Tag: beth moore

Posted in theology

How does the Bible describe Weak Women? Strong Women?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

We need godly examples of women who are strong in godly ways. These women who are strong in the right ways aren’t seen by many. This is either because the culture tries to hide them from us, or because they are truly godly, and thus are doing their work in humble, background ways and don’t seek promotion or limelight.

There are many weak women in Christianity too, and many of these ARE seen.

Weakness: A lack of strength, whether physical or spiritual. Scripture attributes weakness to human sin and foolishness and urges believers to find their true strength in God alone. ~Dictionary of Bible Themes

The weak women I am referring to we see raised up on influential platforms are paper tigers, these are not the actual strong women of God. They are in fact weak women. They use their influence to publicly nurse wounds and have navel-gazing psychology sessions they call Bible lessons. They have confounded the sisterhood with an errant notion of what “strong” means.

But how to tell the difference? Let’s have some biblical clarity on what these terms mean in God’s economy.

These are not strong Christian women. These women are what the world says is a strong woman.

“But I do want to say that I have always been strong-willed.” Beth Moore

Weak women give in to what they want, whether God wants it for them or not. Weak women give in to sin. In many of the cases, these weak women want to preach- which is sin.

The Bible declares one type of weak woman:

For among them are those who slip into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, (2 Timothy 3:6).

The context here is that Paul is writing to Timothy that in the last days difficult times will come. Then Paul lists an astonishing array of sins which will come to characterize the era, including false teachers who insinuate themselves into the church and capture weak women. The false teachers do this because it is a help to satan to have weak women doing his evil bidding. These women are easy to capture.

Different translations of the verse verse also use the words gullible, vulnerable, idle, or silly. What makes these women weak, idle, silly, vulnerable or gullible? SIN.

Silly women led away in their sin.

Titus 1:11 says the same, these false teachers aim directly for these women. In the Titus verse, they do so successfully and “disrupt whole households”.

Warning for Christian women: Sin makes us silly, weak, and vulnerable to false teaching. Repent often!

Barnes’ Notes explains about these weak women who are ‘laden with sins’ – “With so many sins that they seem to be “burdened” with them. The idea is, that they are under the influence of sinful desires and propensities, and hence, are better adapted to the purposes of deceivers“. … Led away with diverse lusts – “With various kinds of passions or desires – epithumias – such as pride, vanity, the love of novelty, or a susceptibility to flattery, so as to make them an easy prey to deceivers.”

Their sin has made their mind weak and their morals corrupt. These weak women have given in to pride, ambition, flattery. I liked Barnes’ note that these weak women are also ensnared by “novelty“. How many religious trends do we see women jumping onto? Blue bracelets, Prayer rugs, Contemplative prayer, Promise Keepers, Purpose Driven, Daniel fasting, Lectio Divina, direct revelation … anything new comes along and these weak women leap onto it as if it’s the Second Coming.

Before I move on to describing a Godly strong woman, I would like to mention that the weak women, especially those in the preaching pack, do two things that are offensive. The first is that rather than ensure their behavior or their worldview is not borne out of sin, these women co-opt God Himself into their sin and assign Him as the cause of it. I am highly offended by this.

Here is one example: Beth Moore said of the early days of her preaching to men, back when she had two young children at home by the way, “I didn’t have some big plan,” Moore said. “I just knew God was calling me to take one step of obedience, and that’s all I’ve been doing ever since.”

Strong women stay in their lane, content with their God-given roles. Weak women stray from their lane, then complain about the wreck in the road hindering their progress.

Weak women put the onus for their sin onto God. They are so weak they can’t or won’t take responsibility for their choices. They deflect, saying, “oh lil me was content stayin’ at home but God called me into this, who am I to disobey?’ I have seen this excuse from Jennie Allen, Beth Moore, Christine Caine (‘it’s a calling‘), and lots of other women in the pack. They don’t say what’s really going on: “I wanted to preach, so I did.” Weak women give in to their sinful desires. (Genesis 2:18; Genesis 3:16b). Weak women blame and deflect. (Genesis 3:13).

The second offensive thing to me that weak women do is harp on **”abuse”. Abuse would be anything to these weak women, from truly awful sexual abuse, domestic violence, to being ignored in a car (a complaint Beth Moore actually wrote about). Or of not being thanked for wearing flats so the men around her would feel taller. (Another one from Moore).

The **abuse focus is truly a grief to me. It’s awful how these weak women have twisted abuse to their own corrupt ends.

For example, have you noticed a lot of these women claiming to be ‘strong’ are in what’s known as the “Survivor Camp”? They constantly refer to men as abusers or oppressors, and constantly bring up their own abuse or others’. These women who preach & teach sinfully, insinuate that every man sitting in a pew is an abuser just waiting for his moment to become a violent oppressor against innocent women who unhappily meander into his proximity. Sometimes they accuse whole denominations! Beth Moore did.

And Aimee Byrd-

“She admits over and over in writing and interview that her impetus for writing has often been situations in which she feels offended as a woman, slighted, or personally neglected”… her teaching is ungodly: it does not arise from unreserved faith in God’s Word, but from dissatisfaction with her experiences.” By Shane D. Anderson

Rachel Green Miller worries about women who are “belittled…” Oy.

I hope and pray that if any of these Survivor type preaching platformed weak women reading this who are supposedly advocating for the “abused,” that tomorrow when I post what a TRULY strong Christian woman is, they would be embarrassed for their ridiculous and petty complaints.

They are weak females whose basis for ministry rests on a wounded dove cooing weakly in the dirt, or is saturated with nursing old wounds they love to pick over. These women do not base their ministry on the foundation of the transcendent Rock who endured all the abuse, pain, loneliness, neglect, rejection, hatred and reviling there ever was or will be.

These weak women laden with sins are just snowflakes, ready to melt at the tiniest offense

No one knows more than Jesus how it feels to experience all those things. Yet packs of women trade on their feelings as wounded snowflakes and exploit their hurts, for what? Attention, fame, power, and/or money.

Weak women are “led away”. It’s easy to give in to sin. It’s hard to subdue one’s sin, mortify it. It’s difficult to keep in the prescribed roles and bounds Jesus has for us. It takes a strong women to resist sin. A weak woman succumbs to them.

Tomorrow: What is a strong woman according to the Bible?

Further Resources:

Owen Strachan: Are Godly Men Weak or Strong?

**RE ‘abuse’: I am aware that true abuse exists. I am quite familiar myself with various kinds of abuse. Quite. I am sensitive to the hurts that various kinds of abuse cause. I know the impacts of true abuse are wide-ranging and long-lasting. I am not dismissing true abuse. I am offended by the USE of abuse as a cover for sin, as an excuse for behavior, or as a merchandising of a ministry.

The reason I don’t speak of the various kinds of abuse I personally have endured, is because it DOESN’T MATTER. It is of no consequence. It doesn’t figure in.

Why? First of all, Jesus took the wrath for anyone who abuses but later comes to faith. Abusers are usually not saved people, who can’t help their lusts. If they are saved people, we need to forgive, and remember that Jesus took ALL the abuse on the cross, including separation from the Father who turned His face away. How does my experience of abuse compare to that?

Secondly, these snowflake ladies turn any little bump in the road into abuse. They have abused the word abuse so that anything that offends them, they claim is abuse. It’s not.

Thirdly, others have suffered much more than me, and not because of another’s sin, which is to be expected in the world, but for the Name. Paul, for example, experienced abuse; physical and spiritual. Stephen was martyred. Silas went to jail with Paul. Mary mother of Jesus endured it. And many others in history. You will see some of them in tomorrow’s post.

So, ladies, let it go. Yes, you were hurt, so are MOST PEOPLE. You’re not special with your pet abuse you carry around. Lay it down at the cross. As Jimmy Buffett said, ‘Breathe in, breathe out, move on’.

Posted in discernment, theology

Beth Moore will answer to Jesus for normalizing women preaching/teaching to men

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Sin destroys

I published this in 2018 and I updated and added to it today because of a confirmation of a tweet I saw Sharon Hodde Miller express on Twitter recently. Moore took hold of the goat and brought it into into church where it lurked in corners and tried to be inconspicuous. Now these women settle the goat onto a pew and treat the goat as a sheep. Jesus said in Revelation 2:20-23 that he is against false female preachers/teachers/prophets, especially ones who preach falsely!

But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. 21I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her sexual immorality. 22Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. 23And I will kill her children with plague, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.

This passage SHOULD strike deadly fear into these women who boast of their sin.

It was a given that for more than 2000 years women are not to be teachers or preachers of men. We women can and do teach, we minister, and we evangelize. We discuss, we help, we clarify in a private setting, but we are not to have biblical authority over men in church expository situations.

“I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” (1 Timothy 2:12)

How is a women preaching to men a sinister situation? It’s sin. As RC Sproul said, sin is cosmic treason!

Ask the metaphorical Jezebel of Revelation 2:20 who was teaching things God did not say. Jesus promised to kill her and her followers. Inserting words into God’s mouth is sin.

What God says to do or not do matters. We don’t need 50,000 verses. One is enough. Women are not allowed to teach the Bible to men.

But Beth Moore does.

She has been doing it for 35 years.

Woe to Beth Moore.

A generation is about 25 years. Therefore, it’s woe to the generation of women coming up in Christian circles who have for the entire time been seeing Moore’s preaching to men as normal, even with her former pastor’s overt blessing, or the tacit blessing of her former denomination the Southern Baptist Convention and its arm, Lifeway.

For years Moore taught Bible to a co-ed Sunday School class of 600-700 people as you read in that link above and later up to 900 people as stated in this link from her own former SBC church:

At that time, God began to do a new thing, stirring the heart of Beth to move to a new meeting place, meeting time, change the name of the class, and allow men to attend.

Is it God ‘stirring the heart’ of a woman to disobey scripture and to teach men? I think not. In Revelation 2:23 it’s noted that Jesus will strike Jezebel’s children dead. These are not Jezebel’s biological children, but the spiritual daughters she is raising up in her polluted, sinful likeness who preach and prophesy.

She describes her origins as a Bible teacher. Her Sunday School class began in 1985 and she was still teaching it in 2005. Her class almost from the beginning had a mixed audience.

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

Abuse of the word “called” here is especially egregious, because it intimates that God assigned her to preach, which is in effect, co-opting God into her own sin, and using Him as the excuse. God will address this abuse on the Day.

Secondly, it does not matter if you “had personal aspirations to preach” to men or not. Your opinion does not matter, only the Bible’s statutes. If you do preach, you’re sinning. If you fail to stop it, you’re sinning.

Other women elsewhere began copying Moore’s excuses and language. “I’m called to do this”. “I have no desire to preach but it happened anyway”, “I want to step into the gifts God has given me to teach [men]” and the like.

Moore eventually founded Living Proof Ministry in 1994. By 2003 her Living Proof Live conferences had gone beyond the confines of her church and beyond the Texas border. A national magazine took notice. Their opening sentence called her a minister.

“Once a victim of abuse, Beth Moore is one of America’s most popular ministers today.”

Charisma Magazine

The article went on to note that men attended her Sunday School class. It was popular, so crowded with both sexes that attendees were asked to car pool because the parking lot was so jammed.

An obedient teacher says “My love is for Christ and His word, and I asked the pastor to restrict the class to women only.” But as Beth Moore said above, “I didn’t throw them out. I taught.” She purposely sought bigger rooms to accommodate them all.

The leaders of her church allowed it, encouraged it. About this time, her pastor also asked Beth to preach the Sunday Night service, too. Woe!

She has been a usurper from the beginning. And she keeps on teaching. And the women were watching. Like hawks.

In 2010 when her fame was rising, Christianity Today did a 6-page cover story on her. The article cites the following:

Before she begins, she addresses the few men in the crowd. A Southern Baptist, Moore emphasizes that her ministry is intended for women. “The gentlemen who had such courage to come into this place tonight, into this estrogen fest if you will ever find one in your entire life: we are so blessed to have you,” Moore says. “I do not desire to have any kind of authority over you.”

It’s laughable to pronounce a blessing on the men in attendance, welcome them, preach the Bible to them, and then meekly deny any authority over them. Is her teaching from the Word authoritative over the women but not the men sitting next to them? Or do the women reject her authority to teach and they’re just coming, say, for the music? You see the illogic. If she teaches the Bible, she is teaching authoritatively, and it’s authoritative to all in the hearing of it.

As far as Moore’s coyness that she does not desire to be authoritative over them, this is false. Genesis 3:16 tells us it is IN us to want to usurp male authority. It doesn’t matter if you desire to break God’s command or not, if you DO, you’re sinning. Try telling the traffic policeman that “I did not desire to speed on the highway” and see if he lets you go.

The Christianity Today story is behind a paywall now. However, the link is here if you want to see the source.

Moore’s occasional weak protest, that men attend her classes and conferences on their own volition so it isn’t really her fault, doesn’t hold water. She taught men in her SS class for 20 years. By 2012, she was personally asked to substitute for pastor Louie Giglio preaching the Sunday Service at Louie Giglio’s Passion City Church, and she accepted. It was Holy Week, and she preached John 19 to a very, VERY large crowd of congregants. Now the “secret” was out and widely public. ‘Women, even SBC women, can preach! No one will stop us!’

Screen grabs from videos like this in 2012 harm women when they see a female on stage preaching from the Bible shoulder to shoulder with men. It’s visual egalitarianism. Photos like this are damaging. L-R, Lecrae, Moore, Chan, Giglio, Piper preaching at Passion Conference in 2012:

How Beth Moore is helping to change the face of evangelical leadership

Now the POINT: (I know, I know, this blog is like a pastor giving a 30-minute sermon intro in a 40-minute sermon session,)

Moore is personally the transition linchpin for this new future of women preachers:

Moore is one of the evangelical leaders today who represent the future of the global church, in which people outside Europe and the United States will be dominant. … Moore represents this transition, which is shaping even the most conservative corners of evangelicalism.

Washington Post


ANd I refer you to this tweet again.

There is the danger. After so many decades of preaching and teaching, with little to no pushback from her leadership in the denomination, Moore has mirrored the metaphorical Jezebel Jesus threatened death with in Revelation 2:20-23. He threatened death to her and also the women the Jezebel had raised up by her sinful example.

Imagine, within one generation a woman whose former claim to fame was the latest aerobics moves climbed steadily up to being seriously considered for president of the world’s largest denomination, a conservative one, at that. One generation, after 2000 years of holding fast to scripture on this issue. Sin is amazing in its power.

Yet the LORD our God is still on His throne and He still maintains a hard line on the roles women and men are to operate within in His church. That is a given.

For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. (1Corinthians 14: 33-35).

Posted in theology

Get our allegiances right!

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

People advocate for the false teacher and denounce the person that is calling the false teacher to task. I see this more and more often.

What sparked this observation is another exchange on social media that is true to the adage I’d shared above. Social media is important because it influences both to the good, and to the bad. So, I’ll repost it, with my replies, then share 3 points and some verses from the Bible. People are giving too much sway to false teachers and not enough allegiance to Jesus and I’ll share why this is inappropriate and actually a virtue signal or just an unwise stance.

Beth Moore made a tweet and a man replied.

Back-Up Tambourine Player saw the exchange and commented on it thus- “Incredibly tacky, to be honest. When people we do not like encourage us to do very good and biblical things like memorize and meditate on God’s word and not ourselves, they don’t deserve our ridicule. That’s the mark of an immature mind.”

I replied to Backup Tambouring Player-, “[The] reply to @BethMooreLPM was proper. She’s a preaching rebel, usurping God-ordained role & inserting herself into places God didn’t design women to go. She makes a living off scripture rebellion & turns around & urges scripture memorization? This hypocrite deserves ALL the ridicule“

The man used scripture to call a false teacher to repent. That’s proper. The OP errantly called that “ridicule”. It’s not. One way we pray for the lost is to use scripture. We MUST call a rebel a rebel to their face if they are to repent, not coddle them in their rebellion.

Beth Moore urged people to memorize scripture and the original poster called that ‘biblical and very good’. It’s not, when it comes from an agent of satan.(Acts 16:16-18). The hypocrisy is, Moore urging us to memorize scripture but she ignoring 1 Tim 2:12 and rebellling against it.

It’s troubling that the man who used scripture to call false teacher Beth Moore to repent is seen as “ridiculing”, while false teacher Moore’s words are called ‘biblically and very good’. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, says Isaiah 5:20.

Elsewhere, the original poster Backup Tambourine Player said to someone else, “I don’t mind occasional joking with my theologically opposites, it’s good fun. I just don’t think he has a track record of doing it in kind. And I’m not trying to defend Beth, I don’t particularly care for her teaching. But I say, joke where appropriate!

Lots to comment on here.

Point #1: The original poster mentioned we should not ridicule people we don’t like. That she doesn’t care for Moore’s teaching. This is wise and true. However, Moore is a false teacher. There is more to it than just disliking her personally or not caring for her teaching, as the poster claimed. Perhaps someone doesn’t like her active style at the pulpit. Perhaps someone doesn’t like her accent. Perhaps someone doesn’t like her clothes or her cornbread recipes. Fine. That’s just personal opinions and of course we don’t denounce people based on personal opinion.

However, Moore is a false teacher. This means Moore promotes satan’s agenda, not God’s. The Bible has MUCH to say about what to do when we come across a false teacher. Speaking out against false teachers is a must. It’s not that we don’ like Beth Moore personally, it’s that we don’t like her biblically.

Point #2: The replier to Moore used scripture. Using scripture to denounce a false teacher is biblical. It’s not “ridicule.” A case could be made for using so many emojis in a sarcastic way, but then again, maybe not, it could be a good punctuation for a woman who urged people to study the Bible yet who also hypocritically rejects the Bible parts she doesn’t like. Jesus reserved His most scathing comments for the hypocrites.

Point #3: In this exchange and too many others, people coddle the false teacher while denouncing the one who denounces the false teacher. False teachers are a scourge. They are evil. Yes, evil. There is only Light and dark, narrow or broad, truth and lie. We need NO HELP from false teachers.

Remember in Acts 16 when Paul was “greatly annoyed” with the demon possessed slave girl who kept following him and saying, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation”? The slave girl was speaking truth. Why did Paul get annoyed? Backup Tambourine Player would say, after all, the girl is “encouraging us to do very good and biblical things“.

Paul was annoyed because we do not need help from satan to declare the truth. Matthew Henry says of the Acts 16 verse,

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

Don’t be a careless observer.

There are too many good teachers who “encourage us to good and biblical things“, than to pick the one or two things a false teacher said and give them any credence at all. False teachers are flatterers, they perform and act, they are good at disguising themselves as godly, yet all the while deny the power of God.

Romans 16:18 says –
For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.

Matthew 6:1 says – Beware of practicing [performing] your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

2 Corinthians 11:14 says – For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

2 Timothy 3:5 says – holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these.

It is stated in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 to “test everything; hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil.“

False teachers like Beth Moore are said in the Bible to be deceivers, promote myths, secretly bring in destructive heresies, upset whole families, pervert the grace of our God into sensuality, are puffed up with conceit and understand nothing, are unfruitful, are from the world, and are impostors. Those are just a few of the things the Bible calls a false teacher, not even all of them.

Disguised as a worker of God, Beth Moore performs. She doesn’t teach, having denied His power.

Why listen to ANY PART of a false teacher when so many good teachers are out there? Do you want to be seen as promoting evil and be aligned with them? Paul would say NO.

If your own test of credibility has found a teacher to be false, or if your own pastor has said so, or if other solid Christians have alerted you, take this information on board. Do not give even a quarter inch to a false teacher even when they seem to say good and biblical things. They are purposely saying these things so as to deceive the unwary and to draw you away.

Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. Matthew 10:16

Posted in theology

Beth Moore doesn’t speak for the church

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Beth Moore speaking at a race conference at Baylor in 2022.

Just out is Beth Moore’s third memoir, “All My Knotted Up Life.” (The first two were Feathers from My Nest: A Mother’s Reflections and Things Pondered: From the Heart of a Lesser Woman.)

Moore is a great oral storyteller and she is also good writer. She has written over 25 Bible studies beginning in 1999 with A Woman’s Heart: God’s Dwelling Place, three memoirs, a novel, and numerous other books. For most of her publishing life, Moore has been with Lifeway, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. In 2021, when Moore left the publisher, it was stated,

Moore was Lifeway’s best-selling author, with a reach far beyond the SBC to conservative believers of many denominations. Her books and related materials “kept the Nashville-based publisher afloat,” according to Baptist News. At her peak, she generated more than $30 million a year in revenue.

Her current memoir, published by Tyndale, is accompanied by the ubiquitous book tour. Moore is sweeping the south with her book signings. Interest is high in her book’s contents and with that, interest is high on her in general. Her opinion on various topics is being sought. And Beth is happy to give it.

Photo by Pro Church Media on Unsplash

Moore is capitalizing on this widespread interest by speaking up about “white privilege”, “white supremacy”, and “racism” “in the church”. Earlier she jumped on the “misogyny” bandwagon when the #MeToo movement surfaced, and previously jumped on other Christian trends and fads, speaking out on them when they were popular.

From the beginning it must be stated: Beth Moore is a false teacher. Her skill in storytelling, her rough life, and her emotional appeals notwithstanding, when she teaches the Bible, her teaching fails the Berean test. When comparing it to scripture, these things are not so. (Acts 17:11).

‘Groupies’ follow Moore from LPL to LPL. Photo by Free Walking Tour Salzburg on Unsplash

When I attended a Living Proof Live event in 2011 at an 18,000 seat filled arena, I spoke with women in the lobby as we waited to get in. Many of them traveled long distances to hear Beth. Some, I discovered, follow her from venue to venue. One boasted she’d seen Beth at more than 20 LPL events. I’d used the word groupie to describe them in a previous essay, and it’s how some describe themselves, but my concern is her groupies that have heaped Beth up are now a cult – and she is their idol.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Think I’m kidding? Nope. See some of the recent comments about Beth Moore. These aren’t cherry picked. There are frequent comments like this.

Beth Moore’s recent elevation by her ticked-ears followers is a concern. Moore has millions of people whom she influences between social media, interviews, LPL events, and book signings.

Therefore the following issues are important to state:

Beth Moore does not speak for the church.

No one elected Beth Moore spokesman for “the church”. Moore is making numerous allegations, sweeping assertions, and accusations about “the church”. She has not defined the church of which she speaks. Her own church? The Baptist denomination church? The church in America? The global church? The only church of which she should speak is her own. And even then, nasty public accusations are not God-honoring. (Exodus 20:16, 1 Peter 2:1, Proverbs 11:9).

Beth Moore does not speak for the church. Beth Moore does not speak for you. Or me.

1. Making categorical, unqualified and vague accusations that are sweeping in scope causes division.

For example, Moore stated at a recent conference at which she was an invited speaker:

“How do people who claim to love God and place such a high value on Scripture place such a low value on justice?” (Source)

Which people? Where? How can she make such a sweeping claim?

Also: “At that time, such things as the titanic need for criminal justice reform had not even registered with me” (Source).

“What became increasingly and startlingly clear was that our politics informed our faith, rather than our faith informing our politics,” Moore said. (ibid)

“Our”? Whose faith was being informed by politics? Hers? Yours? Her church’s? What are some examples? None are ever given, just constant nebulous assertions.

She did the same in 2018 in a “Letter to My Brothers” which talked of “skewed attitudes.” She asked that her brothers (not named, not defined) “would simply have no tolerance for misogyny and dismissiveness toward women in your spheres of influence.” She talked of being a female leader and having to “work within ‘the system'” (instead of saying ‘I joyously submitted to God’s hierarchical roles for men, women, youths and children? Her church was ‘a system’?).

Her insinuations in the Letter to My Brothers again were vague and unclear. Did she meant the men in her own church, men in the global church, or men everywhere?. Michelle Lesley wrote of the Letter to My Brothers’ unsubstantiated accusations,

How is anyone supposed to agree with or refute the facts of what Beth is saying unless she gives clear explanations and details? What Beth has done in her blog post is to throw out unsubstantiated, generalized accusations against a wide swath of nameless Christian men and churches and she expects us to take her word for it that there’s some epidemic of misogyny across the board in the church.

The Bible says about people like Moore who make unsubstantiated assertions:

Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, (Titus 3:10).

The word factious here (or divisive in other translations) means, according to Strongs-

hairetikós  – a factious person, specializing in half-truths and misimpressions “to win others over” to their personal opinion (misguided zeal) – while creating harmful divisions (used only in Tit 3:10). 

How aptly this verse applies to Beth Moore! One person tweeted an even more pointed comment after watching her recent woke/racism interview,

 “all I saw was emotion with buzz words attached.”

Friends, avoid Beth Moore, because the Bible says-

“You shall not bear a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. (Exodus 23:1).

2. Beth Moore hops onto fads. She copied Joel Osteen’s mantra for a while, copied hearing from God from Henry Blackaby, contemplative prayer, blue bracelets, home altars, lectio divina, #metoo, misogyny, woke, diversity…

Moore is just like the “the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something newer.” (Acts 17:21). Chasing after the latest trend is as old as the hills. And it’s not new to Beth Moore. Whatever’s popular, she goes after with misguided zeal.

3. She variously minimizes or exaggerates herself or her living situation to fit the current atmosphere.

Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. (Ephesians 4:25)

In the quote below, Moore used the language of woke, saying that she lived in white privilege,

“I was in a very privileged part of the world and a very privileged part of the church,” she conceded. Awareness of her privilege began to dawn on her just over a decade ago…” (Source).

She was born in 1957. In fact checking her statement about growing up privileged, a word she did not define, according to the 1960 census the median income for her county was $3,100 and her specific city’s was $3,800. That is $38,000 today. Wealthy salary it ain’t. Unemployment was 8.6%, one of the higher unemployment numbers of all the counties in Arkansas. Only 4.3% of female white women completed four years of college at that time. That’s not privilege. It’s poverty, poorness, and/or underprivilege.

She constantly uses language to shape a narrative she wishes a particular audience to resonate with. Moore either exaggerates (the privilege example above) or minimizes it. Here are examples of how she minimizes her situation when it suits her-

We have a tiny little sliver of water not far from us that you could call a creek if you were in a particularly generous mood. It’s got some sand by it that the kids really like. Be blessed that this is not a scratch and sniff picture because the creek doesn’t always smell all that good, especially if it hasn’t rained in a while. But if your nose is slightly stuffy, it can be pretty fun.

Moore was describing the creek that runs through her estate. It’s Spring Creek, and it begins near Waller Tx and runs about 45 miles to drain into the San Jacinto River. It divides Harris and Montgomery County. Spring Creek is the only natural creek in both Harris and Montgomery County. It is known for “its sandy banks, undisturbed natural surroundings, and clean water, and it serves as home to many animals, including deer, otters, raccoons, opossums, and alligators. Many species of fish, including white bass, catfish, crappie, largemouth bass, and bluegill inhabit its waters. It is also known for its occasional Swainson’s warbler sightings and for being the easternmost sighting of the green kingfisher, as well as bald eagles, herons, egrets, and other birds.” (Wikipedia)

Along the way there are many parks and greenways which attract locals and tourists. Spring TX, home to Moore’s church, was named after the river. Hardly the dirty smelly creek she described. At all.

Here’s her description of her home she moved into several years ago:

So, three years to the day later, we’re making it out in these modest woods. These acres would not be beautiful to everybody but they’re beautiful to us. Life has been brand new out here. I won’t kid you. It’s been an adjustment. A lot less eating out. A lot more cooking. A lot more driving to work. The cars stay filthy. The raccoons won’t stay out of the trash. Fed Ex never can find us. But we don’t mind. Because it was time to make a move. For us, it was out where the dawn breaks to the crow of a rooster.

Evokes an image of the Ingalls dirt hut out on the prairie, doesn’t it? What Moore doesn’t tell you is that the Moore Trust property in Tomball TX, are not “modest woods” that “would not be beautiful to everybody.” Her property is a 46 acre forested enclave with its own road, two houses with total of 7 bedrooms and 7 1/2 baths, custom outdoor kitchens and fireplaces, a combined square footage of 6600 sf, and assessed by Harris County TX at over $2 million dollars.

She plays white privilege when it suits her. She plays regular sista when she wants to hide her then-4 houses, large home estate, and flying to her venues on a private jet, even to Australia.

4. Beth Moore is an expert at using political rhetoric to her advantage.

Political rhetoric is deliberately vague. You know the kind, the candidate speeches that roll around every election cycle that fling around words like liberty and freedom and prosperity, that each different person listening has a different idea of its meaning.

“Political language is vague because politicians are shrewd and desire to build a winning coalition of people who hold different views“, said Larry Etheredge of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

That’s Beth Moore. Not desiring to speak unadulterated biblical truth, but to build a coalition of people who hold different views- so as to make merchandise of them (2 Peter 2:3).

Vagueness is why Moore refused to answer when I and other ladies asked her point blank if homosexuality was a sin. It’s why she has never come out in support of the Roe v. Wade overturning, or said clearly that abortion is bad. It’s why she never has to my knowledge taught a Bible lesson on 1 Timothy (you know, the book that says a woman may not preach to men or have authority over them?) It’s exactly why Moore makes vague claims and will never stop making them-

There are also certain advantages in the use of fuzzy concepts and vague boundaries, because they extend the range of options open to a speaker, offering a chance to express many grades of truth and many different attitudes towards propositions without the speaker having to be pinned down to just one position. (Lakoff, “Hedges: A study in meaning and the logic of fuzzy concepts. Eighth Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society, 183-228, 1972).

That’s Beth Moore, expressing many grades of truth.

I deliberately chose the above examples of how Beth hops onto fads, chooses vague language, and changes her own narrative to suit the situation, because the facts add up to this conclusion: she cannot be trusted in what she says.

I’ll repeat: Beth Moore cannot be trusted when she speaks. You can’t trust her words.

She is riding a high wave of widespread approval due to the sad and tragic revelations of her autobiography. I empathize with her various tragedies. But remember, many Christian people have had those tragedies and worse, but they do not slander, make sweeping accusations, become hardened and unteachable, and tacitly accept their cult status.

Beth Moore is a false teacher deceiving and being deceived. While she has her reward now, judgment awaits for her many sins. I plead with women reading this, do not give an inch to the false teachers or you will become part of the evil they do:

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned. (2 Peter 2:1-2).

Posted in theology

This is why I love Twitter

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

The other day Beth Moore tweeted something stupid in a Twitter thread. She dismissed Jonathan Edwards and his impact, saying for the life of her she can’t figure out the attraction. She disliked his forceful approach to preaching the wrath and conviction of sin, preferring to focus on her usual emotional feelings and such. I introduced Edwards in a previous essay, encouraging people to go look up his works, which are great even 300 years later.

Here is an article remarking on the resulting controversy if you’re interested. I’m much more interested in the replies. I screen shot a few. I love how some people can tweet a pithy reply within the character limits, concisely stating a truth, presenting a witticism, or even doing apologetics in short form.

@MichelleDLesley: “Posting a tweet that caused bunches of people to Google and read “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is probably the greatest gospel impact Beth Moore has ever had.”

LOL

I love Twitter. If you follow the right folks, Godly and intelligent, you will be edified. I learn a lot from folks on that particular social media. I follow good links, see grace, know who to pray for and am prayed for, observe wisdom, charity, and grace. It’s also fun. Not that I can’t experience those things in real life, I do. But Twitter gives me another window to the global church and I’m grateful for it. We are not alone, not a remnant, and the church is thriving!

Further Resources

On this day: Jonathan Edwards preached Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Posted in theology

Beth Moore apologizes for making celebrity look so easy

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

In this blog I give some warnings and cautions to any sister in Christ whose ministry is growing.

Beth Moore tweeted a thread Saturday apologizing for making platformed Christian celebrity look so easy, and opining that (though) it is actually hard, you, too, can achieve it if you ‘keep at it’ and ‘hang in there’. No exaggeration. Screen shots and links blow.

I’ve written several times about the drastic error of these celebrity evangelical women who traded motherhood for celebrity, leaving kids and hubby behind, taking on the male role while hubby accepts the female. All in the name of “ministry,” when in reality it was just about a feminist career.

Continue reading “Beth Moore apologizes for making celebrity look so easy” →
Posted in theology

Of Tweet-storms, cauldrons, and cesspools

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

A week ago, on Reformation day 2022, (October 31) I tweeted a thread and subsequently posted a longer piece from the blog about something Beth Moore had said. She proclaimed with certainty that her 87 year old mother-in-law (who had passed 2 weeks before) was “in the presence of Jesus” and reunited with family members. The problem was, besides the fact of claiming you know with certainty anyone’s final destination, was that her Mother-in-law was a “devoted” life-long, “staunch” Catholic.

I’d said that if anyone who believes the dogmas of Rome, when they depart this world, is likely not in heaven. That was what the Protestant Reformation was all about, protesting the apostasy evident in that false religious structure. The Catholic Church by Martin Luther’s day had become apostate, rife with man-made traditions, schemas for salvation, merit, works, and indulgences (monetization of religion). It is still the same today. The Roman Catholic Church is a false church with an evil religious structure that opposes God. Believers in that church are sadly deceived that they are worshiping ‘this same Jesus’ in Acts 1:11 who departed this world and who will return in wrath and fury. (Revelation 19:21, Colossians 3:6).

Keep out, warn your discernment people. There be piranhas and brimstone.

That first tweet in my thread garnered 172,000 impressions and over 10,000 engagements within a day or two. Of the responses and discussions I’d seen, only 2 were positive or encouraging. The rest elicited a host of attacks, swears, curses, insults, and evil accusations. Some were poisonously corrupt to the Nth degree.

The attacks were almost instant, cruel, and ruthless. Many were from self-identified Christians, self-stated liberals, however, which explains a lot. Yet it was unbelievable what some of them felt it was OK to say in public the things they said.

I pondered and processed that event over the next few days, and here’s my conclusion:

1. I got to share the Gospel again and again and again. In the Twitterverse, there are not only the people you are directly engaging with, but all the people watching. There are a lot. So the Gospel was presented (as best as one can with the character limit). That is satisfying. Ultimately my first goal as a social media user is to proclaim the excellencies of Jesus.

2. I got to say several times that the Catholic church is corrupt and not Christian, and attach resources for further exploration. This is also good. It’s the second goal of mine to present credible resources to people. There is a lot of false out here. Putting out links to good ministries is a privilege and my joy.

3. I got to say many times that Beth Moore is a false teacher. I was expecting the outcry. It happens almost every time Beth Moore is presented in a negative light. It happened when I and 5 other ladies published the Open Letter to Beth Moore. It happened when I broke the news after she departed the Southern Baptist Convention that she was serving at the pulpit at her new Anglican church. Because Moore is destructive to one’s walk and one’s soul, I am pleased to say as many times as I can that she is false, in hopes that even one sister in Christ will go away from Moore. She’s one of the worst false teachers of past decades. Stating this in hopes of some eyes opening is my privilege and my joy.

4. Such activity reveals. It is an Elisha servant moment. When Elisha’s servant looked out and saw that the King of Syria’s army had surrounded them at Dothan, the servant moaned and said,

And his servant said to him, “This is hopeless, my master! What are we to do?” And he said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are greater than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “Lord, please, open his eyes so that he may see.” And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6:15-17).

Can we see the demons? No. They are spiritual beings. But we can see their activity.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12).

In your mind’s eye, envision a still pool in a verdant forest. It looks inviting, pretty, calm. Throw a big rock into the pool, and suddenly there is motion, ripples, splashes. Waves reverberate against the shore. Cattails along the edge wave wildly. Chaotic splashing spreads poison spray on the upper reaches of the grass on shore, which wilt and some die. Piranhas lurking just under the surface leap and scream wildly, revealing themselves.

That is what happens when you throw a big rock into the polluted pool of Beth Moore defenders. At once you can see the verdant pool is not inviting after all, it is an unpleasant cauldron of malevolent schemes and percolating brimstone.

I’ll gladly take the splashback from the false teacher cesspool if whatever I post roils up the demonic so that its activity can be identified. I wish we all could be given an a glimpse like Elisha’s servant was, but unfortunately such privileges are few and far between these days. But God did give us His word, which is always available to one and all who are regenerated and can spiritually discern its contents. He did give us discernment to be trained up in. Discernment always roils the false. When you see such outcry, take note, it’s your discernment people trying to point out the mines in the minefield.

5. It became clear to me how many people need to be educated on the falsity of the Catholic church, what the Reformation was, and that there is a massive, fundamental, and eternal difference between Protestant and Catholic. The agitated activity showed us that ignorance is rife even among believers. Why?

Over the last couple of decades, the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the world (formerly led in part by the self-same Beth Moore), tolerated Catholic practices such as Lectio Divina, Contemplative prayer, and other mystical practices such as visions and direct revelation, used by the Catholic Church for centuries. When Moore herself publicly stated several times that Catholics are just another denomination, there was no public correction from the actual leaders of the SBC. In time, the undiscerning Baptists (and others) came to accept what leaders were saying overtly and by omission, and now have a hard time understanding that Catholicism isn’t Christian.

If you, dear sister, are tired of the wrangling and pushback from your social media posts, I understand. People have no common sense these days. They lack basic charity and grace. Politeness seems to have flown the coop. But also know that all things work to the good of those who love God, and He is glorified even in the disorder created by Tweet storms, Facebook posts, and blog essays. Let’s not become discouraged in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not become weary. (Galatians 6:9).

The demons don’t get weary. Malignant activity still performs its evil in this world. It’s up to us to shine the light. Ephesians 5:11 says Do not participate in the useless deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;

The Gospel goes on, it is the joy and light of salvation. Its proclamation sometimes is received well, other times not. But we persist in being ambassadors for His name, THE name-

through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles in behalf of His name, (Romans 1:5).

Further Reading

Are Catholics saved? (GotQuestions essay)

Are Roman Catholics Christian? (CARM essay)

What’s the Problem with Beth Moore? (video-1:33)

Discernment in Days of Defection (sermon by Phil Johnson)

The End Time Blog Podcast Season 2, Episode 270

Posted in theology

Reformation Day is a good day to talk about the Blood on Beth Moore’s Hands

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

An essay in three sections.

  1. The Reformation and what it stood for
  2. Beth Moore and her failure to teach the truth about Catholicism
  3. What the Bible teaches about leaders failing to preach the true word, and encouragement for those who do

1. What was the Reformation about?

October 31, Reformation Day, is a day when Christians bring to remembrance the old Catholic priest, Martin Luther. His inquiry into the scriptures, his spiritual angst over indulgences (a gross monetization of the faith), dismissal of the theology around purgatory, and his disappointment and despair after his trip to Rome, caused him on October 31, 1517 (traditionally accepted date) to nail 95 Theses to the All Saints’ Church in anticipation of a theological discussion. These theses became the foundation for the ensuing Protestant Reformation. We have been discussing ever since.

In his theses, Martin Luther had said that “It is vain to trust in salvation by indulgence letters, even though the indulgence commissary, or even the pope, were to offer his soul as security.” (Thesis #52).

He also said, “They are the enemies of Christ and the pope who forbid altogether the preaching of the Word of God in some churches in order that indulgences may be preached in others.” (#53).

And, in speaking against the gross accumulation of personal wealth by the Pope, that “The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.” (#62).

The Roman Catholic Church teaches and preaches heresy. Anyone believing the doctrines of Rome is likely not saved. If they do come to true repentance in the true faith, they soon leave the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), because it is not spiritually profitable to remain. The Holy Spirit who indwells the new believer, would not let them stay.

Ex-Catholic and now fervent Protestant Evangelist Mike Gendron, writes,

“Catholic salvation is based on Jesus plus Mary, faith plus works, grace plus merit, Scripture plus tradition and the blood of Jesus plus purgatory. Catholics do not know that any addition to the Gospel is a denial of the sufficiency of Christ (Heb. 7:25). Any addition to the Gospel also nullifies the saving grace of God, which is the only means by which God saves sinners (Romans 11:6). Catholics, who are victims of this deception, need to be evangelized with the true Gospel of grace.”

ABCs of Evangelizing Catholics

2. Beth Moore’s failure to teach the truth about Catholicism

Beth Moore’s 87 year old mother-in-law died a few weeks ago. Any death is sad, but when the person is likely a non-believer, it’s heart rending. The obituary says, “Mary and her husband John were lifelong, devoted Catholics.” If Mary believed RCC dogma, then she did not believe in the necessary elements of the faith.

“Many of the 70 million Catholics in America were born into their religion and have never examined their faith through the lens of Scripture“. ~Mike Gendron

Beth’s mother-in-law Mary Moore was devoted to errant RC dogma. It’s a tragedy that she’s likely not dwelling in peace now or forever. But another tragedy is her daughter-in-law Beth, who proclaimed with certainty that Mary Moore,

“having entered the holy presence” said, “We are greatly consoled she lived to be 87 and is now not only with Jesus but with the two children she’d buried long ago and grieved deeply and daily.”

No. It’s a tragedy that Beth has compromised on this issue, declaring that a “devoted Catholic” has entered the holy presence of God. I hope Mary Moore has, but only due to last minute repentance in true faith. That post about her mother-in-law’s death on Instagram by Beth Moore got over 21,000 likes, and Moore’s Instagram account has over half a million followers. Beth’s influence and reach could have seen Catholics as a mission field.

But she didn’t. She doesn’t. She never has.

Beth’s own errant doctrine, compromising man-pleasing, or just cowardice, for many years has instead ignored the souls of millions she otherwise could have shared the truth with. There is blood on her hands, sadly. No one who believes Rome will see glory, except on Judgment Day, when the Lord will say “Depart from me, I never knew you!” and the same to false teachers like Moore who poison the faith and confuse the naïve.

Catholics are a mission field. They do not need an influential celebrity evangelical to assure them in their error! However, I and others have warned for over a decade now, that Moore teaches that Catholics are part of the true faith. She taught from her 2002 ‘study’, “Believing God” that Jesus lifted her to another dimension and gave her a view of the global church “as he sees it” which included the Catholic Church. She used an example of various denominations with signs to illustrate this ‘vision’, naming the Catholic ‘denomination’ of St. Anne’s Catholic Church. Her mother-in-law was a member of a church named St. Anne Catholic Church, by the way.

In this screen shot from a video, Moore is teaching from her 2002 ‘Believing God’ study that a Catholic church is simply another denomination along with Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran churches etc

In her 2006 Catholic-influenced Mystical DVD “Be Still,” Moore spoke of lines between denominations being erased, insinuating the lines were between Catholic and Protestant. In effect, she was denying the need for the Reformation and rejecting that severe doctrinal differences separate Protestants and Catholics. She said,

“You know, one of the things that time gives us is that it erases the lines in between people so many different sections of the people of God. Because many years later it doesn’t matter any longer that this person was of this practice in the Christian faith and this person of another. Time somehow blurs those lines and we are profoundly moved by the historical narratives of all their lives, of so great a cloud of witnesses; that we can look back on and see what kept them running the race, what kept them running toward the face of Christ at the end of that finish line.”

In 2012 Moore participated in and led an arena full of impressionable youth in a RCC mystical practice called Lectio Divina at the Passion Conference. Clearly, Beth Moore believes that Catholicism is part of the faith, or if she doesn’t believe it, she acts like it is.

In 2020 Moore didn’t insinuate, she outright called Roman Catholicism a denomination of the faith.

I can understand that living with in-laws who are staunch Catholics is hard when you’re an alleged evangelical. I know they scowlingly objected to her quick and ignominious wedding in an off-white dress (Beth’s words). I understand the tensions when the in-laws remained Catholics all their lives, even when moving from Houston to Tomball, changing Churches from one Catholic church to another in a declaration of their continued loyalty to Rome.

I can understand that Beth’s husband, having been raised Catholic and remained attached to it throughout the marriage, was a hard to reach mission field; Moore has often publicly complained about her husband’s lack of interest in her Baptist church or the things of God, like not being inclined to study the word, or leafing through fishing magazines if forced to come where truth is being taught.

And in 2022, confidently writing on her Instagram to half a million followers that her Catholic M-I-L is in the presence of Jesus in heaven.

Opposing satan’s doctrines often brings tension, rejection, and difficulty. Instead of using her reach if not for her family (who knows if she did, God knows) then for at least the women she draws in to her public events and studies. Yet Moore consistently affirms Rome by her affirmations of Catholics being true believers and simply another denomination of the true faith. But it isn’t.

3. What the Bible teaches about leaders failing to preach the true word, and encouragement for those who do

“And now behold, I know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will no longer see my face. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all people. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.” (Acts 20:25-27).

That’s the Apostle Paul speaking. Other translations say ‘I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God’. As Paul prepared to leave the believers in Ephesus, his conscience was clear. Why? Barnes’ Notes says,

“‘I have not kept back’; I have not been deterred by fear, by the desire of popularity, by the fact that the doctrines of the gospel are unpalatable to people, from declaring them fully. The proper meaning of the word translated here, “I have not shunned” ὑπεστειλάμην hupesteilamēn, is “to disguise any important truth; to withdraw it from public view; to decline publishing it from fear, or an apprehension of the consequences.” –End Barnes’ Notes Commentary

Paul said the same in Acts 18:6, But when they opposed and insulted him, he shook out his garments and told them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.

Hebrews 13:17 reminds us all of the weighty task that leaders have. They will give an account regarding the souls they’d had under their charge. “Obey your leaders and submit to them—for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account—so that they may do this with joy, not groaning; for this would be unhelpful for you.”

While we learners have an obligation to submit, the leaders/pastors/teachers have an obligation to preach boldly. Paul and Barnabas did, even facing down a hissing mob of Jews who were blasphemously contradicting their teaching. (Acts 13:46). They must offer the entire teaching. An incomplete gospel is no gospel at all. But the whole counsel of God (with nothing added!) is sufficient to save! What glorious Good News!

Finally, we forget, or ignore, the evilness of false teaching. Spurgeon never wavered on proclaiming the truth and never shrank from denouncing the false. He said of the Catholic mass-

“The mass is a mass of abominations, a mass of hell’s own concocting, a crying insult against the Lord of glory. It is not to be spoken of in any terms but those of horror and destestation. Whenever I think of another sacrifice for sin being offered, by whomever it may be presented, I can only regard it as an infamous insult to the perfection of the Savior’s work.” ~ Charles H. Spurgeon

For the leaders who are faithful, you have aspired to a noble task (1 Timothy 3:1), and no doubt if done with persistence, humility, and in truth, will hear our Lord say “Well done good and faithful servant… Enter into the joy of the Lord!” (Matthew 25:21). What a day that will be!

Further Resources

Mary Moore Obituary

Is Roman Catholicism biblical? (article, Grace to You)

Evangelizing Roman Catholics with Mike Gendron (video)

The Reformation and the Men Behind it (article, Ligonier)

Posted in theology

Six reasons why you should avoid Beth Moore

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

screen shot from a 2020 teaching on Youtube

I have accumulated a list of links to critiques showing why Beth Moore should be avoided. FYI of you want more reasons.

Beth Moore’s popularity has remained high and visible throughout her teaching career, 40 years now. She is still negatively influencing women with her bad example.

Here are reasons to avoid Beth Moore:

1. She claims to receive direct revelation from Jesus.

She repeats these ‘conversations’ with his words in quotes. She claims he gives her prophecies apart from what is written in the Bible. She claims he gives her visions. She has said this alleged Jesus told her to go forth and teach these new revelations to people- which makes her a Prophet. All this violates Revelation 22:18-19, Colossians 2:18, among other verses. All this destroys the sufficiency of scripture.

2. Beth Moore partners with wolves and false teachers

such as Joyce Meyer, Christine Caine, Joel and Victoria Osteen, and Brian Houston, for a few examples, violating 2 Corinthians 6:14 and 2 John 1:10.

Exhibit A:

3. Beth Moore teaches and preaches to men, blatantly violating 1 Timothy 2:12.

Moore preaching the Sunday Service in August 2022 at Transformation Church

4. Rather than steadily preach the straight word, Beth Moore jumps on fads

and then leaves them when they diminish in popularity, such as saying mantras, home altars, Lectio Divina, Contemplative Spirituality, blue bracelets, and so on. 2 Peter 2:3 comes to mind.

5. Beth Moore doesn’t interpret the Bible correctly,

using a standard interpretive technique such as literal-grammatical-historical hermeneutic. Instead, she waits for direct revelation or a vision, or cobbles together words out of context- again from supposed direct revelation the ‘Spirit’ gives her, or allegorizes what should be literal, and bases her lessons on those methods. She also uses undignified high emotion and props to distract the audience from these flaws.

6. Beth Moore rejects the biblical roles God has ordained for women

both by example of living functionally as a feminist wife, and explicitly when she rejected and apologized for teaching complementarianism.

These reasons should be enough to warn anyone off a teacher, including and especially Beth Moore. There are better examples of teachers out there to follow, mainly your own pastor, and publicly, Susan Heck, Martha Peace, The Women’s Hope podcast, Brooke Bartz of the Open Hearts in a Closed World conference, Amy Spreeman & Michelle Lesley of A Word Fitly Spoken, and many solid men teachers too numerous to list.

Posted in theology

The Continual Trumpet Blast from the Monstrous Regiment of Beth Moore Battle-axes

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

In 1558, Scottish Reformer and minister John Knox wrote a treatise called “The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women“. In it, Knox proffered the argument that it was unnatural for women to rule and it was contrary to the Bible.

The archaic word monstruous meant “unnatural” and is often written “monstrous” today, meaning hideous or frightful. Regiment meant rule or government.

In 2011, then-member of Team Pyro Phil Johnson, at his team blog Pyromaniacs, riffed off Knox’s title, posting a blog named, “The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Discernment Divas“. He wrote,

“The following video (40+ minutes) is from the recent Psalm 119 Conference in Keller, TX, sponsored by “Wretched,” featuring Todd (“Freakishly Tall”) Friel. Todd dragged me on stage to discuss the Elephant Room and other issues related to wall-building, biblical discernment, bad discernment ministries, shrill-and-sharp-tongued women who fancy themselves called to ministries of full-time criticism—and a few other interesting topics.”

Sadly, that video is no longer available, but the lengthy comment section is interesting.

Johnson apparently spoke spontaneously at that conference about the influx of women claiming the gift of discernment but not employing it in charitable – or even biblical – ways. He said, and I excerpt some of the comments,

In short, I was referring to those very vocal (mostly, but not all female) self-styled “discernment” specialists who seem to think screeching, angry emotions are as good a response to heresy as carefully reasoned, biblical answers.

The pejorative that was floating in my mind during that conversation with Todd is actually a biblical term: busybodies.

[They] relentlessly pestered me with everything from silly taunts and insults to the crassest sort of slander.

[Their] watchblog-style criticism consisting of raw passion or verbal hysterics instead of rational or biblical arguments…are especially prone to fire off rabid posts and caustic comments without sufficient forethought.

Furthermore, these Discernment Divas tend to be incorrigible when you try to point out that this is not a good thing. In fact, they seem to like to drum up campaigns and comment-flurries and virtual tar-and-feather mobs when anyone questions their technique.

Mr Johnson has a way with words. And he got his point across. That discussion, both at the conference and afterward on his blog, made waves.

Eleven years ago was only a few years after the Year of the Blog, 2003. That was when Google bought Blogger’s platform and made it available to the whole world. WordPress launched that year too.

Anyone and everyone suddenly had a blog and could publish anything they wanted, for better or for worse.

In the Christian realms, people found blogging a wonderful way to propagate Christian principles, theology, practical Christian living ideas, and more. Just being able to publish scripture alone, was a revelation. Yay!

But with great visibility, great foolishness is often revealed.

One who withholds his words has knowledge, And one who has a cool spirit is a person of understanding, says (Proverbs 17:27).

Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; When he closes his lips, he is considered prudent. (Proverbs 17:28).

Fools are fools for a reason. They do not know when to remain silent. When blogs became a thing, there was also a sudden birth of discernment bloggers. People, women included, who misjudged their supposed ‘gift of discernment’ and used their “gift” as an excuse to tear down, destroy, slander, and simply be cruel. They do not display the gifts of the Spirit nor do these people exemplify the virtues of a Godly woman.

This week, G3 Ministries leader and Pastor of Prays Mill Church Josh Buice had an interaction with Beth Moore of Living Proof Ministries. It did not go well. Moore had said in a previous tweet that she was pleased with her vines producing grapes, and “If Jesus is trying to get me to have a crush on him, it’s working.” Hers was a blasphemous statement, and Buice chided Moore for it. THAT is why the interaction devolved immediately. Moore did not take the chiding to heart (shocker). Her followers, for which this essay is titled, dove immediately into mob mentality with screeching that could be heard from pillar to post.

Those were the PG rated responses. Of the defenses I’ve seen this past few weeks, particularly surrounding Beth Moore but also others, I stand amazed at how yet again the Bible is real. I see the verse from Genesis 6:5 brought to life before my very eyes-

Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.

I am truly amazed that people who profess Christ would be so free to slander and condescend and make tirades and say such awful things. But of course, most of them only profess, but do not possess the Spirit, and sinners are indeed ugly and sin is indeed rampant.

Instead of being shrieking feminist harridans, instead of unteachable snarks & uncorrectable mockers, instead of slanderers and harpies, women in God’s economy can and should be so much more. We have the Holy Spirit! With His help, we can be what God has called us to be: gracious, modest, wise, hospitable, kind, discreet, humble, respectful…

In one sense, as ugly as it is to read such comments, and as harsh as they are against their intended recipients, these women help me to see the contrast between worldliness and godliness. Not that I need such illustrations to obey God, but their behavior motivates me- in the other direction. Seeing such ugliness on display illustrates the ugliness of sin and the importance of kind speech, the beauty of submission, the elegance of humility.

Virtues that God wants us to cultivate ARE beautiful. They ARE for the common good. I don’t need to test God in this, but trust Him in this.

There is no in between. We can be a crone, or a queen.