Night of the Living Dead. World War Z. Resident Evil. The Walking Dead. And… Matthew chapter 27.

What do all of these have in common? They all contain zombies.

Now, if you don’t believe me that the Bible has some zombies in it, then explain this verse to me. Matthew 27 is about the crucifixion. Now, don’t worry, I’m not about to claim that Jesus was a zombie when He rose from the dead.

Jesus had a resurrection body. He was a special situation.

But something else happened when Jesus died on the cross; something you’ve probably read several times before but just never looked at too deeply:

Matthew 27:52-53

52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

What was that again? When Jesus died on the cross, several other random people walked out of their graves and…and then they’re never heard from again?

We’ll read this in-context in just a moment, but the context doesn’t help a whole lot. This is very random, raises some big questions, and is interested in answering none of them. It just moves right along in the passage and never mentions these zombies again.

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

Turn to Matthew 27, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

1:40 - Setting the Scene

5:00 - The Details

10:15 - Asking the Experts

21:45 - The Gospel through Zombies

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

Hosted by Luke Taylor

Entire books have been written about the thorny theological issue I want to talk about today.

James chapter 2. At face value, James 2 seems hard to reconcile with the rest of the New Testament.

That’s because the rest of the New Testament pretty clearly teaches this doctrine of salvation by grace through faith not of works. That’s a direct quote, actually.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Romans 4:2-3

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

Galatians 2:16

yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ,

So it’s like, every page of the New Testament makes this clear: salvation is only by grace through faith. There is nothing you can do to earn your salvation. Works play no part in it.

And then James comes along and says this in his second chapter,

Verse 14

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

Wait a second here. Let me read that again. (Re-read it)

Is James going against Paul? I can’t emphasize enough how much this seems to be saying the exact opposite of so many other verses in the Bible.

Is James contradicting Paul? Is James contradicting the Bible? Is James contradicting God Himself?

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

Turn to James 2, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

3:00 - James 2

6:15 - The Context of James

11:30 - Going Back to the Greek

17:00 - Next Time

20:00 - Closing Thoughts

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

Hosted by Luke Taylor

Let’s tackle one of the questions today that no Sunday School teacher wants to get: are Christian women supposed to wear “head coverings” according to I Corinthians 11?

Because when you read it very simply and plainly, it certainly feels like they should.

I Corinthians 11:5 says

But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head

Yikes! We don’t follow that one these days. Christians have all kinds of reasons to disregard some of the bizarre commandments and customs in the Law of Moses. But this one is a New Testament command. And it tells women that they should have some kind of covering over their heads.

It’s pretty clear. And yet almost no churches today follow this, at least in the Western world.

And if you ask your pastor or your Sunday School teacher why, they probably aren’t too sure. I mean, it’s right there in the Bible in the New Testament, but we don’t do it.

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

Turn to I Corinthians 11, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

1:30 - I Corinthians 11

6:00 - What is a Covering?

16:30 - What This Says about Gender and Nature

25:30 - Closing Thoughts

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

Hosted by Luke Taylor

What if someone came to a pastor and said, “How do I go to heaven?” Should the pastor tell him how to go to heaven? What kind of pastor wouldn’t tell someone who came to him and asked how to go to heaven how to go to heaven? That’s a pastor’s dream: for people to come to him and ask him how to go to heaven. That’s why we go to Bible schools and Bible colleges and spend years interning and preparing to lead churches: so we can tell people how to go to heaven.

And yet when a man came and asked Jesus how to go to heaven, Jesus didn’t tell him how to go to heaven. In fact, Jesus told him to do something else that wouldn’t even actually get him into heaven.

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

Turn to Luke 18, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

3:00 - The Rich Young Ruler Encounter (Luke 18)

9:00 - Mailbag

14:00 - What Was Jesus Doing?

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

Hosted by Luke Taylor

So I’ve done 25 episodes now about Weird Stuff in the Bible, but I haven’t talked about Jesus too much yet.

And I really need to, for two reasons. One, because everything in the Bible centers around Jesus.

And two, because Jesus is weird.

Now, I don’t mean that to be disrespectful. I just mean that He was odd.

If you don’t think Jesus is weird, I don’t think you know Jesus very well. He’s completely bizarre. His actions and emotions seem random. He seems to get set off by things that don’t bother other people. He’s extremely loving and gracious one minute and the next he’s kicking over a table. People come to him for help and he doesn’t help them. He gives them something else that they didn’t want. People ask him a question and he hardly ever answers their question- he’ll go off about something else that seems totally unrelated.

And just when He starts making sense- just when it starts to feel like you’re on the same page with Him- He suddenly changes direction and does something totally unexpected.

And I want to look at one of those stories today. Because I find Jesus to be weird. And I’d like know why He does what He does in the Bible.

Turn to Luke 4, and let’s get weird.

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

Hosted by Luke Taylor

The Day of Pentecost had a lot going on; it probably had more going on than you even realized. This is one of the most significant stories in the Bible; it’s the birth of the church, recorded in Acts 2. And it says this in

verses 1-4 of that chapter

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

So we see a lot of unique, strange things happening in these verses. There was wind. It said divided tongues as of fire came to rest on each of them. We’ll try to figure out what that means today.

And then it said that they began speaking in other tongues by the power of the Holy Spirit. Tongues means languages. They suddenly started speaking other languages that they didn’t even know. And this was a sign that the Holy Spirit had come upon them.

So a lot of this are so familiar with this story that we kind of acknowledge it and move on. But wait just a minute. There are many times that the Holy Spirit comes upon someone throughout the Bible and they become capable of amazing and even supernatural things. Samson with his strength. David with his musical gifting. Bezalel as he built the tabernacle. The prophets with their prophesying.

And then you get to the New Testament birth of the church and the sign of the Holy Spirit is tongues; that they start speaking in other languages. Now, isn’t that a little random and weird?

I mean, I find it a little weird. I’m one of those Pentecostals. I’m one of those crazy charismatics. And I think it’s weird.

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

Turn to Acts 2, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

2:15 - Pentecost and the Gospel

10:40 - Back to Babel

19:00 - Mailbag & Closing Thoughts

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

Hosted by Luke Taylor

When I was in the book of Enoch a couple episodes ago, something caught my attention. I was reading something from the book of Enoch’s chapter 15. I didn’t read the entire chapter on that episode, but I did read through it as I was doing my research, and there was a very interesting passage there about the spirits of the Nephilim.

Enoch chapter 15 basically makes the claim that when a Nephilim dies, its spirit roams the earth, afflicts humans, and will do so until the world ends.

In other words, the spirits of the Nephilim are demons.

The Book of Enoch makes a distinction between fallen angels and demons, saying that the fallen angels are these beings who God originally created, but that the demons were essentially created when those fallen angels mated with human women, as told in Genesis 6.

That goes against what I’ve heard all my life in church, which is that demons and fallen angels are the exact same thing. That the 1/3 of the angels who rebelled against God are the demons we frequently read about in the New Testament. The Book of Enoch has a different perspective on these evil spirits.

But this is not a podcast about Weird Stuff in the Book of Enoch. This is a podcast about Weird Stuff in the Bible. I do not use the Book of Enoch to replace my biblical understanding, but I do wonder whether this idea about the origin of demons is congruent with what Scripture actually teaches.

Because as we’ll see, scripture doesn’t outright state that demons and fallen angels are the exact same thing.

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

Turn to Isaiah 26, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

2:10 - Enoch 15

8:30 - Is this Biblical?

20:00 - Mailbag and Thanking Some Weirdos

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

Hosted by Luke Taylor

So on this podcast, we’ve tackled the mysterious subject of Genesis 6 a few times when “the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.”

That’s actually a direct quotation from that chapter. And it’s come up a lot on this podcast because it’s a podcast about weird stuff in the Bible, and this is probably the weirdest thing. If you don’t understand why it’s so weird, it’s because of who the Sons of God are: they are spiritual or angelic beings.

The Sons of God are a collection of spiritual beings that God created and ordered to watch over mankind and report to Him on what mankind is up to. They were to be involved in the management of the earth. But a number of them descended from the heavens and, as the Scripture said, took wives from among women. The testimony of Genesis 6 is that the Sons of God mated with human women and produced children with them.

So this raises a whole lot of questions- mainly: how? How did spiritual beings interact sexually with women- and not only that, impregnate them?

Is this something any angel is capable of?

Could it happen again?

Does it even seem within the realm of possibility that angels have the abilities to manifest physical bodies and sexual organs like this?

So I call it mysterious not because I wonder IF it happened. The Bible is clear: it did happen.

I call it mysterious because I wonder HOW it happened.

Even those who accept what the Bible is saying about the Sons of God and the Nephilim still wonder how it happened.

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

Turn to Psalm 91, and let’s get weird.

0:00 - Introduction

2:10 - What Angels Can Do

19:00 - Mailbag

22:45 - Closing Thoughts

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

Hosted by Luke Taylor