Listen in as Dave and I discuss the Beveres’ false doctrine and the way they twist Scripture on these issues, what the Bible really teaches, and more! Even if you don’t follow the Beveres, many other false teachers share the same beliefs, so you’ll want to give this a listen to educate yourself on the falsehoods flying around out there and equip yourself to help your friends and loved ones who believe them.
Be sure to check out Dave’s website, Servants of Grace, where you’ll find an abundance of great teaching, podcasts, and materials, as well as his social media links- and give Dave a follow!
Articles / resources mentioned or touched on in the episode:
Got a podcast of your own or have a podcasting friend who needs a guest? Need a speaker for a women’s conference or church event? Click the “Speaking Engagements” tab in the blue menu bar at the top of this page, drop me an e-mail, and let’s chat!
Want to share your testimony? Scroll down to the end of this article to find out how!
Allie’s Story:
I was not raised in a Christian home. However, my mom and dad were, and are, very loving parents. Without knowing the Lord, they cared about godly values and taught us the importance of virtue and wholesomeness. I see this as God’s grace protecting me from a lot of sin that I could easily have gotten involved in. They wanted to raise my siblings and me to be familiar with lots of different religions and belief systems, and so the “church” that we attended growing up was quite a melting pot of those things. We were introduced to some of the Bible, but it was presented right alongside many other religious scriptures and teachings, each of them being presented as equal paths to God. We prided ourselves on being tolerant, but the irony is that the main thing that we were intolerant of was true biblical Christianity.
Jesus clearly said in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”. Sadly, I didn’t believe that the Bible was the entirely true and infallible Word of God growing up. The dangers of New Age religion is that you firmly believe that you have the most enlightened viewpoint and that everyone else, especially fundamentalist Christians, are close minded and not truly understanding the Bible or why Jesus came. Any concept of sin, atonement, or God’s judgment is viewed as harsh and man-made and instead, everyone is seen as ultimately good and connected with the Divine. I was completely into this “spiritual but not religious” movement and we worshiped the idol of self and whatever felt good and sounded comfortable. I had a completely backwards view on everything– I loved what God hates and hated what He loves– and was headed towards hell and God’s righteous judgment.
Toward the end of high school, I began to be interested in more things of a Christian nature, through books and music and such. In my senior year, we moved from Wisconsin to Michigan, another aspect where I see God’s grace being very present, as we left our old church and life behind with the move. In Michigan, not only did we have a new friend group that was mainly made up of Christian families, but we also started attending a church that taught the Bible as the Word of God for the first time. It was not a church that I would attend today since they mainly sought to be relevant and preached a very watered-down, seeker-sensitive gospel, but God graciously used that time to open my heart to His Word.
At this point I was reading my Bible daily and wrestling with so many questions. Outwardly, I was already this “good, Christian, homeschooled girl” to my new friends but inwardly I doubted my salvation, and for a good reason. I had never repented of my sins and trusted in Jesus alone to save me. I was trusting in my own works and believing a mashed up version of some Bible verses and a lot of made up things that I wanted to be true.
God used a year of some Bible teaching at that church, lots of individual study of the Word, and some very humbling events to show me my desperate need for a Savior. One day at church, it all came to a head for me and I recognized my pride and facade for what it was. The Holy Spirit’s conviction was strong and I was clearly aware that I was not adopted into God’s family of believers. And I needed to be. Immediately.
That morning after the service I repented of my sins and trusted in Christ alone for salvation! I got baptized that day and submitted fully to God’s Word and ways, trusting in Him alone and not my good works. I cannot convey the freedom and joy that welled up in my heart that day as my greatest problem was taken care of and I was set free from sin to live for Christ. By God’s grace, my mom and sister both got saved within a month of me and we had the sweetest fellowship time reading our Bibles and growing in submission to the Lord. We found a new church that preached the full, beautiful gospel and taught expositionally from the Word each week.
A week after being born again, I began to experience anxiety and panic attacks, something that I had as a child but was again resurfacing. Satan seems to capitalize on the naivety of new believers and God was allowing me to see more of my weakness and my need for Him. My pride would like to tell you that this is something that I quickly conquered, but in truth, I still battle anxiety to this day. I have learned much from the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 when he talks about his “thorn in the flesh.”
Of course, anxiety is not my only area of weakness, and I have become more and more aware, throughout the years, of my sinful flesh and its constant opposition to the things of God. But, I praise God that His Spirit lives in me to conquer the flesh as I am called to daily take up my cross and follow Him. In Christ, I have been set free from slavery to sin and have become a slave of righteousness, as Romans 6 explains. I’m so thankful that sanctification is both a one time event at justification but also a continual process.
I want to point out three areas of God’s work in my life that I pray will be applicable for you.
The first is this: Christ is not needed only by those whose lives have hit rock bottom. I greatly enjoyed my childhood and was walking with the assumption that I was a good person who cared about spiritual things and inclusivity and so that was enough. The truth is that my rebellious heart towards the exclusivity of Christ was just as vile to God as the heart of anyone in history has ever been. I was separated from God by my sins and headed toward hell for eternity. Christ offers the free gift of salvation for anyone at any time and today is the day of salvation! I urge you not to wait as long as I did to be right with Him.
The second point has to do with my pride. I was in a place right before I got saved where I struggled with the fact that I already was identifying as a Christian and most of my friends probably thought that I was a believer. I thought if I truly got saved at that point, those around me would think I was faking it before then, which I was. I beg you not to let this keep you from being saved. Being identified with Christ in His death means also experiencing the death of our pride, and we should feel the sting of denying ourselves and being crucified with Christ as Galatians 2:20 says.
My third point is that coming to Christ does not make all of our problems go away. This is a dangerous misunderstanding of the gospel. As Christians, we are told by Jesus that in this life we will have trouble. We will experience persecution, criticism, opposition from Satan and from the world, perhaps even those very dear to us. However, I cannot convey to you the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. We can receive complete forgiveness of sins as well as abundant life now and for eternity!
Please don’t stop praying earnestly for your unsaved friends and family. If you had known me 10 years ago, I was that person that drove you crazy on Facebook and in person with my prideful resistance to the gospel. I am still amazed at the 180º turn that has come from being saved. I truly became a new creation, as 2 Corinthians 5:17 speaks of.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
2 Corinthians 5:17
I went from trusting in myself and making God to be who I wanted Him to be, to fully submitting to Christ and delighting that God’s ways are higher than mine. That is the amazing thing about regeneration! Any time God chooses and saves a sinner it is a miracle and worthy of our constant remembrance and praise. Christ is a treasure far greater than anything this world could offer and I pray that you may also know Him as Savior and Lord!
If you are in the New Age movement, or were saved out of the New Age movement and need a little help and encouragement from someone who’s been there, I highly recommend my friend Doreen Virtue and her YouTube channel as a wonderful resource.
Ladies, God is still at work in the hearts and lives of His people, including yours! Would you like to share (anonymously, if you like) a testimony of how God saved you, how He has blessed you, convicted you, taught you something from His Word, brought you out from under false doctrine, placed you in a good church or done something otherwise awesome in your life? Drop me an email, and I’ll send you the particulars for sharing your story. Let’s encourage one another with God’s work in our lives!
Everybody seems to be walking around scared these days. I’m a little scared, myself. It’s understandable. There’s a lot of scary stuff happening. Boko Haram. Ebola. ISIS. The persecution of Christians abroad, and, increasingly, here at home.
Terrorism, suicide bombers, the seemingly daily acts of violence that take the lives of innocent bystanders– that all used to happen over there. Thousands of miles across the ocean. And all we had to do to make it go away was turn off the TV, click over to Farmville, or put down the paper. Problem solved. It was unfortunate, but didn’t really touch our lives in any meaningful way.
Until now.
Now we know that there are terrorists living among us right here in the United States, as well as those trying to infiltrate our country by stealthily crossing our borders. When will the next beheading or 9-11 take place on U.S. soil? Who will the next victim be? Will it be you? Will it be me? Will it be thousands of us in one fell swoop?
Any reasonable person would be afraid of that.
Don’t.
That’s what Jesus said. Just don’t.
We’ve got bigger fish to fry in the fear department. Even though it would be awful, the worst thing that could happen to someone is not being killed or even tortured by a terrorist. The worst thing that could happen is for someone to spend an eternity in Hell because she has rejected Christ (which should tell you something about how horrific Hell is).
If you have never turned from your sin and placed your faith in Christ’s death, burial and resurrection as payment for the penalty for your sin, how you’re going to die is the least of your worries compared to what’s going to happen to you after you die. That should scare the living daylights out of you.
If you have never turned from your sin and placed your faith in Christ, how you’re going to die is the least of your worries compared to what’s going to happen to you after you die.
The good news is, Christ offers to forgive you today. His goodness for your badness. His purity for your sinfulness. His grace for your gross. He will set you free from your sin so you’ll no longer fear standing before Him on the day of judgment.
Christ offers to forgive you today. His goodness for your badness. His purity for your sinfulness. His grace for your gross. He will set you free from your sin.
And, if you belong to Christ, you have nothing to fear in this life or the next. Take a look back at that verse. It says to “fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” But if you’re in Christ, you no longer have to be afraid of Him. And the first part of the verse says not to be afraid of people who can kill your body but not your soul. Nothing to fear now. Nothing to fear later.
Listen in as Dave and I discuss marks of a false teacher, your responsibility to be a careful listener at church, conferences and other events, issues with The Gospel Coalition, LifeWay Women, and Crossway, the importance of the local church, and more!
(I misspoke at the 30:01 mark. When I said, “The Gospel Coalition is less progressive…” I meant to say “LifeWay Women is less progressive…”)
Be sure to check out Dave’s website, Servants of Grace, where you’ll find an abundance of great teaching, podcasts, and materials, as well as his social media links- and give Dave a follow!
Articles / resources mentioned or touched on in the episode:
Got a podcast of your own or have a podcasting friend who needs a guest? Need a speaker for a women’s conference or church event? Click the “Speaking Engagements” tab in the blue menu bar at the top of this page, drop me an e-mail, and let’s chat!
When you wish upon a star Makes no difference who you are Anything your heart desires Will come to you.
If your heart is in your dream No request is too extreme When you wish upon a star As dreamers do.
Fate is kind She brings to those who love The sweet fulfillment of Their secret longing
Like a bolt out of the blue Fate steps in and sees you through When you wish upon a star Your dream comes true1
If you used to be a Disney fan, you’ll recognize those words as the lyrics to the song When You Wish Upon a Star from the movie Pinocchio. It’s a sweet little song that tugs at our hearts. After all, we all want a fairy to wave her wand and make the wishes of our hearts come true, right? “God wants to help you realize all your hopes and dreams,” is the mantra of pop Christianity. But is it biblical?
Moses dreamed of leading Israel into the Promised Land.
David dreamed of building the temple.
Hosea dreamed of marrying the girl next door and having children with normal names.
Amos dreamed of being a fig farmer and a flock follower.
Paul dreamed of snuffing out Christianity.
Stephen dreamed of living to preach the gospel.
Jude dreamed of writing about the gospel.
Nope, not one of those dreams – some of them much more godly than your dreams or mine – came true. Why? Because our dreams don’t always fit with what God wants to do. Because God isn’t someone whose sole function is to help us get what we want out of life.
God is for God. God is about His glory. And what brings Him the most glory is redeeming wretched sinners from the gaping maw of hell and making them look like Jesus. And, as His children, we have the unbelievable privilege of participating in that mission.
So, church, let’s leave the Blue Fairy and Genie to Pinocchio and Aladdin. More money, fame, impact, and power is but a petty vision. We were created for the earth-shattering honor of dying to ourselves, clothing ourselves with humility, and serving the King by serving our families, our neighbors, everyone we know, His way, in the hope that we might win them to Christ for His glory.
To dream of anything else is, for the slave of Christ, to aim too low. So dream high, and dream on.
1 “When You Wish Upon a Star,” copyright 1940 by Bourne, Co., NY.
