Search — Theology Explorer

Acts 18:13 Paul the Apostle Law of Moses fulfillment theology

Acts 18:13 -- Paul accused of persuading men to worship God contrary to the law. Again just an accusation, paralleling the pattern with Jesus: fulfillment misread as abolishment.

Survey of Acts 18:13

1 Corinthians 9 Acts 18:18 Nazirite vow Paul the Apostle 1 Corinthians 9

Acts 18:18 -- Paul keeps a Nazirite vow (hair cut) years after the resurrection. Consistent with Jewish believers continuing optional Torah practices.

Survey of Acts 18:18, Paul's Nazirite vow

Acts 20:17 Ephesian elders Paul the Apostle feast days

Key observation: the Ephesian elders are not going to Jerusalem for Pentecost -- Paul is the exception, not the rule. Gentile believers are not flocking to Jerusalem for feasts.

Analysis of Acts 20:17, Paul's address to Ephesian elders

Acts 15 Acts 21 Acts 15 Torah observance Acts 21

Acts 21 addresses the opposite error: not telling Jews to stop obeying the law. Acts 15 covered Gentiles; Acts 21 covers Jews. Both errors must be avoided.

Introduction to Acts 21 analysis

James (brother of Jesus) Acts 21:20-21 Paul the Apostle James (brother of Jesus) Law of Moses

Acts 21:20-21 -- thousands of Jewish believers are zealous for the law; there is a rumor that Paul teaches Jews to forsake Moses and stop circumcising their children

Survey of Acts 21:20-21

James (brother of Jesus) Acts 21:25 James (brother of Jesus) Apostolic Decree Acts 21:25

Acts 21:25 -- James reminds Paul of the Acts 15 Apostolic Decree: the Gentiles only need the four abstentions. The Jew/Gentile distinction in the decree is explicitly restated.

Acts 21:25, restatement of the Acts 15 decree

Acts 21 Torah observance Acts 21 Jewish believers

Three conclusions from Acts 21: (1) Jews may continue obeying the law (beware Pharisaical additions); (2) Gentiles still have only the four commands; (3) Jewish believers in Jerusalem years later are still Torah-observant -- and that is fine.

Summary of Acts 21 analysis

Acts 15 Acts 13 Acts 15 Hebrew Roots movement apologetics

Q&A: strategy for reaching those deeply in Hebrew Roots movement -- speak truth in love, handle one issue at a time, use Acts 13-15 in Bible study format

Q&A response about evangelizing Hebrew Roots adherents

Sabbath observance Gentile believers Lord's Day (Sunday worship)

Q&A: Gentiles and Sabbath/Sunday worship -- Winger says the day of worship does not matter; the Sabbath has not shifted from Saturday to Sunday

Q&A on Sabbath observance for Gentiles

resurrection Gentile evangelism Messiah (title)

Q&A: difference between preaching Jesus as Christ to Jews vs. as Lord to Gentiles -- connects to what the audience already knows from Scripture

Q&A on Jewish vs. Gentile evangelism vocabulary

Law of Moses Ten Commandments law of Christ

Q&A: the Ten Commandments are not selectively binding because they are in the Ten Commandments -- believers are not under the law, but follow the heart of God as fulfilled in Christ

Q&A on Ten Commandments and Sabbath

New Covenant Law of Moses Levites

Q&A: tithing -- the tithe is a Mosaic law (10% to Levites/temple) and is not required for believers; Christians should give freely as the Lord directs to the poor, persecuted, and ministers

Q&A on tithing

Hebrew Roots movement Messianic Judaism Jewish believers

Q&A: difference between Hebrew Roots movement (HRM) and Messianic Judaism -- HRM is predominantly Gentiles taking on Torah; Messianic Judaism is Jews who believe Jesus is Messiah

Q&A distinguishing HRM from Messianic Judaism

Romans 7:8 law and sin connection Romans 7:8 power of sin

Romans 7:8 — sin uses the commandment as an opportunity; apart from the law sin is dead

Scriptural support for law-sin connection

Galatians 3:21-22 law and sin connection Galatians 3:21-22 imprisoned under sin

Galatians 3:21-22 — the law imprisons everything under sin so that promise comes by faith

Scriptural support for law-sin connection

false teaching 119 Ministries charitable interpretation

Are Hebrew Roots teachers false teachers? Winger extends charity, attributing error to wrong assumptions not bad faith

Q&A: question about false teaching

logical fallacy grace under the law

Responding to syllogism: judgment for sin requires being under the law

Q&A: Timmy Pine presents a logical argument

Acts circumcision Acts Jewish believers

Jewish believers who come to faith in Jesus should expect to continue being very Jewish

Q&A: Rachel asks about present-day Jews and circumcision/law observance

1 Corinthians Romans 14 1 Corinthians Romans 14 Christian liberty

Voluntarily keeping feast days or eating kosher for conscience's sake is acceptable; mandating it for others is wrong

Q&A: lularoe asks if observing feasts/clean eating condemns him

Calvinism limited atonement TULIP

Definition of limited atonement: Jesus's death only paid for the sins of the elect

Winger defines limited atonement as the doctrine that God only provided payment for the sins of certain people (the elect), not for all humanity.

limited atonement TULIP extent of atonement

Comparison chart: limited atonement vs. universal atonement vs. universalism on extent and application

Winger presents a visual chart distinguishing three views based on extent and application of the atonement.

2 Corinthians 5 evangelism limited atonement universal atonement

Universal atonement motivates evangelism; limited atonement undermines the sincere gospel call

Winger argues that Paul's evangelistic appeal in 2 Corinthians 5 flows directly from universal atonement and is inconsistent with limited atonement.

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 evangelism limited atonement 2 Corinthians 5:18-20

Paul's application of the theology confirms the universal-extent, limited-application reading: the missions mandate

How Paul applies his theology tells us what his real theology is; his application is the missions mandate.

2 Corinthians 5:21 imputation 2 Corinthians 5:21 extent of atonement

2 Corinthians 5:21 — 'he made him to be sin' reinforces universal atonement

Winger reads verse 21 as a statement about the totality of Christ's sacrifice, consistent with universal extent.

objective vs subjective atonement union with Christ conversion

Objective atonement 2,000 years ago vs. subjective appropriation at conversion

Winger explains how a believer can say they died with Christ even though they were not alive when Jesus died.

1 Timothy 4:10 extent of atonement application of atonement 1 Timothy 4:10

1 Timothy 4:10 — 'savior of all people, especially those who believe' — extent/application distinction in a single verse

Winger cites 1 Timothy 4:10 as a single verse that encodes the extent/application distinction.

Calvinism limited atonement TULIP

Summary: multiple scriptures confirm universal extent, non-universal application; rejecting limited atonement does not require leaving Calvinism

Winger wraps up his scriptural case and notes that rejecting limited atonement does not require rejecting Calvinism wholesale.

1 John 2:2 John 11:51-52 limited atonement 1 John 2:2 John 11:51-52

Calvinist reinterpretation of 1 John 2:2: 'whole world' means Gentile believers scattered abroad, paralleled with John 11:51-52

Winger presents the Calvinist counter-argument that 'whole world' in 1 John 2:2 means people from every nation, not every individual.

1 John 3:1 1 John 3:13 1 John 4:3-5 kosmos 1 John 3:1 1 John 3:13

1 John's own usage of 'world' across multiple verses defines the term as the ungodly — not scattered believers

Winger grounds the interpretation of 'world' in 1 John 2:2 by examining how the same author uses the word elsewhere in 1 John.

1 John 2:2 1 John 5:19 extent of atonement 1 John 2:2 propitiation

1 John 5:19 — 'the whole world lies under the power of the evil one' clinches the meaning of 'whole world' in 1 John 2:2

Winger uses 1 John 5:19 to confirm 'the whole world' in 1 John 2:2 refers to ungodly humanity.

Islam apologetics Christianity

Q&A: How to respond to someone who believes all religions are true (omnism) — expose internal contradictions, reconstruct their actual theology

Viewer Q&A: how to engage someone who holds that all religions are equally true.

resurrection God's glory glorified body

Q&A: God does not share his glory with anyone — how does receiving a glorified body fit? — Different senses of glory

Viewer asks how receiving a glorified resurrection body is consistent with God not sharing his glory.

Ecclesiastes resurrection soul sleep intermediate state

Q&A: Are the dead conscious after death? Are loved ones watching over us? — Believers go immediately to God's presence; watching over us is uncertain

Viewer Q&A about the state of the dead and whether loved ones watch over the living.

Galatians Hebrew Roots movement Galatians Gospel of Mark

Upcoming content: continuing Mark series and Hebrew Roots movement / Galatians on not being under the law

Winger previews upcoming videos at the close of the stream.

James White textual criticism James White Bart Ehrman

James White tweet: respectful but firm disagreement; White acknowledged for textual criticism work and Ehrman debate

Winger shows the James White tweet that prompted deeper preparation for this stream.

John 12 salvation Steven Anderson homosexuality

Clip 3: Anderson claims homosexuals cannot be saved

Playing Anderson's third clip

Romans 3:21-24 justification by faith grace righteousness of God

Romans 3:21-24: The law leads to Christ — righteousness through faith for all who believe

The law's positive function: pointing to Christ

Jeremiah 2:13 idolatry Jeremiah 2:13 fountain of living waters

Jeremiah 2:13: Two evils — forsaking the fountain of living waters and digging broken cisterns

The nature of all sin: turning from God toward inadequate substitutes

textual criticism Bible translation Steven Anderson

Anderson is King James Only — his church's statement of faith lists KJV without error as first article

Other theological problems with Anderson beyond homosexuality teaching

Steven Anderson deplatforming religious freedom

On deplatforming: Mike is ambivalent; prefers targeting donors over removing freedoms

Response to calls to remove Anderson from PayPal and online platforms

Jesus mythicism Zeitgeist (film) Religulous (film)

The Zeitgeist film and Bill Maher's Religulous cited as catalysts for the modern Jesus myth movement

Identifying pop-culture sources of Jesus mythicism

scholarly consensus Jesus mythicism historicity of Jesus

Joseph Hoffmann (agnostic, Harvard/Oxford) calls mythicists the greatest threat to calm academic study of religion next to fundamentalism

Third non-Christian scholar quoted condemning mythicism

Josephus Origen Antiquities of the Jews

The Testimonium Flavianum (Antiquities 18.63) was interpolated by a Christian, but most scholars think an authentic Josephus reference to Jesus underlies it

Scholarly consensus on the interpolation question in Josephus

John Meier Josephus historicity of Jesus Testimonium Flavianum

Louis Feldman (leading Josephus scholar, Jewish, non-Christian) believed Josephus mentioned Jesus in both passages, estimated 3-to-1 or 5-to-1 ratio of scholars who agree

Expert Josephus scholarly opinion on the authenticity question

early Christianity dying and rising gods pagan mythology

First-century Christians were pious, Torah-observant Jews who debated minutiae of Jewish law — making wholesale borrowing from pagan myths implausible

Cultural argument against the pagan parallels theory

resurrection Apollonius of Tyana historicity of Jesus

Apollonius of Tyana, the closest post-Jesus parallel, did not believe in resurrection and has only one account of an after-death appearance — in a dream to one disciple

Examining the post-Jesus pagan parallel most cited by mythicists

James (brother of Jesus) Paul James (brother of Jesus) Jesus mythicism

Some mythicists argue "James the brother of the Lord" means a fellow believer, not a biological brother of Jesus

Mythicist reinterpretation of Paul's reference to James

Galatians James (brother of Jesus) Matthew 13:55 Josephus Galatians multiple attestation

Refutation: Paul and Jesus use "brothers" for all believers, but Matthew names four brothers of Jesus including James — confirmed by Josephus

Multiple source attestation for James as biological brother of Jesus

Acts James (brother of Jesus) John 7 Acts James (brother of Jesus) resurrection appearances

John 7 records Jesus's brothers not believing in him during his ministry, then Acts records them as believers after resurrection — this disbelief/conversion arc supports biological relationship

The conversion of Jesus's brothers as evidence for their biological relationship