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Welfare measures issued during COVID -19 Pandemic: A Great Government Initiative or an Unnecessary Burden on Employers in India?

Welfare measures issued during COVID -19 Pandemic: A Great Government Initiative or an Unnecessary Burden on Employers in India?




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Indians At Greater Risk From COVID-19 In UK's Health Sector: Report

Indians make up one in 10 of all foreign-born doctors in the UK's National Health Service (NHS) and therefore face a greater risk from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report published on...




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Delaware sends wildfire crew to Great Basin region

Delaware is sending its second wildfire crew of the summer to the Great Basin region. Responding to a spike in wildfire activity in the West that has increased the National Fire Preparedness Level to 4 on a 5-point scale, Delaware has joined forces with neighboring Mid-Atlantic states (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio) to dispatch five crews, a total of 100 firefighters, to battle fires in the Great Basin. The crews departed Harrisburg, PA for Salt Lake City on August 25. Delaware is now assigned to the Henry's Creek Fire near Idaho Falls, Idaho.



  • Department of Agriculture
  • Forest Service
  • Delaware Forest Service
  • Delaware wildland fire crew
  • National Fire Preparedness Level

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Great news! 50% off on Zoomcar booking and 50% cashback on all car rentals

Zoomcar 'Never Stop Living' offer: Customers who need cars for longer duration can also choose to subscribe for one, three, or six months at competitive prices.




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Participate in the Great Shake-Out

The Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) encourages people across the state to take part in the Great Shakeout Earthquake Drill



  • Delaware Emergency Management Agency

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Tata Altroz Review: 1 Blunder away from greatness!

We have just driven the all-new Tata Altroz and we have been highly impressed with what Tata has been able to achieve. But, Tata Motors has made a huge blunder with the Altroz, watch the video and find out what?




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Four Indians honored with Great Immigrants

Google CEO Sunder Pichai and three other people of Indian origin are in the list of 42 US nationals to be honored with the United States "Great Immigrants: The Pride of America" award. The three other prominent personalities are Hari Sreenivasan,…




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Scientists witness true violence of Jupiter’s FEROCIOUS storms in greater detail than ever before

A years-long observation program of the planet Jupiter has revealed some of the most detailed images ever captured of the gas giant, exposing the truly bizarre nature of its ultraviolent, planet-wide storms.
Read Full Article at RT.com




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Worst month since Great Depression: US unemployment rate soars to 14.7%, with 20.5 million jobs lost in April

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday that the coronavirus shutdown has slashed a record number of jobs from nonfarm payrolls, sending the unemployment rate to record highs.
Read Full Article at RT.com




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How To Excel At Great UX Design

  You might have heard of the term ‘UX’ quite often. Ever wonder what it is? Or did you merely dismiss it thinking that it’s something related to the UI? The UX has become an important...




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Audit files to be opened for scrutiny for greater accountability

The National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) has floated draft procedures for submission of audit logs to the regulator by audit companies and chartered accountants (CAs).




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Harley-Davidson Street 750 with minimal modification looks great and sounds sweet




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New education policy is a great opportunity to define history

Young India is advancing to the peak of its demographic bulge—which means education and skill development is likely to be top priority for the decades to come. Hence, NEP assumes greater significance.




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One of Indian football’s greatest, PK Banerjee dies at 83

A member of the holy trinity, that also included Chuni Goswami and Tulsidas Balaram, Banerjee was the last surviving scorer of the 1962 Asiad gold-winning team.




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MS Dhoni arguably the greatest captain ever, says former England batsman Kevin Pietersen

India tasted huge success under Dhoni, winning the 2007 World T20 and the 2011 World Cup at home. India also won the 2013 Champions Trophy under the Jharkhand dasher, who has not played any international cricket since India's semi final exit from the ODI World Cup last July.




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China partly reopens iconic Great Wall to visitors as coronavirus eases

China in January closed all its museums and tourist centres all over the country to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.




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The Great American Dream, still deferred

The housing market has shown signs of life recently. Prices have risen, mortgage rates are very attractive and construction...




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We’re in conserve, consolidate mode; crisis a great time to go digital: Mahabaleshwara MS, CEO, Karnataka Bank

Loan waiver schemes for agricultural loans introduced by some of the state governments may also help reduce stress to some extent.




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Great Demand in Ontario for Nursing-Related Occupations

Ontario introduced some changes in its immigration through the In-Demand Skills Stream of Employer Job Offer that provides an avenue to the skilled and experienced candidates in occupations related to nursing in Canada. In July this year, the Ontario…




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Light Snow and 35 F at Rochester, Greater Rochester International Airport, NY


Winds are West at 12.7 MPH (11 KT). The pressure is 1013.8 mb and the humidity is 67%. The wind chill is 26. Last Updated on May 9 2020, 11:54 am EDT.




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Light Snow and Breezy and 34 F at Buffalo, Greater Buffalo International Airport, NY

Winds are from the West at 20.7 gusting to 29.9 MPH (18 gusting to 26 KT). The pressure is 1014.8 mb and the humidity is 67%. The wind chill is 22. Last Updated on May 9 2020, 11:54 am EDT.




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Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength

This is the 21st installment of The Rationalist, my column for the Times of India.

When all political parties agree on something, you know you might have a problem. Giriraj Singh, a minister in Narendra Modi’s new cabinet, tweeted this week that our population control law should become a “movement.” This is something that would find bipartisan support – we are taught from school onwards that India’s population is a big problem, and we need to control it.

This is wrong. Contrary to popular belief, our population is not a problem. It is our greatest strength.

The notion that we should worry about a growing population is an intuitive one. The world has limited resources. People keep increasing. Something’s gotta give.

Robert Malthus made just this point in his 1798 book, An Essay on the Principle of Population. He was worried that our population would grow exponentially while resources would grow arithmetically. As more people entered the workforce, wages would fall and goods would become scarce. Calamity was inevitable.

Malthus’s rationale was so influential that this mode of thinking was soon called ‘Malthusian.’ (It is a pejorative today.) A 20th-century follower of his, Harrison Brown, came up with one of my favourite images on this subject, arguing that a growing population would lead to the earth being “covered completely and to a considerable depth with a writhing mass of human beings, much as a dead cow is covered with a pulsating mass of maggots.”

Another Malthusian, Paul Ehrlich, published a book called The Population Bomb in 1968, which began with the stirring lines, “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.” Ehrlich was, as you’d guess, a big supporter of India’s coercive family planning programs. ““I don’t see,” he wrote, “how India could possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980.”

None of these fears have come true. A 2007 study by Nicholas Eberstadt called ‘Too Many People?’ found no correlation between population density and poverty. The greater the density of people, the more you’d expect them to fight for resources – and yet, Monaco, which has 40 times the population density of Bangladesh, is doing well for itself. So is Bahrain, which has three times the population density of India.

Not only does population not cause poverty, it makes us more prosperous. The economist Julian Simon pointed out in a 1981 book that through history, whenever there has been a spurt in population, it has coincided with a spurt in productivity. Such as, for example, between Malthus’s time and now. There were around a billion people on earth in 1798, and there are around 7.7 billion today. As you read these words, consider that you are better off than the richest person on the planet then.

Why is this? The answer lies in the title of Simon’s book: The Ultimate Resource. When we speak of resources, we forget that human beings are the finest resource of all. There is no limit to our ingenuity. And we interact with each other in positive-sum ways – every voluntary interactions leaves both people better off, and the amount of value in the world goes up. This is why we want to be part of economic networks that are as large, and as dense, as possible. This is why most people migrate to cities rather than away from them – and why cities are so much richer than towns or villages.

If Malthusians were right, essential commodities like wheat, maize and rice would become relatively scarcer over time, and thus more expensive – but they have actually become much cheaper in real terms. This is thanks to the productivity and creativity of humans, who, in Eberstadt’s words, are “in practice always renewable and in theory entirely inexhaustible.”

The error made by Malthus, Brown and Ehrlich is the same error that our politicians make today, and not just in the context of population: zero-sum thinking. If our population grows and resources stays the same, of course there will be scarcity. But this is never the case. All we need to do to learn this lesson is look at our cities!

This mistaken thinking has had savage humanitarian consequences in India. Think of the unborn millions over the decades because of our brutal family planning policies. How many Tendulkars, Rahmans and Satyajit Rays have we lost? Think of the immoral coercion still carried out on poor people across the country. And finally, think of the condescension of our politicians, asserting that people are India’s problem – but always other people, never themselves.

This arrogance is India’s greatest problem, not our people.



© 2007 IndiaUncut.com. All rights reserved.
India Uncut * The IU Blog * Rave Out * Extrowords * Workoutable * Linkastic




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Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength

This is the 21st installment of The Rationalist, my column for the Times of India.

When all political parties agree on something, you know you might have a problem. Giriraj Singh, a minister in Narendra Modi’s new cabinet, tweeted this week that our population control law should become a “movement.” This is something that would find bipartisan support – we are taught from school onwards that India’s population is a big problem, and we need to control it.

This is wrong. Contrary to popular belief, our population is not a problem. It is our greatest strength.

The notion that we should worry about a growing population is an intuitive one. The world has limited resources. People keep increasing. Something’s gotta give.

Robert Malthus made just this point in his 1798 book, An Essay on the Principle of Population. He was worried that our population would grow exponentially while resources would grow arithmetically. As more people entered the workforce, wages would fall and goods would become scarce. Calamity was inevitable.

Malthus’s rationale was so influential that this mode of thinking was soon called ‘Malthusian.’ (It is a pejorative today.) A 20th-century follower of his, Harrison Brown, came up with one of my favourite images on this subject, arguing that a growing population would lead to the earth being “covered completely and to a considerable depth with a writhing mass of human beings, much as a dead cow is covered with a pulsating mass of maggots.”

Another Malthusian, Paul Ehrlich, published a book called The Population Bomb in 1968, which began with the stirring lines, “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.” Ehrlich was, as you’d guess, a big supporter of India’s coercive family planning programs. ““I don’t see,” he wrote, “how India could possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980.”

None of these fears have come true. A 2007 study by Nicholas Eberstadt called ‘Too Many People?’ found no correlation between population density and poverty. The greater the density of people, the more you’d expect them to fight for resources – and yet, Monaco, which has 40 times the population density of Bangladesh, is doing well for itself. So is Bahrain, which has three times the population density of India.

Not only does population not cause poverty, it makes us more prosperous. The economist Julian Simon pointed out in a 1981 book that through history, whenever there has been a spurt in population, it has coincided with a spurt in productivity. Such as, for example, between Malthus’s time and now. There were around a billion people on earth in 1798, and there are around 7.7 billion today. As you read these words, consider that you are better off than the richest person on the planet then.

Why is this? The answer lies in the title of Simon’s book: The Ultimate Resource. When we speak of resources, we forget that human beings are the finest resource of all. There is no limit to our ingenuity. And we interact with each other in positive-sum ways – every voluntary interactions leaves both people better off, and the amount of value in the world goes up. This is why we want to be part of economic networks that are as large, and as dense, as possible. This is why most people migrate to cities rather than away from them – and why cities are so much richer than towns or villages.

If Malthusians were right, essential commodities like wheat, maize and rice would become relatively scarcer over time, and thus more expensive – but they have actually become much cheaper in real terms. This is thanks to the productivity and creativity of humans, who, in Eberstadt’s words, are “in practice always renewable and in theory entirely inexhaustible.”

The error made by Malthus, Brown and Ehrlich is the same error that our politicians make today, and not just in the context of population: zero-sum thinking. If our population grows and resources stays the same, of course there will be scarcity. But this is never the case. All we need to do to learn this lesson is look at our cities!

This mistaken thinking has had savage humanitarian consequences in India. Think of the unborn millions over the decades because of our brutal family planning policies. How many Tendulkars, Rahmans and Satyajit Rays have we lost? Think of the immoral coercion still carried out on poor people across the country. And finally, think of the condescension of our politicians, asserting that people are India’s problem – but always other people, never themselves.

This arrogance is India’s greatest problem, not our people.

The India Uncut Blog © 2010 Amit Varma. All rights reserved.
Follow me on Twitter.





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What the BRI brings to Belarus and Great Stone Industrial Park

Belarus’s Great Stone Industrial Park is another ambitious Belt and Road Initiative venture, designed to evolve into a smart city and industrial hub. But what are the benefits for Belarus or China? Jacopo Dettoni and Wendy Atkins report.




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Six Flags Great Adventure now powered by 23.5-MW solar array

On Wednesday in New Jersey, the world’s largest regional theme park company and the largest operator of waterparks in North America said that its New Jersey park, Six Flags Great Adventure, is now powered by solar energy.




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Mayor: PG&E assets are ‘great’ opportunity to bring clean energy to San Francisco

San Francisco Mayor London Breed wants to use PG&E Corp.’s bankruptcy to take over some of the company’s assets for the city’s power needs, a move that would shake up California’s largest utility and remake the state’s energy landscape.




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Mayor: PG&E assets are ‘great’ opportunity to bring clean energy to San Francisco

San Francisco Mayor London Breed wants to use PG&E Corp.’s bankruptcy to take over some of the company’s assets for the city’s power needs, a move that would shake up California’s largest utility and remake the state’s energy landscape.




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The Great Electric Company Growth Opportunity

Energy use in the U.S. can be split into two large (very, very large) pies. One is electricity for use in homes, buildings, and industry, and the other is transportation, which is powered primarily by liquid fuels (gasoline and diesel) from oil. There are some exceptions, and small overlapping fuel uses — direct industrial use of liquid fuel (a fairly significant quantity), some liquids burned to make electricity (this used to be a significant amount, but is now only a very small amount), and now a very small amount of electricity used to power electric vehicles (EVs).




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Mayor: PG&E assets are ‘great’ opportunity to bring clean energy to San Francisco

San Francisco Mayor London Breed wants to use PG&E Corp.’s bankruptcy to take over some of the company’s assets for the city’s power needs, a move that would shake up California’s largest utility and remake the state’s energy landscape.




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Insight – From good to Greater: Why Australian F&B exporters should consider Taiwan as part of a holistic strategy

While the China market has been a miracle for Australian food exporters, the data belies many of the operating challenges individual Australian firms face.




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Outlook for Global Energy Markets after the Great Recession

Outlook for Global Energy Markets After the 'Great Recession'
Audio : At an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and co-sponsored by the East-West Center in Washington, EWC Senior Fellow Fereidun Fesharaki discusses the outlook for global oil and gas markets after the “Great Recession.” Will growth reemerge to pre-crises levels? Will production keep up with resumed growth? What will the implications be for prices? Click here to listen.




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Streets Ahead on Devolution? – Consultation Launched on Greater Manchester’s Spatial Framework

Manchester is the City Region that has most enthusiastically embraced the devolution agenda – unsurprisingly, perhaps, given its long standing commitment to the cause of devolved powers and city region autonomy. In addition to embracing the Me...




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Greater Manchester – Mayoral Powers Update

When it comes to the devolution of fiscal and functional responsibilities to city regions, Greater Manchester continues to be well ahead of the curve. Additional functions for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) that have already been t...




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Jakarta's 'Great Garuda' Project: Profits for Re-emerging Elites in the Name of Climate Change

By Wilmar Salim, Keith Bettinger, and Micah Fisher HONOLULU (June 21, 2019)—With a population of more than 30 million, greater Jakarta is the largest metropolitan area in Southeast Asia and one of the most densely populated urban regions in the world. The city is a major economic engine for Indonesia, accounting for approximately 25 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. Yet urban poverty remains an intractable problem, and Jakarta’s infamous traffic congestion paralyzes commerce, leaches productivity, and contributes to air pollution and associated health hazards.

This is a summary only. Click the title for the full article, or visit www.EastWestCenter.org/Research-Wire for more.





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2 Great Dividend Deals I Just Made For My Retirement Portfolio




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Trials' Lessons: We See Greater Reward

“And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace . . . will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10).

Successful endurance of present trials leads to greater focus on glorifying God in the future.

Sufferings and trials teach us patience. However, in Heaven we won’t need to have patience, and therefore it is not the major long-term lesson God wants us to learn from trials. He is far more pleased if we grasp the truth that what we suffer now is directly related to our ability to glorify Him in eternity. Worshiping God will be our role in Heaven (Rev. 4—5), and Paul reminds us that “if we endure, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Tim. 2:12). In other words, if we learn to endure trials and tribulations now, we can expect to receive great reward in eternity. I believe that reward is primarily the capacity to glorify God; and therefore the greater our present endurance, the greater will be our capability to glorify Him in the future.

At one point during Jesus’ ministry with the disciples, two of them—brothers James and John—desired that He appoint them to the two positions of greatest prestige in His kingdom—seats at His right and left hands (see Matt. 20:20-23). James and John recognized the concept of eternal rewards, but they did not understand how it works. Thus Jesus asked them if they were ready to endure the cup of suffering and death (as He was) prior to occupying such powerful positions in His kingdom (v. 22). This implies again that endurance in trials and advancement in future glory are correlated. (Jesus endured the greatest suffering on the cross, and He was raised to the highest position, at the Father’s right hand.)

The application for us from all this is clear: the Lord wants us to realize that the end of every trial contains much satisfaction and joy because we are building up our future capacity to glorify Him. At the same time, we are comprehending more and more about the value of persevering through all sorts of pain and tribulation (see Rev. 2:10).

Suggestions for Prayer

Ask God to give you the desire to see the benefits of trials from an eternal perspective.

For Further Study

Read Revelation 4—5. What attributes of God do you see, directly or indirectly, that are worthy of eternal praise?



From Strength for Today by John MacArthur Copyright © 1997. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.com.

Additional Resources




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The Greater Good: real estate supporting the fight against covid-19

...




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Greater EU Competition Enforcement needed in the Digital Era

As we have recently reported, a number of competition authorities and governments are in the process of assessing whether their competition enforcement tools are fit for the digital economy. In the UK, on 13 March 2019 a specially commissioned panel...




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US Toughens Visa Rules for Chinese Journalists to Add to ‘Greater National Security Protections’

In late February, China expelled three Wall Street Journal correspondents after the newspaper’s publication of an opinion column that Beijing condemned as racist. ......




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The memory of compatriots who died during the Great Patriotic War was honored

The text version of this document in not available. You can access...




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Five Secrets To Surviving The Greatest Depression

In the last three months, 33.5 million Americans have lost their jobs and the unemployment rate is 15%. We need a coordinated national policy to control Covid-19. The secret is doing precise, living-standard-based lifetime financial planning. ......




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Australian Olympic chief says Tokyo Games could be greatest ever

Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates has predicted next year’s coronavirus-delayed Tokyo Games "may ultimately be amongst the great games ever, if not the greatest.”The ...




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Africa: Smallpox Eradication 'Greatest Public Health Triumph' - WHO Director-General Tedros

[WHO] Geneva -Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.




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What Are the "Greater Works" for Believers?

In the lead-up to the Truth Matters conference in October, we will be focusing our attention on the sufficiency, authority, and clarity of Scripture. Of our previous blog series, none better embodies that emphasis than Frequently Abused Verses. The following entry from that series originally appeared on September 18, 2015. -ed.

In the quiet intimacy of the upper room, just hours before His arrest, Christ gave His disciples some final encouragement and instruction. He revealed again His unity with the Father, comforted His disciples with the promise of heaven, and told them about the Helper who would empower them for the work ahead (John 14:1-17). But as usual, the disciples failed to fully understand what He was saying.

Some of their confusion lives on in the church today. In particular, one of Christ’s statements in this passage has confounded and divided many believers, with some using the Lord’s promise as proof of the continuation of the apostolic gifts throughout the history of the church.

In John 14:12, Jesus promises His followers: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.”

In his book The Upper Room, John MacArthur explains why there is persistent confusion in the church today about the nature of Christ’s promise.

Christians over the centuries have wondered at the richness of such a promise. What does it mean? How could anyone do greater works than Jesus had done? He had healed people blind from birth, cast out the most powerful demons, and even raised Lazarus from the dead after four days in the grave. What could possibly be greater than those miracles? [1] John MacArthur, The Upper Room (The Woodlands, TX: Kress Biblical Resources, 2014) 93.

For charismatic authors who believe in the continuation of the apostolic gifts, the answer is simple. In his book Authentic Fire, Michael Brown explains it this way:

Jesus gave a universal promise in John 14:12 that implies that all believers can ask God to demonstrate His healing and miracle-working power through them, since the statement in John 14:12 is programmatic, as Jesus said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” How is this not universal in scope, given that the identical Greek phrase ho pisteuon eis eme, whoever believes in Me, is always universal in application in John? (See John 6:35; 7:38; 11:25; 12:44, 46.) And while we can debate exactly what Jesus intended by the “greater works,” it is difficult to escape from the conclusion that whoever believes in the Son will also perform miraculous signs, based on: 1) the immediate context (14:9-11, with the emphasis on miracles as the works done by Jesus); 2) the universality of the language used; and 3) the assurance which follows, guaranteeing the efficacy of prayer to the Father in Jesus’ name. . . .

This promise cannot be limited to the apostle based on the language of “whoever believes in Me,” nor can it [sic] limited to non-supernatural acts of service. The reverse is actually true. [2] Michael Brown, Authentic Fire (Lake Mary, FL: Excel Publishers, 2014) 188-189.

Writing for Charisma Magazine, charismatic author Larry Sparks makes the same assertion that Christ’s words to His disciples are “a powerful blanket statement” for all believers, throughout church history.

Whoever means whoever. This is beyond the 12 apostles and the 72 called-out ones in Luke 10. Whoever spans all generations. Whoever invites us, in the 21st century, to once again contend for an outpouring of supernatural power in our midst.[3] http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/newsletters/spiritled-woman-e-magazine/23749-the-danger-of-celebrating-halloween

Bill Johnson, pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California, (one of the most influential charismatic churches in the world) and instructor at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, teaches a similar interpretation of the “greater works.” In his book When Heaven Invades Earth, he writes, “The miraculous is a large part of the plan of God for this world. And it is to come through the Church.” [4] Bill Johnson, When Heaven Invades Earth (Shippensburg, PA: Treasure House, 2003) 136. Johnson teaches that in His incarnation, Christ emptied Himself of all divine attributes, and in His humanity is the model for our lives.

Jesus became the model for all who would embrace the invitation to invade the impossible in His name. He performed miracles, wonders, and signs, as a man in right relationship to God . . . not as God. If He performed miracles because He was God, then they would be unattainable for us. But if He did them as a man, I am responsible to pursue His lifestyle. [5] When Heaven Invades Earth, 29.

Through that lens of Christ’s humanity, Johnson understands John 14:12 as a challenge to surpass His miraculous works.

Jesus’ prophecy of us doing greater works than He did has stirred the Church to look for some abstract meaning to this very simple statement. Many theologians seek to honor the works of Jesus as unattainable, which is religion, fathered by unbelief. It does not impress God to ignore what He promised under the guise of honoring the work of Jesus on the earth. Jesus’ statement is not that hard to understand. Greater means “greater.” And the works he referred to are signs and wonders. It will not be a disservice to Him to have a generation obey Him, and go beyond His own high-water mark. He showed us what one person could do who has the Spirit without measure. What could millions do? That was His point, and it became His prophecy. [6] When Heaven Invades Earth, 185.

We could go on and on with examples of that kind of teaching from charismatic sources, but you get the point. For those arguing for the continuation of the apostolic gifts, John 14:12 is a battleground text.

But was it really meant to be a promise of miraculous power to every believer? The testimony of church history suggests it was not, as many generations of saints have come and gone without any evidence of apostolic power. And while charismatics will argue that there is evidence of miracles today, it’s always anecdotal, rarely documented or objectively substantiated, and often comes from the far-flung corners of the globe.

Even by that flawed standard, the Spirit’s supposed miraculous work today is significantly different than His ministry through the apostles in the first-century church. Far from healing the crippled, curing the ravages of disease, and raising the dead, it seems the focus of the Holy Spirit’s healing ministry today is limited to rheumatoid arthritis, nagging back pain, and other subjective ailments. No longer is His work dramatic, obvious, and undeniable—today it’s mysterious, indiscriminate, and surprisingly absent when and where it’s most needed.

There is no arguing against the fact that Christ bestowed His supernatural power to His disciples (Acts 5:12-16). But there is no reason to characterize their miracles as “greater” than Christ’s, either in magnitude or degree. Furthermore, there is scant evidence that His promise of power extends to the subsequent generations of the church. In other words, not only have we not seen the charismatic interpretation validated by nearly 19 centuries of Christian history, it can’t even be validated by the miraculous works of the twelve apostles! (For further exegetical explanation of the limits of Christ’s promise in John 14:12, I recommend this article from Matt Waymeyer.)

So if Christ wasn’t promising miraculous power that exceeded His own, what did He mean by “greater works?” As John MacArthur explains, Jesus was indicating that the disciples works would be greater not in power, but in extent.

The key to understanding this promise is in the last phrase of verse 12: “because I go to the Father.” When Jesus went to the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s power completely transformed the disciples from a group of fearful, timid individuals into a cohesive force that reached the world with the gospel. The impact of their preaching exceeded even the impact of Jesus’ public teaching ministry during His lifetime. Jesus never preached outside a 175-mile radius extending from His birthplace. Within His lifetime, Europe never received word of the gospel. But under the ministry of the disciples the good news began to spread, and it’s still spreading today. Their works were greater than His, not in power, but in scope. Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, each one of those disciples had access to power in dimensions they did not previously have, even with the physical presence of Christ.

The disciples undoubtedly thought that without Christ they would be reduced to nothing. He was the source of their strength; how could they have power without Him? His promise was meant to ease those fears. If they felt secure in His presence, they would be even more secure, more powerful, able to do more, if He returned to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit. [7] The Upper Room, 93-94.

Christ did not hand-pick His disciples merely to perform signs and wonders in His name. They were chosen to extend the good news of His sacrificial, atoning death beyond the reaches of Israel and Palestine, to the far reaches of the globe. They were preaching the completed work of Christ on behalf of sinners, spawning spiritual revival throughout the known world. In that sense, their work was greater than Christ’s, as they bore witness to the truth of His life and death, and saw firsthand the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.

As John MacArthur explains, the work of the gospel is the greatest ministry work of all.

After all, the greatest miracle God can perform is salvation. Every time we introduce someone to faith in Jesus Christ, we are observers of the new birth; we are supporting the most important spiritual work in the world. How exciting it is to be involved in what God is doing spiritually and to do things greater than even Jesus saw in His day. [8] The Upper Room, 94.




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Hydroxychloroquine hopes dashed as large study finds no great advantage to antimalaria drug in Covid-19 fight

A large-scale study in New York looking at the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine has cast further doubt on its effectiveness in the treatment of Covid-19 patients.Researchers at Columbia University observed nearly 1,400 patients at a large medical centre in New York City in March and April. They found hydroxychloroquine use led to neither a higher nor lower chance of patients ending up with intubation or death.“Our results cannot completely exclude the possibility of either modest benefit or…




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Trump’s bet on jobs unravels on America’s worst slump since the Great Depression, as does his path back to the White House

President Donald Trump says he resuscitated Barack Obama’s gasping economy and proceeded to build it to its strongest in generations. Now as record job losses mount across the country, the decline will bear his name in history as well.And those losses come just six months before the election.Presidents of both parties take credit for the economy when it’s roaring and are usually blamed when it fails, regardless of the circumstances of the downturn. An unemployment rate for April of 14.7 per…




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Jacaranda offers great beauty and good wood carvings

Jacaranda was first introduced in Africa via Cape Town in 1829 before spreading to the rest of the continent.




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Greater economic growth expected in 2015

“Next year, the Cuban economy will continue to progress despite the blockade, external financial restrictions and the international situation,” asserted Minister of the Economy Marino Murillo Jorge, during a November 28 Council of Ministers meeting, presided by President Raúl Castro Ruz. The 2015 Economic Plan, Murillo reported, is fundamentally focused on maximizing efficiency...