October episodes diving into strange stories & big questions
Spiritual Beings | Archaeology | Robots | Revelation
This month we’re nerding out on Bible topics we don’t usually get a chance to dig into. It’s an October celebration of the kinds of questions Bible students can lose ourselves researching and discussing. But all of the Bible’s rabbit trails only lead us closer to Christ.
Geektober gets dangerously digital! We're kicking off a two-part deep dive into artificial intelligence and the church by looking straight into the machine's dark side. Sure, AI can save hours of research, but what happens when we try to automate things that were never meant to be frictionless? Why did King David refuse to offer a sacrifice that cost him nothing — and what does that mean for generating a three-point sermon in three seconds? What happens when a chatbot tries to tell you, "As a pastor myself"? Can a predictive algorithm ever replace the Spirit-filled craftsmanship of Bezalel? And why is a growing generation of Christians starting to deeply distrust the synthetic sheen of AI-generated church content? Join us as we explore the difference between a helpful digital tool and an embodied faith!
Grab your fedoras and trowels — Geektober rolls on! This week, we’re stepping into our archaeological time machine to dig up five game-changing artifacts that pull back the curtain on the world of the Bible. Why does reading ancient Canaanite myths from the lost city of Ugarit change how we understand Psalm 29? What can a smashed stone monument teach us about a pagan king spinning his military defeat into ancient propaganda? How does an Assyrian emperor’s boast about trapping Hezekiah “like a bird in a cage” accidentally verify the miraculous biblical account in Isaiah? What does an ancient Persian cylinder say about God using an unlikely ruler to bring His people home? And what was it like to unroll two tiny, 2,600-year-old silver scrolls carrying the exact priestly blessing we speak at the end of every episode? Join us as we explore how broken pottery, carved stone prisms, and ancient inscriptions anchor our faith in real-world history!
Grab your nerd glasses — Geektober is officially here! We're kicking off our annual monthlong deep dive by pulling back the curtain on the unseen realm to ask: what's the deal with spiritual beings? From angels and demons to cherubim, seraphim, watchers, and the divine council, why does the Bible give us so many mysterious names without handing us an official field guide? How can the Hebrew word Elohim describe both the Creator of the universe and the departed prophet Samuel conjured by the Witch of Endor? Why did Jesus disarm cosmic principalities at the cross like a TSA security checkpoint? And what does a massive unseen war have to do with losing your patience in the grocery checkout line? Join us as we break out our three sorting questions — allegiance, rank, and function — to make sense of the unseen realm and marvel at the King who rules over it all!
Nephilim, Rephim, Anakim! Oh, my! For our Geektober finale, we're grabbing our nerd glasses and going on a "crypto-biblical expedition" to track down the Bible's giants. Where did the mysterious Nephilim of Genesis 6 come from? How did they lead to the "grasshopper syndrome" of Numbers 13? And how does Goliath, the final boss, tie into the Bible's ultimate story of Christ defeating the enemy? Join us for a fun dive into one of Scripture's weirdest rabbit trails (with a healthy dose of The Princess Bride).
Did the Bible just drop from heaven as a set of golden tablets? Nope! This Geektober, we're pulling back the curtain on the original Bible geeks: the Scribes! These unsung heroes were the "original programmers" of Scripture, meticulously counting every single word and letter to preserve the text. We debunk the "game of telephone" myth and explore how the painstaking work of groups like the Masoretes — confirmed by the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls — is one of the most powerful arguments for the Bible's reliability.
Geektober is getting weird! This week, we're exploring the Bible's "ancient rage tracks"—the imprecatory psalms. How can followers of Jesus, who are called to bless their enemies, also pray these Spirit-inspired psalms that call for judgment? Are these just "flyover psalms" we should skip, or do they give us a powerful way to be brutally honest with God, process our pain, and trust His justice without becoming vindictive villains ourselves? Join us for a deep dive into the Bible's dark corner to find out!
Geektober continues! If the Bible were a fantasy novel, it'd have it all: a talking serpent, a multi-headed sea monster, and a great dragon at the end. But this isn't fiction, so what's with all the hissing and fire-breathing? How did biblical writers "flip the script" on ancient myths to tell the true story of chaos? And how is the entire Bible one epic dragonslayer story pointing to Christ's ultimate victory over evil? Grab your sword of the Spirit and join our quest to understand one of Scripture's most powerful symbols.
