Category: Do Not Crosspost

This is the same level of sloppiness that ‘permits’ Baptists to ignore what Matthew 28 actually says (i.e., that baptizing is how one makes disciples).

The Second Commandment is not “Thou shalt not make a graven image.”; rather, that is a commentary on the First Commandment — “Thou shalt have no other gods.” This is made abundantly clear by the sentence that follows the one about graven/carved images: “You shall not bow down to them or serve them[.]” This is the entire point of the paragraph; it is illustrating and expanding on what it means to have no other gods.

Here is the full passage (ESV):

3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Here is the Greek:

3 Οὐκ ἔσονταί σοι θεοὶ ἕτεροι πλὴν ἐμοῦ.

4 Οὐ ποιήσεις σεαυτῷ εἴδωλον οὐδὲ παντὸς ὁμοίωμα, ὅσα ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ ἄνω καὶ ὅσα ἐν τῇ γῇ κάτω καὶ ὅσα ἐν τοῖς ὕδασιν ὑποκάτω τῆς γῆς. 5 οὐ προσκυνήσεις αὐτοῖς οὐδὲ μὴ λατρεύσῃς αὐτοῖς· ἐγὼ γάρ εἰμι Κύριος ὁ θεός σου, θεὸς ζηλωτής, ἀποδιδοὺς ἁμαρτίας πατέρων ἐπὶ τέκνα ἕως τρίτης καὶ τετάρτης γενεᾶς τοῖς μισοῦσίν με, 6 καὶ ποιῶν ἔλεος εἰς χιλιάδας τοῖς ἀγαπῶσίν με καὶ τοῖς φυλάσσουσιν τὰ προστάγματά μου.

We want to pick out the word used for ‘carved image’ — it is εἴδωλον — and the word used for ‘likeness’ — it is ὁμοίωμα. In English, we might say idol for the first and image for the second. The prohibition is on the creation of idols for the purpose of worshipping them (again, see the next sentence), and the prohibition attaches whether the thing created is an idol (e.g., of Baal or Asherah or Moloch) or an image (e.g., the golden calf).

Notably, our translation into English as “carved image” (or “graven image” for those still using the KJV) is arguably not entirely accurate. The Greek does not say carved image — it simply says idol. The translation of εἴδωλον as “carved image” begs the question in one sense and collapses what God is commanding in another. God is not simply commanding that we do not create ‘carved’ images; rather, He is expanding upon the prohibition in the First Commandment with examples (ones that were particularly relevant to the immediate audience).

At a bare minimum, those who advocate for “Thou shalt not make a graven image.” as the Second Commandment should expand it to “Thou shalt not make a graven image or a likeness of anything that is in Creation.” (or expand Creation into the full “the heaven above, the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth”). However, it would certainly be better just to use the actual Second Commandment:

“Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord, thy God, in vain.”

Gentlemen, if you are ever tempted to despair, do not forget the current state of play:

A California attorney and a former Apple manager started a podcast and within two years have driven all of the existing ‘names’ within the ‘Christian’ sphere into such a state of hysteria that they are publishing books, blog articles, and ‘declarations’ as breakneck speed — but achieving nothing. They continue to lose ground.

God is on the move, and He will crush His enemies under His heel. Stay the course and we will win.

Soli Deo Gloria.

I have a number of organizing principles for my life — to include everything from my Weltanschauung to the way I engage in arguments; chief among them are these two:

1. Soli Deo Gloria.
2. That which is best for my people is that which I will pursue.

Honoring your ancestors — to include not slandering them — is.

2024-11(Nov)-23(Sat)—1737EST

“In the Church, however, judgement must be passed on the state and place of [the races of men] not on the basis of a Latin word [Gentiles] borrowed from the heathen, but on the basis of Holy Scripture.”

——

Gerhard’s original comment is about Hell and infernus, but it is equally true as repurposed.

This places Dispensationalism squarely in the camp of the damned.

2024-11(Nov)-19(Tue)—1427EST

There is a pernicious myth that ‘EQ’ (‘emotional intelligence’) is a (wholly) separate thing from IQ. If you have been deceived into believing this myth, permit me to disabuse you of that belief. Intelligence and emotional perceptivity are not distinct capacities; they are, in fact, rather closely related.

The man of exceptional intelligence will be able to accurately perceive the emotional states of others with a high degree of accuracy and with fewer clues than most men. Further, the highly intelligent are not, as a rule, ‘emotionally stunted’ or ‘emotionally handicapped’ — quite the opposite. Emotion is a key component of what it means to be human, and the highly intelligent possess a share of this that is roughly commensurate with their other intellectual gifts.

It is not that the highly intelligent are cold or uncaring or unfeeling or inhuman; rather, the will and the intellect are very closely linked, and a man of exceptional intelligence will almost invariably also possess an exceptional degree of self-control. It is one thing to have emotions; it is another thing to display them for all the world.

The caricature of the intellectually exceptional is that of the physically weak, sickly, and socially stunted outcast, but this is a set of pernicious lies — lies a certain sort of man finds comforting, hence their popularity. Contrary to this caricature, those of exceptional intelligence are typically physically more fit, genetically healthier, and socially capable, if sometimes reserved or controlled. The caricature exists on account of malice and is perpetuated because of envy. To hold such perniciously false and bitterly misguided beliefs is unbecoming of any man.

The African is inferior in virtually every way when compared to the European. The African is less intellectually capable, less attractive, less self-controlled; the African is more violent, more destructive, more gullible; and the African is more prone to demon worship, to syncretism, to heresy. There is, in fact, only one way in which the African is equal to the European:

The African, like the European, can be saved only by the blood of Christ.

The European cannot be saved by his race, but he is also not burdened by it — unlike the African.

“Vengeance is mine.”
— God (Romans 12)

‘But I subcontract.’
— God (Romans 13)

Bitcoin continues to be an issue on the Right, so let me go over a few facts:

1. The Bitcoin system is eminently vulnerable to certain kinds of attacks — most relevantly, a majority attack (we’ll call it, for the sake of clarity and convenience).
2. The safety mechanisms built into the Bitcoin system are meaningless and ineffective in the face of a majority attack.
3. A majority attack would be, admittedly, expensive to execute, but not prohibitively expensive.
4. China was widely recognized as controlling 60+% of the mining capacity of the system back in 2021.
5. It would be difficult (if not effectively impossible) to calculate China’s total percentage control of the Bitcoin system (in terms of nodes, not ‘coins’).
6. An actor with a majority control over the Bitcoin system (again, in terms of nodes, not ‘coins’) could effectively seize control of the entire system. This would, in fact, be trivial to accomplish.
7. The required investment to control a majority of nodes in the Bitcoin system would be something in the range of $20–30B.
8. The current Chinese economy is just shy of $20T.
9. $20B is 0.1% of $20T.

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A Majority Attack
A majority attack against the Bitcoin system would consist of gaining control over a majority of the nodes in the system (this can be accomplished simply by investing in hardware). An actor (almost certainly a State actor) in possession of a majority of nodes could simply:

1. reject all blocks or transactions from minority nodes (i.e., those not under the control of the attacker),
2. create its own version of the transaction history,
3. force this version to be accepted as correct or canonical, and
4. make it impossible for minority nodes to form an alternative consensus.

This is not even particularly complicated.

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Notably, all of this is essentially, once sufficiently abstracted, just fairly basic game theory.