Cut to the chase: Six reasons why you should avoid Beth Moore

By Elizabeth Prata

Last week I wrote a series on discernment in 6 essays. They are below. I called it “Wolf Week” because false teachers are called wolves in scripture. My own version of Shark Week, lol.

Wolf Week Intro: or, We DO know the heart
Wolf Week # 1: My two “starter false teachers”
Wolf Week # 2: Why Wolves?
Wolf Week # 3: Types of false teachers and their different methods
Wolf Week # 4: Has that false teacher REALLY ‘helped’ you?
Wolf Week # 5: Why does God allow false teachers?

A short follow-up series I am publishing beginning today contains 4 more essays in short form focusing on 4 influential ‘Bible’ teachers. I have written discernment essays on these four previously in years past, but those essays were longer. In articles like that, I include sources, explain the teacher’s errors thoroughly, and provide examples. All this make the essays longer. Nowadays however, people like to read less lengthy material. So I cut to the chase and made shorter essays showing why these folks are false.

Today I look at 6 reasons not to follow Beth Moore.

I have accumulated a long list of links to critiques showing why Beth Moore should be avoided. FYI of you want more reasons.

Beth Moore’s popularity has remained high and visible throughout her teaching career, 40+ years now. She is still negatively influencing women with her bad example. She teaches falsely and she lives rebelliously.

Here are reasons to avoid Beth Moore:

1. She claims to receive direct revelation from Jesus.

She repeats these ‘conversations’ with his words in quotes. She claims he gives her prophecies apart from what is written in the Bible. She claims he gives her visions. She claims he gives her pictures in her head, which she teaches FROM. She claims dreams. She has said this alleged Jesus told her to go forth and teach these new revelations to people- which makes her a Prophet. All this violates Revelation 22:18-19, Colossians 2:18, among other verses. All this destroys the sufficiency of scripture.

2. Beth Moore partners with wolves and false teachers

such as Joyce Meyer, Christine Caine, Joel and Victoria Osteen, and Brian Houston, for a few examples, violating 2 Corinthians 6:14 and 2 John 1:10.

Exhibit A:

3. Beth Moore teaches and preaches to men, blatantly violating 1 Timothy 2:12.

It is impossible to grow in sanctification when your teacher rebels against the very scriptures she claims to be teaching.

4. Rather than steadily preach the straight word, Beth Moore jumps on fads

and then leaves them when they diminish in popularity, such as saying mantras, family altars, Lectio Divina, Contemplative Spirituality, blue bracelets, Enneagram, and so on. 2 Peter 2:3 comes to mind. So does Ephesians 6:6-7 about man-pleasing.

5. Beth Moore doesn’t interpret the Bible correctly,

She does not use a standard interpretive technique such as literal-grammatical-historical hermeneutic. Instead, she waits for direct revelation or a vision, or cobbles together words out of context from both Hebrews and Greek in the same lesson- again from supposed direct revelation the ‘Spirit’ gives her, or allegorizes what should be literal, and bases her lessons on those methods. She also uses undignified high emotion and props to distract the audience from these flaws.

6. Beth Moore rejects the biblical roles God has ordained for women

both by example of living functionally as a feminist wife, and explicitly when she rejected and apologized for teaching complementarianism. The Baptist Press reported in 1997 “She talks of her two daughters who love God, and her husband, on whom she relies so heavily because of her travels.” The Atlantic reported in 2018 her then-young daughters “ate a lot of takeout” because the mom was away for her career so much. Christianity Today published a lengthy article on Moore after having been granted interview access (no mean feat, they reported) and noted the hours a driven Moore spends in her office, working out her career. Her IRS tax returns also state 50 hour work weeks, which Moore did while her daughters were young. She may protest (lie) about her career, insisting it was as close to biblical as possible, but it was not.

These reasons should be enough to warn anyone off a teacher, including and especially Beth Moore. There are better examples of teachers out there to follow, mainly your own pastor, and publicly, Susan Heck, Martha Peace, The Women’s Hope podcast, Brooke Bartz of the Open Hearts in a Closed World conference, Erin Coates, Raising Apologists, Amy Spreeman & Michelle Lesley of A Word Fitly Spoken, and many solid men teachers too numerous to list.