Apollonius's two main 'exorcism' stories involve (1) handing a woman a pre-written threatening letter addressed to the possessing spirit — the spirit stays, just agrees not to harm the boy — and (2) pointing out a disguised demon (a blind beggar) at Ephesus during a plague and having the crowd stone him to death, revealing a monster underneath. Neither constitutes casting out a demon by spiritual authority as Jesus did.

Textual criticism — comparing thousands of manuscript copies, locating them geographically, and dating them — has demonstrated that every New Testament book was written within the first century, much earlier than 19th-century skeptics claimed (~200s AD). It also shows the biblical text has been transmitted with remarkable fidelity.

The Bible is not merely informational — it calls people to live a certain way, and doing so demonstrates its truth experientially. Winger cites his marriage as an example: following biblical principles in a family culture with ~95% divorce rates resulted in a thriving ten-year marriage. The Bible's insights into human nature, psychology, and practical wisdom prove accurate when lived out.

Whether it is 'reasonable' to think some biblical claims are false depends entirely on one's prior conclusion about inspiration. If the Bible is demonstrated to be inspired by God, then assuming it contains errors becomes unreasonable, because God is reliable and dependable by nature.

Even Bart Ehrman — a non-Christian scholar whose goal is to undermine Christianity — dates John to 90–95 AD, not 170 AD

Mike offers a source skeptics can't dismiss as biased

Refutation of 'Romans never removed crucifixion victims': Josephus explicitly records that in Jerusalem, Jews were permitted by Romans to take down crucified bodies and bury them before sunset — directly supporting the Gospel burial account

Mike counters the 'no burial possible' claim with Josephus

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.

Craig Blomberg cited: Epistles of John contain no quotations of Jesus despite being written after the Gospel of John

Mike uses this scholarly observation as evidence that the absence of Jesus-quotations in epistles is normal and expected, not a red flag.

Matt Dillahunty's claim: Paul only gives us death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus

Mike cites a specific claim by Matt Dillahunty (paraphrased) that Paul's writings tell us virtually nothing about the historical Jesus other than death, burial, and resurrection.

1 Corinthians 11:23-25 — Paul 'received from the Lord' the Last Supper tradition, predating the Gospels

Paul's detailed knowledge of the Last Supper is one of the strongest demonstrations that he knew specific events from Jesus's life.

1 Corinthians 7:10 — Paul distinguishes Jesus's teaching from his own on divorce

Paul's explicit attribution of a teaching to 'the Lord' rather than himself demonstrates his awareness of Jesus's specific teachings.

Acts 21:17-26 — Paul participates in a Nazirite vow to demonstrate continued Torah observance as a Jewish believer

Q&A: question about Paul's behavior in Acts 21 and what it tells us about his relationship to Torah.

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.

Q&A: How to use the Bible as evidence with non-believers who don't accept it as God's word — the prophecy approach

Viewer question from Kate about apologetic method.

The unborn is human — it has its own unique human DNA, distinct from both parents, present from conception

Establishing the 'Human' quality of the unborn with genetic evidence

Hebrews 7:11-12 — change of priesthood necessarily entails a change in the law; Mike argues the OT itself predicted this change

Mike goes to Hebrews 7 as a non-Pauline passage to demonstrate that the OT itself contains the seeds of its own supersession.

Fulfilled prophecy as evidence for God

Q&A asking for apologetic reasons to believe in God.

Luke 2:52 — Jesus grew in wisdom, demonstrating genuine human limitations on omniscience

Continuing answer on Mark 13:32 and Jesus's limited knowledge

The genre of the Gospels: from assumed mythology to recognized Greco-Roman biography

Historical shift in scholarly understanding of the literary genre of the Gospels.

Proper epistemology for trusting Scripture: demonstrate Bible is from God, then trust it — rather than requiring external proof for every claim.

Mike's methodological note on the Exodus question.

Are ghosts real? Mike's view: likely evil spirits, not the spirits of the dead.

Jim McGregor asks whether ghosts are real or evil spirits.

Witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28): the appearance of Samuel was an exception, possibly demonic; the medium herself was shocked it worked.

Continuing the ghosts discussion with a biblical example.

How to evangelize pantheists: demonstrate Christianity is true rather than directly refuting pantheism.

Michael Gilbert asks how to evangelize to pantheists and polytheists and prove their views false.

1 Timothy 2:5 mediator concept underlies John 20:17 — Jesus is the one mediator between God and man.

Continuing the John 20:17 discussion.

Multiple attestation of empty tomb across 4 Gospels plus Acts sermons

Establishing historicity of the empty tomb through independent sources

Women as witnesses - criterion of embarrassment in male-centered culture

Why early Christians would not invent women as the first witnesses

Chapter 3: doxastic closure — Boghossian continues the assault on faith while romanticizing Street Epistemology

Mike transitions to chapter 3 of the book

The book assumes religious people have not thought through their beliefs — which Mike says is demonstrably false

Mike identifies a core assumption embedded in the book

Q&A: Hebrews 11:1 is a description of faith in action, not a definition of faith

Question from "search for truth" about Hebrews 11:1

Focus narrowed to Peter, James the brother of Jesus, and Paul as the three central resurrection eyewitnesses whose sincerity needs to be established

Transition from general persecution to specific apostolic martyrdoms

Catalog of additional sources for Peter's martyrdom: Apocalypse of Peter, Ascension of Isaiah, Acts of Peter, Apocryphon of James, Dionysius of Corinth, Tertullian, Muratorian Canon

Demonstrating that Peter's martyrdom is attested by multiple independent streams of tradition

James the brother of Jesus as the leader of the Jerusalem church; Acts 15 and 1 Corinthians 15 as key evidence for his role and resurrection witness

Transition to James as the third focal figure

Reed (Street Epistemology YouTuber) argues that "belief without evidence" functions as a costly loyalty signal within religious in-groups

Examining another atheist's social-psychological theory of faith

Jesus healed the paralytic to provide evidence for his authority to forgive sins — faith is evidence-based

Biblical example of evidence-based faith

Abraham and David in Romans 4 as Old Testament examples of justification apart from works

Exegesis of Romans 4 on OT salvation

Disciples' failure to cast out demons vs. faith as a mustard seed — two distinct teachings not to conflate

Q&A: Haggar Vid asks about the disciples having little faith and the mustard-seed faith saying

Matthew 5 and Matthew 28 are from entirely different contexts and cannot be simply combined

First critique of the Hebrew Roots interpretive move

Apostles were willing to die repeatedly for the resurrection—this demonstrates sincerity without needing proof they were offered a final recantation option

Brief apologetics note on the resurrection and martyrdom argument

Isaiah 63 — Three persons of the Trinity in the Old Testament

McLatchie presents Isaiah 63:7-10 as containing all three persons of the Trinity within a single Old Testament passage.

Undesigned coincidences — definition and how they demonstrate historicity

Winger asks McLatchie to explain undesigned coincidences as a distinct argument for the historicity of the New Testament.

Antony Flew's conversion from atheism due to biological complexity

Winger cites Antony Flew as a historical example of someone persuaded by biological complexity to abandon atheism.

Undesigned coincidence within Luke: women from Galilee thread through Luke 8, 23, and 24

McLatchie presents an intra-Gospel undesigned coincidence within Luke demonstrating the authentic, non-fabricated character of the resurrection narrative.

Acts 21:23-24 -- Paul is asked to join four men under a vow and pay their expenses, demonstrating publicly that he walks orderly and keeps the law -- to refute the false rumor

Survey of Acts 21:23-24, Paul and the vow

Galatians 3:21-28 read in full: no Jew or Greek distinction in Christ undermines Hebrew Roots' position

Extended scriptural reading to demonstrate freedom from the law

2 Peter 2:1 — Christ bought even false prophets who deny him and face destruction, proving atonement extends beyond the elect

Winger uses 2 Peter 2:1 to demonstrate that Christ purchased those who are clearly not saved, refuting limited atonement.

Bart Ehrman's statement: mythicist view has no foothold among modern critical scholars

Quoting agnostic/atheist scholar to demonstrate non-Christian scholarly consensus

Analogy: Parallel details in the B-29 Empire State Building crash (1945) and 9/11 do not mean 9/11 was copied — you need a causal connection

Illustrating that parallel details alone prove nothing without demonstrating causal connection

John Dominic Crossan in debate with Licona affirmed the use of criteria — demonstrating that most historians still rely on them

Licona's debate with Crossan as evidence of continuing scholarly use of criteria

Rebuttal: the inscripturation claim for prophecy and knowledge is unsubstantiated; New Testament prophets generally did not produce Scripture.

First major exegetical objection to the Masters Seminary argument. Winger demonstrates that NT prophets were not primarily Scripture-writers.

Isaiah 41:23 and Lamentations 3:38-39 corroborate that God bringing evil/bad = calamity, not moral evil

Supporting passages examined to reinforce the interpretation of Isaiah 45:7