beth moore

adopted son, beth moore, book review, God, jesus, Michael

Book Review: "Things Pondered," Beth Moore’s story of adopting a boy and giving him back

Posted on July 16, 2022July 17, 2022 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I wrote the essay below in 2014. Eight years ago is a lifetime on the internet, and many people do not know this about Beth Moore. I publish it again now after a short conversation with a few people on Twitter brought it back to mind. I hope to show:

1. Publicly available information on the internet consistently shows Moore as an unbeliever in what she says and does,

2. Moore talks a lot and writes a lot, but is an expert at obfuscating even the largest and most obvious details about her life. You come away after reading 153 pages of this book more confused about it when you started. See section below about true Christian transparency,

3. As always, my refrain is, though 2.8 million people follow Beth Moore on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, don’t you be one of them. Beth Moore is a false teacher who seeks to disqualify you from the prize.

Continue reading →

beth moore, billy graham, charles spurgeon, discernment, I am the door, martyn lloyd-jones, salvation

Jesus is the door: what do these famous testimonies reveal about their understanding of Christ?

Posted on March 18, 2022March 22, 2022 by elizabethprata

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. (John 10:9)

This is one of the famous I AM statements by Jesus. Here they all are.

Continue reading →

beth moore, billy graham, charles spurgeon, discernment, I am the door, martyn lloyd-jones, salvation

Jesus is the door: Comparing famous testimonies & what they reveal about their understanding of Christ

Posted on November 18, 2021November 20, 2021 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. (John 10:9)

This is one of the famous I AM statements by Jesus. Here they all are. Continue reading “Jesus is the door: Comparing famous testimonies & what they reveal about their understanding of Christ” →

beth moore, biblical womanhood, feminist, ministry, priscilla shirer

The moth-eaten SBC and the women who did it

Posted on May 17, 2019May 17, 2019 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah. (Hosea 5:12)

Privately, however, Moore has never cared much for the delicate norms of Christian femininity. ~The Atlantic

I published an essay, part 1 of 3, in 2011, eight years ago as of this date. It was about how the secret feminists laid the groundwork for a later open rebellion. That rebellion has now occurred. They are openly touting egalitarian principles. The takeaway-

These rebellious women live for their work, which is usually a corporation, but called a ministry,
These women are the main and sustained breadwinners, and the husband supports the wife by adopting the wifely role,
These women actively reject rebuke and correction from elder men, thus fulfilling the feminist’s more famous line, ‘A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.’

They are feminists.

In my 2011 essay I had focused on how Beth Moore, grandma of the Christian feminists, was Exhibit A in laying a devilish groundwork of feminism in the evangelical church. Worse, she was producing spiritual children to follow in her example, like Priscilla Shirer, Christine Caine, and Rachel Held Evans, and others.

Back then I called them secret feminists because these women hid their private ambitions from the public, and they used complementarian language even though they privately disbelieved in it. But discerning women and men were not fooled, these women’s lives were forward. The recent Atlantic Monthly interview of Beth Moore (Oct 2018) with the above quote proves their private ambitions were there all along.

At the time, I warned that the groundwork being laid in their feminist ministry and the examples they set would have dire consequences. As God promised the Israelites that He would be a moth to them, it seems that God has used Beth Moore and her spiritual daughters to eat away the garment. Its sturdiness and functonality has rotted. For church leaders and especially the SBC not to have plugged those holes ensured that the complementarian garment would rot. It has.

But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah. (Hosea 5:12)

We can look back and see…where we were and where we’ve ended up, and why.

“A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” was the feminist motto of the 1970s. The implication was that women didn’t ‘need’ a man at all.

In 2012 when I wrote about this last, there were a number of popular Bible teachers/preachers who traveled widely, filling arenas, marketing their books, selling their products, and leaving the husband at home to take care of the kids. These women had assumed the lead role in the marriage and are the main breadwinner, and the husband is the helpmeet, usually having set aside his career to work in his wife’s ~~corporation~~ ministry. While these women call what they are doing “ministry,” I call it “feminism”.

This is the new crop of what I called Christian secret feminists- but they aren’t as secret as they were in 2012. They live a feminist life inside of Christianity but call it ministry. They are openly rebelling now.

One woman who has much to answer for about this new role is Beth Moore. She was the one who broke new ground in the Southern Baptist Convention, a most conservative denomination, in how far a woman could go in attaining celebrity status, living for her career and not for her home, and promoting gender role reversals.

She showed us how to be the main and sustained breadwinner of the family. She showed us that she could preach in a church and teach anyone in the world, uncensured. Mrs Moore, while speaking conservative values cloaked in all the right Christianese, has lived a very feminist life. You will see more details on this below.

A spiritual daughter of Mrs Moore in this generation of Christian feminists is Christine Caine. Mrs Caine’s language is less cloaked (more open) in her declarations of what women can or should see as their roles in Christian home and work life. Mrs Caine is an ordained minister and part of Hillsong Church in Australia.

For example, in an interview (now deleted from Youtube) from 2010, Caine reassured Pastor’s wives that despite Caine’s visible usurpation of the traditional husband-wife roles, that their stay-at-home role is still viable:

“Predominantly I might teach a little bit and I step out into what would be the more classic leadership gift, so a lot of people say ‘I’m not that, so therefore I must not have a role to play…'”

It’s no wonder that woman are confused when they see peers taking on the ‘classic leadership gift’. And that is one way they cloak their rebellion in Christianese: it is not a role or a job, it is a ‘gift‘. Ultimately, women would not need reassurance from other women that their biblical role is still viable if they themselves were not setting it aside.

Christine continues in the interview by acknowledging that there are “women who are gentle and loving and nurturing”, and there are other “women who come along side and do a bit more “non-gentle prodding help people go to the next level.” But that in “no way diminishes your role.”

Really? Sure it does. It sets up women to be discontent. By justifying herself in the leadership role as a gift from God (and who can argue with that?) and acknowledging that there are ‘levels’ and women need to get to, but at the same time saying it is important to stay at home and be nurturing…she had completely confused any listener as to the clear guidelines of the notion of what Biblical womanhood is. She says one thing (and not too clearly, either) but does another.

Discernment tip: one way to detect if a person is in the Word is to see if what they say and what they do match up over time. If what they say and what they do are different, run away. Beth Moore is a good example of that, see below.

Mrs Caine’s reassurances use a neat scriptural twist. If objecting to a woman’s taking on home or ministry leadership roles, simply acknowledge that the women feel weak or unsure in them, but get around it by assuring them that all they need to do is have courage to step out and let Jesus work through their weakness, citing 2 Corinthians 12:9 out of context (“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”). That’s how Caine works it.

Discernment tip: Once a women steps out of the biblical role assigned to her by God, reasoning becomes confused, because God is the author of clarity and it’s satan who sows confusion. A discerning person will really listen to what she is saying, listen to how she is saying it, and look at the life she is leading to make a decision on whether this teacher is someone to learn from. Is what she is saying clear and easily confirmed by the Bible, or is it confusing?

In that same interview, Mrs Caine said, “The only way I was able to continue in my role is that my senior pastor’s wife stepped into her role and chose not to be threatened or intimidated because the giftings were different.”

Oh, I get it. Women are now complementarians to each other. It’s the height of irony that unwittingly, Mrs Caine acknowledges that these new ‘roles’ set up discontent. It’s so nice that in her situation at least, the pastor’s wife wasn’t jealous of her fabulous gift. A good portion of the middle of the interview is Caine’s description of how women are to be complementarian of each other in church settings. One takes the wifely nurturing role so that the younger ones coming up can step out, so to speak. That’s not complementarianism, that’s rebellion.

Now, female support between and among ministries is a good thing, and it is biblically commanded. (Titus 2:4) but the description in Titus is for elder women to teach the younger is in their biblically defined helpmeet role, not to be a helpmeet to other women who step out into classic male roles.

Priscilla Shirer is another of these new Christian feminists whose life is more forward than their spiritual mothers.

“The NY Times article notes that Mr Shirer spends much of the day negotiating Priscilla’s speaking invitations and her book contracts. In the afternoon it’s often Mr Shirer who collects the boys from school. Back home, Priscilla and Jerry divide chores and child care equally.

“Jerry quit his job to run his wife’s ministry. Priscilla now accepts about 20 out of some 300 speaking invitations each year, and she publishes a stream of Bible studies, workbooks and corresponding DVDs intended for women to read and watch with their girlfriends from church. Jerry does his share of housework and child care so that Priscilla can study and write. He travels with his wife everywhere. Whenever possible, they take their sons along on her speaking trips, but they often deposit the boys with Jerry’s mother.”‘

If you delete the name Shirer and substitute Gloria Steinem, and change ministry to job you have a description of a life that any feminist would be proud of.

By 2019 Beth Moore is one of the elders in this realm. Moore has been “on the ministry circuit” for almost 30 years. Thus, her rebellious example has been long in view for many women who have watched her since they were an impressionable teen. Later comers arriving on the scene such as Priscilla Shirer or Christine Caine have learned from the best of the Christian feminists in Moore.

Meanwhile, despite the Bible’s instruction to women to be gentle, meek, quiet, and industrious, tending to their homes and children, Moore has become culturally confrontational. Political. And since my essay was first published in 2011, we have a helpful confirmation of exactly what I had written about back then regarding the man left at home to tend to the kids while the wife wins the bread, but was vigorously denied and refuted by Moore’s followers. As the lengthy article about Moore in an October 2018 article in The Atlantic reveals,

Privately, however, Moore has never cared much for the delicate norms of Christian femininity. Her days are tightly scheduled and obsessively focused on writing. She spends hours alone in an office decorated with a Bible verse written in a swirling font (“I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven,” Luke 7:47). Though she often performs domestic femininity for her audience, in her own life she has balanced motherhood with demanding professional ambitions. She traveled every other weekend while her two daughters were growing up—they told me they ate a lot of takeout. Like other Southern Baptists, Moore considers herself a complementarian

We know she never cared for the Bible’s command to live a quiet life at home. If she did, she would not preach to men. Or leave her children behind. Or obsessively focus on her career. She SAYS she is a complementarian, but she IS a feminist. She always has been.

For example, deliberate misrepresentation:

Beth Moore said to Christianity Today in 2010 that her man demanded a regular home life so she only travels every other Friday and comes right back home the next day.

“We walk the dogs together and eat out together all the time and lie on the floor with pillows and watch TV,” Moore says. “My man demanded attention and he got it, and my man demanded a normal home life and he got it.”

Aww, isn’t that nice. But it’s disingenuous in the extreme. The reality was that Mrs Moore was gone from home at least 20 times per year on her Living Proof tours, which is a lot if you have kids and a husband. Mrs Moore appeared weekly on the Life Today television show, traveled for weeks on book tours, where she expounded on the burning question all women in America are apparently asking, “How can women find validation without a man’s affirmation?” and which her book So Long, Insecurity apparently attempts to answer.

She also spent extended private time for weeks in a cabin by herself in Wyoming to write her book (as stated in the preface to “When Godly People Do Ungodly Things”). She is the President of her own company that in 2011 brought in 4.1 million dollars, with an excess after expenses of 1.3M, stated working hours of 40/week. If you think all she does is lay around on pillows gazing adoringly at her man then all I can say is look at what she does, not what she says. Beth Moore is a Christian feminist because for years she has lived that way, no matter what she disingenuously told Christianity Today.

It’s no wonder women are confused when they see Beth Moore telling us that you can have a corporate career and still be a Christian woman, if you call it ministry. Or like Christine Caine- just call your career ambitions a gift. (c.f. Joanna Gaines).

Feminists like Moore simply misrepresented her life to interviewers and used acceptable language to fool undiscerning readers. Caine twisted scripture to do it, claiming her rebellion is a gift from God that must be used. RHE used the tactic of saying it was all an accident.

Ms Evans also claimed to be an accidental feminist, writing on her blog, “Most of all, if these critics knew me, they would know that it isn’t feminism that inspires me to advocate gender equality in the Church and in the world; it is the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

“God surprised me with this ministry” Priscilla Shirer said, as if the big oops was all out of her hands nor will she be morally and spiritually culpable on the Lord’s day of Judgment. And I can assure you ladies reading this, that despite what Mrs Evans said those years ago, Jesus did not deliver the Gospel by His blood so she could use it to promote a different role for women than He has already ordained.

Do not be fooled by what they say. Look at their life. Paul advised Timothy to guard his doctrine and his life. he meant to live the precepts, not just know them or utter them. The old saying from the 70s, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” was the feminist motto. Now the only difference for today’s Christian secret open feminist is the logo on her purse.

beth moore, charismatic, strange fire

Strange Fire Q&A: Beth Moore

Posted on April 29, 2016May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

One hundred years ago, the modern Pentecostal movement was born. By October 2013 the Pentecostal movement has morphed into the Charismatic movement with its particular brand of false doctrine and had infected much of western Christianity and polluted quite a bit of Christianity abroad. The excesses of the movement include faith healing, reports of raising the dead, babbling tongues, alleged prophecies and direct revelation, disorderly church services and worse. The movement assaulted the sufficiency of scripture, the inerrancy of scripture, besmirched the name of Jesus Christ and damaged the faith of many.

John MacArthur and his team at Grace To You took a stand against this movement and sought to bring clarity to why its doctrines needed comparison to the Bible correction. To that end, they organized the Strange Fire Conference, held in the fall of 2013. One of the main purposes of the conference was to initiate a substantive discussion about these issues. It achieved its purpose. Every sermon preached at the conference rebuked the movement simply by preaching the truth, and brought correct biblical doctrine to the fore. Given the outcry, it seems that the effect was immediate.

There were many good questions asked at the various seminars and Q & A sessions held during the conference period, but not all of them could be immediately answered. After the conference concluded, ministers and theologians at Grace Community Church and The Master’s Seminary wrote out answers to these unanswered questions, compiled them, and put them on one web page.

The page is a treasure trove of good, solid rebuttals to and practical helps about what to do if encountering Charismatic doctrines in your church, in your family, or in yourself.

Here is just one of the Q&A’s from the Strange Fire web page.

FYI, before you read the Q, in my own opinion, Moore passed the “heretical” mark in June 2013. Moore had said she had been lifted into another dimension by “Jesus” to see the global church as He sees it (!), to return and “tell”, (!!) and that the global church had apparently included the Catholic Church as a Christian denomination. This puts her on the far side of heretical, because Jesus would never do any of those three things, make a personal visit to earth, (Mt 23:39, Acts 1:11); give new extra-biblical revelation to be delivered as if Moore was a Prophet, (Rev 22:18-19); and include a false religion in His message. Nonetheless, here is the SF question from gty.org:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Can you talk about the dangers of popular teachers who are not heretical but say that God talks to them? I am thinking specifically of Beth Moore.What are we to do with people who refuse to see the danger and insist such teachers are OK

Believers must always listen carefully when any teacher or preacher speaks about the Bible and theology.They must share the nobility of the Berean saints whom Luke commended for double checking Paul’s teaching according to Scripture (cf. Acts 17:1–11).While Beth Moore teaches with accuracy on some points, she also holds positions and teaches doctrines that are both incorrect and dangerous.

Beth Moore promotes contemplative prayer, a mystical practice not found in Scripture which includes elements of eastern mysticism. She chooses not to draw firm doctrinal lines on her website while implying the Roman Catholic Church is a Christian denomination alongside the Methodist, Baptist, and other denominations. Beth also claims that she has received visions from God and sometimes receives revelation from Him in her heart. From these examples we must conclude that the lack of biblical and theological depth in Beth Moore’s teaching renders her a dubious and dangerous source of Bible teaching.You may read a critique of Beth Moore’s teaching here.

beth moore, bible, false teacher, truth

In which Beth Moore says something unbiblical. Again

Posted on April 8, 2016May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Do you ladies see the internal inconsistency in this? You “can’t catch the Spirit & make stay Him put” but you CAN catch Him & control Him. On the surface, false teachers’ doctrine always sounds Christian-y, but upon digging only slightly deeper, it falls apart. That’s because it’s cotton candy, all clouds and no water. (Jude 1:12).

Ladies, dig deeper. Don’t accept what teachers say at face value. Examine the Scriptures to see if these things are so. (Acts 17:11). In this particular case, John 3:8 would apply here-

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

The Bible Knowledge Commentary says of John 3:8,

“This verse contains a wordplay which cannot be adequately expressed in English. The Greek word pneuma means both wind and Spirit. The work of the Spirit (pneuma) is invisible and mysterious like the blowing of the wind (pneuma). Man controls neither.”

What is really sad to me is how many people retweeted it and ‘liked’ it within just a couple of hours of Moore having published the tweet. The bane of Twitter. Correct theology takes time and care to explain, exceeding Twitter’s 140 characters. But wrong theology can fit neatly into a 140 character limit, and they propagate like the weeds they are.

be sober, beth moore, discernment, hair

Beth Moore’s hair pride

Posted on March 18, 2016May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

A friend on Facebook put up a screen shot of a Beth Moore tweet, which is truly outlandish.

HT Bud Ahlheim

I had written a comment, “Troubling is the narcissism, but more troubling to me is purporting to KNOW and positively state that she has knowledge of why God does things at any particular moment. She is mistress of the theological humblebrag.”

Someone asked a very reasonable question:

Come on, guys. I know there are plenty of Beth Moore issues, but do you seriously think this wasn’t a joke?

Is it a joke? Should we all just lighten up? I thought about it for a while then wrote back,

If this was the only tweet, essay, book blurb, or audio statement she ever made of this nature, then yes, joke. Sadly, in context of the body of all her work over many decades, such shallow narcissism, self-.involvement, and comfy cozy God-talk is all too usual for Moore. So I conclude it is not a joke, or only a half-hearted joke.

The points here are both good. Don’t take one thing a teacher or leader said once and blow that up especially if it’s obviously meant as a joke. Common sense should prevail. However if a certain unbiblical behavior is constant, for example, anger or sarcasm or boasting, then by all means take the totality of the person’s work or speech and compare it to scripture.

In one other thought, I replied again,

And let’s say in devil’s advocate fashion, that it was a joke, a lighthearted comment meant for fluff. Remember, Moore says she teaches God’s word, speaks for God in her lessons and influences millions of women over several generations. Is this the kind of speech a mature Bible teacher should be constantly and ‘light-heartedly’ tweeting? (Tweets of this nature are constant).

Would a mature teacher with gravitas, say a John MacArthur, ever tweet, “I had tie pride so God made me spill soup on it right before I went to the pulpit so I’d have to take it off.”? No, Titus 2:7b-8 applies.

Some teachers take their relationship with God seriously and other teachers don’t.

There are several things to unpack here. As for the totality of her casual rapport with God, such Twitter comments are all too sadly common from Mrs Moore. She says God calls her honey, baby, babe, kiddo, and other terms of intimate endearment. Setting aside the allegations of direct revelation, can one believe that God calls Moore these things? Did God call John His pal? Did He refer to John the Baptist as kiddo? Did He announce the birth of Christ by shouting from heaven, “Hey, Mary baby!” No. Not that there aren’t tender and intimate moments (Jesus comforting Hagar in the desert, an angel baking bread for a tired Elijah, etc,) but the casualness of such speech diminishes God’s august stature and our own witness.

When Beth Moore goes on a Sabbath play date with God at the zoo and says she and God had a blast, compare that casual kind of language to the Bible by inserting one of the Patriarchs, Prophets, or Apostles’ names. In the Bible lesson where Moore claimed she and God went on a date, contained in her book The Beloved Disciple, she had said God took over her steering wheel and as if on autopilot He steered her into the zoo where she and God watched a baby koala sleep while she sipped a Starbucks fancy drink. Nothing was reported as to what God had sipped. As her date with God to learn how to Sabbath rest concluded, Moore declared she and God had a blast.

Let’s compare that scene to the moment when the real God actually taught Moses about the Sabbath. Sadly for Moses, God did not take over Moses’ legs and put him on autopilot as Moses trudged up Mount Sinai. He did that on his own. When Moses got to the top, did he and God watch a sleeping mountain lion while Moses sipped brewed tea and God wrote the Ten Commandments? Was it a picnic atmosphere when Moses met with God up there? Did Moses then feel restful and walk back down the mountain and face all Israel and declare, “God and I had a blast! We played!” I think not.

As for the casualness of declaring what God is doing and saying at any given moment, we have lost the gravitas due our Savior, thanks in no small part to Moore and her silly statements. Remember John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah. He was a priest and labored in the Temple on rotation, it was his rotation when Gabriel appeared and announced to Zechariah that he would be blessed with the forerunner prophet to Messiah despite he and his wife Elizabeth being advanced in years. (Luke 1:8-23). Zechariah was then struck mute when he asked an impertinent question. God is serious! That Moore’s impertinence has been overlooked for this long is a measure of how much common grace He bestows upon unbelieving sinners like her.

As for the silly self-involvement of Moore’s statement, that God made it rain specifically so that her hair would be flattened, it’s just too over the top to comment on. The pride in which someone would actually say that and believe it is just sad. God didn’t make it rain in order to bring sustenance to farmers so people could eat? (Leviticus 26:4, James 5:18). God didn’t make it rain so He would prove He is still ordering the progression of the seasons in His capacity as Creator and sustainer of all things? (Genesis 8:22). No, He made it rain so Beth Moore’s hair would be squashed down, never mind the thousands of other people nearby who do not have hair pride and who would also suffer the woe of flat hair for the rest of their journey.

My points are several:

1. Do not follow Beth Moore
2. Give Jesus His due and respect Him on social media
3. If you’re not sure if something a teacher has said or a Bible anecdote really applies, insert a Bible character’s name into it and if you can’t picture him or her saying it then there’s your answer. Examples:

Moses said, “God and I had a blast up on Sinai!”
Paul and Silas were singing in jail and God appeared and said “Baby, you have not even begun to believe Me. You haven’t even begun!’”
Mary said, “Elizabeth, guess what! God hollered from heaven and said “Baby, you’re gonna have a baby!”

Comment to the naysayers:

No. I have not contacted Moore. She already has been contacted, multiple times, and she refuses to repent. Also, contacting her is not necessary. See here and here.

No, I am not against lighthearted tweets. This from Moore was appropriately fun and lighthearted:

Goofing around with her daughter after her grandkids were sleeping is a mom-daughter fun thing to do. Fine. Not fine is when you start tweeting you know what God is doing and including His name in your silliness. It’s offensive to me as a Christian and as a woman.

The Second Commandment says not to take the Lord’s name in vain. At Desiring God, that is defined:

How do you define the sin of taking the Lord’s name in vain?

Well that’s a quote from the Ten Commandments: “Don’t take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” The idea of vanity (and I think the Hebrew carries this connotation) is “don’t empty the name.”

So it doesn’t just refer to a certain tone of voice or a certain use of the word. It’s dealing with God and speaking of God in a way that empties him of his significance. This includes both throw-away words—like “God!” or “Jesus!”—as well as speaking about him in trifling and flippant ways. Not just swear ways but cheap ways, low and insignificant ways that just treat him like a commodity. And when you hear them you sense that there is no weight to that sentence, no corresponding emotion to that statement. It seems to have just been gutted.

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. (Titus 2:3-5).

Self-control. Does the Body of Christ good.
——————————————–
Further Reading:

Breaking up with Beth Moore, by Pam Terrell

The Apotheosis of Beth Moore, by the husband of the woman above, Robert Terrell. Very good essay.

Strange Fire Q&A,

How do I respond to people who refuse to admit that those who supposedly receive divine revelation are dangerous even though they don’t teach outright heresy?

Can you talk about the dangers of popular teachers who are not heretical but say that God talks to them? I am thinking specifically of Beth Moore. What are we to do with people who refuse to see the danger and insist such teachers are OK?

Believers must always listen carefully when any teacher or preacher speaks about the Bible and theology. They must share the nobility of the Berean saints whom Luke commended for double checking Paul’s teaching according to Scripture (cf. Acts 17:1–11). While Beth Moore teaches with accuracy on some points, she also holds positions and teaches doctrines that are both incorrect and dangerous.

Beth Moore promotes contemplative prayer, a mystical practice not found in Scripture which includes elements of eastern mysticism. She chooses not to draw firm doctrinal lines on her website while implying the Roman Catholic Church is a Christian denomination alongside the Methodist, Baptist, and other denominations. Beth also claims that she has received visions from God and sometimes receives revelation from Him in her heart. From these examples we must conclude that the lack of biblical and theological depth in Beth Moore’s teaching renders her a dubious and dangerous source of Bible teaching. You may read a critique of Beth Moore’s teaching here.

beth moore, bible study, discernment, hermenutics

When teachers rely on word studies to create lessons

Posted on March 3, 2016May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

The Master’s Seminary published an essay titled “Exegetical Fallacies: The Word Study Fallacy” by William Barrick.

I found it interesting because much of women’s ministry teaching comes from this kind of study. The Grandmother of word studies is Beth Moore. Her proteges are following suit and her proteges’ proteges, third generation Bible teachers for women, are following suit also.

I attended a BM Living Proof “study” in North Carolina five years ago. I had begun going to church regularly 4 years prior. So I was a newbie to church and only I was 6 years in the faith to begin with. I was totally new to discernment. Most of my early blogging had to do more with prophecy than discernment or encouragement.

I re-read the discernment essays I had written back then regarding Moore’s teaching and I am proud of the Holy Spirit because I think they hold up over time. I believe I was on the money with my concerns to a degree that only the Holy Spirit can take credit because, as I said, I was new and fairly unlearned. I had written a review about my concern with how Moore approaches a teaching she said she constructs for delivery at Living Proof:

She explained how she arrives at the lessons she teaches on her tour. She said that when she prays the Holy Spirit will deliver a word to her. [I now know this to be an extrabiblical, Mystical practice] In the case for the teaching in Charlotte, it had been “Hold Fast.” In the case of her next tour in Columbia, it will be “Prepare.” She then creates an acrostic of teaching points that begin with each letter in the main word. Ours was –

His affection is set upon us
Only He is your praise
Loving Him awakens your true heart
Doing His will does us good
Fleeing to Him means fleeing with Him
Any tighter embrace will also replace
Satan wants what we have
The Lord is your life

Looks kind of OK, doesn’t it? I won’t explain each of the eight mantras point by point, but share with you some of what troubled me most. I think word studies are good, and I like when teachers look into the Greek or the Hebrew meaning. I am not sure if this manner of exegetical study, finding all the words that relate to a subject and building a lesson out of it is outrageous or wonderful, but I do know that such an approach can be fraught with danger. You lose the context of each passage you are extracting the word from. If you cross OT to NT that context gets more complicated because you have to research whether the word used in a context was meant only for the Jews in the Old Covenant or can be extrapolated into the New Covenant for the Gentiles.

This approach also means that you wind up using a LOT of verses in one study and that tends to feel cobbled together and superficial. You can’t really explain to full depth each verse so you simply refer to them, and there winds up being a lot of different points. It gets unfocused, really fast.

Moore had said that she found every ‘hold fast’ in the Bible and she put together a lesson from that. A lot of people in the audience were so impressed with her mention of the Greek word for this or the Hebrew word for that. Even at my naive state five years ago, ripping out a word from its context and matching it to other words that may seem the same didn’t fell like a good approach. Context is everything.

The Master’s Seminary article explains in detail just why students should not absorb lessons from teachers who crafted lessons based on these kinds of word studies, nor should teachers create lessons based on studies of these kinds. Below are two short excerpts from the short version of their article. If you want to go deeper into the whys and wherefores, there is a fuller, lengthier version of the same article, here.

When it comes to studying Scripture, word studies are popular, easily obtained from available resources and an easy way to procure sermon content. However, word studies are also subject to radical extrapolations and erroneous applications. It is not always possible to strike exegetical gold by extracting a word from the text for close examination. Word studies alone will not suffice. Indeed, over-occupation with word studies can be a sign of laziness and ignorance involved in much of what passes for biblical exposition in our times.

Study of the words alone will not present us with a consistent interpretation or theology. This is one of the misleading aspects of theological dictionaries/wordbooks. One learns far more about obedience/disobedience or sacrifice and sin from the full statement of a passage like 1 Sam 15:22–23 than he will from word studies of key terms like “sacrifice,” “obey,” or “sin” in the text.

The most important thing about studying the Bible is actually reading the Bible. Too many people spend too much time warming up first. Getting the right chair, the cup of coffee, the notebook, the pen, the devotional, the book about how to read the Bible … all fussing over the preparations and never getting to the main event.

It reminds me of this classic skit. Ralph Kramden was so focused on proving what he knew and Norton’s warm up being in the way, that Ralph never did learn what that song was that was right in front of him, and Norton, well, if you know the Honeymooners, you know Norton always took a looooong time to warm up doing anything. Don’t be Ralph Kramden. Don’t be Ed Norton. Be a good Bible student. And watch out for shallow word study teachers. Just because they mention “Greek” or “Hebrew” doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve delved deeply. Many times it means the opposite.

Recommended resources:

Hermeneutics:
her·me·neu·tics- ˌhərməˈn(y)o͞odiks/
noun. the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation, especially of the Bible or literary texts.

Grace To You/John MacArthur-
Essay: How to Study Your Bible
Essay: Simple Steps to Solid Study
Book: How To Study the Bible

Article by Tim Challies: How To Study the Bible

Book by Richard Mayhue How To Interpret The Bible By Yourself
Challies Review of Mayhue’s Book

Article by Focus on the Family: How to Study the Bible

beth moore, bible teaching, dignity, discernment, ethics

Photojournalism and an undignified Beth Moore

Posted on February 10, 2016March 12, 2022 by elizabethprata

I was formerly a news journalist, working at my own weekly I’d started and also worked as a features writer and photographer for the Athens daily. I was big on journalism ethics. One of the things I’d seen happen increasingly over the years is that when a reporter, photojournalist, or editor didn’t like the person being reported on, they would deliberately use disparaging adjectives, or if in a photo, select a photo that showed the person on a bad light or with a goofy expression, or in some other way, undignified.

What I understood as proper photo-journalism ethics is reflected in this excerpted photo ethics statement from the National Press Photographer’s Association–

Be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of subjects.
Be complete and provide context when photographing or recording subjects. Avoid stereotyping individuals and groups. Recognize and work to avoid presenting one’s own biases in the work.
Treat all subjects with respect and dignity. …
Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images’ content and context. …

I personally believe that journalism and photography ethics should be applied to bloggers, including lay-bloggers with no journalism associations. And ethics is always the watchword for Christians. (Psalm 25:21).

When a newspaper publishes letters to the editor which are opinions from readers, they don’t publish all of them. A large city newspaper might receive hundreds of letters to the editor or emails opining on a recent report. Did you ever wonder how they decide to publish this one and not that one? They take the preponderance of opinion and publish a representational number. If there’s an election coming and 100 people write in that John Q. Politician is good, and 30 people write that John Q. Politician is bad, they might publish 3 of the good and one of the bad. It’s representative of the situation. That’s what newspapers do, reflect the general situation.

What I try to do when representing a person I’m blogging about in photography is find a provided head shot the subject has proffered, or some other representationally accurate photo. By that I mean it is a photo showing the person of his correct age and represents the usual stance or expression of the person. In other words, paparazzi try to find the ONE photo of a celebrity where they are in dishabille, or wearing casual clothes that make them look worse than they usually do. How does the person usually look? If you are blogging about a person regarding their work, then show them in work clothes. If you are blogging about a stay-at-home mom, then casual clothes and home setting is appropriate. Et cetera and so forth.

Representationally accurate….and now we get to Beth Moore.

Five years ago I wrote my first blog critical of Beth Moore and her teaching. As a brief rabbit trail I’ll say that back then it was one of the earliest essays anywhere on the internet critical of Beth Moore. Her teaching was bad but more subtly bad back then, and I remember having an excessively difficult time finding other essays, especially written by men, that confirmed what I saw and understood to be negative about her teaching. Five years later we all see the devastatingly satanic decline in her teaching. In this essay I’ll double down on one of the most troubling things that has declined, her teaching style.

Five years ago I’d written in part 2 of the series, “Troubled By Beth Moore’s Teaching” that I was troubled by her lack of dignity in teaching. Of all the things I’d written negatively about, her legalism, twisting scriptures, lack of transparency etc, my critical words about her teaching style drew the most heat from Moore supporters. I was excoriated for even daring to say it. Many women who wrote to me said it was unfair and improper even to rate her on style.

No, I’d pushed back, the Bible has much to say about a woman’s dignity in public. Comportment is addressed for each gender and at every age, and is especially important for leaders and teachers. This issue is specifically addressed in multiple verses.

Instructions specifically to be dignified:
Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, (Titus 2:7)

The Greek word for dignity in the Titus 2 verse means:

“solemnly respectable.” reflects what has been transformed by God and exhibits “moral and spiritual gravity (gravitas)” – like what attends a deep, godly character.

Instructions for Ministers:
“A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;” (1 Timothy 3:2-3)

Instructions for wives of ministers:
“Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.” (1 Timothy 3:11)

Instructions for aged men:
“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” (Titus 2:11-12)

Instructions for aged women:
“Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may train the younger women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be self-controlled, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.” (Titus 2:3-5)

Do you get the idea that the church leaders, teachers, and elders should be dignified? I hope so. These and other scriptures are clear on the subject. Anyone who has seen a Beth Moore clip knows that her self-control and circumspectness is less than optimal. Her bio says she ‘teaches with energy and passion.’ She even calls herself obnoxious. I call it undignified. And undignified teaching is a poor witness.

Lately I’ve been seeing photos of Mrs Moore in strange and wild positions, gesticulating madly like she’s beating wasps. She stands in a hula hoop. She zanily sweeps the stage. She has participants come on stage and hold placards. She cuts up. She’s undignified.

But these photos, are they doing a Christian disservice to Moore? Let’s take a look at a few.

I decided to scan through a number of recent Moore clips. I chose different venues. I looked at Moore on a large-venue stage, intimate setting, and being interviewed. I looked at 11 or 12 of them, and noticed the same thing in each. The preponderance of her teaching style now is zany and undignified. And worse, remember that Mrs Moore is a 58-year-old grandmother. We cannot attribute her teaching style to over-exuberant youth. She should be applying Titus 2 verses to her life and her teaching behavior so as to demonstrate it to the generation coming up. Sadly, Mrs Moore completely fails in this regard.

To be fair and ethical, I looked at an equal number of clips from Kay Arthur, whom I consider to be a dignified female Christian teacher. I looked at an equal number of settings Mrs Arthur was teaching in as well- the interview, an intimate setting, a large-venue. In none of them did I find Mrs Arthur zanily sweeping the stage, standing in a hula hoop, or otherwise using inappropriate props for a Bible lesson or a Christian speech. In none of them did I see her facial expression veer to the clownish and comical, and in none of them did I see wild gesticulations like beating wasps or arms flailing as when walking into a spider web.

I also looked at Martha Peace giving a The Master’s College lecture on the subject of women discipling women, and a Susan Heck lesson. Ditto. No zaniness in sight and all those aforementioned women were dignified, comporting themselves as the Bible says an elder female teacher should.

Are there times when Beth Moore is standing behind a podium speaking in a dignified manner? Of course. Her undignified approach to teaching is not 100% saturated with zaniness every minute. I am speaking of the preponderance of time, and I am speaking of frequently, and I am speaking of representationally. Remember, in 1997 in an interview with Baptist Press, Moore herself said she is obnoxious. She has not calmed down since then, and is in fact, worse.

Now when I see a crazy photo or screen shot of Beth Moore, I have determined for myself that it’s representative of her usual teaching style. In my little exercise comparing Moore with Arthur, Peace, Fitzpatrick and Heck, it was startling to see Moore’s antics compared to the other teachers. Dignity. Sisters, dignity is a highlight of any Christian woman. No, I’m not saying that we can’t laugh or joke or have a good time. I’m not saying never to use props, but I am emphatically against them most of the time. The Bible is the only visual we need.

Christian women and especially teachers should be mindful of the grace that was bestowed on us and comport ourselves with dignity. A dignified posture is to be sought at all times, but especially when we are teaching about the Lord, who is the expression of dignity itself.

beth moore, discernment, false, TBN

Beth Moore launching a new TV program on TBN (updated)

Posted on December 30, 2015May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Michelle Lesley posted a note that Beth Moore is launching a weekly television program on TBN next week. She wrote:

One of the behaviors that illustrate bad fruit and indicate a teacher’s falseness is who a person chooses to associate with. I have written in the past about Moore’s association with the Osteens, both Joel and Victoria, and her manning the pulpit at Lakewood Church. I’ve also written about Moore’s donations to Lakewood “for ministry support” to the tune of over $40,000. Moore has more recently partnered with Joyce Meyer, a blasphemously heretical teacher, on Meyer’s TV program. Moore associates with Christine Caine and Roma Downey as well, and the list could go on. Far from being the Southern Baptist Convention’s conservative and excellently exegetical darling, Moore is a false teacher leading millions of women astray every day.

The Bible warns us about false teachers. The moral and doctrinal purity of the church is something Jesus takes extremely seriously. To show the seriousness, He killed Ananias and Sapphira on the spot in Acts 5 for lying to the Spirit. To continue to illustrate how serious He is about the moral and doctrinal purity of the church, the Spirit inspired almost every NT writer to repeat the warnings, and caused many them to write many commands on what to do when encountering such doctrines and the people who bring them. Here are just two:

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, (2 John 1:10)

I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. (Romans 16:17)

To stay away doesn’t mean not to be polite if passing in the hall, or if coincidentally attending the same secular event not to acknowledge their presence. It bespeaks of conscious choices to partner with heretics in religious pursuits. It means to deliberately choose to spend time with false teachers in Christian endeavors. Can two walk together except they be agreed? Amos 3:3 asks. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers 2 Corinthians 6:14 warns, of fellowshipping with people who do not believe as we do.

So when we see that Moore has chosen to partner with such heretics, it speaks volumes. Here is the TBN lineup on Wednesdays:

The people on that list couldn’t be more heretical if they tried. Wolves run in packs. Please, please be warned about Beth Moore. The Lord is lifting the veneer of Christianity from her very quickly now. He is revealing her false behaviors, false words, false teachings, and false associations more and more obviously. However, there are still too many women who either don’t know about her falseness or refuse to believe it.

A little leaven spoils the lump, and Moore possesses a lot of leaven. Beware.

FMI on why Moore is false, please go to my link All Beth Moore Critiques Here in One Place. You’ll find 50 links from me, other women, and men & pastors who have negatively critiqued her teaching by comparing it to scripture. Scroll down.