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Watch Out for Those Who Teach God Speaks to Them, Pt 2
Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective
In our first part in this short series – Watch Out for Those Who Teach God Speaks to Them, Pt 1 – we introduced the subject of false teachers, listing a number of them and then focusing on one in particular – Beth Moore. The reason we did so is because of how she presents what she believes in her teachings and so many people love Moore and what she teaches. It comes to a point of wondering if so many love her, how could she (and by association, they) all be wrong about her? Is that even possible? Clearly, it is very possible.
We talked about the fact that many false teachers today talk about how God speaks directly to them. It’s almost as though they really don’t need God’s Word anymore, or at the very least, His Word is merely a useful guide, but for the real nitty-gritty, God has chosen to spell things out in detail for those who somehow enjoy a closer relationship with Him. This is certainly the implication.
I previously focused on how a few years ago, Moore believed God was telling her something that really came to her outside of the written, biblical revelation contained in the Bible. This is becoming the norm in many quarters of Christendom. Years prior, this was usually only part of the Charismatic Movement (along with Pentecostalism as well as other “sign” gifts groups or movements). While the emphasis on tongues is not as prevalent today, in its place is the dangerous extra-biblical belief that God speaks to us directly and is constantly looking to communicate with us in sentences and even paragraphs and He does so completely separate from His written Word.
Let me be as clear as possible here. I firmly believe that God guides us using a variety of ways. He may choose to do so by opening and closing “doors” to show us a particular path is either off-limits or a direction He wants us to move in. He may also provide a “sense” of direction from within as the Holy Spirit guides us. He is of course, also free (and frequently uses) to use Scripture to help us understand His will, especially in the moral realm, in determining how we are to live. However, God would never guide us into something that is expressly forbidden in His Word. While He does guide us and uses several methods to do that, but He will never “speak” to us (however that is done) with information or declarative statements that are actually opposed to His truth. In fact, unlike what often appeared to be the norm in the Old Testament, we should not look to God “speaking” to us as any type of norm for today. Instead, we should trust the inner guidance of the Holy Spirit, coupled with the revealed written truth of His Word. It is also important to note that these two forms of guidance must agree. Paul reminds us that Satan can easily come to us as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).
Unfortunately, there is a growing movement within Christendom that claims God wants to speak directly to us, either by forming words in our heads or using word pictures and/or concepts from which some derive a “conversation” with God. This is what Gnosticism is all about and what Colossians is largely dealing with, where Paul rebukes the empty, vain, and even demonic beliefs of Gnosticism that had started to gain a foothold into the early church. Several thousand years later, Gnostic beliefs are gaining a strong foothold into the visible Church.
When Beth Moore said that God told her to tell everyone that His “Bride is paralyzed,” that statement should have been immediately compared with Scripture by everyone who heard it. Instead, it was, for the most part, simply accepted as truth by Moore’s followers. It was a statement that sounded true and it was presented by Beth Moore with great emotion as being true, which is often what makes something pass for truth today.
In the context of what Moore stated, she indicated numerous things. Let’s look at her entire statement as presented in a live conference.
“We could live our whole believing lives through, and never make it to our promised land. We get to heaven and go ‘You were not faithful to me! You didn’t do what you said you were gonna do!’
“‘Child, I was holding every single bit of that for you. But I will insist that you cooperate with me.’
“What it says over and over in this particular chapter, the number one hindrance to our calling becoming a reality, is unbelief. This is the heart of our study. Listen carefully. 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’ … Starting with you.’ ‘… Amen’.” (Emphasis added)
Please look at things carefully. She is clearly including believers/Christians in her statement because of the use of the word “believing,” so we can eliminate the idea that she is only talking about professing Christians. She’s clearly not. She also states, when “we get to heaven…” which is another proof that she is referring to true Christians, not wannabes.
Also note that she has the audacity to state that some Christians will get to heaven and immediately begin shaking their finger at God in recrimination, accusing God of not being faithful! She claims some will charge God with LYING (“You didn’t do what you said you were gonna do!”)? All I can say is, WOW!
Every time I read of a prophet (or apostle) or even just an average person in Scripture seeing the Incarnate Christ in His splendor, that individual falls over as though dead! There are a few examples in the Bible where Jesus appears in pre-incarnate visage where His deity is essentially clothed or hidden from view so that He mainly looks like another man and those individuals (like Abraham) don’t pass out or go into a coma.
In spite of this truth, Beth Moore says that when we see God in heaven, at least some will have the arrogance to actually question God! This is absolute sacrilege and there is no other term for it (unless you’d prefer the term blasphemy).
But Moore is also painting this word picture to tells us that she has been given special revelation from God Himself and further, she is under strict orders to share that revelation until God takes breath from her. What is this special revelation? It is nothing more than the alleged fact that the Bride of Christ is paralyzed. That’s right. Apparently, the true Church that Jesus is building (His Bride) in His power is so paralyzed that not even God can do anything about it.
There is only one way to determine whether or not Moore’s revelation is from God or someone else, right? We must open up the Bible and research because our “emotions” will tell us almost immediately that Beth Moore is correct. Our emotions will agree with Beth Moore because she is relating to us on an emotional level.
Beth Moore tends to “come alongside” of the people she teaches so that you feel her warm embrace through words, emotions, and body language as she speaks. I’m not saying that she does this deliberately in an attempt to deceive because this is what any good speaker, teacher, or preacher would do. But it doesn’t matter who is saying something. We have an obligation to determine the truth by comparing them to the truth of God’s Word. Words and teachings stand or fall on God’s Word, period. We cannot simply allow words to speak to us and if our emotions agree, then we “know” we have heard what is true. Satan has been using our emotions against us since the Garden of Eden. Why would he ever stop using such a good thing?
I thought I’d be done with this second part, but it looks like a third part is necessary. We’ll determine from Scripture if Beth Moore is correct. We’re also going list ways to test every person who teaches and/or claims to be speaking foe God.
This is so important because it provides discernment that is so lacking today.
Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective
Source: http://studygrowknowblog.com/2015/09/14/watch-out-for-those-who-teach-god-speaks-to-them-pt-2/
