Most of us are familiar with Jude’s emphatic call in vs. 3: “Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” It is a call all Christians need to take seriously, but especially those in positions of teaching or preaching.

Now a year or two ago, I posted something about a man whose teaching I was made aware of by friends – and I found to be exceedingly dangerous – Jaimie Winship. If you don’t know him – grand. If you are familiar with him and his teaching – then maybe what I’ve included below will spare you a trip down a heretical side-road.

What appears below is the text of a letter I sent to some friends who inquiring about Winship. I had never heard of him before that. And I would not be revisiting the issue now, except that a new Believer recently exposed to his teaching came to my awareness. And based upon Jude 3, I felt compelled to resurrect my concerns, and re-post them with the hopes they will be helpful once again.

Here is the text of my original letter.

Dear XXXX & XXXX – Thanks so much for your patience as I have been taking the time to wade through the Jamie Winship material and do further research. There is a lot to untangle (in my opinion) because there is something to be understood both in what he actually teaches, and also in what he does not say. I wanted to listen to more of his teaching, and to read his book to try my best to be fair and unbiased. Unfortunately, my concerns have only increased.

I’ve written, re-written, edited, had Sky edit and re-worked what I think I need to say a number of times. And I decided after reading his book more carefully, to take an entirely different approach than I did at first. I could just nit-pick my way through the numerous statements in the original audio you gave to us – which are simply poor recounting of Biblical facts. He is pretty loose in that regard. But I don’t think that gets to the core of my concerns. And I wanted to try and arrive at what I believe are the most serious and fundamental flaws – those which pose the greatest spiritual harm in my opinion. And that takes the deeper dive I’ve been doing.

I want to say at the outset that he says a LOT of very, very good and helpful things. In terms of identity, we really do need a Biblical identity. No one could argue with that. Sadly, this truly is a very neglected aspect of much Christianity today. We have in fact let other people’s opinions and some experiences inform how we understand ourselves all too well – and have not corrected that even when we have come to be born again. Yea and amen! I can say I know it from my own experience. BUT! How we arrive at that identity and how we can know what it truly is and authenticate it is where Jamie (and dare I say orthodox Christianity) drastically divide. It is his blend of Christian words and concepts, re-worked by Eastern mysticism and New Age thought which makes it so seductive and dangerous.

Giving the benefit of the doubt, I will advance that I think Jamie is sincere, and really believes what he teaches. That said, I believe he is sincerely deceived – and on some of the most critical realities of Biblical teaching. So I’ve avoided virtually all references to him personally, in favor of only examining what he has written and teaches. It is not an attack on the man, but on his doctrines.

I’ll touch on some of these only very briefly, but major on Identity.

I. The Gospel

II. Confession

III. Focus

IV. Identity

V. Miscellaneous

I. The Gospel: On page 30, Jamie recounts a conversation he had with a cab driver. In summing up he says: “This is how Jesus talks to people. In the entire conversation, I never said one thing about being a Christian. The conversation was about personal identity, not empty ideology. When the guy dropped me off, he asked for my card. We’re going to meet so he can hear God tell him his identity. I didn’t suggest that, he did. That’s called sharing your faith.”

Read that carefully. Sharing your faith in Jamie’s view has nothing to do with the Gospel, or the person and work of Christ as God incarnate dying on the cross as our substitute – bearing weight of the just penalty for our sin – but only “personal identity.” And the rest of his teaching only confirms this.

Let me expand here because this is the most serious issue to address, and is at the bottom of everything – The Gospel.

The Scriptural understanding of the Gospel message is that we are born into this world at war with God, as lost sinners: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Rom. 5:6-10) We are sinners, ungodly, not righteous, God’s enemies. All of this Jamie denies. And what are we saved from? The wrath of God. Jamie denies this too. And as Jesus Himself testifies in John 3:36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

For those like yourselves, who have been born again and know that you’ve been saved, simply hearing his teaching on identity might not be as serious a problem, and perhaps even helpful. But in the final analysis, for the un-Believer who comes to his teaching by itself and hearing only this, he will lead their souls to Hell. This is why I refer to his material later as damnable. I do not use that term as a swear word – but for what it truly means – he would leave people in their damned state, abiding under the wrath of God, while thinking they are hearing from and interacting with Jesus. Judas interacted with Jesus – and so did many others, who were never cleansed from their sin. Jamie’s teaching, redefining sin, confession, repentance and the like, absolutely denies and defies the Gospel. And all the while, using Biblical stories, and Christian and Bible terms. It is a wicked and evil deception. And it is why I react so strongly to it. I will give the benefit of the doubt that he is sincere and truly wants to help people, but I care too much for the souls of men to toss it off as a minor difference. It is solidly a Gospel issue. With eternal consequences. And I believe his errant view of sin has potentially bad consequences even for Believers as it leads to ignoring Christ’s call to take up our Cross daily and die to sin and self.  

If we will not judge ourselves as sinners in need of Christ’s substitutionary work on the Cross  – to use the words of Paul in Philippians 3:7-9 “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” – if that is not our foundation, we are still lost in our sins. And Jamie never ever goes there in any thing he writes. Never. This was the scandal of Baptism for the Pharisees and Sadducees. To come for baptism was to admit that they were outside the covenant of God and unclean and needed to be cleansed of their sin. This, they would not do. And this, Jamie teaches no one needs to do. All we need to do is find Jesus already in our hearts, and hear him give us an identity.

This is not a mere difference of opinion, this is at the heart of genuine, Biblical Christianity and salvation.

This shows itself in another very graphic way. On Page 33: He recounts a meeting headed by a “Muslim” who is an expert in Sharia Law. While this man brings up Jesus – Jamie’s comment at the end is most telling. He applauds the man because: “He wasn’t trying to convert them to another religion. He was simply leading them into identity transformation.”

This concept continues through the book.

So it is on Page 131 and other places: He refers to “Muslim believers.”

Be careful here. He is not saying merely Iraqi believers, Iranian believers, Saudi or Omani or Syrian believers etc. – but Muslim believers.

Those in Islam that I’ve interacted with (like the young Iranian convert at our Church) are very clear – you cannot be both a Muslim and a Christian. They renounce Islam when they come to Christ. For Islam has a different God, a different Christ, a different salvation, a different ultimate authority (the Quran and NOT the Bible) etc.

Now it is true that Muslims believe in Jesus. But the Jesus of the Quran is not God, but merely a prophet, and one who was superseded by Mohammed. They call Him “Issa.” He can be referred to as “Messiah”, but it does not mean what the Bible means.

So listen to 2 Corinthians 11:1–4 (ESV): “I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.”

Suffice it to say here, that while Jamie uses Christian words and phrases, he means something very different from how the Bible uses them and intends them. And in this case, allows others to believe, in fact encourages others to believe in a “different Jesus.” As Paul writes in Galatians 1: “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 the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”

II. Confession: Jamie writes: “Confession is telling God the truth about what you really believe about him, yourself, and others. It’s the greatest act, a sacrament. God loves honest confession. Confession is the beginning of genuine transformation.” (Page 47) This is another example of how he undermines the Gospel, and the Biblical way Believers are to see ourselves as sinners saved by grace.

He denies confession has anything to do with confessing sin. Take just five minutes to check a concordance on the word confession, and you will see that the Bible deals with confession in regard to sin in the vast majority of its cases. Jamie is correct in this – confession is not “just” saying we are sorry – though that is an element; But as Paul writes when having confronted the Corinthians with their sin: 2 Corinthians 7:10–11 (ESV): “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what 1earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment!”

Nothing in Jamie’s definitions comes even close to how the Bible speaks of confession and repentance. In fact tied to this is that repentance is (in his definition) only a change of mind about who we are in God’s eyes. It has nothing to do with turning from sin. And unless I miss my understanding, he really believes a Christian should never feel guilt or shame for anything.

But this is not how the Bible speaks.

III. Focus: Jamie’s entire “method” is self-focused, not Christ focused. Consider that in light of passages like John 5:39 (ESV): “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and 3it is they that bear witness about me.”

While the Scripture does address our identity, as below – that is not the focus – Christ is. So it is when Jesus was resurrected He dealt with the two on the road to Emmaus this way: Luke 24:25–32 (ESV): “And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road,

while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

Do you see the repetition there? The Scriptures speak of Christ – above all. Everything is centered in Him. When He is not the focus, when our eyes are turned upon ourselves, we lose everything. And this is the problem – everything Jamie talks about – is your identity. Not Christ – you. What was the result of Jesus’ interaction here? Did the two get a better picture of themselves? Or is it as the text reads: “Their eyes were opened, and they recognized – HIM.”

IV. Identity: On page 55 he writes: “Isn’t it beautiful that God is affirming to you that he has always approved of you? It’s not about works or comparison or competition. God made you enough, and that is how he has always seen you.”

And here, once again, we arrive at what I believe is the most basic and fundamental view from which everything else Jamie says and teaches emerges: He does not believe we are born in sin and separated from God in rebellion. He believes ALL people are born good, and that God has always been in them and approved of them regardless of anything else. It is this presupposition that informs everything he holds. It is anti-Gospel.

Now because this is so important, bear with me for just a bit in looking at a passage of Scripture we dare not neglect. Ephesians 2:1–22 (ESV) Now nowhere in anything Jamie says will you ever read the description in this passage regarding what we once were, and that unbelievers are even now – outside of Christ. This is the “identity” the Bible gives the unbeliever:

1 – Dead in trespasses and sins.

2 – Following the course of this world.

3 – Following the prince of the power of the air – the spirit that is not at work in the sons of

disobedience.

4 – Living in the passions of our flesh.

5 – Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

6 – By nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

7 – Separated from Christ.

8 – Alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. (I.e. not among God’s people)

9 – Strangers to the covenants of promises.

10 – Having no hope.

11 – Without God in the world.

12 – Far off from God.

13 – Strangers and aliens.

Now those are drastic and descriptive terms. They describe the un-Believer’s identity, and accord with Paul in Romans when he says that because of Adam’s sin “one trespass led to condemnation for all men.” It is this condemnation Jesus saves us from. It is the very antithesis of Jamie’s assertion of how God always saw us and approved of us.

And this is where his thinking strikes so wickedly at the heart of the Gospel. To Jamie, we don’t need to be saved from this condition, but we simply to wake up to how God has always seen us.

This dear friends is a truly damnable lie. And it is at the very bottom of his entire paradigm.

But let me not stop at what our former identity was – look to what this passage declares the Believer’s true identity is now – in Christ.

1 – Made alive in Christ.

2 – Saved from the just wrath of God.

3 – Raised up with Christ.

4 – Seated with Him in the heavenly places.

5 – Destined to be the objects of His making us experience the immeasurable riches of His kindness toward us in Christ – for all the coming ages.

6 – Gifted all of this by God, not because of our works or worthiness, but because of the great love with which He loved us.

7 – We are His workmanship – His divinely crafted treasure.

8 – Created for good works, that we might walk in them.

9 – Brought near to God by the blood of Christ.

10 – Reconciled to God through the cross.

11 – At peace with God.

12 – Fellow citizens with the saints of the household of God. His FAMILY!

13 – Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

14 – And being built together with all the saints into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Now THAT, is an identity. That is who God says you are as a Believer. And it is not dependent upon whether or not you feel it, or have it whispered in some experience. It is the abiding truth to be believed. It is ours by faith. And there are dozens of passages more to fill this identity out in the most amazing and transcendent of terms.

Think of 1 John 3:2 “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

Or 1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

Or Zech. 2:8 where those who love God are called “the apple his eye.” The most sensitive, carefully guarded and protected part of Him.

There WILL come a day when God speaks to us personally about a unique identity – it is recorded for us in Revelation 2:17 (ESV): “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.”

This naming is AFTER the resurrection (not now) and is such an act of intimacy that no one else will know it but Jesus and us. And it belongs only to those who live unto Christ and overcome the World, the flesh and the Devil. A far cry from what Jamie is trying to offer us here.

So far from actually needing the atoning work of Christ on the cross to make us one with God again, Jamie embraces the Buddhist conception that we just need to get our thinking straight.

So he writes on Page 57: “This is different from how most of us were taught by “religion.” Most of us were told that our problem is that we do wrong things. But that’s not really the issue. The issue is wrong belief or believing what is not true. This wrong or false belief leads us to separate or deviate from God, ourselves, and others.”

Contrary to the Bible, in Jaimie’s view, sin doesn’t separate us from God – only wrong thinking.

This then is why his “method” as he calls it, works even for non-Christians. “When we are young, God is building into us identity. You don’t have to be a Christian; it’s what God does for all people because God knit together each of us in our mother’s womb. God built identity into each of us.”

For Jamie, salvation is not required to live this fantastic life. Just coming to realize how God has always seen you. Never mind Ephesians or the rest of the Bible.

V. Miscellaneous:

On Page 64 he articulates this idea: “In science, this heart-head connection is called neurocardiology. It’s fascinating that the heart is really the information gatherer and the brain is simply the organizer and processor. The heart gathers information all the time.”

But do you know where he gets this idea? I checked his footnote. It comes from Jordan Chilton Pearce’s “The Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit.” And what of Pearce?

Wikipedia notes: “In the 1970-1980s Pearce practiced meditation under the guidance of Swami Muktananda.

Here is his connection to eastern mystical spirituality. It is anything but Christian.

On page 67 he says plainly he does not even know if he loves God. Think on that. A “Christian” teacher and conference speaker who cannot even honestly say whether or not he loves God! 

And if you question or challenge him on any of his ideas – he says on Page 141: “Why would I receive hostile critique from an angry person when I have the edifying, constructive critique of the Holy Spirit available to me?”

Lastly, on page 149 he utterly rejects (even scorns) the idea that “We have to get into the Middle East and convert those Muslims to Christianity.” This he says is like the Crusades and contrary to God’s kingdom.

I could go on with his mishandling the Scriptures he does use all over the place. But I think I’ve dumped enough on you for now.

One last observation. He mentions his friend Paul Young (of The Shack fame) quite approvingly (both in the book and in some videos) which makes me suspect he has at the base a very similar theological outlook. This is not guilt by association, but guilt by affirmation. As I’ve gone back to listen to Young’s teaching on identity – it is identical to Jamie’s.

And so that I do not misrepresent Young, let me note the chapter headings from his book “Lies We Believe About God.”

What are some of those lies according to Young?

1 – [It is a lie that] God is in control.

2 – [It is a lie] that you need to get saved.

3 – [It is a lie that] the Cross was God’s idea.

4 – [It is a lie that] not everyone is a child of God.

5 – [It is a lie] that sin separates us from God.

Young goes on to say that everyone is already saved – we just have to wake up to it and live in it. Echoes of which I detect throughout Jamie’s book and lectures. Things confirmed when I looked into someone else Jamie and his wife really like – Brad Jursak – another one who blends Christianity with New Age mysticism and Eastern spirituality. And all of this is confirmed in spades in a video from Jamie’s wife where she says in no uncertain terms that we are NOT sinners – because we all came into this world good. In fact, she says she “hates that word” sinners. She has no category for how the Scriptures speak to being sinners at all.

I hope some of this is helpful. Believe me, I take no pleasure in it. But once again, I take the admonition in Jude very seriously, that we desperately need to “contend for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints.” It is a battle for truth and the way God has communicated in His Word.

Lastly, I would recommend a book to you about identity that I believe is far and away more useful in grasping that aspect of the Christian life. My Affliction for His Glory: Living out Your Identity in Christ by Daniel Ritchie. Ritchie, having been born without arms, and struggling with identity in ways I’ll never have to wrestle with – really works through it in a thoroughly Biblical and sweet way. I think you’ll find it not only encouraging, but insightful and Christ exalting. And, I think it would be a great encouragement to John. Here is a link to a very brief video on Daniel and his story: https://youtu.be/h7arJeCth0E

I love you both. And I pray that in my frankness and openness I’ve not said anything to make you doubt that. I have only your best interest at heart, as best as I can enter into it, even if done poorly.