Tag: discernment

Posted in discernment, theology

The Importance of Spiritual Discernment for Believers

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Discernment is important.

Let me rephrase that.

Discernment is important.

Discernment is:

Discernment is the skill of understanding and applying God’s Word with the purpose of separating truth from error and right from wrong. ~Tim Challies

Charles Spurgeon drills down even further:

Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.

Though ALL believers must train in discernment (Hebrews 5:14), some believers are given a heightened ability to discern by virtue of possessing a gift from the Spirit.

and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:10, underline mine).

For spirit-gifted discerning believers AND all others, we must practice discernment in our walk. (1 John 4:1, Philippians 1:9-10, Romans 12:2). That means both identifying it AND acting on it. It’s non-negotiable.

Sheep, or Wolf? A Call to Discern
by Dr. Colin Eakin
Discernment: The Neglected Imperative

Where does God command believers to exercise spiritual discernment? Perhaps a better question is, where doesn’t He? The answer is Philemon. Of all the books in the New Testament, this letter of twenty-five verses is the only one in which there is no instruction for the believer to be on guard against falsehood. All remaining twenty-six books of the New Testament (and many of the Old Testament) exhort the believer, to a greater or lesser degree, to discern truth from falsehood and to act upon it.

Satan downplays the importance of discernment. How? He twists scriptures such as the ones under discussion today, two of the most abused scriptures in the Bible, plus one more-

Judge not, that ye be not judged. (Matthew 7:1)

And this one:

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. (Matthew 18:15).

And this admonition based on nothing in the Bible but bandied about as if it was:

Be nice. Jesus ate with sinners, you know.

Sadly, when I write an essay discerning a false teacher, or speaking against a false doctrine, inevitably I receive a slew of comments from women who insist I perform one or the other of the verses above. This makes me sad, because I know from such comments these women are not operating at peak Christian condition. Their insistence that I employ one or both of these verses usually reveals two things about them:

— they hold to an errant understanding of the verses above
— they hypocritically have failed to follow their own advice and ‘come to me privately’, and to ‘judge not’.

Wise people treasure knowledge, but the babbling of a fool invites disaster. (Proverbs 10:14).

Here is my rebuttal to the commenters lobbing the most abused discernment verses:

Judge not, that ye be not judged. (Matthew 7:1).

‘Do not judge’ cannot mean ‘do not discern.’ There are calls to discern in every book of the New Testament except Philemon, and many of the Old. (1 John 4:1, Philippians 1:9-10, Hebrews 5:14, Romans 12:2, 1 Corinthians 2:14, 1 Kings 3:9, & etc.)

So, ‘Judge not’ can’t mean do not judge, because in John 7:24 we’re told to judge. Wisdom would suggest that rather than there being an inconsistency in the Bible, there is an inconsistency in our understanding.

So if Matthew 7:1 doesn’t mean not to discern and it doesn’t mean judge not, what does it actually mean? Well, first, read the verse in context. Here is Matthew 7:1-5,

Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

It means when we do have to judge something, as in test, discern, check, etc, do not do so hypocritically, harshly, or wrongly.

Resource here: GotQuestions- What does the Bible mean that we are not to judge others?

2. Have you gone to her privately?

In this one, commenters are referring to a section in Matthew 18, where the Bible outlines procedures for church discipline. Here is the passage:

If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. (Matthew 18:15-17 NASB)

This verse is about church discipline, when one member of a local body has sinned against another person in the local body. It is a local, internal procedure. It is not referring to our response to book reviews or other public statements false teachers have made in public.

Phil Johnson explained here, in a 2006 blog essay:

It would be a serious mistake to imagine that a private meeting is always a mandatory prerequisite before any Christian can legitimately express public criticism of another believer’s published work or public behavior. On the contrary, sometimes—especially when we’re dealing with a public and scandalous transgression—open rebuke may be warranted as a first response (cf. Galatians 2:11-14). Matthew 18:15-17 outlines instructions for dealing with private sins and personal offenses. These are not guidelines for dealing with false teaching or public behavior that might cloud the truth of the gospel or besmirch the reputation of the whole church.

Here is a link to a pdf “Editorial on Abusing Matthew 18” by Don Carson

Here is Tim Challies with an easy button version of Don Carson’s essay on Matthew 18 abuse.

3. Jesus ate with Sinners

Strangely, in a third most abused verse in the discernment world, many of them say ‘Be nice. Don’t condemn. Jesus ate with sinners.’ What they are referring to is Mark 2:16.

And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

If you think about it, you realize how massively ridiculous their statement that one should not cry out against false teachers or false doctrine is.

The only sinless person who ever lived was Jesus. Of COURSE He ate with sinners. He ate with sinners every time He ate. Jesus eating with sinners verse was about the Pharisees complaining that Jesus was eating with tax collectors and prostitutes whom the Pharisees believed were “sinners”, outcasts unworthy to be in polite society, while at the same time believing that they themselves were NOT sinners and thus worthy to grace Jesus with their presence.

Jesus ate with sinners, having compassion on them, because they were lost sheep. However, He never expected them to remain in their sin. He told the adulteress to ‘go and sin no more,’ for example. He also was very harsh with many other sinners. He whipped up a fury against the merchant greed-mongers in the temple. He called the Pharisees blind guides, fools, wicked, and greedy.

Of course we (forgiven) sinners will eat with (unforgiven) sinners because we are to be in the world. But if we see a friend involved in a false doctrine, do we eat their food but leave them with a poison in their soul? No.

Jesus, Friend of Sinners: But How?
By Kevin DeYoung

As precious as this truth is—that Jesus is a friend of sinners—it, like every other precious truth in the Bible, needs to be safeguarded against doctrinal and ethical error. It is all too easy, and amazingly common, for Christians (or non-Christians) to take the general truth that Jesus was a friend of sinners and twist it all out of biblical recognition.

Jesus was a friend of sinners not because he winked at sin, ignored sin, or enjoyed light-hearted revelry with those engaged in immorality. Jesus was a friend of sinners in that he came to save sinners and was very pleased to welcome sinners who were open to the gospel, sorry for their sins, and on their way to putting their faith in Him.

More:

Why is it significant that Jesus ate with sinners?

It’s the biggest problem.

People ask me this all the time, “What is the greatest need in the church today? What is the most compelling need? What do you see as the biggest problem in Christianity? The biggest problem in the church?

It’s simple for me to answer that. The biggest problem in the church today is the absence of discernment. It’s a lack of discernment. It’s the biggest problem with Christian people, they make bad choices. They accept the wrong thing. They accept the wrong theology. The are prone to the wrong teaching. They’re unwise in who they follow, what they listen to and what they read. ~John MacArthur, Principles for Discernment 2002.

You can enhance your discernment through constant training, (Hebrews 5:14), prayers for wisdom, (James 1:5) and staying in the word (Psalm 119:11). Then perhaps at some point you can help advise a sister and encourage her in her discernment walk. 🙂

 

Posted in theology

Prata Potpourri: Women, discernment, Piper, more

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I am conferenced out. I had the wonderful privilege of attending the National G3 conference a few times and I enjoyed it. But as I age, I am finding that being in a cavernous building filled with thousands of people overwhelms me more quickly than it used to. My energy drains away faster than two shakes of a lamb’s tail.

As an older women a few years away from retirement, it seems lately that all I want to do is come home from work and sit down. Sunday go to church. Repeat. LOL. However I am also grateful for the opportunity through the wonderful invention of the internet, to be able to consume material from present day solid ministries and past ones that have been uploaded, such as at Monergism, Grace Gems, and the like.

Being careful but savvy about what to consume on social media allows a woman to develop her discernment. As long as we are in the word, studying, reading, singing, and in church worshiping, we can extend our learning by testing it with material we find online. This includes buying books and listening to music, whether through Spotify, Pandora, Youtube, or Apple.

In that vein, below are a few links offering a wealth of information about women for women.

Always wise, always measured, and with a right-heart attitude, Amy broaches the subject that many women unfortunately stumble on, hearing God’s voice: Ladies, No One Is Whispering to You by Amy Spreeman at Berean Research

Grace Sutton muses on the different states of being as an adult- singleness and marriage. Desiring one over the other isn’t necessarily making an idol nor would it be sinful. God set apart some for singleness and many for marriage. Here’s Grace working through the issue: Let Me Be Single essay at For the Church

When the blog Pyromaniacs was going, some years ago Phil Johnson wrote about women and discernment. LOL, Don’t blame the messenger: The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Discernment Divas by Phil Johnson, essay

Aussie Daniel Schricker writes and speaks about cults because he grew up in one. Here, he identifies the markers and makings of a cult, and applies the scholarly information to a well-known woman on seemingly every social media there is, The Transformed Wife, Lori Alexander. The Cult of Lori Alexander, essay by Daniel Schricker, Ph.D

With all the brouhaha of gender studies in the recent past, documentary satirist Matt Walsh published a film asking ‘gender experts’ the simple question… What is a Woman? full documentary by Matt Walsh

Great conference content coming up for women I wrote about this yesterday, we can review the sermons and talks afterward on social media, blessedly. Good stuff here!

In 2013, Sunny Shell of Abandoned to Christ ministry wrote the following essay. It was scriptural and humble. She said that consuming Piper’s material “requires more discernment than I currently possess.” She said she loved him and considered him a brother, but she couldn’t follow him any longer, not while there were so many other good ministries out there. Sunny received a LOT of push back, even though there was not an accusatory bone in the whole essay. She took it down and it stayed down for a number of years. A few years ago she put it back up.

As for me, I do not follow Piper either. His continuationism and his multi-step justification stances gave me pause some years ago as to following him or consuming his material. Never mind his lack of discernment in inviting or sharing platforms with Mark Driscoll, Beth Moore, Rick Warren etc. an issue that Sunny pointed out in 2013. Recently, Piper spoke at Pastors’ Workshop and his recorded remarks are causing consternation among the more solid theologians. Here, Ekkie points out the conundrum in a short tweet. Below, find Sunny’s humble but accurate article. Though at this time I consider Piper a brother, I do warn that he has had many confusing stances in the past and of late. Too many bones… Why I no longer follow John Piper or Desiring God ministry


Posted in theology

Don’t be a pig’s snout- Lessons from Proverbs for Women

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

As a ring of gold in a pig’s snout, So is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion. (Proverbs 11:22).

It’s obvious what this means. But…is it obvious?

That’s the beauty and the wonder of God’s word, especially Proverbs. On the surface, it’s easy to understand what it’s saying. But the word of God is living and active, so digging into it yields further depths of understanding.

Bibleref explains the overall sense of the proverb: “The comparison made here is meant to be slightly shocking, as pigs were considered unclean animals. Beauty is represented by something small and insignificant, as compared to the disgusting, filthy, and enormous problem of indiscretion.“

I find that if I ask questions of the text, it will yield answers. I wondered after reading this proverb as part of my daily Bible reading yesterday, I asked myself, what exactly does the proverb mean by ‘discretion’?

I like Biblehub.com because it has the Bible in every translation, commentaries, original languages, lexicon, word dictionaries and much more, all in one spot. I looked up the word discretion in Strong’s Hebrew:

Usage: The Hebrew word “taam” primarily refers to the sense of taste, but it extends metaphorically to denote discernment, judgment, or understanding. It is used to describe the ability to perceive or evaluate situations, often in a moral or spiritual context.

Cultural and Historical Background: In ancient Hebrew culture, the concept of “taste” was not limited to the physical act of eating but was also a metaphor for experiencing and evaluating life. Just as taste helps one discern the quality of food, discernment helps one evaluate moral and spiritual matters. This metaphorical use reflects the holistic view of human experience in the Hebrew mindset, where physical senses often parallel spiritual insights.

“Just as a gold nose ring in a pig’s snout is incongruous, even so indiscretion in a beautiful woman is incongruous. Outward beauty should be accompanied by inward virtue. The negative illustration is Jezebel while the positive is Abigail.” Gingrich, R. E. (2005). The Book of Proverbs (Volume I) (p. 29). Riverside Printing.

Discernment is important. Yes, the proverb is alluding to a woman’s virtue, taste, and beauty, but a key point is her ability to evaluate spiritual and moral situations.

But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil. (Hebrews 5:14).

Discretion, or discernment, or using proper evaluative methods, are important for the biblical woman. Far from the improperly used ‘Judge not lest ye be judged’ verse (out of context) a Proverbs woman or wife who lacks discernment is as ugly as a pig’s snout. We can dress her up with jewelry and fine clothes, but her inability to cling to hat is good will make her ugly as a pig, which is offensive to the Bible people because as stated, pigs are highly unclean.

Peter makes this same point in the New Testament:

1 Peter 3:3-4
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair or gold jewelry or fine clothes, / but from the inner disposition of your heart, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in God’s sight.

A women attains unfading beauty by communing with God and training her senses to distinguish between good and evil so as to better obey and love what God loves and hate what God hates. This is discernment.

And Jesus made the same point in Matthew 23:27-28
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity. / In the same way, on the outside you appear to be righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Prettying up the external does a man or woman no good if the internal is devoid of discretion.

1 Timothy 1:5
The goal of our instruction is the love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith.

Posted in theology

A question about Lifeway Resources and my response

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Photo by Rachel Coyne on Unsplash

I was asked about the Lifeway Bible Study “When You Pray.” The study involves a collection of authors, who wrote a chapter each. They are- Kelly Minter, Jackie Hill Perry, Jen Wilkin, Jennifer Rothschild, Jada Edwards, and Kristi McLelland. It is a 7-session lesson designed for small groups, self alone, or a retreat accompanied by the separately purchased ‘Group Experience Kit’. Each session was written by the different author listed above. It includes a video component for each session. The study uses 6 different Bible translations, including the NLT.

GotQuestions: FMI and Review of the NLT here.

It is not best practice to use multiple translations in one study.

Using many translations in one study: AI says, “A Bible teacher should generally not use six different translations in one study as it can be overwhelming and confusing for students, potentially detracting from the focus on understanding the text rather than comparing translation nuances; it’s usually better to stick with one primary translation and only reference a few others when necessary to clarify meaning or highlight translation variations in specific passages.”

I thanked the questioner for the query and for the encouragement and for reading my material here on the blog. Discernment is always good.

I am sorry to say that uniformly, almost anything from Lifeway is going to be bad. They unashamedly platform false teachers. A while back Lifeway published a spate of “heaven tourism” books where people who said they’d died were given a tour of heaven, some of them claiming to have met Jesus. Lifeway continued to publish these books for years until a big outcry finally pushed them off Lifeway’s shelves. Their years-long persistence in publishing these books, some of which contradicted each other and all contradicting the Bible, despite appeals, petitions, and rebukes, displayed a wanton lack of concern for the spiritual state of their customers, a lack of discernment, and a prioritizing of greed over truth.

Jen Wilkin left, Jackie Perry right

As for this specific study titled “When You Pray”, I’ve written several times about the authors Jackie Hill Perry, and Jen Wilkin. Both are egregious Bible twisters. Perry came out with an announcement that she receives direct revelation from Jesus and was instructed to tell people the different pieces of news ‘He’ tells her. Like this: “Ok ok. I’ll say this. God primarily deals with me in dreams. I’ve been enlightened, warned, and led to intercede for others through them.” She has since removed this Twitter announcement. You can read a transcript of it at the link above.

G3 on Why Modern Prophecy is False

Jen Wilkin is obsessed with two things, preaching and women. This equals women preaching, she twists almost every sermon, Q&A, panel, or interview into a women need to be leaders WITH men (in roles the Bible denies us, of course). In one famous sermon she likened period blood (excerpt) from women to the blood on the cross, saying women have a better understanding of the gospel because of this. I am not kidding.

As for Minter & Rothschild, Michelle Lesley has written about them, discerning that these women preach to men and they support and promote false teachers. She does not recommend either of these women.

Alternatives to Lifeway’s When you Pray ‘study’ might be:

At Ligonier, there is a 6-week lesson series with video etc, called Prayer, where RC Sproul “uses the acronym ACTS and the Lord’s Prayer to teach us how to pray” 24 min each. It costs $9.00/month.
https://connect.ligonier.org/library/prayer-27945/about/

G3 Ministries has small group studies, https://g3min.org/resource-category/small-group-study/?

The Hidden Life of Prayer by David MacIntyre is a classic gem, video on youtube (https://youtu.be/ODz1aOo6EOk?si=-P_LP270APU8PqwN and 39 page book can download for free at Chapel Library, https://www.chapellibrary.org/book/hlop/hidden-life-of-prayer-the-macintyredavid?

Praying the Bible by Donald S. Whitney is a small book and 5-min youtube videos by the author go thru how to pray daily without falling into the rut of saying the same old thing. https://youtu.be/A-HziKu5Ot0?si=yU70QoTBvrklUrbw

Grace Community Church led by MacArthur has a huge small group ministry section for men and women, many of the lessons are taped or video’d and have accompanying pdf or notes.

I’d say any of those alternatives are better than Lifeway. 🙂

Lifeway is not a trustworthy source for any Christian material, sadly.

Posted in theology

Are Women in Pulpits Challenging Biblical Truth?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

For those of us who love God and seek to obey at all points (but knowing we fail, so we repent and try again), the persistent and entrenched disobedience of some self-proclaimed Christian women is a puzzle to us.

But then again, we read our Bibles and see 1 John 2:4 which says, The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;

And we say, those who constantly disobey, (especially by preaching in church, which is a gross abomination to Jesus), who are unteachable, who reject correction, who preach a different gospel, who deny the sufficiency of the Bible by their direct revelatory stories and puffed up visions, who abandon their career of motherhood & children at home to pursue a career, whose fruit is only thorns and is bad…must not be saved.

And then we receive pushback on every point above. So it’s still a puzzle when the Bible is so clear on certain points which are easy to understand and interpret. In the collage above are some of the more prominent women who stand behind a pulpit in a church they claim is Jesus’, and preach.

Because if they had the Holy Spirit in them, He would not allow them to continue on a consistent path of rebellion. He would correct them either by opening their eyes to the proper verses, or by some drastic measure to awaken them to their transgressions. Do you think the Holy Spirit is in a woman who, for decades, disobeys? Can a Christian have a seared conscience over their persistent and public sin? Dishonoring Jesus along the way and creating stumbling blocks for the weaker sisters?

No. He killed Ananias and Sapphira to demonstrate how serious He is about sin in the church. He sent 7 letters to the churches in Revelation to show how serious He is about His church.

Above we have-
Beth Moore at St Timothy’s,
Aimee Byrd at Covenant Church,
Rev Nancy Frausto at Seminary of the Southwest,
Sadie Robertson Huff at Auburn Community Church (only age 22!),
Christine Caine at Life Church,
Priscilla Shirer at Concord Church.

“women should keep silent in the churches”. 1 Corinthians 14:33-34.

G3: No, Women Can’t Preach

Pastor Gabe Hughes of WWUTT.com: Women Pastors are a Fundamental Problem for Southern Baptists

GTY: Does the Bible permit a woman to preach?

Ladies, be discerning. Above all, be humble. It takes humility to say ‘I followed this or that woman for a while and invested in her, with my heart, money, time, or energy, but my investment in her was misguided. Let me learn to discern better, let me be pure in my approach to obeying Jesus, let me abandon that which makes me stumble on my walk and turn to “…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8).

If you see a woman standing at a pulpit on a Sunday morning at church service and open her Bible and preach to the congregation, she is in rebellion. Though satan is subtle, and hides his schemes secretively many times, this one is an easy spot. If the woman preaches consistently (not just a one-time mistake), she is in rebellion and you can learn nothing from her.

If you’ve followed such a one for a while, just talk to Jesus about it. Repent and ask Him to give you better discernment. He will!

Posted in theology

The easy-peasy way to discern a false teacher

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

There is an easy way to tell if a teacher you like, follow, admire, or ‘learn from’ is false. I’m going to reveal this heretofore (not so) hidden way to detect false teachers. I could go on like the liberal theologians who say ‘this is a new method for interpreting’ or ‘I have a freshly discovered method…’ but I won’t. It’s been there all along. Here it is. Are you ready for this shocking message?

The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;” (1 John 2:4).

People who say “Jesus, Jesus” but sin against him constantly by living a life contrary to His commands, or teach falsely, do not have the truth in them. In other words, they are not saved.

They are revealed to be hypocritical. As John wrote in the verse above, a person cannot have an authentic relationship with Jesus and obstinately and consistently oppose His commandments with their actions.

The inward transformation of a person results in outward transformation (compare Matt 15:11). The work of Christ in a person necessitates them acting on His behalf, out of love (1 John 3:17). Source Faithlife Study Bible

Jesus made it very easy for us. Yet so many people say “but, but, but” and make layers upon layers of excuses.

“But she talks about Jesus all the time!” Of course they do. They talk about knowing Jesus right up to the moment they face Jesus and claim to His face that they know him. But they don’t. And he says so.(Matthew 7:22-23).

“But she does so many nice things!” I know. So did the Pharisees. Outwardly they did all the right things, seemingly. But Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.” (Matthew 23:27). Inside they were dead. They did not have the truth in them.

dead inside

“But she only to men preaches a little“. Sorry, but “whoever keeps the whole Law, yet stumbles in one point, has become guilty of all.” (James 2:10). Even a small sin, or a single transgression against God’s law, means they are guilty and due his or her just penalty.

“But lifestyle doesn’t count, and her doctrine is fine!” Sorry, but Titus 2:3-5 is only one of several standards for Christian women to adhere to a certain lifestyle. “Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.” It is dishonoring to God to live otherwise. Men too. Lifestyle counts. So does character. Are they divisive? Slanderous? Combative? Unteachable? Then they are false.

“But you don’t know their heart!” Yes we do. In true Christians, “The Holy Spirit implanted in us a heart that can understand and love spiritual truth” says Tom Pennington in his sermon Recognizing False teachers. A false teacher is not saved and thus does not have the Holy Spirit indwelling his heart. You can detect what is in their heart because the Bible tells us these people are greedy, liars, deceivers, hypocrites, and more.

Jesus said, “By their fruit you shall know them”. Not ‘maybe, but you WILL know them. We cannot see their heart but what comes out of their mouth is what defiles them, and then we can see the evidence. Making a determination based on evidence (their fruit) is not ‘seeing their heart’. It’s making an intelligent and accurate assessment of their output.

Figs. Their fruit is rotten. EPrata photo

For example, didn’t the Pharisees make a show of praying, fasting, and worshiping? But we can see the evidence of their self-serving attitude in their lengthened tassels, announcements of fasting, pretentious prayers at the street corners, choosing the chief seats. Look beyond their show. See the fruit.

Barnes Notes says of the 1 John 2:4 verse, “Is a liar – Makes a false profession; professes to have that which he really has not. Such a profession is a falsehood, because there can be no true religion where one does not obey the law of God.“

Gill’s Exposition says, and the truth is not in him; there is no true knowledge of God and Christ in him; nor is the truth of the Gospel in his heart, however it may be in his head; nor is the truth of grace in him, for each of these lead persons to obedience.

Did you catch that reference to the heart? The truth of the gospel is not in his heart. “What is in the heart will emerge, and corrupt theology will result in a corrupt life. False teaching and perverted living are inseparable, and eventually will become manifest.” (Grace to You, “What are the Marks of a False Teacher?“)

We over-complicate things. Just go back to the Bible. A false teacher will claim to know Jesus but constantly, unrepentantly, and long term, be disobedient to His commandments.

Further Reading

Beware of False Teachers

Posted in theology

Is Gather25 Leading Believers Astray?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Jennie Allen, from her Instagram

On February 28 to March 1st, 2025, there will be a global live streaming event called Gather25. It is the new version of the ten-year-old IF:Gathering, founded by Jennie Allen. In the past, the gathering has been a local annual conference to which attendees pay to attend in person and listen to messages by speakers. The usual conference arrangement.

This year, the conference will be mostly virtual. It will be beamed live globally, according to the scant information at Gather25.com ‘s website, “For 25 hours, Gather25 is inviting believers across the world to pray, repent, worship, and discover how the love of Jesus is transforming the world through everyday people.”

from Gather25.com website

It is led by Jennie Allen, in America, of course, and “Teachers, Worship Leaders, Storytellers, and Prayer Guides” from around the world, such as Malaysia, Nigeria, Australia, Mexico and other locations. Some of the names leading and teaching and praying are familiar to us here in the US, such as Christine Caine, Sadie Robertson Huff, Rick Warren, Priscilla Shirer, Louie Giglio, Kari Jobe, David Platt, Jenn Johnson, Ann Voskamp, and Francis Chan. Others from abroad may not be familiar to us, such as Dr. Peter Tan-chi, Taya, Sinach, Patrick Fung, and so on.

From the website: “Through live-streaming technology, the Global Church will connect together for prayer, worship, repentance and commissioning. Each continent will host a portion of the 25 hours. There will be stories told of what God is doing on each continent. There will be powerful times of worship. And there will be a worldwide “sending out” of the workers to the harvest“.

Back in 2014 when the first gathering was held, there were no public announcements or advertisements, it was mostly word-of-mouth that people learned of its existence. Blogs and social media were the primary venues for alerting interested people. Further, the speaker list those first few years was a secret, you could not know who was speaking, thus a discerning person could not vet the person who may or may not be delivering truth. Despite the secrecy, tickets for that first in-person conference sold out in 42 minutes. Since then, IF:Gathering has proved immensely popular and has only grown.

From Gather25.com website

But even before the first actual conference in 2014, seven years prior, Jennie was going about her day, or night, she’s unclear on which, she “heard a voice from the sky”. Allegedly this ‘voice’ told her to “gather and equip your generation.” She was astounded by this and was flummoxed as to how to go about it because she was a stay-at-home-mom without resources, but from the beginning of when she heard the voice, according to her, she’d wait to see how ‘God’ would equip her.

If that anecdote Allen told at her first event in 2014 wasn’t enough to turn off a Christian woman, Allen’s premise for the ‘ministry’ is this: “IF God is real, then what?“

How can a ministry purporting to teach about God to women begin with supposing He may not be real?

From Gather25.com website. Notice it says ‘from every denomination, for anybody who follows Jesus…including a ‘denomination’ that is heretical? Mormons? Catholics? Orthodox? Dangerous! We should not be blindly affirming people outside of the faith as in the faith. Mt 7:21-23 applies!

Gather25’s stated “mission is to mobilize our world’s 2.5 billion Jesus followers to share the Gospel with the 5.5 billion people who do not know Him“. This is a good thing, right? Energizing people with prayer, focusing on repentance, commissioning them as Matthew 28 tells us to? Well, hold on. All that glitters is not gold. Just as with Allen obeying a voice from the sky and basing her organization on doubting God’s existence, most of the American teachers and leaders listed as part of Gather25 are false teachers. It has always been so even with the in-person IF:Gathering. It is a percolating vat of false-false-false teachers, doctrine, and music. And likely all or most the rest of them from other continents are false too.

And like in any horror movie, while you’re not looking, the evil monster grew tentacles and comes at you from different directions. IF:Gathering grew numerous ministry arms of ministry such as IF:Local, IF:Equip, IF Table, IF:TV, IF:Lead, and IF:Pray. Allen said the central hub of “making disciples” is a major part of all of these.

I have concerns about a woman-led, no male oversight, para-church ministry making disciples. That is the church’s job, to preach unto repentance, be baptized into a local body with male leaders, who observe your growth, decide when you are ready for ministry, then repeat, multiplying men (and women) for local ministry. Granted, some are set apart to leave the local church for missions or evangelizing, but not without having been home-grown, as they say. The Bible does not show any design or structure for making disciples that’s distinct from the local church.

The IRS tax forms for IF:Gathering state their mission- “To gather a new generation of women, equip them with the tools to know God more deeply and live out their purposes and unleash a movement to promote healing and reconciliation around the world.”

What IS global ‘healing’ and ‘reconciliation around the world’?

According to IF:Gathering’s first mission statement, we read this from their IRS tax return: We hope to prepare women around the world to know God more deeply and to live out their purposes by sharing comments and feelings about daily passages posted online.

Feelings.

Jennie heard the ‘voice’ one day 7 years prior to her first IRS tax return for her by-then incorporated company. She is listed a President/CEO from the years 2013-2020, working 40 hours per week. From 2021 to the present, she is listed as Founder, still affirming to the IRS she works 40 hours per week. Jennie has 4 children. When she first heard the voice and began her journey toward incorporation in 2013 and the first gathering in 2014, her children were under the age of 5. She was raising four young children AND working 40 hours/week as President and CEO of a growing company?

This should not be. The biblical standards for women are that their primary orientation should be toward the home, in the home, and focused on raising her children, not siphoning women from their own churches to promote ‘reconciliation around the world’.

I have written warnings about Allen and her IF:Gathering numerous times. Her premise is false, her organization competes with and siphons women away from the local church, it presents false doctrine by false teachers, and affirms a working mother lifestyle to which the Bible disagrees. The only thing Jennie Allen ‘gathers’ is false doctrine and making false disciples.

Thinking of attending an If:Gathering? Please read this, it’s eye-opening
IF:Gathering – updated review four years later
If:Gathering: more information

Recently Amy Spreeman and Michelle Lesley focused on the new Gathering25 in an episode on their podcast A Word Fitly Spoken, which I commend to you. Their research and warnings about this new version of IF are biblically based and well done, as always.

Shakespeare famously said “all that glitters is not gold”. We must be discerning. Just because an organization says the right words such as commissioning, repentance, prayer, Jesus, et cetera, does not mean they know the Jesus to whom the pray, teach about, or commission into ministry. And by the way, it is up to the local church to commission. How can a speaker in Africa commission some woman in Idaho for biblical ministry?! How does a leader in Australia know if some lady in Britain is ready to serve Jesus?

I remember 11 years ago Beth Moore led a “commissioning” at the Unwrap the Bible conference. I looked askance at that ‘commissioning’, too.

Beth Moore led a "commissioning" for 11,000 women (and men) at Unwrap the Bible conference

Please be discerning as to who you allow into your home, mind, and heart. I’d suggest to avoid this Gathering25, and focus on gathering at your own local church and serve there, and in your home, as Jesus designed it to be.

Posted in theology

Train Your Discernment: A Biblical Perspective

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I was thinking about the difference between wisdom and discernment, since I read Proverbs 4 today. Which is a good set of verses to refer to again and again!

Wisdom is the result of applying knowledge through discernment. There is a difference in knowing things and being able to use the wisdom gained to advance your holiness.

Abigail- is a good biblical example of how wisdom gained and applied thru discernment. Abigail was the wife of a brute of a man, that’s the Bible’s description. He was Nabal, a name that means foolish. He kept sheep near Carmel and he wasn’t well liked by anyone, including his servants or his wife. David had asked Nabal for food to feed his men and Nabal refused. Incensed, David swore to kill Nabal. Abigail pleaded with David, at no small risk to herself, I might add, and her gentleness and discernment, tact and wisdom calmed David. He was impressed. SO impressed, he married Abigail when Nabal died. (1 Samuel 25:1-42; 2 Samuel 3:3).

Hebrews 5:14 reminds us that discernment is a skill and as such, we must train ourselves in it.

Hebrews 4:12 reminds us that discernment is precise. There should be no reply like,  ‘well nobody’s perfect’, or ‘eat the meat and spit out the bones’. If we train in discernment, apply it with tact and wisdom, it will do its job to hearts and minds, and in so doing will glorify the Lord.

Romans 12:2 tells us that discernment not only helps us train but it helps us find the will of God, which nothing on this earth is more important.

1 Kings 3:9- Solomon knew there was nothing more important, discernment was the one thing he asked for when given opportunity by God.

Hosea 14:9- discernment allows the God fearer to walk uprightly and it is something that makes the transgressors stumble.

But HOW do we train in discernment? How do we gain it? As Joseph said to the cupbearer, baker, and Pharaoh, it is not in himself, but God delivers wisdom (in Joseph’s case, to interpret dreams, but you get the point). We obtain discernment, according to Sinclair Ferguson at Ligonier, from his article What Is Discernment?

How is such discernment to be obtained? We receive it as did Christ Himself—by the anointing of the Spirit, through our understanding of God’s Word, by our experience of God‘s grace, and by the progressive unfolding to us of the true condition of our own hearts.

You knew I was going to say that, right? That gaining wisdom and applying discernment comes from steady study in God’s word? THAT is where all truth, knowledge and beauty lies. Add prayer, a constantly transforming mind, add alert to occasions where discernment can be used, then repeat. Just as a boxer trains his footwork repetitively, just as a basketball player throws the ball to the basket in practice again and again, so we train in discernment repeatedly.

Discernment is a skill and as the verse in Hebrews 5:14 says, we must train. Have you been to the spiritual ‘gym’ lately?

Further Resources

Beware of False Teachers, helpful article from G3

What Is Discernment? Ligonier article

God’s Demand for Discernment, 28 min video

What does the Bible say about Discernment? GotQuestions article

Posted in theology

‘Voice from the sky’ Jennie Allen’s Prison Ministry event

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Jennie Allen has a new target audience for her brand of Gospel: incarcerated women.

Source Jennie Allen Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/DBXSbcFuXcJ/?img_index=12

Jennie Allen is the founder of the global conference for women called IF:Gathering. She founded it in 2013 based on a “voice from the sky” to use Allen’s words, telling her to equip and disciple this generation. IF:Gathering was born, “Inspired by the question “If God is real… then what?”

No. Romans 1 tells us that every single soul knows God is real, they just suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

I admire people who are committed to prison ministry. It’s important to heed the Lord’s commission to try and reach every tribe, tongue, and nation no matter where they are, in the 10/40 window of the hard and closed countries or behind bars where they cannot come to us in church so we must go to them.

But like everywhere, we need to be careful who we allow ‘in’ to our mind and soul. Women in prison are a captive audience, so it’s even more important to properly vet the speakers coming to teach. It is sad that the organization God Behind Bars chose Allen to minister to women.

Why?

Allen as mentioned above, she believes that disembodied voices from the sky are God. So, she believes in extra-biblical revelation. She also finds no worries in preaching to men, employs spiritual formation practices such as Enneagram, seeks unity at the expense of truth, and partners with terrible false teachers.

Below is a clip of Allen’s appearance at a max security women’s prison near Las Vegas. Allen wrote on her Instagram, “160 women attended in a maximum security prison in Las Vegas. 130 stood up to pray to receive Christ and we baptized 110.”

Mass conversion events like these always make me skeptical. These type of events are often musically manipulated, emotional events. Mass conversions are rare. Even Jonathan Edwards after the success of his piercing sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God which sparked the Great Awakening, was skeptical of the genuineness of the people rushing to claim they were converted. As John MacArthur has said,

So you must enter, you must enter this gate, you must enter alone, you must enter with a certain amount of violence (difficulty), and you must enter naked, in a sense—with nothing in your hands. You can’t go through the narrow gate with your baggage; it’s a turnstile.

On the other hand, you could choose the wide gate, easily found, easily marked with all kinds of false teachers pointing you in that direction. Lots of crowds, no difficulty, no self-denial. Bring your baggage, bring your sin, bring your self-will. No repentance, no surrender, no submission to Christ. It’s the gate of self-indulgence. It’s for those who want a little religion, but religion that doesn’t ask them to give up everything.

To be fair, it’s just a clip, so I don’t know if she preached a good sermon or not.

But to be realistic, she has never taught rightly so…likely when Allen says “Colleges to prisons! What do they have in common? They are all DESPERATE for God” I must ask myself, ‘Yes, Jennie, but WHICH God are they hungry for? Because your God is not the God of the Bible.”

When she speaks in interviews about submission to elders in one’s church, for example, it’s only if they are not controlling. And only if it doesn’t impinge on her ambition to preach.

I do mourn the false theology Allen probably gave in that prison. I HOPE it was a message solidly exegeted from the Bible to women’s souls in holiness and rightly dividing the word. I HOPE so. But I fear it was not.

I wonder how many of those women’s repentance was real or not, how many will continue to walk toward holiness as the emotionalism of the event wears off. It’s a grief to know that these false teachers spread their brand of faux-Christianity to unsuspecting women.

Satan is active everywhere, roaming the earth to see whom he may devour. We need to be just as active. I know it seems that the numbers are skewed in the direction of satan, i.e. that there are many more of them than there are of us. But God in His power will save whom He wants to save and He has no difficulty doing it. Yes, it is disheartening to see satan’s activity but it is more than heartening when one genuine believer is converted, adding to the trophies of grace in Jesus’ kingdom for His glory.

While I genuinely doubt all 130 women in the event were truly saved, I know that the Lord would probably have saved one or two, or a few. And they will be a light and a witness to His grace in that prison while they live, and then forevermore.

Posted in discernment, theology

Why do we keep warning? Because the train is still coming down the tracks

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

train coming 2
EPrata photo

Growing up in my town in the 1960s, there was a train track running along the shoreline. Behind the tracks there was a busy wharf with fishermen, moorings for recreational boaters, and shoreside homes and their children running about. There were a lot of train crossings, and many of them weren’t guarded by automatic gates and warning signals.

Sadly, we frequently read back then in our local paper of crossing fatalities, both vehicular and pedestrian. To my impressionable ears it seems like almost a weekly occurrence. It wasn’t that frequent but I do remember my father, who was on the town Zoning Committee for a time, talking about the Town Council’s plans to automate and/or close some of the crossings to reduce potential for fatalities.

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