Afleveringen
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In case you havenât noticed as youâre reading your Bible, Jesus could be a bit of a trouble-maker. He was constantly riling up the Pharisees and ultra-religious Jews, He was making the Roman authorities uncomfortable, He was known to flip tables and push buttons and run off His own followers. And Heâs been known to step on my toes a few times as well.
Jesus also had this tendency to outsmart the smart people. And smart people really donât like that. Thatâs what they tell me, anyway.
And on one of those many occasions where the Jews literally wanted to stone Jesus, He had just said that He was equal with God. They accused Him of blasphemy for this, and He gave a very interesting reply to their accusation- one that the Jews of Jesusâ day would have comprehended, but something I think most of us Christians misunderstand.
John 10:33-34
33 The Jews answered him, âIt is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.â 34 Jesus answered them, âIs it not written in your Law, âI said, you are godsâ?
Now thatâs a strange thing to say. It sounds like Jesus is saying, âwhatâs the big deal with calling myself a god? Doesnât scripture say all of us are gods?â
And then that begs another question: when did Scripture say that all of us are gods?
I find this to be weird, and Iâd like to explore why itâs in the Bible.
Turn to John 10, and letâs get weird.
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0:00 - Introduction
2:05 - The John 10 Context
10:40 - The Psalm 82 Context
12:45 - Putting it All Together
16:50 - Next Time
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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Youâve been in those boring staff meetings before, right? The excruciatingly long staff meetings. Staff meetings that make you want to go read some Leviticus, just to live a little. Yes, weâre all familiar with a staff meeting.
Did you know that Heaven has staff meetings? In fact, Heavenâs staff meetings are where the affairs of earth are dictated. They involve various spiritual beings who are assigned authority over various territories. And they all get together and hash out their plans.
And unlike your workplaceâs staff meetings, Iâm sure the ones in heaven arenât boring at all.
Now, perhaps youâre hearing all this and youâre thinking: I think if God had staff meetings, He would have told us something about it in the Bible.
And if thatâs you, youâre in the right place. Because guess what: this is all through the Bible. So if you listen through to the end, Iâm going to demonstrate three outlandish things, and youâre probably going to be skeptical that I can really do this, but give me a chance here. In the next 20 minutes, Iâm going to prove:
That God has staff meetings to determine the affairs of manThat both good and evil spiritual beings are invited to attend and contribute at these meetingsThat this is mentioned in various places of scripturePretty wild, right? But if youâre willing to listen until the end, Iâll back it all up with Bible.
And weâll start with I Kings 22. Turn there in your bible, and letâs get weird.
0:00 - Introduction
3:25 - Ahab and Micaiah - the Earthly Drama
11:55 - God and His Council - the Heavenly Drama
19:00 - Next Time, Newsletter and Closing Thoughts on Godâs Sovereignty
Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:
https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/
You can also find a list of past newsletters at that same link so you never have to miss one.
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Christianity is a monotheistic religion. In fact, if you go to Wikipediaâs page on Christianity, the very first line says, âChristianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion.â If you google it, Google will tell you that âChristianity is the largest monotheistic religion in the world.â
So obviously, if we know anything about Christianity, we have to know itâs monotheistic.
Mono is a prefix that means âone.â Theistic refers to deity. Christianity has one deity: God.
This differentiates us from the polytheists such as the Hindus or Greeks and Romans or Norse mythology or any of the pagan religions out there. They believe in multiple gods; we only believe in one.
Christianity is monotheistic, this I know; for Wikipedia tells me so.
But what does the Bible say?
Well, youâll hear verses that speak of the God of the Universe as the One True God.
Isaiah 45:5
I am the Lord, and there is no other;
There is no God besides Me.Sounds simple, right? But then you read verses like
Psalm 82:1
God stands in the congregation of the mighty;
He judges among the gods.Who are these gods it speaks of here?
I find this to be weird, and Iâd like to explore why itâs in the Bible.
Turn to Psalm 82, and letâs get weird.
Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:
https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/
You can also find a list of past newsletters at that same link so you never have to miss one.
0:00 - Introduction
1:30 - Psalm 82
6:30 - Introducing the Divine Council
11:00 - Multiple gods in Scripture
15:15 - Next Time, Newsletter and Closing Thoughts on the Trinity
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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Are you ever reading through your bible and then you come across a word that your mama used to tell you not to say?
That might happen especially if youâre reading the King James Version. It has quite a few verses that can have you doing a double-take. But every version of the Bible has some shockingly crude or maybe even vulgar statements that donât sound like they should be coming out of the Holy Scriptures.
So I hate to put a content restriction on todayâs episode and Iâm not going to say any curse words, but you might not want little ears to hear some of the things weâre going to study in Isaiah or Ezekiel today. But let me just say: Iâm assuming Ezekielâs grandma wasnât in the audience when he used some of his sexual metaphors.
And Paul himself in the New Testament said a few things that may have gotten the bar of soap put in his mouth. If you donât believe me, thereâs a sweet little verse in Philippians 3 where Paul is talking about how nothing we we do can measure up to the work of Christ when it comes to our salvation.
In Philippians 3:8, he says
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
OK. Thatâs a nice pleasant verse to hammer home the sufficiency of Christâs sacrificeâŠin the English.
But in the Greek, the word ârubbishâ right there is a little stronger. Itâs the Greek word âSkubala,â which doesnât mean rubbish, but actually means poop. And not just any poop. One of the strongest words in the Greek language for poop.
We have some strong words for poop in our language, too. Words I wonât say here on this podcast- especially because my grandma might be listening.
But Philippians did say it. Am I listening to Howard Stern here, or am I reading the Apostle Paul?
I find this to be weird, and Iâd like to explore why itâs in the Bible.
Turn to Ezekiel 6, and letâs get weird.
Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:
https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/
You can also find a list of past newsletters at that same link so you never have to miss one.
0:00 - Introduction
2:15 - Ezekielâs Dirty Jokes
11:00 - Our Righteous is as WHAT?!
17:00 - Shock Jock Paul
23:40 - Next Time & Closing Thoughts
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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Some decisions are just too big to be left to chance. There are some decisions in life that are so huge, you wouldnât dare flip a coin on them.
What career you want to have.Who to marry.Which house to buy.Whether to challenge your 6-year-old to a Fortnite rematch after how he destroyed you the last time.These are weighty matters to consider. And yet, you would actually see people in the Bible casting lots to make some of these types of big decisions. Decisions of going into battle, figuring out who was guilty of a crime- and even matters of life and death.
Do I think itâs weird that Bible characters would use games of chance to make important decisions? Not necessarily. People make bad decisions all the time.
Itâs not necessarily weird to see people making important decisions in ways left up to random chance.
The weird think about it to meâŠis that it worked.
God often worked through people casting lots- literally playing games of chance- to reveal His will to them and to guide them to the correct choice.
I find this to be weird, and Iâd like to explore why itâs in the Bible.
Because if God revealed His will like that to them, would God reveal His will like that to me?
Turn to Ezekiel 21, and letâs get weird.
Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:
https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/
You can also find a list of past newsletters at that same link so you never have to miss one.
0:00 - Introduction
1:50 - Ezekiel 21, Guiding Nebuchadnezzar
7:25 - Is Anything Random?
15:45 - By the Spirit
18:50 - Next Time & Mailbag
20:40 - Closing Thoughts
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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How they Prove the Past and Foretell Our Future.
Probably my favorite movie of all time is Inception, the 2010 Leonard DiCaprio film with the dreams within dreams within dreams.The plot of that movie is a tangled web if there ever was one. You have to take it nice and slow, understand things one piece at a time, and once you understand all the smaller parts, you can put it all together and finally understand whatâs going on.
You might need to watch it a few times to get it all, but trust me, it all fits together. And even if you donât always understand what youâre looking at, the Hans Zimmer music is usually enough to keep you interested.
Dreams can be kind of loopy sometimes. And heavily symbolic. And you donât always understand whatâs going on when youâre in them. That was certainly the case for the Prophet Daniel in his book.
Daniel has a few truly wacky dreams and visions throughout his story. They involve ferocious beasts, a goat having a showdown with a ram, and a statue made of many types of metals.
These dreams are so hard to understand, they cause many Christians to just kind of read past them and move on to the next chapter as quickly as they can.
But these dreams are not just the effects of eating that leftover Chinese food. Danielâs dreams were from God. They actually had real-world predictive power. The details Daniel saw in his dreams were specific to things to come.
And some of these things he dreamed about have already happened; there are others that actually havenât happened yet.
So weâre going to dig into Danielâs dreams in chapters 2, 7 and 8 of his book, and Iâll explain what they mean today. And just like trying to understand Inception, weâre going to do that by taking things nice and slow; understanding one piece at a time, and then putting all those pieces together. Maybe with a little help from Leonardo DiCaprio.
So if youâve ever found Danielâs Dreams to kinda weird, and would like to know why theyâre in the Bible, then turn with me to Daniel 7, and letâs get weird.
Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:
https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/subscribe
0:00 - Introduction
3:15 - Daniel 7 and the Four Beasts
11:25 - Daniel 8 and the Ram and Goat
14:50 - Daniel 2 and the Statue
21:15 - Closing Thoughts
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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In Matthew 16, Jesus told us that those who believe in Him become part of the church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against us.
But what exactly are the gates of hell?
Over the past few weeks, we have been discussing the idea of spiritual gateways in the Bible. The modern word for these gates or gateways would be âportals,â but thatâs not a term that was used back when King Jimmy wrote his translation, so the biblical vocabulary for these would be gates.
Iâve been digging into this concept of the gate of heaven in the Old Testament. We traced out its whole story of what it was: a portal between heaven and earth- where it came from, the role it served in the Old Testament, and how it was eventually taken down by defiling its altar.
So when Jesus spoke of the gates of hell, could he have been referring to these entry points between our realm and the spiritual realm?
And if the gates of hell are these entryways, then what has Jesus given us- the church- the task of doing about them?
I find this to be weird, and Iâd like to explore why itâs in the Bible.
Turn to Matthew 16, and letâs get weird.
Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:
https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/subscribe
0:00 - Introduction
2:30 - Real Witchcraft
8:00 - Keys to the Kingdom
15:00 - Our Authority
22:30 - Newsletter
24:10 - The Altar of the Cross
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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There was an incredible comment left on my last episode: âGod is the biggest sci-fi nerd everâ
And I loved it because yeah, I know lately Iâve been talking about portals and gateways and UFOs and someone might wonder if Iâve been watching too much Star Wars instead of reading my Bible. But these concepts didnât start with science fiction; weâre seeing that they go all the way back to ancient times, written in Scripture itself, and will have a profound impact on how we understand spiritual warfare today.
And yeah, Iâve probably been watching too much Star Wars as well, but thatâs always true. A lot of these revelations Iâve been finding are actually new to me, including what Iâll be talking about in this episode.
So in the last two weeks, we established a few facts we can observe from the text of the Bible:
1- for spiritual beings to pass between our realm and the spiritual realm, they canât just pop in anywhere they want to. There has to be a way made through; a gate.
2- there are gates of heaven and gates of hell, and these are for the angels/good spiritual beings and the demons/bad spiritual beings
3- the gates are tied to physical locations on planet earth
4- the gates can be tainted or closed, as we observed in the story of Bethel
5- once the gates open, they stay open. Itâs not like Dr Strange where he opens a portal, jumps through it, and then closes it right behind him. Once the gate opens, it stays open.
But how does it open?
Well as I was reading about these locations where gateways had been established on the earth in Genesis 12 and 28 and 35 and I Kings 13 and several other places, there was a particular word that I would see come up again and again and again throughout these stories: âaltar.â
I found this to be weird, and Iâd like to explore why itâs in the Bible.
Turn to Genesis 12, and letâs get weird.
Sign up for the weekly newsletter! Get additional insights and Bible study tips for unpacking strange things in scripture. Enter your email here:
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0:00 - Introduction
2:35 - Altars Defined
6:20 - Bethel Revisited
13:50 - Altars Throughout Scripture
19:00 - Good Altars
21:50 - Next Time and Newsletter
24:00 - The Occult, Witchcraft and Idolatry
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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This episode is going to pick up on some threads we left hanging last week in regard to portals into the spiritual realm.
To briefly recap, I submitted the idea last week that spiritual beings, such as angels and demons, cannot enter our world or our physical realm wherever and whenever they want to. I believe there are particular locations on planet earth- which we might call âportalsâ in modern times, but the biblical term for these are âgatesâ- which spiritual beings use to access our reality.
Now, thatâs a lot to swallow for some people. Thatâs why I left it there for last week, but letâs build upon that idea this week. I want to study out one of these gates here in Scripture, the gate that was established in the city of Bethel.
Bethel is âthe house of God.â This is the location where Jacob spent the night and had a spiritual experience where he saw a portal here: a stairway to heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it.
When he woke up, he said: âHow awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.â
As we talked about last week, this city was the gate of heaven: an entryway that angels used to enter our realm from the heavenly realm. Weâre going to trace this out today and study Bethelâs story, because weâll see that this was a physical location that was greatly blessed by God.
And yet in the prophets later on in the Bible we start to see them speaking against Bethel.
In fact, in Amos 5:5, he says
Do not seek Bethel⊠[and] Bethel will be reduced to nothing.
Why would the prophet say something like this? In fact, Hosea also even changes the name of Beth-el, which means âthe House of God,â to Beth-aven, which means âthe House of Wickedness.â Why would the prophets say this about such a sacred city?
What happened to the Gate of Heaven?
I find this to be weird, and Iâd like to explore why itâs in the Bible.
Turn to Genesis 28, and letâs get weird.
0:00 - Introduction
3:30 - Genesis 28
6:00 - Genesis 35
12:00 - Judges 20 and I Samuel 7
14:00 - I Kings 12
19:40 - II Kings, Amos and Hosea
24:00 - Closing Thoughts and Whatâs Coming Next
Link to sign up for the newsletter: https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/subscribeIf you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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This might be an episode you have to listen to twice.
Something really caught my eye as I was reading through my Bible a few months ago, and digging into it has revealed a few things to me about the spiritual realm and how spiritual beings such as angels and demons can have access to our lives here on earth.
So I was reading about Jacobâs dream in Genesis 28, and how this location where he had his dream had the name changed from Luz to Bethel. If you have read Genesis or studied Jacobâs life, youâre probably familiar with this dream. Itâs when he saw a ladder or stairway to heaven with the angels going up and down on it.
And when Jacob wakes up, he makes this statement in
Verse 17
âHow awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.â
Something Iâve read over dozens of times before, but this time that phrase âthe gate of heavenâ really stood out to me. Because I wondered precisely what that means that this somewhat random location on earth was declared to be the gate of heaven.
Even more curiously to me, this is the only time in the entire Bible that the phrase âGate of Heavenâ is used.
I found that weird, and so I set out to explore why itâs in the Bible. And today Iâll give you my theories on that.
Turn to Genesis 28, and letâs get weird.
0:00 - Genesis 28 and Jacobâs Dream
6:45 - My Previous Theory of Higher-Dimensional Beings
12:45 - Letâs Throw Some Bible Into It
15:40 - Next Time
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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Was Peter the First Pope?
What Iâm going to talk about today is perhaps THE MOST misunderstood verse in the entire world today.
And I say that because there are about 1.4 billion Catholics in the world. If we were to consider Catholics a denomination of Christianity, then we Protestant denominations are far outnumbered. We who are Methodists, Pentecostals, Baptists, Southern Baptists, Free Will Baptists, Independent Fundamental Baptists, whatever those guys in Skillet are- all of us. If you added up all of the Protestant denominations together, youâd be under a billion, so we are far outnumbered by the Catholics.
And we Protestants agree with Catholics on a lot of things: the deity of Christ, the Trinity, Creation of the World from nothing, the authority of the Bible, the supremacy of Chick-Fil-A, lots of doctrines that we build our faith on.
But the reason I say that weâre tackling the most misunderstood verse in the whole Bible today is because Protestants have a very different take on this verse than Catholics do. And itâs this verse that suggests that the worldwide church was started with and built on Peter.
All becauseâŠJesus said so. Or thatâs what it sounds like, at least.
In Matthew 16, Jesus said,
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And Peter there, by the way, is Petros in the Greek, which means âstone.â
Wait a minute- do Protestants have this right? Is the church built on Peter? Was Peter truly the first pope?
I find this to be weird, and Iâd like to explore why itâs in the Bible.
Turn to Matthew 16, and letâs get weird.
0:00 - Introduction
2:00 - The Context
8:00 - Petros and Petra
14:15 - Next Time
16:40 - Closing Thoughts
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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We all know we have a soul. That our bodies may die, but we all have an eternal soul that will live on forever and ever.
All human beings have a soul. This is something that sets us apart from plants, animals and people who skip the theme song when theyâre watching The Office.
And then the Bible also speaks sometimes of each of us having a spirit, and we think of that similarly to the soul. Itâs that ghostly, non-physical part of us that only exists in the spiritual realm. We use the terms âsoulâ and âspiritâ pretty interchangeably, as if theyâre synonyms.
But then when youâre reading
I Thessalonians 5:23, Paul says
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Wait a minute: spirit and soul and body? You mean Iâm not just a body and soul; Iâm a body, soul and spirit? I always thought the spirit and the soul were the same thing, so why is I Thessalonians 5:23 talking about them as two different things?
I find this to be weird, and Iâd like to explore why itâs in the Bible.
Turn to Romans 8, and letâs get weird.
0:00 - Introduction
1:30 - Definition of the Spirit
10:10 - The Spiritâs Work Inside of Us
15:20 - The Spirit is a Point of Connection Between You and God
18:00 - Next Time and Closing Thoughts
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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One of the most puzzling verses in the whole Bible is
Malachi 1:3, where God says
âJacob I have loved;But Esau I have hatedâ
If that doesnât make you do a double-take while youâre reading your Bible, Iâm not sure what will.
Again, thatâs God speaking. Itâs written by Malachi, but itâs a quote from God. The same God who will be telling us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us just a handful of pages later. The same God who says feed and clothe your enemies. The same God who gave us the story of the Good Samaritan, right here, is declaring His hatred for Esau.
Who had his problems, but really wasnât such a terrible guy in my opinion. Especially not compared to his sniveling trickster brother, Jacob.
Now, some Christians swallow Malachi 1:3 without a second thought. They say, âIf God hates Esau, then God hates him. Esau must have deserved it.â And while I appreciate their willingness to accept whatever the Bible says at face value, I gotta admit, Iâve struggled with this one.
I mean, Iâve done episodes on Scriptureâs talking donkeys and demon-human hybrids, and I donât even blush at those passages. But Esau I have hated- THATâS the one where I have some hang-ups.
I find it to be weird, and Iâd like to explore why itâs in the Bible.
Turn to Malachi 1, and letâs get weird.
0:00 - Introduction
3:00 - Letâs Make it Worse
7:40 - Should you âhateâ your mother and father?
13:25 - The Chosen
19:00 - Mailbag
22:50 - Closing Thoughts
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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Imagine sitting on a hill, wondering about your life, when suddenly the heavens open, and you see creatures so otherworldly they defy description. Four faces on each of their heads, gleaming metal, fire, and a throne surrounded by lightning. Thatâs where Ezekielâs story beginsâand where weâre headed today.
The prophet Ezekiel sees something that very very few people in the Bible ever saw: a vision of God on His throne. In the very first chapter of the book, God appears before Ezekiel, attended to by these spiritual beings known as the cherubim. There are four of them, and each of the creatures has four faces. It says in
Ezekiel 1:10
As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle.
So Ezekiel gets off to a pretty strange start. Like I said, thatâs just the first chapter. And right off the bat, Ezekiel sees something that even almost no other prophet gets to see. And not only that, he gets to see it again. Ezekiel has another experience of God and the cherubim in
Ezekiel 10:14
And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of the cherub, and the second face was a human face, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.
So, thereâs a slight difference there between the description of the cherubim in chapter 1 vs the description in chapter 10. In chapter 1, one of the faces was described as an ox. In chapter 10, it was called the face of a cherub.
I find this to be weird, and Iâd like to know why it changes from one chapter to the next. And along the way of exploring this question, weâll actually discover the answer to another one: What does Satan look like?
Itâs probably not a question youâve ever dwelt on too long. You probably think Iâm pretty weird for even asking it. But this is not a podcast for people who like talking about normal stuff in the Bible. This is a podcast for people who like to learn about weird stuff in the Bible.
So if thatâs what youâre here for, turn to Ezekiel 1, and letâs get weird.
0:00 - Introduction
3:40 - Ezekiel 1 vs Ezekiel 10
14:00 - The Face of Satan
21:20 - Next Time & Closing Thoughts
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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This is a re-airing of a popular interview I did earlier this year with a man who has an amazing story of deliverance. He shares some of the story here, and gives some helpful advice for if you would come up in a similar situation in your own life.
Find Bill's book right here: https://www.amazon.com/Day-Satan-Called-Encounter-Possession/dp/0892968982/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
The Day Satan Called: A True Encounter with Demon Possession and Exorcism. Available in paperback and on Kindle.If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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Most Christians are regularly outwitted by Satan, and most Christians have no idea about his schemes- his devices- his designs.
We like to blame Satan for a lot of problems in life. The degradation of society, the strife in our families, the flat tire I got last Tuesday, whatever happened to Marvel after EndgameâŠ
And I think itâs a fair question to ask: what the heck is this guyâs problem? Whatâs his deal? How does he expect to possibly defeat God? Whatâs his master plan?
I find Satan to be weird, and Iâd like to understand what heâs doing throughout the Bible.
Turn to Genesis 3, and letâs get weird.
0:00 - Introduction
2:50 - Genesis 3-4
6:50 - Genesis 5-6
11:00 - Genesis 12
15:00 - II Samuel 7
21:30 - Closing Thoughts
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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I received a thought-provoking message from one of our listeners this week: Alana writes in:
I find it interesting in Acts 14 when the crowd claim that Paul and Barnabas are Zeus and Hermes that Paul and Barnabas do not deny that Zeus and Hermes exist. That Paul and Barnabas simply point out that they are only mortal men.
Now, thereâs a couple ways you could read Paulâs deflection in this story, which weâll study through in a moment. This took place in Lystra, where there was a temple of Zeus worship, and it ends with sacrifices being offered to him.
One way to read Paulâs comment is that heâs just ignoring Zeus as an irrelevant idol. Another way to read it is that Zeus is real. That despite the idols and temple of Zeus being meaningless structures, perhaps there is a spiritual entity behind them.
In fact, I Corinthians 10 even tells us that sacrifices to idols are offered to demons.
I find this to be weird, and Iâd like to explore why itâs in the Bible.
Turn to Acts 14, and letâs get weird.
0:00 - Introduction
2:20 - The Context in Acts 14
8:00 - The Identity of Zeus
18:15 - Next Time and Mailbag
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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Where do demons like to hang out?
You know, other than the DMV, the Grammy Awards, or in that sauce they put in Chipotle wraps.
Where would you go- or perhaps a better way to say it, where should you avoid- if you want to stay away from demons?
Well if you asked the writers of the Bible, they had an idea about where demons liked to congregate. I mean, certainly you can find a demon just about anywhere. But what locations of the earth were considered the domain of demons?
Jesus made a strange (almost off-handed) comment in
Matthew 12:43, where He said:
When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none.
So what did Jesus mean about demons- AKA unclean spirits- who go through dry, waterless places when they are cast out of a human?
I find this to be weird, and Iâd like to explore why itâs in the Bible.
Turn to Matthew 12, and letâs get weird.
0:00 - Introduction
2:45 - The Context
4:45 - Unholy Ground
10:00 - Kingdom Authority
18:20 - Next Time and Closing Thoughts
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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Naaman the Syrian had it going on. A great job, a great reputation, all the money he needed- oh, and he had leprosy.
In those days, this was a death sentence.
In those days, a great job, a powerful position, favor with kings, all the money in the world, none of it meant anything if you had leprosy- because if you had leprosy, you were gonna die.
Desperate for an answer, Naaman travels to the land of Israel to meet with a certain miracle-worker named the prophet Elisha. But then, in one of the most amazing stories in the Bible, Naaman is totally cleansed and allowed to return home to Syria. Heâs getting a second chance at life. And all he asks for after that are a couple of jars to take home some dirt with him.
Wait, what? Dirt?
I mean, weâve all been souvenir shopping when we went somewhere special, or when we wanted to take a memory home with us. But why did Naaman request to take some dirt home with him?
I find this to be weird, and Iâd like to explore why itâs in the Bible.
Turn to II Kings 5, and letâs get weird.
0:00 - Iâve Got a Jar of Dirt
10:22 - Holy Dirt
15:45 - Mailbag and Next Time
17:10 - Closing Thoughts
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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Todayâs lesson is too important to wait.
And I almost didnât do it. Because these verses that weâre studying today are going to come up again in the book of Enoch, and Iâm planning on starting a book of Enoch series here on the podcast early next year. And so you might hear some of this information repeated again in a few months, and I almost didnât create todayâs lesson so that I wouldnât be repetitive.
But itâs just way too important not to tell you this today, because it has the potential to revolutionize your prayer life. And it gives us some very practical application to this series of episodes weâve been doing about spiritual warfare and demons for the past few months.
I mean, why spend all this time learning about the capabilities of spiritual beings like demons if we donât also learn about the capabilities we have as Christians to stop them?
So in Matthew 16, Jesus informs His followers about the spiritual authority that we have.
He says In verse 19
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
But this terminology has not shown up in the Bible before, so what in the world does it mean?
I find this to be weird, and Iâd like to explore why itâs in the Bible.
Turn to Matthew 16, and letâs get weird.
0:00 - Intro
2:20 - The Declaration of Who Jesus Is
6:50 - Wrong Theories About Binding and Loosing
9:45 - The Right Theory on Binding and Loosing
14:35 - How to Land on the Right Theory
16:45 - Change How You Pray
If you want to get in touch, my email is [email protected]
Hosted by Luke Taylor
If youâre intrigued by strange Bible stories, uncovering Bible mysteries, or learning about unusual biblical teachings, this podcast is for you! Dive deep into weird Bible facts, biblical controversies, and the supernatural in the Bible, while exploring the hidden stories of the Bible you may have never heard. Get a fresh perspective as we explain the Bible in ways that challenge the norm and uncover the unexpected. Iâm so glad youâre here- donât forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!
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