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 “portals,” but that’s not a term that was used back when King Jimmy wrote his translation, so the biblical vocabulary for these would be gates.

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

Turn to Matthew 16, and let’s get weird.

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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 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 was an incredible comment left on my last episode: “God is the biggest sci-fi nerd ever”

And I loved it because yeah, I know lately I’ve been talking about portals and gateways and UFOs and someone might wonder if I’ve been watching too much Star Wars instead of reading my Bible. But these concepts didn’t start with science fiction; we’re 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, I’ve probably been watching too much Star Wars as well, but that’s always true. A lot of these revelations I’ve been finding are actually new to me, including what I’ll 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 can’t 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. It’s 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: “altar.”

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

Turn to Genesis 12, and let’s get weird.

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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 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!

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 “portals” in modern times, but the biblical term for these are “gates”- which spiritual beings use to access our reality.

Now, that’s a lot to swallow for some people. That’s why I left it there for last week, but let’s 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 “the house of God.” 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: “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

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. We’re going to trace this out today and study Bethel’s story, because we’ll 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 ‘the House of God,’ to Beth-aven, which means ‘the House of Wickedness.’ 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 I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.

Turn to Genesis 28, and let’s 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 What’s Coming Next

Link to sign up for the newsletter: https://weirdstuffinthebible.beehiiv.com/subscribe

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!