Posted in psalm 83, rapture

The world is all shook up

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here are a couple of nuggets for you. I did not come up with these. Smarter people than I posed the question and brought the thought forward. The first is from a Q&A at Jack Kelley’s site Grace Thru Faith regarding the first line in Psalm 83. The second is a thought from Joel Rosenberg.

Jack Kelley:
“Q. Psalm 83:3 says “They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.” The word “they” refers to the Arab confederates, and “thy people” refers to the nation of Israel. Who are the “hidden ones?” Could this be the raptured Church? If so, it would be a pretty strong hint that the Church is raptured before the battle of Psalm 83 takes place. What do you think?”

[Isaiah 26:20 states: “Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by.”

“A. Since Psalm 83 and the rapture are not connected, there’s no reason why we have to be here when it happens. The phrase translated “hidden ones” in Psalm 83:3 means exactly that in Hebrew. Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that in Isaiah 26:20 a group of God’s people is told to hide themselves in advance of God’s wrath. Since this instruction immediately follows a resurrection in verse 19 it can’t be referring to believing Jews, whose resurrection takes place after the Great Tribulation (Daniel 12:1-2). I believe Isaiah was referring to the Church and that Isaiah 26:19-21 is the source for Paul’s teaching on the rapture in 1 Thes. 4:15-17. (If so this would lend more support to the view that he taught a pre-trib rapture to the Thessalonians.) If Psalm 83:3 and Isaiah 26:20 refer to the same group of hidden ones, then you might just be correct in saying it’s another hint as to the sequence of End Times events.”

This morning Joel C. Rosenberg wrote about shaking the nations. “The LORD is shaking the nations physically, spiritually, financially; Why? And how should we respond?”

It is a good essay outlining what, in his view, the nation-shaking is (Greece, US, Iran, Israel, Arab Nations etc). Then the verse from Haggai is presented:

“The Lord said through the ancient Hebrew Prophet Haggai that the nations would be shaken in the future. “For thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. I will shake all the nations….I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations.” (Haggai 2:6, 7, 21, 22)”

“In the New Testament, the Lord reinforced that theme. “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’….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.” (Hebrews 12:25-29)”

I appeal to one and all to be engaged in an acceptable service with reverence and awe. It IS the way we show gratitude to a Holy God all the things He has done for us. And that though the nations are shaken, our faith will remain upon the Rock that is the Eternal Savior.
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Posted in bible, God, worship

The Kind of Worship God desires

Posted on by elizabethprata

I’ve posted recently about the shallow state of the Christian worship these days, and did a lot of posting about Beth Moore. That means that in the last week I’ve immersed in watching, listening, reading and attending events that are shallow in their worship (at best) and are blasphemous because of their casual approach to worship and the Holiness of a God we should fear (at worst). I needed a spiritual shower. So I listened this morning to John MacArthur’s third part of the series called “The Kind of Worship God Desires.” You can go here for a transcript or to download it. The first minute and a half is introduction and the last 4 minutes is an interview. The preaching itself is about 22 minutes. I urge you to take the time to listen/watch. You will be blessed. Then take a peek below as to the kind of  worship some engage in today. The contrast is startling. And that is the point.

After an April snowstorm, one Christian author wrote of intimacy with God through play. “I heard the voice of God speak to my heart: “Come and play.” I love that He said “Come.” Not “Go.” “Come.” That meant He was already there. I also love how I could tell by the sweet tone of His silent voice whispering to my spirit that He was smiling. You know, you can tell that kind of thing in the voices of those you really know.”

He had a silent voice, but it whispered. Neat trick. More than that, the writer could detect the tone of voice from the silence: smiling. Even neater trick. Best of all, the writer was on such familiar terms with God that His tone of voice could be detected. If you know Him well enough, you can tell that kind of thing, la di da.

The story continued, “I built a snowman. I used grapes for eyes, and a half-moon shaped sesame snack for the mouth. I didn’t make a nose. I have enough for the both of us. He’s wearing my hat and scarf, and I rather hope he doesn’t get them wet. I let him borrow them because I was coming back inside. I laughed with God. He laughed with me.”

Wow, cool! God is really just an avuncular cheerleader who builds snowmen. He isn’t really the HOLY God whose courts shake with praise and smoke billows out, He is just a guy who hangs out on a sunny day finding sesame snacks to use for snowmen mouth with women who need a break from work.

I love my God because He is Holy. I love Jesus, even thinking of the moment on the Mount of Transfiguration where He revealed His glory and the three apostles with Him fell down terrified. (Mt 17:1-9). I love to think of Him first and foremost this way because it is a continual reminder of our position. Sinner. Yes, mercifully we’re forgiven. Yes, mercifully the sins are forgotten. But mercy was needed because of His holiness. See, we’re back to the most important attribute of God. It was stated three times in the Isaiah 6:3 scene in heaven, and “The Hebrews usually expressed the superlative degree by the repetition of a word.” This means it is a supreme attribute.

This is the Jesus we worship today:
“Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” (Revelation 1:12-18)

Hallelujah! I prefer this Jesus to the snowman making one. Don’t you? The snowman making God who laughs and plays seems too much like us and not enough like who He really is.

The pastor at Window to the Word wrote in the piece Coming Face to Face with God,

“I had a pastor who is a pastor of a pretty far-out kind of charismatic church. We were having lunch one day and he said, ‘I want to tell you something, I don’t know how you’ll deal with this,’ he said, ‘but sometimes when I’m shaving in the morning Jesus comes in the bathroom, puts His arm around me and talks to me.’ I said, ‘You mean Jesus, the real Jesus appears in a way you can see Him actual…’ ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Do you believe that?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t believe that. But what distresses me is I believe you believe that. I just have one question, do you keep shaving because if you keep shaving, my friend, it wasn’t Jesus.’”

“What happens when a person comes face-to-face with God? Does he casually “keep shaving” and say something like, “So, what’s going, on Big Guy? Hey, high five!” Is that what happens when we come face-to-face with God? Or is what happens in Luke 5:8 more accurate? When Peter recognizes who Jesus is he says, “”Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”

Blessed are those who are forgiven, who will be able to hear His voice without exploding! Who will be able to see Him as He is without falling dead! He is a holy and a merciful God, and it is Him to whom I cling.
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Posted in great tribulation, jesus, pisgah, usgs

Pisgah Crater volcanic activity: DutchSinse vs. USGS and the rumble in the desert

Posted on by elizabethprata

I mentioned yesterday about the fight for truth in the secular world. I’d stated that the people know there is stuff going on, but the people who have access to the data or are otherwise in official capacities speak to the opposite of what we see and know. Or they deny completely what is going on, or they simply lie.

I’ve said a few times and shared the statements that the United States Geological Survey has said that there is no increase in earthquakes, then I used their data to show the opposite, earthquakes are regularly exceeding the USGS annual average. The same is true for volcanic activity. The US Government officials say we are in an economic recovery, or that TAARP has worked, when we can all see the economic outlook worsening by the day. Economist John Williams has made a career of showing the true economic data as compared to the information given to us by the General Accounting Office. I don’t think that I’ll get any argument that the value of the information being presented by official channels these days are usually tainted. It is wise to be skeptical in this day and age of any and all secular information we’re given. Search these things out for yourself and be a wary and critical consumer of information.

But when you do search you get a mishmash. Who to trust?  Some people are simply crackpots. At the very least, most of us don’t know how to correctly interpret a monetary chart, radar, or scientific data. That’s why we leave it to the experts. Yet at the same time it was citizen journalists who spotted the Nabro eruption, revealed the false data in Climategate, and this week, made a claim of a volcanic venting in Southern California that even prompted a response by the USGS.

There is a YouTube man named DutchSinse who regularly posts information concerning weather, earthquakes, and volcanic activity. I’ve listened to him and I find that his approach is careful, measured, and best of all, he shows how he arrives at his conclusions. He doesn’t make outrageous claims but instead puts forth conclusions reasonably based on what he sees from the data. This week he posted three videos showing data to support his claim that there has been volcanic venting at an ancient volcano in the southern California desert, Pisgah.

Pisgah Crater is located between Barstow and Needles CA about 2.5 miles from I-40. It borders the Mojave National Preserve. The Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program says the crater and attendant lava beds are from the Holocene Era which according to secular scientists is a geologic era that began about 11,000 years ago and continues to this day. Its last known eruption is unknown.

In his first two of videos from Sunday July 24 he shows a Nexrad radar of the area with what looks to be a stationary plume of moisture emerging from ground level and hovering for hours before dissipating. He mused that it was volcanic venting.

The next day on the 25th of July DutchSinse posted another video showing the same thing. Dutch moved his audience through his thought process and showed us step by step how and why he had come to the conclusion the volcano was venting. He sent the video and his findings to the USGS. In response, the USGS issued a press release denying that was what was going on.

What I found interesting about the press release was that they didn’t deny something was going on, they simply stated that Dutch had misinterpreted that data. Here is the press release:

“BARSTOW • A YouTube user who claimed to have discovered a volcanic eruption in the Mojave Desert over the weekend was mistaken, U.S. Geological Survey officials said Monday. A YouTube video posted Saturday evening displayed radar images and Google Earth maps as a narrator described what he believed to be evidence of a volcanic eruption over Pisgah Crater, a young volcanic cylinder cone between Barstow and Needles about 2.5 miles south of Interstate 40. “There was no indication of a volcanic eruption on that date and time, and nor is there one brewing today,” USGS spokeswoman Clarice Ransom said.Dr. John Eichelberger, program coordinator of volcano hazards for USGS, said the video didn’t appear to be a hoax, but rather a misinterpretation of the data.”

Now, I find this fascinating for many reasons. Dutch has a Youtube channel and a website complete with blog, images, and video. But his name is nowhere to be found. So a United States Government Agency found it necessary to respond to the information from an anonymous guy putting out a few videos. I find that extraordinary. It is telling that citizen journalists have made such an impact that the official channels of information react knee-jerk with immediate denials.

Equally interesting is that the USGS referred to data but only said it was not interpreted correctly. However the USGS failed to interpret it for us. They did not tell us what it meant. They admitted there was data, and that there is an interpretation to be made. What it is though, the USGS stopped short of revealing. And therein lay the problem: in any information vacuum, people will fill it in with their own ideas. In some cases like DutchSinse, they will come to reasonable conclusions. In others they will be off the wall.

The next day, by the way, Dutch posted a third video showing what he interpreted to be venting for the third day in a row. It was then that he said he felt 100% certain that what we were seeing is volcanic activity near the Mojave, notwithstanding the USGS denial of his interpretation (but not his data).

People are clamoring for truth to make sense of what is happening all around us. Context and solid information helps us feel less anxious. Recall the Fireside Chats from President Roosevelt during the Depression. Those chats either contained authoritative information or were simply Presidential encouragement to help the people through a dark time- the Depression. We needed to know the officials were “on it”, were “with us”, and we were united in our goal to get through it with unity and dignity. We don’t get that any more. All we get from the people in charge are denials and lies.

As to the immediate point, whether Pisgah is about to erupt or not, I don’t know. Dutch made a good point when he said it was not military, it wasn’t cloud cover, nor was it a brush fire. It was moisture in the hottest part of the desert, stationary to that location, and from the ground. Brush fires move. Clouds move. This didn’t. If it wasn’t venting, what was it? It is not far-fetched to wonder if the volcano will erupt at some point, I mean, Nabro in Eritrea recently did, and that was a volcano that had never erupted. Again, that was an event spotted by amateur radar and satellite aficionados. Chaiten in Chile erupted fairly suddenly, and that volcano had not erupted in 9500 years. From the bible we know that the earth will act in increasingly aberrant ways with earthquakes, super-hail, volcanic eruptions, and more. (Rev 6. I believe that the Revelation verse noting the sun went black as sackcloth is from volcanic ash blanketing the sun’s rays. More here.)

Now to the main point. The end time will be rife with falsity, the bible tells us. In terms of the Gospel, there will be false doctrines, false teachers, false prophets, liars, and seducers. (2 Peter 2; 1 Tim 4:1; 2 Tim 3:8). In the secular world we are told that men will be boasters, slanderers, lovers of themselves, traitors- all conditions that at their root have a lie at the center. (2 Tim 3:1-5). In other words, in both the secular and the Christian world, the truth will be harder and harder to find. As the world veers inexorably toward falsity, it will culminate during the Tribulation with “THE Lie”. (2 Thess 2:11). Though the lie is not defined in the Thessalonians verses, many people (myself included) believe this to be the lie that the man who appears in the Tribulation is Messiah. They did not receive Jesus when He came, and but they will accept another. (John 5:43). Truth will be increasingly hard to find until the Tribulation when lies will be ALL that people will find.

As a Christian I urge one and all to be deep into your bible. We have to cling to Jesus and walk closely with Him to avoid being prey to religious fads, false doctrines, and wolves in sheep’s clothing. Jesus is the only truth and as he revealed Himself to us in His word we must take it to heart and seriously study. We, being flesh, will and do often fall prey to lies. The flesh wants to believe lies but the Holy Spirit in us wants to regenerate us into His likeness. (Titus 3:5). An active prayer life, a close walk with Him and daily dying to flesh will go a long way to the Holy Spirit to grow us to righteousness and glory.
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Posted in comet elenin, judgment, planet x, revelation

Elenin is almost here…but so is Jesus

Posted on by elizabethprata

The posts I publish that I hope will get a lot of traffic, don’t, and the posts I put up about the weird stuff always gets a lot of traffic. The all-time top traffic-getter was the February 4 post about the “Ghost Horse of Tahrir Square on MSNBC“, with 22,254 views. Coming in a close second is the “Comet Elenin is Coming” post that same month, with almost 20,000 views.

I’d posted information about Comet Elenin, hoping to cut through the hysteria with some facts. I’d presented information from NASA’s ‘Ask an Astrobiologist’ site, and analyzed it. I also made the main point that the reason for the Elenin hysteria these days is that people are increasingly having a hard time finding truth in the news, and in frustration with their elected officials and their main stream media, are turning in droves to the fringe sites for information. It is increasingly hard to trust the people we used to depend on to tell that the facts, and anger is rising. Frustration leads to hysteria and soon we have a skittish population running to and fro to catch the wisps of the latest fact-filled conspiracy or conspiracy-laden facts, however you want to look at it.

That is because, like Isaiah’s day, we live in a time soon there will be “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20). These are the days when the sins are rampant. Increasingly there is no distinction of morality and religion. People prefer evil to good and we see this played out every day when some news organization is revealed to have plagiarized or made stuff up, some financial organization is revealed to have been horrendously greedy, some politician is revealed to have been perverse and immoral. The religious prefer erroneous and fake doctrines to the true; the people prefer evil to a righteous course of conduct.

The only truth is the bible, then, now, and forever. You can trust it.

Now add to that that even since February, the spiritual pressure has risen to almost unbearable levels. Even the most atheistic person feels something about to happen. What we’re feeling are the effects of the increase of sins. The sins are piling up to heaven, (Rev 18:3-5) weighing us down, pressing in on us. In 2 Timothy 3:1-6, Paul describes the Godlessness in the last days and mentions there will be silly women laden with sins, falling prey to the ones who have a form of godliness but deny its power. “Laden” is the word to focus on here. Just like the sins piling up to heaven, laden indicates that sin has a weight to it, a weight of guilt, a weight of a seared conscience. Isaiah 24:20 prophesies the day at the end of time when the earth is so heavy with sin it reels like a drunkard, and cracks and falls.

Of course, sin doesn’t have a real weight, it’s a metaphor, but you get the idea. When a kid has done something wrong, their face is downcast, their shoulders are slumped, they walk like they have a ball and chain on the end of their ankle. You ask “What’s the matter?” and they mutter, “Nothing” but every fiber of their being says otherwise. We’re all familiar with the phrase, “You look like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders.” THAT’S what we’re feeling now. Sins, guilt, the effects of sin, pervasive evil that is called good, all weigh heavily. The world is spiritually spooked, feeling the pressure of the last stages of pregnancy, the heft and weight of the portentous moment when the labor pains begin and the awful pressure will be released.

Is it any wonder that unsaved people are hysterical about Elenin? They feel something is coming, and Elenin is just as good a thing to focus on as any. Hey, it kind of fits with prophesies, right? The Mayan doomsday prophecy of December 21, 2012, Nostradamus’s prophesies about destruction and comets, even Revelation with the celestial bodies falling out of the sky. Maybe there is something TO all this prophetic stuff, they wonder. There is, but their mistake is equating any prophecy with the Bible’s prophesies. The world’s prophesies are wrong, only the bible is right. So is there an Elenin-like thing in Revelation or another prophetic book?

Let’s look at what people are saying about Comet Elenin, first. Has the hysteria died since last February? Have NASA and other’s efforts to dispel the frenzy been effective? Not really. Consider this humorous intro from The Economic Voice:

“It’s always nice to come across a subject on the Internet that evokes such difference in opinion. And Comet Elenin is one of those topics. The debate over Comet Elenin is polarised between two opposing views, with an almost infinite number of variations in between. On the one hand comes the official view that Comet Elenin is an obscure loosely packed dirty snowball of as much interest to the general public as a small broken snail shell beside a railway track is to the occupants of the speeding express train passing by. At the other end is the opinion that Elenin is an artificial comet camouflaging a fleet of galactic battle cruisers full of hideous aliens equipped with straws and the aching desire to suck our brains from our skulls via our collective left nostrils.”

Hilarious! The article continues:

“The trouble is that there are many end time prophecies such as the Mayan calendar and the Bible Revelations that seem to fit in with the timing of this visitor from the deepest regions of space. There is also the Comet’s name, Elenin. Some claim it was given this name as short for such things as ‘Extinction Level Event 9’. Then there are the theories of alignment causing the Earth’s poles to shift and earthquakes to rend our planet. Or Elenin’s magnetic field will somehow throw the Earth out of orbit despite it having no magnetic field to speak of. There are also concerns about the comet tail ‘engulfing’ the earth, even though it’s only one notch above an absolute vacuum.”

He’s right, that is a problem that there are so many prophesies describing nearly the same thing. People who are not saved don’t know what to believe, and will latch on to something that comes close to the truth but isn’t the truth. And then there’s Planet X/Nibiru, and other impending celestial disaster the conspiracy theorists have whipped themselves into a frenzy over. This information is from Fox News this week:

Believers in Mysterious Planet Nibiru, Comet Elenin Await Earth’s End
“The waxing obsession with the planet Nibiru, which conspiracy theorists say is a planet swinging in from the outskirts of our solar system that is going to crash into Earth and wipe out humanity in 2012 — or, in some opinions, 2011 — shows that an astonishing number of people “are watching YouTube videos and visiting slick websites with nothing in their skeptical toolkit,” in the words of David Morrison, a planetary astronomer at NASA Ames Research Center and senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute. Morrison estimates that there are 2 million websites discussing the impending Nibiru-Earth collision. He receives, on average, five email inquiries about Nibiru every day. “At least a once a week I get a message from a young person — as young as 11 — who says they are ill and/or contemplating suicide because of the coming doomsday,” Morrison told Life’s Little Mysteries, a sister site to SPACE.com. What’s the origin of this mass panic about Nibiru, which astronomers say doesn’t exist?”

Good question. It’s from Nancy Lieder, who claims she “has the ability to receive messages through an implant in her brain from aliens in the Zeta Reticuli star system.” She is being used by aliens to warn of the impending disaster of planetary collision that was supposed to have happened in 2003, and when it didn’t was changed to the more secularly accepted false doom date of 2012. Did you catch that above from the NASA guy? Millions are watching YouTube videos on the subject, the astrophysicist receives a hundred inquiries a month, and gets dozens of suicidal emails from people worried about the disaster. That is so sad.

I’ll show you one more article about a Doctor in Cape Girardeau, MO. He is getting bombarded with emails and personal visits from people who want to know more about survival in the Ozark Mountains when Planet X-Nibiru-Elenin arrives. He’s getting them because there is a chat room where the leader of the survivalist movement claims to know the Doc and is alleged to have said the Doctor is leading a team to the caves when the planet comes into view. Look at the link, the doctor looks like a really annoyed milquetoast and says he doesn’t know the survivalist chat room guy, and has no plans to move to a cave any time soon. Yet he is harassed daily. People are bonkers with expectation!

Here is a link to facts about Comet Elenin. if you’re interested in the scientists’ point of view. If you trust it.

I have no clue about Comet Elenin and its supposed effect on the earth. I have no clue about Nibiru or Tyche or Planet X. I do know about the bible. And the really sad thing is that people are whipped in a frenzy about things that ARE GOING TO HAPPEN. They do not have to check the NASA site. They don’t have to follow misguided survivalist leaders in chat rooms. They don’t have to listen to Nancy Lieder in her Zeta Talk show. They can read Revelation.

Because if the feeling of impending doom is pervasive, that is because it is real. The Sun will go dark. (Joel 2:31; Mt 24:29; Acts 2:20; Rev 6:12; Is 13:10; Ez 32:7; Joel 3:15). Men WILL hide in the caves. (Rev 6:15). Tremendous earthquakes will happen. (Zech 14:4; Ez 38:20; Micah 1:4; Rev 11:13 & etc). The unsaved feel the weight of the sins piling up, they feel the spiritual darkening, they glimpse eternity ahead. But they are not saved by the blood of Jesus so they do not know what to do to escape. They glimpse rightly but conclude wrongly.

The feeling of imminence of a ‘something about to happen’ is judgment. Judgment is not a popular concept these days. It is not even a popular doctrine within the church among people who should know better. Judgment reminds us that there is a Higher Authority. We are not our own authority. We have free will, but we will have to answer to Him for the choices we’ve made. Christians won’t be judged because at salvation our sins were forgiven (Col.2:13-14), but we will be held accountable for the things we did for Him after salvation, and the things of no use to Jesus will be burned up. (Romans 14:10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Cor. 3:10-15, 4:5). Unsaved people will have to answer to Him for rejecting His pardon and willfully rebelling against him. (Mt 25:31-46). The things coming on the earth will be real, not a conspiracy. Those who believed in Elenin chose poorly. Those who believed in Zeta Talk chose poorly. Choose wisely. Choose the only truth there is: Jesus, Holy and Wrathful, judging mankind.

I hear so often these days that God would never judge us, for God is love. Yes, God is love. Is that all God is? Are your parents only love? Or do they also delight in you? Punish you? Teach you? Chastise you? If our parents punished us because they loved us then God is the perfect embodiment of both love and justice as well as all His other attributes.

I am not going to say prepare for Elenin, prepare for Nibiru, prepare for Planet X. I am going to say Prepare for the Lord. Either you will meet Him as His friend, in which case you will be protected from all these things; or you will meet Him as His enemy, in which case all these things will be poured out on you. I know what the logical choice is. Do you?

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Posted in marriage supper of the lamb

Would you like to make a reservation?

Posted on by elizabethprata

If you’ve had the opportunity to go to a fancy restaurant, the kind where orange isn’t a color scheme and the chairs aren’t plastic, then you know that there is a method of securing a table called “Making a reservation.” It’s pretty easy. You pick up the phone at some point prior to the scheduled evening and you speak to the reservations host. You tell him or her when you want to come, and what time. They acknowledge your request and set that table aside for you at the designated time.

Between the time of making the reservation and the evening’s arrival, you may talk about it with your special one by exchanging anticipatory pleasantries such as, “I’m looking forward to that night out away from the kids,” Or mentioning practicalities like, “Did you call the sitter?”

As the time nears for your special evening out, you engage in other activities that enhance the fact that this night is different than all the others. If you are a man, you may shave and groom yourself. You may dress in a suit and put on a tie. If you are a woman you wear dress set aside for special occasions, take extra care with your hair and makeup, and may even wear jewelry you don’t usually put on such as Grandmother’s brooch or the gold chain your husband bought you last anniversary.

Finally the night arrives and you pull up to the restaurant. Sometimes if it is a really fancy place, there are valets in red vests there to take your car and relieve you of even that mundane duty of parking it. As you walk in, the atmosphere is calm, serene, pleasant. The podium is strategically placed by the interior door to the dining room and you approach the Maitre’D with expectation. He may say,

“Do you have a reservation?”

And happily, you say “Yes, Smith party of two, for 8:00 please.”

He says, “Just one moment, please,” and consulting his book, he confirms your name written in it. At that point, the Maitre’D escorts you to a table set aside for you from the moment you called to make the reservation. And as you sit down your pleasurable evening finally begins.

Ahhh, like wedding days and graduation events, after so much anticipation, the night is over all so quickly. The champagne has been drunk. The Clams Casino have been eaten. The candles are melted and the fire has died. It’s over, but perhaps a nice memory had been created.

It feels special to be escorted by the tuxedoed Maitre’D and truth be known, you might have sashayed just a little. As he pulls the chair out for you, you feel catered to, special. I remember when I went to Italy I learned that you can call the Uffizi Gallery ahead of time and reserve the time you want to come visit the museum. When you get there, you walk alongside the hundreds in line, right up to the red velvet ropes, and speak your name to the docent. He checks his book and confirms your name is in there, and he un-hitches the rope and lets you in. All the people waiting in line wonder who you are to get such treatment! And it does feel like you’re a VIP for a moment.

There is a better reservation for you, if you want it.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5)

You could have a seat reserved for you at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. (Rev 17:7-10). Your reservation for participation in this glorious, long anticipated event could be secured, with your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. (Rev 13:8). If we feel special being escorted to our seats by the Maitre’D at a restaurant here on earth, imagine the joy of being escorted to your seat to partake in the consummation of all the long betrothal period of the church and the Savior! Being seated at the most important VIP table of all. Here, the candles never die. The Living Water sparkles and never dries up, it flows eternally. The joy of being included never fades. And to attend this special event, you only need make a reservation.

If you believe you are a sinner, doing, saying or thinking wrong things, then you know you are a lawbreaker against God. He is the judge who delivers the sentence to all who break the law by engaging in sin. It is willful rebellion against Him. But He sent His son to take the punishment for the world’s sins, and He died on the cross as that punishment. God’s wrath was delivered into Jesus and through Jesus, satisfying the sentence for rebellion against God.

If you recognize that your sins are separating you from Jesus, that the velvet rope will eternally bar your entry to the blessed place, then you need to call upon Jesus to forgive your sins. He will do that. Your name is already printed on the reservation card, the moment you repent and seek forgiveness, your seat is secured at the table. Immediately, you can begin to anticipate your inheritance which the verse says is “imperishable and undefiled.” It will not fade away, as everything on this earth eventually fades, even memories of a pleasant evening. It is reserved in heaven for you. There will be no mix-up with the Maitre’D, there will be no delay at getting your seat. Make your reservation now, appeal to Jesus for forgiveness of your sins. He already took the penalty and all that is left is to enjoy the fellowship and communion with Him, by Him, and through Him. He will refresh you by regenerating you into His likeness. He will help you squash the sinful old man in you and make you into a new creature. You will be sealed with the inheritance of the Holy Spirit as the deposit of what is coming. (Eph 1:14). You DO become a VIP to Jesus, a protected and cherished one.

Would you like to make a reservation for this event? Repent, pray, and look to Jesus as Lord and Savior. The table is being set now. I hope to see your name on the card by your seat.
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Posted in beth moore, bible

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 4: A final word

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Previous essays on my reaction, here:

Beth Moore: reactions part 1, The Women

Beth Moore: reactions part 2, The Music

Beth Moore: part 3a: The Teaching

Beth Moore: reactions part 3b: The Teaching

You know, it might be nice to be in a helps ministry. Everyone loves to see you coming. You’re filling a need. You’re bringing cake. There is an immediate satisfaction of a product of the help one can see (a cleaned house for an invalid, a casserole simmering for a bereaved family).

When in an exhortation ministry usually no one likes to see you coming. You have to say some unpleasant things sometimes. You have to challenge the status quo, and no one likes that. It makes people angry and it makes them uncomfortable.

But what does the Bible say? Titus 1:9 says church elders must be “holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.” Refute. Refute! Jude 1:3 says “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.” Contend defined in the Greek is “to struggle with skill and commitment in opposing whatever is not of faith (God’s persuasion).” Contend. Contend!

As we left the arena at the first session’s conclusion I cried but not in joy. It was in repentance, asking forgiveness for this preaching. But examining everything as we are instructed to do is a ceaseless activity. You’re never set. You’re never done. No matter how peeved you are, you have to let that burn off and then set about examining if there is truth to the charge.

So what do we think that satan’s subtlety looks like? (Genesis 3:1). It’s easy to say that rapture date-setter Harold Camping was wrong but harder to say where exactly the error is in Beth Moore’s stuff. But the Bible says satan is the most subtle creature on earth. Subtlety defined is “fine or delicate in meaning or intent; difficult to perceive or understand.” It is going to take a lot of effort, prayer and open ears and eyes to catch it.

What do we think false doctrine acts like? It doesn’t burst in, it creeps. (Jude 1:4). We’d notice if a bear stormed into our campsite. We do not notice when a snake curls up under our pillow. We can’t tell if a scorpion is slumbering in the shoe. They creep. They may go undetected for a long time, hiding there in your tent.

What do we think false doctrine will sound like? A Jerry Springer? With crashing chairs and loud yells and fights sprawling all over the stage? You’d want to get out of there pretty fast. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires…” I don’t know about you but when someone is tickling me, I don’t want them to stop. Really deadly false doctrine will sound good and you’ll want to let it continue.

False doctrine is going to come pretty close to the real thing. Consider what Satan said to Eve when tempting her with the fruit: (Gen 3:4-5)

“And the serpent said unto the woman,
–Ye shall not surely die: (half right. Flesh is alive, spirit is dead, he only told half the story)
–For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, (true)
–and ye shall be as gods, (false)
–knowing good and evil.” (true, but forgot to mention the penalty)

We HAVE TO “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thess 5:21). “The meaning here is, that they were carefully to examine everything proposed for their belief. They were not to receive it on trust; to take it on assertion; to believe it because it was urged with vehemence, zeal, or plausibility”, says Barnes Notes. Moore certainly is full of zeal. She urges with vehemence. She is quite plausible. But I had to prove her and she failed the test. Now my job is to share my proofs with the body.

Now when we have a favorite teacher we get angry when someone says that their teaching contains false things. We might reject that assertion out of hand. We might reject that friend out of hand. As the person on the exhorting end of things, we might hold our exhortation because we do not want to make a friend mad. I was certainly not happy that I had to be the naysayer. Here my friend was, in the thrall of an emotional and what she felt was an uplifting evening, and I threw cold water all over her head. That’s what I mean when I say it is not an easy thing to contend and exhort. But we are called to defend the truth as Jesus revealed it to us, and we must obey the Spirit when He prompts us to do the unpleasant exhortations.

Sailing requires almost constant course corrections. The wind from above will push you off course. The current from below will push you off course. You must pay constant attention if you want to arrive in port safely. You keep a weather eye for clouds. You stay away from pirates. Now, the rocks are easy to spot and you can avoid those. But the underwater reefs are not easy to spot. The chart tells you where they are but if you don’t check the chart, or get off course through inattention, or failure to constantly check the compass, you can crack the bottom of your boat so fast that you won’t know what happened to you.

Catching false doctrines is like sailing. You have to be alert to the smallest of course corrections because before you know it you’re off course. It doesn’t happen right away. It is the accumulation of failures to correct that sends you up on the rocks. We’re told that this will happen, falsity will creep in:

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;” (1 Timothy 4:1)

“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.” (Eph 4:14). Notice the language here, ‘cunning’, ‘crafty’, ‘deceitful’ ‘schemes’. In other words- Hard. To. Spot.

“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple [innocent, unsuspecting].” (Romans 16:17-18)

Proclaiming error is not easy when it’s about someone who is popular, embedded, and sounds so appealing and gospel-y. But we have to take the risk we will offend someone when we exhort in love and gentleness. It is what contending means. The Bible says that the infants are tossed by every wind of doctrine but as we exercise our faith through prayer, corporate worship, Bible study and in the active parts of faith through discerning, contending and refuting, we soon become more mature. “He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Do not fear! The living water will keep your leaves green.

He is ALL GLORY, He is the treasure upon which we set our eyes. He is so exalted, the very courts of praise rock with the living angels who proclaim HOLY HOLY HOLY is He! His holiness should not be besmirched by Bible teachers who put man in the center and talk about how the relationship is reciprocal. “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.’ (Psalms 145:3)

Posted in beth moore, bible

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 3b: The Teaching

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I went to a Beth Moore convention, and below is a series outlining my reaction. Be sure also to look to the right-menu for the 7-part series of an explanation of why Beth Moore teachings are in error.

All Beth Moore Critiques in One Place

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 1, The Women

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 2, The Music

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 3a, The Teaching

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 3b: The Teaching

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 4: A final word

“Repeat after me”

I had written previously in the 7-part series on Beth Moore about her drift toward Eastern Mysticism, most notably in her participation in the Be Still video touting contemplative prayer and eastern mystical practice. In contemplative meditation, one repeats certain mantras repeatedly. In Buddhism and Hinduism, adherents used chanting as a means of practice. They also use recitation of verses as a way of developing an awareness of the qualities of the Buddha or of the false god they were praying to. Beth Moore had us do a lot of repeating. Sometimes it was a mantra spoken to the person next to us, as when she said “God has a destiny for you” and urged us to turn to the women in the next seat and repeat, “God has a destiny for you.” I am uncomfortable doing that, not the least of which is that I feel silly. I also feel that if the women next to me learns that God has a destiny for her, it was because she learned that from the Bible and not from some schmoe at a conference parroting it back to her.

Frequently she would have us repeat one of the eight points she was building the lesson around, and repeat it as many as 8 times. She addressed that it might seem silly or overdoing it to repeat these things, but she said, she’s a teacher and she knows the value in rote memorization. She’s right, but I’d prefer to spend my rote memorization time memorizing actual Bible verses and not Beth Moore mantras. This parroting practice bothered me.

“Fear the Lord Your Husband”

In the Deuteronomy verse she built her lesson from (Deut 10:11-21) the first part mentioned the fear of the LORD: “And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,” I’m an admirer of the fear of the LORD. I told you many times that I am ultra conservative, strict, and dogmatic in my adherence to His ways and precepts. I am a big lover of the fear of the LORD. Here is what Matthew Henry commentary describes as the holy fear:

“We must fear the Lord our God. We must adore his majesty, acknowledge his authority, stand in awe of his power, and dread his wrath. Fear him as a great God, and our Lord, love him as a good God, and our Father and benefactor. We must walk in his ways, that is, the ways which he has appointed us to walk in. The whole course of our conversation must be conformable to his holy will. We must serve him, serve him with all our heart and soul. No single English word conveys every aspect of the word ‘fear’ in the phrase. The meaning includes worshipful submission, reverential awe, and obedient respect to the covenant-keeping God of Israel.”

Here is how Beth Moore treated the subject: “Fear. Oh, the fear. Ladies, I fear my husband sometimes. You know there is a line ya just don’t cross. I know some ladies who won’t cheat on their husband for fear of what he’ll do.” That isn’t a verbatim quote but it is extremely close. Beth Moore has a way of explaining the Bible while not really explaining it, exalting God with her words yet diminishing His character at the same time. She said a bunch of times that she refers to commentaries, but I guess she skipped over what the Matthew Henry Commentary had to say…

The “Reciprocal relationship”.

If you google ‘reciprocal relationship’ you’ll not get many Beth Moore results except from her study of David. But her emphasis on this phrase, and she repeated it many times, was that we want what God has and He wants what we have. It was ill-defined but a permeating leaven throughout the teaching. Now, I looked up the definition of reciprocal relationship, and it is “a mutual agreement to exchange privileges, dependence, or relationship, as in an agreement between two governing bodies to accept the credentials of a physician, dentist, licensed dental professional, or other health professional licensed in either jurisdiction.”

I was horrified at the fear of the Lord teaching because it diminished His august-ness. And here again we have a diminishing of who He is. There is nothing mutual about our relationship with Jesus. We have nothing He wants, except maybe His expectation that we offer Him worship and praise. He has everything we want. She is making the divine relationship of Master-slave into a partnership and that is the oldest satanic lie there is.

“It’s all about me”

source

I was plenty sick of the words Beth Moore uses in her teaching. There was a lot of talk about toxic relationships, depraved, defeated, poison, deprived, sexual abuse. Frankly, I know why. Because every Beth Moore teaching is about us. It is about how we have all this negativity inside us and once we get clear of that, our relationship with Jesus can really begin. THEN He can use us! We have to ‘break free’ of all that stuff first, and then we will be “impactful for the kingdom” as she put it. Yet every single person in the Bible was a depraved flawed sinner that God used.

But we are all sinners. We all have a past, we all do wrong things, and we’re all totally depraved. Once we are born again, all those sins are forgiven AND they are forgotten by Jesus. But that is not good enough for Moore, because she brings up those sins at every opportunity. Jesus may have forgotten our sins, but Beth Moore never will. And that is good, because once you go through the legalistic teachings of how to break free, how to get out of that pit, and say “So Long, Insecurity”, what happens the next time you feel insecure? You have to do another Beth Moore study.

I’m being deliberately impatient in this section. I do know there is a world of hurt out there. I do know that there are women living in domestic violence, abuse, or ‘toxic relationships’ as Moore says, who don’t feel they are effective for the Lord, or who Moore says CAN’T be effective unless they bust those negative strongholds first. I read recently of a missionary family in India witnessing in a Hindu section extremely hostile to Christians. The missionary dad and his two sons were surrounded in their car, and the mob poured gasoline in the vehicle and burned the man and his two sons alive. His wife, who escaped, said she was “hurt by what they did, but not angry because Jesus said to love our enemies.” Then she went to the hospital. Now there’s a toxic relationship for you. I want us to get some perspective. I read of Phil Masters and his wife Phyllis in Papua Indonesia, and Phil was killed and eaten by cannibals. Phyllis elected to remain in the jungle with her children and continue the mission. I don’t know how she managed it without a Beth Moore study to learn how to break free from insecurity.

Christian faith is NOT about obsessing over wounds and past hurts. You can’t destroy faith with a trial. Trials build faith. Jesus will use you, emotional wounds and all. You don’t need a Beth Moore study to be impactful for the kingdom. You need faith and obedience. At that, even the disobedient prophet Jonah was used for the kingdom…

It’s all about me…even the title of her ministry belies the believer-centeredness of it all: “Because you are living proof of God’s love.” I rather think that the resurrected Jesus is living proof of His love.

Miles McKee at Wednesday Word wrote a marvelous two-part essay on the current state of self-centered Christianity.

McKee said,
“Now here’s something we must grasp: since the gospel is about Jesus, the gospel is, therefore, not focused on the believer. In the genuine gospel, the believer is not on center stage, rather, in the authentic gospel, the limelight falls on Christ alone. There are pastors who dispute this, but let me point out that ever since the fall of man, when sin entered into the human race, the focus of man’s attention has been on himself. “…

“And that, it seems, is exactly how so many churches want it to remain to this day. Life is all about us, the believer! We, not the Lord Jesus, are our chief concern. The preachers preach about us and how our lives can be improved: we sing about us and how much better off we are and how great it is to be Christians. It’s all about us!” … “Eastern religions teach their devotees to look to the inner being and to focus on their experience and condition. There once was a time when there was a great distinction between Christianity and Eastern Mysticism. No longer so!”

“One of the great tragedies in our Churches today is that we take self- centered sinners and teach them how to be self-centered believers. Christ has been dethroned in what should be His own Church and the believer now reigns supreme. We are witnessing the day and age of the decapitated church. Christ the head of the Church (Colossians 1:18, Ephesians 1:22-23) has been all but expelled. The head has been chopped off. In all things, according to the Bible, Christ Jesus is to have the pre-eminence, but now that honor goes to the believer.”

We should know, we’re living proof! My conclusion to the Beth Moore ministry is that it is led by a troubled woman having extended therapy sessions about herself. I learned nothing at the ‘Hold Fast’ teaching from Deuteronomy, except that she took the most God-centered, exalted words in the whole chapter and made them about us.

I will hold fast, though, I am “holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.” (Titus 1:9) Beth Moore does not teach sound doctrine and I refute her.

I’ll “examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good…” (1 Thess 5:21) And after examination, I will not hold fast to Beth Moore for she is is not good. Rather than leading women to victory in Jesus, she is leading women into emotional bondage.

As Miles McKee wrote, “To grow in our Christian life we must practice looking unto Jesus, the one who lived and died for us and is now exalted in glory! There is no other way to run this race (Hebrews 12:1-2)! But how do we do this? How do we look unto Jesus? The first thing that looking to Jesus means is that we must stop continually looking at ourselves and our condition.” But Beth Moore only talks about ourselves and our condition. That’s why, if you want to grow, you have to let her go.

Next a final word, on the difficulties of refuting and exhorting.

Posted in beth moore, bible, bible jesus, legalism

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 3a: The Teaching

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I went to a Beth Moore convention, and below is the series I wrote of my reaction. Be sure also to look to the right-menu for the 7-part series of an explanation of why Beth Moore teachings are in error.

All Beth Moore Critiques in One Place

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 1, The Women

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 2, The Music

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 3a, The Teaching

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 3b: The Teaching

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 4: A final word

Beth Moore’s text for the 6-hour bible study was Deuteronomy 10:11-21. She also used quite a number of other verses, both from the OT and the NT. Here is the main passage:

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good? Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it. The LORD delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons, and now the LORD your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude.”

The NKJV titles that passage “The Essence of the Law”. The HCSB titles it “What God Requires”. NIV’s version is “Fear the LORD”. Even the NLT calls it “A Call to Love and Obedience.” It is a beautiful passage in which His majesty and His Holy character is center stage, prompting all true believers to understand our position below Him, and thus, worship Him for who He is.

Beth Moore’s title for the passage is “His affection is set upon us.”

She explained how she arrives at the lessons she teaches on her tour. She said that when she prays the Holy Spirit will deliver a word to her. In the case for the teaching in Charlotte, it had been “Hold Fast.” In the case of her next tour in Columbia, it will be “Prepare.” This is direct revelation and it is NOT how we study the Bible, much less teach it. She then creates an acrostic of teaching points that begin with each letter in the main word. Ours was –

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

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

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

She read the passage and then began by saying that this was “the Law of Love.” I cannot tell you any more than that, because she did not explain it. It is one of my concerns with her teaching. She will make a sweeping claim, and not back it up with scripture. If I was to take a guess I’d say she was teaching that the deliverance of the law in this section of Deuteronomy was all about how much He loves us, when it is really about how much we should love Him.

The next point was that the Israelites were being taken out of Egypt as the release from bondage so that they could have victorious lives. She referred to ‘victory’ constantly but never defined it.  And that Jesus brings us out of [metaphorical] Egypt. Then she said, “Anyone ever been stuck in Egypt too long? There is a land of promise for you and for me. Our promised land is characterized by a place where we live in victory. Where we don’t live in a lot of defeat. We’re walking between those ditches of defeat into victory. And secondly, our promised land is characterized by bearing fruit.” Bearing fruit was never defined. “We can be devalued deprived, depraved” and “we may miss our promised land.” The promised land was never defined. But she has now set up this vague sense of unease…I might miss something if I don’t do it right.

A Beth Moore teaching will be filled with legalism. There will be constant references to “if” you don’t do this, you “won’t” get that. Here is one: “If we don’t hold fast to Him we won’t live in earthly security.” That is a verbatim quote. I would venture to say that Apostle Paul held fast to Jesus as much as any Christian alive or dead, and he never had a day of earthly security in his life. What about Job’s earthly security? Satan tells us to value earthly security. Being alive in Jesus does not mean we get earthly security, as a matter of fact,  Jesus said repeatedly that the opposite will be true. In Luke 14:25 we read that the cost of salvation and subsequent discipleship might mean losing all you have and your life as well.

We love Jesus for Who he is, not for what He can do for us. In Beth Moore’s teachings, it is the opposite. I never heard the words holy or glory. In point 4 where we learn “Doing His will does us good” (and it’s true, doing His will is good for us,) I never heard the rest of the principle: “Doing His will gives Him glory.”

Here is another sweeping claim never backed up by scripture, and actually teaches the opposite of scripture: “He holds tight to us, but are we holding tight to Him? We’re called to a life that’s supposed to work.” Mrs Moore never defined a life that works, nor by whose standard- ours, or God’s? By our standards, Jeremiah’s life failed. He never had a single convert. Jeremiah was friendless, reviled, he was gloomy, negative, and no one wanted him around. According to principles Mrs Moore teaches, Jeremiah must not have been holding fast closely enough. Isaiah never had a following. Noah failed to convert anyone outside his family. Did their lives ‘work’? Her vague concept of a life that ‘works’ is according to man’s standards, not God’s.

She continued, saying “When we latch back on [to Jesus] we have life more abundant here on earth. .. Our life has purpose and life is working with a measurable form of victory.” She did not define victory nor by which tool we measure it. All we know is, IF we don’t do what she said, we WON’T get something good. Those are her nebulous threats. She creates a feeling of amorphous uneasiness that pervades her talks.

Here is another, referring to Deuteronomy 10:12- “God wants everything from us but IF I don’t bring my everything, then my life WON’T work.”

In referring to Isaiah 38:17, “Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back” she said “He can love you out of the pit.” But I thought He did that at the cross. I thought all believers, once repenting and forgiven by a Resurrected Jesus who is Lord, are yanked out of the pit. Mrs Moore teaches to believers, yet according to her, we are still in the pit and we have to do certain things so that we can access that love of His which will retrieve us out from it. It is that old legalism again.

In my next essay exploring my reaction to Beth Moore’s teaching in Charlotte, I’ll look at Eastern Mysticism, Fear of the LORD, the reciprocal relationship, and finish with ‘It’s all about me.’

Posted in beth moore, bible

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 2, The Music

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

All Beth Moore Critiques in One Place

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 1, The Women

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 2, The Music

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 3a, The Teaching

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 3b: The Teaching

Beth Moore: reactions to Living Proof teaching in Charlotte. Part 4: A final word

I will say right off the bat that I am ultra-conservative in my approach to worship and music. I don’t favor large revivalist type events, and I don’t like loud music either in worship or personally in life. I may be a wet blanket, or even boring when it comes to those things, but I like dignity in a Bible teaching and I don’t apologize for that opinion.

In part 1 of my reaction to the Beth Moore Living Proof tour held in Charlotte this weekend, I noted the scene where women from 34 states and Canada streamed in to the Time Warner arena in advance of a 6 hour session of Bible teaching, broken up over two days. In this essay I’ll advance the scene to the start of the conference, the music from the Travis Cottrell band. From Cottrell’s bio: “For the last fourteen years Travis has served as worship leader at Beth Moore’s Living Proof Live conferences. He and his team have been grateful to minister with Mrs. Moore in all 50 states and in several other countries as well.”

It should also be noted that along with the live Beth Moore tour sessions there is an accompanied simulcast where women in churches around the country can also pay to participate via video. Sometimes there are over 500 annexed simulcast locations participating along with the women at the main location. So when I say that 12,000 women packed the arena to hear Beth Moore speak and praise band Travis Cottrell sing, there are also thousands more participating simultaneously all around the US, so that number swells considerably.

As the lights went down other lights flared up. It was a light show that accompanied the first drum beat. And that percussion was LOUD. I’d estimate they were about 115-120 decibels. Pain begins at 125 decibels. Between the green and red lights sweeping the arena, and the beats that made the floors shake, I was already overwhelmed. And I was only one minute into it. All the women were standing and the captions to the songs were crawling across the jumbo-trons, several of which were stationed adjacent to the stage.

A still of a promotional clip of Living Proof praise singing, Rapid City S. Dakota Nov. 2010.
A still of a promotional clip of Living Proof praise singing,Rapid City S. Dakota Nov. 2010.

I tried to forgive the assault on the senses. I really did. I tried to imagine that they were emulating the verse of the blessed glimpse of heaven were given in Isaiah 6:1-4

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
At the sound of their voices
the doorposts and thresholds shook
and the temple was filled with smoke.”

The Time Warner Arena doorposts and thresholds shook, and they shook hard. I decided right away that I’d spend Saturday’s  musical worship time outside the arena in the lobby. The songs were a mixture of contemporary praise and hymns, but the hymns were blended into the contemporary. So as we were singing a modern song it would blend into an old-fashioned one. I don’t even remember, now which songs were sung, because I was too overcome by the noise and the lights. The session lasted about 20 minutes and it had a mood all its own. The cadence would begin slow and soft, and rise and rise to a climactic moment when those drum beats would shake the house, and then slowly descend back into soft. This method was repeated several times. Rather than be moved by the music, I had a bad emotional and spiritual reaction. I fell to my knees. Crying, I prayed for forgiveness on us all. I really did.

I’m very affected by music. We all are. Nothing jazzes me up like a good ole fashioned singin’. I can sit in a pew and sing the good old hymns all night long and leave feeling terrific. I am not down on singing. It is a fact that music sets your mood and because we can be so moved by it, music can also be used manipulate us. It can bring to mind Godly worship and good thoughts, or it can be so manipulative that it can be its own thing outside of worship, an emotion all in itself, used to manipulate feelings rather than thoughts. It is my opinion that the musical worship at the Beth Moore convention is used for the latter purpose.

I wondered to myself if 12,000 women from 34 states and Canada would still drive 12 hours and spend hundreds of dollars to come to a place where there would be one guy singing The Old Rugged Cross on acoustic guitar, and one woman standing behind a podium speaking only Bible truths. No light show. No concert. No personal testimony of Beth Moore’s life, no jokes about bad hair days, no sweet stories about the husband or the dog, but only hymns and Bible.

These things grow, they get out of hand. I heard one woman near me muse that in ‘the old days’ Travis Cottrell had only one or two accompanists but now he has a whole band and several singers. That’s how it goes. These things only ever get bigger. And somewhere along the way, plain Bible and plain music gets lost in an overwhelming flood of extras, extras that are then used to manipulate and distract.

In the Religious Affections Ministries blog, Scott Aniol wrote, “Emotion, Worship, Revivalism, And Pentecostalism.“

He opened his essay with this: From W. Robert Godfrey, “Worship and the Emotions,” in Give Praise to God, Philip Graham Ryken, et.al. (Phillipsburg: P & R Pub, 2003), 368-9: “When emotions are misused, there is a constant danger of manipulation. It is easy for effective leaders to move people, especially trusting and expectant people, to feel what they want them to feel. Easily the church becomes a theater where feeling and catharsis take the place of true faith.”

Beth Moore is all about catharsis. In order to engender the desired condition; music, lights, sounds, and emotions speed that catharsis. Scott Aniol continued his essay by saying, “Grant Wacker, a sympathetic historian of Pentecostalism, comments on this phenomenon in early Pentecostalism: “And then there was congregational singing, one of the most notable and remarked on features of Pentecostal worship. . . . Music offered leaders a ready means for managing the intensity of the service. They could ratchet up the tempo until worshipers broke into ecstatic praise, or tone it down when things seemed to be getting out of hand. Either way, music gave leaders a tool for regularizing the expression of emotion.”

“What Wacker sees as true of early Pentecostalism is even truer with the Contemporary Christian Music phenomenon. Praise songs, which originated in charismatic circles and spread widely in other Protestant churches, seem often to express rather spontaneous waves of emotion. But their use is carefully planned with an eye to the emotional effect on the worshiper. In such a session of singing one can predict exactly when the hands will be raised and when other emotional responses will be exhibited.”

And unknowingly, he just described a Beth Moore praise concert. It is my opinion that the hollower the Bible teaching is, the louder the music. The less the focus is on God, the more the service needs something to fill it, usually with loud music but sometimes with holy roller behaviors such as ‘holy laughter’, tongues, and other emotional-behavioral expressions. But I think the more the world reels toward ever higher assaults on the senses, the less we need it in worship. The more depraved the world gets, the more we should strive for purity in worship. Of course your definition of purity in worship may be different from mine. The point is, that the louder the world gets, the quieter we should get. The more the world puts on a show, the less we should indulge in clamor. The Bible is getting lost in the world, so let’s put it center stage.

Emotions are part of worship, I know, a valid part. We’re filled with love and joy in contemplating the inexpressible Majesty of our God. It is proper to feel shame and repentance in a worship service when we need His forgiveness. Emotions are good as part of worship but they are not the key to worship. If the emotions displace something else, or cloud the reason of your presence there, then the problems begin.

But my problems were just beginning, because then Beth Moore took the stage.