Where Mike Winger Went Wrong on Women

Comprehensive response to the entire Mike Winger Women in Ministry video series (Parts 1-13)

The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus

Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona — Kindle highlights from 'The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus'. 110 highlights.

Semi Egalitarians

USA Today has an editorial written by David P Gushee in which Mr. Gushee challenges complementarians that they are actually semi-egalitarians and they should be willing to openly acknowledge this

The Messianic view is an early patristic interpretation, not a modern invention

Mike notes that several church fathers held this view.

Q&A: Premillennial vs. postmillennial; why Mike identifies himself as premillennial in this context

Question from B.C.B. Lloyd about millennial views.

Joseph Smith's claim that 'bara' means 'organize' is inaccurate; traditional Jewish and Christian scholarship has consistently supported ex nihilo creation.

Mike briefly rebuts Smith's Hebrew argument, pointing to the scholarly consensus and encouraging viewers to research it themselves.

Prophecy has multiple functions: some is short-term (credentialing for contemporaries), some long-term (evidence for distant generations), some purely theological.

Winger extends the criteria discussion to explain why ancient prophets gave both near and far predictions.

Claims from the biblical text can be tested against external archaeological evidence. Confirming one claim does not prove everything, but verification increases the text's historical credibility. When archaeology confirms a claim, it lends 'historicity' to the surrounding narrative.

In a Q&A exchange, Winger clarifies that verifying one claim in a text archaeologically does not automatically validate all other claims. Historical credibility is built incrementally, not wholesale. This is a guard against both over-claiming and the skeptical misuse of the argument.

Cameron Bertuzzi's ministry goal: expose the intellectual depth of Christian belief; counter the cultural assumption that atheism has all the intellectual high ground

Cameron shares his goals for Capturing Christianity

Three embarrassing facts that authenticate the disciples' sincerity: Peter's denial, James's pre-resurrection unbelief, and Paul's role as persecutor of the church

The criterion of embarrassment applied to the three key witnesses

Gen Z fact-checks in real time — credibility and truth-telling are now more important than ever for teachers and pastors

McDowell describes speaking at Berkeley and observing real-time fact-checking

Q&A: Handling unreliable sources and fact-checking in a Wikipedia age — do your diligence, own mistakes, and nuance statements to match the strength of evidence

Final audience question about fact-checking and epistemic responsibility

General reliability of the Gospels and Acts as a fourth argument

Winger and McLatchie introduce the general historical reliability of the Gospels and Acts as an additional, related argument.

Analogy: Entertaining Jesus mythicism is like scientists debating Flat Earth, or historians entertaining Holocaust denial

Illustrating the scholarly view of Jesus mythicism's credibility level

Red flags for mythicists: fringe scholarly support + primarily internet bloggers = gullibility warning; comparable to moon landing denialism and Holocaust denial

Warning signs that a position may be a conspiracy theory

Having had an abortion: is it hypocritical to oppose it, have children afterward, or feel unworthy?

Question from "Faded Princess" about abortion, hypocrisy, and guilt.

Attending a same-sex wedding generally expresses affirmation, not merely love — Christians should decline

Q&A from Joel Holmberg about attending a same-sex wedding

NWT translators' identities were kept secret; a former JW leader revealed they were not qualified

Mike addresses the credibility problem with the NWT's translation committee.

Church fathers have historical value — especially the earliest second-century writers — but should not be granted extra theological authority; they are windows into early church history, not infallible teachers.

Q: How much utility should we find in the church fathers? Should we view them with extra credibility?

Discipleship readiness: everyone can encourage immediately; formal leadership is about raising others up, not establishing authority

Second part of Bree Herb's question: how do you know when you are ready to disciple others?

Framing the question: Does one fraudulent religious figure (Brian Simmons) justify skepticism about all religious authors, including the Gospel writers?

Question from Robert asks whether Brian Simmons being a "nut" should make us skeptical of Paul and the Gospel authors the same way.

Private vs. public religious experience: Brian Simmons's experiences are private; Jesus's resurrection appearances were witnessed by many simultaneously.

First major distinction between Brian Simmons and the apostles in the credibility comparison.

Endorsement circle comparison: Simmons is endorsed only within hyper-charismatic circles; the resurrection was affirmed even by hostile witnesses like Paul.

Second distinction in the Simmons-vs-apostles credibility argument.

Psychological profile of apostles: they were not prone to hallucinations or delusion; even Anthony Flew called Paul a first-rate philosopher.

Fourth distinction: the mental/psychological credibility of the witnesses.

Religion as social control: a compliment, not a refutation

Summer Monsoon asked how to respond to the claim that religion is just a mechanism for social control and helps people cope with death.

Political prophecies, false prophets in 2020, and the antichrist

Joe Burton asked whether the wave of false political prophecies might be setting up the antichrist to appear as a savior.

Admitting ignorance builds trust rather than undermining pastoral credibility.

Transition comment between questions; Mike reflecting on his own practice.

How the martyrdom argument fits the larger resurrection case: the resurrection rests on multiple facts (Jesus lived, died, was buried, tomb was empty, early appearance claims to women, the 500, apostles, Paul). The apostles' willingness to suffer gives credibility specifically to the appearance claims — they weren't lying about having seen the risen Jesus. Lee Strobel said this was the most convincing evidence to him.

Martyrdom as sub-argument within resurrection case

Richard Dawkins is not respected even by fellow atheists as a philosopher of religion. Atheist philosopher Michael Ruse says The God Delusion "makes me ashamed to be an atheist."

Setting up Dawkins' credibility before addressing his arguments

About OT Prophet Credibility: Why were many of the prophets who wrote books included in the Old Testament if they didn't perform miracles and their prophecies didn't come true until the New Testament? What made them stand out from false prophets?

Q&A question: About OT Prophet Credibility

Winger advises a 16-year-old in an egalitarian church on how to approach leaders: do self-assessment first (Matt 7:5, Gal 6:1), don't become one-sided in critique, acknowledge blessings from women's ministry even if the role is unbiblical, bring SPECIFIC evidence rather than just conviction, and start with encouragement.

Q from 16-year-old who has been studying Winger's Women in Ministry series and wants to discuss egalitarianism with church leaders.

The presence of women as the primary witnesses to the empty tomb was an embarrassment to the early church in first-century culture, where women's testimony was widely discredited. What was a liability then is actually strong evidence for historical reliability now — people don't fabricate stories that hurt their own credibility.

The criterion of embarrassment and the women witnesses; Celsius's criticism