Filter results by source database — Scripture Commentary, Theology, Mike Winger, or Pulpit. Click a tab to narrow to one database.

...more
All (1065) Scripture Commentary (402) Theology (79) Mike Winger (579) Pulpit (5)
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

'You lost your healing' — Bethel reframes failed healings as loss rather than non-occurrence, requiring a program on 'how to keep your healing'

Mike discusses how Bethel's theological framework handles apparent healing failures

Bethel Church anointing healing theology
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Bill Johnson's son has significant hearing loss — Johnson says he was told the son is 'already healed' but cannot think about it because it 'ruins the anointing'

Mike uses a personal example from Bill Johnson's own family to illustrate the psychological suppression required by Bethel's healing theology

Bill Johnson anointing healing theology
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Bill Johnson video quote: 'We're coming into a day when the presence of the Lord will be so pronounced in a meeting that everyone who walks into the building will be healed — that's already happened'

Mike plays a direct video clip of Johnson making an extreme healing claim

Bill Johnson revival healing theology
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth — a movement that tolerates and encourages fake healings is not operating in step with Him

Mike gives his theological summary on the healing practice issues

healing theology Holy Spirit Spirit of Truth
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

How Bill Johnson started the prophetic in Weaverville: asking people around a table 'what do you think Jesus would say?' then declaring they had just prophesied

Mike plays a direct video clip of Johnson explaining his methodology for launching the prophetic ministry

Bill Johnson spiritual gifts prophecy
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Critique: what Johnson did in Weaverville is not wrong as an imaginative exercise, but calling it prophecy crosses a theological line

Mike carefully distinguishes between the legitimate practice and the mislabeling

Bill Johnson prophecy false prophecy
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Three sources of prophecy in Scripture: from God, from Satan (false prophets), and from the prophet's own heart — the third type is what characterizes most Bethel prophecy

Mike introduces a biblical taxonomy of prophetic sources from Jeremiah and Ezekiel

Jeremiah 23:16 Ezekiel 13:2 prophecy false prophecy Jeremiah 23:16
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Jeremiah 23:16 — prophets prophesying 'a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord'

Mike cites the specific Jeremiah text that establishes the third category of prophecy

Jeremiah 23:16 Jeremiah 23:25-26 prophecy false prophecy Jeremiah 23:16
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Ezekiel 13:2 — 'prophesy against the prophets who prophesy out of their own heart'

Mike cites a second OT prophet condemning heart-sourced prophecy

Ezekiel 13:2 prophecy false prophecy Ezekiel 13:2
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Bethel's prophetic training exercise: pair off, give a 'word of knowledge' about your partner, then celebrate whether right or wrong — the goal is creating a risk-taking culture, not accurate prophecy

Mike plays a video of a Bethel training session to show how prophetic culture is manufactured

spiritual gifts Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry social engineering
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Bethel's prophetic culture is social engineering — a formula developed through experimentation and exported to other churches worldwide

Mike's meta-level analysis of what Bethel is doing with prophecy

Bethel Church spiritual gifts social engineering
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Bethel's rule that prophecy must only encourage — inconsistent with biblical prophecy, which often includes rebuke; also leads to 'prophetic art,' 'prophetic dance,' and 'destiny cards'

Mike critiques the artificial filter on prophecy and traces its trajectory into increasingly strange practices

Kris Vallotton Bethel Church prophecy
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Summary of Bethel's theological problems: filtered theology, emphasis on experience, superior/inferior truths used to dismiss inconvenient Scripture

Mike's transition into final remarks and Q&A

Bill Johnson hermeneutics healing theology
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Direct address to Bill Johnson: Mike thanks him for inspiring greater prayer and trust in God, but challenges his theology and hermeneutic as dangerous

Mike concludes the teaching section with a personal message to Johnson

Bill Johnson hermeneutics revival
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

John 5:19 refutes Johnson's teaching that God responds to human declarations — Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing, not the reverse

Mike cites a specific text to challenge one of Johnson's specific claims about how God responds to human proclamation

John 5:19 prayer Bill Johnson healing theology
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Q&A — Is lack of faith why we cannot heal? Mike: faith is one factor, but not the only one — Paul's thorn in the flesh demonstrates God can say 'no' even to a man of great faith

First Q&A question from Elizabeth Hernandez

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 prayer 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 thorn in the flesh
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Q&A — Bethel's view of sanctification through hardship: they do teach righteous living and learning through trials, but avoid applying the 'refining fire' principle to sickness

Q&A question from 'Truth and Grace'

James 1 1 Peter 1 Bill Johnson healing theology James 1
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Q&A — Did Jesus ever say no to healing? Mike: Not in the three-and-a-half years of recorded ministry, but Jesus did say no through Paul's thorn and other NT instances

Q&A question from Elizabeth Hernandez

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 2 Timothy 4:20 Acts of the Apostles 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 healing theology 2 Timothy 4:20
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Q&A — Bethel's eschatology: they hold a dominion theology, believing the church should 'disciple the nations' — meaning transform entire nations, not just individuals

Q&A question from Don Schneider about end-times views

Matthew 28:19 Bill Johnson eschatology dominion theology
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Q&A — Recommended teachers for biblical thinking: James White, Michael Brown, RC Sproul, John MacArthur, Leighton Flowers, Greg Koukl

Q&A question from Judah Matthews

John MacArthur James White John MacArthur RC Sproul James White
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Q&A — Matthew 21:21 ('if you have faith you can move mountains'): must be interpreted alongside other prayer scriptures — faith, right motives (James 4), and God's will (1 John 5:14)

Q&A question from Judah Matthews

Matthew 21:21 James 4 1 John 5:14 prayer faith Matthew 21:21
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Q&A — Has Mike ever heard Johnson preach a clear gospel message? No — he's heard Johnson affirm the gospel but it's always followed by a pivot to signs and wonders

Q&A question from Chavita

evangelism Bill Johnson gospel
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Q&A — Do they teach against the non-negotiables (Trinity, grace through faith, virgin birth, etc.)? Not explicitly — most are present but the Trinity and virgin birth are rarely discussed

Q&A question from Karl Wellborn

Bill Johnson salvation Trinity
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Q&A — Does Johnson teach 'little gods' theology? No — he teaches something more subtle: 'the Word becoming flesh again' in believers as they speak prophetically and heal

Q&A question from Rona, comparing Johnson to Kenneth Copeland

John 1:14 Bill Johnson Kenneth Copeland Word of Faith
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Closing exhortation: don't pull back from healing, prophecy, or the Spirit because of Bethel's errors — the hunger of their movement reveals a real need the church should meet genuinely

Mike's closing remarks

Bethel Church spiritual gifts revival
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-07

The proper Christian attitude toward error: we should celebrate real healing and equally confront fake healing — because Jesus is the truth and doing things in his name that are inaccurate is wrong.

Theological grounding for Mike's critical engagement with healing ministries.

John 14:6 healing ministry ethics integrity
Mike Winger idea 2018-02-07

Q&A: Mark 7:32-34 and Jesus spitting/making mud — Mike lacks a definitive interpretation but shares a missionary anecdote about a tribe that attributed magical powers to shamans' spit, making Jesus' spitting highly significant for them.

Viewer question from TruthandGrace about the theological significance of Jesus using spit in healing.

Mark 7:32-34 John 9 hermeneutics Mark 7:32-34 John 9
Mike Winger idea 2018-04-18

Q&A: Partial and multiple fulfillment of prophecy — the Elijah/John the Baptist example

Question from William Toy about whether Mike sees prophecy as having partial and multiple fulfillment.

John the Baptist Matthew 11:14 Malachi 4:5 prophecy interpretation Elijah John the Baptist
Mike Winger idea 2017-12-27

Q&A: Jesus's swords passage — 'have a sword but don't use it' and the principle of Christian self-defense

Live chat question from Ryan White about Luke 22:35-38 and Luke 22:49-51 / John 18:10-11.

Luke 22:36-38 Luke 22:49-51 John 18:10-11 Luke 22:36-38 Luke 22:49-51 John 18:10-11
Mike Winger idea 2018-03-14

Luke 7:29 — tax collectors 'justified God' proves 'justified' can mean vindicated/validated, not salvifically made righteous

Key proof text showing non-theological use of 'justified' in the New Testament without needing Greek knowledge

Luke 7:29 semantic range dikaioo justification
Mike Winger idea 2018-03-21

The Catholic understanding of purgatory has shifted: Pope John Paul (1999) and Pope Benedict's Spe Salvi (2007) moved away from a literal place/duration toward a vague 'state of being'

Historical development of Catholic purgatory doctrine in recent magisterial documents

purgatory Catholic doctrine Pope John Paul II
Mike Winger idea 2018-03-21

Q&A — Luke 23:43 and John 20:17: Jesus eating post-resurrection and 'do not cling to me'

Viewer asks about the relationship between two post-resurrection passages

Luke 23:43 John 20:17 Mary Magdalene Jesus resurrection
Mike Winger idea 2018-03-21

Thomas touching Jesus in Luke — touching is fine, clinging is what was forbidden in John 20:17

Clarifying John 20:17 by comparison to the Thomas passage

John 20:17 John 20:27 Mary Magdalene Jesus resurrection
Mike Winger idea 2018-03-28

Barker's legendary growth argument cherry-picks data — each Gospel sometimes has more miraculous content, sometimes less

Mike's critique of Barker's fourth objection

Markan priority Gospel origins resurrection Dan Barker
Mike Winger idea 2018-08-29

Q&A: Matthew 26:23 vs. John 13:26 — apparent contradiction at the Last Supper

Viewer question about differences between Matthew 26:23 and John 13:26 in identifying the betrayer

Matthew 26:23 John 13:26 Matthew 26:23 John 13:26 Last Supper
Mike Winger idea 2018-04-11

Q&A: The pericope adulterae (John 7:53–8:11, woman caught in adultery) was likely not in the original Gospel of John

Viewer asks about the scholarly conclusion that the 'cast the first stone' story is a later addition.

John 7-8 textual criticism manuscript variants pericope adulterae
Mike Winger idea 2018-04-25

Partial and total fulfillment: Mike's interpretive framework for prophecy

Mike presents the first of two key background concepts before diving into Mark 13.

Isaiah 7:14 partial and total fulfillment prophetic fulfillment Elijah typology
Mike Winger idea 2018-08-22

The simplest test for distinguishing true from false teachers is the identity of Jesus (who is he?) and the means of salvation (how am I saved?) — 1 John and Ephesians 2:8-9

Q&A: question from Zipa Duck about how new Christians can identify false vs. true teachers.

1 John Ephesians 2:8-9 1 John Ephesians 2:8-9 Christology
Mike Winger idea 2018-09-05

Matthew 16 / Mark 9 / Luke 9 — 'Some standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom' refers to the Transfiguration, not the Second Coming.

Ra claims Jesus predicted his imminent return and was proven a false prophet because all disciples are now dead.

Luke 9 Matthew 16 Mark 9 Jesus Luke 9 Matthew 16
Mike Winger idea 2018-08-16

John 5: Jesus gives three evidences for his identity — John the Baptist, his miracles, and OT prophecy; Winger cites this as Jesus using evidential method

Winger's argument from John 5

John 5 fulfilled prophecy evidential apologetics miracles as evidence
Mike Winger idea 2018-08-16

Book recommendations for comparing apologetic methodologies; Sye recommends Bahnson's 'Always Ready' and 'Presuppositional Apologetics Stated and Defended'; Jason Lisle's 'The Ultimate Proof of Creation'

Audience book recommendation question

John Frame presuppositional apologetics Greg Bahnson Jason Lisle
Mike Winger idea 2018-08-16

Sye's ultimate evidential claim: everything proves God's existence because you cannot make sense of evidence itself without God — he is 'the ultimate evidentialist'

Sye's reframing of himself as a supreme evidentialist

Galatians 3:8 John the Baptist presuppositional apologetics evidence as God-dependent Galatians 3:8
Mike Winger idea 2018-10-17

John 19:11 — Jesus tells Pilate that the one who handed him over 'has the greater sin,' demonstrating a qualitative comparison of two specific sins.

Mike examines the conversation between Jesus and Pilate during the Passion narrative as a direct statement by Jesus about comparative sin.

John 19:11 hierarchy of sin Jesus John 19:11
Mike Winger idea 2018-11-28

Calling Apollonius a 'son of God' in a pagan Greco-Roman sense (some divine energy or lower-case god quality) is fundamentally different from Jesus being declared Son of God in the Jewish context, where it meant equality with God (John 5). The New Testament is a Jewish document, not a pagan one, and conflating Jewish and pagan divine-sonship language muddies the comparison.

Jewish context Christology apologetics
Mike Winger idea 2018-11-07

The Bible is supported by thousands of manuscripts. Comparing them reveals only minor variations — spelling differences, word order — not substantive theological changes. A reader can trust modern John 1 reflects what was originally written.

textual criticism Bible reliability manuscript transmission
Mike Winger idea 2018-11-07

Historians accept that Jesus was baptized by John as historically reliable, partly due to the criterion of embarrassment — early Christians would have had reason to explain away or omit a detail where Jesus submits to a baptism of repentance, suggesting it is not invented.

John the Baptist scholarly consensus criterion of embarrassment historical Jesus
Mike Winger idea 2018-11-07

Undesigned coincidences are places where one biblical document unexpectedly explains or fills in a detail from another without any apparent coordination between authors. The example given: Mark 14 records that witnesses at Jesus' trial quoted a saying about 'destroying this temple' but their testimonies disagreed — without explaining why. John 2 supplies the original context (Jesus meant his body), even though John doesn't include the trial scene. This kind of interlocking detail is characteristic of authentic historical accounts, not coordinated invention.

apologetics Gospels historicity
Mike Winger idea 2018-11-07

Winger briefly affirms his critical view of the Passion Translation, calling it 'obviously a distortion' of God's Word, and notes that Bethel Church's promotion of it has increased rather than allayed his concerns about that movement over time.

false teaching Bible translation Passion Translation
Mike Winger idea 2018-11-07

Winger affirms that the red-letter convention in printed Bibles is an English editorial addition, not a mark of verbatim quotation. Greek manuscripts have no quotation marks. The Gospel writers sometimes paraphrase Jesus, not always quote him directly — but the text faithfully records what Jesus said and intended. The ambiguous boundary between Jesus's words and John's commentary (e.g., John 3) is offered as an example.

John 3 hermeneutics red letters Gospel authorship
Mike Winger idea 2018-11-14

Q&A: 2 John 1:9-11 — disconnect from the false teacher's church and teaching, but distinguish that from family relationship; the two separations are not identical.

Final Q&A on whether to disconnect from a family member teaching false doctrine.

2 John 1:9-11 1 Peter false teaching church discipline family