Episode Details

• A huge thanks to Joseph McDade for his generous permission to use his music: https://josephmcdade.com/
• Thanks to Palmtoptiger17 for the beautiful logo: https://www.instagram.com/palmtoptiger17/
• Discord Discussion Board: https://disboard.org/server/474580298630430751 
• The Historic Faith Courses: https://thehistoricfaith.com/
• My Sonnet Compilation: https://www.amazon.com/My-First-Sonnets-J-G-Elliot-ebook/dp/B01LXXIIQN/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=my+first+sonnets&qid=1585870352&sr=8-2

• Richard Rohr's "Sermon on the Mount": https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003A0IASQ/ref=cm_sw_r_em_api_uOXEFbGCN7ASQ
• Dallas Willard's "The Divine Conspiracy": https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Conspiracy-Rediscovering-Hidden-Life/dp/0007596545/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=dallas+willard+divine+conspiracy&qid=1601907374&sr=8-1

Pearl

To those who know not life, our death is vain

Moonshine muscled into our very souls

But they can't see truth of what they disdain

These pearls in mud in which the pig wallows

Ungulates can't know supernatural

Nor can minds fathom the depths of the sea

Unless God overcomes the rational

Changing dumb asses to talking donkeys

To all those who have wisdom let them hear

Before us there stands a pearl of great price

Two choices lay ahead, the first is fear

Second, sell all you have for Paradise

Kingdoms of Earth and Gates of hell will fail

While pearly Gates of conquered will prevail

[Mt. 7:6] This refers to the foolishness of the Christian life. To the world, the Christian’s sacrifice and way is foolish. In the first line I say “our death is” rather than “our deaths are” to emphasize the unity and oneness of the Christian life and aim. However, in the next line I will separate this to emphasize that we are still individuals (souls). 

Moonshine here can mean three things. 1) They think we’re drunk and intoxicated on religion, like those on the day of Pentacost believed about the Christians. 2) They think our religion is “moonshine,” or craziness. We are ignorant fools. 3) What we are selling is crazy. We’re liars. We’re snake oil salesmen. This is somewhat like setting up Lewis’s “Lord, Liar, Lunatic” example, though without the Lord part. The world believes that this stupidity we believe has muscled its way into our lives – either by force or by massage, by necessity or by brainwashing over time. This idea of “muscle” is also a word play on “mussel,” which are the freshwater variant of the bivalve which forms pearls. In this sense I am alluding to the idea that the pearls created in us are pearls from streams of living water (fresh, running water) – a significant image in the New Testament and early church for the life of Christ in us. 

This is an obvious allusion to where Matthew talks about throwing our pearls before swine. The pearls of a Christian’s life and wisdom mean nothing to a lost world. Our pearls are muddied by the world, and the beasts cannot recognize their splendor and worth. This use of swine may also have a deeper meaning in Matthew, and it certainly does as I use it. Pigs are one of the few (maybe only, I’m not sure) animals which appear clean on the outside (cloven hooved) but are not clean on the inside (don’t chew their cud). Without a close inspection of swine, nobody would ever know they were uncle