Precisely because they have misled my people, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash, say to those who smear it with whitewash that it shall fall! There will be a deluge of rain, and you, O great hailstones, will fall, and a stormy wind break out. Ezekiel 13:10-11 ESV
The internet certainly provides a great number of teachers saying what itching ears want to hear (2 Tim. 4:3). No site makes this more obvious than the world’s second-largest search engine, Google’s very own YouTube. Viewers can watch content ranging from bizarre and obvious rank heresy all the way to solid expositional sermons from trustworthy ministries around the globe – all loosely defined within the distinct yet unceremoniously monikered “Christian YouTube.”
At the top of the Christian YouTube heap lies a perniciously dangerous breed of online teacher. These teachers boast hundreds of thousands of subscribers, millions of views, and video content on nearly every theological topic imaginable. Their content is often solidly biblical and helpful, especially for believers not steeped in the finer points of biblical discernment.
Yet time and time again, when the topic at hand would call them to risk their popularity by decisively marking and avoiding a false teacher (Rom. 16:17) with enough followers to put a dent in their subscriber base, these teachers retreat. They capitulate and play the “judge not” card – not only refusing to identify clear heretics but often encouraging the faithful to welcome leaven in the lump.
These professional video creators are rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, revealing that while they may disagree with the icebergs, they aren’t prepared to tell ships to stay clear. They are collaborators – telling the faithful to let down their guard (sometimes quite literally) while convincing themselves their popularity must be maintained lest the Spirit be unable to minister within the hearts of digital seekers. Their compromise is often identifiable in the comments of their most ardent defenders, who rush to their defense with cries for unity, gentleness, and accusations based on nebulous “Christlikeness.”
In the same spirit, these YouTubers will make sure to identify and warn against other online discernment ministries who don’t hesitate to mark false teachers and therefore must have less-than-pure motives.
Allen Parr is one such popular Christian YouTuber, and (much like the false teachers he runs interference for) his channel “THE BEAT with Allen Parr” offers a good amount of true teaching along with some dangerous errors – most concerningly his belief that Christians ought to “eat the meat and spit out the bones” when sitting under Christian teaching. In a video posted in May 2021, Parr tells viewers not to focus on identifying false teachers but to be concerned with false teaching. This way – according to Parr – Christians are free to “listen to whoever you want to,” being blessed by whatever the teacher says that’s true while disagreeing with anything they happen to say that’s false. Parr describes the act of calling out false teachers as a “fallacy,” claiming that it causes others to miss out on the “blessing” and “value” of the true things the false teacher will inevitably say.
The apostle Paul, on the other hand, tells the Roman church to mark and avoid false teachers, reminds the Galatians that a little leaven (false doctrine) leavens the whole lump (spreads throughout the church), and tells the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:29 that “after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.” Notably, Paul (and the rest of scripture) makes no mention of how properly discerning believers should avail themselves of the good parts of a wolf’s teaching.
Mike Winger is another popular Christian YouTuber who recently got into a “scuffle” with the Bible Thumping Wingnut’s Tim Hurd over Winger’s non-warning about arch-heretic Bill Johnson, “pastor” of grave-sucking, gold dust sprinkling Bethel Church. While there is no doctrinal statement on Mike Winger’s website, he is a charismatic-lite Arminian who holds to biblical authority and sufficiency – a fairly typical combination for someone coming out of a Calvary Chapel background. He is a personable guy who hosts helpful videos on a variety of biblical topics.
Yet recently the Doctrinal Watchdog YouTube channel posted clips and commentary from Winger talking with Ruslan KD about Bethel Church and John MacArthur. The video claimed that the two trashed John MacArthur and defended Bethel Church, and contains a clip of Winger claiming Bethel “has the essentials of the faith” and that he “didn’t see a false gospel in Bethel’s teaching.” In response to the Doctrinal Watchdog video, Tim Hurd the Bible-Thumping Wingnut Guy (who admittedly is a big John MacArthur fan) posted a video discussing these quotes and claiming he no longer finds Mike Winger solid. Full disclosure: biblethumpingwingnut.com is the home for the free side of the Protestia Tonight podcast.
Winger then posted a video outlining what he claimed were lies told about him by Doctrinal Watchdog and BTWN, resulting in Hurd retracting some of his claims but remaining concerned about several other issues – including some more dangerous than those originally claimed by Doctrinal Watchdog. As the old adage goes, sometimes the coverup is worse than the crime, and in this case, Winger’s added context revealed bigger problems. Most troublingly, Winger made it clear that he has a different standard for what constitutes a biblical, saving Gospel than what scripture clearly teaches.
Winger discussed five supposed lies that were told about him, commented on in italics:
- That he was “slain in the spirit.” It is true that Winger seems to not believe in the validity of being slain ala Benny Hinn (fall over uncontrollably, or the “Holy Hadouken“), but he doesn’t see anything in scripture that would invalidate it.
- That he believes churches should have an official office of prophet. Winger does seem to believe that an office of church prophet is invalid, but not invalid enough to disqualify a church that employs such an office.
- That he supports Kris Valotton, the “prophet” of Bethel. While Winger states that he does not “support” Valotton, he has claimed that Valotton sometimes prophesied truthfully.
- That he “trashed” John MacArthur due to MacArthur’s teaching on modern speaking in tongues. Winger is on record stating MacArthur is a blessing and great Bible teacher, but states in his response video that “there were some things they (MacArthur) said in that conference that…kind of made it sound like half a billion Christians around the world are like not really Christians based upon your standards.”
Mike Winger’s normative discernment, practiced by online ministers, is basically a “see no falsehood, hear no falsehood” approach to other teachers – even clearly false ones. Winger helpfully sums up what it means to exercise normative discernment at 11:15:
I really do think that a lot of Christians are real Christians, even though they have major issues in their lives. Whether it’s some doctrinal things that are wrong, or whether it’s even some practical like living their life, and there’s issues and maybe I’m less confident that they’re Christians because of the things I see. But I’m not going to call them false brethren because of it. I’ve done this with several people who are even prominent teachers like Joel Osteen, who I yeah, I’ve got a reason to wonder whether that guy’s really saved or not, but I lean hopefully on the side that, you know, he does seem to proclaim the true gospel of Christ.
Yes, Winger stated that Joel Osteen “seems to proclaim the true gospel of Christ.”
Winger’s standard for the true proclamation of the Gospel appears to be whether or not a teacher directly contradicts the “salvation recipe” in their teaching – apart from what else the teacher teaches (or prophecies) or what other elements they add to the Gospel. As long as the teacher is on record somewhere, sometime, teaching salvation by faith alone in Christ, anything else taught (even substantive modifications of the Gospel) does not place the teacher outside the Kingdom.
Winger is likewise unwilling to label Bill Johnson (the functional “apostle” of Bethel) a false teacher, despite the fact that he has clearly (and by Winger’s own admission) added to the gospel. Rather, Winger sets aside the doctrine added by Johnson and only judges the “essential recipe.” This method of “discernment” is in contrast to what Paul wrote to the Galatian church: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” The purity of the Gospel was of utmost importance because it was the difference between life and death. Later in the letter, Paul reminds them that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump (5:9),” emphasizing the purity of the truth and that (particularly legalistic) false teaching corrupts the entire church.
Final Thoughts
These YouTubers are selling a “unity” based on nonjudgmentalism rather than truth, and will gladly equivocate their way around any concrete judgment that has the potential to draw controversy or overt opposition from a sufficiently large “Christian” community (Bethel, Lakewood, Elevation, etc.). Of course, any true teaching coming from an aberrant movement or false teacher (a “blessing” according to Allen Parr) should safely be found in solid churches or even (gasp) from a Christian’s own church and pastors – negating Parr’s justification for “eating the meat and spitting out the fat.”
There is never an actual need for a Christian to sit under the teaching of faraway pastors or ministries (including this one, by the way), so there is absolutely no justification whatsoever for exposing oneself or one’s family to false teaching for the sake of nuggets of truth that might be mixed in. Likewise, there is no need to expose oneself to Christian YouTubers who refuse to follow biblical instructions to identify false teachers and protect the flock from wolves merely to maintain online popularity.
