Search — Theology Explorer

relationships forgiveness Q&A

Q&A: Cutting off someone for life out of anger is probably wrong — God's pattern with us should inform how we treat others.

Q&A on permanently severing a relationship with a grandmother.

church history Reformation Q&A

Q&A: Martin Luther — valuable reformer, but his later writings about Jewish people were horrible and must be rejected; the Reformation is not reducible to one man.

Q&A on Martin Luther in the context of the 501st Reformation anniversary.

repentance forgiveness Q&A

Q&A: 'Forgive and forget' is imprecise; forgiveness is unilateral but restoration of relationship requires the other person's repentance and change.

Q&A on forgiveness and how to regard past offenses after forgiving.

Proverbs 15:1 self-talk prayer Q&A

Q&A: Applying Proverbs 15:1 inwardly — immediately turning to prayer when angry reorients perspective because addressing God changes the self-talk dynamic.

Q&A on using soft inner speech to de-escalate one's own anger.

repentance accountability Q&A

Q&A: Anger at oneself often masks avoidance of personal accountability — treating oneself as a victim of one's own actions.

Q&A on self-directed anger.

Ephesians 4:26 discernment sin Q&A

Q&A: It is okay to be angry about bad theology — Ephesians 4:26 permits anger, but you must then not sin and move through it.

Q&A on anger toward theological error.

Q&A: Malice toward God means you've gotten something wrong — Job's model is to acknowledge speaking without knowledge and pray for your own heart.

Q&A on feeling bitterness toward God.

Job prayer faith Q&A

Q&A: Dealing with malice toward someone who has died — pray for your own heart every time the feeling arises; direction toward good matters more than immediate resolution.

Q&A on unresolved bitterness toward a deceased person.

prayer forgiveness Q&A

Q&A: A wife navigating a husband's anger should maintain internal clarity about whether she sinned, and not accept blame she doesn't own.

Q&A on handling a spouse who struggles with anger and projects blame.

discernment marriage Q&A

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

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.

methodology apologetics atheism

Introduction: surprise livestream responding to a video by Jim Majors, CEO of Atheist Republic, to help atheists and skeptics who may be receiving bad information

Mike explains he was prompted by a Twitter tip to respond to a specific atheist leader's claims about Christianity

apologetics atheism Atheist Republic

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

intellectual honesty critical thinking apologetics

Atheists can be gullible too: skeptics sometimes have a low bar for accepting anti-Christian claims, just as Christians can have a low bar for confirming their own beliefs

Key thematic statement of the video

Matthew 2 apologetics historicity Herod the Great

Historical evidence that Herod the Great was extremely paranoid and murderous — he killed three of his own sons and executed hundreds on suspicion alone, making the Massacre of the Innocents entirely consistent with his character

Mike builds a positive case that Herod killing children in Bethlehem is historically plausible

Mark 16 biblical authority textual criticism scribes

Refutation: early manuscripts from well before the 13th century already contain the longer ending of Mark; the addition was likely scribal, not conciliar — probably constructed from Luke, Acts, and Matthew to give public readings a more complete feel

Mike explains the actual textual history of Mark's longer ending

etymological fallacy apologetics linguistics

The etymological fallacy: deriving a word's current meaning from its ancient root is a logical error — stauros may have once meant 'stake' but that doesn't mean it meant that in first-century usage

Mike addresses Jim's stauros/stake argument

methodology debate Catholic apologetics

Q&A: Mike has multiple debate offers on the table and is interested in more structured debates, including with Catholic apologists like Tim Staples or Trent Horn, but debate requires far more preparation than regular content

Audience Q&A begins; question from 'Faith Wisdom'

fruit of the Spirit assurance of salvation pastoral

Q&A: How do you witness to nominal or hypocritical Christians who are not bearing fruit? Mike notes that those who don't love the Lord are ironically less worried about their spiritual state than genuine believers

Question from Nick Kinsman

methodology rapture eschatology

Q&A: Mike has not yet settled his position on pre-trib, mid-trib, or post-trib rapture — he was raised in Calvary Chapel's strong pre-trib culture but feels his ability to defend pre-trib is thin and wants to do thorough homework before teaching publicly on it

Question from Bradley Wilcox about tribulation timing

sin ethics Christian living

Q&A: Having favorites is not the same as favoritism — favoritism is the sinful distortion of justice based on preference, not the innocent preference itself

Question from Christian Harold Harrison about favorites and favoritism in sports

Luke Matthew 2 hermeneutics Luke historicity

Q&A: The Massacre of the Innocents appears in Matthew but not Luke because Luke telescopes events and omits details that don't serve his narrative aims — absence from one Gospel does not imply it didn't happen

Question from Cam Spire about why the Massacre of the Innocents is not in Luke

Genesis 6:5 hermeneutics exegesis sin

Q&A: Genesis 6:5 — 'every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually' — describes mankind as thoroughly corrupted, whether read hyperboliclaly (extreme wickedness) or literally (total moral collapse)

Question from Ricky Pickering

Christian unity love ecclesiology

Q&A: Diversity in Christianity is not the same as division — unity is a calling, but believers can disagree on secondary issues while remaining unified in primary ones through love

Question from Fred Baek about how to reconcile Christian diversity with the biblical call for unity

discernment apologetics false-teaching

Zahnd's three-step method for dismantling orthodox Christianity and replacing it with his own version

Winger maps out the structural argument Zahnd uses in his book 'Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God.'

discernment hell false-teaching

Zahnd's straw man: misrepresenting 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' as representative of all American Christianity

Winger examines chapter one of Zahnd's book, which opens with extensive quotation from Jonathan Edwards's Puritan sermon.

Exodus-21 hermeneutics discernment apologetics

Zahnd deliberately misrepresents Exodus 21 on slavery to children at a youth camp in order to discredit the Bible

Winger plays and responds to a video clip of Zahnd describing how he used Exodus 21:20–21 at a youth camp to provoke students into rejecting the Bible's moral authority.

Psalm-40 Hosea-6-6 Hebrews-10 hermeneutics apologetics false-teaching

Zahnd claims the Bible contradicts itself and that the Psalms/Prophets argue against the Torah — both claims are false

Winger examines Zahnd's step three: neutralizing the Bible's authority by claiming it is not univocal and contains internal theological debates.

Psalm-40 Hebrews-10 Mark-1-44 atonement apologetics Jesus

Hebrews 10 and Mark 1:44 show that Jesus fulfilled the sacrificial system rather than rejecting or editing it

Winger addresses Zahnd's claim that Jesus 'picked a side' against sacrifice and against the Torah.

Luke-4 Isaiah-61 hermeneutics discernment apologetics

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).

Matthew-5-17 Luke-16-17 Mark-12-36 law apologetics Jesus

Luke 16:16–17 and Matthew 5:17–18 show Jesus's own high view of Scripture — he came to fulfill, not edit, the law

Winger marshals Jesus's direct statements about the permanence and authority of Scripture to counter Zahnd's 'Jesus edits the Bible' method.

discernment hell apologetics

Zahnd consciously uses the 'vilify a common enemy' technique to generate emotional unity — and then does exactly that to his critics

Winger closes by exposing Zahnd's rhetorical self-awareness and the hypocrisy in his closing pages.

cultural pressure Christian witness homosexuality

Lauren Daigle's interview on homosexuality as a cultural moment exposing a widespread Christian struggle

Winger opens by framing the video not as an attack on Lauren Daigle, but as an opportunity to address a struggle millions of Christians share: how to answer hard cultural questions about homosexuality under pressure.

persecution Christian witness consequences

Two reasons answering the homosexuality question feels hard: consequences and confusion

Winger identifies the two root causes that make Christians hesitate to state a biblical position on homosexuality.

sexual ethics biblical clarity sin

Sin concerns specific bedroom behaviors, not identity, orientation, or the relationship as a whole

Winger clarifies what he means — and what the Bible means — when calling homosexual behavior sin.

accountability Christian witness shame

Analyzing Lauren Daigle's three non-answers: shame, tact, or genuine confusion?

Winger dissects the phrases Daigle used — 'I can't honestly answer,' 'I don't know,' 'I can't say one way or the other' — and evaluates whether they represent honest uncertainty or evasion.

Loving someone does not mean withholding truth from them — love requires honesty about sin

Winger addresses Daigle's first stated reason: 'I have too many people I love who are homosexual.'

truth love sin

Isaiah 5:20 authority homosexuality humility

'I'm not God' means we submit to God's declared standard, not that we withhold judgment

Winger addresses Daigle's second stated reason: 'I'm not God, so I can't say.'

Romans 1:26-27 exegesis sin homosexuality

Romans 1:26-27 — the New Testament's clearest condemnation of homosexual behavior

Winger begins a brief but direct survey of key biblical passages on homosexuality, starting with Romans 1.

sexual ethics marriage God's design

Why God cares about sexual ethics: sex is sacred and its distortion is especially dangerous

Winger addresses the common cultural objection — 'Why does God care about my sex life?'

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Matthew Vines homosexuality 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 arsenokoitai

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and the Greek terms for homosexual behavior — a direct condemnation with redemptive hope

Winger examines 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, which lists behaviors that disqualify people from inheriting the kingdom of God.

Genesis Matthew 19:4-6 marriage exegesis Genesis

Why Jesus didn't address homosexuality directly — and what he did say about marriage

Winger responds to the argument that Jesus' silence on homosexuality implies it's not a serious issue.

homosexuality compromise theological drift

Homosexuality as a watershed issue — waffling on it signals accommodation of a worldly Christianity

Winger identifies the theological stakes in avoiding the question.

Matthew Vines Romans 1 hermeneutics homosexuality Greek exegesis

Refuting the 'temple prostitution' interpretation of Romans 1 with historical scholarship

Q&A question about whether Romans 1 only condemns exploitative or temple-based homosexuality, not loving committed same-sex relationships.

discipleship homosexuality sin nature

Is homosexuality genetic? Even if it were, it wouldn't change the Christian call to self-denial

Q&A question about whether homosexuality has a genetic component and what its presence in the animal kingdom implies.

Homosexuality as a canary in the coal mine for the broader attack on Christian truth

Q&A question about whether this issue signals a wider cultural assault on truth.

truth love homosexuality

1 Corinthians sexual sin homosexuality 1 Corinthians

Sexual sins carry a unique spiritual weight — they involve the body in a mystical union

Q&A question about whether homosexuality is 'denying Christ' and how it ranks among sins.

Matthew Vines Romans 1 hermeneutics eisegesis false teaching

Matthew Vines' approach to Scripture is driven by a prior commitment to affirm homosexuality, not honest exegesis

Q&A question about advocates like Matthew Vines who try to make homosexuality fit within Scripture.

evangelism pastoral care homosexuality

How to reach someone struggling with homosexuality: one-on-one honesty with genuine love

Q&A question about practical outreach to someone in a homosexual lifestyle.

sexual ethics sin homosexuality

Pornography accelerates the corruption of the sexual mind — it does not cause but amplifies

Q&A question about whether pornography's proliferation promotes acceptance of homosexuality.