false doctrine

The Life of Hannah Hurnard: From Inspiration to Apostasy

Posted on March 31, 2025March 31, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Hannah Hurnard (1905-1990) wrote a book that became famous. As time went on it settled into a classic in Christian publishing. The book is “Hind’s Feet in High Places”. It is a 1955 Christian allegory in the vein of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Hurnard’s main character even has the same name as one of Bunyan’s characters, ‘Much Afraid’. Hinds’ Feet was inspired by Habakkuk 3:19 and explores a young woman’s spiritual journey and God’s faithfulness, discussing the importance of trusting in God even during difficult times. It is still in print, and new editions are being issued even today. It is a beloved book, along with its sequel, Mountain of Spices. A cottage industry has sprung up around Hurnard’s book Hinds’ Feet, with merchandise such as devotionals and calendars based on it.

And yet Hurnard was apostate. She held to wildly unorthodox heresies. While not immediately evident in her first book Hinds’ Feet, or her second book Mountain of Spices, her upbringing before she wrote the book and her writings afterward confirm that her apostasy seed became fully bloomed in the end.

How can this be? You may have heard of the idioms ‘a broken clock is right twice a day’ or ‘throw spaghetti at the wall and some of it sticks.’ All false teaching has truth mixed into it. Indeed, Hurnard herself may have thought she was truly saved when she wrote Hind’s Feet. But though she rose a bit, she eventually sank back into her Quaker upbringing and again believed what she should not believe.

The Bible warns over and over not to drift away from what you have heard

False Doctrine

Hurnard later in life believed in and taught reincarnation. She even claimed that Jesus taught this and it’s found in Exodus 34:6-7 and also in John 9. This aberrant and mystical view of reincarnation is expounded in her book The School of Earth Experiences.

Hannah repudiated the notion that God would ever condemn his created creatures to an eternal hell. She wrote in Unveiled Glory, a book about her conversion and testimony, that “I am now fully persuaded that as God is Love there can be in Him no wrath such as we conceive of wrath, or any possibility that He will condemn His own creatures to unending destruction, but I must still ask, What am I to do with all the passages of Scripture which seem to assert the very contrary? The Scriptures, of course, do teach that there is a hell…yet there are many other passages which most emphatically state that, in the end, God will completely triumph over evil. I discovered that there is not one single verse in the Scriptures which uses the words “everlasting,” “eternal,” or “for ever and ever” in connection with hell.”

This belief is obviously wrong, but the nature of apostasy is that people are endlessly creative with the scriptures in seeing in them what they want to see, or twisting them into that they want to believe. Acts 20:30 and 2 Peter 3:26 warn that people would come along and distort and twist the scriptures.

In the end, Hurnard believed that hell’s purpose was a sort of purgatory, forcing people through pain to repudiate their sin. She thought that since death and hell are to be thrown into the Lake of Fire, that hell is to be destroyed and thus is only temporary for those souls inside of hell.

Her view of the Fall of Man is oddly stated too. In her book “Eagles’ Wings to the Higher Places” she wrote that “Mankind fell from God-consciousness and awareness of goodness only into self-consciousness and awareness of evil in the most frightful and agonizing forms.“

Yet in Romans 1 we know that all humankind continues to have a ‘consciousness’ about God, but we suppress it in unrighteousness. Our ‘self-consciousness’ is due to the fact that the Fall plunged us wholly (spiritually and bodily) into sin.

She advocated for vegetarianism, because she said, God is immanent, which to her meant He is IN every living thing, The Lord and Savior “is actually immanent, by His Spirit, in all the living creatures we wrong [eat]. What is done to them is done to Him, too, and nails Him with them to their cross of suffering.” Eating a hamburger does not nail Jesus to the cross again. All food was declared clean (Acts 10:9-16). If God is immanent (actually IN everything) would it not also mean He is in plants and shellfish and insects? By Hannah’s account we should not eat anything. We know the unsaved’s thinking is futile (Romans 1:21).

Hannah also returned to her Quaker roots toward the end of her life, believing in universalism. Universalism, or universal reconciliation, teaches that in the end, everyone will be saved and dwell in heaven.

Christianity Today did a short bio of her life. They ended with this paragraph:

Despite this awesome witness, later in her life Hannah showed the ever-lurking danger of trusting inner voices. She veered away from sound doctrine, embracing universalism (denying God’s wrath), pantheism (God is everything) reincarnation and many new age ideas. Her last book is sold in New Age stores.

Here is a longer treatment of Hannah’s life, “FROM HIGH PLACES TO HERESY: Evaluating the Writings of Hannah Hurnard“, by G. Richard Fisher.

From Good theology to Bad Theology

I remember purchasing, reading, and enjoying Jen Wilkin’s first book in 2014, Women of the Word. However she soon became a rebel, preaching and usurping and advocating for female preaching.

It was the same with Aimee Byrd. I was surprised and delighted when her first book in 2013, Housewife Theologian, was well-received and she was subsequently invited to become a co-host on the Alliance of Professing Evangelicals’ Mortification of Spin podcast with Todd Pruitt and Carl Trueman. However it was only a few short years later Aimee apostatized, showing her true colors in her book Recovering From Biblical Manhood and Womanhood which was a painfully tortured explanation of why God didn’t really mean that men and women have different roles. Aimee rejected the female role, and was fired from the podcast. She then parted loudly with her denomination the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and wound up joining a liberal Methodist church with a female pastrix.

Again, we are familiar with the idiom “A broken clock is right twice a day”. It’s a witticism that makes sense…until you give a gift of a broken clock to someone and expect them to use it to tell time. It is the same with an apostate author. Just because Hurnard wrote two books that resonated with what we know to be Christianity, they are only right twice a day. The rest of the time, Hurnard’s beliefs are just plain wrong. We do not read or follow someone whose emergence into apostasy became fully formed, because her heart was not right even as she wrote earlier things that seemed OK. The apostasy was always in her heart, poisoning it, even while on the surface she said and did and even wrote a book containing ‘good’ things.

Apostasy is serious. If a person is actually saved, he or she can never be lost. If they spout error, it will be only for a time, and the Holy Spirit dwelling in them will correct it.

However, a person can wrongly believe she is saved, write a good book or two, and eventually adopt unorthodox views and stray from Jesus, to their eternal woe. It happens. Sadly that was case with Hannah Hurnard and her Hinds’ feet, her theology eventually most likely brought her to low places.

Further Reading

Apostasy from the Gospel, book by John Owen

Apostasy and how it Happens, essay by Sinclair Ferguson

What is an Apostate? short answer by John MacArthur

theology

Debunking Myths: Women and Preaching in Christianity

Posted on January 17, 2025January 19, 2025 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Below, Spot the flaws.

I wrote two days ago about the celebrity grandmother ‘Bible teachers’ who were adept at crafting a conservative persona on social media contrary to the lives they were actually living.

They had to craft their outward picture (in hypocrisy) because firstly, when they started out the faith was much more conservative than it is now. They could not openly say they were preaching or having a career at the office. They had to say they were ‘speaking’ and only occasionally because they were stay at home moms. They had a ‘ministry’ not an all-consuming, busy career.

Secondly 40 years ago there was not as much social media as there is now. Back in the day there was only TV, newspapers, and radio.

I wrote an essay in 2018 saying this push of preaching to men was going to be a problem:

Beth Moore has a lot to answer for in normalizing women preaching/teaching to men

I also said so two days ago that the evil example of these grandmothers in the faith (Moore, Shirer, Meyer, Caine…) during the last generation is a problem:

The Double Life of Christian Influencers: Beware of hypocrisy

So, a couple of days ago a woman whose handle is Cia Cloud, put up an Instagram story and a TikTok talking about the “romantic heart of Jesus”. The short video is below and here is the transcript:

@heyitscia
For the person struggling with with settling. #love #christian #jesus
♬ original sound – Hey it’s Cia

After you’ve experienced the romantic heart of Jesus, you cannot go back to casual dating. I got out of a relationship a while ago, and when I did I asked the Lord can you teach me what it’s like for You to be my husband? And before you get weirded out, it’s because the church is known as the Bride of Christ, and He’s the groom. I wanted to know what it felt like to truly be pursued so that I knew what to look for in a future relationship. Let me explain what God does so you don’t settle. I wish more people understood that God wants to romanticize your heart. He wants to win you over. He created you to delight in pursuing you. He is the ultimate pursuer. We just get distracted. The other day for example, the Lord told me he was going to take me out to lunch…”

She went on with two more examples of how Jesus spoke to her and shortly afterward the minor things he allegedly said came true.

No. But what can we expect when young women of this generation have had such an evil example for decades, with no rebukes coming from the grandmother preachers’ denominations?

It was sad to see the comments asking how to hear God like she does, one woman saying “because for me he has been so quiet”.

Let’s spot the falsities in her speech:

Falsity #1. “Jesus is my romantic boyfriend”. No. John Gacinski on Twitter replied to the person who had posted Cia’s video-

John Gacinski, @johngacinski: “God wants to romanticize your heart” No. Jesus wants us to surrender to Him and serve Him. He wants us to be born again so we can be worthy vessels in His house. He’s not wooing us like some twenty something who’s desperate for a girlfriend. I’m so tired of this “Jesus is my boyfriend/homeboy” trash. 8:01 AM · Jan 12, 2025

Notice Cia said “I wanted to know what it felt like” not ‘what does the Bible say?’

Falsity #2. “He speaks to me directly.” No. The canon is closed. He spoke through His word as Hebrews 1:1-2 says. Justin Peters has a rebuttal to the ‘still small voice that speaks to me’ error.

Falsity #3. “Prophetic words given directly to me are coming ‘true’. No. Stop looking for signs and omens and back dating what you thought you heard in the ‘voice.’ Just live your daily life according to the word.

Falsity #4. Needing an experience rather than what His word says. The people followed Jesus when He spoke good things, and they clamored for the signs and miracles. But when he spoke hard things, they drifted away. Turns out they were only following Him for a show. The walk of faith begins and ends in the word of God, which will never pass away.

Falsity #5. He pursues with uncertain outcome rather than sovereignly electing (He “wants to win you”). Jesus is not wishing and hoping and wringing His hands hoping you come to faith as He chases you. He elected His people from before the foundation of the world and at the fullness of each elected person’s time, they are given the grace to repent and come to Him. (Ephesians 1:4-6)

This problem of prophetic words, still small voice, romantic boyfriend Jesus issues are not all the wicked grandmothers’ fault. Seminaries are doing their best to pump out women preachers rife with false doctrine. Witness Cia Cloud:

I am sad for her future because she is standing on sand building a house of sand

These nextgen women don’t even hide it anymore, not like the other false female preachers did in the 90s and early 2000s. They are ‘out’ as preachers. Immodest ones, at that. Apparently Cia attended Liberty University.

But I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet, says 1 Timothy 2:12. See also 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, Ephesians 5:22-24 among other verses that clearly state what the woman and wife should do and not do.

If you have a teen or young adult daughter, I feel for you. Keeping the false doctrines at bay is difficult. Just as you put one doctrinal fire out, another pops up. I want to encourage you moms, grandmoms, young ladies, that if you stay in the word, Jesus will keep you on the center line of his doctrine. Guard your heart, keep your eyes on Jesus, stay in the Word.

Pastor Owen Strachan has some wise advice for women (men too, but I’ll post the women’s here) on what to do and what not to do.

You notice none of those pieces of advice say chase after signs, listen for a small voice, ascend the pulpit to preach, or treat the GOD OF THE UNIVERSE like a wooing, weak boyfriend.

Stay strong, ladies. Jesus will come back and He will raise us up. He will address the false doctrine and the people who promoted it. Meanwhile, be a pillar, upholding His precious true word.

When our sons in their youth are like growing plants, And our daughters like corner pillars fashioned for a palace, Psalm 144:12

theology

“You Are the Almighty God” (Until He isn’t)

Posted on December 19, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

One night, Nikos Politis was asleep. He began dreaming. He dreamed he saw a warrior angel from heaven in full armor and regalia. Nikos was entranced by the fact that the ‘angel’ had perfect hair. Soon myriads of angels joined the first angel. They began to sing. This song is supposedly to summon angels to fight demonic forces. In the singer’s own words, we read-

This hymn was given with power to break chains and set the captives free and destroy from Jesus Christ! For this reason the words of the hymn are influenced by the Holy Spirit, and convey a message of liberation! They are instruments of divine restoration on the lips of whoever sings them with faith in his heart!

Politis is a Greek man, and part of the worship team at a church in Greece called All Nations Church Thessaloniki. This church is part of the global denomination of a church started in Nigeria by a man named Prophet TB Joshua. The church and its satellites – including the branch in Thessalonica – are all false.

His song “You Are the Almighty God” was published in 2022. Since then it has gained worldwide attention, mainly from the more charismatic quarters, but also elsewhere. If you go to Politis’ Youtube to find the song, these title cards appear before the song begins:

If you go to Politis’ Youtube to learn more about this song, you will see the ‘SCOAN’ logo on older videos. It stands for Synagogue Church of All Nations, the name of the mother church in Lagos, Nigeria and all their satellite branches. In Greece they recently changed their church’s name to ‘Christian Church of All Nations’ Thessalonica, dropping the term synagogue due to Greek government “suggestion”.

Scenes below are screen shots of Politis’ church members’ reaction when hearing or singing this song. The author and the church itself attributes the physical and emotional reactions to the fact that the Spirit supposedly “influenced” the lyrics. No.

If this is what singing that song does to a person, count me out

Insensate on the floor (but carefully holding his glasses after remembering to remove them first…?)

People have been making all sorts of outlandish testimonies and claims of visions when listening to or singing this song. People in the Youtube comments make all sorts of claims in their comments, too. Here is one man interviewed who made a claim of a vision while the congregation sang Politis’ song-

From THE ANCIENT OF DAYS VISITS CHURCH WHILE THE CONGREGATION SINGS ANOINTED SONG!!! Last Sunday, when our brother Nikos Politis was singing the hymn, as I was praying, all of a sudden, I lifted my eyes and I saw an angel on that corner flapping his wings very powerfully! At first, I thought it was my imagination, but then I realised it was real! How did you feel that moment when you suddenly saw an angel before you? I really wanted to jump out of joy, but I restrained myself. I felt calmness…

Do angels even HAVE wings? No. Do people feel calm when an angel appears? No. Scripture reports they are greatly troubled, fearful, or fall to their feet. (Luke 1:12, Luke 1:29, Revelation 22:8). The first thing an angel usually says to the person is “Fear not”.

From Youtube comments:

One day my son was crying non stop, he wouldn’t stop screaming uncontrollably, once I played the song for the first time, he instantly stopped and started smiling.

I listen to this song on a loop every night and I am convinced that I am being healed from an incurable cancer.

I can’t speak for others but my first experience of singing along was walking into his throne room where he is sitting. Seeing him on his throne… I never had this experience with any Christian songs ever. What I heard was ‘you finally came.’ Thank you.

Does God wait anxiously on His throne hoping for people to ‘finally come’? No. Has any man seen God at any time? No. (John 1:18, 1 John 4:12, 1 Timothy 6:16, No man can see me and live)

There are a number of things to be aware of here regarding this song and its ever-widening impact. Of course, false churches and false pastors have been present on earth since the beginning. That is not new. But it is good to remember that they are part of the spiritual warfare Jesus said would occur. The people in those churches are not the enemy, but the power behind them is. The doctrines they put forth are.

Below is a link to a BBC news investigation that exposes the many corruptions of this Synagogue Church of All Nations and its now deceased leader, TB Joshua, a self-proclaimed prophet with a “prophetic birth.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67944614

God did not add to His closed canon by ordering an angel to deliver this song to Politis. The lyrics have no power. The enscripturated word on the page has no power, but the Holy Spirit behind God’s inspired words does. That is why unsaved people who read the Bible do not understand it, (1 Corinthians 2:14). Only the Spirit can illuminate it to minds. The Spirit uses God’s words to transform minds.

So in like manner Politis’ lyrics have no power in and of itself. However, the power behind the words does have a spirit, the demonic, and that IS a force that will alter people’s minds. From the screen shots above and the claims of people in the Youtube comments, we can see how people predisposed to the demonic are affected. If a person is unsaved, you are predisposed due to a sin nature to believing what satan wants you to believe, including things like angels with wings and perfect hair appear randomly to a man and tell him to write a song that will be an ‘instrument of divine restoration’.

Didn’t God already deliver to us an instrument of divine restoration? Yes. That instrument is God’s Son Jesus.

Anything that competes with Jesus as the SOLE deliverer is false. Anything that competes with the Bible as sole word from God is false.

Thirdly, music contains doctrine. We can sing and play solid songs like O Holy Night, or we can play songs that purport to have doctrine but it’s weak or twisted. Or we can play or sing songs that are obviously demonically inspired, like Politis’ You Are the Almighty God.

Here is an extra sad thought- I became aware of this song because a student wanted me to play it. He explained that an angel from heaven gave the song. I demurred, because I always vet anything I play for my students at school, and also because it’s ingrained in me through years of training in discernment (Hebrews 5:14) to check first.

What a tragedy that a child grows up thinking these false things! It’s almost worse than not knowing anything of God at all.

I’m glad I checked. Though the song title initially had me hopeful, upon seeing the first title card above, I shut it down. I never listened to the song, I do not want what it says nor what it stands for entering my soul.

Beware of false doctrine, which can come via any method- sermons, Bible studies, books, youtube or podcasts, and music. God IS the Almighty God and He will judge the people who claim to say things He did not say. (Jeremiah 23:21). It will be a painful judgment.

theology

Small groups and propaganda

Posted on October 9, 2024 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Josh Daws, @JoshDaws, wrote on Twitter/X on 7:30 AM · Oct 2, 2024 the following-

🤯 Jacques Ellul on the role of the small group in spreading propaganda. The church has yet to fully reckon with how small groups, without strong pastoral oversight, can and have become vehicles for spreading woke ideology within congregations.

The dynamics of small groups often favor conformity over true discipleship. The most assertive individual usually sets the tone, and the group’s consensus follows. This makes it easy for ideology, rather than genuine biblical teaching, to take root.

I thought this made sense. I’ve written before about the danger of para-church ministries that are loosely or not-at-all attached to a local church. I’ve also warned about Sunday School classes led by laymen, and Women’s ministries where false doctrine can be and often is introduced in any of these extensions of the main service of a solid church.

Small groups are another area of concern. In one church I know of, they have family groups at homes of different people after the service to discuss the points in the service. But the elders insist an elder or a deacon to lead each of these where they occur. So, there is either pastoral oversight or delegated elder oversight at each group.

In my church, Bible study on alternating Wednesday nights for both men and the woman are led by the teaching elder.

Women have written to me in concern that in their small group, when false doctrine is spoken or taught it is so hard to rebut it. The close-intimacy dynamics of the group often makes it intimidating to say anything ‘negative’ or to counter a statement with a contradiction even if the lady has scripture at the tip of her tongue. Too many women just respond “Well, that’s MY truth”, and the woman who lovingly raised the concern is at a loss as to how to continue rebutting.

Photo by Small Group Network on Unsplash

Father Timothy Rossow, a Lutheran priest, wrote about conventicles/small groups here. I’ve excerpted the part about small groups. He defined conventicles: “Conventicles are groups of instruction and prayer that are held apart from the supervision of the office of the ministry.”

Concern 2: Conventicles lead to division.
Your small group may have sound doctrine and may not be divisive but many have seen and testify to how they often become divisive and do tolerate false doctrine. The temptation is great to use the small group to complain about the church or about the pastor or to gossip about others. The church is a body with Christ as the head and the pastor as the under shepherd of Christ. It is also hard for church members to recognize false doctrine and then even when it is spotted it is hard for one member to criticize another member’s doctrine. What usually happens is that false doctrines are just left unchecked in small groups, if recognized at all. I do not always know exactly what is wrong with me when I am sick but I do not go to a neighborhood small group discussion on medicine to find out. My doctor is trained in medicine and so I go to her to find out what is wrong with me. My pastor is trained in doctrine and so I go to him for knowledge about religious truth.

Famous dissenter, feminist, and divisive personality Puritan Anne Hutchinson led a conventicle in her home. That was the ground zero location from where the tension in the Puritan colony built. The resulting religious tension erupted into what is known to historians as the Antinomian Controversy. The roiling controversy disrupted the entire colony, and Hutchinson was eventually exiled to Rhode Island.

Fr. Rossow answers the following question:

Can There Be Small Groups for Things Other than Bible Study?
“Yes there should be. That helps to bring the church together so that we can know when one is rejoicing and when one is hurting (I Corinthians 12). Small groups can and should be arranged for fun and fellowship (cards groups, dinner parties, etc.)“

Fellowship is important, and should be encouraged and celebrated among the congregation’s members. But for doctrine, the pastor or elders are responsible for that. We remember Paul’s admonition in Acts 20:28-30,

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. 29I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them.

How to raise a concern if a false doctrine was brought to your small group:

1. Be decisive and act fast. False doctrine spreads like gangrene. Pray. Raise a concern, gently but don’t be combative or dogmatic. G tot he leader after for further discussion.

2. When you go to the leader parse out if they just misguidedly or badly explained a biblical doctrine. Was it just a garbled delivery, a sincere mistake, or something deeper? Or does she beleive what she had taught? Don’t immediately assume your small group leader is nefarious.

3. When you meet privately bring scripture that pertains to your concern. If during the conversation it turns out the leader admits the mistake or you learn it’s a simple fix, great. if not, then you have scripture ready to gently contradict the error espoused in the small group. if it’s a male leader, bring your husband or ask your husband to meet.

4. Pray again. If the issue continues, do not attend the group any longer. If the pastor asks, tell him why. If he doesn’t ask, share why anyway. Kindly. Often times pastors are busy and leave the responsibility of leading a small group delegated to someone else to take the load off.

We must always be on guard, vigilant, and mildly suspicious of groups that meet outside the purview of the elder. This is becuase church is the biggest battlefield on earth. Many verses and passages deal with ng to be wary, and many passages list what to do if false doctrine enters the church. This is because satan hates holiness, he hates Jesus, and he wants to impact your walk as much as possible.

Paul said to test everything (1 Thessalonians 5:21), to check against the written word (Acts 17:11), and Peter said to be vigilant (1 Peter 5:8). It’s sad that we have to be, but we often forget that we are in a battle and the battle is on earth against ideas (2 Corinthians 10:5). Those ideas come in the form of false doctrine, among other ways.

We can relax our vigilance into an eternal peace when we get to heaven. Until then, oppose those philosophies that oppose Jesus.

theology

Heresy vs false doctrine: What are they? Part 2

Posted on October 13, 2023October 14, 2023 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Heresy vs false doctrine: What are they? Part 1
Heresy vs false doctrine: What are they? Part 3

I’m often asked discernment questions, which pleases me because that means a woman is thinking about her faith, wants the truth of the Bible, and pursues holiness in her walk. I was recently asked ‘Are false teachers and heretics the same thing, and can they repent? Should we pray for them?’

In the first part, I looked at the question: What is the difference between a false teacher and a heretic? The 3rd part will look at the issue of repentance. CAN a false teacher repent? Can a heretic repent?

Now, in this part 2, let’s look at a definitions of heretic and heresy:

The Heretic is the most prominent and perhaps the most dangerous of the false teachers. … The Heretic is the person who teaches what blatantly contradicts an essential teaching of the Christian faith. ~Tim Challies

And so, heretic is worse than a false teacher: “I think we need to say that there are some absolutely non-negotiable truths that you are false to teach: if you deny the Trinity, if you deny the deity of Christ, if you deny His sinless life and substitutionary death, salvation by grace through faith, the gospel. That’s the drivetrain of truth, saving truth. Those are not negotiable.” ~John MacArthur

The main characteristic of a false teacher was their teaching springs of off the Bible but is twisted or wrong in some way. They might teach about baptism, but baptismal regeneration. They might teach about food, but introduce food laws. They might teach about fasting, but become legalistic in their teaching of this practice. They might teach about prayer, but slide in some Gnostic practices about prayer. And so on.

The main identification of a false teacher is that when their theological error is pointed out, they display an unwillingness to make a correction. Either when the Spirit points out in scripture, or when another person points it out, if the teacher refuses to listen and continues on teaching it, they are a false.

False teachers reject biblical correction and continue teaching falsely, refusing to repent or even listen.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

As for heretics, their teaching is not even IN the Bible, it is a doctrine of their own making, from their own mind, and is their choice to believe. They have shown they are divisive. (Titus 3:10) The word ‘division’ in the verse means heretical.

HERESY—from a Greek word signifying (1) a choice, (2) the opinion chosen, and (3) the sect holding the opinion. In the Acts of the Apostles (5:17; 15:5; 24:5, 14; 26:5) it denotes a sect, without reference to its character. Elsewhere, however, in the New Testament it has a different meaning attached to it. Paul ranks “heresies” with crimes and seditions (Gal. 5:20). This word also denotes divisions or schisms in the church (1 Cor. 11:19). In Titus 3:10 a “heretical person” is one who follows his own self-willed “questions,” and who is to be avoided. Heresies thus came to signify self-chosen doctrines not emanating from God (2 Pet. 2:1). Source for this definition of heresy- Easton’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary.

Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash

In around 144 AD Marcion taught that the Old Testament should be rejected and that the God of the New Testament was the true God, the OT God being vengeful and false. This heresy is called Marcionism and it’s alive today. Kevin DeYoung wrote a great article about it and noted that some preachers today teach their followers to “unhitch” from the OT and reject it because Jesus is nicer… that old Marcionic heresy.

Sadly, thought is is 2023, many of the ancient heresies – which never disappeared – are making a comeback. Another one is Pelagianism, the heretical belief that denies original sin, and promotes that babies are born innocent. Lori Alexander “The Transformed Wife” believes and teaches this, for example. Lori’s mentor and idol, Michael Pearl, is also a Pelagian, teaching this heresy in these modern days.

Sadly, Alexander and Pearl are not the only heretics believing this, this heresy is more common than one may think. Pelagianism is believed by 71% of respondents according to results of the 2022 Ligonier State of Theology survey.

Another heresy that was surprisingly widely held according to the survey is Arianism. This heretical belief states that Jesus is not God. Whether someone says, “Jesus was a good teacher, but not God” or that “Jesus was a created being” (something the Mormons claim) or any statement that denies His divinity, it’s Arianism and a heresy.

Tim Challies “**The False** Teachers: TD Jakes“

In another modern example, TD Jakes is a heretic because he teaches and believes that God is One but is also ONE person, not three persons in one. Jakes says God manifests Himself in different modes. This heresy is called Modalism. This is a concept striking at the heart of the Trinity, and therefore is a heresy.

Challies: “Modalism has long been labeled as a heresy meaning that if you believe it in place of the biblical understanding of the Trinity, you are not and cannot be a true Christian.”

More here by Chris Rosebrough on the heresy of Modalism and modern people who teach it.

Phil Johnson has preached a 6-part series on old heresies that aren’t really old, they are alive and well today. Here is Phil Johnson’s introduction to his series A Survey of Heresies:

“It’s important for Christians to have a grasp of heresies that the church has battled over the centuries, because they often return with new clothing, and the unprepared Christian is likely to fall into these old pits. Phil does an excellent job of looking at some of the major heresies that are revisiting the church today: Socinianism, Arianism, Pelagianism, Gnosticism, and Judaizing. This is an excellent 6 part series that will shore up some weak points in the church today.”

The Judaizers
The Gnostics
The Arians pt1, The Arians pt2
The Pelagians
The Socinians

https://theuncreatedlight.wordpress.com/2020/01/18/the-heresy-of-gnosticism/

Heresies are serious. Heresies are alive and well today. They are completely distinct from anything taught in the Bible and are dangerous because they draw the unwary into sinful teachings on the road to apostasy and/or condemnation.

False teachings turn to heresy when they lift off from the Bible and become a doctrine completely separate from anything that can be found in God’s word. You think it might not happen to you, but see how many millions of people believe today in Pelagianism, Modalism, Arianism, Marcionism, Modalism, and so on. There are many warnings in the Bible about not falling for myths.

People believe these dastardly things because there is some kind of sin in them that rears its desire (2 Timothy 4:3) and the sin attaches itself to the false doctrine with tentacles that can only be pried apart by repentance. Heretics would not have an audience unless their followers propped them up. Notice the phrasing in the 2 Tim verse, “accumulated for themselves” these heretics.

It’s one reason we need to stay ‘repented-up’ all the time. Sin desires to have us and it’s not only sinful actions but sinful minds that enjoy false doctrines and heresies.

In the next and final part, we will look at repentance. What it is, whether a false teacher can repent, and whether a heretic can repent.

Heresy vs false doctrine: What are they? Part 1
Heresy vs false doctrine: What are they? Part 3

Sources consulted in researching this essay:

The Bible

John MacArthur Commentary on 2 Timothy 2:24-25

RC Sproul Critical Questions: What is Repentance?

Nathaniel Vincent: Puritan Treasures for Today: Turn and Live

Logos 9 resources such as The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Matthew Henry Full Commentary, etc.

discernment, holy living, kings, opposing false doctrine

Failure to actively oppose false doctrine/false teachers is a sin

Posted on June 29, 2023 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

In reading 1 and 2 Kings, patterns emerge. In a blog essay a few years ago I’d mentioned that reading the books of the Kings is like watching the tide go in and out. The king was good, the borders enlarged. The king was bad, the borders came in. In and out. Repeat.

Another pattern is seen in the LORD’s declaration of where on the spectrum the king’s goodness or badness was. Sometimes the King was declared by God as outright evil. Sometimes not so bad. Sometimes good. Here is an example. In 2 Kings 3:2a this is what is declared of Jehoram the son of Ahab who became king over Israel in Samaria:

“He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, though not like his father and mother,”

Why wasn’t he as bad as Ahab and Jezebel? After all, “he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made.” (2 Kings 3:2b). But Jehoram also clung to the sin of Jereboam which had made Israel sin, and this angered the LORD.

The lesson is twofold. Leaders set the example. When they are below reproach, the followers follow suit, also falling below reproach. In addition, you can’t repudiate some sins, you must repudiate all sins. There is no picking and choosing.

Now, how about Jehu, tenth king of Israel??

“Thus Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel. But Jehu did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin—that is, the golden calves that were in Bethel and in Dan. And the Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.” But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel to sin.” (2 Kings 10:28-31).

Did you catch that? “All His heart”. King David was a man after God’s own heart. (Acts 13:22). This is a high honor bestowed on a man. Why was David given such an honor in the bible? He loved and feared the Lord. He had absolute faith in God. You might wonder, David was a great sinner, how could he be deemed a man after God’s own heart? He sinned, but he repented, fully. His heart was always pointed toward God.

David loved God’s law. (Psalm 119:47-48) He delighted in it! Yet you note that despite Jehu doing what was in the LORD’S heart, he “was not careful to walk in the law of the LORD.”

David was grateful for God. God was not a means to a kingly end for David, God was the end. (Psalm 26:6-7; Psalm 100:4).

In another case of the LORD deeming a king pretty good, we see Amaziah. “And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not like David his father.” (2 Kings 14:3). Amaziah did not remove the high places and the people still sacrificed to other gods there. (2 Kings 14:4). However he did follow through on a point of God’s law whereupon ‘he struck down his servants who had struck down the king his father’ but correctly did not kill the children of those, as the Law states. (2 Kings 14:5-6).

As you read through the Kings the recurring theme is worship of other gods on the high places. The First Commandment is to have no other gods before Him. That the King worshiped God wasn’t good enough, he must set the example by destroying the altars of other gods. Leaving them in place is an implicit agreement with them.

This theme is seen in most of the NT books whereupon the Apostles or authors of almost every book decries false teaching. Following false teaching is following another god. Failure to repudiate false teaching is also a sin. See Revelation 2:20,

“But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.“

The church at Thyatira knew this woman, a Jezebel-type, was teaching falsely, and they tolerated it. Some of them weren’t following her, which was good, and Jesus said that was good.

But they did not strike her down from her high place, as it were. The Lord commended them for not following actively (Revelation 2:24) but was still against them that they didn’t dig out the cancer of her false teaching and protect the daughters of hell she was creating. (Revelation 2:23).

Discernment is active on all fronts. It means relying on the Spirit to open our eyes to false teaching, and actively asking Him to do this. It means practicing discernment by reading the word and testing what teachers teach against it (Acts 17:11). It also means when you see brethren falling under the beguiling sway of false teachers, to do something about it. Don’t tolerate it. If you do, thee Lord has that against you. Do what it right in the sight of the Lord!

“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” James 4:17)

discernment, theology

Answering Reader Question: What are we to think of the “Let Us Worship” tour?

Posted on August 1, 2020September 17, 2020 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

A reader asked what I think about the recent activity of the “Let Us Worship” tour led by Bethel worship leader Sean Feucht (pronounced Foyt). Some are calling it “a revival.” Others are just excited to see ‘all those people worshiping’. What should we think about this?

Bethel is a large (false) church in Redding California, and also founded a “School of Supernatural Ministry.” The organization relies heavily on Charismatic activities such as manifestations of the Spirit, miracles, healing, and voices to draw congregants and to point to Christ, a different Christ than the Jesus of the Bible. Mainly, youths gravitate to Bethel Church. Continue reading “Answering Reader Question: What are we to think of the “Let Us Worship” tour?” →

discernment, Uncategorized

The power of crafty words

Posted on January 16, 2018 by elizabethprata

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1)

We are introduced to satan early and his introduction contained an extremely negative assertion about his character. He’s crafty.

Satan is an angel. He is an unholy angel, as opposed to Gabriel or Michael who are holy angels. If you look at the angels’ activity you see just how powerful and intelligent they are. They administer judgment. (e.g. Revelation 8:6-13). They give the Law. (Acts 7:53, Hebrews 2:2, Galatians 3:19). They give the Gospel to the whole earth at once. (Revelation 14:6). They stand on the sun. (Revelation 19:7). They hold back the wind. (Revelation 7:1).

They’re powerful.

We’ll come back to that in a moment.

I’m enjoying the buzz around a couple of movies just out. Darkest Hour is the story of Winston Churchill’s early days as England’s Prime Minister. He was leading the United Kingdom through tough times as WWII rages on the continent and is about to hit home for Britain. Much of the focus of the movie is on Churchill’s oratory. It’s a movie largely without action and is tightly confined to the bunker tunnels and small rooms below the city. Churchill made several famous speeches which roused the populace, enabled changed minds and hearts to make decisions, and cemented the nation in unity to face the evil force that was soon to come upon them. It’s a movie about speeches.

Another movie just out is called The Post. It depicts the editor Ben Bradlee and owner/publisher Katherine Graham of the Washington Post during the critical years of the decisions about whether to release the Pentagon Papers, and leading up to their coverage of the Watergate Break-in, which eventually led to the downfall and resignation of American President Richard Nixon. It’s a movie about words.

Words, whether written or spoken have power. Where would we be without Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, Kennedy’s ‘to the moon and back’, Reagan’s ‘tear down this wall’? We remember Chief Joseph’s surrender speech, ‘I will fight no more forever.’ Lou Gehrig’s farewell to baseball ‘luckiest man alive’ speech. President Reagan reassuring a shocked nation after the space shuttle Challenger exploded and the astronauts having ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.’

Look at the impact of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats:

Fireside chats is the term used to describe a series of 28 evening radio addresses given by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944. Roosevelt spoke with familiarity to millions of Americans about the promulgation of the Emergency Banking Act in response to the banking crisis, the recession, New Deal initiatives, and the course of World War II. On radio, he was able to quell rumors and explain his policies. His tone and demeanor communicated self-assurance during times of despair and uncertainty. Roosevelt was a great communicator on radio, and the fireside chats kept him in high public regard throughout his presidency. Their introduction was later described as a “revolutionary experiment with a nascent media platform”.

I’m brought back to the early chapters of Genesis. The serpent. What was his mode of attack? Did he hold Eve hostage and force her to eat the fruit? Did he call for his legions of followers to surround them and attack? No. He did it with words. Satan attacks with words.

We should not pay attention to satan.

Of course we don’t pay attention to satan, you say. Of course not, silly! But we do. We come across a false teacher and we listen. We rationalize that we have the power to ‘eat the meat and spit out the bones’. We wail, ‘But he/she helped me so much!’ Of course false teachers are skilled at oratory. They can make fine speeches. They use words well. They’re crafty!

False doctrine is sin because false doctrine doesn’t originate from God. (John 7:16, Titus 1:2). God hates false doctrine. (Revelation 2:15). Several of the letters in the New Testament were written to address errors of false doctrine (Galatians 1:6–9; Colossians 2:20–23; Titus 1:10–11). Take false doctrine seriously. Why? Its words will affect you.

Why do we know that speeches, movies, newspapers, and advertising affect us, but mistakenly think that listening to false doctrine won’t?

The Bible says that those who listen to false teachers are heaping these teachers up so they can ‘suit their own passions.’ (2 Timothy 4:3). Don’t indulge your passions by falling into satan’s crafty trap of words.

Black

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Help! My Friend Is Reading a Dangerous Book

Posted on April 19, 2017 by elizabethprata

A question was asked at our Bible Discussion Group on how to sensitively approach someone who is in a false religion in order to open discussion as to the truth. This same question has been asked of me personally regarding how to approach a friend whom you see carrying around a book by a false teacher.

At Discussion Group, I’d offered my process of how I deal with friends involved with false teachers, false doctrine, or false religion. I’d said that first, it depends on the relationship you have with them. If you don’t know the person or are only bare acquaintances, it won’t do to walk up to them and just say something brusque or out of the blue that in effect, amounts to saying “You’re doing it wrong.”

The Bible encourages and commands discipling relationships with one another. This is so we can keep each other accountable. We can carry each other’s burdens. Ultimately, close involvement with each other means can edify and grow one another and one way we do this is by helping sisters course-correct.

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

We can’t build up a sister if we let them wallow in false doctrine. (Jude 1:23). Alternately, we won’t build them up if we are tactless and brusque. (2 Timothy 2:25, Galatians 6:1).

Assuming you are close enough with the sister to have established trust and are known to each other in a friendly way, then what I do is begin by asking questions. Perhaps the person is reading the book for research purposes. Maybe someone less discerning gave it to them and they haven’t thrown it out yet. Maybe they are getting ready to give it to someone else. Maybe a lot of things. Just ask. “Are you reading that book? What do you think of it?” “Let me know when you’re done, I’d love to get your take on it…” Etc.

Finally, I always have something else to offer the person in the books’ stead. It doesn’t help the person as much to just say that their book is a dangerous book, without having something in which to substitute. If they’d lacked discernment enough in the first place to get or read that book, then offering them material written by a credible author steers them into a better direction.

I was pleased when I’d come across this short discussion from 2016 where Noël Piper, Kathleen Nielson, and Gloria Furman discuss this very question. I was even more pleased when they shared that they do the same: ask, be gentle, discuss. Phew, at least I’m not off the deep end with this.

The women also discuss two other questions. If you can’t play back videos, here is a link to just listen.

One final thing. Their title mentions ‘a dangerous book.” Undoctrinal books ARE dangerous. Books like The Shack, Love Wins, The Circle Maker, any and all non-doctrinal, unorthodox books present a danger to the Christian. Adam and Eve only had to obey one command, and within a shockingly short time, satan easily managed to twist that command into a suggestion. Paul said to Titus that false doctrine upsets whole families (Titus 1:11). Paul warned Timothy that false doctrine undermines the faith. (2 Timothy 2:18). Make no mistake, (because satan isn’t making the same mistake), the false doctrine contained in books, movies, pamphlets, and Bible studies is a very present danger to the Christian mind and heart.

Here is the blurb for the short video:

Your friend is gushing about that book she’s been reading. It’s on the Christian Living bestseller list, but for whatever reason you suspect the book is more influenced by the spirit of the age than by a biblical worldview. … Nielson cautions against the overcorrection of reading only the Bible, since reading widely can actually enhance Bible reading, and Piper warns against becoming the kind of reader who only reads books from your own “tribe.”

Help! My Friend Is Reading a Dangerous Book
Noël Piper, Kathleen Nielson, and Gloria Furman Discuss

https://player.vimeo.com/video/187825197

discernment, Uncategorized

How fast does satan propagate false doctrines? THIS fast

Posted on February 9, 2017February 9, 2017 by elizabethprata

Three years ago I published an essay discussing the new female-founded, social justice, discipling organization called “IF:Gathering”. Jennie Allen , founder, decided to start a discipling organization which Allen revealed was based on a command from a voice from the sky. Her words.

Allen, along with Lindsey Nobles and several other women, started this ‘movement,’ as they describe it, to gather women for purposes of discussing their feelings about the Bible. This is accomplished outside of the auspices of the local church. Several participating IF:Leaders admit they actually abandoned their own ongoing church ministries to do form this non-church organization and focus on the global movement they hoped to incite. Their intentions are full of self-stated hubris. They plan to ‘disciple a generation’. They intend to ‘heal the nations’. They will ‘reconcile the world’. They will ‘unleash the next generation of women to live out their purpose’. And so on. You can read about my concerns with the IF movement here, and here.

IF was born from a direct revelation given by a voice in the sky to Jennie Allen sometime in 2007. The movement perpetuates twisted hermeneutics, unbiblical lifestyles, social justice, and a warped view of the Gospel that is based on doubt. That’s the synopsis of concerns regarding IF:Gathering. That it is unhealthy is to say the least. Please read the previous essays for scriptural foundations supporting these concerns.

Today I want to shift focus and show you in pictures just how quickly satan propagates his false doctrines and unbiblical lifestyles.

The first IF:Gathering was held in February 2014. At this writing, exactly three years have passed since then. The movement has indeed caught on. Its activity is mostly hidden. If you haven’t heard about IF that’s because the gatherings are announced via social media and many of them are private. This activity is all going on out of sight for the most part (aside from the annual convention). Three years ago I’d posted a shocking map that showed how many of these public and private gatherings were taking place all around us. Here is the map showing IF:Gatherings three years ago when it began.

By 2017, the gathering’s teachings have spread worldwide. Look how many gatherings are held locally now:

Map from IF:Local, 2/2017

From Paraguay to Nova Scotia, from Rwanda to Thailand, From Australia to Denmark, there are IF:locals everywhere. It is a global force by now and it didn’t take satan long to do it.

This fact should primarily remind us that women are vulnerable to satan’s wiles. IF is a female movement through and through. The IF:Locals that are held are mainly held in homes, not churches. Many of them are private parties, so accountability and oversight is very much more difficult to ensure.

For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, (2 Timothy 3:6)

The sad fact of the IF:map fact should also bring to mind the verse where Paul tells us how fast false doctrine spreads. Paul said that false teachings are like gangrene. Gangrene is a fast-spreading condition that occurs when healthy body tissue dies because the disease obstructs blood to it! How apt as a metaphor for the healthy body of the church and its lifeblood from Jesus obstructed and infected by false teachings and teachers!!

But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. (2 Timothy 2:16-17a).

Do you see the progression? There IS a progression.

Irreverent babble…
leads people into more and more ungodliness…
the talk spreads like gangrene…
gangrene infects even the healthy tissue.

As Barnes’ Notes explains of the effects of gangrene:

will spread over and consume the healthful parts. It will not merely destroy the parts immediately affected, but will extend into the surrounding healthy parts and destroy them also.

I know that some people find discernment work distasteful. They do not see the necessity of one of the important activities of how we defend the faith. I consider the importance of defending the faith by both exalting Jesus AND naming false doctrines and teachers. They do not like to name false teachers, they do not emphasize exercising the skill, or they simply overlook rooting it out, hoping it will go away. Many pastors never even preach on the importance of discernment from the pulpit, or if they do, they make aw shucks apologies. And sadly, many others do not practice it themselves.

I’ve seen many false doctrines and movements come and take root. I know you have too. However, in my experience, (which granted, isn’t lengthy, just 14 years in the faith), I have never seen a doctrine, movement, or pseudo-Christian ‘celebrity’ culture embed itself so fast. Whether that speaks to the low levels of discernment, the bloated pseudo-church, or the lateness of the times, the fact that it’s aimed at women, (or all of the above) I do not know. But this thing is wildfire and it is growing faster even than Charismania or prosperity Gospel. Its tentacles have gone deep.

Notably, in 2012, Pastor Jim Murphy of First Baptist Church of Johnson City, NY found to his dismay how quickly satan’s tentacles embedded themselves into his church when he overlooked some areas he knew he should address but simply hadn’t. Eventually he preached a powerful message to his congregation that took himself to task, and them too. He asked their forgiveness. Then he said,

Now is the time for clarity. No more messing around. No more experimentation. No more dabbling into these dangerous practices. Now is the time for clarity and that clarity comes through discernment: this ability to think Biblically. The ability to read a book and see what it is saying aside from the warm fuzzy you got from it. Discernment takes time and it takes work and shame on you for not taking the time and effort. Shame on you.

In that sermon, Pastor Murphy said that satan’s tentacles had spread so fast and deep, he was saddened and shocked. He took on the guilt himself, saying that he knew the Sunday School and the Church Library held some off-ideas but he didn’t address it because he was so busy and wrongly handed off total responsibility to underlings. He was wrong to do that he said, because false doctrine does not come in only at the pulpit. It comes in the small groups, the library, the women’s ministry. It takes vigilance to combat it.

Please listen to the sermon, it is so good and encouraging!

We see by the map that false doctrine comes through the para-church groups, gatherings, and conventions/conferences your women are participating in. Men, satan targeted Eve. It spreads fast. Don’t think for a moment that satan isn’t working through every means he can to get to your people. Stay strong.

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. (Romans 16:17)