Weird Stuff in the Bible

Forever is a long time.  It’s especially a long time if you’re in hell. And so we need to make sure we’ve got this doctrine right. Revelation 14:11 says of the people in hell the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever Jude 7 says Sodom and Gomorrah  serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire One of the traditional Christian teachings is that hell is (1) eternal, (2) co...

Why should you study the book of Enoch? Does it hold any value to our faith walk? Is it ill-advised to read any collection of prophetic writings when it’s not part of the biblical canon? Well, let’s answer that question with an observation: the book of Jude directly quotes from the book of Enoch. Jude 14-15 say 14 It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Beho...

I have studied a fair amount of literature on the world before the flood, but none of it has made that world come alive to me like Brian Godawa’s theological works. He graciously joined me for an interview today to discuss some of his theological foundations; some of the topics discussed include: - Did “gods” walk among men? - The Sons of God and the Divine Council - Michael Heiser’s influence on...

Is it possible that dinosaurs are mentioned in the Bible itself? Well that idea is a little too far out there for most people to even consider.  Even those who believe in a young earth tend to believe that the dinosaurs died out either before or during the worldwide flood in Genesis, and that’s why all we have left of them today are fossils buried under layers of earth. And if you believe in an ol...

So I’ve been studying the book of Enoch for a series of episodes I’d like to begin next year, and I found something that just can’t wait until 2026. It’s too cool. The Book of Enoch- which is a controversial book- which is not part of the biblical canon- which has a lot of legitimate questions about its authenticity- which was written before Jesus was born- predicts the timing of when the Messiah...

What I like about Matthew’s Gospel is that he connects the Old Testament to the New. He’ll include a verse from the Old Testament and say something like, “As the prophet Jeremiah said…” or “As the prophet Isaiah said…” I appreciate that he cites his sources.  Except for that time that, well, he didn’t. And we have no idea where it came from. It’s in the Christmas story, Matthew chapter 2, where it...

Coming up on today’s edition of Weird Stuff in the Bible, we have an interview with Remnant Radio’s Michael Miller. He’s going to help us answer the question: Can Christians be Possessed by Demons?  Remnant Radio is a podcast with three pastors who teach on spiritual gifts and how to operate in them within the church. What I like about Remnant Radio is that they (1) have first-hand experience in t...

Normally on these episodes I start by introducing a Bible passage that’s bizarre, perplexing, or just plain weird. But we are reaching a milestone of 100 episodes, and I thought I would just take a step back this time and tell you the story of why I’m such a weirdo. Why I like digging into the weird stuff in the Bible. Why I think the weird stuff in the Bible matters. And it all starts with a craz...

I had three listeners send me the same video in a 24-hour span. Which means you have my attention. And they all thought this would be right in line with the podcast here, which means it’s gonna get weird. And what was the video? I’ll play it for you later, but this video claims that in the end times- as Jesus describes them in Luke 21- there will be great signs in the heavens. And that the Greek t...

I was not able to put together a new episode for today, so I am re-sharing a popular episode from the past. Look for a new episode next week that dives into Luke 21 and Jesus' prophecy of the "sky monsters." In today's episode: Something really strange happened when Jesus was being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.  This is the night that Jesus was put on trial, and the next day He was nailed...

I have a special episode for you all today, it’s a conversation with an experienced deliverance expert, Beatty Carmichael. He is a Bible teacher and has served as a deliverance minister, and he specializes in exposing the spiritual roots behind conditions like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, addiction and chronic pain. He’s got a simple, step-by-step path to breakthrough from these th...

King Solomon had to be crazy. 300 wives. That’s 300 anniversaries to keep track of, 600 in-laws, and being told to pick your underwear up off the floor 900 times every day. I’ve never met anyone who thought that 300 wives sounded like a good idea. Doesn’t seem very wise. If any of us wanted advice for anything, we probably aren’t asking the guy who got married 300 times.  And yet, we do, because t...

When you’re a Christian, you believe certain things about God. That the Bible reveals God to us. That God is morally perfect. That God is the same yesterday, today and forever. But also, in the Old Testament, that God allowed slavery. Wait wait wait. Wait a minute. We all know that slavery is wrong.  We had a Civil War about it, we had Martin Luther King Jr, we had like four Planet of the Apes mov...

I hope you enjoy your bacon-wrapped water chestnuts, your gummy bears, your Hawaiian Pizza, your Shrimp Tacos, your Crab Rangoons, and your Sausage Egg McMuffins. Because all of these foods are forbidden under the Old Testament law. Thankfully, we don’t live under the Old Testament law! Although I do still think we should forbid ham and pineapple pizza. I probably would be willing to go back under...

OK so my brother Ben sent me this comment over the summer: Why did God have a problem with the Tower of Babel but not us going to the moon? That’s because we never went. That’s Biblical. Put that in your library and smoke it. Now that’s actually a really smart question Ben. I don’t really know what the library part meant but you got my gears turning with the first part. A lot of us hear the story...

Paul’s thorn in the flesh. This is a mysterious phrase Paul uses that has stumped commentators for centuries.  In II Corinthians 12:7, Paul writes 7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Paul experienced some kind of hardship in his life-...

Paul uses a phrase that I don’t quite know how to interpret, because it’s the only place in the whole Bible that uses this phrase. II Corinthians 12:2 reads I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven Wait, who was this guy? What is the third heaven? And what happened to the first two? I mean, some of us know about the Seventh Heaven, if we spent a little too mu...

If you'd like to listen to "God and His Prophets: A verse-by-verse study through the Bible’s major and minor prophets," you can find it wherever you find this podcast. You can also visit this link: https://godandhisprophets.transistor.fm/ God and His Prophets is a verse-by-verse Bible study podcast exploring the mysterious prophets and prophetic texts of the Bible. Each episode unpacks Scripture,...

You can WATCH this week's loooooong episode right here: https://youtube.com/live/AFtXdS1qvlg?feature=share If you’re a Christian who has been saved and redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, why do you still struggle against the devil? Why do we have destructive patterns, addictions and sins in our lives that we just can’t get free of? What are some of the ways we give the devil legal access to our li...

Besides this podcast, where else could you go for talks of aliens, spiritual warfare, resurrection, raptures, portals into the spirit realm, and how to cook with poop?  I’ll tell you where else you could go: the Bible. Because the Bible has all those subjects in it. And we’re going to talk about all of them today. To start: there is a dark and disturbing story in II Kings 3 where the Israelites ar...

Back in the first episode of this show, I laid out several mysteries of the Bible that have always puzzled me. Things like talking donkeys, six-fingered giants, that time Michael got into a fistfight with the devil over the body of Moses… And I’ve done episodes on all these things. But there’s one mysterious verse for which I never got around to finding an explanation, and that will finally change...

Is sin a verb or a noun? Is it an act you choose, or a power that chooses you? Is sin something you do, or does it do something to you? And the answer to all of those questions…is yes.  Today I’m going to talk about what happens in the spiritual realm when we sin.  We often focus on sin in the physical realm as something we choose. What we don’t realize is our sins actually create legal rights in...

Ever since the Garden of Eden, we have been in a battle for dominion. The devil seeks dominion over your eternity, but that’s not all. He wants dominion over your personal life, and he wants dominion over physical space on planet earth. I don’t think most Christians realize that the devil is out to conquer territory. We often talk about the spiritual battle that we’re all in, and that can cause us...

Most Christians don’t realize this: not every thought you have is your own thought. Some of them are the thoughts of the Pneumatikos. What are the Pneumatikos? They’re those things Paul warned us about in Ephesians 6:12. Once of the most famous New Testament verses. You’ve heard it. I’ve heard it. We’ve all heard it. Ephesians 6:12 says (in the ESV) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, b...

We’re going to be in the book of Ephesians for the next couple of weeks, really centering around this famous verse at the end of the book: Ephesians 6:12 (NIV) For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Next week, we’ll be looking at what the...