Category: theology

Posted in theology

Social Media: On Muting and Blocking

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I grew up without the internet and social media. I roamed the neighborhood at will. I explored ponds, creeks, and woods. I built forts out of sticks and branches, I read books under trees. I biked without a helmet, swam after eating, bought ice cream from the tinkling song ice cream truck, went barefoot.

I watched TV as it was broadcast, no TiVo, streaming, or playback. I talked on the phone with friends or even went to their house and talked face to face.

Social media hadn’t been invented yet. The intenet was just a gleam in Tim Berners-Lee’s eye. The closest we came to social media was the Slam Book. This was popular when I was in Junior High school, renamed Middle School nowadays. It was usually a spiral notebook with the title written big across the front. Inside the first page was numbered down the left column, where you ‘signed in’,  and inside on some pages were questions of the day. Favorite Teacher? Best Sport? Boy you like? Girl you hate? Etc. It may have started as a friendly chain letter-in-a-notebook, but it always ended up as mean. The notebook was a testament and a memorial to the power of negative written words.

Today we have Twitter and Facebook for that. If you received an insulting or biting comment about you in your own Slam Book you could erase it if it was in pencil or blot it out if it was in pen. That’s about all you could do. But you’ll have read it, seen it. The insult goes to your heart, and you don’t forget. If the comment made about you was in someone else’s slam book, you couldn’t erase hers, and you’d know the comment was there for everyone else to read.

Muted

Today we have Twitter and Facebook for slamming. Its effect is more damning because the internet is world wide. Slander, slams, insults made about you or me go anywhere or everywhere. There is no pencil to erase it or pen to blot it out. While we have the Spirit’s power to rejoice in reviling if it was for Christ’s name, it’s still difficult personally to endure.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11–12).

There is, though, the Block button. On Twitter there’s the Mute button, and on Facebook, unfollow.

Some Christians feel queasy about blocking or even muting. On the one hand, I understand. The reason I’m active on social media is to proclaim Jesus in various ways, through picture scriptures, verses, my writing, links to good resources and sermons, and through my behavior. I want the falsely saved and the truly lost to see Christ in what I say and do. I want to be open to questions about Him so that I can share the Gospel with them.

But I have limits. One limit is behavior from others that I would not tolerate in my home, and my social media is my extended ‘home’. Name calling, true bullying, profanity, persistent niggling if I’d asked them to stop, blasphemy, dismissing the Bible as an authoritative, sufficient word of God, all things that are no-go for me.

So on the other hand, profanity and bullying will get you blocked or unfollowed. I have no compunction about that. I would not tolerate a woman or a man pushing me around in my house or swearing at me, and I don’t tolerate it online. If having engaged with a person and they are starting to show their colors, that they believe the Bible is suspect, and I’ve gently shown them that it is true, but they come back harder, I mute. The Bible is the only basis for biblical conversation. There is no sense having a biblical conversation with someone who disbelieves the Bible.

My other limit is my behavior. If I continue to engage with a belligerent person, the only trajectory for me is down. At some point I’ll lose my patience and then I’ll destroy my witness. I have to know when to pull back and to say good night to a person.

I don’t feel guilty about muting or blocking. Everyone has their own limits, but the Bible does tell us there are times to engage and there are times to walk away.

Here are some resources about attacks & insults:

RC Sproul: How Should Christians Respond to Attacks and Insults?

John MacArthur: Casting pearls before swine

Alistair Begg: Video “Be Strong, Stand Firm”

 

Posted in theology

Sunday Word of the Week: Aseity

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

The thread of Christianity depends on a unity from one generation to the next of mutual understanding of our important words. Hence the Word of the Week.

Aseity

When we affirm that God is eternal, we are also saying that He possesses the attribute of aseity, or self-existence. … Unlike creation, God is self-existent, uncaused, and independent. RC Sproul

What does it mean that He is self-existent? It means in simple language, go down to verse 4, here it is again, four words. I told you John’s economy of words is stunning. “In Him was Life.” In Him was Life. John 5:26 says it again, that in God is life and in the Son is life. This is an amazing statement. Life not bios, not just physical life, but zoe, the biggest, broadest term for all kinds of life. And what it’s saying is this. Life was in Him. What do you mean by that? Well look at it from a negative standpoint. He didn’t receive life from any other source. He didn’t develop life from some other power. This is self-existence. He wasn’t given life, He didn’t receive life, He possesses it as an essential of His nature. In Him was life. ~John MacArthur

Scriptures:

For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. (Isaiah 46:9)

I AM who I AM. (Exodus 3:14)

For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. (John 5:26)

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. (Acts 17:24-25)

 

Posted in prophecy, theology

The darkness deepens

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I have friends who are unafraid and unashamed to post the biblical truth on social media, like James White, Michelle Lesley, Justin Peters, and so on. We learned a few days ago that Amazon pulled books on the subject of conversion (homosexual) therapy. This week also, the American Institute of Graphic Arts who puts on the Circles Conference disinvited a staffer from Matt Chandler’s church who was to speak, due to his “organization’s” allegedly discriminatory attitudes towards women and gay people. It’s sad to see these things come to pass, but we expected the battle on those fronts. However, my friend Michelle also was just notified that a meme she posted on Facebook was hate speech. Here it is.

women pastors

Feminism and the Homosexual Agenda are two of the enemy’s favored doctrines. He is pressing them ever forward into American culture. As he does so, he is tightening the reins of how much truth will be tolerated. This is an example.

James White wrote about this recently, saying in his blog post Wisdom From Above–

what shall we do now that Google and Facebook and Twitter and Amazon are picking us off, one by one, for not saying Caesar is Lord?

James White continues in his short blog post with a few ideas about what we should do, as related to social media.

He also wrote, commenting about a recent incident from culture, that we are looking at Romans 1:32 being lived out in front of us.

It was quite a reminder that those who know God’s righteous judgment against their sin suppress that knowledge by inviting others to join them in their rebellion.

Here is the verse he mentioned, about those who participate in these sins heartily applaud those others who do as well.
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:28-32)

When God gives them over to a depraved mind, it means their mind can’t think straight. It’s warped, twisted, and literally cannot think rationally. A vivid example of this is claiming that the meme’s language is hate speech when it’s actually just a verse describing the qualifications of preachers.

In the generations gone by, He permitted all the nations to go their own ways. (Acts 14:16)

Thirteen years ago John MacArthur preached a message that stayed with me. It was piercing in its devastating truths. It’s called When God Abandons a Nation. We know that God is a God of love, but He is also a God of wrath. There are different kinds of wrath. One of them is the Wrath of Abandonment. We can’t know when God performs certain acts, but our minds are not futile and we rationally observe the culture. As we know the prophesied outcome of All Things and the general trajectory of life and society, (Genesis 6, Judges…) we can detect by our observations when or if God might have abandoned the USA. MacArthur gives the steps to see this process. I excerpted them below.

1. So you look at a society and ask, is it driven by sexual immorality? Romans 1:24
2. Rampant degrading passions.- Plain and simple, Lesbianism, homosexuality. Romans 1:26
3. First the heart is rotten and the body follows, and then the mind goes. What is a depraved mind? Well, the word literally means tested and found useless, disqualified for its intended purpose, a non-functioning mind. Reasoning is so corrupted that it is crippled. Romans 1:28.

God given-over minds are so warped their reasoning doesn’t make sense. If anyone has spent time on Social Media, you’ve seen this futile thinking. It’s uncritical, unreasoning, twisted, and belligerent.

It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. It is also a terrible thing to be cast out of the hands of the Living God. Abandonment to one’s own desires is one of the worst things that can happen to a soul. When this occurs on a wide-spread scale, as in an entire society being given over, it’s horrible to watch.

I’m posting this not to ‘tut-tut’ the culture, but to encourage you to keep studying the word. We need to know what we believe and why. We should keep sharing the reason for the hope that is within us because as society darkens, the Light that is within us will be brighter. We need to prepare for alternative social media platforms as cultural intolerance appears to be increasingly rejecting Christ’s truths. Other platforms beside Twitter and Facebook exist, and James White mentions one or two. There are others.

MacArthur offers a hopeful conclusion in his sermon When God Abandons a Nation:

The key, listen to Me. Walk in My ways. The only hope for this or any other society is to hear the Word of the Lord and obey it, to hear the Word of the Lord and obey it. And I would suggest that this is not a good time for weak men preaching weak messages in weak churches. This is a time for bold and powerful strong biblical ministry that calls people to hear the Word of the Lord and respond. This is the only hope for any people for any individual.

All glory to God!

abandoned

Posted in theology

Delicate beauty, intelligently created

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I’m still in summer-ocean-seashell mode. I’d written about Gifts from the Sea a week ago, here is another short meditation on the natural world and the Creator.

I lived for two years on a sailboat, sailing from Maine to the Bahamas and back, twice. That was fun. To keep occupied, I broadened and deepened my interest in the natural world and focused that interest on shells and the animals that lived in them. I learned how to spot the animals’ habitat based on how the shell was designed. Intertidal mollusks vs. rock clinging mollusks or digging mollusks.

The one thing that attracts people to shells, though, is their beauty. And how they are designed. Did you know that a univalve (one-hole mollusk) is born with a tiny apex attached to itself? As it goes thru life it grows the shell around itself. But it grows the shell in a pattern that has a defined ratio, and this ratio is consistent throughout the mollusk world, and also the natural world. Ferns grow at the same ratio.

EPrata photo

The Italian mathematician Leonardo da Pisa, or AKA Fibonacci, discovered this. He also introduced the decimal system to Europe, replacing the Roman Numerals in the 1200s (thank goodness!) Mollusk shells grow in a logarithmic spiral manner, always. Since the mollusks don’t have a brain that tells them to grow this way, and since the logarithmic consistency is carried over to other natural elements such as the pine cone and the sunflower and a snowflake, proponents of Intelligent Design use Fibonacci as a basis for the argument that the world that has been externally designed by a Master Intelligence.

We know that ‘intelligence’ not as an intelligence, but as a Person: God.

 

In any case, shells are exquisite, and a joy to discover as you walk the beach.

Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” 21God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 22God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. (Genesis 1:20-23)

Fractals definition: Geometrical entities characterised by basic patterns that are repeated at ever decreasing sizes. They are relevant to any system involving self-similarity repeated on diminished scales (such as a fern’s structure) as in the study of chaos.

Nautilus Photo from National Alliance of State Science and Mathematics Coalitions Really cool photos!!

Posted in theology

How to refresh yourself in times of controversy

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Need to take a breath and reset? Refresh?

I always find that delving into the biblical doctrine of heaven helps me. Asking the Lord to renew to my mind the facts and glories of our upcoming destination is a great salve to my soul. This world is so awful and getting worse by the day. I mean, of course there’s beauty, and I strive to focus on that. Salvations, baptism, good preaching, flowers, fellowship, green pastures, gentle rain, grazing animals, all that-God’s grace in gifts to us.

But there’s all the other things we know too well and don’t need enumerating. Heartbreaks, death, illness, degeneration of the social compact, politics, news bias, rebellion, plain grossness…all that and more, tend to weigh us down.

So, look UP! Look away from all this to where there is purity and perfect peace.

I believe that John MacArthur’s series on What Heaven Is, is a wonderful break from pain, hubbub, and distractions. There are 8 messages, here. Also linked individually below. Some of the topics covered are- Where heaven is and what it is like, What you’ll be like in eternity, How you will relate to others, How you will relate to God, What you will do in heaven, and more. In the first sermon in the series, Dr. MacArthur said,

As I mentioned to you this morning, we’re going to start a series tonight on a new subject.  The subject is heaven.  And this is not going to be a like a sermon series, in many ways, but more like a class, at least tonight will be.  I want to teach you what the Bible has to say by way of introduction to the subject of heaven.

So, when you think about heaven, you’re identifying the place where your Father is, your Savior is, your brothers and sisters are, your name is there, your inheritance is there, your citizenship is there, your reward is there, your Master is there, of course, being God and Christ, and your treasure is there as well.  To sum it up: heaven is your home.

Before I moved from one town to another, as I have, I loved learning all I could about my upcoming new home. I looked up stats on the new town, looked for photos of the place, went to real estate sites to see houses, scanned Google Maps at street view to learn what it looked like. It’s only natural that we have a curiosity about where will will devote our time, skills, and money. We want to know what it will be like where we will raise our children, work, contribute to the community.

How much more then, should we be anticipating heaven? This biblical series may bless you as it did me, and illuminate the glorious future we all have there. Whether by imminent rapture, passing through the gate of death, we who are in Christ will be there one day. Anticipating that day helps us cope with this day, in a more peaceful and confident way.

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

What Heaven Is

Where Heaven Is and What It Is Like

The New Jerusalem

What We Will Be Like

How We Will Relate to One Another

How We Will Relate to God

What We Will Do, Part 1

What We Will Do, Part 2

heaven 2heaven 1heaven4heaven3

Posted in theology

Matthew 18: “Did you go to her?” and the part that people ignore

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

There remains much confusion about the process outlined in Matthew 18. Whenever a public Bible teacher is questioned, confronted, or critiqued, people invariably charge the questioner with failure of “having gone to her/him.”

Their reference is to a process outlined in Matthew 18:15-17.

If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

This is a process for individual church members and pastors, to employ among members inside a local body. It is commonly known as church discipline. We understand that by the first verse where one is called brother, and the third step where one must get his church involved.

It is not a process to be used for global students commenting or critiquing a public Bible teacher.

An example of the Matthew 18 church process might be, totally hypothetically, if I saw a brother in my church sideswipe my car at the Kroger Grocery store and he didn’t leave a note or come to me to fix it. If I knew a church friend was having an affair with a married man. Going to that person gives them the opportunity to repent to Jesus and make the situation right. If a brother denies sideswiping my car or the sister denied having the affair, we’re told to go back to that person privately with one or two additional people. This again inserts grace into the situation and allows the person opportunity to repent. If they still rebel and deny, then go to the pastor and lay out the case. The church is now responsible for calling that person back to holiness.

The main goal is stated in verse 15a, ‘you have won your brother.’

I find it bemusing that Christians insist that “loving” a person always means tolerating whatever sin they perpetrate, and in a honeysuckle sweet voice and attitude as well. They say, Jesus “hung out with sinners after all.” They always charge anyone who brings up something disagreeable in public regarding a public teacher, as having failed to go to them, which as we saw, is a mistreatment of the verse. More resources will follow.

But those who always clamor that someone has failed to ‘go to them’, who insist on tolerating all manner of sin in the name of love, themselves fail…to see the end result of the very process they want to see enacted. Surprise! There ARE times when a person is to be shunned.

Noooooo!

Yes.

If they refuse to repent and fail to pursue holiness, they are to be ostracized from all fellowship, denied the blessings of the church, and even as S. Lewis Johnson preached, disallowed to partake in the Lord’s Supper.

2 Thessalonians 3:6 also speaks to this- Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us.

This has been the traditional understanding of the discipline process for centuries; various Commentaries follow:

and so such that have been privately admonished and publicly rebuked, without success, their company is to be shunned, and intimate friendship with them to be avoided. Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible. 1746

Publican – See the notes at Matthew 5:47. Publicans were people of abandoned character, and the Jews would have no contact with them. The meaning of this is, cease to have religious contact with him, or to acknowledge him as a Christian brother. It does not mean that we should cease to show kindness to him and aid him in affliction or trial, for that is required toward all people; but it means that we should disown him as a Christian brother, and treat him as we do other people not connected with the church. This should not be done until all these steps are taken. This is the only way of kindness. This is the only way to preserve peace and purity in the church. Barnes Notes. 1830

Lastly, If even this fail, regard him as no longer a brother Christian, but as one “without”—as the Jews did Gentiles and publicans. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary. 1871

Quit his company- he has despised the last tribunal. Now you must leave him. Be not angry with him. Freely forgive him, but quit him. Spurgeon, 1889.

The purpose of ostracism is not to punish but to awaken, and it must be done in humble love and never in a spirit of self-righteous authority…the fourth step in the discipline process is therefore to put out and to call back-to keep the sinning brother out of fellowship until he repents, but also keep calling him back in hopes that he will. John MacArthur Commentary, 1988

So using the logic of the day, IF we were to ‘go to them’, meaning, go to the public teacher, AND they refuse to hear reason, THEN you’d have to shun them.

But we don’t have to use an If-Then statement, mainly because Mt 18 doesn’t apply in this case. Elsewhere, the Bible gives plenty of commands and instructions for what to do regarding false teachings. It gives advice and instruction for what to do to verify a teaching, in order to determine if it is false or true.

The several points for the takeaway here are-

1. Critiquing a public Bible teacher’s works doesn’t have to be done within the context of a local church. We don’t have to “go to them.” You can if you want, IF they are accessible (many are not) but it’s not part of any biblical mandate. They are teaching publicly, we critique (or applaud) publicly.

2. The very process of ‘going to them’ means that once you start on this path it might end up where you have to shun them. That’s the process. If going to them is loving, then 2 verses from that point, shunning them is also loving. You can’t insist on step 1 of  the discipline process and then abandon step 4 as ‘unloving’. It’s all or nothing.

3. The version of love insisted upon by liberal and nominal Christians is often not biblical love. Love means offering the whole counsel of God, declaring sin as sin…pointing to God’s wrath as well as His love…knowing and publicizing that some teachers are not to be trusted..that there are times and cases when an individual or a whole church must ostracize a rebel. And so on.

If you are ever on the receiving end of the Matthew 18’s local church discipline steps, please realize it is God’s way of bringing you back to the fold. If you’re wandering, sinning, then the love that the brethren are showing is true love. Ignoring sin or coddling it isn’t love. Confronting it so you can live a holy life again, is.

Further Resources

D.A. CArson: Editorial on Abusing Matthew 18

Some of the “angriest, bitterness-laced emails I have ever received—…were those whose indignation was white hot because I had not first approached privately those whose positions I had criticized in the book. What a hypocrite I was—criticizing my brothers on ostensible biblical grounds when I myself was not following the Bible’s mandate to observe a certain procedure nicely laid out in Matt 18:15–17. Doubtless this sort of charge is becoming more common. I… This pattern of counter-attack, with minor variations, is flourishing.

Josh Buice: Matthew 18 and the Universal Church

Every once in a while I receive an e-mail from a concerned reader of this blog asking me if I had taken time to contact someone before I publicly named them in my article.  This past week, I received more than one e-mail asking me that very question.  In fact, I received at least ten such e-mails and some were quite critical of my intentions as they accused me of sin for not following the model of church discipline found in Matthew 18.  So the question remains – should I have contacted Pastor Andy Stanley before I made him the center figure in a critical article?

Tim Challies: Matthew 18 in a shrinking world

And when I write about people or their books, it is nearly inevitable that someone sends me an email or leaves a comment saying, “Did you follow the procedure laid out in Matthew 18?” This is sometimes a kind suggestion and sometimes a harsh rebuke. But either way, it almost always seems to come. This was true when I wrote critical reviews of 90 Minutes in Heaven and The Shack. It was true when I shared some concerns about men whose ministry I respect. In each case, people suggested that I ought to follow Matthew 18 and speak to the men themselves before publicly critiquing them.

 

Posted in theology

“The Pain of Seeing People Go”

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Jordan Standridge wrote today of The Pain of Seeing People Go. His is a timely essay, as I’ve been drafting one exactly like it on the same topic.

I’m talking about when God sovereignly moves fellow believers to a new city. I happen to pastor at a church that has a lot of coming and going. People move to Washington DC for a couple of years, they become part of our family and then suddenly get taken away. It is like your heart is being ripped away.

Our church was founded with the intention of being missional. We are in the heart of a University city with many of the founding members in college or Graduate School. It’s an influx and outflow church. About thirty have left over these last few months, but about thirty new people have been sent in by the Spirit.

Whether a person the elders raised up would be on mission in our local city or across the world, we wanted people to grow, and if they felt the call, leave with the heart full of joy in evangelism and our support. It’s purposeful, but it’s hard, too, to see them go.

And many have done just that. They are veering off to Canada for training as a Wycliffe Bible Translator. They are headed to Malaysia as teachers of English. They have gone to other US states to head up college Navigators organizations or other Christian jobs. They’ve gotten married and headed to different states with their husbands, having been trained up in the Gospel so well by our elders. They have obtained jobs as High School Bible teachers. And many more.

I’ve been happily saddened by the departure of  some of our original members this summer. I miss them, their smiles, their fervor, their dedication. But I’ve been uplifted by the knowledge that they are serving the Lord there just as they did here, and that I’ll see them again someday.

Now we are on to the next round of raising up men, guiding families, serving the new members in all ways so that there will someday be a new crop to fly out into the world with the Spirit-given gifts and talents that have been shepherded in them. We are just as busy encouraging the next crop being raised up as much as we support and love the ones who remain. Milkweed seeds that fly on the breath of the Spirit driven wind, into the world to again serve and labor there as they once did here. And so on. Repeat.

I’m grateful for the church’s commitment to raise up men. It’s no doubt wearisome as the people come and go, our lives a cycle of ebbs and flows in saying goodbyes and then creating new relationships forged in His spotless name. The congregation’s own smiles, verve, and excitement at laboring in our God-given tasks is infectious. It helps that we know that the Word of God says do not grow weary in the well-doing. I pray the Spirit gives me just as much joy in meeting new members as I’d had for the ones who helped found the original congregation.

I pray frequently that the Spirit gives us energy and wisdom, as also pray that the Spirit sends us new people. I’m looking forward to the next ring of seeds to come up and waft out onto the winds of the Spirit.

For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. (2 Corinthians 4:15-16a).

 

Posted in theology

The importance of a Bible teacher’s transparency: it relates to accountability

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

On June 18, I and 5 other ladies signed an Open Letter to Beth Moore and it was published on several of our platforms. It asked Moore 5 plain questions regarding her stance on homosexuality, and noted that her associations and partnerships with several high-profile gay-affirming and openly homosexual Christians were causing confusion between her life and whatever doctrine she held. (1 Timothy 4:16). So we asked the questions about her doctrine.

The issues covered in this essay are a Bible teacher’s accessibility, accountability, and transparency.

After two weeks of controversy, stirred because Mrs Moore refused to directly acknowledge the letter or answer the questions, (timeline here), then finally publishing a ‘kind of-sort of’ explanation, Beth Moore announced she was taking time off from Twitter.

One of the charges Moore made against the publishers of the Open Letter was that we did not go through “the right channels.” Here is her tweet.

She opens with an insinuation that she knows our hearts, that we don’t really want answers. We do. She closes with another insinuation as to our motivations, that we want public attention and we like barbecuing fellow Christians. We don’t.

In the middle she said that we should contact our church to ask. This makes no sense. I should contact my pastor to ask him what Beth Moore’s stance on homosexuality is?

How would one get in touch with Beth Moore to ask a question or gain clarification on something she has taught? Remember, she does not restrict her teaching to women in her own church, she teaches all people globally. See Lifeway Christian Resources 2019 report for the year 2018 activities:

LifeWay Christian Resources and the Women’s Event and Publishing Team continues to equip and minister to women across the country and beyond with multiple live events and resources for a diversified audience, both to the SBC and other women of faith.

In 2018 the Women’s Event Team celebrated 20 years of Living Proof Live events with Beth Moore and worship led by Travis Cottrell. From October 2017 through September 2018, cities included Sacramento, Calif.; Seattle, Wash.; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Boone, N.C.; Green Bay, Wis.; San Diego, Calif.; Calgary, Ala., Canada; Columbia, Mo.; Hot Springs, Ark.; Huntsville, Ala.; as well as an Alaskan cruise during the summer.

These events ministered to more than 50,000 women.

The Beth Moore simulcast event was partnered with the live event in Huntsville and included 376 churches and 6,500 individuals representing more than 10 countries.

The year before, Lifeway reported,

In 2017, the team managed 36 events, including 21 enrichment events, two live simulcasts, and 17 leadership training events. The team hosted 11 Living Proof Live events Women across the United States and around the world were reached through annual Beth Moore and Priscilla Shirer simulcasts with approximately 150,000 women watching.

That’s a lot of women being influenced by what Beth Moore says and does. Because she has introduced confusion as to whether it is appropriate to ask a public Bible teacher a question, and has caused confusion about how to access a widely-known Bible teacher, I decided we should take a look as to what the Bible says on the issue.

In reading of the Apostles and teachers of the New Testament time, did they answer questions? IS it appropriate to ask the celebrity teachers a question about their teaching? What are the right channels, anyway?

Does your favorite Bible teacher or pastor only pay lip service to transparency? Or are they truly transparent?

In Acts 2:12, the sermon by Peter was a response to questions from the crowd.

Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? … And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” (Acts 2:7-8, 12)

Peter replied that they were not drunk as they had supposed, then answered their questions.

The disciples asked Jesus about the temple and the time of the end, asking “when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3)

“And Jesus answered…” (Matthew 24:4), sparking one of the longest discourses in the New Testament.

Nicodemus sought Jesus at night, presumably when the day was done and Jesus was eating or resting. Yet Jesus was available to him, and gave some of the most important answers in the entire New Testament about being born again-

Jesus answered, (John 3:5)
Jesus answered and said to him, (John 3:10)

Paul’s 1 Corinthians letter responds to issues and questions which the congregation at Corinth had sent him in writing. Paul answered in writing. (1 Corinthians 5:1; 6:1; 7:1).

Acts 17 begins with recounting how Paul’s entire life was given to traveling and teaching and answering questions. Here is from Acts 17:1-3, Paul at Thessalonica,

Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.”

I underlined reasoned with them because in the Greek that word reasoned is, dia lego. If that sounds like our English word dialog, it’s because it is.

Strong’s #1256 /dialégomai (“getting a conclusion across”) occurs 13 times in the NT, usually of believers exercising “dialectical reasoning.” This is the process of giving and receiving information with someone to reach deeper understanding – a “going back-and-forth” of thoughts and ideas so people can better know the Lord (His word, will). Doing this is perhaps the most telling characteristic of the growing Christian!

In other words, asking and answering.

Is your favorite Bible teacher partially transparent, only allowing you to see what he or she wants you to see?

In John 8:2 we read-

And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.

In other words, answering questions. Responding to pupil queries is part of teaching.

I understand that when a person gets to a certain level of fame, accessibility might become difficult. Or not. Paul Washer is famous too, and spans the globe teaching and preaching, just as Beth Moore does.

Yet when he preached at The Master’s University, he remained in the auditorium for a lengthy period afterward. He answered every single question asked of him to each and every student that approached. The line was long, he needed to return to the Shepherds Conference where he had been engaged to preach, yet he did not look at his watch or become impatient. He made himself available to students who wanted to engage with him, one-on-one. He is a true servant. This man pours himself out like a drink offering on behalf of the body and for Christ.

We know that the numbers show that Beth Moore has a huge impact on a huge number of women. The question is, how would one approach her to ask a question about something she has taught?

Moore’s Living Proof Ministry has an official Facebook page, but it is managed by someone other than Moore. Moore does not have a personal FB page. I have not found an Instagram page for Beth Moore. At her Ministry Contact Page it is shown where you can postal mail Moore or you can call. When you call, you don’t get Beth Moore on the phone, but a secretary. See below.

She closed comments to her essay ‘Why I deleted half the chapter on homosexuality from the Kindle version’. She withdrew from Twitter, the only remaining source of direct engagement any of the public actually had with her.

She is inaccessible by preference and by design.

In 2010 Christianity Today wanted to do a cover story on Moore. One would think that a widely circulated magazine aimed directly at Moore’s demographic would please her, and that she would do everything to get the message out. No.

CT reported that accessing her was extremely difficult. Newsmax reported,

Finding fun facts [About Moore] isn’t easy, at least not in person. Christianity Today (CT) wrote of the difficulty in getting through the Moore phalanx of image guardians to get an interview: “It was not easy to get there.”

CT had to ask several times just to receive a ”yes” to the interview. The reporter stated that she was-

“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)

As one man on Twitter wittily stated, “I can tweet the president of the United States of America, directly, but I have to go through “proper channels” to get to @BethMooreLPM?”

Accessibility is to one’s discretion. Availability might become limited. But transparency should never, ever be an issue with a person handling the word of God.

There is a difference in being wise and mindful of one’s time in order to shepherd it to the fullest, and being elusive and evasive.

Be wary of teachers that reject open scrutiny or are not transparent in their theology or their thinking in how they got there. It means they reject accountability. Apostle Paul welcomed scrutiny and was happy to be held accountable (Acts 17:11). Paul Washer and John MacArthur, as busy as they are, both make time for students and answer questions. Dr. MacArthur frequently holds a Q&A at the pulpit and welcomes people’s questions.

Bible teachers, accountable for accurately speaking truth to students, must also understand God’s desire for them to love students as well seen in how they speak about them to others. How easy it can be to talk negatively about certain students to fellow teachers, a spouse, friend, or to whomever you might unload frustrations. God says, “this should not be.” Source

True transparency. Can you see into the Bible teacher’s or the Pastor’s life?
Can you see how they arrived at their conclusions?

The more transparent a teacher is, the more we can assess their doctrine and their life. (1 Timothy 4:16). I’m not taking about opening up every single private thing you ever did, but general transparency for any public teaching figure, local or global, means seeking to serve from a humble position and earnestly answering or helping those whom you teach (locally or globally).

 

Posted in theology

The Langugage of God: Earthquakes

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata
This is an updated version of an essay I published in June 2010.

In looking at ways God has spoken to us in the past and of the ways He has promised to speak to us in the future, we discover God’s vocabulary. Among other ways that He has spoken to us, part of His language included fire and brimstone, hail, lightning, and earthquakes. The writer of Hebrews wrote in verses 1:1-2, “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.”

God has promised to speak to us again via earthquakes and this article explores the ways the LORD shakes us when He wants our attention.

Here is Ray Comfort’s response during a 7.1 quake that shook California this week:

Please consider liking and sharing this video so that people may be awakened to the reality of their death and turn to Christ. Make sure to also pray for those who are injured and possibly even killed from this earthquake.

The Church Age is coming to an end. The trumpet will sound and believing Christians will disappear from the earth in the blink of an eye. The Tribulation will begin, signaling the last 7 years of this earth’s history will conclude. The Apostles asked Jesus three questions about this particular time in history. First, they asked when the Temple will be thrown down (something Jesus had made reference to immediately prior to the Apostles’ question.) They also asked what will be the sign of His coming and the signs of the end of the age. Jesus’ answer to these three questions is recorded in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. Note that the Apostles asked three questions, and though the main answer is considered to be in Matthew, that each of the other two Gospels offer slightly different information to complete the picture. Jesus’ response is called “The Olivet Discourse” because the conversation was held on the Mt. of Olives and Jesus spent quite a bit of time explaining, Therefore, we spent quite a bit of time asking the Spirit to lead us into understanding.

One sign Jesus said will occur is that there will be “earthquakes in diverse places.” Other translations spell it divers, or use the word various places. Jesus did not explicitly say that the number of earthquakes will rise in advance of the end. However, right after stating that there will be earthquakes, He said that the period of time the earthquakes & other signs will be occurring will be like birth pangs. Birth pangs increase in intensity and frequency as the new life approaches. This is a symbol that is easily understood and readily identifiable, therefore we can feel confident that the number of earthquakes will rise in number as the end comes near. So, let’s look at types of earthquakes.

 

Earthquakes are a sign of the end of the age, and not just numerical increase, but unusual locations, swarms, and impacts are part of God’s lexicon. We need not turn to USGS to prove or disprove God’s word. There will be earthquakes in diverse places. And today, there are earthquakes of different types and in different places. It is as simple as that.

God has used earthquakes to speak to His people in the past and will again in the future. In Acts 16:26, He used a quake to release Paul from prison. When Jesus died on the cross, a quake occurred, recorded in Matthew 27:54, “When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

The quake was God speaking to humans … and they understood.

A few days later as Jesus rises from the grave there is another earthquake. Matthew 28:2 records it. “There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.”

In Ezekiel 38:19 God promises to show Himself through an earthquake (among other things). “In My zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.”

During the Tribulation, an earthquake will occur in Jerusalem as described in Rev 11:13 where 7000 people will be killed. Later, in Rev 16:18, “Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake.” Every mountain will crumble and every island will flee away.

God speaks in various ways. He spoke to Elijah when Elijah was fleeing Jezebel. God told Elijah to listen for Him. He sent the wind, but He was not in the wind (that time). He sent the fire, but He was not in the fire (that time). He sent the earthquakes, but He was not in the earthquake (that time). God spoke to Elijah in a still, small voice, and it was that voice that awed Elijah more that the demonstrable ways God had usually spoken.

God demonstrates His anger through earthquakes: Isaiah 13:13 says,

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.

Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry. This verse from Psalm 18:7 directly tells us that the earthquake was a sign that God was angry

And there was a panic in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. The garrison and even the raiders trembled, the earth quaked, and it became a very great panic. (1 Samuel 14:15).

That particular earthquake affirmed the fact of divine intervention during this battle and that it aided Joshua and his armor-bearer. (John MacArthur Study Bible note).

It was a quake that let Peter out of Jail. God spoke that Peter should be let out and used an earthquake to say it. (Acts 16:26)

We read in Hebrews 12:25-29 the echo of the promise in Haggai 2:

“See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN.” This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.”

Though earthquakes were used by God and understood by the Old Testament people and early New Testament folks alike as a display of divine wrath, and it still assuredly could be in general, there is danger in assigning divine displeasure to this earthquake or that earthquake. Unless one is living through the prophesied earthquake of Revelation where 7000 die and a tenth of the city collapse (Revelation 11:13), or the temblor where every island flees away  (Revelation 16:20), then we don’t know for sure Gods’ intent for every quake.  

Spurgeon called earthquakes “creation’s groans”, which is a good place to leave it. (Romans 8:22-23). Meanwhile, God’s language these days is through His Son. (Hebrews 1:1-2).

I pray that you are in a place of spiritual acceptance to God, so that YOU cannot be shaken loose when the time comes.

Further Resources:

The World in Conflict and Distress

Spurgeon Creation’s Groans