere, and they took their fleas with them. Many of the Jews were in walled ghettos and separated from the rest of society, so this cleansing reduced or prevented the number of deaths related to the plague.
God has given us a health message too, and it will preserve His people at the end of time when great pestilences are in the land. Listen to this from Exodus 15:26.
“And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.”
And further, from Deuteronomy 7:15, “And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.”
Here is an important lesson. God has given us a health message for a reason. When the time of trouble comes and pestilence is upon the land, the health principles that God’s people diligently employ will be a safeguard to their health and their strength. The things that will come upon this world, such as in the days of the Black Death, will come again. We need to be ready by being in full health and in compliance with God’s health principles and His law.
Let’s read Psalm 91:1-6, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.”
Notice that when deadly pestilence floods the land and fear is everywhere in the last days, God’s people will not be afraid, and they will ride through the pestilence with no serious injury.
Several Jewish communities had a lower death rate than the Christian communities to which they were connected. Now put that together with the greatest mortal threat humanity had ever faced since Noah’s flood until that time, you can see that it might give rise to a violent antisemitic response. And, if I may remind you, this was the way the enemy vented his hatred against Sabbath keepers.
Under these circumstances community leaders rounded up some Jews and “put them to the question,” in other words, tortured them, and then got a confession about what was happening and how they were going about it. There are chronicle accounts of this, blaming the Jews for poisoning the wells and springs in order to kill all the Christians. Many Jews confessed as much during torture. Torture, by the way, is an unreliable method of getting accurate information. People will say things under torture that are not true in order to stop the torture. Yet torture, known as extraordinary rendition, is still used even today, nevertheless, even though its credibility is seriously questioned. There is no doubt, in my mind, that it will be used again against God’s people. And remember that the church was intimately involved in this process of torture. Listen to this from Great Controversy, page 581.
“God’s word has given warning of the impending danger; let this be unheeded, and the Protestant world will learn what the purposes of Rome really are, only when it is too late to escape the snare. She is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men. She is piling up her lofty and massive structures in the secret recesses of which her former persecutions will be repeated. Stealthily and unsuspectedly she is strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is vantage ground, and this is already being given her. We shall soon see and shall feel what the purpose of the Roman element is. Whoever shall believe and obey the word of God will thereby incur reproach and persecution.”
All kinds of confessions were conjured up. Some confessed that they had bred spiders and toads in pots and pans and had obtained poison from overseas. In spite of the absurdity of these claims, people still believed them. And the story would get even more weird. Forced testimony even fed conspiracy theories. It was claimed that not every Jew knew about these things, only the more powerful ones. This, it was claimed, was so that the more powerful Jews would not be betrayed.
Though it is pretty obvious that these were forced confessions, extracted from the Jew by the thumb screw, the rack, the wheel, and many other tortures. The confession played into the fears of an already paranoid populace and clearly suggested that this was a well-thought-out campaign, or conspiracy against the Catholic population organized and carried out at the highest levels of the Jewish community.
People are more the same than they are different. They love a good conspiracy theory. And there are some true conspiracies as well as some false conspiracies theories. If you can’t tell one from another you will be duped by at least the false ones and probably go to extremes with the true ones.
Will God’s people face the same demonization in the last days? I think so. There is still a pension in the human mind and heart to think evil of those who are marginalized or even demonized in society.
In the 14th century people blocked up the water wells in order not to get poisoned and would travel long distances to get drinking water. Some would even get drinking water out of the rivers which were anything but clean. In the Middle Ages, that might even be as bad as drinking out of the toilet today.
Pogroms against the Jews began to spread especially throughout the German speaking lands. These pogroms were carried out from as far South as Austria to the Netherlands, including present day Switzerland, and parts of France and Spain. The catalog of Jews murdered in these lands was horrific. They were burnt, they were tortured on the wheel, and other extreme measures were chronicled. When people thought the stories were undoubtedly true, they rose up as one against the Jews. That is significant for our time. Let’s read Great Controversy, page 630. This is referring to the last crisis on earth.
“Yet to human sight it will appear that the people of God must soon seal their testimony with their blood as did the martyrs before them. They themselves begin to fear that the Lord has left them to fall by the hand of their enemies. It is a time of fearful agony. Day and night they cry unto God for deliverance. The wicked exult, and the jeering cry is heard: “Where now is your faith? Why does not God deliver you out of our hands if you are indeed His people?…” Like Jacob, all are wrestling with God. Their countenances express their internal struggle. Paleness sits upon every face. Yet they cease not their earnest intercession.”
The means of execution of the Jews were also horrific. In Basel special structures like small houses were constructed of wood and the Jews were rounded up and forced into these houses. Then they were set on fire. One of these structures was set up on an island in the Rhine. In Strasbourg one was set up in the Jewish cemetery itself.
How could these pogroms have come about? Three major events led to them. First there was the confessions of the Jews in the region of Savoy, or in northern Italy. These were repeatedly sent around to various towns as a warning to be diligent in taking action against the Jews. These confessions give details that make it clear to us that none of them were actually true. But they still went ahead.
The second event involved the citizens of Strasbourg. The leaders of Strasbourg requested and received information from at least 17 different towns as to their opinions of what should be done about, what was quickly becoming known as the Jewish problem. Each of these towns, with the exception of Colognes, gave evidence gained from confessions of well poisoning. They said that they had filled in the well or had their bucket mechanisms destroyed so that people could not drink from them. This apparently was not enough for the leaders in Strasbourg. Even though the plague had not yet reached the city in February of 1349, the Jews were rounded up and executed in a process that took nearly a week.
Remember that the town of Strasbourg was plague free because it had not reached them yet. But the stories that they had heard from the other communities so petrified them that they were willing to do something to protect themselves that was totally irrational and cruel to the Jews. They thought if they got rid of the Jews quickly enough, they wouldn’t have time to put in their plan of well poisoning into action. And this would save the Christian community of Strasbourg. And this was all because of forced and false confessions that were extracted from the Jews.
Do Christians want to save western society today? Will they be willing to do anything to achieve it, even if it means being cruel to a minority community of Sabbath keepers in the process? At the funeral of Charlie Kirk some of the speakers, political and religious, referenced the need to save western culture, which also means Christianity. So, it is definitely under discussion.
Some of the Christian rulers rose up in defense of the Jews and issued orders to protect them. But the antisemitic hysteria had reached such a pitch that it was too much for them. Their citizens told them that if they did not have their own judges burn them, they would burn them themselves.
Do you think there’ll be a hysteria in the last days against Sabbath keepers? Do you think many Sabbath keepers will be tortured and executed because of the demands of the people? We should be reminded of this statement from Great Controversy, page 592.
“The dignitaries of church and state will unite to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance. Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected. In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet’s words: “The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 12:17.”
And listen to this from Marantha, page 199.
“The two armies will stand distinct and separate, and this distinction will be so marked that many who shall be convinced of truth will come on the side of God’s commandment-keeping people. When this grand work is to take place in the battle, prior to the last closing conflict, many will be imprisoned, many will flee for their lives from cities and towns, and many will be martyrs for Christ’s sake in standing in defense of the truth.”
The third event happened in the German town of Colognes. The town of Colognes was the only town that was convinced that the forced confessions of Jewish well poisoners was nonsense. And Colognes held out for a long time as a place where Jews were protected. Maybe there was some human compassion in play here, but also there was an economic reason. The Jews were an economic pillar of Colognes. For many people it may have been to preserve the stable economic and social order that led them to protect the Jews rather than standing against injustice.
Many Jews fled to Colognes from their home cities because of its more reasonable approach. But the explosion of Jewish refugees coming to Colognes begin to worry its Catholic citizens, and they suspected a conspiracy that the sizable number of Jews now in the city was in preparation for them in taking over the city. The Jewish community got wind of this dissatisfaction and began to take precautions. They retreated in the ghetto and distributed weapons among the residents. Christian spies, pretending to be friendly to the Jews, came into the ghetto. Learning that the Jews were going to attack a certain portion of the city on a certain day, probably since they needed supplies and food because they were in survival mode. The spies alerted the leaders of the city and when the Jews made their move, they found an army waiting for them. An urban battle ensued, and 25,000 both Catholics and Jews were killed in the fighting.
While all these accounts are appalling, what is remarkable is the accounts of some Catholic observers of Jews being led to their execution. While some of them wept, others danced and sang as they were led to their deaths. One of the most touching accounts is of a mother who threw her children into the fire to avoid the risk of them being baptized by the Catholics and then threw herself in the fire to burn alongside her husband.
The death toll on the Jewish community during this era in history was the worst that had occurred since the destruction of Jerusalem and would be the worst until the Holocaust of the 20th century. 340 towns in the German states during the 14th century launched pogroms against the Jews. Estimates are that 80 Jewish communities were wiped off the map completely in the German speaking countries during these pogroms. And this doesn’t take into account the French and Spanish pogroms that were known to be happening also.
As the plague receded, so did the virulent antisemitism. The Jews were invited to resettle in their towns within a decade of the first wave of the plague. This is especially interesting. Because it’s when there is a crisis that people begin to look for scapegoats. That’s when Sabbath keepers will come under pressure and persecution. As the pestilences and disasters and catastrophes mount, they will come under increasing persecution. Many people think it impossible for persecution to happen in our modern times. But listen to this statement from Great Controversy, page 605.
“Heretofore those who presented the truths of the third angel’s message have often been regarded as mere alarmists. Their predictions that religious intolerance would gain control in the United States, that church and state would unite to persecute those who keep the commandments of God, have been pronounced groundless and absurd. It has been confidently declared that this land could never become other than what it has been—the defender of religious freedom. But as the question of enforcing Sunday observance is widely agitated, the event so long doubted and disbelieved is seen to be approaching, and the third message will produce an effect which it could not have had before.”
And Sunday laws are already being agitated in the United States. Now is the time to give the message with a certain sound that cannot be muted.
Also, another very interesting fact surfaced in 1350. Even Pope Clement himself voiced the observation that the Jews seemed to be dying at the same rate as Christians, and that the plague struck hardest in those towns that had already expelled or executed all their Jews as a preventive measure.
For example, Strasbourg had murdered all its Jews in 1349. Shortly thereafter the Black Death struck there with a ferocity that seemed worse than other towns. These things took the motivation and power out of the idea that somehow the Jews were responsible for the Black Death. As the plague burned itself out, so did the antisemitism and hatred of Jews.
There has always been however an underlying hatred of the law of God. Historically, the Jews were given the law of God as a covenant between them and God. If they kept His law and followed His statutes, He would honor His part of the bargain and cause them to prosper.
Likewise, today, we are given the privilege of living by God’s law and receiving of His blessings as a result of our covenant relationship with God. If we are unfaithful in this and compromise with the world, God will use extreme measures, such as persecution, to correct and enlighten us. God is very merciful. And we should heed the lessons of history and prepare our lives for His Kingdom. Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, we see that in history there has been horrible scapegoating against the Jews that gives us pause to think how we are going to be faced with a similar persecution because of the Sabbath. Please help us to be united with Thee so that we can have You by our side as we go through such things. Please make us ready for heaven. And we’ll give you all the praise. In Jesus’ name, amen.