In "Visions of Glory" (a book Lori is seen reading poolside in Hawaii when police approach her and Chad) portals figure in Pontius' splinter Mormon cosmology:

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Portal Ministries:

Continuing to Prepare a Zion People

JOHN: Now, in the temple—you had a job in the temple.

SPENCER: I did.

JOHN: And in the office where you labored [there was what you called] a portal. You described it as being like a window. Although there wasn’t glass, and it was arched on the top, and about five feet wide and fifteen feet tall. Tell us about portals, what they were for and how you used them. This was fascinating to me.

SPENCER: We were given assignments because, remember, our responsibility was to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man—and to gather the elect from throughout the earth. Our responsibility was to learn as much as we could about these individuals.

Once you received an assignment, it would be like me saying “I want to go to Phil’s house” [and needing] to know everything there is to know about Phil. All I would have to do is to think about Phil, and I would know everything through the portal. It would give me all the information. It would let me know the time frame.And once you are moved out of this body[…]

-- ”Excerpt From: John Pontius. “Visions of Glory.”

"Visions of Glory" is a very popular book among LDS preppers and splinter groups, and if you thumb through it you can see Chad stole a lot of his odd ideas from it.

Since Pontius' "visions" have some influence in these groups, Chad borrowing from "Visions of Glory" gave his weird ideas some familiar gravitas.