Holy Smokes: Cigars, Catholicism, and Conversation

What is Genesis 1 about? God creates the universe as His temple in which He dwells. The Logos, the Great High Priest, and mediator between the Father and creation, is the Great Man of Light, who "vests" Himself in created matter, to dwell in His macrocosmic temple, filling it with His veiled presence and glory. Microcosmically, this theophany is replicated in Adam, who is the "cult statue" of God, who, as "god on Earth," dwells in the temple of Eden, as High Priest, Son of God, and King. This drama is again reenacted by the Melchizedek Priest-Kings in the Temple of Jerusalem, and is finally fulfilled by the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which restores man and the cosmos - in which we, as "cult statues" of Christ, have a vital part to play! (I apologize. For some reason the video/audio was delayed at times.)

This is a dream come true! Dr. Margaret Barker is one of my heroes, who literally created the discipline of study known as "Temple Theology," without which Christianity - Catholicism, in particular - makes little sense. I cannot emphasize this enough: If you want to understand the faith, you MUST seek to understand the First Temple. This will be the first episode in a series; and for this instalment, I ask Margaret the following questions: 1. What is Temple Theology? Why is it so important to understanding Christian origins? 2. It is often assumed the Mosaic covenant predates Christianity, and is the most ancient faith of Israel. But from your work, this doesn't appear to be the case. Can you explain the covenant of peace/the eternal covenant/the covenant of loving-kindness? How does the Melchizedek priesthood factor into it?

"The Communion of Saints": Why on Earth - or in Heaven(!) - would you pray to a "saint"? Isn't this just misguided superstition? Or worse, rank, blasphemous idolatry? Surely, there's no sound Biblical, theological, and historical basis for this!

“What is the Church”? As the Body of Christ, what is Her Nature? What is Her purpose? What is Her relationship to Her Head, Jesus Christ? Is She Essential for salvation? Is she visible? Invisible? Both? How many “churches” are there, really; and how can we find the One actually established by the God-Man, Himself?

Dr Rachel Fulton Brown joins me to talk about “Mary as Stumbling Block.” Why is the Virgin Mary so important? How were ancient and Medieval Christians able to find Mary in the Old Testament, as they did with Christ; and how do those views stand in contrast to some of the more hostile, modern views of her? Make sure you stay tuned for Part 2, where we will go into greater detail about the link between Temple Theology and Catholic Mariology! Happy Feast of the Queenship/Immaculate Heart of Mary! Most Holy Theotokos, save us!

Al-Amin Toledo joins me again, to discuss “How Temple Theology Changed our Minds about Christian Origins.” We wanted to address not only THAT the very first Christians saw Jesus as Yahweh Incarnate, but WHY and HOW they saw him as such. Stay tuned for part 3 in the future!

My special guest and dear friend, Al-Amin Toledo, joins me to discuss how our encounters with “unique” forms of Islam ultimately led us to the door of Temple Theology and the Great High Priest, Jesus Christ. We just started scratching the surface, so stay tuned for part 2! *Correction: At the beginning of the show, I said Al-Amin was my first guest. He's actually the second; my first guest was my wife.*

Isn't Catholicism just a repackaged hodgepodge of paganism? Isn't Mary just another “fertility goddess,” and the saints “false gods,” getting in the way of a true relationship with the One, True God, alone? *Correction: At 37:09, I said, “the wife of Solomon.” I meant to say, “the mother of Solomon.”*

When my wife found out I wanted to become Catholic, our marriage almost went up in smoke! Spoiler alert: it didn't . . .Disclaimer: My wife doesn't smoke cigars, and I do not smoke in the house.