Search — Theology Explorer

Joseph Smith Book of Abraham Joseph Smith diary

LDS apologist claim that Smith received direct revelation (not translation) is refuted by his own diary

Responding to a viewer question about the LDS apologetic counter-argument

Mormonism prophetic accountability LDS Church

Mike urges Mormons in positions of authority to speak out about the fraud even if it costs them relationships and community

Pastoral/ethical challenge to Mormons who know the truth

Jeremiah 31 Mormonism Islam Book of Abraham

Canonical closure argument: the New Testament closes the canon — there is no room for a new book of scripture

Theological argument against the LDS claim to new scripture

Joseph Smith LDS Church Book of Abraham

The Joseph Smith Papers project published the Egyptian Grammar and Alphabet documents, exposing them to scholarly scrutiny

Recent LDS document releases and their apologetic implications

Book of Abraham Great Chicago Fire Metropolitan Museum of Art

LDS apologist argument #1: the 'Short Scroll Theory' — the recovered fragments are only part of a longer scroll

Review of LDS apologetic responses to the papyri problem

Joseph Smith Book of Abraham facsimiles Joseph Smith Papyri

Refutation of Short Scroll Theory: the facsimile images themselves, which Smith specifically interpreted, ARE on the surviving fragments

Mike's counter to the Short Scroll Theory

Book of Abraham Great Chicago Fire Joseph Smith Papyri

LDS apologist argument #2: the 'Long Scroll Theory' — a different, longer, lost scroll within the same collection contained the real Book of Abraham source

Second main LDS apologetic response

Joseph Smith Book of Abraham inspired translation

LDS apologist argument #3: Smith did not 'translate' in the conventional sense — he was receiving spiritual impressions triggered by the images

Third main LDS apologetic counter-argument

Abraham Joseph Smith Book of Abraham

Refutation of the 'spiritual impression' translation argument: Smith's own documents say it was written by Abraham's own hand — not a spiritual trigger

Mike's counter to the spiritual impression theory

Joseph Smith Book of Abraham Egyptology

LDS apologist argument #4: we don't know enough about Egyptology yet — future discoveries might vindicate Smith

Fourth main LDS apologetic response

Holy Spirit LDS Church standard works

Argument from the Mormon authority hierarchy: when the Bible, LDS standard works, and the Holy Spirit contradict each other, which do Mormons follow?

Epistemological challenge to Mormon missionaries

Mormonism apologetics subjective religious experience

Strategy for engaging Mormons: move them from feeling-based certainty to evidence-based testing

Practical apologetic methodology for talking to Mormons

Mike Winger apologetics atheism

Upcoming video topic: responding to common atheist arguments against God

Preview of future content

Mike Winger spiritual gifts apologetics

Upcoming video topic: exposing false teaching within charismatic Christianity — abuse of the spiritual gifts framework

Preview of future content on charismatic abuse

Mike Winger idea 2018-02-21

The Watchtower's three main biblical proof texts for the blood ban are Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 17:13-14, and Acts 15:29.

Mike transitions from historical/medical arguments to direct biblical exegesis of the passages the Watchtower uses.

Genesis 9:4 Leviticus 17:13-14 Acts 15:29 Watchtower Genesis 9:4 Leviticus 17:13-14

Mike Winger idea 2018-02-21

Leviticus 17:13-14 is specifically Levitical (Mosaic) law given to Israel, and even within that law the Watchtower selectively ignores the parallel ban on eating fat (Leviticus 3:17).

Mike applies the same hermeneutical critique to the second Watchtower proof text.

Leviticus 17:13-14 Leviticus 3:17 Leviticus 17:13-14 Leviticus 3:17 Mosaic law applicability

Mike Winger idea 2018-04-18

David Mead's second Scripture abuse: Revelation 6:12-17 (Sixth Seal) as 'absolute proof' of Planet X/Nibiru

Mead explicitly claims that Revelation 6 is 'absolute proof of the existence of Planet X.' Mike reads Mead's direct quote and then the passage itself.

Revelation 6:12-17 hermeneutics false prophecy David Mead

Mike Winger idea 2018-04-18

Q&A: How to minister to young adults involved in numerology and end-times speculation

Question from Evan Adamson, a young adults leader.

apologetics numerology pastoral advice

Mike Winger idea 2018-01-24

Joseph Smith misuses a Jesus quote to argue that the Father 'laid down his body' just as Jesus did — Mike identifies this as 'bad Bible study.'

Mike critiques Smith's exegetical method in the King Follett Sermon, where Smith splices two separate Jesus quotes to derive the doctrine of the Father's mortality.

hermeneutics proof-texting Joseph Smith

Mike Winger idea 2018-03-14

Using scripture against scripture is bad methodology — it appears to create contradictions and 'the atheist wins'

Mike's methodological critique of how both sides typically argue

hermeneutics proof-texting apologetics

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

Second passage: 2 Maccabees 12:38-46 — a non-canonical book used by Catholics to support purgatory

Introducing the second Catholic proof-text for purgatory

purgatory 2 Maccabees 12:38-46 Apocrypha

Mike Winger idea 2018-03-21

First problem with 2 Maccabees: the book is not accepted by the Jews, not part of Jesus's or Paul's Bible

Canon-based objection to using 2 Maccabees as proof of purgatory

Paul Jesus Apocrypha

Mike Winger idea 2018-08-29

Introduction: Aaron Ra's video claiming the Bible has zero fulfilled prophecy

Mike opens the livestream by introducing the video he will critique: 'Unfulfilled Proof Run Fulfilling Prophecy' by Aaron Ra, Regional Director of American Atheists with 185,000 YouTube subscribers

Aaron Ra Bible prophecy Fulfilled prophecy

Mike Winger idea 2018-04-11

Q&A: Matthew 2:23 — which prophet foretold Jesus would be called a Nazarene?

Viewer question about a fulfilled prophecy citation in Matthew that has no clear Old Testament source.

Isaiah Matthew 2:23 fulfilled prophecy Isaiah Matthew 2:23

Ezekiel 22:26 proof-texting Joo-Cheol Kim Sabbath

Kim selectively applies Old Testament law — takes Sabbath but ignores everything else in the same passage (Ezekiel 22:26)

Kim quotes Ezekiel 22:26 as proof that disregarding the Sabbath profanes God. Mike shows the verse also mentions distinctions between holy/common and clean/unclean — the entire Levitical system.

hermeneutics proof-texting Joo-Cheol Kim

Kim's hermeneutic: rip a single word from a verse, build a doctrine on it, ignore the surrounding context — this prevents members from reading the Bible properly

Summary statement on Kim's overall biblical interpretation method.

Acts 18:4 proof-texting Sabbath Acts 18:4

Kim misreads Acts 18:4 as a command for all believers to gather in synagogue every Sabbath; Mike shows it is merely a description of Paul's evangelistic method

Kim uses Acts 18:4 — 'he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath' — as a New Testament proof-text for mandatory Saturday church attendance.

1 Corinthians 16:2 proof-texting Sunday worship 1 Corinthians 16:2

1 Corinthians 16:2 shows early Christians gathering on the first day of the week; Kim claims this proves they went to work that day, not that they worshiped

Mike cites 1 Corinthians 16:2 — 'on the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up' — as further evidence of Sunday gathering.

World Mission Society Church of God false legitimacy claims argumentation

CoG claims legitimacy from the phrase 'Church of God' appearing in the New Testament — this is a shallow name-based argument that proves nothing

CoG calls itself 'the Church of God' and cites New Testament passages that use that phrase (approximately 5-6 occurrences) as proof of their divine legitimacy.

Mike Winger idea 2018-09-05

Why didn't Bible prophecy predict airplanes or the internet? The Bible was meant to be evidence for all generations across history, not optimized for the 21st century.

Ra asks why 'seers' who could foresee the distant future never mentioned modern technology.

apologetics Bible prophecy Aron Ra

1 Kings 18 judgment presuppositional apologetics 1 Kings 18

Sye reframes 1 Kings 18: Elijah was not convincing people of something unknown but displaying God's glory to suppressors of truth; the event was judgment, not persuasion

Sye's counter-reading of 1 Kings 18

Ephesians 2:8-9 Romans 4 Ephesians 2:8-9 faith Romans 4

Winger holds that faith is not a work (the Bible says so), but is a choice to trust; Sye argues the Bible's statement that faith is not a work does not resolve the logical problem if faith is something you do

Core soteriological exchange

John Frame presuppositional apologetics Greg Bahnson Jason Lisle

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

Genesis 22 Islam Genesis 22 typology

Islam is internally self-contradictory: it claims to derive from the Bible but must assert the Bible was corrupted whenever it disagrees with Islamic teaching

Audience question about Islam; Sye's presuppositional critique of Islam

Mike Winger idea 2018-10-10

Idea

Winger's overarching critique: Simmons preaches from his own translation, using the text he altered as proof.

Bible translations

Mike Winger idea 2018-10-17

James 2:10 does not teach that all sins are identical; it teaches that breaking any one point of the law makes a person a law-breaker before the same Lawgiver — a relational, not equivalence, statement.

Mike addresses the primary proof-text used to argue all sin is the same and offers an exegesis that resolves the apparent tension.

James 2:10 James 2:11 Romans 3:23 hermeneutics exegesis James 2:10

Mike Winger idea 2018-12-01

Jim Majors, CEO of Atheist Republic (2.2M Facebook followers), is promoting a forthcoming book critiquing Christianity called 'Holy Proofreading: Correcting Christianity'

Mike introduces Jim's credentials and the context of the interview

apologetics atheism Atheist Republic

Mike Winger idea 2018-12-12

Zahnd claims Jesus 'edited' Isaiah 61 in Luke 4 — but Jesus stopped reading mid-sentence, he did not delete text

Winger examines Zahnd's most prominent proof-text for the 'Jesus edits the Bible' thesis: Jesus reading from Isaiah in the Nazareth synagogue (Luke 4:16–21).

Luke-4 Isaiah-61 hermeneutics discernment apologetics

Mike Winger idea 2018-12-17

Presenting the opposing argument: YouTube channel 'Truth Unedited' claims Jeremiah 10 is about Christmas trees

Mike shows a clip from a 275,000-view YouTube video that teaches Jeremiah 10 forbids Christmas trees

Jeremiah 10:2-4 Proof-texting Christmas trees Jeremiah 10:2-4

Mike Winger idea 2018-12-17

Other misapplied passages: 'prostituted themselves under every green tree' is about idols under trees, not trees themselves

Preempting another common proof-text used to condemn Christmas trees

Proof-texting Anachronism Idolatry under green trees

Mike Winger idea 2018-12-17

Closing: Check the context — the primary safeguard against Scripture misuse

Final exhortation before signing off

Jeremiah 10 Proof-texting Hermeneutics Jeremiah 10

1 Kings 18:22-39 evidence-based faith Elijah Mount Carmel

1 Kings 18 — Mount Carmel contest as evidence-based faith: Elijah's challenge to prophets of Baal

Mike's first biblical example demonstrating that God operates through evidence, not blind faith.

Isaiah 41:22 evidence-based faith Isaiah 41:22 predictive prophecy

Isaiah 41:22 — predictive prophecy as God's proof of his own existence and authority

Mike's third Old Testament passage, showing God challenges false gods to prove themselves through prediction.

Matthew 9:5-7 miracles as evidence Matthew 9:5-7 paralytic healing

Matthew 9:5-7 — Jesus heals the paralytic as evidence of authority to forgive sins

Mike uses Jesus's healing of the paralytic as another instance of miracles functioning as proof.

personal testimony faith spiritual apprehension

Dictionary definition of faith: Google's two definitions — 'complete trust or confidence' vs. 'strong belief based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof'

Mike moves from Scripture to the dictionary to examine the secular definition of faith.

faith Christian apologetics definition of faith

Webster's dictionary definitions of faith: 'allegiance,' 'loyalty,' 'belief and trust in God' — the 'firm belief in something for which there is no proof' definition exists but does not represent biblical Christianity

Mike examines Webster's multiple definitions of faith.