John Burke is the New York Times Bestselling author of No Perfect People Allowed, Imagine Heaven and Imagine the God of Heaven. He founded and pastored Gateway Church in Austin, Texas. He’s also the president of Gateway Leadership Initiative (GLI), a nonprofit organization. As an international speaker, Burke has addressed thousands of people across more than a dozen countries. He has spent the last several years investigating and documenting the near death experiences of people from all walks of life. Burke has worked tirelessly to analyze these experiences and share the truth behind these extraordinary stories with the world.
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00:00 – Introduction
03:47 – Gateway Leadership
7:56 – Why are people leaving The Church?
17:32 – Free Will
28:03 – What started John’s research?
48:33 – Collective conscience
1:18:44 – Psychedelics & healing
1:34:33 – Dr. Mary Neal
1:53:37 – Meeting relatives
2:11:31 – The evidence
2:22:22 – Life reviews
2:39:38 – The meaning of Hell
3:00:48 – Those who meet demons
3:28:08 – Levels of Hell
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The generation Jesus spoke about did pass, the old covenant ended in 70 AD. The current Israel is a Satanic deception.
The mark of the beast 666 is not a a tattoo, a microchip, or even a mystery. Don’t take my word for it come see what the Bible has to say about it.
Nero Caesar and the Beast in Revelation
1. Who was Nero Caesar?
• Nero was a Roman emperor (54–68 AD).
• His full imperial name was:
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus
• Nero → personal name
• Claudius → family (he was adopted into the Claudian line)
• Caesar → title/dynastic designation (not a personal name)
• Augustus → revered title for emperors
• Germanicus → honorific family name
Key point: By Nero’s time, “Caesar” was no longer just a name; it was a title for emperor, indicating authority and imperial power.
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2. How Revelation refers to Nero
• Nero is never explicitly named in the Book of Revelation.
• Instead, he is referred to symbolically as:
• “the beast”
• “the one who was, and is not, and is about to come”
• “the number of the beast”
• This symbolism was intentional: Revelation was written under Roman oppression, so naming the emperor directly could be dangerous.
Meaning: Revelation critiques imperial power and tyranny, not just one man.
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3. The number of the beast (666 and 616)
• Revelation 13:18 says:
“Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”
Nero’s name in Hebrew would be written as:
נרון קסר — “Neron Qesar”
• נ = 50
• ר = 200
• ו = 6
• ן = 50
• ק = 100
• ס = 60
• ר = 200
If you add these numerical values, you get 666.
Why some manuscripts say 616…
In Latin, Nero is sometimes spelled Nero Caesar, dropping the final “n” from “Neron” (the Hebrew transliteration of Nero).
So it becomes:
נרו קסר — “Nero Qesar”
• נ = 50
• ר = 200
• ו = 6
• ק = 100
• ס = 60
• ר = 200
Adding these up gives 616
Conclusion: Both 666 and 616 point to Nero Caesar using gematria (numeric values of letters).
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4. Why the number 666 matters
• The number symbolizes loyalty to Nero and his empire.
• In practical terms for first-century Christians:
• Roman society often required citizens to participate in emperor worship for commerce and legal activity.
• People who refused the emperor’s authority (or his “mark”) could be excluded from economic participation — buying, selling, and trade.
• Revelation 13 portrays this as a warning: accepting the beast’s mark (loyalty to imperial power) allows full access to society, while refusing leads to social and economic marginalization.
Key insight: This was not just about economics, but about spiritual allegiance — Christians were pressured to choose between loyalty to God or loyalty to Caesar.
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5. Summary
• Nero Caesar = emperor; “Caesar” = title
• Revelation refers to him symbolically, not by name
• The number 666 (or 616) = gematria of Nero Caesar in Hebrew
• This number represents imperial loyalty and participation in the system
• Christians were called to resist allegiance to the empire while trusting God
• The symbolism warns of the cost of compromise: full participation in society comes at the price of allegiance to the beast
The devil planted the tree of good and evil, you can’t justify psychedelic drugs. It’s sorcery, witch craft. You’re opening yourself to demonic forces, not God.
Shawn, no matter what your past has been, God loves you and you will eventually be in his Kingdom, by his side, with all of your loved ones.
How do we have free will if God knows everything? How can you be free if everything you are doing right now is already planned? Did He already save or damn you?
Just to answer his q at min 9, Jesus explained why would people fade way from him through this parable:
The Parable of the Sower (Farmer with the Seed) is one of Jesus’ most well-known teachings. It appears in Matthew 13:1–23, Mark 4:1–20, and Luke 8:4–15.
🌱 The Story (Simple Version)
Jesus told of a farmer who went out to sow seed. As he scattered the seed, it fell on different kinds of ground:
Along the path – Birds came and ate it up.
On rocky ground – It sprang up quickly but withered because it had no deep roots.
Among thorns – The thorns grew and choked the plants.
On good soil – It produced a crop: thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times what was sown.
🌾 What It Means
Jesus later explained the meaning:
The seed = The Word of God (God’s message).
The farmer (sower) = Anyone who shares God’s Word (including Jesus).
The soil = People’s hearts and how they respond.
The Four Soils Represent:
Path – A hard heart. The message is heard but quickly taken away.
Rocky ground – A shallow heart. Receives the message with joy but falls away in trouble.
Thorny ground – A distracted heart. Worries and riches choke the message.
Good soil – A faithful heart. Hears, understands, and produces spiritual fruit.
This one took me a couple days to get through. These stories make me cry 😢
Shawn, thank you for doing this one! The most beautiful episode ever!! Thank you Father, Thank you Jesus my Lord and Savior… God is so good!!! GOD IS LOVE!!!
It seems I have picked the right team: Team Jesus!
Amen and amen. Fantastic interview. Thank you. Very thought-provoking. Praise Jesus, forevermore. Lord of Lord and King of Kings.
This was amazing
The way he speaks about God tells me that he does not have experiential knowledge. Find host that do. I do I can tell you exactly what God actually is. God and Christ are within you. You are them.
Watch Howard Pittman. His testimony is the best I've heard from NDE people. It fits scripturally as well.
I’m skeptical of this interviewee, and I think Shawn is too. He’s obviously obsessed with his own book more than Gods word.
To twist the Bible to try and line up with His book….Im not Jesus but I think that’s grounds for life without Him.
Paul had that experience with Jesus when he was walking with a massive group of people and they all witnessed it too. So it’s nothing like these “NDE’s”. I was even thinking at the beginning (and Shawn this might be a helpful tip) this author talks about and pushes all this “evidence”, but never acknowledged how much evidence is provided in the Bible itself. When it’s written in the style of Historical Narrative—that’s what the world uses as historical evidence. Eye witness testimony is grounds (almost worldwide) for good enough evidence to send you to the electric chair.. eye witness testimony. After being raised from the dead 3 days after dying (as He accurately told before he died), He revealed himself to over 500 people in a span of about 40 days.
People need to start with the gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (because none get to the Father but through Jesus), then read the rest of the Bible as well. It ALL makes sense, there’s NO contradictions, there are different writing styles just like there are different teaching styles (just like how Jesus loved to use parables and metaphors to help get His teachings through).
I pray anyone seeing this takes this message to heart. Jesus tells us not to seek signs. God tells us not to test Him (Jesus even quotes it when Satan tempts Him—bringing him to the top of the building and telling Him to throw Himself down and that angels would come and save Him if God real and tells truth…
Please I pray… I know it’s difficult sometimes but don’t give up on reading scripture! And not just “scripture”, but give God the time to read the entire thing through. I PROMISE, if you genuinely seek Him and ask Him to reveal Himself and open your understanding to Him—by the time you finish it will have been given to you; more evidence than you could ever need.
End times. Many false prophets (which are simply those that preach God’s message that have been given revelation of any kind, even as simply as I’m giving now, or this interviewee is giving) will come and there will be mass deception. Shawn, you of all people understand the deception in this world. Don’t trust anything until you’ve read the book through (and at very least you fully understand the gospels which are much easier to understand than OT; the entire Bible ultimately points to Jesus, anyways).
God Bless
Why wouldn't there be infinite dimensions? They're always postulating a certain number, based on what they can conceive is possible, from where they are looking/thinking/operating.
There are 72 books in the Bible.
Sean, if you want to quit fucking around with fairy tales and hear the truth about what God and this reality really are, also what your consciousness and your soul really are have David Icke on as crazy as that may sound.
Also hit the 5 m e o more Sean and have the balls to go further and reach Source consciousness yourself. Your whole perception of religion will change completely once you know truth…. Not that religion doesn't have its merits of course but that's a whole other story. You might not want to take this comment too lightly sir and you are free to reach out.
Thr miscarriage story has me BALLING 😭😭
I died last August, saw an ethereal man in white linnen, filled me w pure ❤️, got baptized next day.
He absolutely gave us free will, we all planned our lives with Him and what lessons we wanted to learn or work on while we're here. I believe our Father is in everything- almost like He's experiencing physical existence through each and everyone of us. So when we experience, for example, true happiness with a friend- He experiences that joy and rejoices. But when we do horrible things to other people He experiences all that pain, fear etc. and He weeps. So it actually shows how much He really does loves us, that He would allow us to come down here to experience the good and bad- to see how we respond, learn and ultimately grow from it. I know my opinion is just my own but I've just been really thinking about my spirituality a LOT and I'm not sure why? I just had to comment on this- break me down if you must but I'm not looking for arguments, just communication and expression. Love to all my brothers and sisters in God – the world is a mess right now but I truly think our Brother is coming and we should be good to each other and ready to stand with Him when he arrives ❤
Phenomenal interview phenomenal information thank you
Please dont do any drugs, delics, 3rd eye opening and whatnot. U may get lucky, but more often han not u r askin for trouble. Listen to any exorcist priest.
God and prayer not therapy.Go for a pilgrimage.
When it all comes down…. Make your own opinion and never just listen to someone because they say so. Or not. That applies to thus too lol
WOW, when he said he (God) understands us. I had the most POWERFUL feeling ever. I felt hugged and it felt like God said to me " I told you". I've been struggling with wondering if he could understand me, when I can't explain me. I've been telling myself yes, he understands me but, I couldn't believe it. I had a good cry.
Shawn, THANK YOU tremendously. This is the interview I needed.
Amen Amen Amen
Very encouraging interview
I’m concerned why outspoken Christians don’t understand the context of the entire reason for Babel and the nations being created, the flood, and scripture like Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 82 for example.
Those are explained by Genesis 6 and the Hebrew term used, benei elohim
The Dead Sea scrolls confirm this and English is such a flat language it doesn’t help the situation western Christianity finds itself in.
You can’t read the Bible from your own modern and cultural presuppositions.
It’s why Burke doesn’t even know where demons come from let alone what they are.
He reads the Bible but he certainly is t studying it bcs he’s know.
The late Dr Michael Heiser collected a lot of scholarly evidence regarding all of this
It’s not Heisers work that shows this.
The Bible wasn’t written to us even though it was written for us.
Westerners cannot think to impose their supposition upon it
A year later, I believe people are coming back to church in thousands. Glory be to God! Amen
I ‘fainted’ but in a way that I was suffocating couldn’t breathe (I had difficulties with my digestion and my hormones, so my body couldn’t deal with menstruation and digestion at the same time, was in massive pains-felt poisoned). To me it seemed I fainted -as I gradually was grasping for breath but eventually couldn’t breathe. Suddenly couldn’t feel being in my body, didn’t have any feeling of it, didn’t have to breathe, yet was 100% conscious the clearest in my mind ever. But alone in ‘grey’. There was nothing. I felt I had no body just was. I kind of knew I was out of my body, but didn’t want to admit it to myself. I asked if I could go back. It seemed so long. Not sure how long it was. Suddenly I felt back in my body, but.. it felt like cold shrapnels of glass were in my veins instead of blood. Pins and needles but x100 and cold. Took me good half an hour to be able to move. Was locked in the bathroom, so had to get myself up gradually. I think I would have been staying in that grey or going into darkness-that’s how I felt, like hopelessness, asked God if I am dead but there was only loneliness and quiet. Could see only grey. There it could have been hours but minutes at the same time.. the loneliness you feel is not something you’d want.
Amazing, enlightening interview. God bless you all! ❤
Incresible story about life and faith. God bless us all !!!
❤❤❤ONElove❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉
Thank you shawn. I was Radical atheist for 23 year … Now I found Jesus in my heart again ❤
There's many times when i dodged dearh. I always thought that something is looking out for me. Probz an angel. Whoever it is only comes around when i am in a scenario where im gonna die. Weird stories for real 😅
I have experienced so many emotions hearing this, listening to it, and there are some amazing testimonies here, and the explanation of why suffering is allowed is probably the single best explanation of it Ive ever heard. Im on a path to God, I hope, and this podcast is incredible.
Why does every testimony from people who have had near death experiences? All of them are the same almost all of the experiences are identical however, when you listen to Christians, talk about the Bible and what the Bible says it almost contradicts everything their experiences claim to tell them, it’s so confusing I believe in all of the experiences and testimonies from the majority of people who have experienced near death experiences, but it terrifies me to believe in those things when every preacher or Christian denounces spirituality in the way that near death experiences describe how do you guys cope with those polar opposites?
I think what they’re trying to say is that an energy or spiritual form your abilities are not driven by your physical body and physical limitation, so they’re not divided up into the nose to smell the ears to hear all of your senses are one at the same time and maybe the reason our bodies have them separated the way they do is because God wants us to fully experience sent and site as a physical body and in spiritual form if you do the reverse and try to explain how a human is gonna be able to experience everything God‘s created in a physical form those senses need to be defined and separated into separate functions in order for it to work as a human as a spirit and energy. You don’t have physical limitations you get everything all at once.
I don’t know maybe one of the reasons we get to be born on earth and have a life in a Physical body is because in a spiritual world as energy they don’t know anything except for everything all at once and God is giving us an opportunity to experience all the little details that he created for us by putting us in a physical body that has to break all of the experiences down into individual separate experiences so that our energy can also understand themselves better. Essentially God is giving us an opportunity to experience ourselves from a human perspective in physical form
Modern medicine is not good.
Just finished this episode, thank you for this. NDEs started my spirituality 6 years ago and I had all but forgotten how these stories made me feel. This episode shouldnt be monetized.
Psychedelics open a door to the spiritual realm. The bible, in multiple places, warns us to stay sober. When you take drugs or get drunk etc, you are opening yourself to demonic spiritual experiences that you have no protection from. The bible says in 2 Cor 11:14 “for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light”.
And 1 Peter 5:8 says: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”.
So this is why psychedelics can be extremely dangerous.
The church is the people not a building. We have division in church because we are all flawed. I remember going to church as. Kid. It was small not big business. The paster lived like we did after WW2. We helped each other with food and what ever we could. Giving makes you closer. It feels like today it's taking to live better. Bigger buildings more money, not preaching the truth because you don't want to offend anyone because you want the tythe. I don't feel God like I use to going to church.
Awesome podcast buddy.. keep up the awesome work.. I've stopped watching joe Rogan and started just watching you every chance I get.. Even going back to past shows ive missed to get caught up..💯💯💣💣🤝🤙🤙
Christians are God's chosen people. Why would God choose the most evil, despicable people that rejected and murdered his Son?
Patreon could’ve asked any question and they chose those? What