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The good I see in the Robert Morris issue

Posted on June 24, 2024June 24, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

When the sentence for a crime is not speedily executed, the hearts of men become fully set on doing evil. (Ecclesiastes 8:11).

One who hates disguises it with his lips,
But he harbors deceit in his heart.
When he speaks graciously, do not believe him,
Because there are seven abominations in his heart.
Though his hatred covers itself with deception,
His wickedness will be revealed in the assembly. Proverbs 26:24-26

This essay isn’t about Robert Morris.

On June 14, 2024, a woman named Cindy Clemishire in partnership with The Wartburg Watch (a church sexual abuse reporting and support page) announced she had been molested by Robert Morris in 1981 when she was 12. Morris, now age 63, is the pastor of the largest mega-church in the United States. He was selected as then-candidate President Trump’s spiritual advisor. He has been in the preaching business since he was 19 years old. He is incredibly famous.

But this isn’t about Robert Morris’s fame.

Several times in the past, Morris had confessed to his elders and sometimes to his congregation that when he was younger, around age 20 or so, but married and with a baby, he had fallen into what he termed “a moral failure” with “a young lady” but since that time he has “walked in purity and accountability.” He was pastor of Shady Grove Church the first time the issue came to light. Most recently he has been pastor of Gateway Church.

(Side note: any pastor who engages in adultery is a fallen ‘below reproach’ pastor, and needs to step down and resume his seat in the pew. He can be forgiven if he repents, Jesus will forgive. But he has lost the office of pastor forever, his immoral act disqualifies him. 1 Timothy 3:2-7. It should also be remarked that many people had warned about Morris’ false doctrine for years, accusing him of being a false teacher. Where there’s smoke there’s fire).

But that so-called “young lady” grew up. She is Cindy Clemishire, and Morris’ interaction with her was not a consensual short term fling, as Morris had intimated. She was a 12 year old child, and the alleged molestation had gone on for four and a half years.

When this accusation came out, the nation was stunned, shocked, and sickened. For the next week, accusations flew, coverups were intimated, information and misinformation shot out from the can of worms and flung around in frenzied orbits. Morris’ accused act was even rebuked by Texas State Representative Giovanni Capriglione, former Southlake Mayor John Huffman, and State Representative Nate Schatzline.

Initially, the elders at Morris’ current church (Gateway Church) defended their lead pastor, but eventually the flames and horror grew to the point that they met and asked for Morris’ resignation. You can read Cindy’s account here.

But this isn’t about that.

That info above was just the necessary context.

As the news came out, and it was just a few days after mega-church long term pastor Tony Evans (also false) stepped down abruptly due to an unnamed sin, I was reeling. Granted, both are false, but it’s such a blot on Christianity, and the pagans don’t know they’re false. What is happening?!

I, like everyone else, was reeling from the horror of a child molester revealed. The disgust and outrage mounted as the heinousness of his casual lie about her age or the length of time it went on was revealed. About the fact that he took advantage of his friends who were hosting him overnight, to allegedly molest their daughter right under their noses. On Christmas, the day we celebrate the holy Savior’s birth!

At the loss of a childhood innocence, betrayal, blots against Jesus, abuse of his position, the sullying of the pulpit. The list goes on at all the terrible things a revelation of this sort raises.

But this isn’t about that.

I do not like to dwell on foulness. It shrinks my soul. I sought a positive. I chose to look at Jesus, not the horror. THIS is what it’s about.

It’s about JESUS.

Finding the Good through the worst news. I thought of three things that a horrific event can bring to mind about our God. Because Jesus is infinitely GOOD, there must be an infinite number of GOOD aspects to this our finite minds cannot grasp. I’ll be happy with these three.

1.His patience. Jesus is patient. He is patient to a degree I cannot even understand. His patience is not endless, but it is magnanimous. I myself was not saved until I was 43. He was patient with ME all those decades, and I strutted around the earth doing sin and reveling in it. His patience to allow a man such as accused child molester Robert Morris is even greater, because the man all these years purported to speak in Jesus’ name.

Angry, I mentally changed Exodus 22:18KJV “Thou shall not suffer a witch to live” to “Thou shall not suffer a to suffer a molester to live.” Yet I remember God’s patience, wanting all to come to repentance, unwilling that any should perish.

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9).

Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:4).

Jesus allows sin to exist because it serves His good purpose. His patience is not endless. Sin will end one day. We can cling to that. But until that day, focus on how patient He was with YOU (me too) before the moment came when He justified us.

2.His wisdom: He tests us all through false teachers. I mean, we know Robert Morris is false. We know through their doctrine. False doctrine is evil because it is sin. However seeing also HOW false they are through exposure of his sinful immorality is hard to bear. But there is a purpose in it. Jesus uses corruption when exposed as a test to show His elect the ‘exceeding sinfulness of sin’ as the Puritan Ralph Venning coined. As we view the rancid evilness of sin, we recoil, and cling to the purity and holiness of Jesus all the more.

What did David do when Nathan rebuked David for his sin? David recoiled. Then he wrote his Psalm 51 confession. It is the same when we see others’ sin so blatant, we shrink back in disgust (just in case we were getting used to our own pet sin or sin in others). Any Christian pursuing holiness and advancing in sanctification will quail in horror to see such doings, and the boomerang reaction is to run to Jesus. We cry out, ‘Lord, let that not happen to me! Preserve me from sin, I confess my sin!’ Then we care even more deeply about the holiness of His church.

For nothing is concealed that will not become evident, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light. (Luke 8:17)

3.His mercy: This one was big for me. If we were allowed to see all the sin there is, we would die immediately from crushing grief. That He lifts the blanket covering sin so minutely, slowly, measuredly is a mercy. As always, His timing allows us to absorb, self-reflect, test our emotions, engage compassion, repent ourselves, fight for purity in our own church… and so on.

We reel and stagger in disgust when this one man’s sin is exposed, imagine how FULL of sin this world is. Its foul and fetid stink permeating everything man does. Sin’s percolating decay leaching into the perfect world God hath made, staining it with vile rot.

We don’t see it all. Our puny souls and finite minds cannot get a mental hold of the totality of it. But imagine this: Jesus sees it ALL. He sees it all at once. And not just from heaven, He came down from glory and lived among it. Sin did not stain Him, but in the end, He became sin. He lived among sinful man, knowing their hearts and minds. He saw Nathanael under the fig tree before he was even called, (John 1:48).

Jesus sees this one is a secret embezzler (Judas) or that one is a molester and that one is a murderer. He knows the secret sins of all. He is merciful to allow us to see sin in only thimbleful amounts!

If He were to lift the blanket on even our own sins all at once and force our nose in it like a puppy? We would die, probably. It’s a mercy that Jesus ONLY allowed us to see Robert Morris’ sin and not all the sin in the world.

When a pastor falls or a secret is exposed to the world it does take a moment for us to absorb, process the feelings, and re-attain equilibrium. But don’t dwell on the horror part. Know this:

now, will God not bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night, and will He delay long for them? (Luke 18:7)

Then look to Jesus.

Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. (Isaiah 45:22).

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.” (Numbers 21:8)

looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

theology

What does ‘grace upon grace’ mean?

Posted on June 23, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

“One of the most wonderful statements about our Lord is that He was “full of grace” (John 1:14) and “of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace” (John 1:16). “Grace upon grace” speaks of accumulated grace—one grace following upon another. Such grace is ours each day. It is unlimited and sufficient for every need.” ~John MacArthur

The picture here is of waves on the beach. We can’t detect where one wave ends and another begins. Waves of grace simply roll in, endlessly, eternally, one connected to another. And so it is with God’s grace upon His believers. We receive endless waves of grace because our lives in Christ are of His grace and in His grace.

theology

Anxious about Hospitality?

Posted on June 22, 2024June 22, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6XgsTkUBrJ1oL0p2f1uHDO?si=07PaD5j_R_uXs68VnHM5Wg

As keepers of the home, we women are often encouraged to invite or even expect others to visit our homes. The hospitality offered by Lydia, Martha & Mary, the mother of John Mark (where Rhoda was so startled when jailed Peter showed up during the prayer gathering) are homes in the NT where women hosted gladly.

We are called to do the same: Titus 1:8, Romans 12:13, 1 Peter 4:9, 1 Timothy 5:10…

I quail at the thought. I am like many women, who would be afraid to host someone in my home when it is less than sparkling clean. I’d want it to be where everything is always put away and I have fresh flowers arranged just so in charming vases and fresh towels in the bathroom with rose petals on them waiting for the random friend to stop over. LOL. Well, that’s how I imagine it anyway.

Of course our homes are never like that. If we really live, we really have a house that’s lived in. Kids toys are all around, there might be – gasp! – dirty dishes in the sink, popcorn kernels in the couch, a pile of mail needing tending to, open books and magazines on the coffee table accompanied by empty mugs of coffee or sticky soda cans…

I remember the most hospitable person I’ve ever known. She isn’t saved. But she is a great wife and mom. Her stance was that she wanted to be the house where her kids’ friends came to, all the better to keep an eye on her kids.

In her house were piles of clutter, worn out sofa, small rooms crowded with ‘stuff’ or oddly arranged. According to design rules, the place wasn’t suited for company. When it got to be dinner time, without a fuss the hostess would cook up a pan of scrambled eggs or baked beans from a can with brown bread (also from a can) and just hand it out on paper plates. Sometimes the husband or the grown kid would pull out a guitar or mandolin and we’d sing.

Anyone and everyone was always invited. Absolutely everyone was treated with warmth, respect, and dignity. And the hostess did collect oddballs, me included. But all were equal, loved, and given a place of acceptance. As I said, she wasn’t saved. She did all this effortlessly and created a safe space I’ll remember forever.

As Christians, we should do that and more. Now, it is certain we should do our best to have a clean house, or at least one that’s fairly picked up. We don’t want to serve food on dirty plates from unsanitary counters, or allow piles of laundry to get strewn as a tripping hazard. There is a balance between sparkling perfection and filthy hoarder.

But there is no need to panic if you’re asked to host a Book Group or a Bible Study or a Fellowship dinner in your home.

Here is one resource-

Having a Martha Home the Mary Way: 31 Days to a Clean House and a Satisfied Soul by Sarah Mae. Here is the blurb,

“Sarah Mae wants to let you in on a little secret about being a good homemaker: It’s not about having a clean house. She’d never claim to be a natural, organized cleaner herself―yet, like you, she wants a beautiful space to call home, a place where people feel loved and at peace. Where people can really settle in with good food, comfy pillows, and wide-open hearts. Is it possible to find a balance?” (Sarah Mae’s book on Amazon)

I have not read the book, but I did read the 29 pages allowed in the Google preview. She seemed to be saying the right things and the tone was non-judgmental. If you find that you’d like to increase your hospitality, I’d say try this book.

Marci Ferrell the Thankful Homemaker also did a podcast recently on “Cultivating Biblical Hospitality“

Here are some other resources-

Ligonier: How Can I Practice Christian Hospitality?

Christian Library: The Biblical Basis for Hospitality

Reformed Theological Seminary, 3-min video clip: Why is true Christian Hospitality so Important?

Start small, invite one lady over, or ask the mom who’s picking up her kid from your house to stay for a cup of tea. The key is love. Just love them.

fellowship, gracious, hospitable, hospitality

One way to be hospitable

Posted on June 21, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

When we think of hospitality we usually think of the setting. And since it’s the woman who are responsible for the home, it usually falls on the woman to set the setting when people are coming over. Cleaning, arranging, setting out the things she’ll need. It is a mark of respect that the hostess makes sure the place she has asked people to enter is comfortable and aesthetically pleasing.

But true hospitality doesn’t really rest on the setting. It rests on the people, and one of the ways the hostess makes people feel comfortable is the conversation.

I envy people who can easily converse in a crowd. The art of conversation is one that, I believe, is a dying art.

Once we had a friend Mike, we called him Mikey. He was a huge man, 350 pounds, built like an aging football player, with an easy laugh. He lived next door and often, he would stop at our house on his way home. When we heard his truck we knew we were in for a few laughs and a good story. He was a true raconteur, regaling us loudly and always had us laughing in two minutes flat. Mikey was the kind of friend you were always glad to see coming. We were glad we were the kind of friends he felt comfortable stopping in to see.

Other people can converse on a more quiet and less showy way. My gal friend had a husky laugh and her eyes sparkled in delight when we talked. She didn’t say much, but her words were always insightful and full of love. Her style of conversation was more of the listening kind. She would listen with full attention, too. I’d storm in, say, “Guess what happened?!” and she would stop what she was doing, fold her hands across her Buddha belly, and look me full in the eye. She would laugh at all the right spots, and was entertained by the smallest incident. Often, she would add an insightful comment that left me pondering a new thought for the rest of the day.

True hospitality means we are focused on the people, and we do that by listening. Focus on them.

Emily Post was an etiquette queen. She wrote her first etiquette book in 1922, ‘Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home.’ It was an enormous best seller. She founded The Emily Post Institute, which continues her work to this day. There are many articles at her Institute regarding hostessing. And many of those revolved around “Good Conversation.” Making Small Talk. How to Be a Good Conversationalist: The Basics. And so on.

Italians’ style of conversation is steeped in storytelling. We call it ‘l’historia.” Even the simplest query from a friend, the smallest question designed for a short answer of “fine”, to the Italian, is met with excitement. Immediately we launch into a long, lyrical story that has a beginning, middle, end, and ranges from laughter to tears and back again. Watch out if you ask me how I’m doing! You are likely to get a long, and to me, absolutely fascinating story.

Remember the movie Moonstruck with Cher? A Brooklyn Italian-American family and their trials and triumphs? The brother-in-law character was named Raymond Cappomaggi and it was he who saw the large moon years before. Around the dinner table he was urged to repeat the legendary incident, with the family exhorting, ‘Come on, Ray, tell about Cosmo’s moon!” he responded apologetically, “Well, it’s not a story…but…”

Conversation knits people together because it creates ties, reveals vulnerabilities, shares experiences, and bonds people in His name for His name.

Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:25)

There are many different styles of conversation. Be hospitable by being a good listener and a lover of people.

That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. (Romans 1:12)

Further Resources

Christian Conversation

Christian communication – what are the keys?

Biblical Principles for Godly Verbal Communication

missionaries, theology

In 2018, John Allen Chau’s death stunned, angered, and perplexed the world

Posted on June 20, 2024June 20, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Finishing my missionary series, we end with a modern day missionary, or as some call Chau, a rogue adventurer. Either way, he did what he did, and his death caused a brief global conversation about unreached peoples and the cause for Christ.

In fact, a few months ago a National Geographic documentary was issued about the life of John Allen Chau, again, depicting Chau as an unmindful adventure seeker, whereupon Voice of the Martyrs’ Tom Nettleton considers him a hero. Nettleton had rebutted this perspective, after having “conducted extensive research for an in-depth backstory. Nettleton found in Chau’s journals and other primary sources that Chau underwent an intentional and intense training process to make first contact in order to obey Jesus’ command to “go into all the world and make disciples.” More here

So, what happened?

John Allen Chau, a 27-year-old American, was killed in November 2018 on Sentinel Island, part of a series of islands owned by India in the middle of the Bay of Bengal. They are restricted islands, due to the natives’ demonstrated hostility and their continued isolation with all the lack of immunity toward modern diseases. There was a buffer zone that even local fisherman were not allowed to penetrate.

An isolated tribe dwells there with whom very few people have made successful contact over the last hundreds of years. Chau, desiring to contact the tribe for the purpose of telling them about Jesus, (as his notes and journal state), was appeared to have been speared on the beach by arrows. The same fate had awaited nearly all of the visitors to the island since written records first mentioned the place. [Photo above source]

It’s interesting to read and watch India news outlets on this story. Some there, believe Chau to have been a rogue adventurer out to get more likes on his social media. Others believe him to have been a passionate missionary desiring to share the name of Jesus. He hadn’t been trained by a missionary organization, or involved in any long-term way with a supporting church. He seemed pretty much a lone guy concerned that this isolated and unreached tribe didn’t know Jesus. Whether this was a black mark against him or a white mark for him, history will tell.

Chau’s arrival wasn’t the first visit to the island by Chau, who had gone to or near the Sentinelese at least 5 times previously. He had brought gifts such as safety pins, a football, and other trinkets in hopes of proving his friendliness. This had been hard to do, as the first recorded contact in 1880 by British Officer Maurice Vidal Portman ended badly and all subsequent contact since has demonstrated only hostility by the natives.

Portman was stationed at Port Blair on nearby South Andaman Island (the port from which Chau had departed on his ill-fated trip). Portman was fascinated with the tribe, who were painfully timid, he wrote, and ate roots and turtles. He absconded with two elderly tribe members and four children, bringing them back to his house on the nearby island for observation, where the elderly members promptly died, having been exposed to diseases against which they had no immunity. Portman returned the children to North Sentinel Island and called the foray a failure.

In more recent times, a NatGeo group attempted to land on the island to film the tribe in the 1970s, but they were repelled in a hail of arrows, one of them striking the director in the leg. Sadly, in 2006 two local fishermen were stranded there after their boat engine failed, and were also immediately killed. Their bodies were impaled and erected like scarecrows on the beach, perhaps as a warning to others who might want to venture near.

Chau had stated that he was motivated by a missionary zeal. This is commendable. However, I strongly caution all of us to be discerning about those who go forth to proclaim Jesus to the nations. Just because someone claims to be a missionary, doesn’t mean they have a firm grasp of who Jesus is. Some Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jesuits and other Catholics call themselves missionaries, yet they do not know Jesus. Chau also graduated from Oral Roberts University, which is not known for teaching the most solid of doctrine. We don’t know Chau’s doctrine. We don’t know which Jesus he was proclaiming. One hopes and prays that he was a true believer, laying down his life for his friends.

“The poor Heathen knew not that they had slain their best friends” ~John G. Paton

But moving on from that caution, Chau was motivated by a strong urge to proclaim Jesus to an unreached tribe. His writings demonstrate this.

His joy turned to sorrow as he was killed on the beach. Fishermen observed the natives dragging Chau’s body and burying it in the sand. Some still held out hope that Chau is alive, that the arrows did not slay him. This is not likely, however.

There are many facts and circumstances around the death of John Allen Chau that aren’t known yet. Some may never be known. However, I am satisfied that this death has captured the world’s attention. The lost do not know why Christians are willing to die in order to proclaim Jesus. Though there are Christian missionary deaths every day, sometimes in large groups at once, the fact that this death, a young man, solo, on the beach, with an unknown stone age tribe hostile to outsiders, captured the world’s attention for over a week and is still going strong. A week is a long time in the minute by minute news cycle.

Because of this, people now know of the tribe and are praying. Additionally, it’s sparked a discussion about dying for the Gospel. It has baptized the ground for Jesus and for perhaps an awakening to come.

People made many comparisons of Chau’s death to the 5 Ecuadorean martyrs in 1956 (Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming, and Roger Youderian) but I see the comparison more toward the missionaries to the New Hebrides Islands in the 1800s. This is an excerpt from missionary to the New Hebrides, John Paton’s book, Thirty Years among the South Sea Cannibals-

Glance backwards over the story of the Gospel in the New Hebrides may help to bring my readers into touch with the events that are to follow. The ever-famous names of Williams and Harris are associated with the earliest efforts to introduce Christianity amongst this group of islands in the South Pacific Seas. John Williams and his young Missionary companion Harris, under the auspices of the London Missionary Society, landed on Erromanga on the 30th of November 1839. Alas, within a few minutes of their touching land, both were clubbed to death; and the savages proceeded to cook and feast upon their bodies. Thus were the New Hebrides baptized with the blood of Martyrs; and Christ thereby told the whole Christian world that He claimed these Islands as His own. His cross must yet be lifted up, where the blood of His saints has been poured forth in His name! The poor Heathen knew not that they had slain their best friends; but tears and prayers ascended for them from all Christian souls, wherever the story of the martyrdom on Erromanga was read or heard.

Again, therefore, in 1842, the London Missionary Society sent out Messrs. Turner and Nisbet to pierce this kingdom of Satan. They placed their standard on our chosen island of Tanna, the nearest to Erromanga. In less than seven months, however, their persecution by the savages became so dreadful, that we see them in a boat trying to escape by night with bare life. Out on that dangerous sea they would certainly have been lost, but the Ever-Merciful drove them back to land, and sent next morning a whaling vessel, which, contrary to custom, called there, and just in the nick of time. They, with all goods that could be rescued, were got safely on board, and sailed for Samoa. Say not their plans and prayers were baffled; for God heard and abundantly blessed them there, beyond all their dreams.

When these Missionaries “came to this Island, there were no Christians there; when they left it, there were no Heathens.”

Subsequent missions were more successful, and within some years, 3500 natives had thrown away their idols and been converted to the name of Christ. One may hope and pray, just as Williams and Harris, though killed almost immediately upon meeting the tribe in New Hebrides, that further approaches at North Sentinel Island will be met with Gospel success.

Time will tell of the results of Chau’s death. I do have a fear that we still do not know his doctrine, thus, ‘which Jesus’ (Acts 1:11) Chau proclaimed, but the Lord will take the global conversations, the worldwide shock, and the questions about these ‘strange Christians’, and open many hearts, I am sure. The slumbering world, immune to knowledge of the wrath to come, was awakened by one man’s lone act, his death ‘for Jesus’ both angering and perplexing it.

Below are some resources regarding the John Allen Chau issue and missions in general.

Denny Burk:
Mission agency clears away some false assumptions about John Chau’s missionary work

Interview via Quick to Listen/Christianity Today with the director of All Nations missionary organization Mary Ho about John Allen Chau

What John Allen Chau’s Missions Agency Wants You to Know

All Nations missionary organization issues letter regarding John Allen Chau

Al Mohler The Briefing–

Segment 1: The morality of global missions: How should those in the developed world look at hunter-gatherer tribes?

Segment 2: Motivation vs. methodology: What the modern missions movement has taught us about how to most effectively reach the unreached.

Garrett Kell: Was murdered missionary John Chau and arrogant fool?

End of the Spear: Movie about Operation Auca and the five missionary deaths in 1956

Gladys Aylward: The Little Woman autobiography of first woman missionary to inland China

Rethinking the viability of short term mission trips

Why short term missions is really long-term missions

Incomprehensible Evangelicals and the Death of John Allen Chau

theology

Five years ago today we released the Open Letter to Beth Moore. Here’s what happened & here’s why Beth HAS to be vague

Posted on June 19, 2024June 20, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

1. What happened

Five years ago today (L-R top row) Michelle Lesley, Amy Spreeman, Susan Heck, (L-R bottom row) Martha Peace, DebbieLynne Kespert, and myself here at The End Time, in tandem on our individual platforms, released an Open Letter to Beth Moore asking her 5 simple questions about her stance on homosexuality. Though Beth constantly remarks on cultural and social issues on her various platforms, to our knowledge we had never seen her take a stance on the sin of homosexuality. We felt it was important to get clarity on this from her, especially since she had (and still has) an enormous global platform with millions of followers.

Michelle Lesley posted a retrospective on her page today, saying,

As you’ll read below, the letter asked Moore to respond to five questions about homosexuality. To this day, as far as I know, she has obfuscated, finessed, straw-manned, slandered, and played the victim, but the one thing she has not done is to clearly and directly answer them. The ensuing brouhaha over the letter, however, spoke much louder than simply answering the questions. I’m re-posting this today to remind and warn all of us that this is how false teachers operate, and that we need to keep our eyes open and be good Bereans.

At Michelle’s site she kept a timeline of events and screen shots of Beth’s vague reactions. Check it out, it says a lot about a false teacher who would not answer a simple question about a sin that God abhors.

The Open Letter to Beth Moore: 5th Anniversary

Here are the five questions. In the original letter, there was a preamble and a closing, but here is the main point of our letter to Beth Moore:

1. Do you believe homosexuality is inherently sinful?
2. Do you believe that the practice of the homosexual lifestyle is compatible with holy Christian living?
3. Do you believe a person who dies as a practicing homosexual but professes to be a Christian will inherit eternal life?
4. Do you believe same sex attraction is, in and of itself, an inherently sinful, unnatural, and disordered desire that must be mortified?
5. Why have you been so silent on this subject in light of your desire to “teach the word of God?”

Seems simple enough to answer, right? But not for a false teacher. She can’t be pinned down. I am going to explain one reason why the event was instructive. Beth Moore (as a false teacher) is highly skilled in equivocating. Her use of non-specific language is masterful.

2. Why couldn’t she just answer?!

Outside of the faith, there are situations where specific language is a must. Science, Maths, technology, and judicial situations are four that I can think of. When a lawyer asks a question he poses it in a certain way in order to elicit a specific and clear response from a witness. You can’t be unclear in court. Judges issue decrees that must be clear. He wouldn’t issue a finding without naming the crime. Unthinkable.

But criminals, politicians, and false teachers speak in non-specifics all the time. How often have you seen a Mafia movie where the Boss says something like ,”Take care of that problem” and it really means, ‘Whack that guy and bury him in cement shoes’? Vague language serves some people very well.

“Firstly, … people typically equivocate when posed a question to which all possible replies have potentially negative consequences, but where nonetheless a reply is still expected.” The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction.

Back to faith situations using vague language- In the 1400s medieval Crusader and autobiographer Margery Kempe was sufficiently vague and slippery, using masterful unclarity to get out of her heresy trial when confronted by the Archbishop of York. And this was court, where specific language is a must! But Kempe never was pinned down.

“Kempe’s sophisticated use of evasive, vague, hedged, and recontextualized speech and situational pragmatics proved more than a match for the Archbishop and his clerks.” From “Margery Kempe’s Strategic Vague Language” in the book The Medieval Life of Language by Mark Amsler.”

We saw it again, recorded in trial documents when in the 1600s Anne Hutchinson was at trial before the Puritan Divines. Hutchinson’s skill at verbal slipperyness even caused the Governor prosecuting her for heresy to say, “Yes, you are a woman of most note, and of best abilities.” She would not be pinned down.

Vague language is most useful to a heretic.

So the problem trying to pin down a skilled equivocator like Beth Moore is not new. When Beth Moore refused to answer, she issued cryptic, vague tweets and messages on her platforms, designed to cover her in a smokescreen where she could disappear like a magician on stage.

But in the end she couldn’t.

Eventually, she had to answer, because this time, the situation wasn’t going away. When she did reply, it was a non-answer that said nothing. Yes, ‘she is a woman of most note, and of best abilities.’

As GK Chesterton has said of neo-paganism, they express “incomparable exercises in the English language“. (From “Heretics”).

Vagueness is important to the politician, false teacher, or any other person needing not to be clear. Here’s why. Let’s use a politician for an example. In speeches, the politician will choose high-emotion words, commonly understood by the hearer, who attaches his or her own personal meaning to it.

Like, ‘liberty’. Now, we all understand the word liberty. But do we? Liberty means something different to a person in jail or to the battered wife, which is different to an unhappy housewife who has career ambitions, which is different to a patriotic citizen in Middle America. We know the word, but we attach different meanings to it. The more vague one can be while seeming to be specific, the more the speaker can connect with more people, and importantly, not alienate a diverse base. The quote below about using pragmatic language can apply to false teachers because they are also like politicians: [insertion is mine, underline is mine]

“Another aspect of this issue is the diversity of the audience in the case of televised politics. In their public performances politicians [and false teachers] do not want to address only one target group but as many as possible. But this means that they have to convey different messages to different people at the same time. Producing coherent statements in such situations is only possible by using various forms of indirect vagueness because different groups of the audience may have dissimilar (and even contradictory) wants.” (Source- International Pragmatics Association, Political Language and Textual Vagueness by Helmut Gruber).

Our faith has words that possess certain meanings. It’s important to protect them and important to use them properly

False teachers have a diverse base and have to work to keep the base united, unlike Christians who have one base- Christ. We want the brilliance and clarity of God’s word to shine. Vagueness is why Beth Moore says all the time in her lessons, things like “Is everybody with me? Everybody know what I’m talkin’ about?” She isn’t checking for understanding, which can’t be done with a virtual audience in a video or in a massive auditorium of thousands of listeners. What she’s doing is forcing a unity among diversity.

The true teacher and the false teacher thus have different goals and use different language to achieve those goals. Read Chesterton’s quote below with the faith in mind. Can we construct a faith with unreliable instruments?

“And this kind of vagueness … is an absolutely final blow to anything in the nature of a science. Men can construct a science with very few instruments, or with very plain instruments; but no one on earth could construct a science with unreliable instruments. A man might work out the whole of mathematics with a handful of pebbles, but not with a handful of clay which was always falling apart into new fragments, and falling together into new combinations. A man might measure heaven and earth with a reed, but not with a growing reed.” GK Chesterton

3. What does the Bible say?

I’ve covered the fact of the false teachers’ use of vague language, and the necessity of their use of vagueness, but now let’s turn to see what the Bible has to say.

The one who has ears to hear, let him hear. Matthew 11:15. And Matthew 13:9, 43; Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29, 3:6, 13, 22; Revelation 13:9. We see that phrase in God’s word so often. We all have ears, physically. We don’t all have the ability to hear through them if we’re deaf. Spiritually, those who are not in Christ do not have the ability to spiritually hear His word.

Chesterton, “A man cannot pay that kind of reverence to truth solid as marble; they can only be reverent towards a beautiful lie.”

If you are in Christ, we DO have ears to hear- Him. But we need to listen carefully to one and all who claim to be speaking God’s words from God’s Bible. Are we listening carefully to not only the words with our ears, but with our souls, by the Spirit?

“Jesus’ simple request is that we use our God-given faculties (eyes to see, ears to hear) to tune in to His words (John 10:27 –28; Mark 4:24; Revelation 3:20). “For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open” (Mark 4:22).” (Source GotQuestions)

Whenever you hear a teacher professing Christianity equivocate, evade, or use vague language, especially when a specific question has been asked, your ears should hear what is being said and what is not being said.

We are ambassadors for Jesus and we have a duty to convey the King’s message as carefully as we can. So we use precise language in our teaching, evangelizing, writing, and preaching. When teachers or preachers don’t, then you know there is a problem. When they use cryptic, evasive, non-specific language, let him who has an ear, hear.

If we train ourselves in discernment we will hear and thus detect the source. (Hebrews 5:14).

missionaries, theology

Lottie Moon- Famous Single Woman Missionary, or Proto-Feminist?

Posted on June 18, 2024June 20, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

God does a powerful and magnificent thing by raising up missionaries. He not only regenerates hearts but He establishes some to go to the hard places, live a hard life, and some even to die for His name. The selfish will of the natural man would never do that. The self-sacrificing heart of a regenerated Christian, would.

I think of many woman missionaries who lived and died for His Gospel. One of my favorites is Gladys Aylward, missionary to China. We remember the female missionaries of the 1800s and early 1900s who first went places, like Lottie Moon, Amy Carmichael, Annie Jenkins Sallee, Mary Slessor, and Isabel Crawford… among many others.

This week and last week I’ve presented essays about a few of these female missionaries, including Elisabeth Elliot, Amy Carmichael, and Gladys Aylward. These are ladies who seem to have done “missionary” right.

There are some women who have not behaved well on the mission field, or whose motives for going became obvious via their words or their letters.

We might be inclined to even think of them like super-Christians, given extra strength or morality or character, or who were extra spiritual. LOL, they were simply women, with the same sins, tendencies, and foibles as the rest of us.

In fact, you might be surprised to find that some female missionaries may have possessed extra doses of foibles and struggles as they considered the mission field. Some of them may have mixed their motives for going, struggling with the exact same issues we do today- feminism and being conflicted about prescribed gender roles.

After William Carey, missionary to India and considered the Father of Modern Missions, died in 1834, a fervor arose among the faithful. He had founded the Baptist Missionary Society, spent 41 years in India (without a furlough) and raised consciousness among Christians of the need for bringing the Gospel to the nations. Missions exploded.

In addition to the missions movement powerfully springing up in the mid 1800s, in which many Christians desired to go, another powerful movement sprang up too- First Wave Feminism. (1848-1920). Whereas previously, the only credible careers available to women were teaching or nursing, now, many women found that a missionary life afforded them a chance at a fulfilling career and even leadership opportunities on the foreign field that would not have happened back home. The Civil War had helped with that, either with women handling the homestead or the business while the men were gone, or serving in the army itself as doctors. Once bitten by the independence bug, many women found that missions offered similar opportunity to lead an independent life free from most of the societal restrictions that squelched their more forward ambitions.

In 1834, New York businessman’s wife, Sarah Doremus, heard a sermon about the need for women on the field in China, in order to reach Chinese women. She tried to get an organization going, but it went nowhere. By the time of the Civil War in 1861, there was less opposition to females singly joining men on the foreign mission field. Doremus’ organization was finally founded in 1861 with success: the Women’s Union Missionary Society (WUMS). It proposed to send out only single women, and indeed it became the first American organization to send single women to the foreign mission field. Early results were sending two medical missionaries, Dr. Sara Seward and Dr. Mary Seelye to India, who in 1871 established a children’s hospital in Calcutta.

Let’s look at one of the famous missions ladies.

Charlotte ‘Lottie’ Moon (1840-1912) Missionary to China.

One of the earliest and easily the most famous single female missionary, Lottie Moon, seems to have been a relentless advocate for expanded women’s roles, a proto-feminist.

Lottie was indifferent to the Baptist religion of her parents until age 18, when she experienced an awakening during a series of revivals. She then attended Virginia Female Seminary and Albemarle Female Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia graduating in 1861 with the first master of arts degrees awarded to a woman by a southern institution.

Lottie taught at home for a while, but then responded to a call from her sister Edmonia in 1871 who had already been approved for the China mission field and had been there a year. Lottie’s other sister Orianna had previously served in the Confederate Army as a Doctor in the US Civil War.

Foreign missions often encountered an issue of gender. In many nations, only women could reach women. Men counseling or giving the Gospel or interacting in general with women presented a scandalous problem. The teaching career having palled for Lottie, she responded to her sister’s call and went to China to “go out among the millions” as an evangelist. Instead she wound up in the same work-situation as she had been back home, teaching what she termed as “unstudious children” in China and feeling like an oppressed class of single women missionaries. She complained about this. A lot.

In an article titled “The Woman’s Question Again,” published in 1883, Lottie wrote:

Can we wonder at the mortal weariness and disgust, the sense of wasted powers and the conviction that her life is a failure, that comes over a woman when, instead of the ever broadening activities that she had planned, she finds herself tied down to the petty work of teaching a few girls?

Lottie had planned it all out, did she?

I know, O LORD, that a man’s way is not his own; no one who walks directs his own steps. (Jeremiah 10:23)

It is sad how Lottie viewed women missionaries teaching children on the mission field. It was “petty work” to her.

Lottie Moon was in fact ardent activist for women’s rights and a tireless supporter for an expanded sphere for women’s evangelistic work, despite what the Bible said women’s roles are to be. Her specific directive from the SBC Missions Board was to teach women, not to plant churches, evangelize, or teach men. Rebelling, Lottie did all three, loudly. She decided that to make a lasting impact she had to reach the men of the community. So she incited curiosity in showy ways, so that the curious men would attend her teaching meeting, and Lottie ‘innocently’ said that she was just mainly preaching to women but would not send the men away if they chose to come. That attitude was similar to Beth Moore’s stance a hundred years later,

Being a woman called to leadership within and simultaneously beyond those walls [of an SBC church] was complicated to say the least but I worked within the system. After all, I had no personal aspirations to preach nor was it my aim to teach men. If men showed up in my class, I did not throw them out. I taught. ~Beth Moore

Lottie wrote,

“Simple justice demands that women should have equal rights with men in mission meetings and in the conduct of their work.”

Lottie did receive criticism from both men and women for her opinions, one of which included women entering the missions field in order to do the “largest possible work,” but other women abhorred Lottie’s “disorderly walk” and one Mrs. Arthur Smith called for her to stop her “lawless prancing all over the mission lot.” Lottie didn’t.

Lottie: “What women want who come to China is free opportunity to do the largest possible work…. What women have a right to demand is perfect equality.” Mission Frontiers

She found it easier to advance her expanded view of female missionary work on the foreign field. When no men were available to preach, she did. Around 1885 Lottie decided on her own without permission from the home Board, to move to China’s interior, P’ingtu. Her heart was burdened for the many who were ‘groping ignorantly for God,’ and where incidentally there was also less Board oversight.

By 1886, Lottie had completely abandoned the “woman’s work for women” policy that had she had agreed to in order to receive her appointment as a Southern Baptist missionary to China. Her move to P’ingtu accomplished, she had no male protection, no male supervision, and evangelized as she saw fit, experimenting with various methods.

And of her Field Director’s attempts to redirect her efforts toward the call to which she agreed, teaching, she wrote-

“[His plans] would make him, through the Board, dictator not only for life but after he had passed from earthly existence. If that be freedom, give me slavery.”

Forgoing biblical submission, she threatened resignation. Lottie Moon was an egalitarian who did much to erode the SBC’s stance on complementarian roles for men and women. Her rebelliousness resonates to this day.

Lottie remained unmarried to her death. As regards her death, the common story is that Lottie gave away all her money and gave her food to starving Chinese during a famine, dying a board a ship at Kobe Harbor weighing 50 pounds. Other documents indicate Moon suffered from an infection located behind her ear, which the missions doctor theorized had invaded her spinal column and caused dementia. Part of Moon’s end-of-days dementia included fixations on lack of money and refusal to eat.

While some see Lottie Moon as a lover of the Gospel and a lover of souls, she was certainly a rebellious and relentless campaigner for ‘women’s rights’ within the SBC, spending many years fighting the SBC (once safely out on the field), rights that went far outside the bounds of biblical roles.

There were others also who wrestled with the biblical roles for women and found ‘independence’ and ‘freedom’ on the mission field, such as Mary Slessor (L)(Nigeria) and Annie Jenkins Sallee (R). (China).

As the missionary fever caught on the earnest people went out, many at risk to their lives or at the least, knowing they would never see near family again. There were others who were more led by personal passions than the glory of God. Some women went forth using Jesus as a vehicle to satisfy their aspirations, with a secondary consideration for His glory. No doubt many of these ladies did good. They healed, adjudicated, salved, built…but when unholy motivations factor in, the entire endeavor becomes tainted.

We praise God for the women and men missionaries who served well. As for the others, we leave it to Jesus to sort them out.

praise songs, theology

We are a singing people

Posted on June 17, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Continuing my mini-missionary series, picking up from where I left off a few days ago, today we learn of a certain moment in China missionary Gladys Aylward’s life. Previous missionary stories are linked at bottom.

We as believers are a singing people. In lesson 2 of RC Sproul’s teaching video series “What Did Jesus Do?: Understanding the Work of Christ” (free at Ligonier) Sproul talks of the Songs in the Bible; OT’s Song of Moses, Miriam, Deborah, and in the NT, the Infancy Hymns of Mary, Simeon, and Zacharias, and also Revelation’s New Song. He explained that whenever God does a huge act of redemption, gratitude and awe springs forth in praises in hymn of the great God. These are recorded in His word, these songs of praise and thankfulness being a beautiful segment of our faith.

Continue reading →

encouragement, Uncategorized

Fathers and their effect

Posted on June 16, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

My father died in 2014. He was 81. He had never said “I love you” to his daughter.

Now he never will.

It’s a truth that doesn’t get any easier the older one gets. It’s actually harder to get used to the longer one drifts in time away from his death date, not easier.

He was a hard working man. He was a gifted raconteur. He was a wealthy man. He was a lot of things. But a father? Not so much. His ignoring of his kids as they grew, his intermittent but frequent abandonment of them as adults, his final, legal disownment of them as he aged all were stunning betrayals in the lives of three children, with untold consequences.

Every daughter can tell a different story about her father. Some stories are good, some are bad. Some are neutral. Some are bitter and some are sweet. Fathers, dear reader, have an effect.

There is a short film called The Father Effect. It is good.

The producer of this movie lost his own father to suicide when he was a boy. As he stated in the movie’s Mission page, the resulting film is his attempt

to educate, equip, & encourage men to be the dads God created them to be

Many of the people with whom I am connected through media and in real life have great parents who they honor and feel blessed to have grown up under. Others have disappointing stories they share, either freely or privately. Whatever the case with you, you know fathers have an effect on you for life. I worry for the fatherless who don’t have the solace of Jesus. For those among you who have had a less than blessed childhood, but are now safely home under Jesus’ wings, you know you have a REAL father. Jesus will love you forever, never abandon you, and is in fact, perfect. What a blessing this is. He is not only as Prophet, Priest, and King, but friend, brother, and Father.

The Father Effect movie also has an EncouragingDads project.

The Encouraging Dads Project was an idea that came out of John’s experience in making The Father Effect Movie. As John talked to dads from all walks of life, he heard heartbreaking stories about how dads feel beat up, discouraged, and frustrated with their lives as dads. John was moved to do something to help encourage and inspire dads and The Encouraging Dads Project was born.

Take some time to encourage your Dad. Encourage a dad. Encourage a man who was a dad to you. Encouragement is free, and only takes a few moments. Send a letter, make a phone call, send a text, make a date to take him out for coffee. Tell him how special he is to you.

Dads, do the same for your daughters. If some time has gone by since you talked to her, take a moment to let her know how much she means to you, how proud of her you are, that you love her. My dad in all probability never confessed and repented and probably died outside of Christ. It was a sudden hit in a car crash. Boom. Gone.

He and I will not meet again, and I’m sorrowful for that. Eternity will go on and I will be loved perfectly by many fathers, and THE Father. I will forget the former troubling things, including Dad. He will remember everything, forever. If there is sorrow over your relationship with your dad, if you are on opposite sides of the salvation fence, let that fact weigh on you, and as the men in The Father Effect say, forgive.

Caption: “Our purpose in making this film is to create an awareness in fathers about the significant impact their words and actions have on their children and to help them become better fathers.”

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. (Matthew 19:29).

theology

Two birthdays, two ministries, two trajectories

Posted on June 15, 2024June 15, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

The Bible is disgusted by false teaching and is strong on pure doctrine. Why? The consequences of error are dire.

Scottish Divine James Durham said, “Error destroys the soul (2 Peter 2:1; 2 Thessalonians 2:12). In fact, it brings on swift damnation ( 2 Peter 2:1). It overthrows the faith of many (2 Timothy 2:18), perverts Scripture to people’s destruction (2 Peter 3:16), and deceives many (Matthew 24:11). For this reason, it is also called damnable and pernicious (2 Peter 2:1-2).”

Further, Durham wrote, “No titles carry greater indignation and abomination than the titles given to such people. They are generally called dogs and evil workers (Philippians 3:2); wolves, or rather grievous wolves (Matthew 7:15; Acts 20:29), deceitful workers; ministers of satan, as if they were expressly commissioned by him (2 Corinthians 11″13); deceivers and liars (Revelation 2:2); evil men and seducers, who wax worse and worse (2 Timothy 3:13).“

False teaching is not to be overlooked, dismissed, watered down, or ignored. It is serious, serious business. There is correct doctrine and there is incorrect doctrine. One pleases the Lord. The other provokes His wrath.

The problem is ancient, it began in time immemorial past in heaven when satan, puffed with pride and ambition to unseat God, lied and enticed many holy angels to quit following God and to follow him. They took the swap and thus they fell and became demons. Satan brought the problem to earth in the Garden where he tempted our first parents and they fell, bringing the future entirety of humankind with them. Satan’s deceptions have continued, with warnings and prohibitions to us from God, through the Old Testament to the New, and into this very day.

That’s one path, the wide one. One side of the light vs. dark saga.

Alternately there are those on the narrow path. God raises up ministers for His name in every generation who are stalwart, true, persevering, and edifying. After Jesus came the Apostles, then the church fathers, the medieval men like Wycliffe and Hus, the Reformation men like Luther and to the Puritans and post-Puritans like Edwards, and the mid twentieth century men like Gerstner, Sproul, Lloyd-Jones. Today we have the new men like Riccardi, Pickowitz, Buice, James Coates…

The Lord always raises up good men, and aside from the ones mentioned, there are thousands and millions more He raised up that we never heard of but who labored faithfully to their end, and were brought to the bosom of their Priestly Shepherd to enjoy rest from ministering and to the bliss of being with the leader of the true Church.

This dichotomy of false teaching vs. true was brought to mind this week as I noticed two famous people are having birthdays a few days apart.

John MacArthur and Beth Moore. I have been involved at a distance with both these folks for a long time. I’ve seen the trajectories. I’ve read and listened to their works. And the starkness could not be more clear. Beth Moore’s output has damaged the faith and in many cases brought it into disrepute, while MacArthur’s has strengthened it and honored the Lord’s name.

John MacArthur will turn 85 years old on June 19. He has been ministering as pastor-teacher at Grace Community Church for 56 years. He was ministering 5 years before that as an associate pastor. He has been actively serving the Lord for 61 years. The Lord is gracious to give us all these decades with him, and surely his impact has been great.

He has never wavered on the authority of scripture, cessationism, young earth creationism, complementarianism, dispensationalism, the Lordship of Christ, proper Christology, and gender and sexuality. He has preached through every book of the New Testament verse by verse, which took 45 years to accomplish. He has written over 150 books which have been translated into myriad languages, faithfully shepherded his congregation week after week, withstood the covid closures, led a solid seminary, and has been acknowledged by Christianity Today as one of the most influential preachers of his time. His MacArthur Study Bible has sold more than one million copies, receiving a Gold Medallion Book Award. That Study Bible has been in the hands of pastors from the icy Faroes in the Arctic Circle to dusty back roads in Africa, to the jungles of Peru.

Certainly there are many other private ministrations in Jesus’ name that only MacArthur and the Lord know about between them. He is in a long line of blood-bought pastors who have risen to public knowledge and have edified many who learn from him and watch his godly life as one to imitate. Paul said “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ”. (1 Corinthians 11:1). This means, “he was instructing us as believers to carefully examine our Savior’s life and the lives of His faithful servants. He gave a similar command earlier in 1 Corinthians 4:16: “Therefore I urge you to imitate me.” In the original Greek, the verb translated as “imitate” in 1 Corinthians 11:1 and 1 Corinthians 4:16 is mimētai and means “become a person who copies the words and behaviors of another.” (Source GotQuestions).

Perhaps the Lord has left MacArthur on earth so long in order to demonstrate His sustaining power in a faithful life that started and so far is ending well. The Lord is good to us.

For 45 years Beth Moore has been speaking here, there, and everywhere she possibly could. Regrettably, her speaking engagements have been laced with error and deception. She began, by her own words, in her early 20s as a “Christian Motivational Speaker”. She never left that profession, really. Then when she was 27 she began teaching a Sunday School class, but she said she was also “learning the scriptures” at that time. It’s a tragedy that they put her into a position where she was simultaneously learning the Bible AND teaching. She wasn’t ready.

Again by her own words, her class was “packed” and they all “had a blast” but “we weren’t really studying the scriptures”. Why? Because Beth said she “just thought up things to talk about and then I got panicked on Saturday because I think where is a scripture to go with it.” She never grew out of that improper hermeneutic even with “the doctrine class” she took. It was still motivational speaking but with with a thin Christian overlay of out of context sprinkled verses.

Did you know that Beth briefly attended seminary but dropped out? Why? She was “reading the environment and coming to the realization of what my opportunities would and would not be.” She chafed against the biblical hierarchy of male led faith, she has been clear about that. She obviously wasn’t in seminary to learn about Jesus and to parse the scriptures correctly. She wanted “opportunities” for herself and quit when she saw she couldn’t go rogue.

Yet she was teaching a packed Sunday School class of 2000, including men. She was preaching Sunday Night at the request of her then-pastor. She’d started teaching ‘Bible classes’ outside of her church interdenominationally. Her first ‘Study’ was published by Lifeway. What other “opportunities” was she looking for? What other “opportunities” remain? I leave it to you to surmise the answer.

Beth Moore will celebrate her 67th birthday on June 16, which at this writing is tomorrow. She has been actively ‘ministering’ for about 44 years. The Lord has His reasons for allowing false teachers to persist, and one of them is in order to see who is approved, and by contrast who is not. (1 Corinthians 11:19). Another reason perhaps is also to demonstrate His grace and mercy and patience in allowing such people to exist on His earth, in order to give opportunity to repent.

Jesus considers false female prophetesses an abomination. See His threatened condemnation to the false prophetess of Thyatira, but consider His grace, as He said He gave her time to repent. (Revelation 2:21). But she did not want to repent. Here, Matthew Henry is commenting on Revelation 2:21, the false prophetess of Thyatira-

They made use of the name of God to oppose the truth of his doctrine and worship; this very much aggravated their sin. They abused the patience of God to harden themselves in their wickedness. God gave them space for repentance, but they repented not. Observe, Repentance is necessary to prevent a sinner’s ruin. Where God gives space for repentance, he expects fruits meet for repentance. Where the space for repentance is lost, the sinner perishes with a double destruction. Source Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible (commenting on Revelation 2:21).

The problem with false teachers is that spreading error teaches others to lie. (Matthew 5:19). This is evil because error has its origins in the devil.

Please do not let Beth’s Christianish veneer and firehose gushing about Jesus distract you from the greed and ambition that lies underneath. Just as the Pharisees made a show of prayers on the street corners and attended banquets (so they could be honored for the chief seats), at Beth Moore’s core is a career minded, Jesus-using deceiver on a fast trajectory to hell. (2 Peter 2:1).

Wheat and tares grow together – for a while. Then comes the reaping.

The Lord is good to give us faithful pastors, He is also good to give us faithless wolves. He s always good. We learn who to imitate and who not to. We learn true doctrine and practice discernment by seeing what is false.

Psalm 100:5
For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.