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 Endgame…

And I think it’s a fair question to ask: what the heck is this guy’s problem? What’s his deal? How does he expect to possibly defeat God? What’s his master plan?

I find Satan to be weird, and I’d like to understand what he’s doing throughout the Bible.

Turn to Genesis 3, and let’s 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 weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re 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. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

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, there’s a couple ways you could read Paul’s deflection in this story, which we’ll 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 Paul’s comment is that he’s 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 I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to Acts 14, and let’s 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 weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re 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. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

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 I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to Matthew 12, and let’s 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 weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re 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. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

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. He’s 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, we’ve 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 I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to II Kings 5, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - I’ve 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 weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re 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. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

Today’s lesson is too important to wait.

And I almost didn’t do it. Because these verses that we’re studying today are going to come up again in the book of Enoch, and I’m 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 didn’t create today’s lesson so that I wouldn’t be repetitive.

But it’s 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 we’ve 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 don’t 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 I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to Matthew 16, and let’s 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 weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re 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. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

There is a parable which I believe is not technically a parable- I believe it’s a true story- called The Rich Man and Lazarus. Jesus tells this story in Luke 16. And there’s a lot of strange things you could point out about this story, but what always sticks out to me is where Lazarus goes when he dies in this story.

Luke 16:22

So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom.

And as you read the story, you find that a rich man died and went to a fiery place of torment called hades, but the beggar named Lazarus went to a better place called Abraham’s Bosom.

Now, we’ve all heard of going to heaven and hell when we die. And I don’t believe in purgatory. But what is Abraham’s Bosom?

And I’ll do you one better, where is Abraham’s Bosom?

And I’ll do you one better, why is Abraham’s Bosom in the Bible?

We’ll answer all these questions today, because I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to Isaiah 14, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Intro

1:10 - Sheol

7:00 - Abraham’s Bosom

11:00 - Luke 16, The Rich Man and Lazarus

18:00 - Closing Thoughts

If you want to get in touch, my email is weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re 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. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

The devil really really doesn’t want you to listen to today’s episode. Because this is going to blow the door wide open on one of Satan’s schemes that he uses to try and make us ineffective as Christians. But, I’ll also tell you how to overcome it.

Last year, one of my pastor friends who was preaching through the book of Daniel and came across the strange story in chapter 10. And he commented that he didn’t know how he was going to teach it.

And I was like, “what you do mean, how you’re going to teach it? You just teach it. You read what it says and make sure everyone understand it.”

But I understand what he meant. Daniel 10 is weird. It deals with something we don’t hear about a lot in the spiritual realm.

But just because we don’t hear about it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen every day. It’s a weird thing to us, but a totally normal thing in the spirit.

In Daniel 10, it says that demons and fallen angels actually have a way to stop our prayers. That God can even hear our prayers, send an answer, and that Satan can stop it before the answer comes to us. Believe it or not, that’s something that devils can interfere with.

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to Daniel 10, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Intro

1:30 - Daniel 10, Wrestling with Angels

6:00 - The Prince of Persia

8:25 - Demons Can Disrupt Our Prayers

11:00 - Mailbag

13:25 - Keep Praying and Don’t Give Up

If you want to get in touch, my email is weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re 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. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!

It was a dark and moonless night when King Saul, cloaked in fear and despair, wandered the desolate wilderness of Mount Gilboa. His once-mighty heart had grown heavy, for the Lord had turned silent—no dreams, no prophets, no answers. His enemies, the Philistines, loomed at his doorstep, and without divine guidance, Saul felt utterly forsaken.

Desperation drove the king to a forbidden path, one he had condemned in years past. He had ordered all the mediums and spiritists to be cast out of Israel, for the Lord forbade such practices. But now, Saul himself sought a medium—a woman who dwelled in the shadowed village of En Dor — known to whisper with the dead.

Did you know the Bible has a ghost story? Saul visits a woman known as a medium or a necromancer. A practice forbidden in Old Testament law, and still to this day. In fact, in the Old Testament, doing this resulted in the death penalty.

You might say, “now ghosts aren’t real. Once you die, you go to heaven or hell. You can’t drop back in and grab a cup of coffee with the living.”

And yet, as you’ll hear in a few minutes, Saul’s plan seems to work, and the ghost of a long-dead prophet is brought up from the grave.

Or is it all a demonic trick?

I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to I Samuel 28, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - The Ghost of En Dor

5:45 - Real or Fake?

9:30 - Was it Actually Saul? Or a Demon?

18:30 - Vote

If you want to get in touch, my email is weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Hosted by Luke Taylor

If you’re 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. I’m so glad you’re here- don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE so that you never miss an episode!