Is Anything Unique about Christian Faith?

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 Aren't all religions essentially the same? They teach the golden rule or some form of ethical living and promise a better life after death. Persons who say this show an appalling ignorance of world religions, or they are just trying to please and pacify persons who want to argue religion. 

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 Some persons still bow before homemade idols praying for provision and protection. Ironically, the idols have to be repaired and taken in at night to prevent theft. Others worship nature, magic spirits and honor dead ancestors as Confucians and Shinto’s. Pantheist religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Christian Science, Unity and New Age call the energy of the universe god in its many changing forms. Three religions claim to worship one personal, ethical God: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Christianity claims fulfillment of Judaism and Islam through Muhammad the final prophet of both. Christianity, however, is unique in six crucial ways seen clearly in Jesus Christ.

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Jesus’ Claim to be God is Unique.

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First, only Jesus claimed to be our Creator God come from Heaven into our world in the form of a man, the God-man. What immediately sets Christianity apart from other world religions is that Jesus, unlike other founders, didn’t just give us a philosophy of life, or teaching about God and ethics. Jesus claimed to be God our Creator and gave actual visible proofs before living witnesses.

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Persons in other religions would think that impossible although they knew myths of gods visiting earth. Tyrannical Caesars declared themselves gods, forced their subjects to admit it, but everyone knew it wasn’t true. Of course, madmen sometimes claim to be God but do nothing beyond human power.

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Jesus Fulfilling Ancient Jewish Prophecies Is Unique.

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Second, Christians claim nobody but Jesus could fulfill these ancient predictions of the Jews’ Messiah. The coming Messiah was to be the God-man (Isa. 9:6-7), born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), of a virgin (Isa. 7:14), perform miracles (Isa. 35:5-6), die for the sins of the people (Isa. 53), rise from the dead (Ps. 16:10). Who but Jesus Christ fulfilled these ancient detailed predictions? No such predictions and fulfillments appear in other world religions. It is impossible that anyone but God could reveal such prophecies.

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Jesus Living a Perfect Sinless Life Is Unique.

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Third, only Jesus lived a perfect sinless life. Some persons are claimed to be exceptional persons who made outstanding contributions to the well-being of humanity—Muhammad, Confucius, Buddha. None, however, but Jesus are claimed to be sinless. Jesus spoke of uncleanness as evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, thefts, murders, covetousness, deceit. He dared to challenge His bitter enemies to find fault in Him, when they could not, their only recourse was to plot his death. His twelve disciples with him day and night for more than three years said Jesus knew no sin. Judas, desperate to relieve his guilty conscience, cried he had betrayed innocent blood. Pilate could find no fault in Jesus. The Jews only charge against Jesus was blasphemy because he claimed to be God. He could have denied that and been set free. While we sin many times a day, Jesus never sinned qualifying him to be our Lord and Savior.

Jesus' Objective, Visible Public Eyewitness Miracles Is Unique.

Fourth, Jesus performed miracles before human eyewitnesses. He performed them everywhere he went--at the temple, by the lakeside, in between towns, and at people’s houses. He performed miracles in the open before large crowds by spontaneous request and sometimes at a distance. His miracles were of all types—immediate healings of various diseases, control of nature such as turning water to wine, walking on the sea, casting out demons, and raising the dead. While the Gospels record only 35 miracles, Jesus must have performed hundreds since he performed them everywhere he went for more than three years to individuals and large crowds. Even his sinless life before many witnesses was a moral miracle.

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No religious founder claimed miracles and pantheist religions wouldn’t allow it. Yet documents dated hundreds of years after their death may claim miracles or rather myths. Such miracles were not part of their teaching and often contradicted by their teaching. If God came among us and wanted us to recognize that fact, what better way to get our attention than doing things unknown to nature and impossible for men? 

Jesus Dying in Place of Sinners Is Unique.

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Fifth, only Jesus gave his life to pay for our sin and provide Heaven. Claiming to be God, proving it by fulfilling prophecy, living without sin, performing miracles, Jesus did things no world religion founder did or even cared to do. Jesus out of love took the sinners place upon the cross bearing our sin and shame, taking the punishment we deserve for our transgressions against a moral and perfect God—that’s a love the world could not imagine before Jesus came. Ancient people only feared their gods never supposing a God could love them, even die that they could live eternally.

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Jesus Rising from the Dead Is Unique.

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Sixth, Jesus arose from the dead. This is our ultimate assurance that his teaching and claims to be God are true. He arose while man eyewitnesses still lived, wrote about it, and underwent ridicule, torture and death to verify it. Christianity can’t be myth. And every theory devised to explain it away falls to the ground. Nothing in any world religion has such objective empirical evidences like Christianity. The Christ of the Bible is unique—unlike all other religions, it gives humanity dignity, rights, purpose, truth, ethics, and eternal life. Yes, Jesus alone is the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except trough him (John 14:6).

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Jesus Return to Judge Humanity Is Unique. .



Finally, Jesus will return to judge the good and evil deeds of humanity. He existed with the Father and the Holy Spirit from all eternity, a great mystery in itself. We would never invent a triune God above our limited human understanding and so difficult to believe. It’s revealed truth accepted by faith. God’s Son came from Heaven to become the man Jesus the Christ or Messiah. He lives a perfect life to qualify as Savior of sinners, claimed to be God in human flesh, fulfilled many ancient prophecies and performed many miracles to prove it, died upon the cross to pay for our sins, arose from the dead to assure us His teachings are true and He is our God.

This same Jesus will one day return as our Judge to eternally reward or punish our deeds. All this is clear Bible teaching. He alone is humanities hope and salvation. Is He yours?  Say, Lord Jesus Christ, I trust you now to save me a sinner and be with me and be my Guide throughout life. Thank you, Lord.

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Are You Sure We Can Avoid God?

Are U Sure We Can Avoid God?

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Do we know for sure no personal, ethical, infinite God exists? If there is such a person, that would seem to be the most serious issue of life. I mean, what if he is a wrathful being who could burn us to ashes with a lightning bolt because we’ve displeased him somehow. That’s serious--nobody wants to be zapped. On the other hand, maybe God is all love and if we ever need him, we can just send up a little prayer. And being so grateful we acknowledged his existence, God will gladly and quickly answer our every request. But if he doesn’t, then he’s not worth our time and bother. How can we know for sure he’s either of these ways? What is God like anyway?

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Christians claim God exists and has spoken to us with authority and finality in the Bible. They claim God entered our world in the person of Jesus, the God-man. God has told us who he is, and gave multiple evidences showing us it’s so. They further claim that to ignore or reject Jesus is to seal our doom in outer darkness and torment forever. Well, I don’t believe it! Furthermore, I have a thousand reasons to show it’s just not so. Think with me honestly about just these five reasons to avoid or dismiss this Christian God thing.

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Poke Fun at the Bible

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I’ve heard people make fun of the Bible as though only narrow-minded old persons or children who can’t think critically can believe it. They say it’s full of myths, contradictions, and immoral characters we wouldn’t want to know. They claim you have to leave your brain at the church door to believe it. They affirm science has utterly discredited all its teaching. So it can’t be true and so there’s no Christian God.

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If we assume at the outset no God exists who can act in the real world, then these above things will seem to be just and fair criticisms. If our concern is acceptance with our friends, then fear of their rejection will prevent us from honest research. Frankly, assumption is not proof. What facts show there’s no God? Doesn’t our dogmatism smack of arrogance, disrespect, and unfairness? Would we want others to treat us this way? What happened to the saying: Innocent until proven guilty? The Bible is the world’s bestseller. Do we even know or can intelligently explain the Bible’s central message? Are we being reasonable to deny what Christians believe not even knowing what it is? Many honest seeking skeptics who examined the Bible found such accusations false and became Christians.
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Listen to Skeptical College Professors

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Now everybody knows college professors are smart dudes. I mean they have spent years in school, in reading and research, writing papers and taking tests. They are PhD.s and know of what they speak. They’re brilliant and knowledgeable persons. And when they say Christianity is outmoded, unscientific, unreasonable, and no longer accepted in the modern world, who am I to say otherwise? Besides many college professors are either atheists or pantheists.

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Is there any difference between being knowledgeable and being correct? I’ve heard of professors’ office walls being papered with college degrees and they didn’t have the good sense to come out of the rain. But of course, that’s just hearsay. Don’t persons hold doctors degrees in science, philosophy, the arts and religion that differ radically with each other? Isn’t it true that far more non-Christians than Christians exist in the world? Don’t our varied backgrounds, influences, and preferences enter into our thinking? And yes, it’s more difficult to believe in God than in a pear tree that we can see and eat its fruit? Then doesn’t all this require faith no matter what we believe about God and spiritual matters? The question then seems to call for good evidence to support one’s beliefs. Not just that many college professors are atheists or pantheists.

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What would it take to show evidence of an eternal, ethical Creator God? Christians maintain a mystic’s mere subjective claims—whether Buddha, Muhammad, or whoever--can’t do it. It requires something visible and tangible occurring in our real world. This is exactly and exclusively what we find in the Bible with its multitude of fulfilled prophecies, miracles and the God-man, Jesus Christ. And to claim these ancient people were stupid or ignorant of natures laws simply isn’t true when they were always astounded at miracles themselves.    

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Claim All Religions Are Equally Good

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We don’t want to hurt peoples’ feelings and to avoid this and keep the peace we can claim all religions are equally good. It just seems so narrow-minded, arrogant, and intolerant to claim your own religion is exclusively true and superior to the others. There are good people in all religions that try to be good and hope to go to Heaven or receive reward after death. They just call God by different names. Of course, Christians deny neither that there are moral and kind persons in all religions nor that there is truth in other religions.

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Good intentions are praiseworthy. And all this is true, and seems so reasonable. But the different religions claim no God, one God, two Gods, millions of gods, or the universe is god. And at death, they say people perish as a dead dog, or go to Heaven, or take on another life, or become absorbed into the energy of the universe. So if any one religion is right, all the others would be false.

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All these views about god and about human existence after death are contradictions. There is a universal law of logic called non-contradiction. It states that if one proposition is true, all others that contradict it must be false. And it’s true in India, Africa or wherever. So logic forces us to say only one if any of these religions can be correct. Even the view that all religions are good and correct is exclusive and open to the same objections. Worse still, it ignores, downplays, and denies the very tenants these differing religions hold deer and amounts to a lie.  

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As mentioned above, biblical Christianity is the only religion that can produce objective, visible evidence in hundreds of fulfilled prophecies, miracles, and the God-man Jesus Christ. No other world religion has such evidence—only subjective teachings and speculations. Further, only Christian faith assures us of absolute truth, human dignity, rights, absolute morals, life after death, and opportunity for Heaven.

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Say Physical and Moral Evils Exclude God

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To put it simply, physical evils such as devastating plagues, diseases and accidents ruin lands and kill thousands of people every year. Moral evils meaning human abuses as robbery, rape, beatings, murders, and wars destroy millions of others as well. Such evils show no all-good, powerful and wise God exists, or he would have put a stop to such evils long ago.

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I have space for only some brief responses. Because we don’t see God in the picture may mean we’re shortsighted. Easy 99 % of what happens we may not know about or understand. From our short-range perspective, we may have a distorted picture. Adversities of all kinds can test and prove the genuineness of our faith—perfect knowledge excludes faith. Adversities challenge us to creative and noble actions. Many of our problems we bring on ourselves due to carelessness, thoughtlessness, and stupidity—it’s unfair to blame God for our mess-ups.

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According to the Bible, we brought the curse on ourselves due to our sin and we’re still at it. Because God is all good, all-powerful and all wise we’re assured he will stop it in his time. If God stopped moral evils right now, we sinners would be judged. And if God suspended his natural laws every time an accident would occur, then we would jump out of buildings or stand before trains to have fun, or just to see how God would save us. When we ask, ‘why me Lord,’ do we think we should be humanities exception? If there’s no God, then there’s nobody to complain to and no injustice; it’s all just a given. God could have created other worlds, but this world is the best to preserve our dignity, free will, and opportunity for Heaven, as well as his truth, love, justice and glory. God’s answer to all evils is that the perfect world will be found by trusting in the death of Jesus on the cross for our sins and then holy living. That’s his plan and his infinite wisdom.

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Say Jesus Was Just a Good Man

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Yes, Jesus was a good man. But can any honest person reading the New Testament say that’s all he was? Jesus is said to always do good, never sin, command angels and demons, control the forces of nature, heal diseases instantly and completely, and even raise the dead. Can any of those things be ascribed to a mere man? No, only to God.
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Unless we have all knowledge, we can't say no Creator, and no afterlife exists. Doesn't wisdom dictate we give it honest consideration? If they exist, we may be in real trouble to deny them. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me. (John 14:6).
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You can receive God's unearned gift of eternal life in a love-trust relationship with him today. Just turn form your way to God’s way in Christ trusting him from now own as your guide and Savior. You can do great good as well by becoming a GOOD NEWS MESSENGER.
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 People use the www to tell others how to make bombs to kill people, date rape, pornography. Why not use it to do good in the world?
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An Atheist's Journey to Jesus

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I’m an atheist. I don’t believe any god of any kind exists. Pantheists say universal energy can repeatedly assume many forms, even gods. This energy exists; it’s no illusion. But I’d hardly call it god since it’s not a personal consciousness that can know, think, feel or do anything to help or hurt me. The deist claims a Creator who abandoned us to nature’s laws. That’s no God I could respect or worship--he’s irrelevant. Six centuries after Christ, Muhammad informed us an angel revealed the Quran making him God’s final prophet. Then centuries later Joseph Smith Jr. claimed the same thing for the Book of Mormon and Mormons claime we can become gods and have our own planet. Well, I don’t believe in angels and I don’t see that any of them furnish any proof that provides a foundation for religion. Couldn’t anybody say these same things? 
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Now if a real God exists we would see evidence of him everywhere--but we don’t! The world’s evils and sufferings preclude a God of infinite love and power or he would eliminate them. The Jews believed a Messiah would come to set the world right, but he never showed. And most absurd, Christians claim Jesus is God who fulfilled prophecies, performed miracles, died on a cross to take away our sins and arose from the dead. I’m not deceived or stupid to believe the impossible. And unlike Christians, I’m not prejudiced, exclusivist, arrogant, intolerant and narrow-minded. I try to be honest and reasonable. Yet, I have doubts.
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Of course, I haven’t turned over every rock or checked out everything in earth’s history nor peered behind every star that I can rightfully conclude there’s no God; I just assume it because I don’t see any evidence anywhere. I’ll admit that if God’s not like a big man somewhere in space but is Spirit, then he could surround me and I not know it. I’m just trying to be honest.
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The amount of suffering and injustice in the world is enormous—rapes, robberies, murders, wars everywhere. A truly good and powerful God would eliminate them or at least restrict the amount. But restrict who and to what extent? We’d never agree to that. If a good God prevented our evils it would destroy our freedom, dehumanize us. I sometimes lie, cheat and steal a little, incriminate others, not keep my promises. Frankly, I throw trash on the streets, trash peoples’ lives and I don’t care! It’s just so natural--it seems to be inborn. I can’t help it!
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We’re all to varying degrees evil, so a truly good or perfect God would have to punish or remove us all. That must be what Christians mean by sin and judgment. Then grace would be God delaying justice and punishment to let us see our bad ways and make constructive changes? If there’s a perfect place called Heaven, then it must take something more than just natural living to get there--something supernatural must take place to get us there.
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Now here’s what really bothers me: If there’s no God, how can I even complain about evils, sufferings, and injustices? If there’s no God, there’s no Authority to complain to, no Judge to hold us accountable, no Lawgiver to set standards or say what’s evil. But, if a perfect and powerful God does exist, then one day our grace period will end. 
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But where is there any evidence of God? Astronomer Hugh Ross says there’s 122 constant factors designed to enable human life to exist on planet earth—earth’s size, thickness of crust, distance from and size of our sun, one moon and its distance, right atmosphere, water, gravity. Physicists say the universe is running down—heat disperses, metals rust, wood rots, motion will cease—which means it had a beginning or uncaused cause. Biologist Louis Pasteur’s experiments showed life comes only from life. Microbiologists say the DNA cell in every life form is a library and blueprint of how things must develop. All organs and systems must be complete and functional from the start; slow development of useless appendages and injurious mutations arenn’t transmittable. Mindless molecules can’t magically arrange themselves into men no matter if eternity. Then this uncaused cause of our dependent universe must be a living, powerful, eternal, intelligent cause. Oh no! It looks like what Christians call God. 
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This greatly upsets me. So what if my atheism is a biased exclusivist position! I staunchly believe in evolutionary chance origins. But whether things pop into existence by chance, or by the gods, or by fate, I can never be certain my mind is not deceiving me. It all means no rational source of things, no firm basis for truth, logic, justice, science, ultimate purpose, human dignity, life, hope, or ethics good or evil. People are on their own to decide what’s best for them. And whoever gets control forces their agenda on us. Anarchy leads to kingly tyranny as evidenced throughout history. It honestly seems atheism in practice is our ruin—it’s bankrupt slavery and poverty.

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Could it be possible that the Christians are right? Could there be a higher power to set standards, guide our lives, and hold us accountable? It would give life meaning and make sense of everything. I’ve always read books, which supported my atheism like Bertrand Russell’s Why I’m Not A Christian and Julian Huxley’s Evolution in Action. I’ve made fun of the Bible and Christians. But what I know of the Bible is hearsay and I really don’t understand the Christian faith.

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To be intellectually honest and understand what I’m objecting too, I purchased a Bible to read and the Christian books, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist by Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek, Without a Doubt by Kenneth Richard Samples, and The New Atheism and the Erosion of Freedom by Robert A. Morey.

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In reading these books, I discovered that Jews and Christians have sharp minds, are anything but stupid, and that I’ve been entertaining false stereotypes. I’m ashamed to say I’ve been belittling and ridiculing people and their beliefs of whom I knew little about and who had shown me respect and deep concern. I would vehemently protest such unfairness, arrogance and intolerance if they did this to me.

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 I discovered there were some three hundred detailed predictions about the coming Jewish Messiah. The Rabbis knew about them centuries before as shown in Alfred Edersheim’s book The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. Some Jewish scholars said Scripture taught Messiah was both a suffering servant and a reigning king, which seemed contradictory. But what’s incredible is the ancient prophecies said Messiah would be Bethlehem’s virgin-born God-man who would fulfill prophecies, perform miracles, die for our sins and rise from the dead. Now there's no way we human being could simply guess about such paticular things centuries before they occurred.

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Now opposed to critic’s claims, the Jews had no prophets for four hundred years until John the Baptizer appeared. So they were astonished at Jesus’ miracles, his fulfilling ancient prophecies, his blasphemous claims to be God--they knew nature’s laws as we do today.

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The Jews ridiculed Jesus’ disciples and expelled them from synagogue that condemned them to Hell. Then both Jews and Romans hunted them like animals and tortured them to death. It is incredible nonsense to think Jesus’ disciples would endure this all the while knowing it a lie.

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A life and death decision is required here. I don’t see Jesus on earth today, but that doesn’t disprove his past presence. Unless I unwarrantedly assume there’s no Creator God who can act in our world, I must choose-- delay too is a choice. The evidence shows our sin and willful rejection of Jesus will lead to eternal darkness, torment and fiery wrath. But to trust in the loving Lord who paid for our sins on the cross brings eternal life with Him and our believing friends in Heaven. It's true! It's all true. Jesus is the Messiah and God. Lord, forgive me a sinner. I trust You now and forever and look forward to one day walking down those golden streets. Praise God! I'm saved.