The Amazons were supposedly a race of very tall warrior women. They first appeared in Greek literature in Homer’s The Illiad in the 8th century B.C. Scholars can’t seem to agree as to whether the Amazons were strictly products of Greek mythology or whether they actually existed somewhere and the mythology was “based on a true story”. Interestingly, in the 1990’s archaeologists discovered the 2000 year old burial grounds of the Sarmatian tribe near the border of Kazakhstan, and think this tribe might be the origin of the Amazon legend. Unlike the mythological Amazons, a number of the women of this tribe appear to have been married with children, but many of them were buried with their weapons of war. The Sarmatian women’s average height was 5’6”, which was fairly tall for women at that point in history.
Maybe that description evokes images of some sort of “femi-nazi” overlaid with a pseudo-Christian veneer when you hear the phrase “mighty Amazon women of God.”
Not at all.
So what on earth does it mean?
I think we 21st century church ladies have, in some ways, a skewed perspective of what it means to be a Christian woman. You see, a lot of people seem to think that being a godly woman means you have to be shy and quiet, never confrontational, a doormat, nothing of substance to say, nicey-nice, always ready with a casserole for the church potluck. A caricature of feminine fluff.
But the longer I live as a woman of God, the farther from the truth that caricature becomes. Being a godly woman requires a kind of strength that a man will never know. Courage of a sort the most valiant warrior does not possess. Endurance and self control that the best trained athletes will never attain. Because we have to be strong and soft. Bold and restrained. Leaders and followers.
Being a godly woman is not for the faint of heart. And, yet, it’s the faint of heart God loves to turn into His heroines of the faith.
A mighty Amazon woman of God…
…studies and rightly handles God’s word (2 Timothy 2:15)
…loves her enemies (Matthew 5:43-45)
…refuses to have her ears tickled (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
…is a faithful and active church member (Hebrews 10:24-25)
…holds to a biblical view of women’s roles in the church (1 Timothy 2:12ff)
…forgives completely (Ephesians 4:32)
…submits to her husband (Ephesians 5:22-24)
…serves her family (Proverbs 31:10-31)
…is more concerned with God’s opinion than man’s (Acts 5:29)
…loves Christ more than her family (Luke 14:26)
…trains her children in godliness (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)
…shares the gospel with the lost (Matthew 28:18-20)
…helps her husband (Genesis 2:18)
…refutes false teaching instead of embracing it (2 Timothy 3:1-9)
…trains younger women in godliness (Titus 2:3-5)
…controls her tongue (James 1:26)
…works heartily as unto the Lord (Colossians 3:23-24)
…isn’t led by her emotions (Jeremiah 17:9)
…is merciful (Luke 6:36)
…repents when she sins (Matthew 3:8)
…is strong (Ephesians 6:10)
…is joyful (Philippians 4:4)
None of us are there yet, ladies, but as one of my favorite Bible teachers likes to say, “It’s not perfection; it’s direction.” Is this the direction you’re walking? Is God conforming you more to His image day by day? Are we settling for being little girls in the faith or anxious to grow up and be the mighty Amazon women of God He created us to be?
What kinds of things come to mind when you hear the phrase “mighty Amazon woman of God”?
It’s time for another awesome blog swap! Blog swaps give me the opportunity to share other talented bloggers with you, plus offer you fresh content that’s a great supplement to our regular fare here. If you’d like to do a swap, click on the link above for more information.
Today, we’re swapping with Kaylene of Faithful Feat. Kaylene has written some insightful articles about marriage that will be especially helpful to Christian wives.
God did not create the woman of lesser value, but rather values her equal to the man. He created the woman as a counterpart to the man, not a doormat, slave or possession.
Click here to continue reading, and don’t forget to subscribe and follow Faithful Feat on social media!
These are my notes from my ladies’ Sunday School class this morning. I’ll be posting the notes from my class here each week. Click here for last week’s lesson.
Through the Bible in 2014 ~ Week 34 ~ Aug. 17-23 Jeremiah 35-50, Psalm 74, 79, 2 Kings 24-25, 2 Chronicles 36, Habakkuk Idolatry: No Turning Back
Background:
Israel is gone, carried off into captivity by Assyria. Judah has managed to hang on a little longer, due in part to Hezekiah’s and Josiah’s godliness, but, now, Nebuchadnezzar has beseiged and overthrown the last of Judah’s fortified cities, slaughtered the king and the nobles, and carried nearly all the citizens off to a 70 year exile in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar left a small remnant of the poorest of the poor to continue living in Judah to work the land, and set up Gedaliah as governor over them. Gedaliah was subsequently assasinated by the Ammonites, and the remnant decided -against God’s clear instruction through Jeremiah- to go to Egypt, and to force Jeremiah to go with them. This is where we now find them in chapter 44.
Jeremiah 44
God takes sin seriously.
As usual, Israel’s (here, Judah’s) main sin was idolatry, a clear violation of the first and second Commandments. That’s not something God just sweeps under the rug as an “oopsie”. In verse 3, He calls it evil. Verse 4, “this abomination that I hate.” In verse 6, God reminds them of His wrath and anger poured out becaue of idolatry. And think back over the scope of Israel’s history: the plagues, the pestilence, the snakes, the natural disasters, being conquered by enemies, and so on.
The vehemence with which God responds to idolatry shows us that He doesn’t take it, or any other sin, lightly. If there’s one major takeaway from the Old Testament, it’s that sin has a price tag, and somebody’s got to pay it.
Why does God respond so harshly to sin? (1 John 4:8)
1. Because God is love (1 John). When we read that the penalty for sin is an eternity in Hell, we really have no idea what we’re talking about. We know Hell is bad, but that’s about the extent of it. God can see Hell. He knows precisely what it’s like, and He loves us so much that He doesn’t want a single person to go there. So much, in fact, that He was willing to go to the farthest extreme of sending His Son to provide us the way out of Hell and into Heaven.
2. Believers are God’s walking billboard to the world. When we share the gospel and walk in godliness, we can attract people to a saving relationship with Christ. But when we sin unrepentantly, and/or in what the world would consider to be a “big” way (adultery, embezzlement, drunkenness, etc.) we can turn people off to God. God wants to prevent us from doing that because He loves and wants to save those people just as much as he loves and wanted to save us.
3. Sin hurts people in the here and now. God doesn’t like that. He doesn’t want us to be victimized by other people’s sin and He doesn’t want us to hurt other people.
God pursues His people relentlessly, but not endlessly. (Romans 1:18-32, 2 Corinthians 6:2)
Take a look at verses 4-5:
“Yet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!’ But they did not listen or incline their ear, to turn from their evil and make no offerings to other gods.”
Again, think back over all the ways and times God has tried to bring His people back to Himself. Hundreds of years, dozens of prophets, painful circumstances. Time after time as Israel rebelled against Him, God mercifully and patiently offered them opportunities to turn back to Him. He didn’t throw them away or give up on them. And here, even though He is about to destroy this remnant, it is not God who has thrown in the towel. It is the people who have relentlessly demanded His wrath. God could not have been more clear to His people in this chapter about what would happen to them if they continued to rebel, and still they said, “we will not listen to you, but we will do everything we have vowed” (16-17). So he gave them what they wanted- the freedom to reject Him forever.
God is the same way today. He pursues people relentlessly, but not endlessly. Romans 1 makes this clear. Three times in this passage, he says, “God gave them up…” culminating in verse 28:
“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.”
This is why there is such a danger in people putting off salvation, thinking they can get around to it on their death bed. If people reject God long enough, He will eventually give them what they want and stop pursuing them. The Bible says (2 Cor.) today is the day of salvation.
The goal of God’s pursuit and discipline is restoration. (Jeremiah 42:9-12, 2 Corinthians 5:20)
Even here at the end of God’s patience, God’s desire is still to restore His people to a right relationship with Him. Just two chapters ago, He told the people that if they would only obey Him and stay in Judah instead of going to Egypt, He would have mercy on them. The same loving Lord who says in 2 Corinthians, “be reconciled to God,” has always desired that His people walk in right relationship with Him, and He uses whatever means and measures He has to in order to turn His people back to Himself.
Women have the power to influence our families, communities, and nation for evil or for godliness. (1 Peter 3:1-2)
The worship of “the queen of Heaven” (Ishtar, an Assyrian/Babylonian goddess, the wife of Baal or Molech) started with the women of Judah (15,19). They then influenced their husbands to participate in, or at least approve of, this idolatry. The women, and the husbands they had corrupted, stood in Jeremiah’s face and said, “We will not listen to you. We will keep on with our idolatry.”
Why? Because the women had the false notion that the reason they lately “lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine” (18) was becase they had stopped sacrificing to her. (Of course, the truth was that they were experiencing these things at the hand of God because they had been sacrificing to her.(23))
Several months ago, when we studied biblical womanhood, we discussed the line from My Big, Fat Greek Wedding where the mother tells her daughter, “The man may be the head, but the woman is the neck, and she can turn him any way she wants.” First Peter puts it this way:
Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct.
Every day, we have opportunities to be like the women of Judah and turn our families and our communities away from Christ and towards idolatry. Let’s not be like those women, but, instead, women who, by our godly character, our respectful and pure conduct, and our submission to our husbands, turn the world upside down for Christ.
If you are considering commenting or sending me an e-mail objecting to the fact that I warn against false teachers, please click here and read this article first. Your objection is most likely answered here. I won’t be publishing comments or answering emails that are answered by this article.
This article is kept continuously updated as needed.
Discerning the False Teachers: Beth Moore Part 1 and Part 2 are episodes of the A Word Fitly Spoken podcast with Michelle Lesley and Amy Spreeman based on this article if you’d like to listen to an audio version.
Beth Moore is easily the world’s best known women’s Bible study author and teacher in the world. With her down home charm, endless energy, and stunning smile, she has captured the hearts of millions with her humor and storytelling style of teaching.
In forty years of ministry, Beth has written dozens of books. She also gives numerous Living Proof Live conferences every year and has a radio show and a television show on TBN, both called Living Proof with Beth Moore (canceled as of Dec. 2024).
Beth truly seems to care about her followers and her passion about the issues of sexual abuse and racism have endeared her to many inside and outside the church.
As beloved and likable as she is, it would be so much easier and more pleasant to jump on the Beth Bandwagon than to have to warn against her as a false teacher. But as Christians, no matter how much we love a certain teacher, our highest love and loyalty must always be to Christ and His Word first, which means we must reject anything – even a beloved teacher – that is at odds with Him and the Scriptures. Beth Moore’s teaching and behavior conflicts with Scripture in several ways. For these reasons it is my sad duty to recommend that you not follow Beth Moore or receive any teaching from her or anyone connected to Living Proof Ministries.
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of videos on YouTube featuring Beth Moore’s preaching and Bible teaching which clearly show men in the audience. Beth Moore has, for quite a while, been teaching (screenshot) and preaching to men as well as women. First Timothy 2:12 clearly forbids this.
For those who would try to defend her by saying, “She can’t help it if men come to her conferences,” or “Co-ed conference preaching isn’t ‘in the church’ so it’s OK,” Beth not only preaches to men at conferences and other parachurch events, she is no stranger to preaching Sunday morning sermons to the entire congregation (including men) in churches (see links and videos above and the Additional Resources section at the end of this article). In addition to the videos above of two of her Sunday morning sermons, the screenshot below refers to Beth preaching the Mother’s Day Sunday morning service at the Tomball, Texas campus of her (now former) home church, Bayou City Fellowship, on May 12, 2019 (read more here).
(And to those who would attempt to defend the trend of women preaching the Sunday sermon on Mother’s Day, let’s be clear about something. The Bible doesn’t say women are prohibited from preaching except on Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day didn’t even exist when Scripture was written. Scripture makes the blanket statement that women are not to preach to, teach Scripture to, or exercise authority over men in the gathering of the Body. Period.)
Here (in a continuation of the preaching on Mother’s Day kerfuffle), Beth admits to having preached in multiple Southern Baptist worship services over her 40 year career (she has also preached in many non-SBC churches) and seems to proudly defend her sin of doing so, while simultaneously boasting of her track record of obedience, by saying it “only” happened fifteen times.
It’s a bit confusing. Is Beth saying preaching to men is a sin and we should be grateful she “only” did it fifteen times? If so, this is not how we handle sin. We do not boast like the Pharisee about how few times we have sinned and how obedient we are, we grieve over even one sin, repent, and cry out with the publican, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!”. Also if Beth is saying it’s a sin, why is she defending the fact on Thursday, May 9, that she is still planning to preach on Sunday, May 12? Why isn’t she instead confessing her plan to sin, humbly repenting, and announcing that she will not preach on Sunday?
If Beth is saying preaching to men is not a sin, why is she defending herself as only having done it fifteen times? Why didn’t she do it far more than only fifteen times over 40 years? Why not proudly enumerate all the times and places she has preached? Why have we not heretofore heard about these fifteen preaching events, as we hear about all her other speaking events, if it was OK for her to preach? Why didn’t she list the Mother’s Day event in question on her website alongside all her other speaking engagements? Why didn’t she talk it up on social media as she does with other speaking engagements? Why didn’t the church she’s speaking at excitedly advertise that she would be speaking as other venues do when she speaks?
Beth seems to know that preaching to men is a sin, but is trying to defend the fact that she does so.
Beth Moore partners with, and is being influenced by, false teachers
Scripture is quite clear that we are to have nothing to do with false teachers, especially when it comes to ministry. But Beth has been surrounding herself with false teachers for decades.
Beth Moore tweeted this in December 2013. “Lakewood” is prosperity preacher Joel Osteen’s church. Christine Caine also preaches to men (as she did at Lakewood that night) and originally hails from the leadership team of Word of Faith (prosperity gospel) church, Hillsong.
One need only peruse Beth’s Twitter feed to see other false teachers she allows herself to be influenced by: Matthew Vines, Rachel Held Evans, Christine Caine, Andy Stanley, and more (including Jen Hatmaker and Jonathan Merritt – see An Open Letter to Beth Moore below).
(Screenshot) As you can see in the screenshot and in the video below, not only is Beth preaching at a Hillsong conference, it’s a co-ed conference, so she’s once again preaching to men.
At the 0:50 mark Beth says, “I’ve gotten to serve at three different ‘Colours’…”. She’s referring to Colour Conference, Hillsong’s annual women’s conference, which seems now to have been replaced by the co-ed Hillsong Conference at which she is preaching in the video above.
Beth Moore has been a featured speaker at Hillsong‘s Colour Conference for women several times (2012, 2014, 2015), and at the 2017 Hillsong Conference which is co-ed. Until scandals over recent years forced Hillsong to scale back its media empire, Beth even had her own page at the Hillsong church website and was featured multiple times on the Hillsong channel. She was also a featured speaker at the Be the Change conference with Christine Caine and Lisa Bevere in 2012.
In 2015, Beth launched her own show on TBN, which is sometimes jokingly called the “Total Blasphemy Network,” due to the fact that nearly all of their programs feature or are hosted by some of the worst of the worst false teachers, mostly those of the New Apostolic Reformation variety. (On December 11, 2024, Beth announced she was breaking with TBN and would henceforth be releasing content on her YouTube channel and Living Proof app.)
The pictures below were posted by former head “pastor” of Hillsong, Brian Houston, on his Facebook page on March 8, 2019 after he interviewed Beth for his TBN television show “Let’s Talk, with Brian Houston”.
Beth Moore claims to receive direct, personal, extra-biblical revelation from God
Beloved, I am convinced one of our severest needs is pure rest. Not only sleep, but refreshment and recreation. Recently God spoke to me about capturing what He and I are calling “Sabbath moments.” Like many of yours, my schedule right now is particularly tough, and I see no time in the near future for a number of days off. God spoke to my heart one Saturday morning while I was preparing for Sunday school: “My child, in between more intense rests, I want to teach you to take Sabbath moments.” I wasn’t certain what He meant. Just that morning God confirmed His desire for me to drive all the way to the other side of Houston to the medical center to visit a patient with brain cancer. I was very thankful for the privilege of visiting this patient, but I knew in advance it would be tough emotionally and far from restful. Excerpted from Beth Moore’s The Beloved Disciple
Aside from the fact that it’s unbiblical in and of itself for Beth to claim that God is talking to her, God is not inventing new teachings besides the ones He has already given us in Scripture. And this “Sabbath moments” teaching is found nowhere in Scripture. Passages like 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and 2 Peter 1:3 explain that Scripture is sufficient to teach us everything we need pertaining to life and godliness.
Additionally, notice that Beth says “I wasn’t certain what He meant.” When you have a few hours, go grab your Bible and look up every single passage about God actually speaking to somebody. Did any of them ever say, “I wasn’t certain what He meant.”? Absolutely not. When God speaks to someone, He is completely, perfectly clear about what His message means.
What God began to say to me about five years ago, and I’m telling you it sent me on such a trek with Him, that my head is still whirling over it.
He began to say to me, ”I’m gonna tell you something right now, Beth; and boy, you write this one down. And you say it as often as I give you utterance to say it: ‘My Bride is paralyzed by unbelief. My Bride is paralyzed by unbelief.’” And He said, “Startin’ with you.” Excerpted from Beth Moore’s “Believing God” video (below)
The infamous “hairbrush story” in which Beth claims God told her to go up to a stranger in the airport and brush his hair.
In her blog article It’s Hunting Season for Heretics, Beth defends herself against those calling her to repent of believing and teaching extra-biblical revelation with this comment, displaying either her confusion or ignorance about God’s Word and His authority:
“Nothing equates with the Scriptures: no word of knowledge, no prophetic message, no insight, no revelation, no dream, no vision. Nothing. That doesn’t mean they can’t be valid. The New Testament says they can. But they must never supplant or be placed on the same level with the Scriptures.”
This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. First of all, where – in context and rightly handled – does the New Testament say this, as she claims? It can’t. All of the dreams, visions, prophecies, etc. in the Bible from God to His people became Scripture once they were written down, and we know that all Scripture is breathed out by God. Know what that means? God Himself equates all of these types of revelation with Scripture.
When God speaks, God speaks. He doesn’t speak authoritatively in Scripture and non-authoritatively or less authoritatively outside of Scripture. Doing so would make Him imperfect and, thus, not God. People who claim to receive “words of knowledge, prophetic messages, insights, revelations, dreams, and visions” claim that these extra-biblical revelations are God speaking to them. If this is true, and this really is God speaking, then His spoken word to them is “on the same level as Scripture”. (And I won’t even go into the instances in which these folks, including Beth Moore, have said God has told them something that conflicts with Scripture or that God told them something was going to happen and it didn’t. I guess God just gets it wrong sometimes?) If it is not true, and it really isn’t God speaking to them, then why are we listening to them and why are they saying that their own ideas and imaginings are God speaking to them?
These are just a few of the numerous examples of Beth Moore supposedly receiving personal, direct revelation from God. Pick up any of her books or watch any video of her teaching, and count how many times she says, “God told me…” or “God said…” or “I think…” or “I believe…” or bases her teaching on a personal experience, story, or what God supposedly spoke to her rather than teaching what God’s all-sufficient word clearly says.
Beth Moore refuses correction
Beth preaching (to men, once again) at the 2014 Awaken Now conference.
Scripture teaches that the wise humble themselves and receive biblical correction. But in this video, Beth Moore preemptively strikes out at anyone who sees and hears what she will soon be teaching or doing and finds it to be in conflict with Scripture. Do you notice she does not quote or read a single passage of Scripture to back up what she is saying? Notice how many times she says “I believe…” This is all based on her own subjective ideations.
Instead of taking a step back and honestly evaluating where she is wrong on the biblical issues she has been called to account for, Beth Moore frequently doubles down as in this blog post striking out against people calling her a heretic or a false teacher for “disagreement” or “getting something wrong.” My comment to her on this article was:
At the end of this same blog post, in response to comments like mine calling her to repent for her false doctrine, Beth later wrote an addendum, the gist of which was, “I’m still right and anybody who disagrees with me is wrong.” This just further illustrates her inability to accept correction and her tendency to double down when reproved.
Another example of Beth’s refusing to accept correction (technically, it wasn’t even correction, but a request for her to clarify her position on homosexuality) came during 2019’s “Open Letter to Beth Moore” debacle (*see below).
Beth Moore is heading toward affirming homosexuality
In the summer of 2019, five women bloggers and Bible teachers and I, published An Open Letter to Beth Moore. It was subsequently signed by over 500 additional Christian women. The letter was merely a request for clarification of Beth’s views on homosexuality since she maintains public, adulatory friendships with well known homosexuality-affirming evangelicals such as Jen Hatmaker and Jonathan Merritt, and since she has been virtually silent on the issue of homosexuality in recent years while not hesitating to speak out on other heinous sins.
For two and a half weeks, *Beth ignored the letter, slandered the signers of the letter, and refused to make her position on homosexuality clear in any venue. It was then discovered that Beth had biblically addressed the sin of homosexuality in her book Praying God’s Word, but had later removed this section from the book because she felt she had “exceeded Scripture”. Finally, Beth wrote a blog post explaining why she had removed this passage and making a biblical statement on human sexuality, yet still not declaring homosexuality to be a sin. (You can read more about this series of events in my articles Questions about the Open Letter to Beth Moore and An Open Letter to Beth Moore – Timeline of Events.)
A few weeks after Beth’s blog post, on her LifeWay-sponsored TBN television show, in an episode entitled Staying Afloat on the Fellow Ship – Part 4, Beth admitted she had been looking into the arena of same sex attracted (SSA) Christianity
Though Beth’s words may not sound problematic to some, Elizabeth Prata explains in her article Listen carefully to what she is saying in this video…, exactly why Beth’s remarks signal her trajectory toward acceptance of homosexuality:
In her latest lesson video on unity and fellowship, Moore used many phrases and code words that indicate her stance toward same sex attraction, homosexuality, and their attendant issues, is aligned with the aforementioned folks she was supposed to be ministering to in love by warning against these very things.
Moore makes it sound as if homosexuals are doing Jesus a favor by choosing celibacy. Homosexually attracted people are no different in their sin than…any other flavor of sexual sin…touting their “tremendous sacrifice” makes it seem as if they are.
I believe this video and Moore’s recent handling of the homosexuality issue means Moore seems to be readying herself to ‘come out’ as it were, of affirming homosexuals in some way as believers.
Beth Moore is “going woke” and progressive
It’s difficult to give a precise definition for what “woke” means, but generally speaking, it’s basically what you see playing out in race relations in the U.S. right now: Critical Race Theory. White privilege. Reparations. Oppression. Repent of and renounce your whiteness. White people’s racism is so deep seated we’re not even conscious of it. White power, white privilege, and racism are inextricably embedded in politics, education, religion, economics- every single system in existence. It is a paradigm through which social justice issues are viewed and addressed, and “woke” means you’ve finally been “awakened” to these supposed truths. In addition to racial issues many would also include more general social justice issues such as illegal immigration, poverty, etc., under the banner of “wokeness”.
Over the past few years, Beth has been on more and more of a woke trajectory. Many of her tweets on Twitter indicate this, and she has not only befriended several who are leaders in the evangelical woke stream, she has also publicly praised them, recommended their books, and yoked with them in ministry, which is a violation of Scripture. Some of these include Jemar Tisby, Dwight McKissic, Charlie Dates (pastor of Progressive Baptist Church, where Beth has preached the Sunday sermon), “racial trauma counselor” Kyle J. Howard, and LaTasha Morrison, to name a few. You’ll also notice in the slideshow below that Beth now subscribes to the progressive “pro-all of life” version of “pro-life” – that in order to truly consider yourself “pro-life” you must also be pro-illegal immigration, pro-CRT, pro-intersectionality, and so on. In other words, you must be “pro-” anything and anyone liberals claim are being wronged or oppressed, regardless of whether or not it may be illegal or unbiblical.
The Covington kids were exonerated, and Beth never retracted or apologized for this statement. She just quietly deleted the tweet.
Here’s Beth’s black square on Instagram for “Black Out Tuesday”.
Here, Beth recommends Jemar Tisby’s The Color of Compromise and LaTasha Morrison’s Be the Bridge. A couple of quotes from Morrison’s book:
“We won’t be agents of reconciliation until, like Ezra and Daniel, we take on the guilt and shame of our community and let it propel us toward confession.” p. 78
“Jesus didn’t just come to restore individual people; he came to break down systems of oppression, to provide a way for his kingdom to appear on earth as it is in heaven. He came so that we, his followers, could partner with him in restoring integrity and justice to broken systems, broken governments, and ultimately, broken relationships.” p. 180-181
Beth Moore uses intentionally and purposefully deceptive language
Beth often craftily couches her statements about controversial issues in such a way as to give her plausible deniability if she’s ever called on something she needs to back out of. In other words, her statements are just vague or non-committal enough to convince her followers who want to believe she’s biblical into thinking she’s notsaying what she’s actually saying. And at the same time if someone she’s accountable to says, “This statement contradicts Scripture,” she has enough wiggle room to say “That’s not what I meant. I meant something else.” A couple of the things I’ve mentioned in previous sections above are very good examples of this.
Let’s revisit the Mother’s Day 2019 preaching incident. Take a look at the conversation again:
Instead of coming right out and clearly announcing “I’m preaching the Sunday morning sermon at my church,” Beth’s response to Vicki was, “I’m doing Mother’s Day too!”. Several people in that tweet thread asked her if that meant she was preaching the sermon, and she ignored them.
That leaves reasonable doubt for Beth’s fans who actually understand that women preaching is wrong to think, “Well maybe she just means she’s giving her personal testimony or saying a few words of welcome and she’s not actually preaching the sermon.” Whereas people who know Beth’s history of preaching to men would know she means that she’s preaching the Sunday sermon. Do you see what I mean about this example of deceptive language? She’s announcing she’s preaching but wording it in such a way that people can choose to believe she’s not.
Another example of Beth’s “wiggle room wording” is the final response she gave in the Open Letter to Beth Moore discussed above. Here’s what she said in her blog post that was supposed to put an end to the questions and definitively state her position:
I hold firmly to a traditional Christian sexual ethic and continue to believe the Bible sets apart marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman. But I also believe that Scripture clearly teaches that all sex outside of marriage is contrary to God‘s will.
It’s not a bad statement on sexuality in general, and Beth’s followers who are undiscerning or don’t know their Bibles well probably thought it clearly said she thinks homosexuality is a sin. Which is exactly what she wants them to believe she said. But it doesn’t say that.
She still does not plainly say, “Homosexuality is a sin that must be repented of.” She didn’t even use the word “homosexuality” or other synonymous terms in this statement. And there’s still enough wiggle room in this statement that it leaves the door open for her, in the future, to validate homosexual orientation, identification, lust, or anything short of sexual acts or homosexual “marriage”.
She also added a Bible verse to back up this statement, Galatains 5:19-20:
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Again, to the average, church going Beth Moore follower who thinks she’s perfectly biblical, this sounds like Beth is pointing to the Bible and saying homosexuality is a sin. And that’s what she wants those people to think she’s saying. But she doesn’t want her homosexual followers to think she’s saying that.
That’s why Beth intentionally chose a verse that does not use any form of the word “homosexuality,” even though she is undoubtedly familiar with the ones that do, for example 1 Corinthians 6:9-10.
For those of us who are familiar with Galatians 5:19 and the Greek behind it, we already know that “sexual immorality” covers all sexual activity outside the monogamous heterosexual marriage bed, which does include homosexuality. Therefore, many of Beth’s followers from a conservative church background will take her quotation of this passage in Galatians 5 to mean, “Yes, I agree with the Bible that homosexuality is a sin.”
However, Beth also has many homosexual and homosexual affirming followers*, many of whom likely subscribe to the “gay Christian” movement’s idea that the verses in the Bible that condemn homosexuality are only speaking of homosexual temple prostitution and assorted other perversions, not loving, faithful, monogamous homosexual “marriages” or relationships.
*Take some time and let that sink in. How many doctrinally sound pastors, churches, and high profile Christians who clearly teach that homosexuality is a sin have homosexual and affirming followers or members? Go to the end of this article and note just how many homosexual and affirming followers Beth has and ask yourself why that is.
People who believe all of these errant ideas about homosexuality are not going to to see the term “sexual immorality” as applying to supposedly faithful homosexual relationships, so they will see Beth’s remarks as saying that she considers “sexual immorality” a sin, but not that that term includes supposedly “moral” homosexual relationships.
This use of language is intentionally and purposefully deceptive. It’s not an accident. It’s not being loving and kind. It’s speaking with the forked tongue of the devil. If that sounds harsh to you, I would encourage you to get out your Bible and consider how Satan craftily uses language in the Garden with Eve or when he’s tempting Jesus. Then compare Satan’s shrewd use of language to Beth’s. She’s being deceptive because she’s trying to keep all of her followers happy – the average evangelical woman who’s at church every Sunday and at the women’s Beth Moore Bible study class every Tuesday and the “gay Christians” and those who affirm them.
Christians are truth speakers. We speak the truth lovingly and kindly, but we speak it directly and clearly. We let our yes be yes and our no be no. We don’t use language like it’s an abstract painting that can mean whatever the person taking it in wants it to mean.
A final note that’s semi-related to Beth’s deceptive use of language: Many of Beth’s unbiblical statements, positions, behavior, attacks on others, etc., as you may have noticed from the links above, take place on Twitter, and occasionally, Instagram. If you only read Beth’s books, attend her conferences, watch her videos, or follow her on Facebook, you most likely aren’t going to see these kinds of things.
That, too, is purposeful and intentional. She is playing to her demographics. As many with online ministries have discovered, older, more conservative evangelicals generally tend to use Facebook. Younger, more progressive evangelicals generally tend to use Twitter, Instagram, and other more “cutting edge” social media platforms. Beth isn’t going to take a chance on offending the middle-aged and older women who follow her on Facebook (or aren’t on social media at all and only know her through her books and conferences), but she can get away with her more progressive comments on other platforms.
Beth Moore’s ministry produces rotten fruit
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit,nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Matthew 7:15-20
Beth’s followers and supporters are the fruit of her ministry. Are they good fruit or bad fruit? Is she a healthy tree or a diseased tree? Would a godly, doctrinally sound teacher have multiple followers who are homosexuals and homosexuality-affirming? Who rebel against the Bible’s teaching on gender roles? Who blithely blaspheme, spew profanity, and threaten Believers who object to Beth’s sins and false teaching? Who slander and make false accusations against Believers, and display every opposite of the Fruit of the Spirit?
Scroll down to the end of the “Saturday, July 6” section of An Open Letter to Beth Moore – Timeline of Events for comments from Beth’s homosexual and homosexuality-affirming followers, and examine Beth’s X (Twitter) threads for more examples of ungodly comments from her followers.
Disclaimer: The specific links below are provided and endorsed as evidence pertaining to this article only. I do not endorse any of these sites in so far as any of them might deviate from Scripture or conflict with my beliefs as outlined in the “Welcome” or “Statement of Faith” tabs at the top of this page.
Overviews/Series – Multiple Theological Problems with Beth Moore:
How Beth Moore Is Calling Down Pentecostal Fire at Charisma (Please note, this is an article praising Beth for doing unbiblical things and is provided only for evidence of such. Charisma promotes all sorts of false doctrine, and I definitely do not recommend or endorse it.)
Beth Moore preaches the Sunday sermon at Bayou City Fellowship Church: Mother’s Day 2016 (As with many other online evidences confirming Beth’s various sins, this has been deleted, but Beth confirmed in her own blog post, Just Something Silly I Wrote On Behalf of Moms on May 9, 2016 (Mother’s Day was May 8 that year) that she preached the Sunday sermon.)
(If you aren’t sure why the teachers I’ve mentioned below, or in the body of the article are false teachers, I’ve written articles like this one on many of them. Click the Popular False Teachers & Unbiblical Trends tab in the blue menu bar at the top of this page.)
Beth with Priscilla Shirer on Instagram (It would be impossible to document the hundreds of times Beth and Priscilla have done conferences together, endorsed one another’s books and materials, spent time together as friends, etc. As Beth says in the caption below: “That woman in that picture with me is one of the dearest people on this earth to me. I mean it. We’ve been in one another’s lives almost 20 years now. She occupies a spot in my heart all to herself.”)
These are my notes from my ladies’ Sunday School class this morning. I’ll be posting the notes from my class here each week. Click here for last week’s lesson.
Through the Bible in 2014 ~ Week 30 ~ July 20-26
Hosea, Isaiah 28-43, Psalm 76
An Overview of Hosea
Hosea 1
Hosea was a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel. God used his family life as a picture of what he was prophesying. Hosea married a woman, Gomer, who would later prove unfaithful to him. God also had Hosea give his children names that reflected God’s message to Israel: Jezreel, No Mercy, and Not My People. But the real story of the book of Hosea is not Hosea or his family, but the love, reluctant wrath, and forgiveness of God towards His unfaithful people.
2:8
Everything Israel gave away -as sacrifices to idols, as tribute to foreign potentates, as bribes for foreign armies to come to her aid- everything had been given to her by God.
4:17
When sinners persist in their sin long enough, God finally gives them over to what they want. (Rom. 1:18ff). Often sinners think the harshest thing God could do would be to try to stop them from participating in the sin that they love, but His wrath is most poured out when He gives them exactly what they want.
5:6, 15; 7:13-14
Seek the Lord while He may be found (Isaiah 55:6). God was calling Israel to seek Him before He gave them over to a hard heart and a reprobate mind. The Lord is always found by those with a soft heart whose desire is to repent and love Him, but He turns a deaf ear to those who continue in rebellion until it starts raining, only to beat on the door of the ark because they don’t want to die in the flood.
God is not interested in the worldly sorrow that is only grieved over the consequences of sin. That soul still has its eyes firmly fixed on self and how self is affected. The truly repentant heart has her eyes fixed on God and how her sin affects Him.
6:4,6
God doesn’t desire empty rituals, lip service, or going through the motions. He wants worship from the heart.
8:2, 5-6
God will not allow syncretism (the melding of unbiblical worship with biblical worship). He requires, not that He be first in our affections, but that He be ONLY in our affections.
It did no good for Israel to claim that she knew the Lord (2) because she was a) worshiping other gods besides the Lord, b) calling an idol (the golden calves) “God,” and c) not worshiping God in the way He had commanded. None of these were acceptable in God’s sight then, and because He is the same “yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), it is still not acceptable to Him today.
That’s why false teachers are so dangerous. People like Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, and TD Jakes may not be fashioning golden calves and calling them “Jesus,” but they are fashioning false gods with unbiblical words and ideas and calling them “Jesus.” This is what Matthew 7:21-23 is talking about when it says:
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
9:1
Just as Gomer has betrayed and forsaken Hosea, Israel has betrayed the Lord. She has loved adultery and the fleeting pleasures (Hebrews 11:25) that go with it instead of the true and lasting treasure that comes from loyalty to the Lord (Revelation 11:18).
10:5-6
The golden calf Israel worshiped would be used to pay off Assyria in tribute. God is sovereign. He will ultimately destroy everything that is raised up against Him. Idols, ideas, individuals.
11:1-4
God is not a cruel taskmaster. He led and cared for Israel with “cords of kindness” and “bands of love” as a parent leads a toddler. They didn’t have to live in fear of Him if they were walking with Him. Not so with other gods. With other gods, they could never be certain where they stood. Had they offered enough? Pleased it enough? Would it bless them with fertility or rain for their crops?
With God, on the other hand, His love for Israel came first. It wasn’t a reaction to whether or not their actions pleased Him. His love for them was there even before they knew Him (1 John 4:15-19). It was because He loved them that He lovingly spelled out everything He wanted Israel to do in worship, in daily life, and in their hearts. He also went into great detail about the things they could expect from Him, and He kept His promises time and again. They didn’t have to wonder how He felt towards them or what He required of them or whether He would come through for them. They could know.
11:8-9
It grieved God to destroy Israel as he had destroyed Admah and Zeboiim with Sodom and Gomorrah. God is not a God who delights in executing His wrath, but, rather, does so with a broken heart and only as a last resort.
“Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” Ezekiel 18:23
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
13:4-6
When Israel was in Egypt and in the wilderness where she had nothing to depend on but God, she was loyal to Him, but once prosperity came, she left Him, just as Gomer left Hosea for something she thought was better.
It is often only when people have no other choice but to turn to Christ that they do so, but when they don’t “need” anything, they turn away from Him. This is why Jesus said “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24).
By stripping away everything Israel had and sending her into exile, God was bringing Israel full circle to the neediness she had started out with in Egypt in order to bring her back to Himself.
14:1-9
God’s desire is, and always has been, for His people to repent and be reconciled to Him, and enjoy a loving, father-child relationship with Him. We see this in His post-Eden relationship with Adam and Eve, in His blessing of the earth after the Flood, in His bringing Israel out of Egypt, in bringing Israel out of exile, and in the most important way of all, in saving us out of our sin that we might be permanently reconciled to Him through the precious blood of Christ, to love Him and serve Him forever.
I will heal their apostasy;
I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.
…holds to a biblical view of women’s roles in the church (1 Timothy 2:12ff)
