You Know are in a Good Place in the Parish When You Get a Note about Beth Moore Like This, by Pr. Rossow

0130151200I found the note in the picture on my chair when I got to church the other day. It is from my Principal and Assistant Principal. It was attached to an ad for some goofy spiritualist speaking at some local church that reminded them of Beth Moore. You know you are in a good place in the parish when you get a note like this. We work hard to not only preach the Gospel at our church and school but also to take the necessary time to warn our people about all the false teachers that are so prominent in the pop Christianity of the day that has also made its way into the LCMS.

On a discussion string on another post I mentioned that it takes strong, intentional, vigilant leadership and teaching to maintain Gospel purity in the local congregation. It takes the same in a synod.

Beth Moore is self proclaimed Bible teacher. She got her start talking to local Christian women’s groups and because of her bubbly and giddy manner she became popular all around the country. She is a false teacher on many counts. She:

  • Is a Southern Baptist
  • Denies the power of the sacraments
  • Rejects the power of the means of grace in favor of a methobapticostal decision theology
  • Is a millenialist
  • Replaces the spirituality of the cross with a spirituality of divine hunches and speaking

The quickest way I know to learn more about the dangers of Beth Moore is to go to the Fighting for the Faith site and do a search on “Beth Moore.” Pastor Rosebrough has done a lot of research into her errors.

It is the last bullet point that is her main claim to fame and the most devilish part of her false teaching.  Everybody loves to be taught that God speaks to them directly and that they can know God’s will for all the decisions in their life but this is a false teaching.

To her credit she often only teaches women. That is a part of her Fundamentalist ethos and I think it is also a reason she is so popular. Many women like the emotional high of knowing that God intimately speaks to them, even if it is just in hunches. You would think her Fundamentalism would carry over to the theology of the Word and it does in part. I am sure she has some sense of the inerrancy of the Word but whatever is gained with that is lost in her crazy claim that God speaks to her and that if you just tune in, God will speak to you and give you hunches on decisions in your life.

The problem with this is the question of authority and the cross. How do I know what hunches are truly from God? These hunches are usually just wishful thinking. There is no Scripture that promises or teaches that God will talk to you directly or in hunches to help you make decisions. Besides, we live under the cross. We walk by faith and not by sight. Beth Moore directs people away from God’s word of the cross and the forgiveness it brings. Instead she directs people inward to the self for a false sense of certainty for day to day living that is not based on God’s revealed word.

Beth Moore is probably a good barometer of whether or not a church is confessional. There are countless LCMS churches that promote Beth Moore and allow her into their churches via webinars, videos and Bible study materials. There are even more LCMS churches/pastors who may have never heard of Beth Moore but would think that it is a part of their Christian freedom to allow the false teacher into their parish.

There is a discussion on this blog and others as to whether or not the LCMS is heterodox. In less than five minutes on the web I found 10 LCMS congregations and one district that is promoting Beth Moore studies. (I simply googled “LCMS Beth Moore.”) Are we heterodox? What do you say?

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