#i bought kingdom come deliverance 2 right and i was so looking forward to it after enjoying the first game

[aventvrines]

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[frederickwiddowson]

The writings of Luke the physician starting with his version of the gospel - Luke 23:26-31 comments: Christ led away to execution

Luke 23:26 ¶  And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus. 27  And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. 28  But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. 29  For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. 30  Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. 31  For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

 Simon, who is forced to carry at least part of the cross that Jesus was to be crucified on as writers often talk about the execution victim having to carry the crossbar to the place where it would be nailed to the stake that went into the ground, is a Cyrenian. Cyrene’ was an ancient Greek then Roman city in modern day Libya on North Africa’s Mediterranean coast. Likely a Jew and not a Roman citizen and there at Jerusalem for the feast he is noted as being the father of Alexander and Rufus in Mark 15:21. This suggests that the two youngsters may have become notable Christians as did, perhaps, their father after this experience.

 The name Alexander is mentioned later but there is no indication that it ever refers to this Alexander. However, Paul salutes a Rufus who may or may not be this one. It is important not to do too much arguing when the Bible is silent on something in spite of traditions and extrabiblical references in writings of questionable authenticity.

 Romans 16:13  Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.

 From verse 28 it seems clear that Jesus is talking about the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple that has figured so prominently in His prophecies previous to this. Read my comments on 19:41-48 & 21:5-19 where I repeat them in part.

 Luke 19:41 ¶ And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, 42  Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. 43  For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, 44  And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. 45  And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; 46  Saying untothem, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. 47  And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, 48  And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.

 Here is a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD70. Josephus, a Jewish general who went over to the Romans, gave us the history of that event if we can believe what he wrote. The siege and destruction of Jerusalem was the main event of the First Jewish-Roman War that ended not only in the disaster to the city but the destruction of the Temple, as well.

 What was called Herod’s Temple, the Second Temple with the first destroyed by the Babylonians hundreds of years previously, will be destroyed. The Jews will suffer for rejecting their Messiah and for fabricating a false religion, a house of cards built on the Mosaic Law, not too different from what many Christians have done.  It seems to be a character trait of mankind, making it up as they go along. But, some historical writers say that the destruction of Jerusalem marked the great shift away of Christianity from its Jewish roots.”

 It is certainly understandable to play this forward to the events of the end of human history in Revelation but it is also important to keep in mind the immediate context of prophecy. There is a context the first readers would have understood and then there is a future context which we are constantly debating about. One of the problems with the Preterist philosophy, those who believe that this defines even all of the events of Revelation, is that Christ did not return to assume control of all of the kingdoms of the earth as Revelation 11:15 declares.

 Again, let’s review my comments previously about this singularly great disaster in Jewish history.

 Luke 21:20 ¶  And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. 21  Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. 22  For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23 But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. 24  And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. 25  And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; 26  Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. 27  And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28  And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

 Here is a clear distinction between the Fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple versus the end of history. Read 20-24 to the comma before until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. There is a couple thousand-year gap in that comma.

 Paul wrote about the period of Israel’s blindness over the last two thousand years;

 Romans 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 26  And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: 27  For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. 28  As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. 29  For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. 30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: 31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. 32  For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

 Notice Paul’s until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. Notice also that God is not done with the Jews but their apostasy turned to our salvation and we are to be witnesses for them, not their persecutors.

 Now, back to the comma and the two thousand plus year gap. Here is another example of that type of handling of time in the Bible. Read this prophecy in Isaiah.

 Isaiah 61:1 ¶  The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; 2  To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

 Now, read up to the comma after to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD. Jesus refers to this passage in His early ministry.

 Luke 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20  And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21  And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

 He stopped where that comma is for us. Before that comma is His first advent and after that comma the day of vengeance of our God holds the second advent as related in the Book of the Revelation. There is a long time in between, two thousand years so far.

 From the point at the end of Luke 21:24 and onward we have the events of the end foretold. There was some question about how long that gap might be. If the council had, as related in Acts 7, when they were addressed by Stephen, acknowledged, as he said in verse 52, that they had had the Messiah killed by the Romans, like David killed Uriah by the Ammonites (2Samuel 12:9), that gap may have been much smaller than two thousand years.

 Acts 7:52  Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:

 Christ was ready, perhaps, to receive the repentant Jews. In Mark 16:19; Colossians 3:1; and Hebrews 10:12 He is said to be seated on the right hand of God but in the following He might have been prepared, as an example to us, to receive the Jews if they had been repentant and acknowledged who He is and what they did.

 Acts 7:55  But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 56  And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

 They had used the sword of Roman justice to murder the Innocent One (Psalm 94:21; Matthew 27:4) but Peter said they did it out of ignorance.

 Acts 3:17  And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.

 Confirming what Jesus said from the Cross.

 Luke 23:34  Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

 And the Law provided a way to deal with the rulers’ sin from ignorance as per Leviticus, chapter 4. But, it was not to be. The Jews had rebellion against God on their spiritual hearts.

 Matthew 27:25  Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.

 John 19:15  But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.

 And so, we have the age of the Church until the times of the Gentile domination are over. Israel still has to deal with the Gentiles and their very existence, from a temporal and strictly earthly point of view, depends on the support of powerful nations, the holding back of their enemies, and a very, very shaky geopolitical situation with another holocaust from the Beast and Satan’s fury coming. But, when Christ returns to rule Gentile domination is over.

 Revelation 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

 Verses 25-27 of the verses I just read from chapter 21 summarize the events of the Book of Revelation. For 27 see;

 Revelation 1:7  Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

 Finally, as in verse 28 of the passage in chapter 21, we are told to be expectant of Christ’s return, of His calling us out as the church, His body on earth being removed or translated from here to Heaven.

 1Corinthians 15:51 ¶ Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

  1Thessalonians 4:13 ¶  But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

 Titus 2:13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

 Luke 21:29 ¶  And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; 30  When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. 31  So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. 32  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. 33  Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. 34  And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. 35  For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36  Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. 37  And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives. 38  And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him.

 See here in Jesus’ closing statements how with the age of the Christian church not revealed that the two prophecies of events at least two thousand years apart appear to be conflated. This confuses the Preterist who say the events of Revelation were fulfilled in 70AD, which is nonsense.

 First, it must be understood that the events of the Fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple will happen so close in time that the generation hearing Christ will have many who will witness them. With the First Jewish-Roman War less than four decades away this generation will experience it.

 But, He includes in His closing remarks in chapter 21 something more, that the whole earth will experience, the coming of the kingdom of God physically on earth at Christ’s return. Without the two thousand years of the Church Age in between it appears confusing to some. But, look at the disaster the Jews faced in 70AD as a type and a portent of what the end of human history will look like. The signs of Jerusalem’s fall and the signs of the time before Christ’s return will be similar and Christians will be delivered from both sets of horrors involved in those signs.”

 Think of it, if the Jews do these things when Christ is present with them what shall be done when He is not. From another perspective Josephus would write about how even the old and feeble were slaughtered by the Romans in the siege of Jerusalem. So, there are probably several ways to compare a green tree with a dry.

 It is tempting to think of all of the sermons that could come from this passage. As an example, if American Christianity is so weak as a moral force when there is very little oppression of faith in the country what shall become of it when in a future time our faith is outlawed? I am sure you can think of many ways of looking at this prophecy and relating it to us today.

[vsplusonline]

How COVID-19 can change the economics of professional leagues - Times of India

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/how-covid-19-can-change-the-economics-of-professional-leagues-times-of-india/

How COVID-19 can change the economics of professional leagues - Times of India

The ecosystem of sports has met a harsh reality. Plans A, B and C have been laid threadbare, not because of overuse but due to an impact for which provisions were never outlined in production models. A pandemic has attacked the anatomy of every sector, including sports, which is now trying to wriggle itself out by learning to live with the coronavirus — for this year at least.

While the players have started coming out under strict COVID-19 protocols, heads are getting together to analyse the impact, evaluate the losses and find ways to work around the traditional supply chain of product originator, production, distributor and the consumer to tide over this crisis.

The consensus until now is that the costs will have to come down, which will require looking at every bill generated in the past seasons, especially true for professional sports. Leagues that depend on season-by-season evaluation to decide how much they can expand, or not, in the coming year. America’s National Football League (NFL), for example, generates the most revenue among professional leagues — to the tune of over $12,000 million.

In the Indian context, barring cricket’s Indian Premier League (IPL), most other leagues are a work in progress — be it football, kabaddi, badminton, table tennis, etc. But like any league in the world, these too are dependent mostly on broadcast deals or revenue from media rights. The NBA’s existing TV rights stand at $24 billion for a nine-year contract. The Premier League’s three-year broadcast deal, signed last year, is for $12 billion.

For media rights of the IPL, Star Sports shelled out $2.55 billion (Rs 16,347.5 crore) for the ongoing five-year deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

CUTTING CORNERS

All that is possibly in for a change. The leagues, though, are first looking at cutting their in-house costs before reaching out to other stakeholders with maybe ‘force majeure’ clauses in a modified contract.

“If my revenues are going down by a certain percentage points, then my costs should go down higher, so that my losses could either be the same as the previous levels or they could even reduce,” Hiren Mody, the Group Vice President of Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) and the Indian Super League club Chennaiyin FC told TimesofIndia.com.

“We (UTT) used to go to three venues in season one, then we went to two venues, last year we were at a single venue and this year also we had planned for a single venue. How that helps us in terms of reduction of cost is that the production cost goes down. If I do three cities, I need two kits, two sets of tools. Now that comes down to one setup and one set of kit. It’s a significant cost reduction,” Mody added.

The Premier Badminton League (PBL) is similarly auditing every line of its expense. Going a step ahead in order to preempt, it is even thinking of offering a lower-end sponsorship model to sustain and ensure they can pull off the coming season, which only begins in January next year.

“For the last one month, what we’re doing is that we are going through every expense,” said Prasad Mangipudi, Executive Director of the PBL told TimesofIndia.com. “Last year, we bought 14,000 square feet of carpet. So do we need 14,000 square feet of carpet?

“That is the starting step, the lowest cost possible,” Mangipudi adds. “Then we have to see whether we can actually still go ahead with the gap (in cost and revenue), how do we plug it, maybe create a more lower-end category of sponsorship. In the past, the lowest value of the sponsorship at the league level was, I think, Rs 1.75 crore. So maybe create a new package of Rs 45 lakh with less access on offer,” said the PBL boss.

Besides this, if required, PBL also plans to reach out to its contracted players and see if they are ready to accept a low-cost contract for the coming season as an exception.

“Go to the players, go to BAI (Badminton Association of India) and see what all we can save. For example, in the past we were giving an X amount as the highest amount for each player. So this year, I think, we will go and talk to them and say ‘everybody knows the situation right now, so we are proposing a lower amount for this year alone’,” Prasad said.

IS LIVE SPORTS VIEWING IN FOR A CHANGE? As the figures in NBA, Premier League and IPL suggest, broadcast deals have always been the major chunk among the three sources of income for professional leagues, with sponsorship/advertising and match-day sales being the other two.

CEO of JSW Sports, Mustafa Ghouse, however, said that the cricket landscape and reach in India makes it a bit of an exception in the revenue estimates.

“Ticket sales, etc, is a bigger portion of your revenue stream in cricket. In a sport like kabaddi, it is not that big an impact because stadiums are small, your pricing is not that expensive because you are catering to a different audience,” Ghouse said. “So it really varies from sport to sport. But I think television revenue continues to remain the largest percentage of income for all teams across all leagues.”

JSW Sports has a presence in the top three sports leagues in India through its teams Bengaluru FC (ISL), Delhi Capitals (IPL) and Haryana Steelers (PKL).

But looking at the COVID-19 situation, the question to ask is – whether there’s going to be a shift in thought among both league owners and the consumers about how live sports is watched in the future?

La Liga, for example, has been broadcasting games live on Facebook, which depends a lot on Internet penetration that undoubtedly become better in India, but with many still consuming daily Internet packages, it’s bound to exhaust sometime while watching a full 90-minute game.

However, there have been examples like that of Amazon Prime Video in the United Kingdom. The Premier League entered into a maiden live-streaming deal with Amazon, which led to an increase in the number of subscribers by 35% in the fourth quarter of last year. But in India, it can only possibly happen for a popular sport like cricket (IPL). Having said that, it won’t stop leagues from looking at such models.

“We can never guarantee immunity from all disasters; however, we can invest heavily to prepare for anything that arises in the future, while continuing to innovate to take the sport and the league to the next level in terms of quality of product and fan engagement,” Jake Lush McCrum, COO of the IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals told TimesofIndia.com.

But he also suggested that spectators will continue to be part of the occasion at the stadium, with slight modifications.

“There will be a time when the stadiums will be reinvented innovatively, so the viewing of a game will change in the stadium, more powered by technology. A number of measures are being spoken of, like distanced seating, reducing capacity, bringing in more technology to provide enhanced fan engagement features (for those there and at home) and much more,” McCrum added.

Fan engagement could undoubtedly drive how the change in viewership is targeted, which could mean more thrust on digital avenues.

“We will now move our entire focus to engaging on digital, which is not going to be very costly, but it’s going to be very effective,” said UTT’s Mody.

“In India, UTT has been on Star Sports and also live on OTT platforms like Hotstar and Jio TV. But the global broadcast happens on two platforms, one is Facebook, where we have had 1 to 2 million people watching it, and the ITTF TV, which is the international federation’s (ITTF) live-streaming platform. So the engagement does increase.”

“Now, in the post-COVID scenario, what leagues have to ask is – how are we going to reach out to those millions who have suddenly changed the way they are watching? That real estate on your phone is now even more critical in terms of costs.”

Prasad concurs, though he believes broadcasters are as much in need of live action as the starved viewers.

“Any sports channel requires live action. While they may negotiate hard with us on the broadcast rates, they require live action to keep the audience sticky. Yes, I think there could be a drop in revenue from the broadcast, but we may make up (for it) on the digital front,” the PBL chief said.

ENGAGEMENT VS REACH Though the consumption of sports is making a big move towards digital, the size and numbers involved in TV broadcast can’t be ignored, a complete absence of which may cause major cracks in the whole structure. That could mean ‘force majeure’ clauses being agreed upon to take care of league owners and broadcasters in a situation like a pandemic.

As Mody suggested, playing at a single venue can save you a lot of logistical costs of moving the paraphernalia from one city to another.

Having said that, sponsors won’t be willing to compromise on their presence, whatever the platform. So how to accommodate that if the leagues decide to move a percentage of their broadcast investment to digital?

“We’ll have to find out ways in which we can constantly engage with fans so that going forward we can offer good content as an additional deliverable to sponsors,” says the UTT and Chennaiyin FC vice president. “Either I give sponsors the reach, which is a million people, or I give them engagement. So if I’m going to engage a good amount of digital audience, then I think brands will see value in it. I can put that as a sweetener. Leagues will move in that direction.”

Prasad brings in an important inference here: the popularity of the sport and its players. Keeping cricket as an exception, the popularity of a sport may also decide how much a sponsor’s interest will remain in a particular league, at least for the next season when all stakeholders will be looking to keep their costs at the bare minimum.

“Badminton is still reasonably popular. We (PBL) still have the big names in the industry; and because the Olympics got postponed, (PV) Sindhu remains the reigning women’s singles Olympic runner-up for another year. Similarly, because the Badminton World Championships got postponed, she will remain the world champion for another year. Plus, we have a decent number of players who are popular in the game,” said Prasad.

The star value in kabaddi and table tennis, for that instance, isn’t the same, which could prove to be a factor.

Plus, the PBL executive director had already mentioned creating “lower-end sponsorship model” to sustain things.

WILL THE GOVERNMENT PITCH IN?

The leadership at JSW Sports, which has the likes of Mahesh Bhupathi and Sourav Ganguly in its advisory boards, has experienced heads at its disposal to suggest means to get through this tough period. Former professional tennis player Bhupathi had also founded the erstwhile International Tennis Premier League and former India captain Ganguly is currently the president of the BCCI. That’s three levels of experience — as a player, a league owner and as an administrator.

“It always helps to have such experienced individuals on your advisory panel,” said CEO Ghouse. “But at the same time, this is an alien situation for each one of us, where for two months we’ve all been in a lockdown. So we’re all leaning in on each other to find what the best plans are for athletes and for our teams.”

But what all these leagues will need is support from the Government of India.

The Sport Ministry has already stepped up to waive off rentals and make all services, excluding food, inside its stadiums free for the National Sports Federations and International Olympic Committee. But will the same be done for privately-owned leagues?

“If they waive off Rs 60-75 lakh to Rs 1 crore, that’s a reasonable sum, which we can pass on to the teams,” said Prasad.

“Beyond this, for example, I can go to Khelo India and see if they can give me a budget and can become a PBL sponsor. It’s a sports product. Can the government’s CSR money come into Olympic sports leagues, at least for a couple of years’ time? Or may be a GST waiver. When all the franchises pay license fee, there is a huge GST of 28%,” he added.

THE PLAYER MANAGEMENT BUSINESS At a debate hosted by a FIFA-backed research center on May 13, possible defaults on payments from player deals made before the lockdown were cited as concerns. That also brings into focus the rich market of transfers, endorsements and player management.

One such company in India, IOS Sports & Entertainment, is involved in the business of player management, with names like boxing legends MC Mary Kom and Vijender Singh, sprinter Hima Das and TT star Manika Batra among others under its umbrella.

With revenues generated from the physical appearance of players non-existent during lockdown, the company has shifted to increasing online engagement.

“We’re lucky to have some big sports stars who have a large following on their social-digital profiles, where we are doing these influencer-based activities for different brands. So still some kind of revenue is coming in,” said the company’s CEO and Managing Director, Neerav Tomar.

“Even before the pandemic, the digital space was increasing a lot in terms of advertisers wanting to move to the customers directly through social influencers, which has been happening like per tweet or per Instagram post. There is a fee which is already fixed. That has not gone down, rather it has gone up with people sitting in their houses.”

“Coming to the physical appearances, it has naturally significantly decreased. So what we’re trying to push is to have our sports stars go live online to brands for their employees or to do some kind of webinars, motivational talks.”

Still, the revenues have taken a big hit, as the endorsement deals with advertisers have come to a naught.

“I would say there’s between 15% to 20% increment in influencer-based activities on social media. In terms of appearance fee, earlier you were asking for a live appearance and now you are asking for a virtual appearance, so there is a 50% downfall in that. And because of loss of advertising space, there is no endorsement money,” he explained.

JSW Sport is also involved in the business of athlete support and management. In addition, they have a wing that scouts young talent which can be harnessed and those players turned into international-level players. They have stopped that activity completely at the moment.

“From a scouting perspective, yes, we are not really looking at adding on more athletes,” said CEO Ghouse.

Tomar stresses on the importance of innovation at the level of athlete management.

“The new model is you have to re-invent, innovate to survive, like how we have launched our digital influencer wing called ‘Influrate’, that is something we look at for ‘survival revenue’ and money. We are also looking at licensing opportunities for e-gaming, maybe a Vijender Singh boxing game or a Mary Kom boxing game,” the IOS chief added.

To sum up the exhaustive details from above, there seems to be a four-way formula that the leagues may look at to stay afloat this season:

1. Cut costs to lowest possible levels without compromising on quality 2. See how much revenue can be protected 3. Strike a balance between fan engagement and reach 4. Approach the government and see what concessions can be sought

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[frederickwiddowson]

Luke 23:26 ¶  And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus. 27  And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. 28  But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. 29  For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. 30  Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. 31  For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

 Simon, who is forced to carry at least part of the cross that Jesus was to be crucified on as writers often talk about the execution victim having to carry the crossbar to the place where it would be nailed to the stake that went into the ground, is a Cyrenian. Cyrene was an ancient Greek then Roman city in modern day Libya on North Africa’s Mediterranean coast. Likely a Jew and not a Roman citizen and there at Jerusalem for the feast he is noted as being the father of Alexander and Rufus in Mark 15:21. This suggests that the two youngsters may have become notable Christians as did, perhaps, their father after this experience.

 The name Alexander is mentioned later but there is no indication that it ever refers to this Alexander. However, Paul salutes a Rufus who may or may not be this one. It is important not to do too much arguing when the Bible is silent on something in spite of traditions and extrabiblical references in writings of questionable authenticity.

 Romans 16:13  Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.

 From verse 28 it seems clear that Jesus is talking about the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple that has figured so prominently in His prophecies previous to this. Read my comments on 19:41-48 & 21:5-19 where I repeat them in part.

 Quote “19:41 ¶ And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, 42  Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. 43  For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, 44  And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. 45  And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; 46  Saying untothem, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. 47  And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, 48  And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.

 Here is a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD70. Josephus, a Jewish general who went over to the Romans, gave us the history of that event if we can believe what he wrote. The siege and destruction of Jerusalem was the main event of the First Jewish-Roman War that ended not only in the disaster to the city but the destruction of the Temple, as well.

 What was called Herod’s Temple, the Second Temple with the first destroyed by the Babylonians hundreds of years previously, will be destroyed. The Jews will suffer for rejecting their Messiah and for fabricating a false religion, a house of cards built on the Mosaic Law, not too different from what many Christians have done.  It seems to be a character trait of mankind, making it up as they go along. But, some historical writers say that the destruction of Jerusalem marked the great shift away of Christianity from its Jewish roots.” unquote

 It is certainly understandable to play this forward to the events of the end of human history in Revelation but it is also important to keep in mind the immediate context of prophecy. There is a context the first readers would have understood and then there is a future context which we are constantly debating about. One of the problems with the Preterist philosophy, those who believe that this defines even all of the events of Revelation, is that Christ did not return to assume control of all of the kingdoms of the earth as Revelation 11:15 declares.

 Again, let’s review my comments previously about this singularly great disaster in Jewish history.

 Quote “21:20 ¶ And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. 21  Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. 22  For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23  But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. 24  And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. 25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; 26  Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. 27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28  And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

 Here is a clear distinction between the Fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple versus the end of history. Read 20-24 to the comma before until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. There is a couple thousand-year gap in that comma.

 Paul wrote about the period of Israel’s blindness over the last two thousand years;

 Romans 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 26  And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: 27  For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. 28  As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. 29  For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. 30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: 31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. 32  For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

 Notice Paul’s until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. Notice also that God is not done with the Jews but their apostasy turned to our salvation and we are to be witnesses for them, not their persecutors.

 Now, back to the comma and the two thousand plus year gap. Here is another example of that type of handling of time in the Bible. Read this prophecy in Isaiah.

 Isaiah 61:1 ¶  The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; 2  To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

 Now, read up to the comma after to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD. Jesus refers to this passage in His early ministry.

 Luke 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20  And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21  And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

 He stopped where that comma is for us. Before that comma is His first advent and after that comma the day of vengeance of our God holds the second advent as related in the Book of the Revelation. There is a long time in between, two thousand years so far.

 From the point at the end of Luke 21:24 and onward we have the events of the end foretold. There was some question about how long that gap might be. If the council had, as related in Acts 7, when they were addressed by Stephen, acknowledged, as he said in verse 52, that they had had the Messiah killed by the Romans, like David killed Uriah by the Ammonites (2Samuel 12:9), that gap may have been much smaller than two thousand years.

 Acts 7:52  Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:

 Christ was ready, perhaps, to receive the repentant Jews. In Mark 16:19; Colossians 3:1; and Hebrews 10:12 He is said to be seated on the right hand of God but in the following He might have been prepared, as an example to us, to receive the Jews if they had been repentant and acknowledged who He is and what they did.

 Acts 7:55  But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 56  And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

 They had used the sword of Roman justice to murder the Innocent One (Psalm 94:21; Matthew 27:4) but Peter said they did it out of ignorance.

 Acts 3:17  And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.

 Confirming what Jesus said from the Cross.

 Luke 23:34  Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

 And the Law provided a way to deal with the rulers’ sin from ignorance as per Leviticus, chapter 4. But, it was not to be. The Jews had rebellion against God on their spiritual hearts.

 Matthew 27:25  Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.

 John 19:15  But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.

 And so, we have the age of the Church until the times of the Gentile domination are over. Israel still has to deal with the Gentiles and their very existence, from a temporal and strictly earthly point of view, depends on the support of powerful nations, the holding back of their enemies, and a very, very shaky geopolitical situation with another holocaust from the Beast and Satan’s fury coming. But, when Christ returns to rule Gentile domination is over.

 Revelation 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

 Verses 25-27 summarize the events of the Book of Revelation. For 27 see;

 Revelation 1:7  Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

 Finally, as in verse 28, we are told to be expectant of Christ’s return, of His calling us out as the church, His body on earth being removed or translated from here to Heaven.

 1Corinthians 15:51 ¶ Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

  1Thessalonians 4:13 ¶  But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

 Titus 2:13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

     21:29 ¶ And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; 30  When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. 31  So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. 32  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. 33 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. 34  And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. 35  For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36  Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. 37 And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives. 38 And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him.

 See here in Jesus’ closing statements how with the age of the Christian church not revealed that the two prophecies of events at least two thousand years apart appear to be conflated. This confuses the Preterist who say the events of Revelation were fulfilled in 70AD, which is nonsense.

 First, it must be understood that the events of the Fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple will happen so close in time that the generation hearing Christ will have many who will witness them. With the First Jewish-Roman War less than four decades away this generation will experience it.

 But, He includes in His closing remarks something more, that the whole earth will experience, the coming of the kingdom of God physically on earth at Christ’s return. Without the two thousand years of the Church Age in between it appears confusing to some. But, look at the disaster the Jews faced in 70AD as a type and a portent of what the end of human history will look like. The signs of Jerusalem’s fall and the signs of the time before Christ’s return will be similar and Christians will be delivered from both sets of horrors involved in those signs.”unquote

 Think of it, if the Jews do these things when Christ is present with them what shall be done when He is not. From another perspective Josephus would write about how even the old and feeble were slaughtered by the Romans in the siege of Jerusalem. So, there are probably several ways to compare a green tree with a dry.

 It is tempting to think of all of the sermons that could come from this passage. As an example, if American Christianity is so weak as a moral force when there is very little oppression of faith in the country what shall become of it when in a future time our faith is outlawed? I am sure you can think of many ways of looking at this prophecy and relating it to us today.