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All (507) Scripture Commentary (193) Theology (52) Mike Winger (260) Pulpit (2)

Mike Winger idea 2018-08-16

Why send missionaries if everyone already knows God? Sye: sufficient knowledge for condemnation is not sufficient knowledge for salvation — missionaries bring saving knowledge through the gospel

Audience Q&A on unreached peoples and missionary purpose

Romans 1 general revelation Romans 1 unreached peoples

Mike Winger idea 2018-08-16

The beachball analogy: you cannot suppress what you don't already hold; Sye uses this to prove people must have truth to suppress it

Sye's illustration for the suppression of truth in Romans 1

Romans 1 general revelation Romans 1 suppression of truth

Mike Winger idea 2018-08-16

1 Corinthians 8:6-7 — 'not everyone has this knowledge'; Winger argues this shows not all people know the God of the Bible; Sye says it refers to saving knowledge, not general knowledge

Winger's Scripture argument against universal conscious knowledge of God

1 Corinthians 8:6-7 general revelation knowledge of God saving knowledge

Mike Winger idea 2018-10-17

Hebrews 2:2 confirms that Old Testament punishments were morally just retributions, not merely symbolic — validating the OT penal code as a genuine moral revelation.

Mike anticipates a possible objection that the OT law was purely symbolic and therefore its differentiated penalties do not reveal moral truths about sin.

Why send missionaries if everyone already knows God? Sye: sufficient knowledge for condemnation is not sufficient knowledge for salvation — missionaries bring saving knowledge through the gospel

The beachball analogy: you cannot suppress what you don't already hold; Sye uses this to prove people must have truth to suppress it

1 Corinthians 8:6-7 — 'not everyone has this knowledge'; Winger argues this shows not all people know the God of the Bible; Sye says it refers to saving knowledge, not general knowledge

Hebrews 2:2 confirms that Old Testament punishments were morally just retributions, not merely symbolic — validating the OT penal code as a genuine moral revelation.

Revelation 20:13 — At the final judgment, each person is judged 'according to what they had done,' indicating individualized and tailored condemnation, not a uniform punishment.

Hell likely involves graded punishment — Jesus' teaching about more or less tolerable judgment supports the idea that individual experience in final condemnation varies.

Sin damages the relational walk with God for believers without severing salvation; New Testament epistles urge repentance precisely because ongoing sin harms fellowship.

Believers are not punished at final judgment but may experience loss of rewards; the Bema Seat (1 Corinthians 3) is a judgment for rewards, not condemnation.

Treasures in heaven are eternal, imperishable blessings — not necessities but blessings, possibly including crowns cast before God — as opposed to the temporary, corruptible treasures of earthly life.

Zahnd's claim that 'Jesus is the only perfect theology' and 'the Bible is not the perfect revelation of God' mirrors Bill Johnson's framework

Jesus's own words affirm future divine vengeance and judgment — directly refuting Zahnd's 'Jesus closes the book on vengeance' thesis

Bishop Barron's theology of conscience: conscience is 'the aboriginal voice of Christ'

John 5:45-47 — if you believed Moses you would believe me: encountering Jesus reveals whether one truly believed Moses

Old Testament pattern: Israel claimed to believe God but rejected his prophets — same dynamic with Messiah

Q&A: Can atheists be saved? — Romans 1 and the hardening process of rejecting God

The Hebrews 11 heroes had concrete reasons for their faith: direct speech from God, angelic visitations, inherited testimony

Revelation 22:12 — "repaying each one for what he has done" does not teach levels of heaven or works-based salvation

John 1 Logos — what it means for Jesus to be the Word: Jesus is God's self-revelation, not the Bible itself

Book of Revelation and the new heavens and new earth

Open theological questions Mike personally still has

John 3:13 — "No one has ascended" does not necessarily contradict Elijah's translation

Repentance functions in both justification and sanctification

Q&A: Microchips in hand — not automatically the mark of the beast without beast worship connection

Q&A: How did the disciples know what Jesus prayed in Gethsemane if he prayed alone?

John 14:9 context: Philip asks to see the Father; Jesus responds with a revelation claim, not an identity claim.

Question: Does "repent" (metanoia) mean godly grief/sorrow?

The Christian hope of eschatological restoration answers the problem of evil: God wiping away every tear, remaking of heaven and earth

Q&A: Why doesn't God interact visibly today as in Bible times? Mike's answer: miracles were always rare; God interacts spiritually now; the Bible establishes the foundation

Prison epistles and other NT letters as evidence that suffering was a church-wide reality needing sustained pastoral address

Revelation 6:11 — question about whether the passage refers to martyrs specifically or all believers; Mike declines to give a definitive answer

Q&A on John 14:2-3 "I go to prepare a place for you" — Mike's understanding of the intermediate state and the new heaven and new earth

Romans 1:18-32 describes two divine judgments on those who suppress the evidence for God: sin and a debased mind

Adding corroborating evidence: reasons to believe God exists and Scripture is reliable further overcome any prior improbability

Intellectual clarity requires spiritual health — Romans 1 on the connection between spiritual state and clear thinking

Comparing OT and NT severity of divine judgment is a category error: the OT covers thousands of years of history while the NT covers only a brief first-century window

NT judgment is actually more extreme than OT judgment: Revelation's eternal punishment exceeds anything in the OT; love, mercy, and wrath are all escalated in the NT

Biblical cosmology should not be assumed to match ancient Near Eastern flat-earth cosmology just because surrounding cultures believed it; Genesis radically demythologizes creation compared to the Enuma Elish

Q&A: Those who never hear the gospel — Winger says the way is narrow but defers to his dedicated teaching on the topic

New Testament as the decryption key for Old Testament theology

Hebrew Roots movement defined: diverse group united by belief that all believers must obey Mosaic Law including dietary restrictions, Sabbath, and feast days

Acts 1:8 establishes the progressive geographic expansion of the gospel: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, uttermost parts of the earth

Acts 5:12 -- Apostles gather at Solomon's Portico (temple area), reinforcing the entirely Jewish character of the early church. No abandonment of the law is visible.

Acts 8:1 -- Saul's persecution scatters the church throughout Judea and Samaria, fulfilling the Acts 1:8 progression

Neither extreme interpretation of Acts 10 is correct: neither 'all food is now clean for everyone' nor 'all food is still unclean' -- the vision primarily establishes Gentile access to the gospel

Mark 7:19 -- Jesus declared all foods clean. Winger defers full treatment but flags it as part of a progressive revelation from Jesus through Paul to Hebrews.

Q&A: Revelation 20-21 as the end of the Mosaic law -- Winger is uncertain; notes a real transition happens in new heavens/new earth but declines to definitively call it the end of the law

Cessationism defined: miraculous gifts belonged to the apostolic era only, served a unique founding purpose, and ceased before the canon closed.

Cessationist Interpretation 2 (Masters Seminary): prophecy and knowledge = inscripturated revelation; massive time gap between vv. 11 and 12; "the perfect" = the church brought to maturity by the Bible.

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

Verse-by-verse: v. 8 — love never ends; three gifts (prophecy, knowledge, tongues) will pass away; the context is clearly the spiritual gifts of 1 Cor 12-14.

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