For more than six hours, Christian apologist Mike Winger methodically dismantled the public ministry of self-styled prophet Shawn Bolz, joining ministries like ours that have been exposing Bolz for years.
The exposé was exhaustive. The documentation was overwhelming. The conclusion is unavoidable.
Bolz’s so-called prophetic gift was not supernatural revelation, but cold-reading techniques, data mining, and psychological manipulation cloaked in spiritual language.
On that point, Winger is entirely correct.
But his investigation raises a far more troubling question, and one his own evidence answers even if he does not:
Why does the charismatic movement keep producing men like Shawn Bolz in the first place?
A Predictable Failure
Shawn Bolz was not an anomaly. He was not fringe. He was not an exception. He was the product of a system.
Throughout the video, Winger documents how Bolz was platformed, promoted, defended, and protected by charismatic elites, even while credible warnings had surfaced behind closed doors.
At one point, Winger states plainly:
“There is a system among the elites that is dangerous.”
He goes further:
“Their system of leadership not only makes it so they can’t deal with someone like Sean — it actually creates them in the first place.”
That sentence alone should end the debate. If the system creates false prophets, the system itself is corrupt.
Winger Is Not a Cessationist
Fairness requires clarity. Mike Winger is not attacking charismatic theology from the outside. He is arguing from within it.
He repeatedly affirms:
“I believe in the gifts.”
He insists:
“I’m not advocating against the use of prophecy or tongues or any of those things — as long as they’re done biblically and properly.”
And he explains his motivation:
“I’m doing this for the charismatic church. I love you guys.”
Winger is not attempting to dismantle charismaticism. He is attempting to reform it. That distinction matters, because it explains precisely where his analysis stops short.
Everyone Knew and No One Warned
One of the most disturbing elements of Winger’s investigation is not merely what Shawn Bolz did, but who knew and said nothing. According to the testimony, recordings, text messages, and documents presented, senior charismatic leaders were aware of serious concerns for years.
Winger states it bluntly:
“Everybody knew.”
Again:
“The elites knew — and they did nothing.”
Instead:
“They warned each other privately.”
“They distanced themselves silently.”
“They never warned the people.”
This was not ignorance. It was concealment. And the price of that concealment was paid by ordinary believers who trusted men claiming to speak for God.
The Admission That Proves Everything
At one point, Winger recounts a conversation explaining why exposure almost never happens inside charismatic leadership networks.
The answer is devastating:
“If we really started calling out all the people we know are lying in the name of God, it would devastate our movement.”
Read that carefully. The movement cannot survive truth. That is not a leadership problem. That is a theological one.
Where Winger Is Right
Winger’s diagnosis is often devastatingly accurate.
He correctly identifies:
- elite cover-up culture
- restoration theology used to re-enable abusers
- prophetic celebrity systems
- fear of reputational harm
- suppression of discernment
- leaders protecting leaders rather than sheep
He names the danger plainly:
“Their system of leadership is dangerous.”
Few figures inside charismaticism have demonstrated the moral courage required to publish a six-hour exposé that risks platform, friendships, and reputation. That courage deserves acknowledgment, particularly from those of us who treasure discernment.
Where He Stops Short
Where Winger hesitates is not in the evidence, but in the implication the evidence forces upon the conversation.
He maintains:
“I believe in the gifts.”
“I’m not saying prophecy itself is the problem.”
“The problem is how prophecy is handled.”
But that distinction cannot survive his own documentation. Because the abuses he exposes are not accidents of charismatic theology. They are its logical outcome.
The Missing Guardrails
Charismatic theology rests on the foundational assumption that God continues to deliver authoritative revelation today apart from Scripture — revelation that cannot be objectively tested, verified, or falsified by the congregation.
Once that assumption is accepted, it’s only a matter of time before:
- experience outranks exposition
- impressions outrank interpretation
- anointing outranks accountability
- “God told me” outranks “the Bible says”
The moment revelation becomes subjective, discernment becomes optional. And when discernment disappears, predators thrive. This is not incidental. It is structural.
Why the Movement Cannot Police Itself
Winger repeatedly asks why charismatic leaders fail to correct one another. Yet his own material supplies the answer. The ability to expose false prophecy requires admitting that modern prophecy itself lacks biblical warrant and purpose. To rebuke the authority structures that permit and support the Shawn Bolzes of the movement would require dismantling the fraudulent and extrabiblical “giftings” and phony “annointings” that the charismatic movement is built upon.
To protect the sheep would require sacrificing the movement.
And so the choice is always the same:
Protect the people — or preserve the platform.
Again and again, the platform wins.
You Cannot Remove the Fruit While Keeping the Root
Winger wants to excise Shawn Bolz while preserving the theological system that produced him.
That cannot work. You can remove Bolz. You can remove Bentley. You can remove Bickle. You can remove White.
Another will rise — because nothing prevents it. Or more likely, some group of fellow “apostles” will “hear from God” and re-annoint their recently removed fellow charismatic leader.
As Winger himself acknowledged:
“Their system of leadership actually creates them.”
Systems reproduce what they reward. Charismaticism rewards unverifiable revelation and spiritual manipulation.
There Should Be No Charismatic Movement at All
If Scripture governed worship:
- revelation would be complete
- exercise of spiritual gifts would be publicly testable
- these gifts would edify the whole body
- authority would be textual, not mystical
Under biblical Christianity, there is no:
- prophetic elites
- secret knowledge
- untouchable anointed class
- revival celebrities
And therefore — no Shawn Bolz.
The tragedy is not merely that Bolz was exposed. The tragedy is that six hours of evidence proved he was inevitable.
For more discussion, check out today’s Bull Pew Podcast:
