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

Turquoise

In past fire rained down from the heavens

God's judgment administered to the damned

Coals of fire only way to God's presence

To law, judgment, and pain God didst remand

But no asceticism like Tolstoy's

Could ever protect or deliver us

And even totem of heavn'ly turquoise

Becomes debased as sin effloresces

Where then can we look for our pirouzeh?

We look to him whose eyes are flaming fire

And patiently await Parousia

When Son of Man exacts all that's required

With confident boldness we now then pray

Seeking God's Kingdom come until The Day

[Mt. 5:17-20 and Mt. 6:5-15]. In the Old Testament we read about God’s extreme holiness. We see a number of instances of fire raining down from heaven in judgment. Even for God’s people, his holiness was extreme. We see in Isaiah that God placed a burning coal on his lips to purify him. The old vision of God was one of a consuming fire. Apart from the cases of God’s judgment, as in Sodom and Gomorrah, or those directly entering God’s presence, like Isaiah, we also see images of the coals (or the fire) of animal sacrifice the Israelites went through in order to purify themselves before a holy God. 

In Galatians 3 Paul says, “23 Before the coming of this faith,[j] we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.” This old system is what guided us, though imperfectly, until a new system was established. 

Leo Tolstoy was an advocate of extreme asceticism. The law tended to drive people to a similar sort of path as seen in the asceticism of the Pharisees in Jesus’s day. But such a system doesn’t work. 

Turquoise supposedly protected its wearer. A sign of impending danger was that the color of the turquoise would change. Turquoise was often a religious totem viewed as imparting protection.

There’s a lot going on here. 1) The straightforward meaning is that whatever heavenly protection one thought they gained through their totem, sin is a corrupting force present in all of us. Sin is contrary to that which is from heaven. 2) “Effloresce” is a chemical term which means for crystals to form on a substance. This ofte