I’ve been hard-pressed to even think about blogging due to the many days I am not home for the past few weeks. Many reasons which can’t be avoided lead to being home overnight but during the days the gardens are neglected, housework gets behind, and blogging gets forgotten. When we are out with all the necessary reasons, we will usually have lunch at a fast-food place, but sometimes we will have enough time to actually sit down at a better restaurant; 20 days in June we ate out!
I do try to keep up with news items of apologetic nature when I DO get a chance to breathe, so I have collected a goodly number of links to articles which warn you about wolves invading the Church as well as the Internet, people who need to be avoided for spiritual safety. So buckle up and go for the ride.
Joel Osteen continues to demonstrate his rebellion against God.
Stay away from Bethel’s music. Period.
Francis Chan should be avoided like the plague.
I’m really tired, and saddened to see solid Bible teachers and pastors continuing to use Tim Keller’s material or cite his teachings in any way. Christians should be pointed away from this false teacher, not to him.
This apostate PCUSA church is using the world to attract young people to church. Go figure. And it gets even worse. And worse.
An example of all that is wrong with The Gospel Coalition.
Beth Moore obfuscates a response to the open letter. Then she praises and promotes false teacher Eugene Peterson!!! The woman has absolutely NO discernment. Just how bad does she have to get before her followers leave her?!?!
The charismatic day of infamy, June 23, 2008. What a day of aberrations and heresies.
More proof that the Pope is anti-Christ, anti-God.
So why is this bishop still with the apostate Episcopal Church anyway? They punish him for not being as apostate as they are!
Kevin Mannoia is not an “evangelical,” rather he is an apostate thumbing his nose at God.
Another example of the apostasy within Hillsong’s goat pens.
Michael Brown continues to prove why he is a false teacher.
16 comments:
From the link regarding Held Evans:
"She taught as good what God has said He will judge with fire. She encouraged men to burn with passion for each other, and women to exchange natural relations for unnatural ones. She believed boys could change into girls if they wanted, but a boy who claimed to be gay could not change. She chastised the bride of Christ, His church, whenever it refused to exchange biblical fidelity for LGBTQ propaganda. She told women to become pastors, and said, "The best preachers I know are women." In an era of gross hypocrisy, she was a rank hypocrite, who claimed to be of Christ, but she hated His word."
That's pretty powerful and very condemning stuff, and runs contrary to the more sentimental response to Evan's teaching. Those who name the name of the Lord are supposed to depart from iniquity, not promote it. God alone knows her true condition and he will judge fairly, but I wonder if her death may be the only way to get so many of her follows to think, to cease to go with the flow of modern society, and realise we will all die and we will all have to give an account. Our opinions of what is right or wrong will then count for nothing.
Ken B
Glenn,
To all these posts of error in the church: of course. The Lord told us it would be so. The people who want to know the truth will seek and find it. The people who want their ears tickled will seek those who will oblige them in their sin. All anyone can do is herald the truth for those who will listen, which are, as Christ said, few.
My husband and I have long exercised the gift of discernment where God intends it to be used: in our local assembly. How do you think we've been received? We haven't. We've been dumped on by every church we've attempted to address false teachers and errant polity. Every one. And we didn't do it with open letters to false teachers and a big online presence. We've done it face to face, with the actual pastors and elders under whose teaching we've sat. We've pleaded from the Word, to no avail. We've come to the conclusion that the deafest ears out there are in the local church. The ones who get beat down are the ones who are truly discerning.
As I followed (very minimally, because the whole thing is, imo, ridiculous) the whole Open Letter to B Moore situation, it dawned on me: (at least some of) the sisters who wrote that letter actually follow BM on Twitter. I stopped and asked myself why would any believer feel the need to intentionally follow a false teacher on the internet/social media, even for "discernment purposes"?
Furthermore, why is it that only the "usual suspects" (ie, obvious problem teachers or heretics) are addressed by discernment ministries (with great redundancy), but serious problems (grave sin, in some cases) with well-known, "respected" ministries are glossed over or totally overlooked? We need to stop and ask ourselves why this is so, because it is wrong.
-Carolyn
Carolyn,
My primary reason for this blog is to warn people of false teachings and false teachers. I think these are the most dangerous things happening to the church as they lead people astray.
Some false teachers I continue to highlight (e.g. Beth Moore) because I hope and pray that by continually exposing the popular ones their followers will finally "wake up and smell the coffee."
I know very well how harmful such teachings and teachers can be to the individual, let alone the Church as a whole. And not every false teacher can be addressed face-to-face --- and my next "wolves" post will include a link to examples of why Moore cannot be addressed face to face. When I researched her "Believing God" series DVDs I tried to personally contact her about some problems with that series and I just kept getting the run-around by her handlers. I have the whole long string of correspondence with her handlers as they totally discounted all my concerns and actually denied some of the teachings! And then I was just blown off. THAT is why open letters are done, and I think it is a valid practice when properly used, as in the case with Beth Moore.
Some people follow false teachers on the FB, Twitter, and blogs for the sole purpose of gathering information to expose them for what they are. It is no different that reading their books or watching their DVDs, which I have done with many false teachers.
People (like me) study the doctrines of cults so as to be able to expose them for the frauds that they are. That's why believers "feel the need" to follow false teachers.
As for exposing "serious problems" with "respected" ministries, I have done so, as many, many other apologetics ministries have done. Think about Mark Driscoll, James MacDonald, e.g.
I guess my point has been missed.
Of course, we aren't told to confront false teachers face to face, but neither are we told to hunt down individual false teachers endlessly. We are told to mark and avoid. Beth Moore has been marked (and for that matter, marked, and marked, and marked, ad nauseam), now it's time to avoid. Sufficient is what already exists for evidence, and we can point people to that. More information doesn't make anyone smell the coffee. We don't need more evidence. We need more heeding and more obedience to what already exists for evidence. There comes a time to let the prosecution rest and the existing evidence speak.
We've so far beyond passed that point with Beth Moore, that continual exposure of her is no longer warranted.
Did not our Lord say, They have Moses and the Prophets. If they will not hear them, they will not even hear if one is raised from the dead. Even Jesus said we don't need more and more. We've had Moses and the Prophets... and the NT... for the better part of 2000 years. You and I both know the best defense against error is to study the truth, not dwell on the counterfeits. Then if you happen to come across a counterfeit, you can spot it fast and move on. Don't need to hunt down the counterfeits or keep reading their books/blogs/etc.
By all means, when the next, new heretic arises, and arise they will, then mark (expose) and avoid them, also. I agree with you, false teachers are a grave, grave danger for which everyone must be warned. But we aren't the Holy Spirit. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. We do our job, but then we need to let Him work *in His time*, and also realize people need to take personal responsibility. In the end, even though there are deceivers (who will be punished for deceiving), people are ultimately responsible for allowing themselves to be deceived, and no amount of effort on our part can prevent that.
God will stop the false teachers, in His time.
As far as serious issues with respected ministries, coverage of certain teachers/issues has indeed been disproportionately less than this massive heap against Beth Moore. One example: CJM and SGM? After the scandal hit the papers, he was a keynote speaker for T4G. Only one involved in that who - in hindsight - and it took many years - has realized how wrong that was? Mohler. I don't recall half the outrage over that situation by solid believers as has been expressed over BM.
Sigh.
Anyhow, the asterisk: *in His time*... have you ever tried to talk to another believer who has an error, with you telling them verses that disprove their erroneous beliefs? I know you have. But they - who possess the Holy Spirit because they have trusted Christ - often won't listen, because they can't get past their own wrong view. Often continuing to press them and push the matter makes things worse, and we can end up behaving in folly ourselves trying to convince them of the truth. I know I've been there, and it's something for which I've had to repent. Even with our own brethren, our dear family in the Lord, if there's error, sometimes we have to just tell them the verses of truth, and then let go and wait on the Lord for them to come around. It takes time and patience.
Blessings to you and Jill.
-Carolyn
PS: haven't seen Martha comment lately - I may have missed it, though, as I've been not been on blogs much in the last month. Martha, say hi sometime if you can! :)
Carolyn,
Let me say that I am quite grateful for folks like Glenn. I always knew that there was false teaching present in Christianity. But at the same time, I never knew that the state of affairs within the church doctrinally speaking was so bad. I could have ended up being a victim to spiritual deception myself, of which none of us are immune. Quite frankly, a blogger like myself could have never got the job of calling out false teaching out on my own!!!
Carolyn,
The Mormons have been exposed endlessly -- so should we quit exposing their false teachings? That's what you are saying about Beth Moore. There are people who have yet to hear about the false teachings of many cults and false teachers. If someone finds my blog and the only article they read is the current one, it will be the first they've heard of Beth Moore. So it is valid to continue exposing them, especially if they are popular.
I had "Moses and the prophets" when my grandmother gave me a Bible for Christmas when I was 7-years-old. Yet for all my reading of it, and some VBS my unbelieving mother sent me to, I never understood what I was reading. So I ended up at 18 being suckered into the Mormon Church. THIS is why I will never give up the continual exposing of false teachers -- too many people out there have "Moses and the prophets" yet don't understand. (Jesus was talking about the Jews, by the way, who DID have Moses and the prophets, and not about the Gentiles.)
I don't know who CJM is. The problem with SGM (assuming you mean Sovereign Grace Ministries) was something that by the time I even heard of it was pretty much over and done with. And I don't know what T4G is either.
Mohler is getting worse and worse and I will continue to point out problems with him.
Apologetics sites such as mine have proven extremely valuable for leading people away from false teachers (and I have received tons of emails thanking for exposing such teacher). People who are still immature believers and who are still learning the Bible can be easily drawn to the likes of Beth Moore, et al, because some of their stuff is so subtle it is missed by the average reader!
I will continue to expose Beth Moore as long as she is out there with her false teachings, for the same reason I will continue to expose the LDS Church.
My point, missed, yet again. But I do practice what I preach, and I don't address things ad nauseam.
Just for clarity, and I apologize for using the acronyms, CJM - Mahaney; T4G - Together For The Gospel
-Carolyn
Carolyn,
I did indeed get your point -- you think too much time is spent with Beth Moore. I disagree.
Hi Glenn and Jesse,
I appreciate that you've heard me out, but I will say you both haven't completely understood me. Though I don't feel right now anything further for me to comment would be helpful, so I will refrain.
Grace and peace to you both.
-Carolyn
Hello Carolyn,
I just wanted you to know that I still read these comment threads and am very thankful for your input as I learn from your wisdom and obvious love of Jesus!
Gracious Blessings to you and yours, Carolyn, from our LORD and Savior!
Martha
Hello Glenn,
Your postings of falsehood and the teachers who would deceive are very much needed. Perhaps someone “new” would come across your blog and have their eyes opened. Gary, at Unsealed.org, has a very good article on the false Hebrew Roots. That movement needs to be exposed for the affront it is to the truth. I’m glad you have done this on your blog.
Kathryn
I've got an exposure of the Hebrew Roots Movement:
https://rationalchristiandiscernment.blogspot.com/2018/08/one-new-man-bible-translated-in-2011-by.html
https://rationalchristiandiscernment.blogspot.com/2018/08/bewitching-believers-through-hebrew.html
Hi Martha!
Blessings to you in Christ as well, dear sister, and very nice to "see" you here!
-Carolyn
Thank you for your warnings. About 7 years ago I started questioning the Beth Moore studies at church. Having sites like yours to read and research helped so much. I am grateful you continue to report on false teachers as more error comes up. Thanks for all your hard work, Glen!
Anonymous 7/22/19,
Thank you for your kind words. I'm so grateful that I can provide information which helps people avoid false teachings/teachers.
It is a challenge, but it has also been a blessing.
Right now I'm in a position where I can't write much, without much blogging time. I'm hoping to get life back to "normal" soon, but meanwhile I'll keep collecting links to articles I've read which I think everyone would benefit from.
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