Christian vs. Protestant on Galatians 1:6-9

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So yeah, feel free to do any of those things. It really helps out the channel. We appreciate it. None of those comments, Ariel Gonzalez, Angel of Wrath, and Reddish-Brown Horse. Yes, the Reddish-Brown Horse, they all suggested that we look at the Protestant YouTuber Mike Winger. So thank you to all of you for that suggestion.

I am a Bible-believing Christian, and our Protestant for the day is Mr. Mike Winger, a Bible thinker. This is Christian vs. Protestant on Galatians 1 verses 6 through 9. Now, Galatians 1, we talked about last week, and Galatians 1 has this beautiful passage where Paul threatens himself and anyone else who is to preach a false gospel, or even actually, he just says a different gospel. He just says a different gospel equals a false gospel, right? So he just says, "If anyone, me, whether it's me, whether it's anyone else, an angel from heaven, even, even with supernatural powers, comes and preaches to you a gospel other than what you've already received, let it be anathema." All right.

So that basically is what Galatians 1:6-9 says. I'll read it for you here. "Galatians is a letter from Paul and all the brothers who are with him to the churches of Galatia. Paul says to them, 'I am astonished that you were so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to one that we preach to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.'"

So that pretty much matches what Mike Winger had just said. That as a Christian, I would say that, well, Mike, we're just talking. There is very Christian, and that's typical of Protestants. Protestants can also be Christian. They share a lot of the Christian faith. They just have extra beliefs in addition to Christianity, which isn't necessarily a bad thing because I have beliefs in addition to Christianity. Like I believe rollercoasters are fun. That's not a Christian belief, but it's a belief.

I hope the problem with Protestant beliefs is they actually contradict Christian beliefs. So there's no possible way to believe a Protestant belief and also the contradicting Christian belief. You have to pick between the Christian belief or the anti-Christian belief. So let's watch as Mike Winger's Protestantism starts to leak out.

So that means that the other hearer, the Galatian person who read this, and me and you, to whom God wrote it as well, we're supposed to hear what we hear, what comes from other people, leaders, and teachers, and say, "Let me compare that to what I've already received. That's not accurate. Then I reject you."

There are so many things that are incorrect about what he just said there. So first off, Galatians doesn't tell you or me or Mr. Winger to compare Gospels that are being preached today to what we, you and me and Mr. Winger and everyone living today have already received. Galatians, as you can read right out of the Bible, is a letter from Paul to the Galatians, and it's telling them, them being the Galatians, to compare any gospel that they are preached from here on out to the gospel that they already received from Paul. Again, they being the Galatians.

So when Paul says, "a gospel contrary to the one you received," he's specifically addressing the Galatians. And the reason I point that out is because Mike, when you're just lumped himself and others in with the audience of that letter. So that means that the other hearer, the Galatian person who read this, and me and you. No, that's incorrect. This letter was written to the Galatians, not me and you.

Now, that being said, as Christians who believe that this letter is useful as a teaching tool, we can go to this letter and say, "Whichever gospel the Galatians received from Paul originally is the correct gospel." So then the question becomes, which gospel did Paul give us to teach the Galatians? The problem with what Mike Winger is doing is that he's putting himself as the "you" hearer, and not just himself, but he's saying this "you" talks about all Christians. The Galatian person who read this, and me and you. No, that's not how anything works.

If I read a letter that Mike's wife wrote to him, and in the letter Mike's wife wrote, "I love you to Mike," it would be ridiculously stupid of me to read that letter and read, "I love you," and be like, "Oh wow, I can't believe that Mike's wife, me. I mean, I'm reading a letter, it says 'you,' I'm 'you.' This is going to cause problems with that marriage. I don't know how to break this to Mike, but Mike, your wife loves me." No, that's not how letters work. You just can't pick up somebody else's letter and assume you're the "you" in the letter. You have to realize who the audience is. It's so weird that I actually had to explain that to somebody.

But anyway, for the sake of argument, let's pretend that Mike is correct. Let's pretend that when Paul says, "If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed," the "you" here refers to everybody. It refers to you, and it refers to me, it refers to Mike Winger, everybody. To put it mildly, and with all due respect to Mr. Winger, that would be such dumb advice.

Because the reason what Paul is telling the Galatians this, to compare any gospel that is preached to them from now on to the one they received from him, is because Paul knows that the one he gave them to start off was correct. So he can tell them, "Look back to that one because that one's right." If anyone, even Paul himself, were to teach them something that was contrary to that original gospel he taught them, he's telling them, "That one was right. Always test off of that one." And that's great advice for Christians today too, if you know what that original gospel that Paul taught to the Galatians is. But there's no written transcript of that in the Bible.

If you do happen to know what it is, though, feel free as a Christian to test off of that, because the advice is good if you're taking the advice as it was actually given. But when you use Mr. Winger's interpretation, you get a huge mess. Because the gospel that I originally received is different from the gospel that Mike originally received. And even Mike, as a Protestant, has videos on his channel where he talks about other Protestants who have received different Gospels. And he has, so there are so many people out there who have received Gospels that are so-called Christian Gospels, but only one of them can actually match up to that original gospel that the Galatians received.

If we read this letter to the Galatians the way that Mike Winger is reading it, and we say that this "you" not only means the Galatians, but also every single Christian, the Galatian person who read this, and me and you, then that means if the first gospel that you received was a false gospel, then you're pretty much screwed, and you have to stick to that false gospel for the rest of your life. Because even if someone came to you and they preached that original gospel the Galatians were taught by Paul, the gospel that Paul was actually telling Christians to test against, if I was originally taught a false gospel and someone preached the true one to me, then if I were to follow Mr. Winger's advice and pretend that this verse was written for me, I would have to say, "No, I'm sorry, your gospel is contrary to mine. So you're, you've got to be accursed." And they would have the true gospel, I would be the one who actually had the false gospel, but for some reason, I'd be turning them away and calling them a curse because I don't realize that I can't just pick up somebody else's letter and pretend that it's written to me. The Galatian person who read this, and me and you.

So what Mike Winger is doing not only completely ignores the audience of the original letter, but also, even if Mike were correct in his inclusion of himself in this "you," you end up with a completely useless system for figuring out what the true gospel is. Because everyone would be stuck believing whatever they were first taught, even if what they were first taught was completely false.

Now, Mike Winger did something else weird here too, and it's weird for a couple of reasons. "Let me compare that to what I've already received." Some I just flipped open his Bible as if that had something to do with what Paul was telling the Galatians. But as we already looked at, Paul told them to test new Gospels against what he originally preached to them. There was no way for the Galatians to flip open a Bible and figure out what Paul taught to them originally. You can't even verify that today with the Bible because there's no written transcript of that original preaching from Paul in the Bible. I don't even think there's one in existence.

Paul told the Galatians to go back to what he preached to them. He didn't tell him to flip open their Bible and read what he taught to them. They didn't even have the New Testament in the Bible back then, which is another weird thing about Mike flipping open his Bible. Does he not realize how time works and how the Bible was compiled from a bunch of different letters? I feel like I shouldn't have to explain this, but this letter to the Galatians was written as a letter to the Galatians. This wasn't something that they viewed as part of the Bible. That came much later when the church compiled a bunch of writings, a lot of letters from Paul and a bunch of other things. The church took those writings, which they believed was the Word of God, and they made the New Testament. It didn't just fall from the sky. It was put together by the church.

If you want to learn more about how Christians actually have the Bible today and why Christians believe that it is the Word of God, you can check out any of these videos. The links are in the description below. I'm not going to go through all that again in this video. So if you don't understand it, you should go watch those first.

But real quick overview: Christians believe that Jesus said he would build his church. Christians believe that Jesus did say this, which gives his church authority to teach. "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." And that was later written down in Matthew 18.

So just to explain how that quote from Jesus pertains to this video: as Mike Winger already pointed out, preaching a false gospel is a sin in Christianity. So let's use Martin as an example. Martin was a member of the Catholic Christian Church. Martin started teaching one gospel, but the Catholic Christian Church was teaching another gospel. These same gospels they had been teaching for around 1500 years. But anyway, this guy shows up about 1500 years later, and he thinks he has the correct gospel, whereas his church, the Catholic Christian Church, he thinks they've been teaching the wrong gospel for, again, around 1500 years. Real bold move on this guy's part. Didn't work out too well, though.

Because as we know, teaching a false gospel is a sinful thing to do. So let's say we don't even know if this guy's gospel was a false gospel yet. What happened back then is exactly what Jesus advised. He would not listen to his brother. He wouldn't listen to anyone. And eventually, it was taken to the church. And did the church agree with him that his gospel was correct? No. They said, "You've got it wrong. You have a false gospel. Here's the real gospel. Follow it."

As you may know, Martin Luther didn't want to do that. So the final part of Jesus's instructions kick in: "If he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." The Gentile and the tax collector thing is a metaphor. Paul explains this in a less metaphorical way when he's writing to Titus. He says, "The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division like this guy right here, trying to divide the church, he has a new gospel. He doesn't like thirst. As for a person who stirs up division after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned."

So that's how Christians know that this guy's gospel was a false gospel. Because the church said, "Martin Luther, your gospel is incorrect." And according to Jesus's own instructions for his own church, Jesus taught that when you have a guy like Martin Luther trying to spread a false teaching, and the church says, "Hey, don't be spreading that because that's a false teaching," then the one you can trust is Jesus's church. And if Martin Luther refuses to listen to Jesus's church, "Sayonara, buddy. Go make up a Protestant church."

Which makes this particular passage pretty funny when you read it in a Lutheran Bible. Because in Martin Luther's Bible, this church does not refer to Martin Luther's Protestant church. It refers to the church that Martin Luther was originally a part of. In fact, every mention of Jesus's church in a Protestant Bible is not talking about a Protestant church. It's talking about Jesus's actual church. So that's a fun fact.

Matthew 18 also answers that question from earlier: how do we figure out what that original gospel was that Paul taught to the Galatians? You can just ask Jesus's church. Because according to Jesus, his church, his one church that he built, that he gave authority to teach, the one that he promised to send a helper to to guide into all the truth, that church is the only church that Jesus ever gave the authority to to tell you what the true gospel of Christianity is. And it's very important to remember that even though we're going to these passages in the Bible to show you things that Christians believe, that Jesus said, Christians don't believe Jesus said those things because they were written in the Bible. Christians believe those things were written in the Bible because Jesus said them. Jesus had said those things, and people had already believed those things before they were ever written down into what would eventually become part of the New Testament of the Bible.

And remember, the reason why Christians even had their Bible is because Jesus gave the church the authority to actually do that. Without the Christian Church, Christians don't have a Bible. The Old Testament would still be around, but we wouldn't have any of the Christian teachings that are in the New Testament. There's no way for Mike Winger to get around that fact. The Bible came from the church. The church does not come from the Bible.

Anyway, to close off, let's talk about Lost. Actually, let's have two other people talk about Lost. This is Joshua, and this is Damon. Damon Lindelof is the creator of Lost. Joshua is a guy who watched Lost.

"I wasn't disappointed with like, that was Lost not giving me answers at the end. What I was actually disappointed with was the answer it gave, which it felt like the answer was, all the things that just happened didn't really mean anything. They kind of didn't happen."

"That was my takeaway from him."

"What do you mean they didn't happen?"

"It was like, all right, so right there we have something similar to what's happening here. Joshua watched the TV show Lost, and he interpreted it in a certain way. Mike Winger reads the Bible, he interpreted it in a certain way. Joshua is now talking to the creator of Lost, an authority on Lost. Damon Lindelof can tell you what Lost was about. Likewise, Mike Winger is taking what he's teaching and he's comparing that to what the Christian Church teaches. And just like Damon Lindelof is the authority on Lost, the Christian Church is the authority on what the Bible teaches, at least according to Jesus's own words. Jesus gave his Church authority."

"Remember that, dude."

"Yeah, yeah. That picture in the keister."

"Anyway, notice Damon's response there to Joshua's interpretation of Lost. He says, 'What do you mean, what do you mean they didn't happen?' That's the same type of response the Christian Church can give to Mike Winger when he gives his interpretation of the Bible."

"Damon Lindelof is responsible for giving us Lost, and we can all watch Lost. I encourage you all to watch Lost. But when you watch Lost, remember it already has a meaning. Damon Lindelof knows the meaning of Lost. So if at any point you're watching Lost and you don't exactly understand what you're watching, you can always go to an authority on Lost and ask, 'Hey, what does this mean?' Similarly, the Christian Church gave us all the Bible. So if you're ever reading the Bible and you get to a point where you're like, 'What exactly does this mean?' you can always go to an authority that actually knows what the Bible teaches and what it doesn't teach. One of those authorities is the Christian Church. You can also ask God, Jesus, or the Spirit of Truth directly. If you have their cell number or fax, but for most of us, the available authority is the church. That's what Jesus left for his followers. That's where we can go to learn more about what the Bible teaches and what the Bible does not teach."

"So back to Damon. 'What do you mean they didn't happen?' It was like, all the things that happened, all these things that were set up, it didn't matter, right?"

"Willie, because it wasn't real?"

"Yes, it was. Well, but not really. And it was like, it was like a shared fantasy. I mean, it didn't seem like there was like, I mean, what no."

"All right, so I love this interview because first of all, I get to talk about Lost. Secondly, it really is perfect for this situation. And I want to thank one of the viewers, CDC, for pointing out this video to us. It was not in regards to anything Christianity, they just knew that I loved Lost. So thank you for sharing that, because this is really perfect for what we're talking about here. Damon Lindelof created a show. This guy watched it. He interpreted it wrong. And now Joshua is telling Damon what he interpreted this show to be. And Damon is just saying, 'That is not correct.' 'What do you mean they didn't happen?' It was like, no."

"The same can be said from Mike Winger. The church gave us the Bible. Mike read the Bible. Mike interpreted the Bible, much like this guy did, in a way that did not match what the church actually taught the Bible meant. Like the church put together the Bible. They reviewed the material beforehand. They knew there was nothing in there that conflicted with what the church was already teaching. So that's why they said, 'Hey, here's a Bible. You can learn from this.' But there's a reason why they didn't say, 'Hey, here's the Bible. Interpret it however you want, and whatever your interpretation is, that's the truth.' Because that would be stupid. But for some reason, Mike Winger is taking the Bible, he's coming up with his own interpretation of it. And even though Jesus only gave the authority to teach what the Bible is to his church, and not Mike Winger, Mike Winger is trying to give himself the authority to say that his interpretation of the Bible is the only correct interpretation of the Bible. Mike was never given the authority to do that. The church was, but Mike was not."

"Well, because it wasn't real?"

"Yes, it was. No offense to Joshua on any of this, but this is such a perfect example to show that somebody's interpretation of something might not be the correct meaning of something. And when you bring that interpretation to the authority on that material, that authority is able to tell you, 'No, you've got it wrong.' And that's exactly what Damon is doing here. And that's exactly what the church did to this guy here. And exactly what the church can do to Mike's claim."

"So, so, so the things that were going on the island were happening in the actual world?"

"Yeah, in the real world. Not in it's like, kind of like a moment before death fantasy world where everybody's trying to find each other so they can go to heaven."

"No, correct."

"Now, this is where Joshua starts to deviate from what Mike Winger is doing. Mike Winger has an interpretation. He realizes the church does not agree with him. But Mike Winger sticks to his interpretation. Joshua, on the other hand, had his interpretation. He brought it to Damon. Damon said, 'No, that's not right.' And Joshua realized, 'Okay, and I must be wrong.' That's a rational thing to do when you're talking to the authority on the source material, and the authority tells you you don't have it right, then you don't have it right. There's no point in arguing with Damon, and there's no point in arguing with the church, because those are the authorities on the source material."

"So Joshua is now asking questions to learn more about what he misunderstood. That's what Mike Winger should be doing if he's actually interested in Christianity. But instead, Mike's doing this: 'We're supposed to hear what we hear, what comes from other people, leaders, and teachers, and say, "Let me compare that to what I've already received. That's not accurate. Then I reject you."'"

"Could you imagine if Joshua did that to Damon? 'Let me compare that to what I've already received,' and then he just picks up a DVD box that had Lost, as if watching the show again and sticking to his own interpretation is gonna get him anywhere."

"Yeah, if Mike reads the Bible again, then he can interpret it again, and he can still end up at the same wrong interpretation. If you want to know what the DVD box set of Lost teaches, then you ask Damon Lindelof. If you want to know what the Bible teaches, then you ask the church. It's really that simple. You don't ask that guy's church. You don't ask this guy's church. You ask Jesus's church, the one he built, the one he gave authority to, the one he guides with the Spirit of Truth."

"Now, this part is just because I tell people that's about Lost all the time. If you haven't seen Lost yet, don't worry. This really isn't a spoiler. This is stuff we were told by Damon while season 1 was going on, within three or four episodes of the first season in the show. They were like, 'It's purgatory, right? They're all dead.' And we kept saying, 'We swear to God, they are not all dead. Anything that takes place on the island in Lost happened.' So yeah, just the Lost note. If you have seen Lost already, or if you're going to watch Lost, remember they were not dead the entire time."

"And now for something very important that Joshua says after all of this. That's interesting. 'Now I want to go back and watch it having heard this from you.' So that is what people like Mike Winger and Martin Luther should be doing. As a Christian, we should listen to what the authority on the Bible has to say. Then you can go back to the Bible and interpret it correctly. That's what Joshua was talking about doing here. He wants to go back and watch Lost knowing what the actual interpretation of the show should be. Because Lost, like the Bible, can be interpreted in several different ways. Not every single interpretation of either of those things is correct. But we can go to an authority on Lost or the Bible, figure out what Lost and the Bible are actually teaching, and then we can go back to Lost or the Bible and either watch it or read it, now knowing what the correct interpretation of both those things should be."

"So to Mr. Winger, if you happen to see this video, we would like to help you out. You seem like a well-intentioned guy. You seem like you actually want to teach Christianity correctly, and I don't think that you're intentionally teaching things falsely. As Reddish-Brown Horse puts it, 'Mike Winger seems very genuine and fairly knowledgeable, but obviously misinformed on a great deal.' We watched Mike's whole video. We watched a bunch of Mike's videos. Mike, you don't seem to understand what the Catholic Christian Church actually teaches, and you do seem to have your own interpretation of the Bible. And sometimes your interpretation just doesn't even make logical sense. For instance, what we looked at in this video with one, you're picking up a letter written to other people and you're pretending that you're the 'you' in the letter. That just doesn't make sense. So if you're interested in actually teaching Christianity correctly, please let us know. The following for each teaching you think is incorrect from the Christian Church that Christ builds: first, cite the actual teaching from the Christian Church that you think is incorrect. Second, for each teaching you think is incorrect, supply at least one example from the Word of God that proves that that teaching is incorrect. If you do that, we'd be glad to take a look at it and see if what you're saying actually holds water. And the reason why we want you to cite your sources is because in your video, you say these weird things that I don't think any Christian Church believes. For instance, Mike talks about the Catholic Christian Church, and he talks about them forcing priests not to get married. 'Priests can't be married.' The only time the Bible in the New Testament mentions an idea of people not being married, it's how it calls it a 'doctrine of demons forbidding people to get married.' And then they'll go on and have doctrines that the priest cannot get married. The problem with that is the Catholic Christian Church doesn't force priests not to get married. Catholic Christian priests do take a vow of celibacy. But a vow of celibacy is like a vow of marriage. When someone takes those vows, it's not somebody forcing them to do that. That's them bowing, 'This is what I'm gonna do. This is what I want to do with my life.' Which is weird because Mike goes on to say this: 'It's a wonderful choice if someone makes to be single for the Lord if they make that choice.' So Mike believes it's okay if someone takes a vow of celibacy. He just doesn't want it being forced on people. That's exactly what the Catholic Christian Church does. People take vows of celibacy. No priest is forced into celibacy. So even a little research there could have gone a long way. Also, on that topic, Mike says this: 'But I probably won't be before you right now as a pastor if someone told me that I had to, you know, I was forbidden to be married if I wanted to serve the Lord in this capacity.' Mr. Winger, again, just a little bit more research could have told you that there are Catholic Christian priests that are married and have children. It's rare, but it does happen. So if you wanted to get in on that, maybe do some actual research before you open your mouth and shove your foot in there. So Mr. Winger, if you could please cite your sources, that would be great."

All right, so thank you again to Ariel Gonzalez, Angel of Wrath, and Reddish-Brown Horse for today's suggestion. Thank you all for watching. Please share this video on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, any type of social media. Just get the facts out there so that people can know not to trust everything that Mike Winger is. My going here again seems like a really nice guy. He seems like a dedicated Christian. He's just mixed up in Protestant teachings, and when he's teaching his Protestantism, he's teaching against Christianity. Which Mike is free to do if Mike wants to do that. But we're gonna be here on How to Be Christian, letting you know that what Mike's teaching is not all Christianity.

All right, so in the comments, let us know below, which side do you think is right? Do you agree with the Christians who believe that Paul advised the Galatians to fact-check all teachings against the actual gospel? Or do you agree with Protestants like Mike Winger who believe that Paul advised the Galatians and all of us to fact-check all teachings against whichever gospel you received in the past, regardless of whether or not it was the true gospel? If you want to know how to be Christian, drop the Protestantism, keep the Christianity. Thank you all for watching. Have a great day.

And to Damon Lindelof, if you happen to see this, you might have noticed I was doing this every time I said "DVD boxset of Lost." That's because I don't own the DVD boxset of Lost, but I do enjoy Lost. I got a birthday coming up. Christmas is coming. Thanksgiving is on the way. There's a lot of opportunities, is what I'm saying, for that type of thing to make its way to me. No pressure, just put it out there, see what comes back. Seriously, if you haven't seen Lost, go watch it. It's, it's awesome.

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