When Mike Winger advocates three “Pillars” he actually makes three “Mistakes”

A reply to Mike Winger’s last episode of his You Tube series on women and men, by Bruce C. E. Fleming

In his own words, Mike came up with “three pillars” for his theology on men and women:

1. Male headship and female submission in marriage.
2. Elders’ positions and functions are for men only.
3. Women’s status as image bearers and sons of God is inviolable.

Here are my brief responses to Mike’s “three mistakes.”

Mistake #1. There is male headship and female submission in marriage. Incorrect!

Mike misunderstands the key passage of Ephesians 5-6. He mistakes the main idea and he gets the sub-points wrong as well.

Three times in verses 5:22-31 Paul writes, “as Christ.” And in verse 32 Paul gives the theological meaning to the three “as Christ” examples. Does not Mike see any of this?

The first time Paul writes “as Christ” he uses the joint-body, one flesh metaphor. In this image illustrating unity, the head and the torso joined together form one unit, one whole body. This imagery anticipates verses 31 and 32 Paul where Paul reveals the Great Mystery.

What did Paul reveal? He revealed that similar to how Adam and Eve were joined as one in marriage (verse 31) even so Christ and the church are joined in one spiritual body (verse 32). The great revelation is how men and women in Christ are united as one with Him.

Mike Winger claims to find teaching about “headship” and “submission” in marriage. Yet this passage says nothing about anything like that.

The passage is about Christ and the church. The focus is on how Christ loves the church and gave himself for the church (5:25). The passage also discusses how believers relate to one another while filled with the Spirit (5:18-19a, 21) and being united with Christ (5:32).

In Ephesians 5:23 and 5:31-32 there is no use of the word “head” to mean anything other than one part of the body that is united with the rest of the body.

I am aware that many commentators claim that the last part of Ephesians 5 is all about marriage. This is not the case. It is all about walking carefully together (5:15) as one in and with Christ.

I go into this passage in more detail in Book 2 of The Eden Book Series titled, Beyond Eden, The Great Mystery Revealed – Mutually submitting in Christ. Here is a link: https://amzn.to/4cbvLhM

Mistake #2. Elders’ positions and functions are for men only. Incorrect!

Mike misunderstands the key passage of 1 Timothy 2-3. He missed the main idea and he gets wrong the sub-points as well.

In 1 Timothy Paul writes to Timothy about correcting certain overseers who had gone astray. They were incorrect in what they taught and how they behaved. We all know of wayward overseers today who fit that description too.

Paul himself had gone astray. But Jesus had met with him and had corrected him. Paul had been placed into ministry thanks to the gracious work of Jesus. Paul hoped this could become true for the ones Timothy was correcting.

Did the ones who had been teaching and shepherding believers at Ephesus aspire to resume ministry? Paul gave them hope. As he wrote in 3:1 “anyone who aspires to oversight desires a good work.” His words were inclusive of both men and women. In verses 2-7 in his list of what makes a faithful overseers the description continues to be inclusive of both men and women. I explain this in detail in Book 3 of The Eden Book Series titled, Back to Eden, Corrected and Restored by Jesus the Faithful Word. Here is a link: https://amzn.to/4caOb1W

Prior to this hopeful word Paul focused on the wayward men overseers in 1 Timothy 2:8 and then on the wayward women overseers beginning with verse 9 and the opening word, “Likewise.”

What was Timothy to do? The sole imperative verb of the passage tells us. He was to “let learn!” Apparently the women overseers wanted to be retrained so they could get back to work and apparently there were some who didn’t want to let them learn.

Paul reminded Timothy and those who would read his letter that these women were candidates for instruction and subsequent ministry just as he himself had been. Paul had been a second degree offender. He had sinned ignorantly and in unbelief (1:12-13). Did they need to be convinced even further? Paul looked back to Eden. Adam and Eve had distinguished themselves by how they had behaved at the Tree and by how they were treated different by the Lord.

Eve had believed wrongly that it was good to eat that fruit. She had been deceived into doing so. Adam was not deceived. Nevertheless, he had eaten the fruit in purposeful rebellion. The two rebels, the serpent tempter and the man both had curses imposed by God because of them. For the woman, there was no curse imposed, although there are some who wrongly teach that there was. We go into more detail on this in Book 1 of The Eden Book Series, titled The Book of Eden, Genesis 2-3.

Mistake #3. Women’s status as image bearers and children of God is inviolable. Yes, but!

If Mike thinks to gain points by affirming what is clearly taught in Genesis 1, he comes up short when he spends hours and hours advocating non-biblically based “roles” and limiting women in the family and in the church.

Observing this, Andrew Bartlett and Terran Williams ask this question in their forthcoming response to Mike on Terran’s blog site,

“It would be interesting to know Mike’s thoughts on why, in his view, God has imposed those restrictions. As far as we can tell, in over 43 hours of teaching in this series, Mike has not ventured an answer to that question.”

I will venture an answer. Time and again those who promote masculine role superiority refer back to an error-filled understanding of what happened to Eve in Eden.

• They view Eve as an evil temptress who deceived Adam into eating.
• They believe God struck Eve with a punishment like the one placed on the serpent’s body.
• They think she had an evil desire in Eden but don’t say when that started.
• They act like God spoke to Adam saying “he will rule over” when those words were for her.

This theological train wreck makes Eve a participating temptress. But, clearly it was the serpent enemy who attacked with both in view – using plural words throughout.

God cursed only twice, the serpent and the ground, because of Satan’s and the man’s willful rebellion. God didn’t curse Eve because she ate the fruit after being deceived by the Father of Lies. She didn’t sin willfully.

The man exhibited blame shifting and an unrepentant spirit. In contrast the woman confessed her sin and labeled her attacker. God commended her and appointed her to participate in the defeat of the enemy.

Her desire wasn’t twisted or blameworthy. She was a bride on her honeymoon.

His desire was now different, His desire was that of one who had rejected God’s rule over him and had ruled over himself against God’s will. God warned her that coming next he would seek to replace God’s rule over her with his own rule over her.

If Mike would base his interpretation on these biblical insights perhaps he would exchange them for his flawed three “Pillars.” Time will tell.

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