Search — Theology Explorer

deaconess history women's baptism ministry anointing ministry

Church history: women had distinct ministry roles (baptism assistance, anointing); called deacons

Mike provides historical context for women's active ministry.

eldership women deacons deacons

Transition to deacons: eldership is male; deacons are the question

Mike frames the deacon discussion.

1 Timothy 3:11 church history 1 Timothy 3:11 diakonos

The word 'deaconess' didn't exist yet; Paul used 'gunaikas' because no feminine term was available

Mike explains why Paul didn't use a feminine deacon term.

Two Views on Women in Ministry Craig Blomberg deaconess history

Craig Blomberg on early church deaconesses: common for centuries with pastoral care and baptism roles

Mike cites historical support for women deacons.

Mike Winger idea 2022-05-09

Pliny's letter to Trajan: early evidence of female deaconesses (c. 110 AD)

Mike provides extra-biblical historical evidence for female deacons.

Pliny the Younger Emperor Trajan Pliny's letter to Trajan

Mike Winger idea 2022-05-30

There is no select group of priests within the body of Christ in the New Testament

Mike explains that the concept of a special clerical priesthood arose from culture and church history, not from the NT or apostolic teaching.

presbyter priesthood Roman Catholicism

video structure medical argument church history argument

Four sections of the video: medical argument, church history argument, Bible study argument, Greek/lexical argument

Mike outlines the four egalitarian arguments he will address.

John Chrysostom John Chrysostom church history argument Kathleen Kroeger

Church history argument introduced: Chrysostom supposedly shows kephale doesn't mean authority

Mike introduces the second egalitarian argument — Kathleen Kroeger's use of Chrysostom.

John Chrysostom John Chrysostom Kathleen Kroeger Christians for Biblical Equality

Church history argument: Kathleen Kroeger, founder of Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE)

Mike introduces the church history argument and Kathleen Kroeger's significance.

church history male eldership female deacons

Church history conclusion: the church has virtually always agreed that headship means authority and that eldership is male-only

Mike summarizes the church history argument.

kephale complementarianism male headship

Five conclusions: (1) medical thought supports authority; (2) Paul's context implies authority; (3) church history supports authority; (4) lexical study strongly supports authority; (5) egalitarian claims are often problematic

Mike presents his five summary conclusions for the video.

Mike Winger idea 2022-08-15

Church history has strongly supported complementarian interpretation

Mike appeals to historical consensus as supporting evidence.

church history historical consensus

Mike Winger idea 2022-11-11

Question 3: What does kephale mean? Conclusions from video 8 on male headship

Mike references his prior detailed study on kephale.

kephale headship church history

Mike Winger idea 2022-11-11

Question 14: How does it apply today? The argument FOR transcultural head coverings (7 points)

Mike seriously engages the pro-head-covering position.

head covering movement transcultural application Elizabeth Farians

Mike Winger idea 2022-12-04

Paul spent 18 months in Corinth teaching men and women equally

Mike emphasizes the extensive Christian education Corinthian women had received by the time of this letter.

1 Corinthians 16:19 Apollos 1 Corinthians 16:19 Priscilla and Aquila

Mike Winger idea 2024-03-01

Pillar 2 was not debated throughout church history — it is a very new debate

Mike argues from historical consistency.

church history novelty of doctrine prophecy exception

Mike Winger idea 2018-01-10

Matthew 24:7-14 describes inter-advent period, not end-time

Clarifying what the 'composite sign' actually refers to

Matthew 24:7-14 Matthew 24:7-14 Inter-advent period Church history

Mike Winger idea 2018-02-14

Bill Johnson's background: pastor in Weaverville, then moved to Bethel Redding in 1996 with revival as his non-negotiable condition

Historical background on how the Bethel movement began

church history Bill Johnson Bethel Church

Mike Winger idea 2018-04-18

Reason 1: Every generation assumes it is the last generation

First of seven reasons people fall for end-times predictions.

Calvary Chapel eschatology last generation fallacy

Mike Winger idea 2018-08-22

Refutation of the six Christmas-pagan claims: Baal was not a sun god and had no December 25 festival; Nimrod was never deified with a December birthday; Saturnalia ended before Dec 25; winter solstice is Dec 21; Mithra's Dec 25 birth is a modern myth; Sol Invictus December celebration may postdate Christian observance

Mike goes through each of Kim's six claims one by one.

church history apologetics Christmas

Mike Winger idea 2018-08-22

CoG claims Passover was 'completely destroyed' at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 and no one has been saved for 1,600 years until Ahn Sahng-hong restored it

Kim's book page 149. This is described as the 'weird core teaching' of the group.

church history conspiracy theory Ahn Sahng-hong

Mike Winger idea 2018-11-14

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.

church history Reformation Q&A

Mike Winger idea 2018-12-01

Jim's claim about Christmas trees: first-century Romans practiced Christmas trees, first-century Christians adopted it, and the New Testament contains a specific passage telling them to stop — but they ignored it

Fifth major claim Mike refutes — biblical origin of Christmas trees

Jeremiah 10 church history apologetics Christmas trees

Mike Winger idea 2018-12-19

Q&A: When did inclusivism/relativism become prevalent in the Catholic Church? Vatican II was deliberately vague

Answering viewer question from Michael Cato

Council of Trent Vatican II inclusivism

Mike Winger idea 2019-02-20

Introduction of Papias: Bishop of Hierapolis in the early second century

First major evidence: the testimony and writings of Papias.

Papias Hierapolis early church history

Mike Winger idea 2019-02-20

Acts 21:8-9 — Philip the Evangelist and his prophesying daughters

Biblical and extra-biblical verification of Philip the Evangelist's daughters as contemporaries of Papias.

Acts 21:8-9 eyewitness testimony Papias early church history

Mike Winger idea 2019-02-20

Papias's key quotation about seeking living witnesses over written sources

The primary Papias text Mike uses to establish the eyewitness-guarantor model.

James John Matthew Peter James John

Mike Winger idea 2019-03-13

Pre-trib rapture and early church fathers: Mike acknowledges not knowing the answer and references Brian Brodersen's book.

Ian Connolly asks whether the pre-trib rapture was a recent invention not believed by early church fathers.

Pre-tribulation rapture Early church fathers Brian Brodersen

Mike Winger idea 2019-06-26

Historical question: sign gifts did not begin at Azusa Street; early church fathers (Justin Martyr, later Augustine) attest to prophecy and miracles continuing post-apostolically.

Q&A — viewer claims modern tongues/gifts stem from the 1906 Azusa Street revival. Winger corrects the historical record.

cessationism continuationism church history

Mike Winger idea 2019-07-17

Q&A: Hermeneutics — advice for a new Bible student afraid of misinterpretation

Question from a student who has taken hermeneutics courses but feels intimidated to start studying.

hermeneutics Bible study interpretation

Mike Winger idea 2019-07-24

Calvinism is not a fellowship-breaking issue; call for brotherly engagement

Closing exhortation on tone and Christian unity.

James White James White Christian fellowship Calvinism

crucifixion cross early church history

Alexamenos Graffito: earliest known artwork depicting Christ on a cross shows a T-shaped cross

The Alexamenos Graffito is a piece of graffiti mocking a Christian named Alexamenos, dated between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD (possibly as early as 80 AD). It shows a person with a donkey's head on a T-shaped cross, and a man worshiping below.

Moses typology crucifixion

Epistle of Barnabas (early 2nd century) depicts the cross as a capital-T shape

The Epistle of Barnabas, written in the early second century (within ~100 years of Jesus's death), represents the cross of Christ using the capital letter T, implying a crossbeam.

apologetics crucifixion cross

Justin Martyr (2nd century) explicitly describes two beams on the cross

Justin Martyr, one of the earliest Christian apologists, writing in the second century, describes Christ's cross as having two beams — ruling out the single-stake theory.

crucifixion cross early church history

Early NT manuscripts (P75, P66) abbreviate stauros with Tau-Rho symbol depicting a cross with crossbeam

In some of the earliest New Testament manuscripts, the Greek word stauros is abbreviated using the letters Tau (T) and Rho (P-shape), superimposed on each other to form a visual symbol. This combination appears to depict a man on a cross with a crossbeam.

early church history crux decussata Constantine

Q&A: What did Constantine see — an X or a cross?

A viewer asks about Constantine's famous vision before the Battle of Milvian Bridge. Winger acknowledges the ambiguity without offering a firm answer.

infant baptism paedobaptism believers baptism

Introduction and five-part outline for analyzing infant baptism biblically

Mike Winger opens the livestream by laying out the structure of his biblical analysis of infant baptism, listing the five areas he will cover.

Mark 7:8 biblical authority church history tradition

Part 5: Church history arguments for infant baptism should not override Scripture

Winger addresses the appeal to church tradition as evidence for infant baptism.

John 16:13 church history tradition Sola Scriptura

Q&A: Church history argument (1,500 years) fails — selective, skips earliest centuries, and John 16:13 is misapplied

A viewer invokes 1,500 years of church tradition and Christ's promise in John 16:13 to argue for infant baptism.

church fathers church history tradition

Q&A: There was no uniformity in the early church on any topic — "church fathers" is a misleading term

A viewer notes that early church diversity undermines appeals to monolithic tradition.

Mike Winger idea 2020-08-28

Catholic claim that marriage outside the Church is invalid is wrong — it is not sacramental but is still a real marriage; the Catholic doctrine of 7 sacraments is historically late

Question from Lindsey whose husband's Catholic family claims they are not really married because they were not married by the Catholic Church.

Roman Catholicism church history marriage

church history apologetics Jesus

Response to the charge that the church is a bloody, evil institution: distinguish Christ from institutional church history

Q&A from Connor Robinson about the church's violent history as an apologetic challenge

Revelation 2-3 church history Revelation 2-3 seven churches of Revelation

Jesus's letters to the seven churches in Revelation show the visible church often fails to represent Christ

Biblical support for why church failures do not disprove Christianity

Matthew 13 church history visible vs invisible church Parable of the Wheat and Tares

Parable of the Wheat and Tares explains the presence of ungodly people within the visible church

Second biblical resource for answering the bloody-church-history objection