Screen shot of the Justin Peters’ title card for his talk at G3 2023 National Conference
I have returned home to digest the edifying material I absorbed at the recent G3 National Conference in Atlanta. This is a 3-day conference featuring stupendous music (solid hymns accompanied by orchestral instruments), and wonderful preaching all around a theme. This year the theme was The Sovereignty of God.
Many different sermons were offered on the topic. There are endless ways to plumb the topic. You could do so for a thousand years and not even come close to scratching the surface.
A common question heard around the convention hall was “Which one was your favorite?” Every man who was selected to preach or woman who was selected to lead a breakout session has the skill to exegete their portion of scripture, and do so expertly. It isn’t a question of personality. It’s a question is which presentation spoke to your mind, which session that the Holy Spirit convicted you with or that He encouraged you with. It’s a spiritual question.
Emotions do play a part, yes. When one is convicted or encouraged on the basis of the preached word, it not only illuminates your mind but it expands your heart. The word does something to you. It is living and active after all.
The material presented to me at the G3 conference which most affected both my my mind and my heart, is Justin Peters’ talk on how false teachers attack the sovereignty of God.
False teachers attack God’s sovereignty through His omniscience, through His use of suffering and sickness, through His solitariness, through His work in salvation, and through him in general. Justin culled clips from some of the most popular of the heretical speakers of the day who demonstrated these points.
It’s one thing for a speaker to say the quotes, it is quite another for us to watch these people say them. AND have their audiences by the masses…applaud.
Their heresies were jaw-droppingly blasphemous. They were unutterably sickening. They were unrelentingly scandalous.
When Justin presented a clip featuring one of these false teachers saying one of their heresies and blasphemies, the G3 audience at Justin’s session would groan or exclaim involuntarily. We could not help it. Truly, it is amazing how deeply the false teachers hate God.
So, why would I bask in this session? Why would I say it was my favorite? Why would I even want to come close to a presentation featuring this cesspool of abyss-worthy hate?
Have you ever gone to a real jewelry store? Or seen someone on TV or a movie go to a jewelry store? Maybe you’re looking for fine jewelry for your mother, or you’re a man looking or an engagement ring for your girlfriend. You peer down into the glass case and see a jewel you like. You ask the clerk to please take it out of the case so you can get a better look. What does he do?
He takes it out for you. You anticipate looking at the sparkle and brilliance. But that is not all he takes out. He places a square of black velvet on the counter too, and lays the jewel on it. Why?
The black backdrop of the velvet enhances the brilliance of the diamond. It can be seen more clearly. Its sparkle is brighter. The jewel remains sharp and well-defined against the dark background.
And so it is. When a heretic’s words issue forth into the air, they become the black backdrop to the Lord’s brilliance in holiness and purity. The contrast makes me see the Lord as exalted even higher. My love for Him increases, and my hatred of my own sin grows. Seeing black sin for what it is against the purity of our Holy God is a contrast I always want to keep present in my mind.
Now, I don’t recommend a steady diet of purposefully seeking to contrast heresy vs. Truth. Swimming in heretical waters is a risk and not one that we take lightly. The Lord has done a superlative job of keeping Justin Peters sane and spiritually safe as he researches these items to bring to his audience’s attention. For me, it’s not a risk I want to take very often. But once in a while when the opportunity presents itself, like it did at G3, reminding myself with knowledge of the hatred these false teachers have for God, and refreshing my own soul with reminders of God’s brilliance as THE jewel of the universe, is good for me.
It also propels me into a desire to always be a precise steward of the truth. Falsity begins somewhere. These heretics didn’t start out at the bottom of the abyss. Sin is incremental, and it grows. I don’t ever want even a germ of falsity in my writing or speaking the glories of Jesus. I know there will be at times, because I’m not glorified and I have a mind that needs renewing every day. But the goal is to minimize it and to cast it out when its presence is brought to my attention. Heresy is a death sentence. But it begins with a small waver from the center line of orthodoxy.
So that is why I liked the conference session about false teachers best.
Early Warning Radar is, “An early-warning radar is any radar system used primarily for the long-range detection of its targets, i.e., allowing defenses to be alerted as early as possible before the intruder reaches its target, giving the air defenses the maximum time in which to operate.” (Wikipedia).
This is military talk. But we in the Christian life are in a war, and Paul and Peter used military talk in their letters. We read of battles, fiery darts, victories, armor, ‘fellow soldiers‘. The metaphor is apt.
In the Old Testament God said He stationed Prophets as watchmen on the wall. They were to alert the populace if they saw a raid coming, and blood would be on their hands if they failed to watch and/or raise the alarm. (Ezekiel 3:17, Isaiah 62:6, Ezekiel 33:6). In the New Testament we are not Israel but the Church. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood. The Lord sent His Spirit to endow some in the church with watchman-like abilities who operate similarly to the Old Testament watchmen in their task. It’s called discernment. The folks in the Church who possess this spiritual gift are the Church’s Early Warning Radar.
EPrata photo. Nassau policeman on watch
These people can detect the long-range approach of its targets (false doctrine/false teachers) , i.e., allowing defenses to be alerted as early as possible before the (satanic) intruder reaches its target, giving the ground defenses (pastors) the maximum time in which to operate (refute, defend, excommunicate).
The long range watchers have an ability to ‘see’ a false teacher, spot a false doctrine, know when ‘something is off’. Many people say “I felt something was off with her but I couldn’t put my finger on it.” Well, discerning watchmen know exactly who, how, and what was “off” and warn about it specifically. They can see a false trend begin to coalesce, they can reject what they see is a not a legitimate movement but is in fact a fad, they can warn of incursions.
Remember the “Asbury Revival”? In February 2023 a seemingly spontaneous ‘revival’ broke out at Kentucky’s Asbury University sparked by students remaining in the Auditorium after a regularly scheduled chapel service, praying, singing, pouring out like fervent, excitable college kids do. More joined from local campuses, then more from other states, until it was a religious free-for-all. Your long range warning people early in February said it wasn’t genuine. They knew.
They were dismissed. Their warnings rejected.
And that is the trouble with those in the church who refuse to heed their local, identified discernment people. They are often ignored. Wisdom abounds in the discernment folks and in the learned elders who have trained up in discernment as part of their job. Here is a specific example of an early warning from a long range watcher with discernment.
On August 9, 2023, Owen Strachan (Provost & Research Professor of Theology, @GBTSeminary) posted the following mini-warning about a particular stance that well-known author Nancy Pearcy made in her new book:
Aimee Byrd is also well-known, but sadly she is known for turning egalitarian, then liberal, then fringe. So it is not a good comparison. Below is the tweet that Nancy made which Dr Strachan warned about:
In typical fashion, there was immediate pushback against this warning.
I’ve seen this often. A warning is given about a trend, false doctrine, or person. Hordes clamor against it, usually saying either the warning is not specific enough, or it is too early to say so and to just hush up and have some grace. ‘You don’t know their heart’ is a common rejoinder.
Then the trend, false doctrine, or person settles into the Christian zeitgeist, and more warnings are given. When it becomes obvious to many that indeed, the person, doctrine, or trends was a harm to the faith, the rejoinders change. ‘It’s too late to do anything about it/her/him’. ‘Just chew the meat and spit out the bones’. ‘Who are you to say anything against them, they’ve helped many despite their misguided interpretations.’ And so on.
A failure in a walk begins somewhere. Some people can spot that beginning and warn. Pearcy’s subtle shift of a previously commonly defined word is an early warning, and matches a trend of later failures. But the early warning was dismissed (at least by the women named ‘going godward’).
Here is another example, this time, of a mourning AFTER a fall. Early warning signs were ignored:
Somewhere, a pastor started heeding a cloaked liberal feminist calling herself a Christian named Aimee Byrd. Her advice was that even married men and women can have close relationships apart from spouses. Somewhere someone might have been concerned of this change in a pastor’s stance, or seen him carrying her book around, and said, ‘excuse me, sir but that book has too many liberal ideas… it’s dangerous.’ An early warning might have been given. If it was not heeded, the result was that this pastor had let the guardrails down, and then his sin got the better of him, and he fell into adultery.
However, the pendulum swing in the other direction in the aftermath of an obvious fall, after the bomb has hit, is that people either blame the messenger (as Beth Moore did to Tom Buck in her reply), or they say, ‘it’s too late, move on’.
The points here today are this:
TAKE WARNINGS SERIOUSLY. Ideas are not just ideas nor are they harmless. Ideas have consequences.
Train yourself in discernment. Even if you don’t possess the actual spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 12:10), you can and must train up in it. (Hebrews 5:14).
As your discernment grows you will be able to spot solid, credible men of the faith (after your own pastor or elders). Once you identify them, learn from them, listen to them, take heed from them.
Heed their warnings. Not blindly, but discerningly. Consult the Bible, consult good commentaries, consult appropriate resources. Be a Berean (Acts 17:11).
In this specific case with Nancy Pearcy, you could go to the website The Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood to seek information on the two big words Dr Strachan used, ‘complementarianism’ and ‘egalitarianism’. And look up the word “ezer” in a good Bible word dictionary or lexicon (like Biblehub.com) and read how the word is used in context.
This past April there was a social media discussion that erupted after a man named Dale Partridge posted a podcast or two or three, claiming that it is unbiblical for women to teach theology even to other women. This was a new take on the verses he founded this thought from, some of which are Titus 1:9, 1 Corinthians 11:3, 1 Timothy 2:11-14, 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, Ephesians 5:24-27, and so on.
Was he right? Or was he going too far? It threw a lot of people into confusion during the summer, including me. Diligent Christian women WANT to do the right thing, and many of us who emulate the Bereans (Acts 17:11) went back to double check.
My own conclusion after searching the scriptures in context, is that this man was wrongly applying scripture. I then did a deep dive into Dale’s Christian life and teaching and concluded his theology was not to be trusted. He went beyond scripture, his life was one flip to another both in employment and in doctrinal stances. He is a serial plagiarist (which alone disqualifies him from leading), and fails to tell the truth more frequently than can be attributed to an accidental slip of the typing. As more people focused on him who did the same, and compared his ‘teaching’ to the Bible, their conclusion also was that his life and his doctrine didn’t stand up.
Nick Campbell was one of these who presented a detailed conclusion to Partridge’s life and doctrine, and at that time I obtained permission to re-post his conclusions on this blog. It is here-
Why should we care about what one guy is saying about women teaching theology? Because he has a big following. Because influencers are called influencers for a reason- they influence. And when it’s a Christian, or someone professing Christianity, they can influence the faithful for good or for ill. It’s incumbent upon us to discern which.
Then during the summer of 2023, someone with a bigger following than Partridge, Lori Alexander, “The Transformed Wife” AKA @godlywomanhood, passed Dale’s teaching on to her female followers, which number in the millions.
Lori Alexander
Women began coming to me with this, asking What? Why? Huh?
The disruption lasted all June and July, and still iterates now in August. The always articulate, the always careful, and always thoughtful Chris Hohnholz, came out with his own conclusion to the question ‘Can women teach theology to other women?’
Here is what Chris wrote. I have his permission to repost:
“So, after seeing the kerfuffle surrounding Dale Partridge and his comments regarding women learning theology, I am now listening to part 1 of his podcast on this. Despite his assertions to the contrary, I honestly do not believe this helps his cause.”
“Dale rightly makes a case about the authority structure between husbands and wives (and their daughters) and the authority structure in the church (pastors over congregants, pastoral role reserved to men). However, he then extends that authority to say that women ought ONLY receive certain kinds of theological teaching from ONLY their father, husband, or pastor. That those certain theological teachings are not permitted for women to teach.”
“He also extends to authority of the Christian father over his daughter while she is out of the home, as an adult, unmarried. It his job to shepherd her, or it is ONLY the pastor’s job/authority if there is no Christian father or husband.”
“While this may sound like it has a ring of truth, you have to extend the passages he uses beyond their context to create this scenario. He also tries to distinguish between what he calls “devotional theology” (basic understanding of the gospel, Christian life and application, etc) which all Christians can learn and talk about, from “systematic theology” which is essentially the exclusive realm of pastors, elders, etc, because it is what they need to teach Christians.”
“Dale gives a passing comment that Christians “can” study systematic theology but it isn’t needed for them because that really is more for informing the pastors so they can teach and address things the average Christian doesn’t have to face or have the responsibility to address.”
“And here is where the rubber meets the road. [According to Dale Partridge] Women can teach “devotional theology” to other women but systematic theology is verboten because it is teaching that which is reserved to the role of the pastor, therefore, she is assuming authority that is not hers. This is a massive stretch and not consistent with the teaching of Scripture. Partridge simply is wrong.”
—end Chris Hohnholz comment.
Indeed, the notion that there is such a thing as ‘devotional theology’ vs. ‘systematic theology’ is a tier that Dale has invented then put into the conversation. It does not exist. There is no such thing as devotional theology.
“Devotional theology” is not devotions we might be reading in the morning
When Chris posted his thoughtful and biblical conclusions to the kerfuffle Mr Partridge caused, Dale Partridge replied with a concerning tweet. The story isn’t over. Now, remember that 38-year-old Dale is the President of Reformation Seminary as well as a pastor, author, podcaster, and influencer.
“Chris, I would appreciate you reading this as it is the conclusion of those three episodes on the topic. Naturally, I was working through this topic and episode one is not the most clear representation of my view. But this is. Let me know your thoughts.“
No. Just no. When one is supposed to be a trusted source for the words of God, one does not ‘work out’ one’s theology in public. Leaders are supposed to study and study until coming to a settled conclusion, and THEN assert “This is what God says in His word” or “This is what the Bible means when it says XYZ”. God’s word is precious. It is not to be flung about in public, slippery and amorphous. It is the most solid thing in the universe. We don’t play with it.
A qualification for leaders is that they must be “able to teach”. (1 Timothy 3:2). That mean they should have an ability to communicate the truth of Scripture with clarity. It does not mean the teacher issues successive videos clarifying then clarifying more then clarifying the clarification. It also doesn’t mean he should “work out” his stance and appeal to confusion as the reason for the questions. Indeed, Mr Hohnholz replied,
Chris Hohnholz replied, “You sounded pretty clear to me, sir. And, I pulled these episodes straight from this article. You make clear delineations and make clear statements about realms of authority and who should teach what. I’m already into the second episode and I’m not hearing any significant difference. You are simply asserting more than Scripture commands and are attempting to couch that in terms of what is “ideal.” It would be better for you to simply state you were wrong on this matter, pull the episodes and article, study Scripture without your presuppositions in place and try again. I’m going to be honest with you, I often see A LOT of “I’ve been misrepresented” on this here bird site, so I tend to make it my task to interact directly with a person’s material. The “I know you interacted directly with exactly what I said but it’s still not what I really meant,” is not a good look for you. Take care.”
It is a blessing to have so much Christian material available to us at the touch of a button! But with it comes caution. Satan works his evil everywhere, and he is online too. He influences people and their teaching. As Paul said, false teachings “spread like gangrene“. And if you are a medical professional or a movie watcher of old westerns, you know how fast gangrene spreads. FAST.
Tips for following people online
Be influenced well, not poorly.
What to watch out for online: people whose positions change frequently, one moment they are Amillennial and the next they are posmillennial and the next they are dispensational. Not that people can’t change, RC Sproul changed from old earth to young earth, John MacArthur changed from believing that Jesus was temporarily subordinate to God to permanently subordinate to God. But these big changes in doctrine come with an explanation, and a lot of thought and prayer after years. And they didn’t “work it out” online in public.
Watch out for people who claim they are leaders but are unteachable and uncorrectable. These people are often not humble, either.
Watch out for people who are always and constantly involved in some controversy, or worse, starting one. The truth will stir up controversy, but with discernment you can detect the difference between someone starting one to get clicks, and someone who has controversy thrust upon them due to speaking God’s light to a dark world.
Watch out for influencers who seem unattached to a church or unaccountable to their pastor. If they are a Seminary Professor, they are accountable to the Trustee Board. Many famous female celebrity teachers are loose cannons who seem unattached to any church or accountability structure.
On the positive side, watch for: men who are thoughtful and who avoid ‘hot takes’. Who avoid jumping into the fray. They are measured and calm, remembering that they represent Christ. Men who are solid in doctrine, yet attentive to other positions (if even just to be gracious). Men who use a lot of scripture in their posts or tweets. Men who are loving to their wives online, praising them and being kind.
Ladies, I hope you glory in His word and study it with joy. All of it. It is ALL there to edify you and is profitable for correction, reproof, and growth to do every good work!
To the casual or immature discerners who say “just eat the meat and spit out the bones”… I ask you this:
If you are a parent, even if you’re not, picture your sweet baby in his high chair. You are preparing food for him and place it in his plastic bowl in front of him with his little spoon. In the bowl is a hunk of meat along with its bones. You tell the toddler to eat the meat and just spit out the bones.
Is this a safe way for your baby to consume food?
It’s a hypothetical question. We all know it’s not safe to serve a baby meat with bones and just tell the child to spit out the bones. This illustration was designed to highlight one fatal flaw: PRIDE. We think we are smarter than we are.
How do I know this? Because we all are babies. We are little children, stumbling along like helpless sheep, trying to do our best to serve God. How many times in the Bible are WE called sheep (which are stupid animals), or babes? We are naïve and vulnerable to the world, to our sin, and to the devil. We need God’s strong word as a fortress, a haven, a sheepfold with Him as guide to get us safely through this life and across the Jordan to eternity.
We think we ‘can handle’ this or that. But we can’t. We are as ignorant and helpless as a baby in a high chair when served what the world has to offer and when served what the church has to offer. We must stay closely in the word of God, lest we be deceived. We are often not smart enough to be bone detectors.
Always test whatever lessons we receive with the word of God, and
Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. 6In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. 7Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil. (Proverbs 3:5-7).
Has anyone else noticed that in spite of more people waking up to deception and warning others, deception continues to spread like a lit match in a haystack?
Amy Spreeman
Yes. I have noticed. Sometimes the deception in both the world and in Christianity, or the current version of it, seems like a wave I cannot withstand.
The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Note the people in the boats.
Sometimes it seems like deception is clawing the faithful in a great wave threatening to drown the truth. Of course, the truth will never be drowned. God is powerful to preserve and grow his church. It shall never be overcome. (Matthew 16:18).
It is still hard to stand at the shore and see people claiming to love Jesus but dragged away from Him in deception. I deal with discernment in this ministry (as well as encouragement, exhortation, and natural theology.) Researching and writing about Discernment can turn a person crabby and bitter, or lead them into despair. UNLESS the person, unless I, stay focused on Jesus.
I need to ask Jesus for some strength. I spoke to Jesus about this as I was making my bed and straightening up. It was an out loud prayer. (No, He did not answer back…not audibly anyway. Read to end.) I was saying that discernment takes a toll, but it is worth it when some, even one, comes to the truth without the pollution of deception. It is worth walking through the haze of anger and outrage for even one to be delivered from a false doctrine. Lord, I know it may not be your will to encourage me or show me, I said, but if possible, I could use some encouragement right now.
I thought of the starfish story. Yes, even one.
I’m sure you have heard the starfish story. Here it is from Joel Barker. The story has gone through several iterations since the 1969 Loren Eiseley original.
Once upon a time, there was a wise man, much like Eiseley himself, who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day he was walking along the shore. As he looked down the beach, he saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself to think of someone who would dance to the day. So he began to walk faster to catch up. As he got closer, he saw that it was a young man and the young man wasn’t dancing, but instead he was reaching down to the shore, picking up something and very gently throwing it into the ocean.
As he got closer, he called out, “Good morning! What are you doing?” The young man paused, looked up and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean.”
“I guess I should have asked, Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?”
“The sun is up and the tide is going out. And if I don’t throw them in they’ll die.”
“But young man, don’t you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can’t possibly make a difference!”
The young man listened politely. Then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves. “It made a difference for that one!”
The next day, a woman messaged me. She said she was relieved and happy that someone was calling out Lori Alexander. She said that Lori’s ungodly advice had put a burden on her, and as a result she had increasingly felt defeated and hopeless. That Lori’s approach was definitely not one of caring or compassion. This lady was thankful for the essay I wrote that pushed her firmly toward confirming her earlier discernment of Lori’s legalism.
Well.
I want to help ALL the starfish. I can’t. But through the power of the Holy Spirit, I made a difference to THIS one. Thank you, Lord for answering my plea.
People accuse Christians of having “blind faith.” They charge Christians of being “dumb” or a “robot”.
This is not so. The Bible is evidential. Evidential is an adjective that means serving as evidence. From Vocabulary.com, we read, “Often used as a legal term, evidential is sometimes paired with the words “proof,” “burden,” or “hearing.””
The Bible has many external and internal proofs that the information contained in it is reliable. Believers know that it’s reliable because it’s from God, who is perfect. It’s the revealing of Himself to humanity, and everything He does is good, therefore the Bible is good.
However, unsaved people are blind to the glories of God. They cannot please God. Their mind is clouded with sin and their foolish hearts are darkened. So they do not believe the Bible as credible, true, or good.
Yet sometimes, a person gets curious about the Bible. They want to know, logically, why so many people find the Bible fascinating. They want to know if it is true, or the things in it are trustworthy. They investigate.
Pause that thought for a minute…
I am a writer, I always have been since I was able to write. I love language…words…phrases. How they sound, their origins, choosing words for my blog writing. It’s fun. I spend a lot of time with words.
When someone posts something on social media, I look at what they wrote, and I comment on it. Recently a woman took issue with something I replied to on a person’s large ministry page. She said I didn’t have the whole context, I didn’t know the story, I didn’t know the person’s heart, all that. Sure, I agree, more context is better than less context, but the point of social media is that someone writes something and publishes it for the world to see, and people in the world who read it, reply based on what they read.
What we respond to are the words the person chose in their published piece. What they put in, and what they leave out. The words they pick, the language the chose, gives insight into a person’s mind.
Here is a Cold Case Detective explaining his profession’s approach to forensic language. His name is J. Warner Wallace. He was unsaved but curious. He was interested in the Bible as an evidential document. It is a true cold case. I bought his book “Forensic Faith” and I’m looking forward to reading it.
Wallace said: “Detectives will have the perpetrator write down everything they did on the day of the murder from the time they woke up to the time they went to bed. I will analyze that looking for deception indicators, how they compress time, how they expand time, how they use pronouns, how they use tenses and verbs. I’m looking for adjectives and adverbs. These are really important. Optional words are really important.”
His story is that he examined the Bible using the same forensic methods he uses in his profession in solving cold cases. He found the Bible to be truly trustworthy. As a side note and a praise, he was saved shortly after that, and is now an apologist for Christ in the faith.
So while we can’t determine everything about a person from reading their words on a screen or on a paper, we can conclude some things. We might not be a cold case forensic detective, but we do have the mind of Christ and our mental faculties can detect word patterns.
Pay attention to the words they use and the words they don’t use. That second one is harder, I agree. Omissions are hard to spot. Oftentimes it takes a pattern of omission to detect something is off. Take Joel Osteen for example. He never uses the words ‘sin’, ‘repent’, or even ‘Jesus’. He will say broken, or messy, or God, but he doesn’t choose the Bible’s power words that convict a soul.
Beth Moore rarely uses the word repent in her speeches or her writing. Oh, she’ll speak or write a verse that has the word repent in it, but she rarely directly calls for repentance from sin. To my knowledge, and I checked this to the best of my ability a year or so ago, she has never taught either in person or a published Bible study, on 1 Timothy. Hmmm. That’s the Bible book that forbids women to teach men or hold authority over them.
Some people have occasionally made remarks on what I’ve written based on a conclusion they’ve come to, and after examining their statement, I’ve found them to be right. I didn’t even know I was revealing myself but they concluded something about me based on the words I use, the topics I write on.
So watch for a pattern of omission, while you are watching for the words they choose to use. Does the Bible teacher use important words like hell, death, wrath, repent, sin, Jesus. Do they overuse words like grace, mercy, forgiveness, without a balance of the other words?
And that is the point. When a person gives a sermon or writes something on social media or on paper, they are choosing words. Words and phrases are important. It is a glimpse of what is in their mind and heart. (Matthew 12:34; Luke 6:45).
False teachers creep into the church almost unnoticed. They hide their true faith, which is faith in themselves, propelled by satan and satanic desires. In other words, they oppose God in every way. They aren’t believers, but God knows this and has already marked them out for condemnation.
They think that if they adopt the right outer garments, speak the right things, adopt the right behavior and perform the right postures, they will blend in. Some do, for a while. But sin always reveals itself eventually. Either their false doctrine or their sinful lifestyle will expose them to the discerning believer. The inner becomes outer.
They think they blend in, but God has stationed discerning faithful at his watchtowers of His churches. We can spot them. This is what they look like to us. Their faces betray the twisted inner self of their nasty soul.
AI generated
Nathaniel Jolly has written an essay for G3 Ministries about the danger false teachers pose. I urge you to go to the link below and read the piece in its entirety. He goes through the book of Jude and explains the five metaphors Jude uses to illustrate the danger of false teachers. And they are dangerous.
These false teachers are hidden reefs, clouds without water, autumn trees without fruit, waves of sea foam, wandering stars.
Their aim is to corrupt your soul. If you are not a genuine believer yet, their goal is to draw you away. If you are a genuine believer, you cannot lose your salvation, but you can lose time in producing fruit for the glory of the Lord. You can be swayed from the center line of the doctrines, and minimized in your effectiveness for His church during the time you followed such and such false teacher.
Therefore, false teachers pose a very real danger to you and your local church. Many safety officers advise being situationally aware:
situation awareness conscious knowledge of the immediate environment and the events that are occurring in it. Situation awareness involves perception of the elements in the environment, comprehension of what they mean and how they relate to one another, and projection of their future states. In ergonomics, for example, it refers to the operator’s awareness of the current status and the anticipated future status of a system,” According to the American Psychological Association.
In all the definitions I read, the ultimate goal of good situational awareness is so that the person can make good decisions. You gather intel from all the situations around you on a constant basis, being aware of locations, events, atmospheres. After collecting those elements, make your decision. It’s sometimes not even a conscious process, but it always an ongoing one. Or should be. In the case of the Christian in church, first we test all things, (1 Thessalonians 5:21), so that we can make good decisions. We collect information on teachings, hymns, concepts, of whatever comes across our path in church or out that has the name of Jesus attached to it. Then we make our decisions whether to follow that teacher, sing that hymn, watch that show. We decide whether to raise an alarm with elders, share with the spouse, or protect the kids.
As always when I speak of discernment, be vigilant. Be sober. (1 Peter 5:8). And read Nathaniel’s article! 🙂
A couple of days ago, Allie Beth Stuckey spoke a good word summarizing her Episode 749 of podcast Relatable. She said the overt demonic visuals of the recent Grammy Awards dance (let the reader understand) is dangerous, but more dangerous is the soft teaching of women like Jen Hatmaker or Glennon Doyle. Listen to her teaser summary here or the whole episode here.
This week also, Amy Spreeman & Michelle Lesley at A Word Fitly Spoken in their recent February 8 segment called The Pew, warned against Jennie Allen and her organization called IF:Gathering.
This reminds me that I’ve done several essays about these women and what they teach. I always forget to unearth my previous blogs for your consideration. I should circulate them more. So with that in mind, I thought this might be a good time to unearth them and present them to you in conjunction with good reminders from Allie Beth, Amy, and Michelle.
Do listen to Allie Beth’s explanation of why teaching like Hatmaker’s or Doyle’s is so dangerous. Are we not warned in the very third chapter of the holy Word that satan is subtle? That he is crafty? In the 4th chapter of the Bible are we not warned that sin is crouching at the door waiting to have you?
Use all your mental faculties to read the word, understand the word, meditate on the word and apply the word. This is training in discernment and it is necessary to keep from stumbling. Hebrews 5:4 tells us this-
But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern both good and evil.
Discernment doesn’t happen overnight, it takes training to develop it and constant application to hone it. We need to be careful who we follow and whose teachings we absorb. Our sinful flesh likes to heap up teachers whose sinful teachings match our own desires. A false teacher’s doctrine will be subtle and it does ensnare us, but only because we like what they’re selling within our own sinful desires.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, (2 Timothy 4:3).
I wrote about Glennon Doyle in 2014, warning about her, and concerned she had gained a massive following.
These may be worth your while to read as well. I wrote them before I was doing a podcast, so it doesn’t have a ‘listen button’, but I will try to record them over this weekend and add one.
I do many types of essays, from natural history to encouragement to doctrinal to discernment. There are two things that get me riled up in discernment. One is how ‘Christian’ celebrity moms have presented a feminist lifestyle under sinful cover of ‘doing ministry’ and have distorted true biblical motherhood (see above essays). The other that upsets me is ‘Christian’ Bible teachers who claim to have had direct revelation. See this essay:
Well I hope any of these essays help you. As always, if you have questions, comments, or concerns, make a comment below or shoot me a message or email. Thanks for reading and listening!
Thank you to the newcomers to the blog! A new year brings lists, and if I’m on a list then people come over here and check the blog out. For that, I thank you for taking the time. Here is some information about The End Time and its Administrator and sole author: Elizabeth Prata (me!)
The end of the year often comes with reflection, and lists, and resolutions. It’s human nature to ponder. We like stark demarcations like borders, end of year reflections, anniversaries, things that help us say ‘this is this and that is that’.
Growing up, I never had much exposure to church. We were Methodist for a while, then Unitarian. Then nothing. Church education and attendance was spotty at best. My parents shall we say, did not practice godly living. (It was the 60s and 70s after all).
I was saved later in life at about age 43. I don’t have an exact date but a time frame, sometime in December 2003/January 2004.
Being a loner and having no understanding of what the Church is all about, for 18 months or so, I resisted attending church (even though deep down I knew I should).
I thought that watching Joel Osteen on TV every week was good enough.
Now that I was in Christendom, I thought that I was finally ‘safe’ and nothing bad would ever happen again. I was wrong! Christianity is full of strife and trouble, (but so worth it!)
When I finally got a Bible and compared Osteen’s words to it, by the Spirit’s grace, I knew that this kind of worship wasn’t proper.
I felt gypped, lied, to and upset at the notion that a pastor could be false and waste my spiritual time by hindering my walk, but I soon learned this is more frequent in Christendom than people think. But the Romans 8:28 ‘good’ that came out was that the feeling of loss and worthless worship at experiencing a false teacher now propels me into discernment. It is my desire that this does not happen to anyone else.
My first series I listened to under John MacArthur, whom I found as another graceful doing of the Spirit, was “Battle for the Beginning“. I love beginnings and endings, that’s why Genesis and Revelation are my favorite books of the Bible.
I am a faithful member of a Reformed church led by 4 elders who preach verse-by-verse with occasional topical short series.
I enjoy taking classes through The Masters’ Seminary Institute for Church Leadership (ICL), and through Ligonier Connect. ICL offers classes to individuals. You do not need to apply through the seminary, but the courses are offered by the same men. They are not expensive, and several times a year they offer one for free or half price. They also offer certificate tracks. At ICL, I’ve especially enjoyed Brad Klassen’s course on Prayer so much, and at Ligonier, Derek Thomas’ course on Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress.
I’ve kept this blog for 14 years (as of this January 9), with a blog published every day, sometimes two blogs in a day. I’ve written over 6,000 blogs with few repeats (thanks to the sustaining of the Holy Spirit).
My early years on the blog was full of breathless newspaper eisegesis, but I make no apology, because finally I was beginning to have answers to questions that plagued me so! With a sudden change in worldview, now, everything made sense! I’ll never forget that euphoria at having the big questions settled. Why are people so evil? Why is Israel always hated? Why are there earthquakes and other disasters? My worldview had shifted rapidly and I blogged in order to sort it all out. Shifting from a secular world view to a biblical one gave me answers and I was thrilled! Thankfully that focus died down and I began writing about doctrine more.
I was raised in the north and was unfamiliar with Southern Gospel music but once I heard it I loved it! I especially love Southern Gospel quartets.
My heart is for discernment, that women would think critically and biblically about their savior and their walk. It’s also for missions, and being a good student of the word, and encouraging women to live a lifestyle that exalts Jesus, no matter what stage of life they are in.
Speaking of lifestyle, I was divorced prior to salvation and have been single ever since. My idols prior to salvation were marriage and husband, but being unsaved I didn’t enter into it for the right reasons or manage it properly, since, of course, it was an idol and not part of Godly living. After conversion the Lord gave me a contentment in singleness, and I use the time and space He affords me to continue this writing ministry. (1 Corinthians 7:34).
I recently had a birthday, turning 62- officially entering a retirement age/stage of life. Let me tell you, life IS a vapor! More on that in another blog essay.
I am grateful for every reader who comes to The End Time blog. Why ‘the end time’? Because we are IN the end of time, the time between Jesus’ ascension and return. Time is short. You are never closer to your eternal destination than you are each day that passes. Make the most of the time He has given us.
Knowledge that all this will come to an end suddenly and unexpectedly should give us a fervor for right living, for proclaiming His gospel, and for speaking His excellencies wherever and whenever we can. This is my goal, and Lord willing, I’ll keep doing it in 2023.
A clip of former pastor of Saddleback Church Rick Warren made the rounds on Twitter the other day. It was Warren on camera explaining to an off-camera person Warren’s philosophy of ministry. He led the cameraman through his massive library to what he called his “Bucket of Ministry” containing tools and implements. Warren said when people ask him ‘What does a minister do?’ he refers them to his bucket. The staff represents he is a shepherd, the fruit picker reminds him that people grow fruit in their lives, the pitchfork stands for a minister’s cultivation of people, the sword stands for battle; and so on. He lifted the shovel last and said:
EPrata transcription of Warren’s statement, applied to screen shot of video
Despite having in his Bucket of Ministry a staff, a pitchfork, a sickle, a fruit picker, a fishing rod, a sword, and a tennis racket representing all the different aspects of a pastor’s work, Warren focused on the shovel as the tool representing 90% of his work. And saying straight to the camera without any sense of embarrassment, that the shovel represents his own people’s issues and concerns as excrement.
I thought this was a devastating moment, revealing the heart of this man who is in fact a wolf. Many times, people don’t accept that this man or that woman is a wolf, because they envision the wolf as an ugly, snarling, drooling, feral animal, which it is. But the wolf doesn’t appear as that, he appears as a nice, helpful, kind, soft spoken sheep. The two don’t jibe with the person’s view so they discount the wolf aspect because all they see is smiles and seeming helpfulness. But the mouth reveals all things, which pour from the heart. (Luke 6:45). We must listen, and look deeper when assessing a person claiming to be Christian, especially one who teaches.
I think not enough people understand this is an urgent verse:
“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16).
As for Pastor Rick as he is known, it would do him well in my opinion, to heed this verse:
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21).
A true, godly, Spirit-raised shepherd is supposed to care for his flock, because the shepherd knows the Lord purchased his people with His own blood. His people are only temporarily given to the shepherd, they are in truth the Great High Priest’s people. Jesus as THE Great Shepherd did not consider his people’s concerns to be excrement. He healed the blind with compassion, He touched lepers, He counseled Martha in kindness, He gently spoke to Nicodemus, addressing his concerns and questions with love. Jesus did not put on one public face to His people, then retire to Capernaum for the night and complain about having to shovel their poop.
Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. (Acts 20:28).
If you have a good pastor, who crafts his own sermons, who shepherds his monies for the betterment of the kingdom and not to accumulate and boast, who loves you with a Gospel love, you have a good pastor. Pray for him.
HOWEVER, I trust little online these days. I always want to verify. Maybe the clip went on with him saying, ‘Just kidding!’ but it was cut off so as to manipulate our view of him. Maybe it wasn’t all it seemed, and his words were cut and edited somehow.
It looked like the same one. Warren was in his massive library leading an off-camera person through it, pausing to stop and explain certain objects.
I slid the slider back and forth looking for that part about the Bucket of Ministry and did not see it. Hmmm. Maybe it was edited out. I went back and asked the original tweeter where she got it from, but received no answer after
I decided to search further on my own. Here is what I discovered. Ultimately, I still did not discover the original video containing the context around he aforementioned clip, but I found a blog article about it from people I know to be resourceful. And here’s what else I found.
Google suppresses results.
The Chrome browser using Google to search for +”rick warren” +poop” results are zero. See screenshot below.
It yielded nothing. The interview was just 11 months ago, and I saw the clip of Warren saying it, so why are there NO results? I tried various search terms, but still nothing. Hmmm, let me search on Dissenter browser, which uses DuckDuckGo for its searches, not Google.
Immediately there was a result! It is an article on Disntr, It’s not affiliated with the browser named Dissenter, it’s simply a blog that used to be called Reformation Charlotte renamed Disntr.
So isn’t that interesting, NO results at all on Google but immediately a top result came up using DuckDuckGo.
I decided to google that. I asked Google “Does Google suppress results?” and I received lots of high-minded explanations from Google explaining sincerely that if there are too many results, they limit the number, or if there is potential for identity theft, they limit results. Sounds helpful, eh? Well not so much.
If you ask the same question on DuckDuckGo using Dissenter browser, you get an article at the top of the results from Business Insider, “Google reportedly manipulates search results to hide controversial subjects and favor big business.” With what we now know for certain about Twitter thanks to Elon Musk, its new CEO unveiling the dirty acts of the Twitter execs, then, yes, of course it stands to reason Google does the same.
Even searching using that exact title on google failed to lead me to the article. It was referenced here and there, but not the blog itself. Below is that article, and a reminder to my dear readers that Google is not the be-all or end-all of searching. As time progresses and the world hates Christianity more and more, hates anything even smacking of conservatism, this kind of thing will occur as a matter of course, until the day when even posting a simple Bible verse will be suppressed.
I named this blog The End Time because we are IN the time of the end. This means the prophecies about Jesus’ return could be fulfilled at any moment, His appearing during this long era has always been imminent. So with that truth in the forefront of our minds, we as believers should be about His business sharing the Gospel and glorifying Him daily and with fervor. Right now it’s easy and free to share edifying content. It may not always be so.
the-end-time.org 