“Thomas Nelson did not openly correct the theology but tried to conceal the occultic origins and channeling practices from the reader. Why is there a need to omit, for example, her claim that the book God Calling was the major inspiration for her book?”
(Don & Joy Veinot – Midwest Christian Outreach) In August 2000, we began receiving phone calls and emails from people looking for information on a popular “Bible-based” weight loss program, Weigh Down Workshop, and its leader, Gwen Shamblin. Shamblin’s Weigh Down Workshop was in over 30,000 churches across 60 denominations, with over a million Christians enrolled. In addition, she had a bestseller published by Thomas Nelson Publishers titled Rise Above, which sold about 300,000 copies….
By the time we learned of her, Weigh Down Workshop had become somewhat more than just a weight loss program – her material had become popularized as the basis of a women’s Bible study/fellowship program. We began receiving calls from people concerned about her views on essential doctrines of the faith. We called and asked pastors from host churches about her teachings, and all indicated that she was orthodox to the best of their knowledge. We looked at her website, and it was clear that there were serious problems, so we called and, within a few minutes, were put through to Shamblin. I explained some of our concerns and, thinking she may be confused about doctrine, and not willfully in error, offered to assist in rewriting her doctrinal statement to reflect correct Christian doctrine. She immediately insisted we were false teachers, that Jesus never claimed to be God, that the Trinity is a heresy, that salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is false doctrine, and that churches that teach these ideas have taken people captive to Egypt. So that made things quite clear. I thanked her for her time, and we drafted a press release and posted it. Within a very short time, Christianity Today picked it up and called Gwen to verify what we had claimed. She not only affirmed it was accurate but went on to say: Women don’t care about doctrine. They just want to lose weight.
Related
CRN has compiled a list of false teachers and several other professing Christians we’ve warned you about over the years. The list also contains those we must keep an eye on plus movements, organizations and “frauds, phonies and money-grubbing religious quacks” to mark and avoid as per Romans 16:17-18