“Beware of supposing that a teacher of religion is to be trusted, because although he holds some unsound views, he yet ‘teaches a great deal of truth.’ Such a teacher is precisely the man to do you harm: poison is always most dangerous when it is given in small doses and mixed with wholesome food”. JC Ryle
I’ve spent the last 5 days discussing from the Bible the fact of false teachers, their methods, their characteristics, and their traits. False teachers are destructive to the individual, to the local church body, and to the faith in general.
and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. (Acts 20:30)
So that leaves one last important question. Why does God allow false teachers? Why does He allow them to destroy? Why does He use false teachers to pollute the faith, draw away the unwary, and make shipwrecks of whole churches? (Revelation 2:20[Thyatira], 3:1 [Sardis], 3:16 [Laodicea]). What good can a false teacher possibly do in God’s Economy?
For there also have to be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. (1 Corinthians 11:19).
That’s the reason. False teachers are a magnet for the sinner, the unsaved, the fleshly. If these people are drawn to a false teacher, and especially if they stay with a false teacher after evidence is presented, a schism forms between the redeemed and the person who prefers falsity.
God uses the false teacher as a magnet to show which side people are on. And don’t think we the forgiven sinner, is immune to following a false teacher. We have sin in us and are drawn just as the false professing believer is. In fact, we should be grateful for the false teacher’s existence if we follow one for a time, because we can then repent and ask God to help us. And then praise Him for his help, patience, and forgiveness. False teachers show us our blind spots of sin.
In Matthew 7:15 Jesus had warned the disciples that false teachers are like wolves that wear sheep’s clothing. In Matthew 10:16 Jesus said He was sending them as sheep out to where the wolves were. In Acts 20:20 Paul said he knew that after his departure savage wolves will come. Wolves are quite the theme in the New Testament. Wolfish false teachers cause division. And that is a good thing, noting the verse again,
For there also have to be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. (1 Corinthians 11:19).
He did send us a measuring tool to allow us to determine with evidence some who are professors and who actually possesses the Spirit, and that is the wolf. The wolf is a test.
In the verse above, we see the word factions. The word has been translated in different translations as divisions, differences, and even heresies. It is from the Greek word haireomai; properly, a choice, i.e. a party or disunion. It meansa self-chosen opinion, a personal (decisive) choice. The term stresses the personal aspect of choice. Sources- Strong’s Greek and NASB Lexicon.
If you ever wondered why a person would defend a false teacher even after having been given evidence of their falsity, this is why. They CHOOSE it. It is a strongly decisive choice according to the word use in the original language.
Now we read this verse,
Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to the person through whom the stumbling block comes! (Matthew 18:7).
The world has various and ingenious ways of tempting the Christian to stumble. One of the most direct ways is through a false teacher. How?
By doing like Jezebel, by teaching doctrine that isn’t biblical. I think you commit the most heinous of all crimes. That’s why the Bible speaks so forcefully against false teachers, because they lead God’s people into the worse kind of sin, and that is a misrepresentation of who God is. And that’s the severest of all, because if your God isn’t right, you can’t settle anything. And so false teachers are the ultimate who are guilty in this regard. John MacArthur, The Danger of Causing a Christian to Sin sermon on Matthew 18:5–9.
The false teacher is used by God as a magnet, a curse, and a crowbar to make a separation between the true believer and the false believer. For his part, the true believer/false believer goes along with it by his choice. It is a test.
CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED
but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in trickery nor distorting the word of God, but by the open proclamation of the truth commending ourselves to every person’s conscience in the sight of God. (2 Corinthians 4:2).
So ultimately the answer to the question, Why does God allow false teachers? As John Piper says, “The result is that we learn the exceeding sinfulness of sin by how we more easily embrace false teaching rather than biblical truth.” So the answer is, to test us.
Secondly, everything He does is for His glory, and our good. So while it is a trial for us to endure false teachers, it is for our good and His glory that they should exist. False teachers test our sinfulness, and they display Gods patience. What we do is pray to stay strong in the faith, trust God, and repent early and often. God is good, all the time.
One way to spot a false teacher is how they respond (or don’t respond) to biblical correction. Denny Burke wrote:
Those who refuse to respond to biblical correction eventually prove themselves to be devoid of the Spirit and taking orders from another master (Jude 1:19). Recalcitrance in the face of correction is dangerous, and it is why the apostles would often apply some of the most bone-chilling descriptors to unrepentant false teachers. ~Denny Burk, How to Deal with False Teachers
The same might be applied to a bystander who enjoys the false teacher and refuses to be corrected away from that false teacher with the scriptures. Worse is their insistence that BECAUSE the teacher ‘helped them,’ the teacher surely can’t be false. But that is the false teacher’s job, to be helpful.
Christian Lady 1: So-and-So is a false teacher. Christian Lady 2: No way! But she’s helped me in my walk! And she says true things sometimes! Christian Lady 1: The demon possessed slave girl was ‘helping’ Paul, so why was Paul ‘greatly annoyed’? Because her statement was only partly true, AND it was spiritually ambiguous. Paul exorcised her.
Ladies, we don’t need to allow a false teacher to help along our God. He doesn’t need just any truth. Truth that’s proclaimed must be clearly explained and specifically credited to HIM. Here is what the slave girl was saying-
“These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation.” (Acts 16:17)
The slave girl said, ‘Most High God’. This matters because though Jews would have recognized the phrase, pagans were used to many people saying there was a ‘most high god’, notably, Zeus. And, “a” way of salvation? It is THE way of salvation. See the subtlety with the slave girl’s statement being off the center of truth?
False god Oceanus, central statue at the Trevi Fountain in Rome. EPrata photo
The way of evil is darkness and crooked paths (cf Proverbs 2:13-15).
The final arbiter of whether a teacher is true or false isn’t how much or little he or she has ‘helped’ you. In fact, many times the truth won’t feel like it’s helping at first. Truth hurts, it convicts, it pricks the conscience… and the opposite of that is the problem of false teachers knowing how to tickle ears. Tickling is pleasant. So is he or she REALLY helping you if you always feel tickled and helped, and never feel provoked by the lessons?
Don’t go by your internal feelings, which lie. Go by the sterling truth of God’s word. Compare what the teacher is saying to the Bible. Then do it again, because they are subtle, sneaky, and destructive, and we are less than intelligent sheep after all.
False teachers are dangerous, and part of what makes them so dangerous is that they will affirm so much that is good and true. They will not deny all of the doctrines upon which the Christian faith stands or falls, but only select parts of it. They draw in the unsuspecting with all they affirm and only later destroy them with all they deny. ~Tim Challies, Lessons I’ve learned from False Teachers
Would you buy a pair of new pants that only partly fit? Would you eat a brownie that was only partly filled with cockroaches? Would you drive tires that were only partly covered in rubber? Of course not. We expect the full, working edition of whatever we consume. Since that is true for mundane things, it is even MORE important to ensure that God’s truth we knowingly consume is fully truth, sterling, sparkling, and whole.
You don’t need to listen to someone who speaks some truth, sometimes, from a mouth of lies that oppose Christ. The truth is how we are sanctified- John 17:17. That false teacher is not helping you if you’re absorbing only partial truth, then you get only partial sanctification. What you get from the false teacher’s mouth of lies is polluted truth, and that doesn’t help anyone.
When we read directions telling us to quiet ourselves, to ‘be still’ so we can hear God because too many distractions dampen our ability to hear Him – it says something important about God:
1. It says that God can’t cut through ambient noise to make Himself heard. 2. It says that He created the creation, but can’t control it enough to get His message to the ears of the person to whom He intends to speak.
For years I have written discernment articles about discerning certain movements, trends, and this or that particular false teacher. One of my earliest was a series on Beth Moore, who became one of my ‘starter false teachers’ thirteen years ago. (Joel Osteen was the other). I wrote about that the other day.
2 Timothy 4:3 says, For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires,
Thus, one way the symbolism of the wolf differs from the actual false teacher, is that the animal wolf preys on mammals who are minding their own business. The false teacher wolf has a partnership with its prey. The ‘victims’ of the false teacher deliberately prop up the teacher. ‘They accumulate for themselves’ teachers who teach something that satisfies an unrepented-of lust in their flesh. It may be sensuality, greed, health, or whatever. But people who cling to false teachers even after being shown how dangerous she is, have culpability for perpetuating the problem.
Repent early and often so the wolf does not smell out your sin and nurse it for you.
So, discernment is more than pointing out this or that false teacher. False teachers also exhibit certain characteristics. As is written at The Masters University, false teachers exhibit a “pathology.” We need to be “spiritual pathologists” to detect them.
To that end, below are some excellent articles outlining the characteristics of false teachers describing the types of things they do to deceive. If you are reading an author’s Christian book or listening to a podcast or sermon, and you begin to wonder if the person is solid or if he or she is a wolf, these are good articles to start ‘testing the fruit’ of their teaching or behavior.
“It takes careful discernment to see that the light is really darkness. Paul taught Timothy how to diagnose satanic darkness masquerading as divine light. Here’s how he described the key symptoms that identify those infected with the spiritual disease of false teaching:”
The article then goes on to describe each symptom of the false teacher disease.
10 Characteristics of False Teachers
Here is Noah Adams, lead pastor of City Park Church in CO, with a list of 10 Characteristics of False Teachers. It’s at Linkedin but you don’t have to sign in to read it, just press the X and the pop-up goes away. He matched each type of false teacher with scripture, then explains.
1.They creep in unnoticed (Jude 1:4) 2. They operate in secret (2 Peter 2:1-3) 3. They have many followers (2 Peter 2:1-3) 4. They create division and obstacles (Romans 16:17) 5. No matter what it seems like, they do not have God (2 John 1:7-11) 6. Some began in sound doctrine (1 Timothy 4:1-5) 7. Their words seem intelligent (1 Timothy 6:20-21, Colossians 2:8) 8. They look like legitimate apostles of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:13-15, Matthew 7:15) 9. They target the spiritually naive (Romans 16:17-18) 10. They twist Scripture (1 Timothy 6:3-5, 2 Timothy 4:3-4)
7 Traits of False Teachers
Here is Colin Smith with “7 Traits of False Teachers” from The Gospel Coalition (in 2013, back when they were pretty OK). This is a different article from the similarly named article below. Smith explains why these false teachers are different, with a short answer from the Bible for each question.
1.Different Source—Where does the message come from? 2. Different Message—What is the substance of the message? 3. Different Position—In what position will the message leave you? 4. Different Character—What kind of people does the message produce? 5. Different Appeal—Why should you listen to the message? 6. Different Fruit—What result does the message have in people’s lives? 7. Different End—Where does the message ultimately lead you?
7 Traits of False Teachers
Here is Tim Challies with 7 Traits of False Teachers, which include The Heretic, The Charlatan, The Prophet, The Abuser, The Divider, The Tickler, The Speculator.
If you are thinking of a particular false teacher right now, go to Challies’ article and see if you can match your false teacher with one of his certain 7 traits.
False Teachings and How to Battle Them
Kim Sorgius Jones at Not Consumed has an essay outlining several steps to guarding your kids from false teaching. I am not familiar with this blog or this author, but I liked her approach in this one essay. She identifies 7 false teaching messages that kids are likely to fall prey to in our culture today, including:
Follow your heart, Godly living brings prosperity, Right choices will get you the perfect life, God will never give you more than you can handle, If you try harder, you can be right with God, I deserve better, I need ME time. More at “7 False Teaching Messages & How to Battle Them“.
Further Reading
Tim Challies “The Spiritual Gift of Discernment” book. Far too often the gift of discernment is said to be little more than a gift for making good decisions–for knowing God’s will when we need to turn to the left or the right. Yet the Bible tells us that it is more.
Sinclair Ferguson, “What is Discernment?” article. True discernment means not only distinguishing the right from the wrong; it means distinguishing the primary from the secondary, the essential from the indifferent, and the permanent from the transient. And, yes, it means distinguishing between the good and the better, and even between the better and the best.
This week I’m taking a look at false teachers, whom the Bible calls wolves. I look at their characteristics, traits, and methods according to the Bible.
This is a common comment from women responding to discernment issues: “I don’t agree with everything she says, but let’s not attack her”. Also, “I don’t agree with all that she teaches, but she’s a sister so let’s treat her like one.”
Both of these comments indicate that the person needs a deeper understanding of what discernment is. They also need more fully to understand the words attack and agree.
The REAL attack
What these women don’t know, or refuse to see, is that the false teacher is actually the attacker. She is attacking the faith either overtly as a ravenous wolf, or covertly as a moth chews in the dark and only when exposed to light we see the garment is full of holes. The discernment people are the ones shining the light and saying, ‘she’s a wolf, devouring the unwary!’ or, ‘she’s a moth, destroying the fabric of someone’s faith!’
False teachers are spoken of in every New Testament book (except Philemon). Thus, the Holy Spirit obviously spent much time advising, warning, and teaching about the dangers of these wolves and moths.
“The word “moth” occurs 7 times in the Old Testament, in Job, Psalms, Isaiah and Hosea, always in figurative expressions, typifying either that which is destructive (Job 13:28; Psalms 39:11; Isaiah 50:9; 51:8; Hosea 5:12) or that which is frail (Job 4:19; 27:18).” The mother moth lays the eggs, but “the adult is only indirectly harmful, as it is only in the larval stage that the insect injures clothing.” Source Bible Study Tools
So that means at first you don’t see the damage. It’s done invisibly. By the time you see the adult moth, the damage has been done. This is why the Spirit dispensed a spiritual gift of discernment to some, who can see the larvae before they do the damage. They can see the wolves lined up in the shadows of the tree line before they devour the faithful.
It’s why you should listen to your discernment people. Not blindly, but take heed.
We are all familiar with the verse in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” The false ones come in sheep’s clothing. They say and do things that attempt to make them blend in. But so did Judas. They will say they love Jesus- repeatedly. They will appear to be godly- consistently. They spout scripture. So did satan when tempting Christ.
They do things that on the surface seem appropriate for a sheep. But if you look carefully, they have dregs of meat in their teeth. Do sheep eat meat? No. If you listen to their utterances, there will be a howl behind that bleat, it doesn’t sound like a normal bleat. This is what sheep’s clothing means.
Another verse that spells it our further is that one from 2 Corinthians 11:14-15, No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.
They masquerade. Their show of godliness is only a put-on. It’s a show. No matter how effective the mask and costume, there are always hints that it’s not real. Look for those hints, eventually they grow into flags and then you can unmask the deceiver.
Too many women accept a false teacher’s profession of faith on the face of it, putting more weight on the profession from the false teacher than they put in the scriptures that show how to discern the wolf from the sheep, the moth from the butterfly.
The deceiver, the false teacher is ATTACKING you. She is ATTACKING the faith. Wolves like Lori Alexander, Beth Moore, Jennie Allen of IF:Gathering and so on, are the attackers. They are attacking Jesus.
The seem gentle and nice and helpful, but they are among those “who will secretly bring in destructive heresies.” (2 Peter 2:1b).
See? They operate secret agendas that are in fact destructive to the faith because they are heresies.
If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, 4he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a sick craving for controversial questions and disputes about words, from which come envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, 5and constant friction between people of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain... (1 Timothy 6:3-8)
See? These women are conceited, puffed up, they love quarrels and strife, they’re ignorant (understands nothing), and are actually sick, nosōn, in craving strife.
They are attackers, destroyers, assaulters. When discerning people point out their destructiveness, we are not attacking them. We are defending the faith, protecting the sheep, warning the sisterhood that there is danger. It must be said, if you defend a false teacher for any reason, please examine where your real allegiance lies.
This is important: 2 Timothy 4:3 says that false teachers don’t just appear out of nowhere for no reason. They appear and stay because the undiscerning with diverse lusts prop them up. If you defend a false teacher, you’re part of the problem.
For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires,
The real ‘agreeing’
It’s not a matter of “agreeing”. It’s a matter of submitting.
First of all, no one at any time or anywhere in any sphere agrees with “everything they say.” Do you agree with everything your boss says? Your mother? The President? No, of course not. You likely don’t even agree with everything your pastor says or does. Uniformity of content is a phantom. So stop prefacing a defense of a false teacher by saying, “I don’t agree with everything she says but…” You have failed even before you get to the ‘but’.
But what? You are willing to taste her meal even though there’s poison in it? If there was a pan of brownies served to you and the baker said, ‘I mixed a little poop in here but you should be all right to eat from this corner.’ Would you? No! You throw the WHOLE PAN out because the whole pan is polluted. ‘A little leaven spoils the whole lump’.
Did Paul accept the true words from the demon-possessed slave girl? “She followed Paul and us and cried out repeatedly, saying, “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation.” (Acts 16:17)
No! Why not? The words are true but Jesus doesn’t need truth to come from lying lips. So whatever parts you may “agree” with the false teacher just remember it comes from polluted lips.
Many people say “I don’t agree with what they teach but she’s a sister…” This is backward. It is not a matter of agree or not agreeing with the teacher. Its a matter of submitting to what the word of God says.
The agreement part should be “I don’t follow this teacher because what she teaches does not AGREE with the Bible.”
Now here’s an interesting notion: Even IF a teacher teaches all that is correct in the Bible, if she lives a life at odds with behavioral standards, she is a false teacher. She must be humble, teachable, living in peace and harmony with others, or good character. Numerous verses attest to this. The primary one is that anyone who is not these things cannot “teach what is good” because they are living bad.
If someone is preaching heaven but living like hell, avoid her. Doctrine matters, and so does behavior.
Ladies, a false teacher who won’t see her error and won’t repent is not a sister. There are ONLY sheep and goats. If a teacher has been teaching something that is pointed out to her as error, the Holy Spirit inside them will prick their conscience and illuminate the scriptures to them. She will correct it. She will hasten to correct it – because Jesus is too precious to her.
If it’s a false teacher, there is no Holy Spirit in her and she will continue teaching falsely. Do you suppose that a teacher who has the Spirit in her can or would resist Him and continue to teach falsely for decades? No. Not possible. Holy Spirit absolutely would not allow this.
If there is a teacher who refuses correction, is unteachable, proud, she is false, not a sister.
Peacemakers
Women tend to be peacemakers, nurturers, and relational. Many women are hesitant to engage in something controversial. Women like to look for the good in someone. In discernment, we have to overcome these natural tendencies sometimes, and engage in warfare, which is always uncomfortable.
Discernment is spiritual warfare. Not against people, and many times not even against external philosophies (though it is, says Ephesians 6:12), but warfare is to suppress our own tendency to overlook sin and to paper over what should remain a schism. We gird ourselves with the truth that offends.
Discernment means wrestling and striving, resisting any philosophies, concepts, or traditions that oppose Jesus. If a person resists delving into why so many people are saying this women or that women is false, then sadly, you might have an idol. NOTHING should come between you and your Savior. If you do delve and notice more than a few errors, but still support the false teacher, sadly, you may have an idol. Do you love the false teacher more than Jesus? Examine yourself.
For most women, discernment simply means working toward consuming meat and training one’s self in distinguishing the healthy from the unhealthy. Most women don’t need to wade into controversies online or raise issues at their home church. Romans 16:17 says of the false teacher to turn away from them. Just don’t consume their output, don’t follow them online, don’t attend parachurch meetings where they’re taught, leave Facebook groups that promote them. 2 Thessalonians 3:6 says to keep away from the undisciplined brother (and sister).
Pray for discernment, stay in the word of God, fellowship with wise saints, and all this will become easier over time. Then finally, heaven! No false teachers will be there and nothing will impugn the good Name of Jesus ever again!
Note: Podcast episode cuts off mid sentence, I forgot to check the 30 min time limit.. But it’s close enough to the end I let it stay.
Me: I wasn’t going to write about it but now I can’t seem NOT to write about it.
Observer: How could you have negative thoughts on an event that brought thousands youth in one place to hear about Jesus, pray, confess, and be baptized?! Are you crazy? Or just a Pharisee?
Me: Neither, but let’s unroll this and see what you think afterward.
On April 3, an event called UniteUS was held in the city of Athens GA at Stegeman Coliseum. It attracted college kids, thousands of them, to hear preaching and music from the Passion music group (Passion as in the Passion Conferences). False teacher Jennie Allen had been invited to preach. There was also preaching from JP Pokluda. Afterwards hundreds of kids were invited down the aisle to decide for Jesus, and many others sought baptism, which was accommodated by bringing the kids to a parking lot stationed with pickup trucks filled with water.
Jennie Allen baptizing youths in a truck.
Observer: Why do you say Jennie is false? She founded IF:Gathering for heaven’s sake, a globally successful parachurch ministry!
Me: Jennie is false because her catalyst for founding her parachurch IF:Gathering was based on a direct revelation. In her words, “a voice from the sky” ordered her to “gather and equip this generation”. (Too bad for past and coming generations, I guess?) Sadly, Jennie’s IF movement preaches a twisted hermeneutic, models an unbiblical lifestyle, and is saturated with a Gospel of doubt: their tagline says ‘IF God exists, then what?’
Me: I agree Allen’s speech about social media is a good topic. But it’s not a sermon and it’s not the Gospel. And, yes He can do anything with anyone. He did with Saul/Paul the murdering Pharisee. But why did the demon possessed slave girl who was speaking something true, aggravate Paul so much? (Acts 16:17-18). Why didn’t he let her continue following and hollering? Because God doesn’t need truth to come from lying lips and rebels.
To continue- The UniteUS event organizers’ About page state they have 3 goals for their events,
SALVATION For non-believers to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel in a welcoming environment. Acts 16:31; Romans 10:9
FREEDOM For believers to know and experience true freedom from sin and burdens on their hearts. Galatians 5:1
COMMUNITY For students to find community and discipleship through connection to local ministries and the local church. Ephesians 4:1-6.
Me: Beth Moore started as a motivational speaker. And look how that turned out. I’d love to know what the organizers mean by saying the Gospel will be given in an environment that’s “welcoming”. Past history shows that usually means the potency of sin is overlooked or diminished and the dire necessity of confession and repentance is whitewashed.
The Founder of UniteUS is Tonya Prewitt, wife of Auburn University Basketball Coach Chad Prewitt. “After hearing students stories about battles with anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and addiction, Prewitt said she felt like she needed something to help.” (Source)
Indeed, University of Georgia students have had a difficult time this spring semester, with a suicide of a popular boy, and the killing of girl near the campus. Crime in general is up in the city. The world’s social and emotional pressures are tremendous upon youths more than ever before.
They do need our support and guidance. But not en masse preaching from a female rebel and an emotional approach to resolving life’s difficulties. Jesus is not a patch ‘to help’ people overcome emotional depression.
I’ve written before about the Passion Conference (and also here) which bans adults from attending and manipulates kids with emotional music;
and the
Urbana Conferences, where hundreds heard David Platt speak and at the end he had them repeat a prayer, and the youths signaled their profession of newfound faith (which speakers affirmed) with a glow stick.
In an interview about the Florida State University event held this past February, the local UniteUs organizer concluded, “They came forward in droves tonight to trust Jesus.”
The problem at these youth-aimed conferences is with decisional regeneration.It seems that UniteUS is in the same vein. “Choosing to follow” or “deciding for Christ” or “inviting Jesus in” have become synonymous with the supernatural act of Godly justification. They’re not the same thing.
And now here’s another ‘movement’ or ‘revival’ as Prewitt calls it (remember the Asbury Revival on another college campus?). Prewitt’s ultimate goal with this movement is “to unite the nation.”
Observer: What beef do you have with women in ministry? Are you a misogynist or something?
Me: The Bible calls women to keep her sphere to the family if possible, to the local church, and to resist stepping out in leadership. Why is it that women who are moms and wives are not content to persist in ministering to their family or locals, but must be founders of massive movements with lofty goals like ‘unite the nation’, or ‘disciple this generation‘ or be ‘a woman who leads and believes you were made to lead‘? Whatever happened to ‘Be a mom’?
Prewitt has said, “When your faith is strong and you trust God to do big things. Big things are going to happen and we’ve just seen that” [at Auburn’s UniteUS event]”
Why is it that these non-Titus ladies desire “big things” like large platforms but not the REAL big things like, a child’s justification…a strong, beautiful marriage modeling mutual submission, a prayerful devotional at home…honoring elderly parents… why do the “big things” always seem to mean to these non-Titus ladies, high profile and filled arenas?
Let’s take a look at UniteUS founder Tonya Prewitt:
“My husband was probably as far from God as you could be and it’s like when we met I knew he was supposed to be my husband…”
God has said not to yoke with unbelievers. What was she doing with dating a person who she admits was so far from God? If he was unsaved he was not “supposed to be” a husband to a believer. (2 Corinthians 6:14)
Later, Prewitt said Chad would not go to church but he would go to a concert, so she took him to a Christian Concert where they did an altar call at the end. Chad went forward and decided for Christ. “It changed his life and he went in full on with God.” So THAT’S where she gets the idea that mass decisional regeneration events are acceptable ways to convert.
Oh, I should have waited a second, because she says exactly that in the next video frame:
“Even what happened at Auburn is almost a correlation of what we saw with him [Chad], in that you you can take somebody as far going as him, but an event like that can sometimes be an encounter that changes someone’s lives for eternity.”
In an interview, Tonya Prewitt named herself as “a mom and a spiritual mom” when describing her former ministry to young girls on campus. Initially counseling 5 young women though discipling and prayer, something the Bible applauds and expects of older women, within one year she founded a multi-state organization and now adds to her named jobs of mom and spiritual mom, “Incorporator and Director of a non-profit business entity in the State of Alabama.”
UNITEUS is an Alabama Domestic Non-Profit Corporation filed on November 16, 2023. The company’s filing status is listed as Exists and its File Number is 001-108-449. Source Alabama Secretary of State.
Yet the Bible says we are told to live quietly, “encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.” (Titus 2:4b-5).
Did you know that ‘God’ gave Tonya a vision for revival and for thousands of youths filling arenas?
In another interview, she said “God gave me a vision ahead of time of what was to come and I’ll tell you this; I have a vision for what’s coming even greater than what we witnessed on September 12th. Nationally… globally… something so big that is coming it’s going to hit our college campuses.” (Source)
“I saw the students gathered, I saw the worship, but I didn’t see the baptisms that were coming. It was really cool because God didn’t show me the full vision. I could have messed that up and gotten in the way of it” (source).
Yes, because puny humans who are given direct revelation from God are powerful enough to thwart His plans. Oy.
Apparently Tonya is not only a biblical visionary but a prophetess too:
“About a year before Unite took place, we were sitting in small group one night and I just stood up and I looked at the girls and I said ‘Something so big is coming a year from now and you’re going to be part of it.’ What’s coming? and my co-leader said ‘What’s coming?’ and I said ‘I don’t know all I can tell you is something so big is coming. I feel it.” (Source).
“God could and only the spirit of God could draw all of these students into this Arena.” (Source)
Observer: See?! And it came true. Ha.
Me: No, Satan draws them too. Not “only” God. Just because the event worked out like she wanted it to does not mean necessarily it is of God. In fact, the numbers are usually small when it comes to a real move of God. Noah’s 7. Lot and 2 daughters. The crowds left Jesus and would not follow any more. (John 6:66). Only 5 were at the cross with Jesus when He died.
Prewitt said she emphasizes getting plugged into a local church, so “we had every campus ministry, every local church represented at our event so students could go to the back into the Concourse and get plugged in to a church.” (Source)
Hm, including the Auburn Catholic Campus Ministry, the college ministry of St. Michael the Archangel Parish? And the Adventist Christian Fellowship Auburn Chapter of the 7th Day Adventist Church? And the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on College Avenue? Those campus ministries and local churches also had a table on the Concourse kids could sign onto?
Observer: They have the right approach, for sure.
Students at UniteUS at Florida State U, Feb 15, 2024
Me: Well…not so fast. First, I wonder HOW the organization links thousands of bouncing, burbling, emotionally high students with local churches on the spot before they wander off. Secondly, this approach has not been too successful in the past. Some Parachurches like Walk to Emmaus/Chrysalis compete with local churches to deliberately draw away congregants, or like IF:Gathering, they become a sort of substitute church all on their own.
Also, remember Billy Graham Crusades? You might be too young. But Graham was a global itinerant preacher who gathered hundreds of thousands to huge arenas and preached. He called people forward at the end of his sermons where endless choruses of the song Just As I am played, to make a decision for Christ (language never in the Bible). Counselors were stationed at the bottom to counsel seekers who flooded down by the hundreds. Except, Graham had Jewish rabbis and Catholic priests there to counsel folks back to their own ‘church’ where they’d be returned in the same state of non-belief they were in before.
It should be noted that Cecil Andrews said in his video called, “The Man and His Message” about Billy Graham’s Crusades, “I know of a number of men who do door-to-door work in Northern Ireland. They constantly come across people whose view is ‘Oh I made a decision at a Billy Graham Crusade, but I don’t go to church now. I haven’t gone for years.’ But yet somehow or other they’re relying on this emotional response they made 30 or 40 years ago. Yet they would have gone down as one of the people who went forward as an ‘Inquirer’ and they would be viewed rightly or wrongly by others as fruit.”
Sadly, it’s reported at a recent UniteUS crusade, that:
“We ended up having hundreds of students walk forward to receive salvation,” Denning said. “And then almost 300 students got baptized in our Westcott Fountain, in the front of our campus.” (Source).
So it’s the same all over again. The way is NARROW. It’s a turnstile, not a mass event.
This turnstile only takes one at a time. It is exclusive from the start. It is intensely personal. You can’t be born into it. You can’t join the church and sort of be swept in with the crowd. It is intensely personal. It is intensely individual. It is you and you alone. All our life prior to coming through that gate we ran with the crowd, but when we came through the gate we came alone. Many others have come, but they came alone. Salvation is an individual miracle. You don’t go through a turnstile in groups. You go through by yourself.” John MacArthur, on the Narrow Gate sermon “The Way to Heaven.”
I’m suspicious of conferences aimed at youth. I feel protective of children and youth, and college students are children. These mass conferences tend to be filled with false teachers, false gospels, emotionalism, and affirming declarations of faith in an instant rather than careful scrutiny and waiting to see if actual fruit develops. I’ve written about this before-
Tonya Prewitt, who claims visions from God and utters prophecies in the midst of a gathering, who states she served formerly as a Youth Pastor and as a Deacon, discontent with ministering to 5 and now wants 5000, who hires Jennie Allen to preach; lacks discernment and should NOT be organizing events for thousands of emotionally worn, spiritually floundering youth.
While I admire Tonya Prewitt’s desire for youth to have comfort in their life difficulties, putting forward a goal of “uniting the US” is not what the Bible calls women to do.
Observer: You’re just a Negative Nellie Debbie Downer, aren’t you? You have a critical spirit!
Me: I always bring things back to the Bible. Women are to be tending the home, at home, raising the children if the Lord gave any to her, ministering to the husband as helpmeet, and doing good in the community. (Proverbs 31, Titus 2, Genesis 2:18, Proverbs 29:15, 1 Timothy 5:14). She should have a reputation for local good works and again, be primarily oriented for the home.
Nothing in the Bible shows women gallivanting off to found revival movements to unite the entire world. Not even the unique time of the first century church. Lydia hosted gatherings in her home. Dorcas didn’t run off from region to region gathering women into the Areopagus or Solomon’s portico to “change their lives.” She sewed garments for the poor. Do we hear of Mary Magdalene (allegedly the first evangelist?) after the moment at the tomb? (John 20:18). No. Not one mention after that. No Billy Graham-like Crusades for her.
Observer: You gave me a lot to think about. I’ll read some of the links you posted. I still think you don’t have to throw cold water on everything. Maybe some of those kids were actually saved.
Me: Maybe some were. And maybe a lot more weren’t but THINK they were, which is worse. The name of Jesus is the most important name in the universe and salvation is the most important event ever. We must be careful and see if these things are so. Always look at the founder’s testimony and lifestyle, and also see what she says, not just what she does. Compare to the Bible. If she claims direct revelation, utters extra-biblical prophecies, or lives a lifestyle the Bible doesn’t allow for her point in life, avoid her and her ministry.
The Good News is available in any church, THE welcoming place Jesus established for people to confess, repent, and be saved. THE place to discuss a growing conviction of sin and sort out what it all means, in the quietude of a conversation with a knowledgeable, wise believer or pastor. What an eternal shame it would be for these college kids to grow up, relying on their emotional response they made 30 or 40 years ago when they face the Lord Jesus on Judgment day, only to discover Matthew 7:21 applied to them
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
I sometimes highlight examples of women in the Bible who were a positive influence in the faith. I mention a few of them below. Alternately, I highlight less than positive examples of some women either in the Bible or walking around today, as an example of what not to do or to be like.
There are some “Bible teachers” and female “leaders” in today’s times who I am of the opinion are actually harming the faith and throwing mud on the name of Jesus. I scan their output in every once in a while and read some stuff they’ve put out there lately, albeit hands over my eyes peeking through horror movie fashion.
I did that yesterday morning with Aimee Byrd. Formerly co-host along with Todd Pruitt and Carl Trueman of the Mortification of Spin podcast, author, blogger, sometimes Sunday guest preacher, Aimee has had a long public history in the faith. To the negative.
A couple of years ago, Aimee loudly left her long-term denomination, Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC). Aimee is actually an ex-OPC mirror to ex-Southern Baptist Beth Moore, who also left her denomination loudly and badly. Both ladies left for what I personally see as the same reasons: refusal to submit to biblical gender roles.
Yesterday I read Aimee’s new essay “Messages of Shame”, where she publicly whined about decades-old comments she’d received, which she “put in the tomb with Jesus.” Her essay really only displayed the accuracy of those comments, some of which included her failure to listen, her pushiness, her unapproachability, and her resistance to correction.
I’m not great at accepting criticism or rebukes myself, so I understand the temptation to hold on to anger. But for her to be public with long-held resentment against people whose comments were probably off-hand or artless, failing to give grace or think the best of folks, shows an un-loving stance. It’s even worse when someone is looked upon as a leader or an influencer.
“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.” (Matthew 5:11)
Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all transgressions. (Proverbs 10:12)
Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8).
And this too:
For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. (James 2:13).
Writing 20 years later of men who caused her “wounds” or whose comments were “violent” (allegedly, as she interprets it) for example, writing of a man who giggled at her, is as petty as Beth Moore complaining that no one acknowledged her in an elevator.
Believing women who actually possess the Holy Spirit in us, are strong. Look at Abigail in a brutal marriage. Jesus’ mother Mary seeing her Son die so excruciatingly. Esther. These are the women to model one’s self after. Not these paper kittens like Moore and Byrd.
In her essay, Byrd ‘threw’ these “messages of shame” into the tomb of Jesus. Using the tomb of Jesus as her personal trash can to throw what she interpreted as “sins” of others against her, not even her own sins, (20 year old comments, giggles, compliments) is log-in-eye arrogant.
Unfounded attacks are hard to take. So are gossip, slander, and insults. Well-founded rebukes are even harder, because they would our pride even more if they are true.
By God’s providence my devotional this morning touched on this very subject. Favell Lee Mortimer said in his Devotional Commentary on the Gospels:
“It is in this spirit that irreligious people judge those whom they call “evangelicals and saints.” They accuse them of hypocrisy, and of pride; they watch their conduct with an eagle’s eye, and triumph over their infirmities with a demon’s joy. Such people have a beam in their own eye. This beam prevents them from seeing their own sins. We may be assured, that if we do not see ourselves to be very great and miserable sinners, there is a beam of unbelief in our eyes which prevents our seeing it. While we cannot see our own sins, we cannot see the sins of others aright. What we call sins in them, perhaps are not sins.We do not know how to reprove until we have discovered what sinners we ourselves are. But when God, by his converting grace, takes the beam out of our eyes, then we may help our brother to overcome his sins. Then we shall warn him in a spirit of humility and love, feeling our own unworthiness, and anxious for his good.”
Ladies, don’t be easily offended. Don’t nurse victimhood. Forgive and move on. We are called to do that. I know that some comments hurt. I know that criticism or rebukes are hard to take. But the primary reason we do, and with grace, is because Jesus took them ALL. No one in history was more reviled, insulted, rebuked, spat upon, ‘wounded’ with REAL violence than the sinless, perfect, beautiful, truthful Jesus. You need to remember that, I need to remember that. When we receive remarks we interpret as disdainful or insulting, our flesh might want to allow to build resentment around.
Yet love takes many forms:
Better is open rebuke Than love that is concealed.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. Proverbs 27:5-6
I’d mentioned the famous quote from John Calvin as I concluded a recent series on idols and idolatry, that our hearts are idol factories. Our own flesh betrays us constantly. But add to that failure, satan’s pressure of constant temptation. (Idolatry series below)
One must always be vigilant. I’d read a startling thought in Spurstowe’s book The Wiles of Satan. One of satan’s strategies is to tempt us. We know that. But an even wilier strategy is to “cease to tempt, or to feign flight.” Have you ever thought of that? It’s to provoke our pride. We SEEM to have won the battle. We think, ‘Oh great, I’ve got this temptation licked! I got the victory of that sin!’ But no. Just as we release our guard, satan comes back!
We see this satanic relentlessness in the Bible.
Example #1: The Demon Possessed slave girl. Acts 16:16-18a,
It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave woman who had a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing great profit to her masters by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us and cried out repeatedly, saying, “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation.” Now she continued doing this for many days.
Note that she did this “for many days”. Paul was greatly annoyed, the verse says. In the original Greek, the word greatly annoyed meant “exhausting, depleting grief which results in “piercing fatigue.” “
Satan relentlessly troubles us till we become so exhausted we either give in to the temptation or we destroy our witness with anger or some other un-Christian behavior. Oh, if we all had the same power Paul had to simply banish the demon away! But we don’t.
Example #2: Satan came to Jesus three times in the wilderness. Luke 4:1-13. Note that satan tempted Jesus in the first place! Satan’s arrogance is such that he thought he could tempt the Sinless One to sin! If satan opposed Jesus in this way, then for certain he and his minions will oppose you and me.
Of course satan couldn’t budge our Messiah, but note how he departed. Not in defeat, but in promise of continuing the battle:
13And so when the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.
Satan is always prowling. (1 Peter 5:8). He roams to and fro upon the earth, Job 1:8 says. Satan has a God-given access to everything on the earth, and that includes people (wherever God said satan could go or as far as he could go). He tried to get at Job continually, but could not until God allowed satan to get increasing access to him. Job was probably the most perfect man on earth ever (not sinless, but morally upright). And that is why satan wanted him. God put a hedge of protection around Job…until He didn’t. No one on this here earth can expect continual protection from satan.
Our soul is safe if we are truly converted, but our heart can be tempted. When we fall into sin, especially a public sin, then satan, his minions, and the world rejoices, saying “There goes another hypocrite!”
1 Timothy 3:7 speaks of the importance of remaining above reproach for leaders. The reason being a leader’s reputation must glorify God. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into disgrace and the snare of the devil.
The same is true for us women even though we are not leaders. We must maintain a good reputation. 1 Timothy 5:10, says we should be having a reputation for good works. This is because our reputation is not our own, but of Jesus in us.
Jesus protected Himself through prayer and fasting. One of satan’s tactics is to SEEM to let up on you but he is just biding his time to come at you again. Our own flesh even more so. Don’t let up! I do let up occasionally, to my own shame. But just because we are not being tempted at present, it is likely that the devil’s minion is simply releasing us to our own pride. He always waits for a more opportune time. Do not get snared!
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be … 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. (2 Timothy 3: 1-2,5).
As a kid on Easter morning in a secular household, it was all about the basket. The eggs, the chocolate, and toys. Even the fake green grass. Our baskets were always generously filled, and I especially loved the centerpiece of a large chocolate bunny on the mound of grass.
As a kid, if you see a 5 inch chocolate bunny you get very excited. You don’t think about how much to eat or not eat, you don’t think about the appropriate time of the day to eat it. You just rip the cellophane and chomp.
I remember being disappointed that the bunny was hollow. As a kid, I could not tell the difference between a solid bunny and a hollow one, they looked the same to my immature eyes. But when I bit into the ear it seemed to be a total gyp when it crumbled to bits because it had no interior support. The bunny had only a form of solidity.
We are told over and over in the Bible that the last days would be filled with deception, false pastors and false prophets, wolves in sheep’s clothing, antichrists, false apostles, false doctrine … and are repeatedly warned not to fall for it.
How can we tell if a bunny is solid chocolate or hollow? Test by eating it, you say? Satan is poison, his deceptions are poison. Who wants to eat poison? Ingesting falsity for too long will inevitably pollute. As mature Christians, we must be able to discern and detect hollow Christianity and false teachers who only have an appearance of Godliness early on, before it permeates the entire congregation, or our own heart.
Are you a child in Christ, seemingly mature but having fallen out of the habit of testing the scriptures for yourselves? Have you lost the ability to test the spirits? Are you, yourself hollow? Professing a form of godliness but denying its power? Have you departed from the spiritual disciplines of prayer, reading the word, giving, fellowship, and gathering with saints for worship? Abandoning these will hollow youout.
Ephesians 4:14 tells us not to be babes. “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.”
Pray for experience, wisdom, and discernment through a healthy relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Let us be mature, our faith be solid. We should not have only a veneer of godliness but be solid to the core, strong, with the interior support of the Holy Spirit. A counterfeit Christianity will reveal the person to be a child, rushing toward something that looks oh so good to eat but biting into the hollowness to be disappointed, but perhaps already hooked by its tastiness. Do not be a baby in discernment! Do not be hollow in faith!
But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. (Hebrews 5:14).
The word of God is a sure way to stay close to Jesus and grow in faith to mature, solid Christians, who in turn extend a hand to new babes in Christ and help them along. And so it goes.
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