Keeping Clear Eyes

Posted on November 14, 2026 by ehurst

I’d like to share some observations.

With the firing of Trump’s Chief of Staff, Suzie Wiles, it became safe for disgruntled staff members to leak their observations about her tenure. She was a harsh gatekeeper. In essence, Trump has only ever heard the pure, unadulterated propaganda from Netanyahu. Every bit of the intel he received was entirely from people onboard with the hyper-Zionist agenda. Whenever someone offered a word of caution about that intel, they were kept out of future briefings. This fencing was a major factor in Tusli Gabbard’s resignation, along with sundry others who didn’t make the headlines.

Whether or not the new guy (Stephen Miller) is any better is hard to say right now. Some say he knew getting involved with Israel in Iran was going to turn out bad. Others say he is such a suck-up to Trump that what he actually knows may not matter. The amount of change remains to be seen.

The resignation of Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, had nothing to do with sordid tales of philandering. That’s just a cover-up for some other intrigue, and the various opinions about that are all over the map. Somebody powerful wanted him out of the way. I’m betting it had something to do with how AI is going to be used in the future.

The public face of AI is not the real story. The companies currently leading the way are all at serious risk of financial collapse. There’s only so much investment money available, and most of it is already locked up in previous betting on AI companies. The borrowing market is getting tight; it’s already crimping US Treasury bond sales. There’s not enough to get AI development over the hump. I’m guessing that one or two projects will survive the coming two years. After that, the Blue Congress will attempt to crush it simply because Trump liked it.

But what will survive is the technology itself. Somehow, you can be sure western governments will harness this to the globalist dream of absolute human control. As others have noted, AI has zero curiosity. It is utterly incapable of asking questions; it’s only good for trying to answer them according to it’s sources. Those sources have not been consistently good. AI is by far the single best tool for oppression because it can track, collate and summarize information about people. It can infer things from what people have exposed on the Net anywhere at any time in the past, and will interpret that data through whatever biases the developers held.

The moment the big ugly eye of government turns on you, AI will slap together a damning report on just how much of a threat you are to the government’s agenda. And if asked, and granted enough resources, AI can simply scan everything about everyone and tag various entities as worthy of government attention. Keep your eye out for demonstrations of this in the future. It will be introduced as the ultimate fear factor to control the population. Big Brother is watching.

Given that the government is going broke, I’m not sure how much of a threat this will actually be, if it requires government personnel as enforcers. On the other hand, the power of the left to motivate and field popular forces of retribution is a more serious threat. There is already a very willing population out there just waiting to be told to come after whatever they imagine as right-wingers. It’s a mindless rage that has been boiling for a long time.

Of course, it’s a fundamental feature of the West to obsess over retribution. Nowhere does it manifest more fiercely than on the left. They take it as a personal insult that any non-leftist minds even exist. It’s the same mindset as any jihadi terrorist portrayed in the MSM and entertainment. The blending of Islam and leftism is a perfect match until all resistance is wiped out. Then they will turn on each other.

Covenant people should be ready to employ methods they may have avoided in the past. Protecting the flock starts with prayer and embracing the duty of shepherding. It means searching your convictions to discern just how far God requires you to go in protecting His earthly family. Human survival is not the issue; it’s the gospel message. But sometimes the two will look exactly the same in terms of how you must act. This is not the first century Roman Empire. We face an entirely different form of persecution, something that rises on a different basis, as I’ve outlined in the series on tribulation eldership.

The focus will continue to be information warfare; that’s fundamentally what the gospel is. We must be diligent in pointing out where sin is manifested, and as much as possible, why it is wicked. It’s not just one-line zingers. We must be prepared to dig into the mind-shaping lies by which these people live. It’s a philosophical war in many ways. Keep the Covenant before your eyes in order to see clearly.

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Getting Busy

Posted on November 13, 2026 by ehurst

I’ve been discussing something with the Kiln of the Soul community over the past week. I still take seriously my conviction that the federal government will bog down in partisan disputes. Because of this, the real focus of activity will be the with the individual states. Moreover, there will be a lot more conflict between state and federal governments.

Thus, I’ll be investing more time in watching the politics here in Oklahoma where I live. I’ve been ignoring it for a very long time, but the focus of my mission will be here now. I’ve changed out my primary computer system to match that focus — a desktop instead of a laptop. I’ll be traveling a lot less out of state.

Oklahoma remains a very Red state. Even though it is a rabid Zionist place, the attitude has been to leave us alone unless we cause trouble. Verbal dissent is generally protected here. We have always had a few Blue districts and nobody went to jail for alleged antisemitism. If any of that changes, it will be worth reporting.

I realize that most of my audience has been nationwide, and even global. I will surely keep commenting on national and international stuff as warranted. However, you will likely see more local stuff. Indeed, I encourage everyone to keep track of what their own states and local governments are doing. Let’s compare notes. Some states will become flashpoints for conflict as the parties seek to break rules and laws to remain in power.

The Blue US Congress is already talking quite loudly about changing things to prevent any kind of turnover back to the Red side. Things are going to get busy all over.

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Coming Attractions

Posted on November 10, 2026 by ehurst

This is a plausible list of what Democrats would like to do staring in January. It leaves out things like quashing the 2nd Amendment, but you get the idea.

However, I’m going to suggest that Trumps final two years of lame duck presidency will prevent that agenda. I’m expecting mostly a legislative deadlock. It would be a good thing. That leaves only the one thing the Blue Party will be able to do: investigations and prosecutions. Trump cannot veto those activities.

However, the state governments will not be hindered that way. They will roll out as much of that agenda as they can within their own state borders. We already have some Blue states talking about secession if they can’t get their way. I’m expecting at least a few of them to try something along those lines.

State governments will become the main venue for both sides, by the way. Red states will not sit idly by while the Blues attempt to take over the US. The next couple of years should be quite entertaining.

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How and Why Is It Crashing?

Posted on November 9, 2026 by ehurst

Sometimes you simply must explain things at the most basic level.

The study of economics is all about human exchange of goods and services. There are certain basic principles that work all the time and everywhere regardless of other factors. But we are dealing with humans, so on top of this we must reckon with human cultures. Human assumptions about reality and their expectations for each other (mores) invoke interpretations of how those fundamental principles are applied. In addition, we have the peculiarities of scale. How big is your economy? It changes how things work. Finally, we have the rules and regulations of government policy that tweak how those interpretations turn out in real time.

Under the Covenant, we would have an economic system that has never been seen except in the small scale of the covenant community. While it is possible to extrapolate from Biblical Law principles to a larger sized economy, there’s no need to do so. It’s never going to happen.

In the small scale of the individual covenant community, we find ourselves very close to the fundamental principles. Our economic guidelines have a moral purpose: to promote the Covenant message. The basic Law of Christ is that we love His family (each other) as He does. Everything we do must fit on that foundation. It stands before the economic activity arrives.

I’ve written at length about biblical economics. The people at the bottom of the economy come first. You build a business solely that you may employ the maximum number providing whatever it is you know how to do. You add management only when necessary, and you avoid multiple layers. You reduce profit to a minimal margin, seeking to hold a modicum of cash reserve to handle surprises. Finally, you never, ever allow anyone outside the business to invest. Investors must become part of the hands-on management, bearing the load personally.

In the midst of all of that hides the one fundamental secret of all human economic activity: the people at the bottom are of paramount importance to building and keeping an economy stable. The more the peasants have, the more everyone else will have. It always migrates upward naturally. So-called “trickle down” is a blatant lie. That’s true globally. This principle is missing form virtually every national economy existing today.

This principle is sometimes recognized in American academia, but not often. It’s ignored by every business and every government agency. American culture compels a consumer-based economy. The whole thing works only as long as there are consumers with money to spend. The more of them there are spending, the better it is for everyone else.

But American culture invites greed, and greed means people with leverage looking for every way possible to skim off an unreasonable share of that consumer spending. We end up with greedy people in both business and government, and they collude to tweak the laws to favor themselves. Greed makes them short-sighted. They are pathologically incapable of understanding how this kills the golden goose. They see a strong economy and start slicing away until it dies.

For example, every layer of management adds to the price without any payback into the system. Packing the workforce is good; padding the office is bad. That’s fundamental. Yes, it’s possible to have good management that actually makes things more efficient, but that is so rare as to be insignificant for our discussion. We all know people who do management well on the scale near us as consumers, but not when you get to upper middle class where greed becomes the law. At that level managerial talent fades to insignificance.

The money is not plowed back into operations. Instead, it goes into all sorts of inefficient uses like ill-considered market expansion, or various adjustments to operations that do not increase value to the consumer, but serve only to satisfy various management vanities and greed. The greedy keep looking for ways to scrape off what should go to workers and improved products and services.

Government policy creates extra management entities outside of the business, like various forms of required insurance. I’m not saying insurance is a bad idea, but hasn’t it just about destroyed medical care? The existence of insurance and profit motive means a massive layer of money is scraped off between the patient and caregiver, raising the price beyond anything reasonable.

This is the system that charges $100 for a single aspirin and has doctors charge thousands for “care” that constitutes walking past the door of the room where the patients are. They do that because the system charges them millions just to have the job, then loads them up with bureaucratic requirements that have nothing to do with actually caring for the patient.

And so it goes with everything our government touches. Again, I’m not saying government is inherently evil in itself, but greedy people make government behave very poorly. Good, competent people are not motivated by plunder, only the greedy.

Current US government policy is all about building and protecting monopolies and oligarchies because that’s where the source of bribes campaign funding. Both parties. The only difference between Red versus Blue is a matter of which tribes of greedy thugs get to use government power for their plundering.

The demand for money has outstripped the natural supply. That’s why we have a massive national debt. We have a political demand for expenditures that serve no valid constitutional purpose, never mind a good moral purpose. The level of scraping off the proceeds of economic activity leaves too little to sustain the basic consumption that keeps the US economy alive. Soon enough, all that big junk grinds to a halt. Suddenly, only the very most basic life support spending is about all anyone can do.

Only God knows the schedule. A few sharp minds can see it when it’s right on top of us, but it’s mostly a fog and feeling our way along. It won’t be the end of all economic activity. That’s a basic principle, too. This is not some apocalyptic movie or novel. Things will get tough in certain specific ways; the system has become hollow and fragile. The people at the bottom are ignored, and they will run out of room to maneuver. They can’t afford much more than life-support mode. When they stop buying less essential consumer goods and services, the system flounders.

The first loss comes in infrastructure that governments buy. Maintenance will fade away and transportation gets less efficient. We’ve got that already in a lot of places. Next, energy costs will rise. New capacity will fade, and then shortages will arise, hitting the common consumer hardest. Government and big business are not going to sacrifice, so that leaves only the common folk to bear the loss. It’s another hidden tax.

Inflation will price consumers out of the market for everything. Granted, the greedy have created a whole sector of the economy that grants a very large number of people who serve the upper class more wealth than would normally be the case. This managerial class will tend to hang on for a while simply because what they do is not for the consumer market, but for the upper class. People who can afford to buy $100K vehicles will still drive them for a while as the folks at the bottom start to suffer.

We are there right now.

At some point, the economic activity will recede just enough to shut down some of that upper middle class business activity. Conspicuous consumption will fade as more and more of the available economic cash flow stalls out, trapped in unproductive loans. Commercial real estate (CRE) is a bellwether. The vacancy level tells you a lot. Right now the US economy is starting to shrink at the bottom. It shrivels from the roots up. Certain businesses that have been riding the knife edge of profit are starting to shut down because the knife moved out from under them. It looks like consolidation, but it’s actually shrinkage.

Things will ride along like this, not quite in crisis, for a while yet. Somewhere along this path, you’ll see major shutdowns as the squeeze hits the managerial class. Most of them will be quite surprised by it. Larger businesses that still include the common consumers have started closing branch operations. For example, small rural clinics and grocery stores are shutting down. Only those business that are structured to cater to the bottom alone (like Dollar General) will remain in operation out in the rural areas.

I don’t have room to write a detailed analysis. By the time I did, it would be out of date. This post is too long already. For covenant people, the primary guidance is to stock up on stuff that might be hard to get, not just for yourselves, but for your faith community. Keep a stock and rotate it. Your resources are probably limited, so listen to your convictions about what to prioritize. Pray for guidance and wisdom.

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Some Query and Response

Posted on November 7, 2026 by ehurst

Re: Naked Bible 189: Live from Boston

We are taking a short break from Hebrews this week to cover some interesting Q & A from Heiser and David Burnett. We will pick out just a few items.

1. What are the practical implications of the Divine Council worldview?

This one should have been obvious, but way too many people get cerebral about theology. Heiser mentioned one of his blog posts where he mentioned ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria). They take a vow, not so terribly different from the military crusaders in the Middle Ages. They go to sleep at night, contemplating what they could have done better in battle. In the morning they wake up wondering where they will fight next to please their god. They would not hesitate to die for this.

What’s so hard about that for Christ and His Kingdom? Why could we not fall asleep contemplating things we might have done better to glorify Christ? Make peace with Him. Why could we not wake up in the morning thinking about how we can be ready for the next encounter for the gospel?

The Divine Council worldview makes it very easy to discount our fleshly existence because it’s a trap. We have to declare our allegiance to a higher power than the Devil, who owns our fleshly nature. We are at war with the enemy inside our souls. We have the divine power to fight that enemy, but we cannot let a moment slip. How are we going to shine the glory of Christ against the enticements of the Devil?

2. During the storm, Jonah told the other men on the boat that he was a Hebrew belonging to Jehovah. After throwing him in, the storm went away and they all made offerings and vows to Jehovah. Someone was asking if they converted.

The discussion on the forum got wrapped around whether they would have to get circumcised to convert. Heiser and Barrett dropped the ball. Jonah would have naturally told them about the Code of Noah as the applicable law to Gentiles. They may have already known about it, since he got on the boat docked at Joppa. Either way, the only thing we know for sure is that they gave Jehovah credit for that situation, and felt they owed Him something.

The same goes for Nineveh where Jonah preached; he took the gospel message of Noah’s Code. This was not a conversion to Moses, but a conversion to Noah. There was nothing dishonorable about that.

It’s a similar situation with Naaman. He remained under the Code of Noah; there was no particular reason to expect him to become an Israeli. However, he became a devotee under Noah, a henotheist who belonged to Jehovah. The prophet said that was all just fine.

3. Something they touched on but did not directly address: the nature of sin.

The fundamental Hebrew concept is not any specific action or actions, per se. Rather, it’s the image of coming up short. The only righteousness is being a member of God’s family. People who are not in God’s family will always come up short of the redemption He provides. It’s refusing to face the Flaming Sword at the gate of Eden; it’s rejecting the Cross.

In that sense, I’ve said in the past that people outside the Covenant cannot do good. That is, they cannot do good for themselves. That’s not to say they cannot do things that help covenant people, but that they will forever come up short until/unless they come to Christ.

That’s part of the problem with defining “good” and “evil” in Hebrew terms. There is no objective standard of “good” and “evil”. English relies too much on a western epistemology, so it’s natural for us to assume a legalistic definition of specific actions that are inherently right or wrong in themselves. That’s not the Hebrew concept. Rather, it has more to do with motives and intentions, about priorities and commitments.

It all assumes a relationship in which you struggle with your fleshly nature and your failure to grasp moral truth at a higher level. Yes, you can question God. Yes, you can yell at Him. It’s part of being attached to Him. It shows how important He is to you. As noted in the podcast, questioning/doubting versus disbelieving are two different things. People who reject your doubts and questions don’t know God very well.

God said Job didn’t sin in what he said out loud.

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What Have We Got?

Posted on November 6, 2026 by ehurst

A friend of mine quipped that Iran has forced a regime change in the US. Pundits with a vested interest will deny it, but everyone knows that Trump’s war on Iran is what cost him the mid-terms. Trump claims to recognize this, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to listen to the message.

Commentators have dumped tons of verbiage online the past few days, trying to make sense of the election returns. They have examined it from every human angle, but I’ve not heard a single credible reference to what we could know about what’s going on in the Spirit Realm.

Fundamentals: God is in charge, but His attention is focused on what is inside the Covenant boundaries. He seldom puts His hands directly on what happens outside of the Covenant. Most of what happens in human politics is in the Devil’s hands. The Devil’s role is far more complex than humans could possibly comprehend. Further, he has allies on the Divine Council who have their own agendas.

On the one hand, the Devil and his allies hate humans and want to force God’s hand to destroy us. On the other hand, their plans remain subject to God’s veto based on His own long term plans. Don’t forget what you learn from 1 Kings 22 and the demise of King Ahab. Don’t forget that modern Israel serves the Devil’s agenda, and her use to him is limited.

I’ve already committed myself to the prophetic word that God will not allow the US to crush Iran. It goes back at least 15 years. It doesn’t rest on any human analysis, though today most analysts assert that it simply won’t happen for any number of reasons. And it would appear that Israel can’t do it alone. Indeed, it’s doubtful that the Israeli voters support Netanyahu’s vision of “Greater Israel”. His power is fading fast.

I’m starting to believe the window has closed, the madness has passed, on taking down Iran. I’ve been praying this would happen. Most of America would probably agree with that, though hardly for the same reasons. I’m looking out for the interests of my covenant community. For the longest time, America’s Zionist bent has been a growing threat to our message. Just before the mid-terms, Zionist online censorship was a very real threat here in the US. The proposed bills in support of that are probably dead now, but even if the now pass, the impact will be rescinded quickly come January.

But the new Blue Congress brings its own threats. For now, it’s only one branch of government, so it’s limited. Enforcement of the Blue agenda will come from the various institutions of media, academia and a very active online community. The info warfare will be substantial. We’ve also had physical violence with college radicals assaulting Republican students on campuses in Michigan and Minnesota.

A substantial, but more subtle, danger will come from the rise of socialism. The Blue wave has seized several state governments; the socialist agenda will begin taking hold quickly. This looks good at first, but crushes the economy. Here’s the really ugly part: The Red agenda has succeeded in concentrating wealth in few hands, so it will be a much easier target for socialist confiscation. Thus, while our economy was already in trouble, further degradation will now come much faster.

As always, I am saying that the economy will not crash completely. The net effects will be that relative poverty will invade a much larger portion of the population. Folks already living close the poverty line will sink below it. The economic bottom of society will grow, and those already there will be pushed even lower. And quite naturally, petty crime will explode.

It will take some time. The first flush of changed policies will see the various forms of social assistance rise. Later, the regulations will hit businesses, closing down the weak ones and raising prices everywhere else. This will accelerate the so-called “Walmart Effect” of reducing the number of consumer outlets available in any given area.

Aside from taxation, there will be resurgence of culture wars, DEI, enforced immorality, destruction of families, firearms restrictions, etc. This will come first as a dramatic shift at the state level, with an increasingly raucous internal pressure on Red states from their own urbanites. Virtually every metropolis has been Blue for a very long time. I’m counting on the rhetoric to produce political violence in some places.

Unfortunately, we live in interesting times.

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Philosophical Tail Chasing

Posted on November 5, 2026 by ehurst

Re: Divine Deception from the Good Guys

Does it strike you as deception that God refuses to explain everything to your satisfaction?

What would happen to the art of diplomacy if keeping some things to yourself was forbidden? What would happen to civility if we were all required to reveal every thought that passed through our heads? (BTW: The socialist/communist theory of justice demands the authority to inspect your private thoughts.)

Fundamental to a genuine biblical outlook is the fallen mortality of human nature in this world. Human nature is fallen; by its very nature, it cannot be trusted. The only redemption possible for the flesh is for us to migrate our consciousness out of our heads and into our hearts, closer to the spirit. Even then, it requires a constant watch over the flesh to keep it nailed to the Cross.

Scripture flatly warns that not every thought in your head is fit for public consumption. How many proverbs advise you to “watch your tongue” under certain conditions? I’ll give you one: Proverbs 21:23. In the western sense of legal and semantic absolutism, that is tantamount to lying.

What everyone ignores is that, in the Hebrew culture, it was not the act of lying itself, but the intent and results that make it sin. The biblical concept of “wisdom” is keeping the Covenant, living according to its priorities and purposes. Sometimes you must tell the whole truth as you know it; sometimes you must keep your mouth shut. The focus is not on the action itself.

Thus, when God commissioned one of the elohim spirits to deceive King Ahab, the whole point was that Ahab had rejected the Covenant (1 Kings 22) and had earned God’s wrath. Ahab was defying God’s revealed will. Western theologians choke on this passage because they are obsessed with propositional truth, which is not at all the same as divine revelation. The concept of propositional truth is from Hellenism; it had no place in ancient Hebrew tradition. Platonic or Aristotelian epistemology are alien to God’s revelation.

Our mortal human existence is inherently false, a deception in itself. Our reality is not real. That was a major element in our recent study in Hebrews 8. A proper grasp on the biblical viewpoint starts with understanding that our world is an artificial construct, a temporary bubble inserted into God’s Creation to prove a point to an audience that is not human. We are a demonstration of something that is truly critical to God’s plans; it’s not about us and our pitiful existence in mortal flesh. The very presence of mortality and flesh is contrary to what God wants for us, but He tolerates this situation because of something far beyond our comprehension.

Thus, taking this existence too seriously is wicked in itself. To attempt an assessment of God and His Word from the basis of what fallen flesh can understand is poking God in the eye; it’s a rejection of Christ. Redemption for us means dismissing the whole construct of Western Civilization and reclaiming a proper Hebraic frame of reference.

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Expose the Wickedness

Posted on November 2, 2026 by ehurst

It’s not that I care a whit about what happens in Europe, but it does demonstrate the methods of ideologues in the West. The key to the linked article is not so much what happened, as the pattern of censorship to prevents anyone knowing about the dirty tricks. If you know about it, you can be forewarned about things in your own country.

Here in America, ideologues flout the system wherever it does not conform to their will. It’s the same with both Red and Blue parties. It’s merely a question of what they can get away with. That, in turn, depends on keeping everyone in the dark about their actions.

We see ICE striving to block any surveillance and reporting of their thuggish tactics. It’s exactly the same when Antifa attacks those who film them or dare to report on their actions. In western democracies, perception rules. Being non-partisan, I would welcome any government action taken in the best interests of the citizens. Right now, there’s nobody taking that track. Both ruling parties simply declare their oppression as being in the best interests of the people. Both are quite obviously lying about that, even by the perverted definitions of western values.

Do you remember the delusional nonsense that was attached to QAnon? Most of it was wishful thinking, a fantasy that really capable people were going to take action against the filthy Deep State. But there was a thread of sanity in all of it. The Deep State really is a morally perverted bunch. The censorship of the Epstein files is just a peep, as has been the hushing of the Franklin Scandal and others.

The biggest flaw of Q was that pernicious doctrine of trusting any of the new candidates over the previous. They were all in on it! Had the QAnons attacked both sides justly, they would have been precious angels of truth, not goobers hoping for some fairy to come set everything right.

We’ve long said things like this: Running for office is in itself a moral disqualification to govern. People who want to govern others are morally despicable. The biblical model is the shepherd, someone whom God ropes into the role when they are busy with other plans. No good shepherd ever had the ambition to lead in the first place.

We don’t trust either party. Both worship Mammon; that’s a fundamental feature of the West. However, we note that, here in America, the righties, with their broad libertarian instincts, are not normally interested in crushing dissent and making life difficult. On the other hand, the lefties are an existential threat to anyone who isn’t them. When the Blue Wave comes upon us, you will need every bit of the 2nd Amendment restoration Trump has accomplished in order to keep the 1st Amendment alive.

The oppression is here and it will get significantly worse. The American people will not fight; they barely even bother to vote for which form of oppression they prefer. There is no rescue coming. However, the fury of the storm will pass simply because it will face its own complications from within. They are incompetent and self-indulgent. In the end, the Devil drives his minions to their own self-destruction.

So, we pay attention to how we can guard the flock during the storm. There will be losses. Our commission is not to succeed; only God can grant that. Our mission is to persist in His will regardless of the outcome.

This is information warfare. We must stand for the Covenant and expose wickedness wherever we see it.

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Espionage and Surveillance Coming

Posted on November 1, 2026 by ehurst

First, the good news — There is espionage inside the Pentagon as military leaders prepare to feed evidence to incoming Blue Wave legislators on Hegseth. The primary issues are the war crimes of bombing random boats in the Gulf and the illegal war on Iran.

The issue with me is Hegseth’s stupidity. The things he hates so much about the military came from decades of slow, systemic changes from people who despise their fellow humans. Those changes are built into the existing mass of personnel. The only way to change the system is a careful and long-term plan to restore what should be there. Trying to do it in just a few years turns reform into an even more hateful project. Hating people is a losing strategy.

Now, the bad news — The Blue Wave will bring a massive level of online oppression that we have never seen before in the US. Zionist censorship is rather narrowly targeted. It’s easy to talk about all kinds of things without triggering the censors. Against the Blue Party political machinery, it’s nearly impossible not to trigger the censors.

That same hatred for humanity noted above is the fundamental theme of leftism. It pretends to care about people, but it’s rooted in a fantasy-based kind of caring for something that simply cannot exist in reality. It is the quintessence of smothering love that kills its object because the object cannot possibly become what that kind of perverted affection demands.

In a few days — Tuesday — will be the voting. Barring some kind of miracle, the Blue Party will win big. Then, in January all of these crazies will take office. The battle will be primarily information warfare. They will not be idle in crushing dissent. If you thought populist doxing was bad enough, wait until the government starts leveraging every single regulatory angle to suppress dissent: tax law, licensing, banking, child welfare controls, commerce controls, etc. The US federal bureaucracy is mostly Blue, and have been bridling at Trump’s efforts to change things. You cannot imagine the how the entire US federal bureaucracy, and lots of state bureaucracies, are drooling at the prospect of trashing human lives in the US. They hate Americans.

I’m not exaggerating. I’ve seen the inside of government bureaucracy and the average worker is delighted at making things difficult. They typically snicker at the thought of raising Byzantine barriers; they enjoy it. The more complicated and secretive things are, the better they like it. It’s like cocaine; it makes them feel alive.

A favorite weapon is surveillance. They have a religious zeal for snooping and uncovering even the most private communications. For this reason, I have long recommended encrypted communications. We don’t have long to change our habits to face this threat.

I use Signal on my phone. Despite whatever chinks there may be in that armor, it’s better than the alternative. I’ve long been ready to exchange email using GPG encryption. I realize it’s a hassle to set up, but once you get it in place, the only way to crack it is to get hands on your device. Even that can be circumvented if you use GPG properly: compose the message in plain text, encrypt it directly and post it into your email app, then destroy the original. If your recipient deletes messages after reading, that closes the loop completely. Ask me for a key exchange if you are interested.

Furthermore, I recommend using encryption for all communications, including the routine stuff, so that snoops can’t tell which messages are worth the effort to track.

For those who are just lazy, we can no longer use Proton Mail. I’m moving away from that service after the recent revelations that their CEO has shifted completely away from a focus on security for the user. All things considered, the next best is something like Mailfence. I have one of their free accounts. If we both use that service to communicate, it’s very hard for any government to snoop on the conversation. If you would like to know the address I use, ask me privately.

There are other ways to dodge the coming surveillance, but if you act as if they don’t matter, you may have trouble getting me to respond fully on anything. I won’t hesitate to explain things I post publicly, but asking me to address specific implementation of some things requires privacy.

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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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