Search — Theology Explorer

1 Corinthians 6:12-13 Corinthian quotations Katherine Bushnell Alan Padgett

Question 2: Is Paul refuting rather than teaching? Examples of Corinthian quotations

Mike evaluates the refutation view more carefully.

1 Corinthians 11:3 Craig Keener 1 Corinthians 11:3 cultural vs. transcultural

Keener's response: if kephale means authority, it's purely cultural -- Mike's rebuttal

Mike challenges the 'cultural authority' escape hatch.

Mark Goodacre testicle theory Troy Martin peribolaion

Question 13: The testicle theory -- Troy Martin's claim about peribolaion

Mike introduces the most controversial recent interpretation.

Mark Goodacre Troy Martin peribolaion Mark Goodacre

Martin's two ancient sources for peribolaion meaning testicle: Achilles Tatius and Euripides

Mike examines Martin's evidence for the word meaning.

Mark Goodacre translation comparison Troy Martin peribolaion

Euripides source: all published translations use clothing metaphor, not testicle

Mike examines the second and stronger piece of evidence.

Mark Goodacre straw man argument Troy Martin Mark Goodacre

Martin's later paper shifts: claims he can establish testicle meaning from 1 Corinthians alone

Mike traces the evolution of Martin's argument.

Mike Winger idea 2022-12-04

D.A. Carson: it is not plausible women are silenced because they were uneducated

Mike quotes Carson's response to the education view.

1 Corinthians 14:33b D.A. Carson 1 Corinthians 14:33b universal scope argument

1 Timothy 2:9-10 1 Peter 3:3-4 Ephesus Artemis cult Gary Hoag

Gary Hoag and Sandra Glahn's updated Artemis arguments

Mike addresses more recent egalitarian attempts to revive the Artemis cult argument with updated evidence.

1 Timothy 2:12 1 Timothy 2:12 Philip Payne Cynthia Long Westfall

Egalitarian responses to Kostenberger's syntactic argument

Mike addresses attempts to refute the Kostenberger syntactic pattern.

1 Timothy 2:13 creation order 1 Timothy 2:13 Artemis cult

Egalitarian responses to the creation order argument

Mike presents and evaluates egalitarian attempts to neutralize the creation order appeal.

servant leadership elder authority theological cost

Sacrificing elder authority to support egalitarianism is theologically dangerous

Mike warns about the theological cost of denying that elders have authority.

1 Samuel 5:6 Bill Johnson thorn in the flesh healing theology

Bill Johnson Q&A answer on whether God causes sickness: 'You can't give what you don't have — God doesn't have cancer, so He can't give it'

Mike plays and critiques a specific Q&A response from Bill Johnson

Bill Johnson Bethel Church healing theology

Bethel systematically lowers the threshold for confirming healings: vague words of knowledge, mass prayer, and immediate crowd celebration regardless of actual outcome

Mike explains the mechanics of how Bethel creates the appearance of widespread healing

Bethel Church anointing healing theology

'You lost your healing' — Bethel reframes failed healings as loss rather than non-occurrence, requiring a program on 'how to keep your healing'

Mike discusses how Bethel's theological framework handles apparent healing failures

Bethel Church spiritual gifts social engineering

Bethel's prophetic culture is social engineering — a formula developed through experimentation and exported to other churches worldwide

Mike's meta-level analysis of what Bethel is doing with prophecy

Joseph Smith LDS Church Egyptology

Early Egyptologist critics were dismissed because the original papyri could not be examined

How the LDS Church handled early scholarly criticism

Holy Spirit apologetics LDS Church

LDS Church's official position: understand the Book of Abraham through 'careful study of its teachings and by the witness of the Holy Spirit'

The LDS Church's final response to the historical and Egyptological evidence

Deuteronomy 18:20 Deuteronomy false prophet Joseph Smith Deuteronomy 18:20

Deuteronomy 18: the test for a false prophet — a prophet who speaks in God's name what God has not commanded shall die

Scriptural framework for evaluating false prophecy

Book of Abraham Great Chicago Fire Metropolitan Museum of Art

LDS apologist argument #1: the 'Short Scroll Theory' — the recovered fragments are only part of a longer scroll

Review of LDS apologetic responses to the papyri problem

Book of Abraham Great Chicago Fire Joseph Smith Papyri

LDS apologist argument #2: the 'Long Scroll Theory' — a different, longer, lost scroll within the same collection contained the real Book of Abraham source

Second main LDS apologetic response

Joseph Smith Book of Abraham Egyptology

LDS apologist argument #4: we don't know enough about Egyptology yet — future discoveries might vindicate Smith

Fourth main LDS apologetic response

Mike Winger idea 2018-02-21

No single alternative to blood transfusions exists for all clinical scenarios; the medical community is working toward blood independence but has not achieved it.

Response to a viewer question about blood transfusion alternatives.

bloodless surgery blood transfusion alternatives blood supply

Mike Winger idea 2018-02-21

Mike plans a future series on 'Jesus in the Old Testament' after completing his Romans series, and the next week's livestream will respond to Ricky Gervais's atheism arguments.

Closing announcements about upcoming content.

Romans atheism Ricky Gervais Jesus in the Old Testament

Todd White healing fraud physical manipulation

Mike identifies the specific moment of fraud: the healer places his hand on the boy's arm and physically shoves it forward after prolonged psychological pressure failed to elicit a response.

Frame-by-frame analysis of the trick in the first healing video.

Tom Fischer healing fraud leg lengthening

Second video: Tom Fischer performs a leg-lengthening healing. Mike distinguishes this as likely not deliberate fraud but rather sincere self-deception.

Transition to the second example — Tom Fischer's leg-lengthening video.

psychosomatic response placebo effect confirmation bias

Mike illustrates psychosomatic confirmation bias using an anecdote about elastic wristbands supposedly improving equilibrium — a classic placebo/expectancy effect.

Explaining why subjects often report feeling better without real healing occurring.

Todd White healing fraud psychological manipulation

Fourth video: Todd White heals a girl of scoliosis. Mike notes multiple misleading elements: positive reaction to love/compassion, a back 'pop' presented as confirmation, and an ambiguous pain report — yet Todd declares her 'totally healed of scoliosis.'

Analysis of Todd White's scoliosis healing video.

Todd White healing fraud confirmation bias

Scoliosis diagnosis via back-twisting is medically invalid — a 'pop' is not confirmation of healing, and Todd White has cultivated a deliberately low threshold for confirming healings.

Medical and methodological critique of the scoliosis healing video.

healing fraud psychological manipulation psychosomatic response

The 'vibe' — an emotionally charged environment of expectation and high-pressure suggestion — can produce psychosomatic symptoms that mimic healing.

Transition to explaining the psychological mechanism behind perceived healings.

healing fraud psychosomatic response adrenaline

Adrenaline rush physiologically explains small incremental improvements in vision, pain, and strength — making it irresponsible to publish a healing video based on these responses.

Physiological explanation for the apparent improvements seen in the eye-healing video.

eschatology end times predictions

Introduction: end-of-the-world predictions have been continuous from the time of Jesus to the present day

Mike opens the stream by framing the topic — the unending stream of failed doomsday predictions — and signals his calm, informed response: 'It's the end of the world as I know it, and I feel fine.'

false prophecy Holy Spirit Harold Camping

Harold Camping's 1994 prediction: when it failed, he claimed it was 'spiritual' — the Holy Spirit left all denominations

Camping's first major public end-times prediction was 1994. His response to failure set a pattern.

false prophecy Jewish calendar blood moons

Reason 7: Astrological 'snake oil' — rare celestial events exploited as prophetic signs

Seventh reason people fall for false predictions.