false teachers

discernment, false teachers, jesus, spiritual armor

The most dangerous people in the world

Posted on December 13, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

There are dangerous people in the world. We know that some are more dangerous than others. Some people are extremely dangerous. Dictators can be considered among the world’s most dangerous people. Pol Pot, Hitler, Lenin, Idi Amin, Muammar Gaddafi among many others through time go down into the history books as heinous criminals committing mass murder.

World Trade Center on 9/11

Terrorists are certainly dangerous. The 9/11 terrorists who killed 3,000 people by suicide bombing via airplane were shockingly absent of any sense of conscience whatsoever. The 9/11 terrorist leader who organized the US terror attack Osama Bin Laden was supremely dangerous.

The ISIS militants are a dangerous group, beheading with impunity and terrorizing populations all throughout the Middle East.

Sociopaths/serial killers are among the most dangerous people on the planet, also. We shudder at the very thought that we might be captured and tortured all for the corrupt whims of a conscience-less, evil mastermind.

Throughout history, the names of Ted Bundy, Adolph Hitler, bin Laden, Jack the Ripper, Al Capone, Charles Manson remain shudder-worthy because their crimes of evil were so shocking.

But none of those are the most dangerous people on the planet. It seems crazy to even think that there is a more dangerous class of person more devastating than a war-starter, dictator Hitler. That there is a more sinister evil among a community than serial killer Ted Bundy. There truly is is a more dangerous person in the world.

Who could it be? Who is worse than the man known for burning millions of people alive in a gas oven? Worse than the serial killer’s evil at the end of a sharp knife? Worse than a terrorist whose very name indicates their putrid heart filled with terror and crime? Who??

Beth Moore.
Pope Francis.
Rick Warren.
Billy Graham.
Ellen G. White.
Creflo Dollar.
Aimee Semple McPherson.
Joel Osteen.

False teachers within Christianity. No dictator, serial killer or terrorist can hold a candle to the evil that false teachers do. Why?

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28).

All a dictator can do is oppress you or kill your body. Jesus is life giver and eternal Judge, and it is He who determines where your immortal soul and resurrected body will go when your short life on earth is over. Fear THAT. What false teachers do is nudge you, compel you, jostle you down the eternally broad road to hell. They appear as pleasant sheep but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. They’re soul killers, and that is eternally worse than anything any dictator or terrorist can do.

Some of the harshest language in the New Testament is reserved for false teachers. The damage they do to your soul is likened to gangrene, a stealthy and putrid killer of the body. Except, what false teachers bring is death to the soul. False teachers are a serious problem.

Was Jesus polite to false teachers? No. See video- 2 min.

How can we spot false teachers? The bible mentions them frequently (as false prophets, wolves, sons of hell, spies, hypocrites etc) The bible condemns them frequently. So let’s take a look.

First as mentioned above, they come in disguise. They look like sheep but they are actually preying on you as a vicious wolf. (Mt 7:15). They won’t look like a false teacher and they won’t sound like a false teacher. Galatians 2:4 reminds us that false teachers come in as spies, stealthily. (2 Peter 2:1).

False teachers substitute the call of God with their own made-up call, whether it is to self- esteem, or pride, or earthly gain, false teachers always shift your gaze from Christ as the central point of life. They can speak well, mesmerizingly sometimes. If we take the most extreme example of a false prophet, the antichrist, he appears at first to give everything to everyone what they want, and insinuates himself into a solid position of influence by smooth speech and flattery. (Daniel 11:32). False teachers are good at what they do.

Another way false teachers shift your gaze from the Holy One is to substitute empty rituals for the simplicity of the grace of Jesus. Walk a labyrinth. Meditate contemplatively. Pray in a circle. Fast in this way and this often. Light a candle, confess to a priest, speak the rosary. John MacArthur said in his sermon “How to Evangelize Religious People“, that the more a religion has symbols, (and by extension, rituals) the more false it is.

And this is how it is, my friend, with false religion. They love the symbols. When we were in Moscow a few months ago, slipped into a Greek Orthodox church–literally repulsed by extravagant symbolism. You stand in one spot and this parade goes on of people with all these elaborate dressings and head dresses and waving censors, and icons all over everywhere. It literally blasts your senses; it’s so garish, bizarre, and people walking in endless circles and mumbling incomprehensible drivel and waving things in the air–and these poor, sad souls trying somehow to connect with the external. But religion that has nothing inside proliferates the symbolic. Look at the Roman Catholic Church, just full of it…full of it. False religion loves symbols.

False teachers bring false rituals along with the eventual religious symbolism as their doctrines mature.

The nursery for false religion is false teachers infiltrating the real religion, Christianity. If it comes to your church, stop it before it gets to that point.
“Suppress the heretics while they are young, that is, when they begin to show their malice and destroy the vine of the Lord.” Geneva Bible, on Song of Solomon 2:15

Third, their teachings spread like gangrene. (2 Timothy 2:17). Gangrene develops when the blood supply to an affected part is cut off. Gangrene is caused by interruption of blood supply to an area which causes tissue death. Left unchecked, gangrene kills all the living tissue it touches. In Galatians 5:9 Paul wrote of false teachers again, saying, “a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” In both the yeast and the gangrene examples we understand that the negative influence of false teachers and their doctrines will leave no part of the body untouched if not dealt with swiftly.

Source

Next, think about this- if faith brings joy, then its opposite, doctrines of demons, bring confusion, fear, discouragement. (Galatians 1:7, Acts 15:24). Pastor Justin Peters often shares during his discernment conferences how discouraging it was to follow the false faith healers. He did so as a youth, hoping for a healing from his Cerebral Palsy. Others who follow Joyce Meyer and her ilk eventually become despondent when their abundant life doesn’t show up, or those who follow Joel Osteen find that no matter how hard they try, nothing they’ve declared has come true and every day is not a Friday. Then they either redouble their efforts at trying pointlessly to find peace through false teachings or they become angry and leave the faith, blaspheming it. (2 Peter 2:2).

In Matthew 23:15 Jesus remarked to the false teachers of the law that they made sons of hell twice as bad as they were. The next generation of disciples learning at the feet of the false teachers are always worse than the generation before. (also, Revelation 2:21-23).

One extremely telling indicator of a false teacher is that they diminish the offense of the cross. Their message will increasingly speak of anything else except that. Oh, they’ll mention Jesus, they’ll fling around some bible verses (out of context and incorrectly) but they cannot bear to dwell on the cross. (Galatians 5:11, Galatians 3:1). The cross is an offense to a false teacher, because false teachers are not saved.

There are other ways to detect the false ones who creep in among us, but suffice to say, they are there. They are dangerous, extremely so. False Christian teachers are the most dangerous people on the planet.

False teachers are not committed to Scripture. They may speak of Jesus and the Father, but the heart of their ministry will not be the Word of God. They will either add to it, take away from it, interpret it in some heretical fashion, add other “revelations” to it, or deny it altogether.

Let’s compare Hitler to Pope Francis. Or Muammar Gaddafi to Benny Hinn. It is an unutterable tragedy what Hitler did, its reverberations are still like an open wound on the world’s conscience and heart. He killed 6 million Jews, and others too, including the mentally retarded, gypsies, and homosexuals. Yet Pope Francis is enslaving 1.2 Billion people. And that’s just the Catholics right now, not even mentioning all the previous generations of people unfortunately deluded by empty ritual and false teaching. Billions upon billions have gone to hell under the false teaching of the Catholic church.

Or how about Benny Hinn and his charismatic gospel of healing and wealth. It is sweeping Africa and India right now, not to mention America. There are over 500 million people in the world at this moment who self-identify as Charismatic.

There was an independently produced documentary about middle school students in Tennessee who appealed to the world to send in 6 million paper clips to their classroom. They were doing a project on the Holocaust, and one student asked, ‘How much is 6 million? I can’t picture it.’ So the paper clip project began. They eventually gathered over 6 million clips. The stark reality of seeing with their own eyes the representation of that many people lost to the gas chambers was shocking and brought the reality of all those lost souls to the fore.

But what if you gathered 500 million clips representing the Charismatics under the influence of that false ‘Christian’ doctrine? And then gathered 1.2 billion clips representing the Catholics? And 3 billion more, the estimates of how many lives and souls of people in the world right now are influenced by Joyce Meyer’s doctrines of demons. Plus Joel Osteen, whose message reaches 28 million people a month. This number doesn’t even count his books, podcasts, and conferences. Add to that total the 30 million copies of Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life, a book that was named several years ago as one of the top 100 Christian books that changed the 20th century. Add some more, the 215 million people in over 185 countries who have heard Billy Graham’s messages, and those who ‘came forward’ only to be assigned to a Catholic counselor, or a rabbi.

All the teachers I listed above claim themselves to be part of Christianity. You see the magnitude of the problem.

False teachers are the most dangerous people on the planet. The spirit of antichrist is alive and well and working its way as leaven through the bread. But there is manna from heaven, bread from heaven that is gloriously more potent than any piddling false teacher. Jesus Christ and His truth.

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:26).

The safeguard against false teachers is the Word. All truth is there, all joy, all faith, all hope and all peace. Read His word and pray to have it applied to your mind and heart. The Spirit will teach you and in so doing you will be able to withstand the detect the false doctrines when they appear. Wear your spiritual armor.

Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, (Ephesians 6:14-18).

Wearing your armor even the most dangerous person on the planet cannot harm you. There is One who is more dangerous than any and He is your defender and your avenger:

and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. (Revelation 1:13-16).

The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? (Psalm 27:1)

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

Discernment: Faked out by fake leaves

Posted on November 11, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

It’s fall and the leaves are turning. Fall comes late to Georgia, and gently. The daytime temperatures decrease slowly by one degree or two, lower and lower until you notice that you need a sweater if you’re going to be outside for any length of time. You barely need the heat turned on inside, and if so, only to take out a chill. I love this about Georgia.

The one thing that is different than in the northern climates where I’m from, is that the leaves do not turn as vividly red, orange, or yellow here as they do up north. They turn, but it’s a duller kind of foliage. It brightens when the strong sunlight streams through, but overall, foliage down here is ho-hum.

That’s why I was surprised when I walked out of the church doors Wednesday night after prayer meeting, and spotted on the ground a twig with several very red leaves attached. I love leaves, especially if they are large (fig leaves) or unusually shaped, (maple!) or a great color (bright red!). I take photos of them, look at them, put them in art collages, press them, enjoy them. The ones I saw on the ground were a great color red, deep and bright. I stooped down and picked them up immediately.

I had a few things in my hands as I entered my front door, including the twig with leaves, so I dumped them all on the table and then went to the other room to finish unpacking. Excited, I returned to the kitchen and looked at the twig with red leaves in the better light than I had seen them in the gloaming when I first picked them up.

They were fake.

I’d been totally taken in by the extreme resemblance they had to real leaves. Fake!

I thought about this for a long time. It’s like false teachers. I was faked out because I’d made two mistakes.

The first was the obvious one: I hadn’t looked at the item carefully enough. I only made a quick glance, and picked up the twig with leaves and brought it home because it looked close enough to the real thing. A surface glance, though, won’t do when sitting under a teacher of the bible.

In Acts 17:11 we learn that the Bereans were called ‘noble’ because after listening to Paul, they “searched the scriptures” to see if what Paul said was so. They did not skim the scriptures. They did not glance at the scriptures. The word ‘searched’ indicates they spent some time comparing the words of God to the words of Paul. After a period of time doing this, one would know that the words of God were indeed emanating from Paul. But it takes time to search and compare and make a determination.

It also takes effort. Admittedly it was easier for me to simply stumble over the item and pick it up. If I really wanted cool leaves to play with, I’d have to walk, and go, and look, and maybe climb. But no, I walked up to a spot on the ground and with minimal effort on my part, I stooped down and thought I’d gotten myself a prize. In the end what I had was a pale imitation of the real thing, and I was disappointed. Minimal effort usually means maximum disappointment.

The second mistake I’d made was more subtle. It is about context and expectation. If it had been summertime, I would not have expected a twig with several leaves attached to be on the ground. Fall winds make this a common sight. Summer’s gentle air doesn’t. If it had been summer, the red leaves would have stuck out like a sore thumb. Leaves aren’t red in summer. They’re green. They’re red in fall. The context I had for seeing these leaves was appropriate and the expectation I had matched what I thought was the reality. Fall leaves on the ground in fall. This expectation formed a preconceived notion in my mind and I didn’t stop to investigate. I just went with it. I had not expected them to be fake.

In church, one expects a pastor or teacher or deacon to be many things. Because of the context of the place in which they appear, one would expect them to be saved. One would expect them to be qualified. One would expect them to behave in the way the bible says they must. One would expect them to handle the word rightly. One has a preconceived expectation of all these things due to the context in which the teacher labors: church. This expectation means we tend to extend trust to the teacher in great amounts and almost immediately.

Trust is different from respect. I respect my elders as the bible says we should. And I do extend more trust to a guest speaker or a teacher that the pastor brings in, because I trust him to make good decisions on behalf of his sheep. But it isn’t a blind trust. It isn’t a mindless trust. I listen respectfully, but alertly. I go back and compare what has been said to the bible.

If the situation is that a teacher of the bible hasn’t been introduced by my pastor and is a television or celebrity personality without a church (and it seems there are more and more of those lately) then the context is a bit different and thus my expectation is different. My immediate trust level is lower. It doesn’t border on skeptical, that would be rude I think, but I do listen with all discernment cylinders firing. I put a higher guard on my heart and mind while listening to this itinerant teacher or celebrity pastor etc., and then I go back and check it out. All of this of course is bathed in prayer.

My point is that one should look deeply and carefully at a teacher you’re going to sit under, and look hard. Do your research beforehand. Don’t relax your guard just because they are a teacher of the bible. We know from scripture that the church isn’t safe from predators. Wolves will come in and they have come in, not sparing the sheep. What a false teacher brings is death, so the stakes are high.

As for our expectations in the context, I am sure that the Bereans had an expectation that Paul would teach rightly. He was famous, had studied under famous teachers, and was known to be brilliant. However, they still searched. Their searching did not mean they didn’t respect him, they likely did. However, they respected God more. They wanted to be sure what they were hearing was not contradictory to His word.

One last piece of discernment advice: just because you searched out a teacher and found them to be sound 20 years ago, doesn’t mean you stop comparing what they say to the word. Over time, teachers fall prey to false doctrines or twisted interpretations, or fads. Over time, the teachers (being human like us!) stop being vigilant, and they teach wrongly instead of rightly. Just because they were great three years ago doesn’t mean they are great now. Keep searching the scriptures to see if the things they say are so. There is no rest for the weary soldier, not yet anyway. Not yet. But soon? Dearest Lord, I hope soon. Won’t it be wonderful to sit under the greatest Teacher of all? We will never have to check what He is saying against the Word, because He IS THE WORD!!

discernment, doctrine, false teachers, jesus, teaching

If a teacher teaches some things wrongly, but the Gospel rightly, is it OK to follow them?

Posted on September 16, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

A lot of people wonder when it is reasonable to leave off following a teacher. What are the standards for giving loving benefit of the doubt, and banning them completely from your mind, your church, and your home? Both are called for in the bible.

There are these verses,

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. (Romans 15:7)

And then there are these verses,

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

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us (2 Thessalonians 3:6)

How do we know when to do which?

First, it’s helpful to understand the difference between brethren and teachers. All Christians are brethren, including teachers. But the standards for becoming a Christian and the standard for teachers are different.

Pure

All brethren stand on the same, equalizing blood-soaked ground. None are qualified to do so, except by the grace of Jesus and faith alone. This standard includes teachers.

But once in the Lord’s kingdom through salvation, the Spirit bestows different gifts. The gift of teaching is given to some, not many, and for those, there are different standards of behavior and of scrutiny. In James 3:1-2 we read,

“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.”

Not many of you. This indicates the seriousness of the calling. The verse also indicates the extreme fallibility in all of us. So teachers should be especially wary, because they handle the word of God, and are in a position to cause more damage and harm in Jesus’ name. That is why they are judged more strictly.

So already we know that the first standard of teaching is that it is given by gift of the Spirit. It’s not something that can be taught, adopted, or decided upon, and certainly not entered into casually.

The second thing we learn from that one verse alone is that it is a serious calling, and a stricter standard is given for the Christian’s performance in it.

Thirdly we already know that ‘not many’ are given the gift.

So what are the standards for teachers from there? There are moral/behavioral standards, and there are doctrinal standards for teachers.

BEHAVIOR

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. (Titus 2:7-8)

not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. (1 Peter 5:3)

Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. (Titus 2:3

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, (Titus 2:3)

DOCTRINE

If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. (1 Timothy 4:6)

So what IS good doctrine? Well, we know that there are teachings of demons (1 Timothy 4:1). And likewise, there are teachings of God. Theologians generally categorize doctrine into ten major headings: (source MacArthur Study Bible)

Holy Scriptures
God the Father
God the Son
God the Holy Spirit
Man
Sin
Salvation
the Church
Angels
Last Things

All good teachers will teach any and all ten doctrines rightly. But what about the Gospel? If a teacher teaches The Gospel rightly but some of the other doctrines wrongly, it still OK to follow that teacher?

Well, let’s look at exactly what The Gospel is.

Here is 9Marks listing of the elements of the Gospel.

The one and only God, who is holy, made us in his image to know him (Gen. 1:26-28).
But we sinned and cut ourselves off from him (Gen. 3; Rom. 3:23).
In his great love, God sent his Son Jesus to come as king and rescue his people from their enemies—most significantly their own sin (Ps. 2; Luke 1:67-79).
Jesus established his kingdom by acting as both a mediating priest and a priestly sacrifice—he live a perfect life and died on the cross, thus fulfilling the law himself and taking on himself the punishment for the sins of many (Mark 10:45; John 1:14; Heb. 7:26; Rom. 3:21-26, 5:12-21); then he rose again from the dead, showing that God accepted his sacrifice and that God’s wrath against us had been exhausted (Acts 2:24, Rom. 4:25).
He now calls us to repent of our sins and trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness (Acts 17:30, John 1:12). If we repent of our sins and trust in Christ, we are born again into a new life, an eternal life with God (John 3:16).

If you compare the Gospel to the ten doctrines, you find the doctrines permeate the Gospel and the Gospel permeates the doctrines. A teacher must know holiness, speak of and understand how exalted God is. He or she must have a true understanding of sin. So many false teachers teach sin is just a mistake, or can be controlled, or is not our fault due to generational bondage, or any number of reasons that distance ourselves from responsibility for our sins.

A teacher must have a proper understanding of who Jesus is. There’s ‘this same Jesus’ who will return (Acts 1:11) and ‘a different Jesus’ preached and taught falsely. (2 Corinthians 11:4).

A flawed teaching on the law vs. grace, of the cross, of the resurrection, or of sanctification affects the Gospel relating to those elements. Not understanding what God’s wrath affects the doctrine of Last Things.

So you see, if a teacher teaches “the Gospel”, they are really teaching ‘the good doctrine’ (1 Timothy 4:6)

In addition, if you still want to follow a teacher who seems to be teaching some things well and others poorly, remember the demon possessed slave girl.

As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” (Acts 16:17)

Is there anything inaccurate about what she said? No. Then why didn’t Paul like the free advertising? Because nothing pure can come from a deceitful heart. Because her father is the father of lies. Who needs satan to advertise the Gospel when we have the pure word and holy servants to do so?

Matthew Henry commentary says of the slave girl verse,

Satan, though the father of lies, will declare the most important truths, when he can thereby serve his purposes. But much mischief is done to the real servants of Christ, by unholy and false preachers of the gospel, who are confounded with them by careless observers.

Mixing lies and truth is what satan did to Eve. And look what happened.

A little leaven leavens the whole lump. (Galatians 5:9 cf 1 Corinthians 5:6)

If a teacher is teaching wrongly have nothing to do with him or her.

That’s not to say that a true teacher must teach all doctrines perfectly. We are imperfect individuals. But as I said in a previous essay, the Holy Spirit who is inside us will never allow a true teacher to remain in a false understanding. The Spirit always testifies of Jesus and points to Him, who is Truth. That’s why discernment means being alert, and watchful and patient. A teacher should always be growing in Christ-likeness. A false teacher is always growing away from Christ.

1 Timothy 6:3 says that good teaching is sound doctrine according with godliness. An overseer’s primary job is to “hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.”

Jesus IS Truth. Seek Him and don’t compromise for anything less.

false teachers, sanctification, sheep's clothing, wolves

Has so-and-so false teacher always been false, or did it just start now?

Posted on September 8, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Source

A reader asked if the seeds of apostasy were always in Beth Moore or if they are just emerging now.

The answer is both.

There are only two states for man: we are either ‘in Adam’ (sin) or we are ‘in Christ’ (righteous). (1 Corinthians 15:22). If a teacher is in Christ, they will always grow more sanctified. Sanctification ALWAYS grows in an increasing, upward direction. Sure, sometimes it is slower than others, and for a season a teacher might teach something false, but Spirit will never allow a sanctified teacher to remain in heresy or falsity. The Spirit is in us to testify of Christ, not satan. (John 15:26). The Spirit will cause a sanctified teacher eventually to see his or her error and repent of it, and then continue growing.

There are false teachers who are in sheep’s clothing. (Matthew 7:15). Since those ‘in Adam’ always grow too, but grow in their sin, eventually they outgrow those sheep’s clothes and their falseness becomes apparent. At some point they are unable to keep up the charade. Moore has outgrown her sheep clothes.

But she has always been false.

It’s a business chart but it shows clearly what I’m talking about
in the Christian, sanctified life.
Wolves might walk for a while with us, but they outgrow their ability to hide
Source

beth moore, discernment, false teachers, heretic

Beth Moore and Joyce Meyer: Bad company (UPDATED)

Posted on August 13, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Updates here and at bottom.

At what point does one declare a teacher like Beth Moore false? Here’s some help.

——————————-

Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. (Proverbs 13:20)

Joyce Meyer tweeted this tweet and photo today:

In the photo are Beth Moore, left, and on the right is Joyce Meyer.

For her part, Beth Moore tweeted this:

Joyce Meyer is a heretic. There is no doubt about this. She preached that we are little gods, that Jesus stopped being the Son of God, that Jesus paid for our sins in hell, that she herself is not a sinner, and more. Though Meyer is a gifted speaker, and uses the scriptures correctly sometimes, she teaches too many doctrines that are contrary to the truth to be called a woman of faith.

Beth Moore is a heretic. Readers of this blog and those who have read other blogs concerning problems with Beth Moore will know that many have been writing that Beth Moore has gone wayward. Moore says she speaks to and hears from God audibly, in full sentences, that He gives her revelation that is not in the bible, and that He tells her to teach these new concepts. Moore says she has visions sent by God. She says she had a supernatural experience writing her book “When Godly People Do Ungodly Things” which was actually occult channeling, or ‘automatic writing.’ She promotes and practices the Catholic mystical activity of contemplative prayer, does not handle the word rightly, and infuses all her teachings and studies with pop psychology and personal experience, which she tacitly AND and not so tacitly demonstrates by her teaching as equal to scripture.

To see a pairing above should not be surprising, because that is the natural trajectory of the natural man. Evildoers gather together. Last year Moore partnered with non-believer Roma Downey at a new bible study/convention. Last year Moore also praised and recommended the book Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, another book written by a woman claiming to have heard directly from God.

It is ironic that Meyer and Moore met at Meyer’s broadcast studio to talk about “unity.” They are already united – in satan. For all are either under satan, or under Jesus. There is no in-between. There is no gray area. Either one is in the truth or he hates the truth.

I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked. (Psalm 26:4-5)

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Psalm 1:1-4

Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? (Psalm 139:21)

From Christine Caine’s Facebook page Aug. 13: That time you sat and watched
Beth Moore & Joyce Meyer talk about unity
& you could not stop the tears streaming down your face…

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Further links on this topic:
At what point does one declare a teacher like Beth Moore false? Here’s some help.

World View Weekend, Topic: Joyce Meyer and Beth Moore, Brannon explains why he is now willing to call Beth Moore a false teacher after several years of giving her the benefit of the doubt. Guest, Justin Peters. Topic: Our phone lines fill up with listeners that want to respond to the actions and statements of Beth Moore. [Ed Note: sometimes certain of the WVW clips and programs go behind a paywall after a week. If you plan to listen, listen soon.]

Do Not Be Surprised: Beth Moore talks ‘Unity’ with Word Faith Teacher Joyce Meyer

discernment, false teachers, God, joel osteen, spirit

Joel Osteen talked about Jesus how many times?

Posted on July 18, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

In a recent blog essay I’d mused,

“I used to wonder why it is that so many of the false teachers tend to speak freely of God but not so much of Jesus. They rarely say the name of Jesus when they are teaching but instead they often say “God.“

Joel Osteen

You’ve seen it too, I’m sure. So many pastors, teachers, lay-people will freely say God but not Jesus. Well, someone else was wondering that too, and he quantified it. Here are his results:

Joel Osteen Likes God…He just doesn’t like Jesus [A Twitter Survey of @JoelOsteen]

I often talk about the Christ-less Gospel of Joel Osteen. Whenever people ask me what I mean by that, I always tell them this; Joel Osteen does not talk about the Christian Gospel.

That being said, there is something very important to understand about Joel Osteen: He does talk about God. A lot. You cannot accuse the man of not mentioning him because he’s all over that. Here’s the thing though- Its never really in a personal sense. Joel talk about God, but its always in a vague amorphous sense. There is certainly nothing distinctly Christian or Biblical about it. There’s nothing doctrinal or theological about the way he talks about God. Rather is an ethereal, shapeless, formless, customizable, singular being thing that is out there called God that functions like a cosmic vending machine whose sole purpose is seemingly to bless you and make your life better. Even when he mentions God, it’s not ABOUT God, but it’s about what God can do for YOU.

Why do I say “singular being”? Simple. While mention of a “God” may be plastered all over his twitter feed, Jesus is Not. Joel Osteen rarely, if ever, mentioned Jesus. He rarely, if ever, mentions Christ. This is true when you listen to his sermons, read his tweets, and listen to him on whatever talk show he’s touring. Let me give you some basic numbers

Just for kicks I did a quick survey of all Joel Osteen tweets in the last year. I can’t go further back, so we’ll stick with going back to July 8, 2013, which is a little more than a year ago. Out of Joel Osteens 806 tweets, not including any of his replies to other people, he mentions “God”…

Go to the link to read the numerical results. In my essay, I’d proposed a reason why so many of the false teachers speak of God but not of Jesus when they are teaching,

“Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:3)

If they don’t have the Holy Spirit they can’t teach Jesus is Lord because they can’t say it. Like when Jesus said at the Last Supper that one of them will betray Him, all 11 of the Disciples said Is it I, Lord? but Judas could not say that because he was apostate and he said “Is it I, Rabbi?” (Matthew 26:21-25)”

Here is John MacArthur explaining part b in the 1 Corinthians 12:3 verse I’d put above,

Now let’s go to the positive in verse 3. I was going to get through verse 11. Can you believe that? Verse 3… yes, you can believe that. Verse 3, And the other side…here’s the positive test…”That no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.” This is the positive. When somebody comes into your midst with all of his faculties, and with all of his mind, and with all of his heart, and with all of his being, says, “Jesus is Lord,” you know that’s of the Holy Spirit. Now it isn’t simply the words, it’s the commitment. No man can say…and the word say here doesn’t just mean to pair. A skeptic can say, “Jesus is Lord.” You can pay a guy ten dollars and say, “Would you say Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord. Here’s your ten dollars.” That isn’t the point. It’s not quite that simplistic. No man can truly say, no man can truly confess, no man can truly acknowledge, “Jesus is the Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. When that deep conviction of genuine understanding about who He is comes forth it is of the Spirit. … So the Spirit prompted confession is distinguished from the counterfeit, by the acknowledgement that Jesus, the Man, is, in fact, God.

Just food for thought. As a person who loves to quantify things I appreciated the Twitter survey! In discernment it is not only what a person says, but what he doesn’t say. And noticing an absence takes time and skill. Listen for what a person fails to speak of as much as you’re listening to what they do say.

beth moore quotes, casting pearls before swine, false teachers

Different thoughts and quotes

Posted on July 7, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

[Apostates] being once turned aside from the truth and the fellowship of the faithful, lost all awe of God…” Thomas Manton

The old Puritan Manton, he said it so well. Apostates do not have a sense of awe about God. No, to them, God is a buddy to go to the zoo with, or sit on His lap, and who appears in the bathroom while they are shaving. Be in awe of Him, His majesty and power!

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I used to wonder why it is that so many of the false teachers tend to speak freely of God but not so much of Jesus. They rarely say the name of Jesus when they are teaching but instead they often say “God.” Then I remembered this verse:

Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:3)

If they don’t have the Holy Spirit they can’t teach Jesus is Lord because they can’t say it. Like when Jesus said at the Last Supper that one of them will betray Him, all 11 of the Disciples said Is it I, Lord? but Judas could not say that because he was apostate and he said “Is it I, Rabbi?” (Matthew 26:21-25). S. Lewis Johnson expounds a bit here

He goes on to say, “And no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” And I’d like to devote just a few minutes before we close to this because I think this is rather important. No one can call Jesus Lord. Now, the statement, Jesus is Lord, is very interesting because Lord — kurios is the New Testament word that is used to translate the tetragrammaton, the Yahweh of the Old Testament. When we say Jesus is Lord, we are saying Jesus is the Yahweh of the Old Testament, the covenant-keeping God. The God who made the covenant with Israel and drew them out of Egypt into the land and into the promises. And if we say Jesus is Lord, then we are saying Jesus is Jehovah. Now, we have — remember our studies on Hebrews, we know that the term “Jehovah” is a term that is applicable to all three persons of the Trinity. That’s one of the reasons — many reasons why we know our God is a Trinity. There is Jehovah the Father, Jehovah the Son, Jehovah the Spirit. So no one can say that Jesus is Jehovah. That very fact lets us know that when we call our Lord “Lord” we are talking about the one true God in the case of our Lord Jesus God the Son, the one God who subsists in three persons.

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In mid-November of 2012, God dropped a word so convicting on my heart through another teacher’s lesson…

God spoke to my heart one Saturday morning while I was preparing for Sunday school…

I believe God placed it on my heart to tell you…

What God began to say to me about five years ago and I’m telling you it is in me on such a trek with him that my head is still whirling over it. He began to say to me, …

All of the above quotes from Beth Moore. Visions, whispers, secret knowledge laid on of the heart, are NOT from Jesus. It is NO basis from which to teach. But we hear these phrases so often today, From false teachers, and from true converts. We should stop that habit. Here is John MacArthur with a good word of advice on How To Identify Terrorists in the Church

“…False teachers inevitably have to have a source for their deception. And they have to have a source that’s believable. They have to have a source that has some authority, or that is convincing. So they can’t just say, “I think…” They can’t just say, “I feel…” They can’t just say, “We’ve got a committee in our group and we came up with this deal.” The really effective false teachers and apostates will inevitably tell you God communicates to them in secret ways, in their dreams, in their visions. These are revelatory experiences. Apostate false teachers from Joseph Smith to Benny Hinn and everybody in between claim that God speaks to them in their dreams, in their visions. And this, of course, transcends the necessity to be submissive to the Word of God which is not in their hearts anyway. And it gives them the illusion of authority and God gets blamed for all their aberrations. They reject the Word of God.

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Did you know? Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. In Exodus 21:32 we learn that 30 pieces of silver was the price of a slave.

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I liked these from several different Twitter friends:

The purpose of the Bible is to reveal who God is, His will for mankind, & to document the prophecies about, arrival of & ministry of Jesus.

Socrates said, “Know yourself.” Marcus Aurelius said, “Control yourself.” Orient sages said, “Give yourself.” Christ said, “Deny yourself.”

You may think there’s no reason to take an interest in eternity, but sooner or later, eternity will take an interest in you.

Succinct!

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Cartoonist Adam4d has some thoughts on if Jesus had listened to Joel Osteen’s advice

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Finally, this thought: As Christians we so desperately want the lost to come to know Jesus as Lord, we sometimes continue in presenting the beautiful Gospel beyond the time when we should not. After a certain point, the Holy Spirit will have His way, either pushing the person’s heart more into being reprobate, or will soften it to salvation. But if we persist all that will happen is they will trample the truth and we might sin in our frustration. Know when to leave it alone.

SDG!

false teachers, jentezen franklin, joseph prince, mark driscoll, rick warren, vultures

Rick Warren on the lineup for Hillsong Conference 2015.

Posted on July 3, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

A friend on Facebook posted this today:

“Mark Driscoll is appearing at Hillsong along with Rick Warren, Jentezen Franklin, and Joseph Prince. Are you still wondering if there is a problem?”

I wasn’t sure what he was referring to but a 1 minute search on Google brought up the Hillsong Sydney 2015 conference:

Source

Why yes, there is definitely a problem. Each of these men pictured above who lead churches have demonstrated non-orthodoxy either with their conduct and/or their theology.

But first let’s start with the venue, Hillsong Church.

Erin Benziger sums up the issue with Hillsong in this way:

Hillsong Church has been the subject of criticism not just for its seeker-sensitive, pragmatic methods of ministry, but also for its promotion of a form of the false Word Faith gospel. It is not unusual, in fact, for Hillsong’s massive conferences to feature prominent Word Faith leaders such as T.D. Jakes and Joel Osteen. Below can be heard a critique of Brian Houston teaching earlier this year on the text of Matthew 7:13–14. This clearly demonstrates Houston’s ability to twist God’s Word beyond recognition:

And after the colon above there is a video demonstrating non-orthodox interpretations of the Matthew text.

Hillsong has also been the focus of financial scrutiny and official investigation.

Hillsong teaches word faith doctrines, prosperity gospels, and more. The church itself is not a solid church in that it can be said they consistently handle scripture incorrectly and teach unorthodox, non-evangelical teachings.

Todd Friel of Wretched Radio said, Be Careful of Hillsong. But he also said that if he was extended an invitation to go, would he go? He said if he was assured he could preach anything he wanted, and after telling the Hillsong organizers what he planned to preach if they still wanted him to come, he would. Why? Because Hillsong people need the Gospel. So are the preachers listed for the 2015 lineup solid preachers going with an intent to share the Gospel to a lost and wandering herd of sheep? No. Given the track record and long-term pattern of Franklin, Prince, Warren, and Driscoll, we cannot give that benefit of the doubt. Let’s take a look.

Joseph Prince is just purely, out and out, a false teacher. (source)

Rick Warren is a pragmatist, indeed, the description under his photo above lists him first and foremost as “a global strategist.” Warren is driven by fads and leads his church that way, prays to false gods, and fails to give the Gospel either totally, or at least clearly.

The issues with Mark Driscoll are so numerous they’d be impossible to list here on a short form, or even to list them all in one blog post. What I find most egregious about Driscoll’s unregenerate life are his demon trials, spiritual abuse, pornographic visions, plagiarism, and fiscal secrecy. To name just a very, very few.

There are problems with what Jentezen Franklin teaches and also with his approach to pastoring. In addition there are issues with who he associates with.

I posted the above about the men Hillsong has invited to their conference to show that is not about a wayward word-faith church trying to correct its course by inviting good men to preach, it is about an unregenerate church inviting unregenerate men to unite their rebellious hearts and minds in darkness.

To this end, a series of scriptures came to mind that to me seem linked.

False Christians are proactive in their self-delusion. The seek out and purposely find false teachers who preach a message that appeals to their craven hearts.

The false Christians with itching ears heap up teachers to themselves so their itching ears can be scratched. (2 Timothy 4:3)

And the false teachers are not innocent bystanders either. They do what they do because they are greedy. (2 Pet. 2:14, 1 Tim. 6:5).

And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. (2 Peter 2:3)

Therefore, seeing an opportunity for dishonest gain, the false teachers and false prophets seek out and gather the false Christians with itching ears who are rushing toward them.

They meet.

“And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” (Luke 17:37)

Now, the Luke verse and its parallel in Matthew 24:28 is a difficult one to exactly interpret. The context is the Tribulation. Jesus is preaching the signs of the times and the coming of the Kingdom. It cannot be specifically applied to a situation of false Christians heaping up false teachers who in turn exploit the false Christians who are happy to buy their false products and listen to their false message. The Expositor’s Greek Testament says of the vultures verse, “If we connect it with Matthew 24:27 the idea will be that Messiah’s judicial function will be as universal as His appearance (Meyer and Weiss).” That seems to be the general meaning.

But what I picture in my mind when envisioning such a conference as Hillsong 2015, is a lot of dead people being picked over by vultures.

Sermon Bible Commentary explains the parallel Matthew 24:28 verse:

The Law of Divine Judgment.

I. When a wild beast falls in the desert, or a beast of burden on the highway, there is no stir in the heavens [skies] for a time. But, far above human ken, the vulture is floating poised on his wings; and looking downwards his eye soon distinguishes the motionless thing—for he hunts by an eyesight unequalled in power among all living things, and like a stone he drops through miles of air. Others floating in the same upper region, see their brother’s descent and know its meaning. One dark speck after another grows swiftly from the horizon, and in a few minutes fifty vultures are round the carrion. That illustrates—and with astonishing power and sharpness—for the disciples had often witnessed such a scene—the suddenness, the usefulness and the necessity of judgment. Inevitable, swift, unerring, as the vulture’s descent on the carcase is the judgment-coming of the Son of Man to corrupt communities and corrupted men.

II. From all this we now infer the law of judgment. It is this: Wherever there is entire moral corruption then there is final punishment; wherever there is partial corruption, there is remedial punishment. God in His capacity as Governor of the world, as Educator of mankind, is bound to destroy corruption. It is necessary that the vultures should devour the carcase, lest it pollute the air and breed a pestilence. It is necessary that corrupted nations should be blotted out, lest they infect the world with evil which may delay the whole progress of mankind. And our own sense of justice goes with the destruction. Nor, when we are wise, do we think that such justice shows want of love. We know that the weak man who shrinks from exacting deserved punishment is often the most cruel when his own interests are touched; and we can trust ourselves in the hour of our trouble best to One whose justice we are so sure of, that we know that if our trouble was caused by wrong-doing He would make us feel that wrongness before He would relieve the trouble. S. A. Brooke, The Spirit of the Christian Life, p. 57.

It is hard to say who is more alive and who is more dead, this ever descending cycle of false Christians who are dead being the provision for the false teachers to feed on them, or the false teachers selling what the dead Christians want. It is hard to say where the vulture begins and their food ends or where the food begins and the vulture ends.

In Hosea 13:1 Hosea prophesies that Ephraim (Israel) used to be alive and exalted, “but he incurred guilt through Baal and died.“

In the New Testament we read of a similarly tragic situation.

“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.“ (Revelation 3:1)

They look alive. But they are dead. They live, move, and breathe, but they are DEAD. The word dead in the Revelation verse is nekros, “unresponsive to life-giving influences (opportunities); inoperative to the things of God.”

So we see that an entire bunch of people can gather, sing praises to God, move, worship, wave hands, applaud approvingly, and be dead tot he things of God.

labeled for reuse, source

And what do vultures do, but feed on the dead.

A warning to us all:

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:16)

beth moore, discernment, false teachers, priscilla shirer, roma downey, unwrap the bible

Heretic Beth Moore partners with New Age Mystic Roma Downey in new bible convention touted as "America’s Largest Bible Event"

Posted on March 22, 2014October 16, 2022 by elizabethprata

The bible says that Adam was made first, then Eve. (1 Timothy 2:13). Man was made to have a woman in his life because otherwise he is not complete, and woman was made to be a man’s helpmeet. (Genesis 2:10). When a woman is out from the protection of a man, her father, older brother, husband, etc, she is vulnerable to deception. (1 Timothy 2:14).”

“Just as Satan’s strategy was to deceive Eve, so heretical false teachers have frequently chosen to spread their falsehoods by the same method. It doesn’t mean that they don’t approach men also, it’s just that Scripture’s telling us this is their target very often.” (source)

In secular life, “American women influence 80 percent of all automotive purchases…Chances are, you rule the roost when it comes to deciding which vehicles your family will drive. Your fella may want that Ferrari but cooler heads prevail, since you can’t really slap that child safety seat into the back of a California. Yes, women do make most family vehicle decisions…”

This UK Telegraph article reports that Women are key decision-makers in the home, DWP says
“But they are increasingly taking charge of traditional male household decisions such as choosing the family car, which pension provider or utility firms to choose and where to go on holiday.”

Satan sees an opportunity to weaken the church through the women, by women. We see this clearly in Revelation 2:20-23.

“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.”

Apparently, a woman was teaching in Thyatira even though the bible says women are not to teach in the church over men. (1 Timothy 2:12). Worse, she was teaching heresy. Worst of all, the discerning Christians in the church at Thyatira knew she wasn’t fit and wasn’t true, but tolerated her anyway. Jesus said unless she repents, and her followers also, He will kill them. The ones who tolerated the false teaching from a women, He has this against them. It is the most weighty matter to have the God of the Universe against you.

Here is the problem. First, the penchant for big convention events is growing. I remarked that the Passion event held at the Georgia Dome for youths between ages 18 and 26 is at root a Gnostic event. I further mentioned that rounding up youths and taking them away from their parents for a several-day sleep-away event apart from their home church to learn doctrines from people with no accountability is simply not a good idea. The Women of Faith organization also has staged Revolve events aimed at teenage girls since 2005.

There are huge bible events, Christian retreats, revivals, and workshops held for many reasons targeted at many segments of the population, and for men, this may or may not be fine. But for youths and for women, it is not good. Youths and women are being separated from their families and home church, rounded up by wolves as it were, as sheep and getting them away from the safety of the pack. Once apart, they are either shredded by false doctrine, gangrenous theological disease, and poisonous leaven- or, they are planted with false doctrines to bring back to their home church and let bake in a slow cooking oven of leaven and the church dies from the inside.

So, increasingly, youths and women are being targeted for infiltration at huge “live events” where doctrine will be taught away from the oversight of the husbands or parents. Another new women’s convention has just concluded, and it is touted as the biggest bible event in Christianity. It is put on by Women of Faith, which is reported by Wikipedia,

“Women of Faith is a Christian-based live events organization. It stages non-denominational events across North America. According to the company, its events have been attended by more than ~~four~~ five million people in total.”

Five million people! That is a lot of people. What are some things the Women of Faith live events are offering? The newest is-

“We’re thrilled to announce with our friends at Women of Faith, America’s largest event for Christian women, the creation of a brand new bible event, ‘Unwrap the Bible.’ ” (source)

Who is involved in Unwrap the Bible? Mark Burnett and Roma Downey.

Burnett & Downey in promo video for “Unwrap the Bible”

This husband and wife duo are not saved. They are workers of evil. They are heretics. They are not in partnership with the Light. They do not know Jesus. I am trying to be very clear. Mrs Downey has a spiritual degree from a New Age teaching institution, practices mysticism, Catholicism, and necromancy (seeking communication with the dead). On live television, Downey communicated with her dead mother through a medium on live TV. Necromancy is strictly forbidden in the bible-

“Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:31). Also Deuteronomy 18:9-12, 2 Kings 21:6, Isaiah 8:19, Revelation 21:8.

The same duo created The Bible miniseries seen last year on the History Channel, and from that series, edited it down to a 90 minute movie focused on Jesus, called Son of God and released this month in movie theaters. The TV mini-series and the movie theatrical release both were fraught with biblical omissions, twistings, and outright heresy and in no way represented the accurate truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ nor did they correctly reflect His spotless character and Person. Yet Mrs Downey is considered a Christian. She is partnered with Women of Faith in this new bible teaching endeavor.

Why I am NOT watching the History Channel’s miniseries ‘The Bible’.

Why I am NOT going to see the Son of God movie

The lineup of bible teachers at the Unwrap the Bible convention (just concluded a few weeks ago) are below. Beth Moore is one of the teachers who taught at the convention. Some of the materials the women of faith are using are the clips from the Son of God movie. The promotional material states,

“In addition to the in-depth Bible study, dynamic worship pastor and recording artist Kari Jobe will lead musical worship and praise throughout the event. The program will also include video clips from Mark Burnett and Roma Downey’s “The Bible” mini-series, illustrating stories from the Scriptures.”

The venue for this largest bible event in America featuring a lineup of utter heretics is, Lakewood Church, Joel Osteen’s Church, a church of heretics led by a heretic.

Now let’s add up the numbers, starting with Women of Faith, five million women. I don’t believe all their events stretching back to the first one in 1996 were all false, I don’t know for sure, but the nature of apostasy is for seducers to creep into to households and by flatteries deceive women. (2 Timothy 3:6, Jude 1:4). So a ministry may start out good, sound good, look good, but if there are any evil doctrines in there, they will eventually come out and pervert the women.

Beth Moore has a following on Twitter of over 450,000 women. She is the cornerstone of LifeWay teaching materials, even being the anchor for their worst quarter when the economy turned sour. In other words, her materials sell briskly to millions of people. Moore has an ongoing rotation of television shows, speaking engagements through Living Proof Conventions, a blog, podcasts, and more. Shirer has 130,000 Twitter followers, plus a webshow, a blog, a bible study and is partnered with Lifeway in Sunday School curriculum, etc.

Aside from the Unwrap the Bible convention, the Passion Convention, Women of Faith conventions, there are other female teachers out there. We haven’t even mentioned the biggest female powerhouse teaching heresy. It’s Joyce Meyer. Her influence and popularity is incredible and deeply penetrating across many denominational lines. Millions of women are influenced by Meyer. Meyer is an outright heretic, claiming that Jesus stopped being the Son of God on the cross, and that she herself isn’t a sinner. The bible says that Jesus is the Everlasting God (Isaiah 40:28, Hebrews 1:8) and anyone who says they don’t sin doesn’t have the truth in them. (1 John 1:8).

In any case, The Christian Post says “Another adept Twitter user is Joyce Meyer Ministries, previously reported as having the most retweeted messages on the network, above brands like ESPN, the Miami Heat and CNN Breaking News.”

Did you know that 140 characters at a time, Meyer is tweeting poisonous and heretical messages cloaked in pious sounding Christianese which are re-tweeted to the tune of being more penetrating than CNN Breaking News??

Retweets are messages Meyer sends out over Twitter, and then someone else sends it out again, in ever widening circles. As of March 21, 2014, Meyer had 2.69 million followers on that particular social media. Meyer has a television show called Enjoying Everyday Life which reaches potentially two-thirds of the world in 32 languages. She has brisk sales of her 30+ books, over 5.2 million likes on Facebook, live speaking engagements, podcasts, and many other venues into which she pours her poison. And this poison is picked up by women and brought into homes, who they are entrusted with the care of the Godly seed, the children. Many times the husband is unaware or barely aware that Meyer, Moore, Shirer, Caine etc teach doctrines contrary to the one Jesus gave us. This infiltration is repeated with Rachel Held Evans, Ann Voskamp, Oprah Winfrey, Lynne Hybels, Jen Hatmaker, Kara Powell…

You see the progression- a household life of the women in charge, yes, even in Christian households, a female’s natural inclination to be spiritually deceived if a male is not guarding her, an incredibly powerful and popular slate of female Christian bible teachers, infiltrating homes with false doctrine at a massive rate with the power and force of a tsunami. Inattentive or undiscerning husbands. You see the problem, the false teachers, many of them women, are coming for the women. And they are succeeding. They did when Paul wrote to Timothy, (2 Timothy 3:5-9) and they are succeeding now. In this sermon by bible teacher John MacArthur on the 2 Timothy 3:5-9 verses, he explains,

Who do you think they’re after? Weak women who are vulnerable because they’re out from some protection and who are captivated by these people because they promise them deliverance from the burden of sin and guilt and they promise them a system of truth … Just as Satan’s strategy was to deceive Eve, so heretical false teachers have frequently chosen to spread their falsehoods by the same method. It doesn’t mean that they don’t approach men also, it’s just that Scripture’s telling us this is their target very often. Women not strong in virtue, weighed down by sins and driven by impulse and lust, women not strong in truth, women who want to know the truth, who are always learning but have never come to the epignosis, the deep knowledge of the truth are the victims. … And then in verse 7 it says they probably are the kind of women who have a curiosity about religion. They’re attracted to easy solutions that don’t really call for a radical change and don’t deal with the real issue, the issue of sin before a holy God and salvation in Jesus Christ. They’re interested in a cheap gospel. They’re the kind of women who maybe are always learning, taking it all in, attracted to some kind of religious teaching.

Fortunately we can review the verse in Revelation when Jesus said he was angered by the prophetess Jezebel and by those who tolerated her. Jesus also said that He gave her (the Jezebel false prophetess) and her followers time to repent. Jesus is merciful! These false teachers have time still to repent!

Any person following these false teachers or promoting their teachings or even just tolerating them can repent! Jesus forgives, He wants His children to be pure and holy, as He is holy. The church however should be guarded always, and this is an active, never-ending activity until the glorification comes. It means NOT tolerating sin, and actively confronting it. In Thyatira’s case, the church failed because of poison from the inside.

We women are entrusted with the Gospel, with helping our husbands, with the children. It is a precious cargo we women have given to us. As Oswald Chambers said, Let us do our utmost for His highest! In this case it is protecting ourselves from false doctrines by reading the word, submitting to male spiritual authority, and constant prayer. In this way, that we may help our husbands or the church in proper encouragement and support, and keeping our children away from heretical teachings.

For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain, but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition.

For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit; but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts.

For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness— nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, (1 Thessalonians 2:1-6a)

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False Teachers and flatteries

Posted on February 26, 2014May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I write about discernment very often. I post essays showing how to discern and detect a false doctrine or a false teacher. Oftentimes I name the teacher or the doctrine.

Just as often, I receive comments denying that person could possibly be false. One of the most common rebuttals I receive regarding why someone can’t be a false teacher is that “They preach Jesus”. Or, “They use scripture.”

First of all, it stands to reason that since satan masquerades as an angel of light, “Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).

We are supposed to test the spirits. (1 John 4:1). This means “Test, dokimazo, a term used in metallurgy to assess the purity of metal.” (source)

In discernment, it is important to do three things when approaching the topic. First, actually read the bible. If one never reads it, one will never know that warning verse is in there. Second, stop and think about what it means. Lift your eyes from the book, slow down, and think about what the Spirit is telling us here when He inspired Paul to write this verse, and every word in it. “masquerades”, “light”, “ministers”, etc. Third, put application on the ground. The bible is a book of intellectual depth, a historical document unparalleled, sensitive and beautiful poetry, but it is also a manual of life. We are to lift our eyes from it and look around and apply its words to what we do, say, and hear.

source

In this case, we’re told that it isn’t surprising satan and his minions roam around as angels of light, therefore we know that satan’s deceptions will be both common and expected. Disguises means that initially one will not be able to tell that the teacher or preacher is from satan. He will wear a mask. Only if the mask slips or if the teacher varies from the word will we be able to detect who he really is. (I refer back to #1, read the bible). Usually it takes time to tell if a teacher is true or not. This is because it takes time for fruit to ripen. (Matthew 7:16).

Now as for the actual application and detecting, and back to the ‘oh but he can’t be false, he preaches Jesus!’ comments. Let’s take a look at the beginning of the bible and the end. In Genesis 3 and Revelation 6 we are given examples of the two most successful deceivers the earth has ever and will ever see, satan, and the antichrist.

In Genesis 3 satan is introduced to us as subtle. In Genesis 3:1 the first thing said about satan is that he is subtle (crafty). In the bible, a thing mentioned first is the most important. So if there is a list of qualities, look at the first one, or if they are repeated, (ie, HOLY HOLY HOLY) it is the author’s way of emphasizing. We have CTRL-B for bold font now, but in those days they simply mentioned the first thing first that the Author wanted emphasized. For example, though satan was the most beautiful of all the angels, (Ezekiel 28:12), this is not the first thing mentioned about him. The first mention is a negative quality, he is crafty.

In Daniel 8:25 we are also told that the coming antichrist will cause craft to prosper. In both cases the word is used in a negative sense. It means deceit, treachery and cunning.

We see a picture of all this in Revelation 6:2,

“And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.”

You see the antichrist rides a white horse. He is holding a bow (but no arrows). He wears a crown. So the antichrist is disguised. He is masquerading. He appears on a horse of a heavenly color (white), having kinglike qualities, (crown) and holding a bow but no arrows (an nonthreatening diplomat rather than a bloody warrior).

As to that last one, a bow but no arrow, a diplomat rather than bloody warrior, the devil and the antichrist use their voice to win the kingdom. The devil speaks, he doesn’t kill directly. His words are his weapons.

He cloaks himself in the liturgical vestments of the clergy while using smooth oratory to win over undiscerning believers to doctrines of demons.
SourceThe coming antichrist does it the same way. By speaking flatteries.

In his place shall arise a contemptible person to whom royal majesty has not been given. He shall come in without warning and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. (Daniel 11:21)

Why should it be any different for all of the mini-antichrists (1 John 2:22) to insinuate themselves, by flatteries, smooth speech?

For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. (Romans 16:18).

Of course they speak of Jesus (more often, they speak of God than Jesus, but anyway…) The second word out of satan’s mouth was ‘God.’ False teachers will speak of God. They will speak of Jesus. They will use scripture. Testing the spirits does not mean you stop there. It means really listening. Then it means comparing what they say with the bible.

“These also are proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied. It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out. As the heavens for height, and the earth for depth, so the heart of kings is unsearchable. Take away the dross from the silver, and the smith has material for a vessel; take away the wicked from the presence of the king, and his throne will be established in righteousness.” (Proverbs 25:1-28)

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