Category: beth moore

Posted in beth moore, discernment, false teachers, idol

An editorial about Beth Moore’s teaching, and her followers

Posted on by elizabethprata

This is an opinion editorial.

Pam Terrell runs the blog “The Secret Life of a Pastor’s Wife“. Mrs Terrell recently published a critique of Beth Moore, here. The same thing happened to her as happens with anyone who says anything negative about Mrs Moore. Her next post was titled “The Day My Blog Blew Up.”

Wikipedia CC

Mrs Terrell explained what happened, and how many comments she had received. Some were positive, along the lines of ‘thank you for posting this discerning information about a false teacher.’ Others were rabidly angry that their idol had been poked.

I sympathized with her. I had previously quoted Mrs Terrell in one of my many, many, MANY essays about Beth Moore but I had not seen the follow up. Every other blogger that I’ve read who posted something negative about Beth Moore (and they were few & far between for a long while, whistling in the wind) ALL got the same reactions, the same content in the comments, even. One thing I read recently that hit me is “to see if something is an idol, poke it and see how the followers react.”

One comment that people who try to defend Moore’s teaching say a lot is that “you’re jealous.” The ‘you’re jealous’ comment perplexes me the most. Commenters reacting to my pieces on Moore also say that I’m inhibiting people from delving into the word, it’s just my opinion, and I need to stop being critical. Not one ever comes up with a biblical reason to rebut my biblical reason for taking issue with Moore’s teachings. That’s because there aren’t any.

Saying ANYTHING negative about Beth Moore provokes a rabid-push back. Lately though, and thankfully too, some men have been speaking out against her methods and her false theology. Todd Friel, Mike Abendroth, Justin Peters, Jim Murphy, Tim Challies and Matt Slick at Christian Research and Apologetics Ministry (all pastors) have all recently said negative things about Moore in one aspect or another, based on her handling of the bible and what/how she teaches. I wonder if these female commenters would say that the men are “jealous” too!

Moore makes weak disciples because her teachings promote straying from from sola scriptura, providing a poor model for the new Christians coming up. She makes doubters, offers legalism, and puts in lots of conditions to faith. As a result, people wander from Jesus-the-rock and becoming scared of their doubts (i.e ‘am I doing faith right?’) they go back to Moore. It’s why she has so many groupies.

It’s hard, as a discernment person, to see so vividly how the false ones are damaging the faith and striking the sheep. I worry deeply and almost every day for women in my own congregation. So my fears are not just for the women ‘out there’ but also ‘in here’.

Moore, Rick Warren and formerly Billy Graham have been the 20th century’s worst wolves, and I am sad to say I have to put Osteen in that category too now. I say ‘sad’ because it’s so OBVIOUS Osteen is false, but increasingly, people don’t see it. At least Moore, Graham and Warren hid their apostasy for so long that it took a keen eye and a God-delivered wisdom to detect it. In other words, props for subtle cunning. Osteen is just blatantly blasphemous. However the bible does say that apostasy will increase, and Osteen certainly is evidence of that.

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables”
(2 Timothy 4:3-4).My sadness with Moore is now she is passing into the grandma stage, an elder woman of the faith, meaning she has been around so long she has birthed spiritual daughters…just like Revelation 2:20-23 says of the false prophetess-type Jezebel.

This is a subject near to my heart. I just want to run around to every woman and put my arms around them to protect them. But my arms are too short. The way to do that is prayer. Jesus’s arms are long enough.

Posted in 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 by elizabethprata

Beth Moore published a book in 2004 called, Things Pondered: From the Heart of a Lesser Woman. It is a book of vignettes and poetry, recollections and descriptions of the various events in Beth Moore’s life from young womanhood as a bride through early days of her marriage, becoming a mother, and her adopted son. This book review pertains to the kindle version. Moore’s words from the book are in italics.

~Beth Moore & Privacy~

For all of Beth Moore’s outward seeming openness, her frequent discussions about herself, her thoughts, trials, self-esteem issues, sexual molestation, motherhood, and hysterectomy, she rarely if ever speaks of the fact that she adopted a son at his age of 4 and then at age 11 gave him back to the birth mother.

Her public persona is one which creates a (false) sense of intimacy with women, of being open and transparent. Her books and conferences strive to create an atmosphere of a slumber party, sharing secrets, and giggling over the love of our Groom Jesus. But when it comes time to be transparent in one-on-one situations, Moore is quite zipped up. Moore is “closely protected by assistants who allow very few media interviews. After several interview requests from CT, her assistants allocated one hour to discuss her latest book and ask a few questions about her personal life. Each question had to be submitted and approved beforehand, I was told, or Moore would not do the interview. Follow-up interview requests were declined. I was permitted to see the ground level of her ministry, where workers package and ship study materials. But Moore’s third-floor office, where she writes in the company of her dog, was off limits.” (Christianity Today)

There is some curiosity from people regarding the little-known topic of the son Moore adopted, named Michael. Though Things Pondered is about other events in Moore’ life too, the bulk of it is about Michael, and so will this review.

~Mary~

The title of the book refers to Mary’s thoughts when the angel told her she would bear a Son. (Luke 2:19). Moore speculates on what Mary was thinking, the nuts and bolts of Mary’s ponderings. Such speculations are not good and not bad. It all depends on the point of view from which they make the speculation. Moore is a contemplative navel gazer who talks about herself constantly and thus her p.o.v. stems from herself. Therefore the thoughts she imagines Mary to be thinking were also about herself. To wit:

“In that moment a host of memories must have been dancing in her head. The angel’s appearance. His words. Her flight to the hill country of Judea. Elizabeth’s greeting. Their late-night conversations. The first time she saw her tummy was rounding. Joseph’s face when he saw her. The way she felt when he believed. The whispers of neighbors, the doubts of her parents. The first time she felt the baby move inside her. The dread of the long trip. The reality of being full-term, bouncing on the back of a beast. The first pain. The fear of having no place to birth a child. The horror of the nursery. The way it looked. The way it smelled. …The following is my response to her worthy example.”

Except, that in reading the things Moore believes Mary was pondering, you would never know Mary was bearing the Son of God.

Here is the same verse with a mature preacher of the word also speculating on what Mary was pondering. Please compare.

“It [verse 19] takes us into the heart of Mary. It says, “But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” This is just mulling them over, contemplating them deeply. She went much deeper, believe me, than the amazed people in verse 18. I mean, this is just…this is just beyond comprehension. Here is a 13- or 14-year old girl, she’s looking into a feed trough and she’s seeing there a baby that’s come out of her womb. She’s never known a man. This baby was conceived and born without ever knowing a man. This baby is the Son of the Most High God. This baby is the rightful heir to the throne of David. This baby is the Savior of the world. This baby is the anointed Messiah. This baby is God, the Lord.

I mean, it’s all so mind-boggling in the common world of human beings. Mary must have wondered, you know, when is He going to start saying profound, theological things? Tomorrow? Is He going to do miracles? What’s going to happen here? What am I to expect out of this child? Will I have a normal relationship with this child that a mother has to a baby? Will I nurse this child as mothers do? Will I raise this child as mothers do? What will this child be like? And when will He enter into His glory? When will He take His Kingdom? When will that all happen? And how am I going to be a mother to a child that is God? She must have wondered all those kinds of things. Must have wondered even about discipline, setting an example. How do you set an example for God? I mean, anything that would come into a mother’s mind must have come into her mind. She just pondered it. She just thought deeply about it. And she thought deeply about God’s redemptive purpose and how God had promised a Savior and a Savior had finally come.” (source)

Moore instills self-ponderings in Mary. They are self-focused. Dr MacArthur’s are Jesus-centered. So if Moore is following “Mary’s worthy example” as she stated the purpose of the book to be, you see the focus of the book is off-kilter already.

~Michael~

In Things Pondered, Moore says she and her husband wanted a son but several years passed and they assumed they were not going to receive one. Then on February 14, 1990 the Lord answered their prayer and her husband “gave the gift of a boy” for Valentine’s Day.

In her 2005 memoir, Feathers from My Nest, Moore said her husband saw “urgent needs of a certain little boy that “could really use a home.” … We were oblivious, I had nothing but romance in my eyes. Happily ever afters. Utter certainty that love will conquer all.“

I searched for clarity in the book and got none. On one page Moore said Michael was “orphaned”, on the next she said that his birth parents “gave up on each other and on him”, and that the “marriage of his second guardians collapsed”. After 7 years, Moore says the mother (Anne) “resurfaced,” even though she was “a close family member“, “strongly desiring” her son back. However, there was no mention of any legal proceeding nor any custody battle, even though she consistently said in the book that they had adopted him. Chapter 3 is called “The Adoption.” On page 54 Moore said she sat in a restaurant with Anne and after assurances that this was what Anne wanted, Moore said that Anne “granted him to us.”

Moore says his birth mother was “a close relative” named Anne. No other details, but later in the book Moore said that “I didn’t love him like an aunt… I loved him like a mother.” Perhaps the boy is her sister’s son.

Very early on Moore says the family saw the emergence of Michael’s angry behavior. She said she “envisioned the adoption to be a glorious romance” but was instead the family became increasingly traumatized by his “fits of violence and anger”. There were many school disciplinary hearings, and many nights Moore and her husband were at a loss on how to deal with him. In his 4 short years prior to being adopted by the Moores, she wrote he was continuously abandoned, abused, neglected, and had Child Protective Services intervening on a rotating basis. When Michael entered the Moore home at age 4, it wasn’t long before they knew they had a long haul on their hands. Fear of abandonment again raised its head while during the day he refused to cry, laugh, or love. Yet at night he insisted on falling asleep by holding Moore’s head and chanting “Mommy please don’t leave me.” Finally Moore said they were “stretched to the point of ripping”.

Screen shot from “Things Pondered” by Beth Moore

It’s more than unsettling to see a woman who had committed to adopt a boy but then lay down conditions for his continued residence, which if not adhered to would result in giving him back. More unsettling still is that Moore set the condition very early on in Michael’s tenure. Most unsettling to me is the way she phrased it- “he refuses to be helped,” putting the onus onto the boy.

Here is a similar real-life case from a couple of months ago. Please compare.

“Ohio Couple, Give Back Adopted Son After 9 Years “
“An Ohio couple who authorities say returned their 9-year-old adopted son to the county after raising him since infancy have been charged with abandoning the child…the parents said the boy has aggressive behaviors and would not agree to get help….County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser said Thursday that he doesn’t usually seek indictments in misdemeanor cases but views this as “reckless” abandonment. “When you are the parent and you recklessly abandon a child or children, there are criminal consequences,” Gmoser said. “These children don’t have a return-to-sender stamp emblazoned on their forehead.” … “If your 9-year-old needs help, you get him help,” Olivas told the newspaper. “It is not a question of a 9-year-old wanting it or not.“

In the book, Moore explains in the next scene that her husband convinced her to let Michael stay. A short while later Moore was complaining in her book again. She said Michael “needed more than they had.” She asked “Why hadn’t God given him to parents who really knew what they were doing? Who didn’t have such demanding lives already? Who didn’t have other children?”

They decided to stick with it and just and love him. They kept him for 7 additional years and his behavior slowly but inconstantly improved. Cut to years later-

Screen shot from “Things Pondered” by Beth Moore

It is hard to gain a settled clarity as to the what the author is saying, when one reads a sentence that says they knew they needed to find someone else, not them, to help Michael, and in the next sentence that “to their shock and utter dismay, God confirmed” that Michael needed to go.

If you add up the timing, when Moore says Michael’s alarming behaviors surfaced he was approaching pre-adolescence. If he was “granted” to the Moores at age 4 and they returned him 7 years later at age 11, then the approaching preadolescence must mean age 10. He was at most 10 when he evidenced behaviors that alarmed them.

She wrote this book ten years ago, but Moore refuses to add to the narrative or be any more open than she already has been. Though Moore has famously been open and clear about other situations in her life that are equally as emotionally difficult to discuss, such as her self-esteem issues, her sexual molestation and her hysterectomy, Moore adamantly refuses to discuss with any clarity or detail about the Michael issue. In her book published a year later titled Feathers from My Nest, Moore said the adoption engendered “complexities of circumstance and emotions like nothing I have ever known” (unlike sexual molestation?) and that she is “fiercely and unapologetically private about it” but she “could not possibly write about my children without writing about all my children…even one who was only “mine for a season.”

So there is another internal inconsistency that fails to clarify the situation and instead muddies it further. ‘I’m private about Michael but I could not possibly NOT write about him.’

Other statements in Things Pondered don’t add up. For example, was Michael orphaned as stated on page 27? Or abandoned as stated on page 35 and 41? Did the mother “strongly desire” her child returned, or did she demand “custody”? Was it a legal “adoption” as stated on page 29 or private matter of a family temporarily taking in one of their own as described on page 54?

Moore’s whole book, and subsequent responses to inquiries about him could be reduced to an easy one paragraph with clear language and Christian transparency: “My sister Anne couldn’t handle being a mother so I agreed to raise her son as my own. Seven years later Anne got her life together and wanted Michael back. With a mixture of sadness and relief, we gave him up. To this day we still aren’t sure if it was the right decision.”

See how easy it is to be transparent and clear?

How did it all turn out? Moore said Michael is now a tattoo artist covered in tattoos and that she is very, very proud of him.

Moore’s penchant to be overly dramatic in her live studies carries over to Things Pondered. Kim at Upward Call blog said this of Moore and I agree,

“My personal reaction to Moore may not be the same as others. She is overly emotional and dramatic. I find that tedious. I don’t want tear-jerking stories. I want the Word of God. I don’t want forced allegorizations; I want to know God more. Her style, I’m told, is quite dynamic. I listened to a few of her broadcasts. I don’t care for her “dynamic” style. I am immediately on guard with speakers who rely on their dynamism. Let’s say Moore goes through a personal trial and she loses her edge. Let’s say she becomes rather mild and sedate. What will she be relying on then?”

“One of the best speakers I have ever heard is S. Lewis Johnson. He spoke with such a calm, quiet, authoritative tone and manner. I learn so much from him. A bible study should NOT rest on the strength of the speaker; it ought to rest with the strength of how God’s Word is presented and explained. When we rely on style alone, it becomes a matter of taking the Scripture and adjusting it to make us look more dynamic.“

The same is true of Things Pondered. From the opening explanation I was disappointed. Moore’s perspective of Mary’s ponderings unfortunately showed the shallowness and earthliness of Moore’s own ponderings. Her hyper-drama, the soaring language of forced dynamism, the promise of transparency but ultimately the muddiness of the issue of her son, I was hoping to learn more about the adoption issue and like all of Beth Moore’s material, simply came away with less understanding and more questions.

In conclusion, the book is not something I enjoyed. Moore’s foundational perspective I’d described, being from herself about herself, to herself, is circular. It ultimately excludes Jesus. And if you don’t believe Moore is not Jesus-focused, a simple look at the numbers will tell you. In Things Pondered, she mentions Jesus 8 times. She mentions God 117. My recommendation is to ponder no further and read a better memoir.

Tim Challies reviewed and recommends the following books for women:

Glimpses of Grace by Gloria Furman
The big question Furman explores is simply this: How does the gospel change the way a woman lives out her calling as a homemaker?

Fierce Women by Kimberly Wagner. Wagner’s concern is for women to embrace their “fierce” qualities and to use them for God’s glory instead of for destructive ends.

Desperate by Sally Clarkson & Sarah Mae – This one is written especially for the mother of young children.

Women’s Ministry in the Local Church by Ligon Duncan, Susan Hunt – Duncan and Hunt focus specifically on the unique opportunities women have to serve in the life of the local church.

One popular book for women [Challies] does not recommend is Created To Be His Help Meet by Debi Pearl.

Challies recommends you get to know these women (biographies):

Lady Jane Grey by Faith Cook. Here is the short, tragic life of Lady Jane Grey.

John & Betty Stam by Vance Christie. Christian martyrs who sparked a great resurgence of missionary fervor.

Posted in beth moore, jesus callng, journaling, sarah young, spiritual formation

Is Christian journaling good or bad? Is it a ‘spiritual discipline’? Is it part of ‘spiritual formation’?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Lots of women and not a few men keep journals. Writers wouldn’t be caught dead without a notebook of some kind to record the good quote, stray thought, or burgeoning story.

Some of the greatest known literature are from diaries: the Diary of Anne Frank which became a first hand account of Nazi Germany’s oppression. The Diary of Samuel Pepys is another example of a man’s private thoughts which became historical window which generations of subsequent people can now look through. The detailed private diary Pepys kept from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the 19th century, and is as Wikipedia states, “one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period. It provides a combination of personal revelation and eyewitness accounts of great events, such as the Great Plague of London, the Second Dutch War and the Great Fire of London.”

We know what happened to Pompeii when Vesuvius erupted because Pliny the Elder’s journal. Mark Twain’s travel journal through Europe and the Holy Land with a group of American travelers in 1867 became the best selling of Twain’s works during his lifetime and one of the best selling travel books of all time. Diaries are wonderful sources for historical record and travel advice.

In the Christian spheres, Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, kept a diary and also wrote letters constantly. Those became his autobiography after he died. The great theologian Jonathan Edwards kept a journal. In it, he penned his famous 70 resolutions. As the pastors say at the Netherlands Heritage Reformed Congregation, “these resolutions were birthed out of his felt weaknesses and known deficiencies, not his personal attainments. They represent, therefore, his sanctified, biblically-conditioned aspirations.”

Journaling has always been popular, for many different reasons, as we see above. Over the last few years, journaling for Christian reasons has made a comeback. Christians are told to keep track of thoughts in a journal. This activity is now variously called spiritual discipline, spiritual formation, or Christian journaling.

Is journaling good? Is journaling bad? Must I do journaling to “partner” with God in order to advance my sanctification? Does journaling aid the Holy Spirit? Let’s take a look at the pluses and minuses of Christian journaling.

When I first started out as a babe in sanctification, I was involved in some hobbies of a visual nature. I was taking classes in bookbinding and paper arts. As a result, I was making a lot of blank books. I put them to use by extending my creative impulses into a spiritual journal with collages representing my thoughts and interpretations of various verses which had captured my attention. It was a way to keep thinking about certain verses, keep my hands busy, and satisfy my creative urges. Here is a sample.

In my case, the visual journals were an outgrowth of my devotionals. I’d read the word, think about the word, and respond to the word. As Compelling Truth explains about devotionals:

“Daily devotionals also teach us truth. When we spend time in God’s Word, we gain wisdom and understanding. It has been said that the best way to recognize a counterfeit is to study the real thing. Satan is the “father of lies” (John 8:44). If we are not steeped in God’s truth, we are more easily duped. When we know the truth, we experience freedom (John 8:32). Daily spending time with God is a way to worship Him. Time is a limited resource. What we spend our time on is an indication of what we value. When we spend time with God, we demonstrate that we value Him. We claim that He is worthy of attention and of praise.”

So some people use a journal as a response to the Word in their daily devotions. Others use journaling to pray.

John MacArthur gives an example here of a famous Christian Henry Martyn and how he used his journal to pray. Martyn was a British-born man who became a Christian missionary in India.

“He arrived in India in April 1806, where he preached and occupied himself in the study of linguistics. He translated the whole of the New Testament into Urdu, Persian and Judaeo-Persic. He also translated the Psalms into Persian and the Book of Common Prayer into Urdu.” (Wikipedia).

Martyn took a fever and died a mere six years later, but his efforts on the entire Indian continent were tremendous. He wrote in his journal, “Let me burn out for God.” As Christianity.com stated, “Martyn compressed a lifetime of service into those six years.”

So, many people use their journals as a prayer journal. They write out prayers, or keep track of prayer requests in their journals.They use their journal to remember their reaction to certain situations to keep the flame of fervor alive for that particular prayer.

In his sermon, Characteristics of a Fervent Prayer Life, John MacArthur said,

It reminds me of Henry Martyn when he went to India and went into the Hindu temple for the first time and was so shook by his experience that he burst into tears. He wrote in his journal he ran top speed out of that Hindu temple and wrote, “I cannot endure existence if Jesus is to be so dishonored.”

He saw all of that as a dishonoring of Lord Jesus Christ, and that set him to prayer for the nation of India that the Gospel might be spread across that nation and God would not be continually dishonored there. … That’s the kind of prayer that gets answered. Prayer generated by the Word of God, grounded in the will of God, characterized by fervency, realized in self-denial, identified with others, strengthened in confession, that depends on God’s character and that pursues, ultimately, God’s glory. That’s how we pray.

That’s how we journal, too.

Martyn’s reaction to the deep paganism he encountered in India sparked a fervent response in his journal with a blazing, written exhortation to always pray for the people he was evangelizing.

Journals from others an be inspiring. Martyn had been deeply moved by reading the journals of David Brainerd, the Puritan missionary in North America who passionately labored among the Native Americans in the cause of Christ. Journals of old read by people today can be inspirational, moving, and catalyzing. We read how they struggled, how the Spirit used them, and for some of us the baton swings from their journal to our hearts as the Lord sets a fire in us. However, would the Holy Spirit had used Martyn’s fervency if he had not kept his reactions contained in a prayer journal? Yes.

Eventually I left off the bookbinding and paper arts. You know how hobbies come and go in your life. But I was still left with a lot of blank books. While those lasted, I simply wrote down my thoughts about the verses.
In the journal above, I am trying to figure out from the bible about the different resurrections.

The problem comes in the internal motivation for keeping a journal. The problem comes with the external impetus for keeping a journal. In today’s atmosphere of increasing mysticism (‘I’m not growing unless I hear from God’) combined with legalism (‘I’ve got to DO something to enhance my spiritual walk’) we are now hearing from people that we must journal in order to hear from God. They say not only that is it a must-perform “discipline” but is in fact a two way street of communication with God.

Journaling should not be a method to keep track of what God says to you. We use the bible for that. This is where journaling goes awry. Be aware: the line is very thin.

John MacArthur explains why the current definition of spiritual formation is false.

“In Christian circles, spiritual formation refers to more than mere academic instruction. Most often, it’s a reference to the dynamic means of sanctification. It deals with the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit and the various methods He uses to bring about spiritual growth in our lives. It’s at this point things can become confusing.

On one hand, there are the time-tested, practical Christian disciplines we’re all familiar with—things like personal and corporate Bible study, worship, prayer, discipleship, and service. On the other hand, many of the leading voices in the spiritual formation movement stress the need for more intuitive interpretations of spirituality. They encourage believers to incorporate a wide variety of extrabiblical spiritual practices, such as contemplative prayer, silence, meditation, creative expression, [Ed Note: creative expressions such as praise dance & journaling] and yoga. In fact, some of the most popular methods of spiritual formation have been lifted from Catholicism, new age mysticism, or other religions and rebranded with biblical-sounding terminology. But any kind of subjective spirituality that draws your focus away from the Lord and His truth can have disastrous results, derailing your spiritual growth and cutting you off from God’s plan for your sanctification.” 

Too often these days, the phrase “spiritual formation” or “spiritual disciplines” are code for man-made methods methods that delude us into thinking that if we perform them correctly that we will increase in spiritual formation and thus, sanctification. But sanctification is imposed on us by the Spirit and does not emanate from within us by what we do. Being enraptured by our own thoughts we’d put down in a journal does not sanctify us. It’s just spiritual navel-gazing.

Compelling Truth explains:
The intent of Christian spiritual formation is to facilitate the Holy Spirit’s inward transformation of our hearts, which is reflected through our outward behaviors … Specific practices of Christian spiritual formation include disciplines such as prayer, meditating on Scripture, worship, study, and service. Some also engage in spiritual direction, or receiving spiritual counsel or mentorship. The methods used are modeled after the practices and behaviors of Christ and those of the early church.

Journaling then, is not a two way process. Journaling is for the disciple: to keep track of thoughts, response to verses, prayer requests, to mark personal growth, whatever edifies you. It in no way is partnering with God or hearing from God. We already heard from God and all that He wants us to know of Him is in the bible (and He also revealed Himself generally in creation- but the goal of creation is to point to Christ, (Colossians 1:15-18).

The problems come not only when we’re told that we must journal, but when we’re told how. Personal thoughts and private responses then become externally imposed mechanisms and we become merchandise. Marcia Montenegro of Christian Answers for the New Age wrote about spiritual disciplines, including journaling,

Disciplines or Rules?
I also take issue with the concept of “spiritual disciplines,” a term from Roman Catholic monasticism which indicated a salvation by works. And I question the idea that certain Christians can define disciplines for other Christians. Since the Bible does not specify any specific practice as a “discipline,” then I think it is up to each Christian to discover from God’s living word which area he or she may need to focus on and at which point in their lives.

 I do not see biblical validity for “silence and solitude” as disciplines.There is nothing wrong with silence and solitude, and I think they are of value at times, especially if one is praying or reflecting on God’s word. But I don’t think the Bible supports doing these as disciplines. Moreover, “silence” is often a code word for “going within” in order to hear from God.

 Other named disciplines include journaling, fasting, and stewardship. There is no prescriptive basis in the Bible for journaling or fasting as “disciplines” for Christians. There are biblical principles for stewardship of time and money, but is this a discipline? Christians are under grace; the Lord wants us to desire to serve Him, not live by imposed rules, or disciplines as defined by others.

When I ran out of handmade books,
I got a spiral bound notebook from the Dollar Store.

Where did all this journaling come from, anyway? Psychology. In his article, “Uses and Benefits of Journal Writing,”  Roger Hiemstra wrote,

“Journal writing as an instructional or learning tool in adult education has gained cogency during the past three decades. As early as 1965, psychologist Ira Progoff and his colleagues began seeing the value of personal journals in enhancing growth and learning. Progoff believed what he called an “intensive journal process” could “draw each person’s life toward wholeness at its own tempo. . . It systematically evokes and strengthens the inner capacities of persons by working from a non-medical vantage point and proceeding without analytic or diagnostic categories” (Progoff, 1975, p. 9)

Sure- it is good to record evolving insights, promote self-examination, keep track of questions. But the point is, none of that will sanctify you. It might be a response to sanctification, but it is not sanctification. Predators prey on our fears that we might not be growing, or we might not be doing the right things with our walk, engaging in the wrong activities. Here is a recent sales pitch about Christian journaling. You can see that the recent legalistic push to “journal” is already tiring us out.

Artist note: I have journaled off and on for years … and now somewhat addicted to the “Moleskine” notebooks … I am attempting a bit more creative means than just words on paper. photo credit: Bob AuBuchon via photopin cc

Are You a Journaling Dropout?
“Does the mere thought of journaling tire you out? Or does it conjure up spending time you don’t have detailing overly “serious” thoughts and spiritual insights? Perhaps you’ve tried to keep journals in the past—prayer lists, irregular accounts of your spiritual failures and victories, letters to God about your deepest dreams. But let’s face it: While journaling can be an amazing tool to help you record God’s transforming work in your heart, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the process. However, I’ve discovered some creative journaling techniques that have blown me away with their ability to renew joy and intimacy in my relationship with God. So whether you’re tired of your own humdrum attempts to journal, or if you’ve never given it a try because you don’t think of yourself as a “writer,” think again. Have I got some fresh ideas for you!”

I resent someone merchandising my private walk with a sales pitch. Anyway, that’s just me. Do this! Do it this way! Or else! Pay money! Be blown away!

Artist note: Youth Haven Ranch was a great place to capture nature on my camera this past summer. The wild raspberries were perfect for trying macro photography. I love this quote by Thomas Moore. Taking photos and making art are very spiritual activities for me. I am in awe of God’s creativity and His greatness when I am out walking around in nature and taking pictures.photo credit: marynbtol via photopin cc

Now to be fair, in that article one of the tips was to collect quotes from Christian authors, quotes that resonate with you. OK, fine, though remember that your sanctification comes by the bible and the Spirit, not words from other men. But collecting quotes certainly seems OK. In another tip, the author advises us that some people benefit from a ‘Creator’s journal’, by pressing leaves or making sketches of birds or flowers or trees, or photographing nature around us, to remind us of His power and creativity.

But from the same article, we read that her friend had just finished reading a book of dubious distinction and not to be recommended,

“Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala, and she was struck by his contention that a lot of churches in America aren’t praying God-sized prayers. So a few years ago, I decided to jot down some “impossible” requests in my journal about everything from the speedy growth of my small group, to godly husbands for some of my single friends, to my desire to lead someone to Christ that year. God has answered each prayer in an amazing way.”

Artist note: My “grandkids”. These kids inspire me
everyday to live out my faith.
photo credit: marynbtol via photopin cc

God-sized prayers? Is there a measuring stick I can use to see if my prayers are the right size? People, every prayer is a God-sized prayer! When I pray for the salvation of someone, that is the HUGEST sized prayer of all, because without God it is impossible to be saved from His wrath! When I pray for my laptop not to break down, or for my corn not to hurt my toe, that also is a God-sized prayer, because I never forget that simply praying is an amazing miracle in itself. It is a further miracle that He listens. It is a further miracle that He answers! It honors God whenever we pray, if we do so in confidence and love and submission to His will.

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 
(John 15:7)

Nothing in there about how big the prayers must be. And keeping track of these huge prayers tests God because the expectation of the journaler is that because they are “God-sized”, then He will answer. You’ve crossed into dangerous territory, then.

Quite often, I read that journaling is an ‘invitation” to God, or that engaging in it ‘allows’ God to do some kind of work in you. Like this:

Begin with prayer. Invite God to use your journaling experiences to draw you closer to Him and help you grow as a person. Ask Him to use your journaling to help you discover more about both Him and yourself.

So if I don’t journal then I am not inviting Him into my private life? I won’t discover more about Him? (where I can’t do that anyway outside of the bible). Where it is my experience that is the catalyst for growth, and not His word? Now here is THE danger. I do not grow by my own words on the journal page. To believe that increased sanctification comes by what I write is just an activity that circles the drain. Sanctification needs to come from without.

The key to determining if any activity helps or hinders my sanctification, journaling or not, is this: does it restrain the flesh?

Jonathan Edwards wrote down 70 resolutions in his diary, but that alone was not sanctifying. Edwards spent hours per day in the word, studying, worshiping, praying. He wrote the resolutions to help himself remember what kind of a Christian he wanted to be, and stayed in the Word as the energizing mechanism to move forward in it.

“A false paradigm of sanctification can’t restrain the flesh. So while all paradigms or strategies of sanctification purport to restrain the flesh and make one holy, they don’t do that any more than a false Gospel can save. It is critical that we understand and avoid false paradigms for sanctification. And one of those that is very popular today is called ‘spiritual formation.’ it is an imposing forms of mysticism and self-help and spiritual intuition imposed upon the bible. You can go back to many popular writers not only in the modern times such as Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, but you can go way back to mystics in the Middle Ages who espouse the idea that there is some mystical intuitive capability within a person that causes him- if manipulated correctly- to rise in spiritual formation. This is not a biblical concept.” (source)

Look how easy it is to gravitate from recording your own responses in a journal, to expecting to hear from God, to actually hearing from “God”.

I’d quoted MacArthur way above. Here are exact cases of how and when journaling is “derailing your spiritual growth and cutting you off from God’s plan for your sanctification.”

These three examples are people whose journaling went awry. Beth Moore sat in an empty cabin in When Godly People Do Ungodly Things“, was the result. In her preface she states,

Wyoming, prayed, and waited to hear from God. She says she did, and the book, “

“This book represents one of the most unique writing experiences I’ve ever had with God. Unbenownst to me, He’s been writing each chapter on my heart for several years. When the message for this book was complete, (in His estimation, not mine!) God compelled me to ink it on paper with the force of the Holy Spirit unparallelled in my experience. He whisked me to the mountains of Wyoming where I entered solitary confinement with Him, and in only a few weeks, I wrote the last line.”

It sounds like she had a Philip whisking-away experience (Acts 8:39-40), and wrote inspired scripture, to boot.

Sarah Young opened her journal and expected to hear from God, invited Him, actually, and said she heard back. The book Jesus Calling was the result. (Do you detect a pattern here, these journaling experiences turning into books that make money for the author?)  Julia at Steak & a Bible wrote a review of Jesus Calling,

“This is a root problem of personal revelation — you cannot know for certain that the internal voice you are hearing is God, yourself or from the devil. So she purports to write what Jesus told her, but she had to vet those words to “ensure they are consistent with Scripture.” I have a better idea. Study the actual words of God that have already been given to us. I’m sure there is plenty more in the Bible to challenge, convict, teach and change each and every believer for the rest of their life on earth even without whispers in your mind. In my view, waiting and listening for the voice of God is a recipe for deception.”

Journaling as a personal endeavor is fine, just watch out that you don’t wind up like Neale Donald Walsch, author of “Conversations with God“.

Source: From Matter to Spirit,
The Result of Ten Years’ Experience in Spirit Manifestations

“In the spring of 1992…an extraordinary phenomenon occurred in my life. God began talking with you. Through me. Let me explain. I was very unhappy during that period, personally, professionally, and emotionally, and my life was feeling like a failure on all levels. As I’d been in the habit for years of writing my thoughts down in letters…I picked up my trusty yellow legal pad and began pouring out my feelings. This time…I decided to write a letter to God. It was a spiteful, passionate letter, full of confusions, contortions, and condemnation. And a pile of angry questions….To my surprise, as I scribbled out the last of my bitter, unanswerable questions and prepared to toss my pen aside, my hand remained poised over the paper, as if held there by some invisible force. Abruptly, the pen began moving on its own. I had no idea what I was about to write….Out came….Do you really want an answer to all these questions, or are you just venting? … Before I knew it, I had begun a conversation. … and I was not writing so much as taking dictation.

This is known as channeling, or automatic writing, and it is occult. The same for Beth Moore and for Sarah Young. God is not taking their hand and writing down words.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 
(Hebrews 1:1-2)

Enjoy your journaling. I hope I’ve shown that there is a fine line in the practice. It can benefit you as long as you keep it for the right reasons and motivations. Ask yourself, ‘does it restrain the flesh? Am I expecting a dialogue? Is this journal a response to my growth?’ Journaling can all too easily veer toward a written expression of the mystical and unbiblical practice of contemplative spirituality.

Providence is the means by which we look back over the scope of time and see our growth. Some people need the journal as a visual reminder of where they’d come from. But doing journaling or not doing journaling doesn’t hinder or help the Lord’s Providential working in our lives. And thank goodness for that, for I am a sinful person, stumbling my way to the gates of heaven! All things will work to the good, because the Lord is in control.

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
(Romans 8:28)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Further Reading:

Prayer in evangelism

A Book Review: Donald Whitney’s “Spiritual Disciplines For The Christian Life” the bible say about holy living

What are the Spiritual Disciplines?

Steps to Sanctification

Posted in beth moore, contend for the faith, discernment, false teacher, judgment, personal revelation

Examining Beth Moore’s statement: the ‘Bride is paralyzed by unbelief’

Posted on by elizabethprata

Last night, I was thinking about something Beth Moore said. I want to look closely at the content of what Beth Moore said in this example I will show you. I am personally offended by it and I’m spiritually grieved by it.

In a LifeToday with James Robison, a televised Christian program, Mrs Moore said, [deleted from Youtube, can now see the video here) ,

“We could live our whole believing lives through, and never make it to our promised land. We get to heaven and go ‘You were not faithful to me! You didn’t do what you said you were gonna do!’ ‘Child, I was holding every single bit of that for you. But I will insist that you cooperate with me.’ What it says over and over in this particular chapter, the number one hindrance to our calling becoming a reality, is unbelief. This is the heart of our study. Listen carefully. What God began to say to me about five years ago, and I’m telling you it sent me on such a trek with Him, that my head is still whirling over it. He began to say to me, ”I’m gonna tell you something right now, Beth; and boy, you write this one down. And you say it as often as I give you utterance to say it: ‘My Bride is paralyzed by unbelief. My Bride is paralyzed by unbelief’ … Starting with you.’ ” … Amen.”

Let’s examine each part of what she said through a biblical lens.

1. Her ‘oh, no’, scare tactic, try-harder faith is on display here. This is Legalism, also exemplified here. Example; “We could live our whole believing lives through, and never make it to our promised land.” Really? We can lose our salvation and not make it to heaven? That’s not what the Bible says. (John 3:16, Romans 8:38-39, John 10:28-29). Perhaps she was talking about unbelievers, one may protest. No, she said “believing lives.” Another may protest that perhaps she meant believers may not make it to our promised land here on earth. But this is not what the Bible teaches, either. The Bible says we are not promised ease on earth. (John 16:33; Acts 14:22). As a matter of fact this earth isn’t even our home. We should not consider earth our promised land whatsoever.

2. She degrades the holy relationship with an almighty God and promotes an earth-centric focus. Example: “We get to heaven and we might say something like this to GOD: “You were not faithful to me! You didn’t do what you said you were gonna do!” Really? When we get to heaven we are going to still be greedy for the things on earth? No. (Matthew 6:20-21).

When we get to heaven we are going to argue with God? Not hardly. We will be so overcome by His glory we will fall down. (Revelation 4:10, Isaiah 6:5, Revelation 1:17). Even Daniel when confronted with an angel from heaven, he fell down. (Daniel 10:8). But Mrs Moore teaches that when we get to heaven we’re going to cry for the things of earth and make a charge against God for their lack. This is ludicrous. In my opinion, it is blasphemous.

In actuality, Zephaniah tells the people, “Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near; the LORD has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests.” (Zephaniah 1:7). And the LORD tells Zephaniah to say it again, “Be still before the LORD, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.”‘ (Zephaniah 2:13).

3. She says she is a prophet. No, she doesn’t come right out and say “I am a prophet”. But she uses personal revelation and biblical language about the context of her supposed revelations to teach people that she is hearing from God and has a message from Him to proclaim. Example: “boy, you write this one down. And you say it as often as I give you utterance to say it:”

Read how God interacted with the Prophets:

“Therefore say to them, Thus declares the LORD of hosts” (Zechariah 1:3)
“Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.” (Revelation 1:19)
“Then the LORD replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.” (Habakkuk 2:2)
“Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD:” (Ezekiel 14:4)
“Boy, you write this one down. And you say it as often as I give you utterance to say it:” (Moore 1:1)

Just kidding on that last one.

Either Beth Moore is a prophet like John and the rest, or she should heed what Ezekiel, a true prophet, has proclaimed from the LORD,

“Her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD has not spoken.” (Ezekiel 22:28).

4. She confuses people with internally contradictory statements. Example: “My Bride is paralyzed by unbelief.” First, who is the bride? Let’s get clear on that. GotQuestions says, “The imagery and symbolism of marriage is applied to Christ and the body of believers known as the church. These are those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their personal savior and have received eternal life. In the New Testament, Christ, the Bridegroom, has sacrificially and lovingly chosen the church to be His bride (Ephesians 5:25-27).”

So the Bride is the Church. The Church is the body of believers.

So what Moore is saying is that the global church is in a state of paralyzing unbelief. She says God told her that the church doesn’t believe. This is impossible. If you believe, you’re a member of Christ’s church. If you do not believe, you aren’t. She speaks a self-refuting idea.

Also, about being “paralyzed”. If we take her statement to be true, then what she is saying is that the global body of believers on earth, the Bride, is not operating in the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit dwells in every true believer, (and He does) and every believer is frozen and paralyzed, (what she says) then this means the Spirit is not operating, or can’t. She is saying God said the Spirit is paralyzed, frozen, and inoperable. Can this be so? No. (2 Corinthians 4:6-7). Worse, she is saying Jesus told her this. Worst of all, she said Jesus told her to teach it.

The truth is, the Spirit indwells every believer, (Romans 8:4, Ephesians 1:13b-14), and we already know that the body of Spirit-filled believers is the Bride, so what Moore is saying is that the church isn’t working. In fact, the Bible says Christ is in us, and Christ is always working. John 5:17 and Ephesians 2:2 testify that all three Persons of the Trinity are always working. To say that He isn’t, that the Spirit in His Church is paralyzed, is malignant in the extreme. I’m serious. Only satan would say that the Holy Spirit, Jesus and God is frozen and paralyzed. It is the Modern Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Below, John MacArthur from the linked sermon:

“A way to perceive this would be to see it as a contrast to what we see in Matthew chapter 12, for example. The leaders of Israel committed the unpardonable sin and what was that unpardonable sin? It was attributing to Satan the work of the Holy Spirit. You remember that? It was attributing to Satan the work of the Holy Spirit, Matthew 12:31-32. What’s going on today is the opposite, attributing to the Holy Spirit the work of Satan. That’s what’s going on. Attributing to the Holy Spirit the work of Satan. Satan is alive and at work in deception, false miracles, bad theology, lying visions, lying dreams, lying revelations, deceptive teachers who are in it for the money and power and influence. Satan is alive and well and the work of Satan is being attributed to the Holy Spirit, that is a serious blasphemy just as attributing to Satan the work of the Holy Spirit is a serious blasphemy.”

5. Extra-biblical revelation is not to be trusted. I’ve focused on Moore’s claims of personal revelation before, here and here.

What does the Bible say about forthcoming revelation of God? (Hint: It ain’t happening).

Source

“But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.” (Revelation 10:7)

Did you catch that? Just as he announced (past tense). God announced to His prophets what He was going to do.  (Amos 3:7). That announcement is contained in the Bible. He has been working and will continue to do work. God’s work on earth will not be finished until the last trumpet, as Revelation shows us, but His announcement of it was. The revelation of His work on earth is concluded. Yet Beth Moore is making additional proclamations from God. Either God is lying, or Moore is. (Hint: Jesus IS the Truth, and the truth is in Him; John 14:6, Ephesians 4:21).  Friends, the canon is closed and the announcement of what God plans to do was already proclaimed.

Gill’s Exposition on Revelation 10:7 says: “As He said to Isaiah 60:3, &c. and Isaiah 66:8; and to Daniel, in Daniel 2:44 Daniel 7:25; and to Zechariah, in Zechariah 14:9, and others;” Beth Moore’s name is not on that list.

For those who want to cling to Beth Moore as a teacher and defend her, saying perhaps that she didn’t mean what she said: I’m sorry. The Bible says that teachers are held to a higher standard. (James 3:1). In order to even BE a teacher one must be mature, self-controlled, vigilant and possess a host of other qualifications that qualify a deacon/teacher/overseer. This is so they will teach rightly and they can spot a false doctrine in the first place- one aspect of protecting and feeding the flock. (Acts 20:28, John 21:17). Teachers are supposed to teach rightly. (2 Timothy 2:15).

Teachers rightly dividing the word for their pupils are raising up pupils who can then turn to the scriptures to see if these things are so. (Acts 17:11). This makes the student stronger. How can a student of Beth Moore examine the scriptures to see if these things are so, if they came from her head, or a vision, and not the Bible? They can’t. And so in this way, she actually raises up people who do not rely on the word, and are weaker.

The word is all-sufficient. (2 Timothy 3:15-17). That’s why we rely on it!

We don’t judge  a teacher as false by one thing they said, once. We give the benefit of the doubt, and watch carefully for a long time, comparing their words and teachings to scripture. One misstep does not make a false teacher, perhaps, but a long pattern of variance with the Bible, does.

Mrs Moore has passed the time of benefit of doubt and has proven over long years that her words, doctrines and actions are not to be trusted. I am not the only person who has compared what she says and does to the sterling Word and found that she is not to be recommended. The Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry has found the same, and so has Rev. Mike Abendroth of Bethlehem Bible Church, and Rev. Jim Murphy of First Baptist Church at Johnson City, NY, and Shai Linne, Modern Reformation, and Pastor Tim Challies, and so on.

In this post, I’ve striven to not only open your eyes to the poor theology and confusing doctrines of Beth Moore, but I’ve also striven to show you how to parse these things for yourself. To stop and really think about what a teacher is saying, phrase by phrase, and to compare it carefully to the Bible. The Bereans sought the scriptures to see if these things were so, and that bespeaks of having a constant stance of asking ‘are these things so?’ If they believed Paul on his face they would not have sought the scriptures, would they? Constantly testing all things, all spirits, is what we are called to do. (1 John 4:1). And don’t stop there. If you have found things that are NOT so, don’t keep it to yourself. The church at Thyatira tried to do that, (Revelation 2:20) and were charged by Jesus for it. Speak up. Be brave.

Do not rely on external feelings or teachers who claim to have had an experience. This today from No Compromise Radio, quoting BB Warfield:

Source

“In the history of Christian thought mysticism appears accordingly as that tendency among professing Christians which looks within, that is, to the religious feelings, in its search for God. It supposes itself to contemplate within the soul the movements of the divine Spirit, and finds in them either the sole sources of trustworthy knowledge of God, or the most immediate and convincing sources of that knowledge, or, at least, a coordinate source of it alongside of the written Word . . . There is nothing more important in the age in which we live than to bear constantly in mind that all the Christianity of Christianity rests precisely on “external authority.” (Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, The Biblical Review, ii. (New York: The Biblical Seminary, 1917), 169-191.)

And what is that external authority? The One True God as revealed in the Holy Bible. Sola Scriptura!

Source
Posted in beth moore, christine caine, false teaching, feminism, jesus, priscilla shirer

How the Christian secret feminists are reforming the definition of biblical womanhood. Part 3

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Christian secret feminists Part 1
Christian secret feminists Part 2
Christian Secret Feminists Part 3

I’ve been looking at Christian secret feminism. I call it secret feminism because as opposed to the open Christian feminists, these women live as feminists but cloak their lifestyle and teaching in Christianese talk. Look at part 1 for how they do that, and look at part 2 for an examination of what the bible calls women to be like.

In this final part I want to look at Revelation 2 again, the church at Thyatira. This part will look at the final outcome of what happens to churches that tolerate this stuff.

In April of this year I proposed that the false prophetess Jezebel-spirit spoken against by Jesus in who was being tolerated in the church at Thyatira was a Beth Moore type. I am going to deepen that study a bit.

In the previous two parts I’ve spoken of the lifestyle that Beth Moore and other female celebrity teachers  lives is more one of feminism than wifely biblical womanhood. I parsed their speech and compared that to their life and the difference is amazing in its gap. One does not match up to the other. I’ve examined many times how Moore in particular has brought false teachings into the church, particularly the American church, much to the detriment of her students. I said that one way to discern if a person is true or not is to match what they say with what they do and if there is a discrepancy over time, it is in fact a pattern of falsity. Beth Moore exemplifies this both in her lifestyle and her teaching.

Theologian Robin Schumacher wrote about the church at Thyatira. First, let’s see what Jesus has to say to this church, which was an actual church in the first century, but is also representative of the church of today.

“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.”

“‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” (Revelation 2:18-29)

Oh, Lord Jesus praise Your name!!

Schumacher writes of the verse referring to Jezebel, “Christ condemns what was evidently rampant immorality in the church that was spearheaded by a prominent female figure that Jesus likens to the Old Testament character of Jezebel. The specific deeds called out are spiritual adultery and the worship of idols signified by the eating of things sacrificed to them.”

He notes that the Greek term tolerate means to ‘let go’ and ‘allow.’ “The main complaint Jesus had against the church was that they were allowing a false teacher to parade her teaching and her practices in their midst, with the end result that some were being led astray. We need to remember that the church is not to be a home for false teaching.”

John MacArthur explains what happens when a church tolerates false teaching, “Sin and false doctrine always appear together. Whenever false doctrine enters into a church, sin follows. For example, the church at Corinth was subject to false teachers. As a result, sin became widespread throughout the church. The church at Thyatira represents the church characterized by sin and false doctrine. Where there is a tolerance for false doctrine, theological liberalism begins to creep in and the gospel is watered down. That is how Satan brings about sin.”

It is exactly happening like that today.

Let’s look at the verse referring to this false teacher as prophetess. Schumacher again:

“The word ‘prophetess’ is only used in the New Testament here and once in Luke 2:36 to speak of Anna- it means one who interprets oracles. The easiest way to justify false teaching is to make the claim that you are a prophet from God and that the things you advocate and teach come directly from Him.”

Wow. I want you to think for a minute if there is any woman in today’s Christian world who is

–teaching
–proclaiming false things in that teaching
–wielding major influence across the church
–leading many astray
–claiming direct revelation from God
–and was told to teach it to the people
–having been around long enough to birth spiritual daughters

Going on, the Lord said He gave her time to repent. She did not want to, the verse says, but in the meantime she birthed spiritual daughters.

The Lord is gracious and kind. He gave time to repent, and in so doing he also gave the church time to put a stop to the false teaching. However as much as the Jezebel teacher didn’t want to repent, the church didn’t put a stop to it.

When we step outside our roles God assigned us chaos ensues. Men are giving up on their biblically mandated charge to the shepherds and teachers and handing over the roles to women, who are also taking up those roles at home. Women, emboldened by their secular feminist sisters, are yielding to satan’s temptation to go after leadership roles.

Brethren, God is the authority. He knows best. If He ordained things they way they are it is for our good. We must believe that. We must. It is what faith is, believing and living out a life submitted to His precepts.

Now, I don’t think all the woman I’ve mentioned throughout his series are terrible people. Some may even be saved, and love the Lord. They may not be aware of the fact that they are part of a generation that has compromised on their biblical role, having only had spiritual Jezebels to look up to. But the word of God is the ultimate authority and His lenses are always clear.

I’ve seen submitted woman living a life of care and nurturing love to their family and it is a beautiful thing. Beautiful. I’ve seen modesty displayed and humility exhibited, and it is a gentle refreshing rain to my soul. When a married man and a woman demonstrate a life of complementary roles is it a wonder.

And above all, Jesus is glorified.

There is nothing that has more eternal impact than a Christian life of men and women in their Godly roles. Please do not believe your self worthless or marginalized. I see. I watch. Others do too. We love the sweet life of a modest woman and the husbandly care of a submitted man. To Whom does the man submit? To Jesus. (Ephesians 5:22-33.)

Jesus is our all in all, sufficient for all things, eternally. And that is a praise to Him!

Christian secret feminists Part 1
Christian secret feminists Part 2
Christian Secret Feminists Part 3

Posted in beth moore, egalitarian, feminism, jesus, priscilla shirer, prophecy

How the Christian secret feminists are reforming the definition of biblical womanhood. Part 2

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Christian secret feminists Part 1
Christian secret feminists Part 2
Christian Secret Feminists Part 3

In Part 1 of examining this issue, I brought to your attention the first generation of Christian secret feminists and looked at their lives and their words. I looked at the second generation also, and examined the things they are saying and doing that usurp the biblical role for women as outlined in the bible. They are celebrity bible teachers who, under the guise of ministry and the cloak of Christianese, are in fact living an overt feminist life. I called these women Christian secret feminists.

In this part I would like to look at what biblical womanhood is rather than look at what it isn’t. We have seen enough of that in part 1, haven’t we?!

In 2007 a half day conference was held titled “Different By Design: A crucial call to faithfulness in gender issues.” The session was to be held just prior to the Desiring God conference. Al Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and Ligon Duncan, Professor at the Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) were the keynotes. If the call was crucial in 2007 almost 6 years ago, it is a siren call today.

Posted on this woman’s webpage is an archive of some of the issues discussed at that conference.

Wayne Grudem, Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies, wrote a book called Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth. The synopsis of the book states, “Egalitarians, or evangelical feminists, consider men’s and women’s roles in the home and church to be interchangeable. In this helpful book, Bible scholar Wayne Grudem considers over a hundred egalitarian arguments and finds them contrary to the Bible. According to Grudem, the Bible teaches that God values men and women equally. However, their roles in home and church are complementary to each other, not interchangeable. Arguing against both feminism on the left and male chauvinism on the right, his carefully researched handbook is a valuable resource defending the complementarian viewpoint.”

Professor Grudem wrote it because he was concerned that evangelical feminism (also called “egalitarianism”) has become a new path by which evangelicals are being drawn into the­ theological liberalism.”

Grudem defines evangelical feminism (or as I define the worse flavors of it, Christian secret feminists), “When I speak of “evangelical feminism” I mean a movement that claims there are no unique leadership roles for men in marriage or in the church. According to evangelical feminism, there is no leadership role in marriage that belongs to the husband simply because he is the hus­band, but leadership is to be shared between husband and wife accord­ing to their gifts and desires. And there are no leadership roles in the church reserved for men, but women as well as men can be pastors and elders and hold any office in the church.'”

For example, Al Moher explained why the issue of biblical womanhood is so important, “The fault lines of controversy in contemporary Christianity range across a vast terrain of issues, but none seems quite so volatile as the question of gender. As Christians have been thinking and rethinking these issues in recent years, a clear pattern of divergence has appeared. At stake in this debate is something more important than the question of gender, for this controversy reaches the deepest questions of Christian identity and biblical authority.” Continuing later in his piece, Mohler said, “The postmodern worldview embraces the notion of gender as a social construct. That is, postmodernists argue that our notions of what it means to be male and female are entirely due to what society has constructed as its theories of masculinity and femininity.”

It is important to remember that roles for men and women are not socially defined, but biblically defined. Even those women inside Christianity who attempt to redefine their roles by saying it is a gift or a ministry from God are in themselves redefining the bible because doing this proves they believe the bible to be insufficient as their authoritative guide for life.

So what is Biblical Womanhood? Dr. Georgia Purdom at Answers in Genesis begins her answer to that question by saying:

“The online Free Dictionary defines womanhood as “the composite of qualities thought to be appropriate to or representative of women.” How do we determine the qualities women should possess? Scripture is the ultimate authority.”

“Most Christians think immediately of Proverbs 31. While this passage is important to biblical womanhood, it is not the foundation. We need to go back to the beginning—Genesis 1. Here we see that God created both male and female in His image (Genesis 1:27).”

“However, God created men and women with physical, emotional, and mental differences; and while both bear the image of God, they do so uniquely. God also created men and women to have different roles in marriage (Genesis 2:18) and the church (1 Timothy 2:11–13), but again they are both image-bearers and equal in Christ (Galatians 3:28).”

Purdum continues by saying that in biblical womanhood “God has a lot to say about the qualities of a woman made in His image. Let’s take a look at a couple.” She cites modesty and work and goes into a solid biblical exposition of those two concepts in light of the biblically defined roles for women. I suggest you read it in context at the site for more depth. (source)

In another essay at Answers in Genesis called Are Gender Roles a Social Construct? by Steve Golden, the author looks at the curse on men and women after the fall and how this curse might be affecting us today.

“A final point regards the Curse in Genesis 3. Here we see that Adam and Eve already had distinct roles, but as a result of the Curse, their roles became toilsome and painful. In verse 16, God graciously allowed Eve (and her female descendants) to bear children, but childbirth would be associated with a good deal of physical pain as well as concerns about bringing a child into this cursed world. Additionally, God tells Eve, “Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Genesis 3:16). Christians differ over what this verse means, but two likely interpretations arise: (1) Eve will try to usurp her husband’s role as head, but God is requiring Adam to keep her from doing so, resulting in conflict; or (2) Eve will try to usurp her husband’s role as head, and he will exercise unbiblical male domination over her.”

We see the evil results of that sin and its resulting curse today. In my opinion, many men have become tired of the conflict and have given up (by no longer attending church, so as to avoid the whole issue) or have given in (by accepting the recapitulation of the roles as some of the female celebrity teachers’ husbands have done.) The second chapter of Titus illustrates what is expected of Godly behavior of men and woman, the youth and the old:

“But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” (Titus 2:1-10)

Ladies, modest and humble and loving wives do not disrespect their husbands on Facebook. It’s ugly when you do that. Just had to get that off my chest while I was thinking about it.

An example I came across of immodesty and irreverence toward the elder women comes from Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer at the 2009 “Deeper Still” Christian Women’s Conference in Greensboro NC. Robin Schumacher of Confident Christians used the account from an attendee in his power point teaching called “Got Ethics? Where is the Line?”

An Example of Getting it Wrong: One of the questions that the speakers addressed was, “What is the best part of marriage for you, and what is the most challenging?” When it came time for Priscilla to address the “most challenging part” of her marriage, she explained that she has two small children (one of whom she is still breast-feeding) and well, “I’m often just too tired, if you know what I mean, ladies! [Wink, wink.]”

To my (saddened) surprise, the arena of 10,000 women actually stood up and cheered. Various chimes of laughter, screaming, and “yeah, girl!” boomed in the packed house. This continued for about a minute, while even Beth Moore nodded, laughed and clapped at Ms. Shirer’s comment. Priscilla continued by relating a story of how she often tries to creep into bed after her husband falls asleep so that he won’t start coming on to her. Beth Moore admitted the same, and the more they discussed, the louder the cheering arena shouted and clapped in agreement.

I sat in my seat and was profoundly disturbed. Here I was at a Christian Women’s Conference, and our “trusted” female leaders were joking about avoiding their husbands in bed.

What happened next, I believe, shocked everyone.

An Example of Getting it Right: As all the shouting and cheering continued while Priscilla and Beth discussed the “too tired” syndrome, I turned my attention to Kay Arthur. This very beautiful, very wise woman was silently flipping through her Bible, which she kept on her lap during the discussion. Finally she looked up at her two fellow speakers and said very kindly but unflinchingly, “Now girls, I understand how you feel. We have all been there, myself included. I remember once sleeping on the very edge of my bed so that I could avoid my husband. I know what you mean. But let me show you something, please.” Kay picked up her Bible and then simply spoke:

“1 Corinthians 7:4-5. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”

Oh if you could have seen the faces on Ms. Moore and Ms. Shirer! Ms. Moore had her mouth half-open in disbelief, and Ms. Shirer raised her eyebrows and opened her eyes wider in shock. The Coliseum’s chorus of cheers changed to a disgruntled murmur. I do believe I was the only one clapping.

After a brief pause, the two rebuked women turned to the audience and said with a half eye-roll, “Oh, well Ms. Kay has a verse for everything, doesn’t she?!” The crowd laughed again. Ms. Shirer continued, commenting that her husband loves to eat, so she was doubtful there would be a lot of abstaining for fasting. Ms. Moore agreed. The crowd continued laughing and cheering.

Kay Arthur continued her uncompromising, yet gentle rebuke. “Girls, again, I understand fully what you’re saying, but I’m merely telling you what God has to say about sex between a husband and wife. You are not to deprive one another, except for prayer or fasting. So, unless you’re doing that, you’re not to avoid your husband… and he should not avoid you either.”

Nervous giggles and pauses were all that remained from Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer. Finally, Priscilla exclaimed, “Well! On to another topic, shall we?!” To which the crowd laughed enthusiastically.

Biblical womanhood is supposed to be submissive to elders, and yet Mrs Moore and Mrs Shirer reportedly disrespected an elder and refused an opportunity to apologize to the audience and repent to God. What an example they could have demonstrated of biblical womanhood to thousands of attendees! They could have edified Jesus! But instead they introduced an off-color topic, disrespected their husbands, engaged in unsound speech, dissed an elder woman, and refused submission to the clear teaching of the Word. (See Titus verses above). This is not biblical womanhood. It is Christian feminism. Mrs Arthur is to be praised for handling the situation in a biblical, loving fashion. THAT is biblical womanhood according to Titus 2!

The outcome of the curse in Genesis 3 is coming home to roost now. In Revelation 2 we read of a church that Jesus praises in some ways but condemns in others. Let’s finish the series with a look at it in terms of what happens to those who accept false teaching from women who rebel.

Christian secret feminists Part 1
Christian secret feminists Part 2
Christian Secret Feminists Part 3

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

How the Christian secret feminists are reforming the definition of biblical womanhood. Part 1

Posted on by elizabethprata

Christian secret feminists Part 1
Christian secret feminists Part 2
Christian Secret Feminists Part 3

By Elizabeth Prata

There are some books coming out today that focus on the concept “biblical womanhood” written by a new breed of Christian women who call themselves Christian feminists. And there are some celebrity woman Bible teachers today who say that they live a life of biblical womanhood but their lives show something different. Biblical womanhood seems to be the next big fad, and that is for a reason. So let’s take a look at what the new Christian feminism is and what biblical womanhood is.

“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.

Readers of the blog already know that I am not a fan of feminism. I wrote an essay called “The Eternal Discontent of Feminists“, in which I looked at the hypocritical standard secular feminists themselves apply to other women who are perceived as not doing feminism right. That, more than anything, lets us know that feminism is not about equal rights for women, it is about satan’s sowing of discontent among women and causing a division away from the Godly roles He has set up.

I also wrote a three-part series on the rise of the “Feminist Theologians” who attack the notion that Jesus was really a male. I am not making this up.

Feminism has encroached into Christianity. I think most people are still slumbering because I haven’t seen a hue and cry against it. Granted, it is subtle, especially in the women who claim to be evangelical but life a feminist life.

Source

There are now a number of popular Bible teachers/preachers who travel widely, filling arenas, marketing their books, selling their products, and leaving the husband at home to take care of the kids. These women have 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”.

As with so much in evangelical Christianity, the waters are increasingly muddied on what should be clear. What is biblical womanhood? In today’s world is it the Bible preaching, sometimes ordained woman, traveling cross country, her husband at home helping with the kids, often having quit his job to help his famous wife perform her ministry?

Or it is a woman with a terribly flawed view of the Bible who sits in a tent when she has per period as a practice for what it was like to be a woman of the Bible for one year?

Or it is a new feminist who is open to women being ordained, to preaching, and/or to acceptance of gays into leadership positions while touting the rising up of women from subjugated roles?

There is new crop of what I’ll call Christian secret feminists. They live a feminist life inside of Christianity but call it ministry. One woman who has much to answer for about this new role is Beth Moore. She was the one who broke new ground in how far a woman could go in attaining celebrity status, in workplace and homelife gender reversals, in being the main and sustained breadwinner of the family, and teaching in a church and in the world. Mrs Moore, while speaking conservative values cloaked in all the right Christianese, lives a very forward life. You will see more details on this below.

A spiritual daughter of Mrs Moore in this generation of new Christian secret feminists is Christine Caine. Mrs Caine’s language is less cloaked 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 reassuring 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 is 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) and 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. The way satan works with any woman’s objection to women taking on home or ministry leadership roles is to acknowledge that the women feel weak or unsure in them, but to 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. But the reason women feel hesitant about it in the first place is because this is not the definition of biblical womanhood. In Mrs Caine’s world of the new Christian secret feminist, a women needs courage, not meekness. Yet in the same breath she says women need to be weak… so is that the courage to be weak, or strength to be courageous, I’m confused.

I hope by now in using Mrs Caine’s example you’ll see how, once a women steps out of the biblical role assigned to her by God, satan sows confusion in their reasoning on why it is all right to rebel. 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.

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 again, unwittingly, Mrs Caine acknowledges that these new ‘roles’ set up discontent and that she is glad 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. 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. It is another twist of using the Bible to justify what is not proper.

One last quote from Mrs Caine.

Mrs Caine said, “You don’t have to accept anybody else’s decision about what you should be, this is how you should act, well, you’re the Pastor’s wife, I mean that’s the worst thing, that you would bow down to what someone else thinks. But that you would take the challenge of saying, God, for my house, how can I best lead, and what does that look like?”

Do you see how the incremental attack by satan has moved from the more cloaked feminist language from Mrs Moore’s generation to the new crop who just plainly state it? I keep bringing this generational difference up because of the verse in Revelation 2 I will be looking at in the next part of this examination.

Priscilla Shirer is another of these new Christian secret feminists whose life is more forward than their spiritual mothers. I’ve posted this before but it bears repeating:

“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 now Beth Moore is one of the elders in this realm. Moore has been “on the ministry circuit” for 15 years. Thus, her rebellious example has been long in view for many women who have watched her since they were an impressionable teen. So is Sheryl Brady and Joyce Meyer. Those women were the trailblazers for women in male leadership ministry. Newcomers arriving on the scene such as Priscilla Shirer or Christine Caine have learned from the best of the Christian secret feminists. For example:

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 is that Mrs Moore is not only 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 appears weekly on the Life Today television show, travels for weeks on book tours, where she expounds 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 spends extended private time for weeks in a cabin by herself in Wyoming to write (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 secret feminist because for years she has lived that way, no matter what she tells Christianity Today.

It is no wonder women are confused when they see Beth Moore telling us that you can have it all, and still be a Christian woman, if you call it ministry. Enjoli.

Rachel Held Evans “is one of the better known Christian writers in mainline and progressive circles these days. Her new book examines what it would mean to live life as a woman according to the Biblical laws for a year. It’s in the vein of books like AJ Jacobs’ “The Year of Living Biblically” and other “human guinea pig” projects. The book is funny, thoughtful and empowering for women seeking to understand where they fit within a faith that has largely been controlled by men for centuries” writes Patheos.

Ms Evans says she is 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.”

That seems to be another approach to justifying Christian feminism, “it was an accident”, or “God surprised me with this ministry” as Priscilla Shirer says, as if stating that since it was all out of their hands they are not nor will be morally and spiritually culpable on the Lord’s day of Judgment. And I can assure Mrs Evans that 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.

We have looked at some of today’s most popular Christian secret and open feminists, the old guard and the new pups coming up. I offered you some examples from their own statements of how their lives in reality more match the secular world’s view of a strong feminist woman rather than the biblical helpmeet.

In the next part I’ll look at two things, both biblical. One is the book of Revelation’s condemnation of the church at Thyatira and the spiritual adultery rampant there due to a false prophetess, and the other is the biblical role of women as outlined in Proverbs, Titus and other books.

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 feminist is the logo on her purse.

Christian secret feminists Part 1
Christian secret feminists Part 2
Christian Secret Feminists Part 3

Posted in beth moore, bill hybels, gnosticism, gnostics, neo-gnosticism, prophecy, rick warren

Gnosticism Part 4: Ceremonies & Rituals

Posted on by elizabethprata

If you read Colossians, you quickly become aware that Paul was busy refuting some false teachings that had begun to affect the church at Colossae. Epahras had sent Paul a letter about this, and Colossians was Paul’s response. Though Paul never mentioned “Gnosticism” by name, it becomes obvious that’s what he was referring to, because of his use of certain words and phrases.

Gnosticism is less a religion than a loose patchwork of philosophies and doctrines from other religions and disciplines, blended into an amorphous set of beliefs that taint the true faith as delivered by Jesus. There never was a church of Gnostics, or a firm set of Gnostic tenets, just beliefs certain people promoted as a subtle blend of Christianity and good-sounding religious practices from elsewhere, mostly the Eastern mystical religions. But in general, we can list six elements contained in most Gnostic teachings, courtesy of the Zondervan NIV bible, which in turn is based on Paul’s mention of them in Colossians.

1. secret knowledge, (refuted in Col 1:27; 2:3)
2. asceticism, (Col 2:18)
3. depreciation of Christ (lowering Him in name and in glory), (Col 2:18b)
4. strict rule-keeping, ceremonies, or rituals ( Col 2:23)
5. worship of angels, ( Col 2:18)
6. and reliance on human wisdom and traditions (Col 2:20b-22)

When we come through the door of justification, and before we exit life through the door of glorification, we engage in a life-long process of sanctification. This is the work of the Holy Spirit upon us to make us more Christlike and to consecrate us for holy work on earth. “There are many false paradigms of sanctification, and there always have been. The problem is, there is only one method of sanctification and that is through the Spirit. The false paradigms of sanctification cannot restrain the flesh. Though some paradigms or strategies of sanctification purport to restrain the flesh and make one holy, they don’t do that, any more than a false Gospel could save. … [Gnostic/Mysticism] “is the notion that there is within a person a mystical, intuitive capability that causes, if manipulated correctly, a person to rise in spiritual formation”, said John MacArthur, in his new blog series addressing mysticism/gnosticism and spiritual formation, in his part 2 called “Spiritual Formation and Biblical Sanctification.”

BibleGateway summarizes Gnosticism, “The heresy taking root in Colossae was a form of gnosticism, which taught (among other things) that humans could transcend evil and the corruptions of the world through asceticism and their own strength of will. …”

The early church was much plagued by Gnostics throughout the first through third centuries. Colossians and 1 John are the most pointed refutations of this false doctrine, but several other New Testament books dealt with it too, including 1 Timothy 6, Titus, and other books as well.

Gnosticism is a self-centered, and not a Jesus centered doctrine, meaning, they attempt to attain sanctification themselves. They also believe in a progressive sanctification. It was through completion of rituals and participation in ceremonies that Gnostics believed progressed one’s sanctification ever upward. Mormonism, Scientology, and many of the ‘secret societies’ like Odd Fellows, Red Men and Freemasonry have steps for the devotee to attain. Sometimes these steps are called “degrees”, as in Freemasonry. In Scientology they are called “levels”.

Gnostics brought a teaching, but their rituals varied widely, that is, until Aleister Crowley wrote one. Crowley was a British mystic and occultist who, when in Egypt in 1904, “received” a text known as The Book of the Law from what he believed was a divine source. From this basis Crowley built a theology of Gnosticism called Thelema. In 1913, he wrote a Gnostic Mass. The mass contained Crowley’s scripted rituals. Crowley was also a pansexual and a recreational drug user, which may explain his crazy eyes.

Left, Aleister Crowley in ceremonial garb. Wiki source

Crowley explained why he undertook to codify Gnostic teachings into spiritual practices expressed through a ‘mass’. He said in his Confessions, “Human nature demands (in the case of most people) the satisfaction of the religious instinct, and, to very many, this may best be done by ceremonial means. I wished therefore to construct a ritual through which people might enter into ecstasy as they have always done under the influence of appropriate ritual.”

But Paul said, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.” (Colossians 2:16).

As for ecstasies, “Some charismatic Christians practice ecstatic states (called e.g. “being slain in the Spirit”) and interpret these as given by the Holy Spirit.” 

Since Gnostics deny the sufficiency of Christ’s work on the cross in His flesh, and they deny the Spirit’s work in sanctification, they need these rituals to make themselves thing they are accomplishing their own sanctification. All false religions, including Gnostics, focus on what the individual can do to attain heaven, or a higher consciousness, or transcendence, or any other phrase they claim will be the result of performing a certain ritual. In other words, I can do it, no God needed, thanks.

In Colossians 2:20, Paul exhorted, “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—”

The above verse is explained, “‘Your union with Christ in his death has caused you to die to the rudiments of the world’, meaning, your union with Christ in his death has caused you to be separated from human religion, and human reli­gion is based in legalism and mysticism and self denial and all those works kind of things. But he says the redeemed are set free from self-styled, man made rules designed to make you holy.” (source)

For a pagan, including Gnostics, “salvation is not brought from above to below by divine visitations, but rather occurs through the Gnostic’s contemplative ascent through ever higher levels of the divine realm.”

“One version of a Gnostic ritual or ceremony was marking the various stages of a visionary ascent with certain baptisms, sealings, washings in various “waters.” Another ritual was utilizing a self-performable technique of successive stages of mental detachment from the world of multiplicity, and a corresponding assimilation of the self to the evermore refined levels of being.” You’ll find this is in Roman Catholic asceticism and Buddhism.”

“Other rituals and ceremonies included sexual sacramentalism, verbal performances through ritual speech, which can include glossalalia, traditional verbal formulae, spells, oaths, conjuration, invocations, evocations, voces mysticae, and prayers of various sorts addressed to transcendent powers, good and evil alike, and/or symbolic actions such as a ritual handshake. (source, University Nebraska-Lincoln)

You will note the incipient Gnosticism inherent in the Pentecostal ‘language of tongues’ (glossolalia) and levels of spiritual maturity through having had a “baptism of the Spirit.”

As you read the examples above, perhaps the modern re-emergence of these old Gnostic practices will have already been brought to your mind. The current evangelical craze for contemplative prayer, Lectio Divina, meditation, “Christian yoga“, expressive praise dance & mime performance, labyrinth walking, and becoming detached from the world to await a small voice in which conversations are held with the ‘Divine,’ are now apparent to you in the Gnostic teachings of Beth Moore, Ann Voskamp, Sarah Young, Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, Mark Driscoll, and many others.

The devilish influence of these practices are collectively known as “spiritual formation” and I mentioned them in part 2 four days ago. Since then, John MacArthur has also begun a blog series on spiritual formation and he is defining these false practices, blog by blog, so that the believer can be aware of their evil influence.

In 1932 the Polish cracked the Germans’ war codes. Just weeks before WWII broke out in 1939, they gave the information to the Allies. We called it “The Enigma Machine“. “The intelligence gleaned from this source, codenamed “Ultra” by the British, was a substantial aid to the Allied war effort. The exact influence of Ultra on the course of the war is debated; an oft-repeated assessment is that decryption of German ciphers hastened the end of the European war by two years. Winston Churchill told the United Kingdom’s King George VI after World War II: “It was thanks to Ultra that we won the war.”

You know, Solomon said that there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Every false religion can be traced back to the Garden of Eden. Satan’s first words in the bible are recorded as ones which question the sufficiency and accuracy of the information God delivered to humans. He went on to imply that God was holding out on Adam and Eve, (God is a liar) that if Eve performed an action (eat the fruit) she would know as much as God, and that we can be like God. Gnosticism can be traced to those very words. There is no new false doctrine. They are all recycled bits from old satanic lies.

We do not need an enigma machine! We do not need to decipher our enemy’s plans! Why? Because we are not unaware of his schemes! (2 Cor 2:11). God has generously given us His word, inside of which is everything profitable for us (2 Timothy 3:16) to live and work out our salvation in fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12). He laid out for us that satan is a liar and the father of lies. Under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the bible is replete with examples of the lies of satan, warnings that he seeks someone to devour, (Luke 22:31; 1 Peter 5:8). He shows us what kind of lies he perpetrates (Genesis 3:1-5, Colossians 1-2; and many other NT books).

If we read the bible diligently we will be solidly infused with His word. Saturate yourself in Truth! When you come across falsity, for example if your church wants to institute contemplative prayer, build a labyrinth,  send you to a yoga workshop, or start a praise dance ministry…you will be able to detect it.

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” (John 16:13). “He shall not speak of himself means He shall teach nothing contrary to what I have taught you:” we read in Clarke’s Commentary.

Just to reinforce for a moment that there is no new doctrine under the sun, here is the culminating prayer from the 1913 Liber XV Mass that Crowley wrote, which adheres to a position that Gnostics of earlier centuries believed, right down to Paul’s time:

“Lord most secret, bless this spiritual food unto our bodies, bestowing upon us health and wealth and strength and joy and peace, and that fulfilment of will and of love under will that is perpetual happiness.”

It is the Prosperity Gospel!

I am against Expressive, Choreographed Dance in Worship. I do not believe it to be an acceptable form of worship in a service. With that in mind, here is Stephen Colbert in “Just Say No to Liturgical Dance”. He provided his own liturgical dance version of the hymn “King of Glory” on the show Strangers with Candy. I think this shows the ridiculousness of praise dancing. I do not doubt the sincerity of many who perform this kind of dance in church, and I applaud them for wanting to serve Him, but I think it detracts from the fact that we must always keep Jesus as the focus, especially in these Gnostic days.

Gnosticism series:
Introduction
Part 1: Secret Knowledge
Part 2: Asceticism
Part 3: Depreciation of Jesus
Part 4: Ceremonies & Rituals
Part 5: Worship of Angels
Part 6: Human Traditions 
Conclusion 

Posted in beth moore, discernment, false teachers, james murphy, jentezen franklin, Joyce Meyer, osteen

It is important to be discerning!

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

A warning from my heart. One thing that strikes me is how few (seemingly) Christians really know how late the hour is. I’m still struck by Pastor James Murphy’s sermon, the raw and pointed one he delivered last Sunday in Johnson City NY. He said that the time has come to stop fooling around. Knowing the Word of God through diligent study and practice of discernment is too important. And he said, shame on them if they didn’t think it was important. It is.

And if we know the word of God we know how late the hour is. Paul said that we are children of the Light and will not be surprised as we see the Day approaching. (1 Thess 5:4.) The writer of Hebrews said that we should not stop assembling together, we should do it all the more as we see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25). Not as we believe the day is approaching. Not as we pray that the day might be approaching. As we SEE the day approaching.

Knowing the lateness of the hour ties in with this verse: “For where your treasure is, there your heart shall be also.” (Matthew 6:21). Is our treasure Jesus? Or is it this world? At this late hour are we part of a Laodicean church? Jesus had charges against that church-

‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.” (Rev 3:15-18).

The Worship of Mammon, E. DeMorgan, 1909

Are we buying gold from Mammon? So that we may be comfortable and rich and have need of nothing? And so not have need of Jesus? Are we walking in self-confidence (Beth Moore), satisfied with our best life now (Joel Osteen), doing lukewarm works with Jesus as a footnote (Rick Warren), manipulating God so he will be forced to release the blessing (Joyce Meyer), begging for ‘seed money’ (Jentezen Franklin) and throwing people who “hinder” us off the bus where the bodies are piling up? (Mark Driscoll)?

Or are we the church at Philadelphia, where Jesus said we “have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” ?

That is the main problem with the global church body today, but especially UK, Canada, Australia and US. We deny Jesus. Oh, sure, a name of Jesus is preached from pulpits, if they even dare to call it a pulpit, some just call it a podium, but it is from a different Gospel and it refers to a different Jesus. THE Jesus of the Bible is denied again and again.

Over 120 years ago Charles Haddon Spurgeon predicted, “A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats.” Oh, how right he was.

Our generation is “Sacrificing biblical truth for the cause of ecumenical unity and promotion of carnal methodology in churches are the norm of our age” wrote Chris Lawson in his April newsletter, “Clowning around in the pulpit.” He wrote, “Instead of playing fast and loose with God’s church, Christian leaders ought to be discussing Bible prophecy in light of global events and teaching biblical discernment in light of the end-times apostasy.”

Oh how right he is. Are pastors, teachers, and leaders teaching biblical discernment? A few. Praise them, and thank you Lord for raising up the pastors and teachers who are. But they are increasingly few…Grant Jeffrey is home with the Lord now, as is David Wilkerson, Adrian Rogers, and others. I see few discerning elders on the near horizon to take their place. And increasingly, the ones who are still teaching and preaching biblical discernment are not listened to. I wonder what the fallout has been for Pastor James Murphy up in Johnson City.

Thus, today, instead of the norm in our Bible-believing churches being the Prince of Preachers warning 120 years ago about the coming clown parade,

Believers are warned again and again throughout the Old Testament and the New about the dangers of idols, false teaching and false prophets. Are we, in the twenty-first century so smart that we can afford to ignore these? No. Are we who are the generation living in the latter days so advanced that we can ignore the warnings of end of times apostasy? No.

So what are we to do? John MacArthur preached on the verses from  Thessalonians 5:21-22, in a series titled “A Call for Discernment.” In part 1 he said, “We cannot for a moment believe that every one who claims to be in Christ and to speak on behalf of Christ is speaking the truth.” But yet so many people do. In 1 Thess 5:16 “starting with verse 16, Paul has been listing the basics of Christian living…rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus, do not quench the Spirit, do not despise Scripture or the revelation of God. And now he comes to this one, examine everything.”

Just because a person says they come in the name of Christ, they may not. Just because they are popular or long-lasting, doesn’t mean they get a pass on whether they should be examined. The Bereans were called noble for examining the scriptures to see if they lined up with what Paul said. And Paul loved it.

Here are some discernment resources:

MacArthur Sermons-
A Call For Discernment Part 1
A Call for Discernment Part 2
A Call for Discernment Part 3

Books-
The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment by Tim Challies
A Call for Discernment, Jay Adams

Study-
Discernment is a Commandment
Discernment in the Church
Discernment and the Watchman

The best Resource of all is the Holy Spirit! And the Bible itself.

Brethren, the hour is late. The watchword of the day is not our pits or self or confidence or release or seed or seeker. Repentance is the watchword, because after that, comes wrath.

Posted in beth moore, false doctrine, false teachers

Beth Moore: a type of false prophetess of the church at Thyatira?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

There was an actual woman Jesus designated as a false prophetess who was corrupting the church at Thyatira. He also condemned the church for tolerating her! We know from the previous Bible examples that there will be again a type of false prophetess who corrupts the church.

Jesus’s letter regarding Thyatira was the longest of the seven. It enumerates a number of issues with that church. I’ll focus on the teachings of the false prophetess who was corrupting the sheep.

This Thyatiran church was tolerating sin and idolatry (also sexual immorality). Worse, it was tolerating a woman teacher who was promoting idolatry and not only were they tolerating it, but she had risen to such a point of prominence so that Jesus called her “Jezebel” (who was a queen who led the people into idolatry and immorality, and an eternal emblem of embodied rebellion). She was also prophesying in His name- falsely!

Now, it should be noted that this corruption was coming from a woman inside the church who was teaching the brethren, not from an outside influence. She was regarded as a sister in the faith. A prominent sister. So much so that she was given to teach and had gathered quite a few around her who were followers of her false teaching. The rest were tolerating it.

God wants a pure church. He wants Jesus to have a holy and virginal bride, and toleration of idolatry and false teaching is the opposite of that. This church at Thyatira was mightily besmirched.

However, to complicate matters, the verse in Rev. 2:19 says “as for your works, the last are more than the first.” They were loving, working and doing more that they had at the first. This makes it incredibly hard to separate the sinful idolatry from the loving works. They were not loveless, but they were tolerating sin, which is loveless. The unaddressed sin would eventually eat them up. By the second century there was no church at Thyatira any more. It had died. So obviously loving works alone are not enough to carry a church through. There must be solid doctrine and discerning elders properly identifying false doctrine and rooting it out.

In Thyatira, they were tolerating a false teaching and false propheying. They were accepting of a woman who had taken a place of leadership in teaching, she was preaching and prophesying which is forbidden to women in the church. The church congregation was tolerating these evils. Though the verse above calls them out for eating foods sacrificed to idols, nowadays, we do not sacrifice food to idols. However the notion there was of spiritual adultery, and spiritual adultery is certainly an issue today.

Can you think of one woman who perhaps fits the type that is described in the Letter to Thyatira?

Beth Moore, perhaps?

I think we can see that in Beth Moore’s fans, they exhibit what is called the idol worshiping excessive devotion to her that goes beyond a simple preference for one teacher over another. This is idolatry.

John MacArthur, in his sermon The Pathology of False Teachers, defines what false teaching IS: “It could be error about Christ, error about His lineage, error about His virgin birth. Someone who teaches contrary to the sinless perfection of Christ, contrary to His substitutionary atoning death on the cross, contrary to His resurrection, contrary to His miraculous life and works, His perfect teaching, His Second Coming, His high priestly ministry of intercession, His eternal reign, any of that. Anyone who teaches differently than that. It could be a denial of the authenticity of Scripture, the inspiration of Scripture, the authority of Scripture, the inerrancy of Scripture. It could be a denial of the work and ministry and person of the Holy Spirit as revealed on the pages of holy Scripture.”

In Mrs Moore’s case her falsity comes in her denial of the authority of Scripture by de facto writing her own. She also denies the authority of scripture by rebelling against it. She denies the sufficiency of Scripture by de facto claiming to write scripture herself. She also denies the sufficiency of scripture by teaching her own visions instead. If you are just reading for the first time that there are concerns with Mrs Moore’s teachings, please note that I have many examples of these concerns on the sidebar to your right. Other bloggers have also listed their concerns here, here, and here. I state unequivocally that through spirit-led study and discernment that my proposal is she is currently Christianity’s greatest counterfeit.

Her teaching denies the inspiration of Scripture, the authority of Scripture, the inerrancy of Scripture by inserting herself as another authority by reception of divine revelation outside the Bible. She has been subtle. However, her false teaching is rapidly becoming more bold. She says that she hears God personally telling her to do things or to teach things, this is a denial of the authority of scripture when you receive direct revelation and teach it as authoritative. She said recently she was lifted up to another dimension to see the church from Jesus’s perspective through Jesus’s eyes and returned to tell what she saw. This is prophetess. She says a book was delivered to her heart in toto by God with a force as compelled to put ink on paper. This is spirit writing, an idolatry that consorts with the devil. She says if she had not written her book that the rocks in her yard would have cried out, which is not only a claim that her writing is scripture, but is actually blasphemy.  More here.

All false teachers gather to themselves followers who exhibit excessive devotion. These followers defend their favored teacher almost violently. Many call themselves a “Beth Moore groupie.” The word “groupie” is … a derisive term used to describe a particular kind of female fan assumed to be more interested in sex with rock stars than in their music.” In Mrs Moore’s case it is the emotional intimacy they seek, because Mrs Moore is a self-help guru using the Bible as a platform from which to read ourselves into the text for temporal help with astray emotions, rather than a sacred text to discern more about Jesus. In the groupie’s mind they seek more intimacy with the false teacher than with Jesus. Any person who has become the substitution of adoration aside from Jesus is worshiping an idol.

Many female fans are more interested in following this false teacher than the One whom they are supposed to be learning about. Like this lady who titled her blog entry “Confessions of a Beth Moore groupie“. Or this lady, who calls herself a BM groupie and says that if Mrs Moore is anywhere within driving distance, she goes to see her. Or this lady who made tank tops and took a photo of the self-admitted groupies in her group to send to the object of their adoration. Or this lady who calls herself a groupie and jokes that she amazingly strayed once from Mrs Moore to take a study under someone else (Priscilla Shirer, another false teacher). This lady calls herself not only a Beth Moore groupie, but a Beth Moore addict. I can go on with the myriad of ladies online who self-profess excessive devotion to a person who is not Jesus, but you get the idea.

The verse from 2 Timothy 4:3 applies best here: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears...” Let’s unpack this phrase by phrase.

First, these ladies do not want sound doctrine. They have already rejected it.

Second, they want to suit their own desires. There is nothing in the universe more powerful than satisfying our own fleshly desires. It got Eve, then Adam. 1 John 2:16 applies here: “For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world.” It is one reason for the vehement defense of Mrs Moore and the violently verbal rejection of anyone sharing concerns about Mrs Moore.

Third, they ‘heap up teachers.’ This part of the verse always reminded me of a child at the beach, heaping up sand next to themselves, or a child at Christmas, heaping up toys.

Fourth, their ears itch. An itch MUST be satisfied. The Greek word for itch here is knéthó, itch, rub, tickle, or from a late word meaning ‘scrape.’ This brings to mind the extreme scene of itching Job experienced when he had boils, and used a pot sherd to scrape them. He didn’t care if his very skin was scraped off, he had to satisfy that tickle so badly, even if it hurt him. (Job 2:8).

It is not simply a difference of opinion in one Bible teacher over another. Where satan has successfully installed a false teacher who is drawing many away from sound doctrine, he will fight to the death to keep it that way. Here is a great short essay in Why Idolatry is so Attractive. If you read it, you will see why the ladies react the way they do, and why it is so hard to get a Beth Moore lover away from her teaching.

No, she does not call herself a prophetess, but she acts in the prophetess role when she says she received a word from God audibly, directly, or through a vision and was ‘told’ to go out and speak it to the people. Defenders of Mrs Moore pick at points such as the aforementioned, but in looking at false teachers and the type of false prophetess described in the letter to Thyatira, we look at what they do, not just at what they say. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s a duck.

I have shared with you an interpretation specific to Thyatira of what Jesus warned, and of which we discern also will happen to the churches throughout the age. I applied an understanding of how Mrs Moore may be filling a type of role Jesus prophesied will occur. I ask you to ponder it, pray, and decide for yourself. I believe that Beth Moore is a type of false prophetess so deeply embedded in the body of the true church that her deep things of satan are corrupting it. That is my opinion, based on research, discernment, and prayer.

Meanwhile, Jesus said to those who do NOT hold to this false prophetess’s teaching, this or any false teaching, I remind us of Jesus’s words, “Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. But hold fast what you have till I come.”

Hold fast to the truth! He knows who does not fall to the deep things of satan, and has their reward in mind. One stays fast to the truth by continually studying the real thing, praying, and submitting to the Spirit’s generous leading into discernment. If you know the real thing, then you can spot the counterfeit. Watch out for popular false prophetesses, Thyatira, and hold fast, Jesus is coming!

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