Hebrews 8

Posted on October 31, 2026 by ehurst

Re: Naked Bible 193: Hebrews 8

In order to do this justice, I need to establish something fundamental to the thinking used by the author of Hebrews. Westerners who are pickled in Hellenism are going to see some parallels in this chapter to Plato. But there are very substantial differences between Hellenism and Hebrew.

For Plato, mankind is the measure of all things. While most people can’t be bothered to rise above their mundane daily existence, there exists a realm of idealism to which mankind can aspire. The difference between ideal versus real is a matter of potential. The whole thing pushes mankind to do better, to strive for perfection. Mankind is perfectible.

In the Hebrew world, this would be impossible. It’s not merely a difference in words, but for the Hebrew mind the real is eternal, while this world is a shadow, an unperfectible corruption of the real. Ultimate reality is entirely unknowable without divine revelation. Mankind cannot on its own even be aware of the real without divine intervention.

Thus, the writer of Hebrews starts off this chapter with a Christ as the real High Priest. Moreover, He is sitting on His throne, unlike the Mosaic priests who must frequently offer sacrifices for themselves and the people. Jesus was the real offering, who now serves in the real Tabernacle, not the one Moses had assembled. The Tabernacle in the Wilderness was based on the real thing, but it could never displace it. Rather, the real thing displaces the earthly model. Thus, Christ’s service as High Priest is the real thing, not the simulation organized under Moses.

The New Covenant is the real thing, and the promises are eternal. The Old Covenant was handed down from God as a placeholder for the one that was coming. We note that the writer prefers the image of the Tabernacle instead of the Temple still standing in Jerusalem for this reason. He’s pointing out that at no time was the Tabernacle and its rituals, from the very beginning, the real deal.

Also, the writer chose the Greek word leitourgein in verse 2 specifically to denote a public ritual service someone performs at their own expense. Christ provides the means for the worship the whole world owes to God.

Heiser notes that this chapter has a dualism that is more than simply a contrast between above versus below (metaphysical), but also first versus final (temporal). This would be critical in Hebrew thinking, particularly when the author was steeped in Alexandrian education. It’s more than the typical Hellenized dualism, but the Hebrew outlook, as well. It echoes Paul in Colossians 2:17.

Thus, the strict Sabbath observance and dietary laws are part of that shadowy symbolism of the real thing that has finally come. How could anyone go back? There’s nothing wrong with most Jewish habits, but they are not a supplement that the New Covenant needs. God completed all things in His Son.

The writer quotes from Jeremiah 31, where the prophet declares the New Covenant was coming, back during the time Babylon came and took Israel into Exile. It is the longest OT quote in the NT. The ideas link to the Servant passages in Isaiah and “covenant of peace” mentioned in 54:10. Ezekiel mentioned it, as well, in 11:19; 36:26-27. The Old Covenant never had the power to change hearts. The Torah is passing away; it’s atrophied already.

The Old Covenant was weak; it’s only purpose was to show Israel that she needed a Savior. Then, Israel was supposed to tell the whole world. Think about all that Israel could have had if she had only stayed on track. So, when Paul says in Galatians 3:23-29 that the old was a form of captivity, who would want to go back to that? Are you going to surrender the Presence of His Holy Spirit?

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A Shepherd’s Concerns

Posted on October 30, 2026 by ehurst

The elder/shepherd lives for the flock. It’s how he fulfills the Law of Christ announced at the Last Supper. This is the core of how we glorify Him. The care of the flock motivates everything we do.

If the shepherd gets trapped in his own sense of what is just, he’ll end up harming the sheep. That sort of thing comes from the flesh. That sense of grief and desire for vengeance will destroy the flock and shepherd. Every time he reaches for justice, it must be for the sake of the flock. It is spiritual warfare to turn away from your own sense of offense and grief over loss.

We do not arrogate for ourselves vengeance for what we imagine may be an insult to God. Rather, we always keep before us the care of the sheep. Any action we take is for them. In the near future, I see threats to the flock.

First, a little shop talk. Proton mail’s management has betrayed us. This morning several outlets have noted that the CEO Yen is pushing hard on shifting over to development via AI and is going to fire a bunch of software engineers. The backstory is that Yen says user security and trust is simply not an issue anymore; only the speed of product development matters. You can read about it on 404 Media, but unless you have a subscription there, you won’t get to see the whole article. Also, beware of pop-ups on that page.

I won’t be renewing my Proton account when it comes up in a few months. Instead, I’ll migrate to another service. I’m already using in-house encryption on the account attached to this blog via GPG (ehurst@radixfidem.blog). Yes, you can get GPG for Windows and it’s free. It plugs into Outlook and Thunderbird.

Second is more than just censorship. Tucker compares the Holodomor (Soviet starvation of Ukraine in the 1930s) with the attempts to force the COVID vax on Americans. The reason he reaches for that comparison is because of how censorship covered up the bad outcomes on both.

Don’t blame the doctors and nurses. Their training is completely hijacked by the medical industry (Big Pharma plus related businesses). Medical people are required to memorize a ton of crap that is largely accurate, but biased in favor of what the industry prefers. When Big Pharma came out with the COVID vax, most of the medical professionals were already compromised. Far too many of them have no time or means to do their own research on such things. Their entire profession will attack them for daring to verify patient complaints about side effects.

Yes, folks at the level of Fauci do know. They are wicked monsters who deserve to die. But the vast majority of people working in medicine are dupes. They are owned by the industrial giants.

Thus, the folks who work at clinics and hospitals will never understand our resistance. They will imagine that we are crazy or evil. But the censored results of the mRNA vaccine are leaking out to those willing to listen. We dare not trust the US government again on this issue. No more mandated vax. If they try that trick again, we may need to organize our resistance with others. Protect the flock any way you can. At the least, share the truth about how dangerous it is.

Third is socialism/communism. I’ve already traced where it comes from; it’s native to the West because of the Germanic mythology. Communism is the natural result of feminism, which in turn is a native element of Western Civilization. If anyone in America had any sense, they would have slaughtered the lefties years ago. Now, it’s too late for that; the lefties are here. They will destroy the US.

Biblical Law does not support the right-wing, either, but righties aren’t so much of an existential threat as lefties are. The latter will gladly slaughter us if they cannot capture us under their insane regime of control. The pattern of left-wing government terror was set way back in the French Revolution.

While I can predict that there will be wide variations between various regions of the US in the coming years, the patterns are not yet visible. Nor can I estimate the level of resistance in general, since the American people are notorious for not reacting to even the most egregious assaults any more. Thus, I suggest shepherds keep track of what it’s like where you live. When the pressure from the left begins over the next few months and into next year, we should be begin to see the tactics and maybe the strategy. I’ll address what I see when there’s something to see.

Again, under Biblical Law, nothing is off the table when it comes to protecting the flock.

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Tribulation Eldership, Part 3

Posted on October 29, 2026 by ehurst

Yet another way to say it: If the people you encounter will not rise to grace, then deal with them according to biblical law.

Our fundamental mission is to share biblical truth and strive to draw the Elect into covenant fellowship. We want people to give their loyalty to Christ and denounce their human identity. The Kingdom of Heaven does not recognize your ethnic identity or skin color; you must ditch that stuff and embrace your covenant identity.

The paradox is that we are still stuck dragging that fleshly nature around, enduring the rest of the world reacting to what they imagine our tribal loyalties ought to be. They are under the law, and have embraced a very bad perversion of law. We have thousands of churches enunciating a bogus law that is founded on the pagan American mythology. Everyone has a firm idea of what “Christian” means and it has little to do with what Christ actually taught.

The Devil misquoted Scripture to mess with Jesus, and the Pharisees did, too. There are strong parallels between now and then because the nature of the Devil’s agenda has not changed, nor has the nature of our fallen mortal flesh. But there are also major differences in the context.

Rome had a distinct theological outlook expressed in emperor worship. The conflict between followers of Jesus and the Roman government was one religion against another. American government is very loudly secular. So-called “Christian nationalism” is secular; Zionism is secular politics with a religious paint job. For the sake of my faith, I would endure persecution. For the sake of secular politics, I will not. Jesus is not a political leader; His Kingdom is not of this world. Current politics is entirely of this world.

This is not spiritual warfare. Our situation is under Biblical Law. It is not possible to bring grace into the broader conflict. Grace gives me a superior understanding of the law, but the current conflict is still a matter of law.

As I’ve said on this blog over and over again: This battle is about ideas. The bulk of political warfare during this tribulation will not involve literal weapons, but will be confined to the realm of messaging. This is information warfare. I’m not going to lay down quietly and have my message silenced at the convenience of a godless oppressive government.

The near term future is fogged up in many ways for me. My convictions do not address a lot of things my brain would like to know. The silence is a kind of answer that my heart understands: The fogged up details won’t matter. God will supply the need when those issues arise. What matters is the divine strategy.

For most church people, it’s all about the sales pitch to consumers of religious entertainment. They would reject that characterization, but it’s how they act. For people who accept the thesis of the Unseen Realm, that’s not where it’s at. This is not entertainment. We are seeking to establish anew the concept of covenant. The material trappings of American religion are immaterial to us.

The real battle is with spiritual forces, not the politicians. Humans are simply the annoyances we face as we seek to reestablish the biblical outlook. They find political issues with our message; we denounce the sins they love. To them it sounds of mere political or social dissent and they react accordingly with efforts at censorship. It’s not faith persecution, just plain old oppression. Most of the people we deal with have zero clue about the spiritual issues.

Granted, here in America we don’t separate much between the First and Second Amendments. A government that attacks one will attack the other. In other words, bloodshed is inevitable either way. However, the primary issue for which we prepare is the battle of the First.

I’m going to tell you that my convictions don’t foresee a hard economic crash, just a rise in poverty. Some sectors of the economy will crash, but that’s nothing new. If the AI industry tanks, for example, computer hardware will drop in price. However, the primary problem will be energy prices, plus the US dollar will likely lose its place as the premier global trade currency. Still, most of us will not starve or become homeless. Maybe you should expect to see more bicycles on the road.

The major changes will be political. The US will break apart and it will be surprising how quickly that comes. I’m not sure how any official recognition will happen, but the break will be clear in practice. I expect the political situation to be muddy and chaotic.

Again, what we are facing is not faith persecution, at least, not yet. Don’t get drawn into mistaking this for the End Times.

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Tribulation Eldership, Part 2

Posted on October 28, 2026 by ehurst

Another way to say it: If you will not rise to grace, you will fall under the law. Note the play on rise versus fall. Grace puts you in the hands of God, but law puts you in the hands of Satan. This is where we remind folks that the Hebrew word satan denotes an adversary, typically someone whose official role is court prosecutor.

Grace provides the power to overcome your fallen nature. Law has no such power; it only condemns. Law pays attention to your status and objective condition. Grace reads who you are in your heart. God operates in both ways, but He delegates law to others on His staff. His children are exempt from going through delegates on things that matter.

The law applies to your flesh; grace covers your eternal nature. You may well be received into God’s embrace even as your flesh suffers discipline. God works in both realms simultaneously. To reduce your exposure to law, you must nail the flesh to the Cross. You must also keep the hammer and nails handy. And like any other parable, you can’t make that one walk on all-fours.

When your flesh has become disciplined, you are in a position to walk by your heart of faith. You can operate in the fleshly realm as a solid representative of Christ. Discipline leads to mission. You never proclaim or seize eldership; others must recognize it. When you carry divine authority, others will naturally follow your lead. Thus, if you find yourself in situations where people keep deferring to you, then you are an elder. Sheep follow the shepherd who takes care of them; it’s their instinct.

More complicated is discerning in which domains you are able to care for those sheep. Take on the wrong tasks and you’ll harm the sheep. Ask God to show you the limits He has set for you.

I have warned that my prophetic gifts are limited. At least once I failed to grasp the nature of what was revealed to me and fired off half-cocked. It was embarrassing, to say the least. Fortunately, I managed to avoid saying, “Thus saith the Lord…” Rather, I cast it as simply my convictions. Still, I gained a fresh lesson in humility from it.

As an elder headed into tribulation, it is critical that I be more careful, lest I step off into law territory where Satan is just waiting to spring his traps. I’m not the only one who will get bitten. The following prophetic convictions remain as part of our time of tribulation:

1. God will not allow the US to defeat Iran.

2. Whoever is the guiding force behind Zionists will eventually throw them under the bus. Jews won’t cease to exist, but the modern State of Israel will suffer severe losses. More to the point, the Dispensational fervor behind protecting Israel will be shown as a lie. A Zionist state has nothing to do with Christ’s return.

3. The failure of Israel to become what Dispensationalists dream will provoke an exodus from Dispie churches. This will affect a lot of Big Eva churches, including some that aren’t Dispie.

4. The US will be broken up; the Union of States will dissolve. The timing is uncertain, but I tend to believe Trump will be the last POTUS.

5. The Internet will become very frustrating for people who lack the technical savvy to keep working through the sudden increase in digital noise. For example, your average Windows user will suffer immensely from an endless series of bugs and security holes that MS will not be able to keep up. The rapid pace of fixing will overwhelm the coders; we already have fixes that require more fixing.

Side note: A software architecture that is designed to capture users and expose them for exploitation cannot keep third parties out. You can either snoop and force through advertising, of you can secure the OS. You cannot do both.

On top of all this, everyone can see that oppression is rising quickly. There are so few good guys in US government that we have no hope for relief from within the system.

There is more…

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Tribulation Eldership, Part 1

Posted on October 27, 2026 by ehurst

Whoever rejects grace will receive the law. In passing, I’ve noticed that whenever someone scans one of our community blogs via AI, that principle always gets noted in the summary if the writer actually believes it.

God deals with humans on two levels: family and others. Family is associated with the biblical concept of grace, while everyone else gets law. It’s a sort of paradox, because law should bring things close to what grace would provide, but humans who operate without the awareness of grace are ill-equipped to be as flexible as God meant law to be. People of grace understand that law is merely a representation, not God Himself. People of law cannot possibly grasp that; law is all they know about God. As far as they are concerned, law is God.

The truth is the reverse: God is the law. It was hard enough with Hebrew people whose language and culture were dominated by this paradigm. They had the advantage of a structure that presumed love and personal attachment. The West pretty much killed all of that. In the West, there is no moral reckoning in attachment; that’s regarded as mere emotion, sentiment. Western morality is reckoned in terms of material obligations, not personal attachment. In the Bible, everything is personal.

For the western mind, to “know” someone or something is bound by law; it’s a question of property ownership (from which we get the adjective “proprietary” marking sole ownership). In the biblical sense, knowing is a matter of personal interaction, a moral consideration of whatever is appropriate to the nature of the relationship. It presumes a personal regard and commitment to the welfare of everyone affected.

Thus, we say by grace that Creation is a living being with whom we must relate as a person. Every identifiable entity in Creation is also granted the same regard. Hebrew language treats nothing as a mere object, but imbues everything with some measure of personality, sentience and will. Western assumptions about reality serve to depersonalize even people, not to mention God.

It becomes a burden of our mortal existence to keep track of both systems. Divine love can be offered to everyone, but the circuit is not complete without reciprocity. If that love does not own you, then you exclude yourself. You define yourself as an object, as mere property, instead of family. Thus, we keep law at the ready for those who demand it.

We know before we get involved that law is flexible, while at the same time we know that people will not understand this. They will not like it. Sometimes we cannot help them. Much as it pains us to watch them suffer, there is nothing we can do about it. Worst of all is when we sense that someone is family, but refuses the full power of grace, preferring to labor under a false notion of law.

It gets even more complicated when we deal with people in the aggregate. Humans are political by nature, while we have been striving to kill that fleshly nature. The biggest blind spot in western society is the silly notion that everyone should be a king — calling it “individualism”. From this deeply perverted foundation, they go on to act on a tribal identity that is fiercely materialistic. Worse, they will assume multiple tribal identities — a sort of schizophrenia — and will respond to everything we do and say from that freakish perspective.

We may spend our whole lives trying to shed that idiocy in pursuit of grace.

At any rate, it is important to remind covenant people today that our tribulation is very different from what the first century Christians faced. The Roman government was only partly western, for one thing. Imperial Rome maintained a clear grasp of Ancient Near Eastern assumptions about reality and tolerated it officially. Our American culture and government refuses to understand, much less tolerate it.

Further, Rome was not materialistic the way the West is. The law by which believers handled the Roman imperial government and the various national and local authorities would naturally be quite different from the law we must use in the US. It’s our peculiar burden to discern the teaching in Scripture, rightly dividing between those things that were contextual and those which are universal. I doubt any two of us would end up with exactly the same set of answers.

It pays to say this again: In our community, you need not buy into everything I say as elder. You need only humor me for the sake community. When I’m gone and the Lord makes you elder, you’ll be in the same position. Your job will be to lead by building love and trust, not by dragging everyone with you.

There is more…

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Clock Is Ticking

Posted on October 25, 2026 by ehurst

I’m not sure how much longer blogging like this will be worth the effort.

There are multiple problems at the same time. We’ve already seen threats of censorship from the likes of the US Congress trying to pass the JASA bill as grounds to restrict anything that is less than gushingly favorable to Zionism. Now we are facing a Blue wave in Congress next month that will most certainly try to shut down anything that is less than gushingly favorable to various sexual perversions. We’ll have Jews kicking us on one side and Sodomites on the other.

We’ve also seen plenty of leaked reports about the ability and willingness of AI (via their agents) basically taking over the Net. Let me assure you, it’s worse than most of you might expect. Your favorite online services are at risk of hijacking. Worse, anyone who has built up a following is at high risk of finding fake output with their name on it.

Most of those threats are still somewhere in the future, at least for now. Something that is going on right now is even more dangerous simply because it’s so subtle. Most people don’t even recognize it. It’s something that is monstrous and has multiple parts working together.

Let’s take the riots in France: they are likely fake. Already, several images and videos have been detected as AI-slop. Random individuals recently returning from trips to Paris have said they saw no riots. I’m not suggesting that those buildings weren’t damaged as reported, but that the events strike me as being staged and scripted.

The timing is suspicious. Right when a right-wing party is winning elections in France, riots are breaking out that are blamed on right-wingers. Yet, when you chase down any actual participants, they are all left-wingers. The planning for this kind of thing was hinted at in leaks over the past few years around Europe, but never reported in the MSM. Even the search engines are in on this cover-up.

Another item: oil prices. This gets a little better coverage if you know where to look, but estimates suggest that 20% of the current price of unprocessed petroleum is pure speculation on future prices. We are being gouged by financiers who never see a drop of real petroleum, but are allowed to bid on shipments as if they represented a refinery, only to sell it to someone else. What gets reported in the MSM is the simple fact of the average market price from a market that is partly fake.

Lefty governments are notorious for punishing people who try to report the truth. In the past, much depended on whether or not you came to their attention. Increasingly, AI has been used to scan the Net for writing that contradicts the official story, regardless whether such writing attracts much attention. People in Europe and the UK are in jail right now for a simple difference of opinion with their governments. It’s happening in Australia and NZ, too.

Is there any doubt the coming Blue wave will not legislate the same kind of oppression here in the US? Don’t be surprised if blogs like mine are taken down in the near future.

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Hebrews 7

Posted on October 24, 2026 by ehurst

Re: Naked Bible 185: Hebrews 7

The previous chapter ended with a declaration that Jesus was a priest of the order of Melchizedek. Chapter 7 opens with a declaration that this priesthood does not depend on lineage the way Aaron’s priesthood does. Old Covenant priests had to be from the Tribe of Levi and the descendants of Aaron.

The language is paradoxical. On the hand, it would be easy to read the symbolism making Melchizedek a divine being. On the other hand, a more literal rendering means that he was illegitimate (no father) and whose mother was likely a slave – zero inheritance. But this is aimed simply as a contrast to the Aaronic priesthood. This ancient king was a priest approved of God, yet not any part of the tribal system of Israel. In that sense, the priesthood of Christ is superior to that of any High Priest of Israel, as Melchizedek prefigured the Son of God. Who resembles whom?

The priesthood of Aaron could theoretically be terminated by the death of all his descendants. Melchizedek’s priesthood was not inherited; God alone made the appointment. Christ rose from the dead and cannot die again. The priesthood of Melchizedek is superior simply because Abraham, the ancestor every Jew claimed, gave a tithe of plunder – from a conquest fully justified – to Melchizedek.

Now, the priests of Aaron received a tithe from their own countrymen, but the whole nation gave a tithe to Melchizedek before any of them were ever born. Moreover, Melchizedek blessed Abraham, demonstrating who was superior in rank before God. The greater always blesses the lesser. The tithes under the Law pointed out how the priests of Aaron were mortal; without the tithe of food crops, they would have starved. Jesus as the final priest of Melchizedek lives forever.

Heiser chases through a large amount of legendary material about Jewish efforts to identify Noah’s son Shem with Melchizedek. The issue is that Jews eventually became deeply embarrassed by the way Abraham paid deference to a Gentile, so they slipped in this idea that Shem was still alive. Thus, they can claim the Abraham was simply honoring his own ancestor. Other rabbis after the time of Christ tried to denigrate Melchizedek. The first was a case of Jewish racism, while the second was anti-Christian spite. This nonsense shows up in both Jewish and early Christian literature.

At any rate, the writer of Hebrews goes on to note that Levi was represented in Abraham – Levi had tithes paid on his behalf to Melchizedek. Thus, the priesthood of Melchizedek is superior. Heiser notes a lot of logical problems with the whole idea in verses 9-10, but I believe he was chasing his own tail. He does note that the Early Church Fathers struggled with the pre-existence of souls, but that’s only because they were too Hellenized to grasp the fundamental Hebrew approach. Those questions are impertinent. There’s no getting around how an ancestor’s decisions and vows in the presence of God still bind every descendant until God Himself intervenes.

In the rest of the chapter, the writer offers an argument that Heiser seems to have ignored. The appointment of a superseding priesthood indicates that the Covenant of Moses was also eclipsed by a New Covenant in Christ. Moses is gone. Christ now stands in Eternity. Everything God could possibly have done to redeem mankind is fulfilled in His Son.

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Flavors of Oppression

Posted on October 23, 2026 by ehurst

If you are intrigued by watching the political and economic condition of the US, it’s wise to pay more attention to the fundamentals than to the daily flux of events. The latter is largely aimed at getting a reaction that herds the masses. The fundamentals tell you what’s actually going on.

For example, the AI market. Compare it against the GDP. You can look up the numbers for yourself, but it goes like this: The US as a whole spends about a half-trillion dollars each year on software that is commercially available. That’s just the software for context.

The investment funds committed to AI already amount to several trillions of dollars. In order to merely break even on the existing bonds, AI would have to sell their services to the tune of several trillions each year. They are assuming the demand for their services is that big. Is that even possible? No.

This means that AI is what we call an investment bubble. Already, the market as a whole is waking up to that fact. They realize that the past exuberance shoveling investment money into the AI was a vast mistake, because a return on investment is not even possible. And if AI bonds start selling off, every firm involved in AI will see a loss of value on the stock market.

The price of a company’s stock controls how much money they can invest in their own internal operations toward growth. Without growth, companies have to cut employees and operations. If lots of companies are doing this at the same time, it means a substantial rise in unemployment. That puts a drag on the economy as a whole.

This, in turn, contributes to political changes. If the party in power has mismanaged the economy, then the other party wins the next election. That’s about two weeks away.

But we can’t be certain what a Blue wave next month will bring. It appears that the globalist “old guard” are not so firmly in charge now. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have a different agenda, and they are fielding an awful lot of candidates under the Blue flag. It remains to be seen who will be steering the party in the future, but I’m expecting a very ugly, dirty fight that may not remain hidden.

The threat of Zionist censorship for blogs like this one will not go away. However, the DSA is loaded with pro-Palestinian activists, and they aren’t friendly to the our message, either. Perhaps the real battle will no longer be Red vs. Blue, but Zionist versus Palestinian sympathies. Both of them are hostile to our message. The only difference is what kind of oppression will be dished out.

We’ll look at that in a later post.

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Hebrews 5:11-6:20

Posted on October 17, 2026 by ehurst

Re: Naked Bible 184: Hebrews 5:11-6:20

The writer starts off referring back to the previous verses where he described how Jesus was obedient, particularly in the Garden of Gethsemane, where He surrendered Himself to the suffering of the Cross. It was necessary that He defeat the fleshly nature. In doing so, He became the perfect sacrifice and was able to claim redemption for everyone who follows Him. Thus, He was made by the Father a high priest in the order of Melchizedek; He offered Himself. He was eternal, so His sacrifice was eternal. While his readers should have understand all of this, the writer suggests they simply weren’t ready to handle this kind of teaching.

It’s not as if they lack the intellectual rigor, but their ears have become dull. They don’t love the truth enough to remain eager to hear it and to employ it. Infants desire only milk; it’s all they know. But adult connoisseurs can savor the subtle flavors of a solid meal. They know what flavors belong together and don’t like clashing tastes. The readers of Hebrews should know this stuff, but they can’t tell the difference between what does and doesn’t belong in their souls. They might recognize obscure details about the Talmud, but they don’t recognize the teaching that builds up their moral strength.

As we read on into chapter 6, we realize that the issue is their preference for what the flesh can handle. It’s well-trod ground; they consider it safe. They know every jot and tittle of the Talmud, all the highly specific dos and don’ts, but that’s not where they meet Jesus. He’s the Son of God and the only valid High Priest; His sacrifice paid the price. Now they need to learn what He bought for them. Children look for simple rules and ways to avoid accountability. The Talmud was developed along those lines, but adults don’t operate like that. They accept the burdens that come with personal submission and constant deference to a higher power.

Heiser doesn’t use heart-led language, so he muddles the message, but the heart fits perfectly here. The writer’s audience was so pickled in human reason and human behavioral rules that they had forgotten the Hebrew tradition of walking by the heart. Once the heart rules over the fleshly nature, they should instinctively know that the priorities of God are not as they are portrayed in the Talmud. The Talmud kills; the gospel breathes life. You cannot discern the will of God by your human capabilities. It cannot be memorized or regulated into human habits. Knowing His will requires a living connection to Him through the heart.

The gospel of faith from the heart should have rewritten everything this priestly audience ever learned. They should have left the Talmud behind, never to return. The only way you can go back to the Talmud is if your heart was never alive. It’s much the same teaching that Paul covers in Romans 6. Faith rewires your whole life; you should have zero desire for living by the flesh. The flesh is death. Your identity, your whole concept of who you are, is now in Christ.

It should make you starving for a deeper understanding so you can get closer to Him. You desperately want to know more about disciplining the flesh to obey spirit. You’re always looking for a better way to grasp it. We should realize instinctively that our old ways of living by the capabilities of the flesh are gone. Jesus is not simply a different doorway back into the same old religion. He opened the door to a radical departure from that.

So, the writer says they shouldn’t have to go back and review the basics of what new Hebrew believers must pass through: repentance from the Talmud, walking in feudal submission, all the different kinds of ritual washing Jews practiced versus baptism into Christ, what the ritual of laying on hands is for, how Jesus rose from the dead as the first of many, and how the whole of humanity will face eternal judgment on That Day. Can we move on, now?

Heiser notes that most people read into the next paragraph (6:4-8) a lot of stuff that’s not there. However, I am quite certain he missed the point himself. The writer is expressing confidence in the power of genuine faith conversion. If it rested on us – if our efforts could warrant eternal salvation – then we would be ripe for losing it. At some point we might fail and it would be taken from us. Moreover, we could never come back again, because Christ is not going to go to the Cross again for you. Eternal redemption is not a come-n-go affair. Either it stands on His eternal sacrifice or it doesn’t stand at all.

The writer knew that his readers’ previous works of sacrificial love came from a genuine change in their hearts. He didn’t want them to lose track of that power that changed them. Don’t look upon God as a slot machine. The greatest blessings are not what you can point to, but the joy of knowing Christ. Don’t get tired of serving God, because God isn’t tired of giving us life.

For rhetorical proof, the writer points to Abraham. How did Abraham gain his place in God’s favor? It was not Abraham’s choice in the first place. God unilaterally chose Him and made promises that simply could not be broken. Thus, Abraham’s place in God’s favor required only his loyalty, not his performance. It rested entirely on God’s divine character. How long did Abraham endure before he finally saw the birth of his promised son?

The writer encourages his Jewish audience to abandon the Talmud and the mindset that it requires. Their old Aaronic order of priesthood had been eclipsed by something much greater: Christ’s priesthood in the order of Melchizedek. They could now all walk past the curtain into the Divine Presence anytime. The old habits of decades of Talmudic living were naturally rather hard to shed. Still, he was encouraging them to abandon their reliance on fleshly capabilities and live by faith.

Heiser goes on at length blathering against Election and some other things, so I won’t summarize that here.

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Don’t Be Stupid about the Net

Posted on October 16, 2026 by ehurst

I’m not going to give you a laundry list of applicable Bible passages. You should have read at least the New Testament through enough times to have absorbed the big picture. You should recognize when I refer to spiritual powers in high places (Ephesians 6:10-12), never mind Heiser’s thesis in Unseen Realm.

You should know instinctively that our existence here is not what God had in mind. Our mortality was imposed artificially; our fleshly nature is a burden we bear that does not reflect who God made us to be. We are up against spiritual forces trying to use this situation to destroy the human race. Not the mere fleshly manifestation here and now, but they are against the very idea that humans ever existed in Eden before the Fall. Because of the nature of how things have been set up, their only hope is to tempt us away from feudal loyalty to Christ.

The New Testament reeks with otherworldly concerns. Nothing in this life matters if it cannot be used for Christ’s glory. Everything available to us here should be just a tool to boost His reputation, not against other humans, but against spiritual powers. This life is just the means to an end.

Each of us who call Christ “Lord” have a mission in this fallen context. My mission right now is to make maximum use of the Internet to spread the gospel. I’m holding forth the standard of the message to draw people away from their fleshly natures and to turn their attention on the spiritual war in which we are the object, not the subject. Our only hope for peace in this life is to disregard this life as much as possible. I’m trying to portray that as best I can.

I don’t love the Internet, but it’s a critical part of my mission. The trappings of what people must do with their devices in order to make the best use of the Net is part of my ministry. So I’ll warn you of things like this recent discovery of zero-click malware devised by Israeli companies to hijack computers and phones. It is served up through advertising, of course.

It’s the same old message: Block advertising every way possible! My blocking is not because I hate advertising, but because the whole system was designed with an utter lack of concern for the people who use those devices. They want money; you don’t mean crap to them. Not only do they not care about you, they are hostile to your control over your own devices. These are not good people. They eagerly serve the purposes of the Kingdom of Darkness.

Add in the factor that Israel wants to rule the world and you should expect that dealing with the online world is simply a part of spiritual warfare. Zionists hate anyone who isn’t them. It’s part of their ideology: You have no right to resist whatever they please to do with you. All the more do they hate you if you happen to follow Christ, for whom their hatred is beyond telling.

We aren’t at war with them; they are simply the agents of Darkness. The weapons of our warfare attack the Darkness, not the minions. However, if they get in the way, they will certainly get hurt. There’s nothing we can do about that. Any propaganda about how blocking ads hurts someone (deprives them of income) is not a valid concern. The people who have developed the advertising system have shown that they cannot be trusted.

Yes, it’s burdensome to have to learn about this stuff. You can decide for yourself whether you care, but I recommend that you install the uBlock extension in all the browsers you use. When possible, you should use specialty browsers that block or weaken Javascript, as well (Links2, Dillo, any text browser, etc.). Learn to view the web from a very guarded position.

Remember that if you use Windows, you are simply begging for trouble; Windows forces you to surrender all control to someone else. Mac is the same to a lesser degree. Even Linux can become vulnerable if you don’t learn a bit about hardening the system from outside attacks. The Devil will use every deception to keep you under his thumb.

If the Internet is critical to your mission, you can’t afford to be stupid about how it works.

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