Beth Moore and Sarah Young’s book Jesus Calling insanely popular and insidiously dangerous

“I commend both men to you, but mainly I wanted to set before you the work of Mr. Dale Wilson, of which you may not be aware. His discernment critiques of Beth Moore were early, good, and remain today as a gold standard.” 

(Elizabeth Prata – The End Time)  Title on the site: The King’s Dale: A Commendable Resource for Beth Moore and Sarah Young Critiques and Book Reviews.

The popular definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” For Christians with discernment, insanity is ‘being sure by the Spirit and the Bible, after research and prayer, that so-and-so is false, but literally NO ONE ELSE around you believes it or even entertains the notion for a second.’ Continue reading

As New Evidence of Progressive Bigotry Emerges, Jack Phillips Finally Wins His Case

“I’ve long argued that Justice Kennedy’s “narrow” opinion in Masterpiece Cakeshop was actually more far-reaching than many observers thought — in part because the anti-religious sentiments Kennedy condemned are far more common than many imagine. I’ve seen similar sentiments actually written into campus policies justifying their own acts of anti-religious discrimination.”

(David French – National Review)  Today my former colleagues at the Alliance Defending Freedom announced that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission will dismiss its pending discrimination charge against Masterpiece Cakeshop’s Jack Phillips. … Continue reading

Time To Expose the Radical Gender Ideology

The madness here is simply endless. Not only are more and more children being sucked up into this, but those who try to offer some sanity here – including biological sanity – are being penalised and punished for daring to do so. And now we have a major new growth industry: detransitioning, where those with sex-change regret seek to reverse what they have had done to themselves.

(Bill Muehlenberg – Cultural Warch)  The times they are a changin’, as Bob Dylan once crooned. No question about that. I have seen plenty of major changes during the course of my rather short lifetime. The world a century ago looked far, far different than it does today. Continue reading

When being a Christian isn’t ‘decent’ anymore

“We need to be ready to love our neighbors and our enemies and to bear witness in a culture that is increasingly hostile toward us. Christians may someday face fines and other penalties for their convictions on marriage.” 

(Denny Burk)  I woke up this morning to a troubling Op-Ed in The Washington Post by Cynthia Nixon. The entire article is a call for an end to civility toward anyone who holds Christian convictions about sexuality. In particular, the essay responds to the fact that former Vice-President Joe Biden recently referred to current Vice-President Mike Pence as a “decent man.” Nixon unloads on Biden for this flash of tolerance and civility, arguing that Mike Pence’s Christian convictions about sexuality are worthy of the severest public outrage and opprobrium. She writes, Continue reading

Southern Baptists have a problem with God

An honest examination of Southern Baptist churches reveals a much deeper problem than even sexual abuse. The real problem is spiritual before it is moral. That is, Southern Baptists have a problem with God. They trumpet their affirmation of the inerrancy of Scripture and unhesitatingly call it the written Word of God. Yet, at the same time the overwhelming majority of their churches blatantly defy the God of that Word.

(Tom Ascol – Founders Ministries)  The first story by the Houston Chronicle on sexual abuse within Southern Baptist churches and entities is horrific to read. The information that the authors compiled into a database was gathered primarily from public sources. The power of having all of that data from the last twenty years in one place is that the breadth and depth of the problem becomes undeniable. Continue reading

The Gospel Coalition’s Christian ‘Gay Celibacy’ Movement is a Biblical Farce

“Sam Allberry is one of the founders of the same-sex ministry, Living Out, which has an article on its website entitled Celibate Same-Sex Couples that the author essentially says that homosexuals of the same sex can live together — even be physically intimate with each other — so long as it doesn’t involve penetrative sex. …”

(Jeff Maples – Reformation Charlotte)  Unless your head has been stuck under a rock for the last few years, you’ve noticed a massive paradigm shift in Evangelical Christianity calling on Christians to embrace a new ideology — “gay celibacy.” Largely promoted from liberal outlets like The Gospel Coalition (TGC) and the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the movement teaches that that people who experience attraction to others of the same sex need not be concerned, so long as they remain celibate. Continue reading

Willow Creek Investigation: Allegations Against Bill Hybels Are Credible

Independent Advisory Group releases report backing claims of pastor’s “sexually inappropriate words and actions.”

(Kate Shellnutt – Christianity Today)  An independent investigation has concluded that the sexual harassment allegations that led to Bill Hybels’s resignation last year are credible, based on a six-month investigation into the claims against the senior pastor and into Willow Creek Community Church (WCCC) and the Willow Creek Association (WCA). Continue reading

Ray Ortlund Suggests ‘God No Longer Matters’ to People Who Voted for Trump

“Here in lies the vastly obvious difference. Donald Trump is NOT translating his personal immorality into national policy.”

(Jeff Maples – Reformation Charlotte)  The Never-Trump movement in Evangelical Christianity is not a new phenomenon. It started well before Donald Trump was ever elected into the U.S. Presidency. A movement spearheaded largely by Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), the vast majority of the TGC wing of Evangelicalism — who, for the most part, are incapable of thinking for themselves — have followed Moore’s footsteps with their tails wagging. Continue reading

More Than 100 House Dems: Our Healthcare Bill Will Outlaw Private Coverage, Eliminate Up to Two Million Jobs, and Cover Abortion

“For years, Democrats have attacked Republicans for “ending Medicare as we know it,” often resorting to demagoguery and falsehoods. This scheme would literally end Medicare, creating a brand new, massive entitlement that seniors and Medicaid recipients would have no choice but to join.” 

(Guy Benson – Townhall)  More than 100 House Democrats — nearly half of the new majority — have signed on to a new single-payer healthcare bill that supporters describe as “battle ready.”  If by “battle ready,” they mean, “extremely controversial, deeply politically risky, and totally bereft of any acknowledgement of the proposal’s eye-poppingly exorbitant costs,” they’re undoubtedly correct.  Politico’s story on the legislation is full of extraordinary tidbits and quotes.  Here are some of the most important facts we’ve learned: Continue reading

Does This String of Incredible Coincidences Connect Dr. Michael Brown to the NAR?

“Dr. Michael Brown has made it clear that he rejects some of the beliefs of this NAR group, like the specific dominionist beliefs that most of them hold to, and the belief that modern day apostles are somehow authoritative like the New Testament Apostles. We are happy to know where he stands on these issues.  But in most other matters, it seems that Dr. Michael Brown has a lot in common with these people. He wants all of the other connections to be seen as coincidences. That’s a LOT of coincidences.”

(Steven Kozar – Messed Up Church)  Dr. Michael Brown is trying very hard to make it appear like the New Apostolic Reformation barely even exists. He’s recently completed an entire program devoted to distancing himself from the movement he doesn’t think is real. In the process of describing the thing he doesn’t believe exists, he ends up explaining some of the core beliefs of the movement itself… you know, the movement that doesn’t really exist. Continue reading

No, Women, You Are Not Called to Preach!

False teachers Beth Moore & Joyce Meyer

“The vast majority of these lady preachers aren’t just preaching to women anyway. Women — like Beth Moore and Priscila Shirer — are mainstream preachers. Their audiences consist of as many men as women.”

(Jeff Maples – Reformation Charlotte)  From Beth Moore to Christine Caine, from Joyce Meyer to Priscilla Shirer — women, women everywhere, are standing up and drawing crowds to preach. The phenomenon, which is historically scarce throughout the entirety of Church history, is gaining a lot of traction. I’m going to argue that the primary reason that women are drawn to preaching is not actually a love for God’s word, but a hatred of it. Continue reading

Priscilla Shirer, Contemplative Mystic Seeker-Sensitive False Teacher

“Nowhere in Scripture does it teach that we must expect and anticipate the divine voice of God ringing in our ears and heart. Scripture is clear that the Word of God, as once and for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3), sufficient for our salvation and instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). But apparently, that’s not enough for Priscilla.”

(Jeff Maples – Reformation Charlotte)  Priscilla Shirer is a good friend and a disciple of well-known prophet-preacher Beth Moore and daughter of the Pelagian heretic, Tony Evans. Besides the fact that women preaching and teaching men in the church is unbiblical (read more about that here), these two women regularly claim to receive extra-biblical revelation from God and promote other unbiblical practices such as mysticism, and contemplative prayer.

Shirer was a participant in the heretical DVD on contemplative prayer, Be Still, and she even addresses this criticism on her web page. Though at first glance it may sound like she supports a biblical view of prayer, looking deeper into what she is saying, it becomes clear that she doesn’t understand what biblical prayer and meditation are.

In her FAQ she says,

By participating in the Be Still project, we by no means meant to convey our agreement with the theological viewpoints and positions of other participants yet we did believe (and still do) in the over-arching theme of the resource and that is why I agreed to do it.

This is a contradictory statement. The theological viewpoints and positions of the participants are the over-arching theme of the DVD, and she says she supports it.

She then goes on to say,

The Psalmist himself said that not only would he bring his requests to God in prayer but then “wait expectantly” (Psalm 5:3) for God’s response. The prophet Habakkuk mirrors this philosophy of prayer when he says that after speaking to God he would then “climb up on the watchtower and wait to see what the Lord will say to me.” (Habakkuk 2:1). We are a proponent of the Christian encountering God in a fresh way that is relevant to his or her life, and we believe this can occur when we wait for God quietly with our Bibles outspread before us. As we ponder His Word, the Holy Spirit applies it to the circumstances of our lives.

Here, she equates the way the Old Testament prophets received revelation from God to how Christians are meant to study God’s Word–by being still and waiting. The fact that she goes on to say that we do this with our Bibles open before us doesn’t change anything. Yes, it is true that we receive our revelation from God only through Scripture, if you look closely, this is not what she’s saying. We don’t study God’s word by opening it and pondering a piece of Scripture and sitting silently waiting for God to speak to us. We study Scripture through vigorous intellectual reading, one-way prayer as taught in Scripture, and the application of his Word in our daily lives.

Meditating on God’s Word, by Biblical definition, means to fill our minds with it, memorize it, and study and practice it regularly so that it becomes ingrained into who we are. A golf player does not become a better golf player by sitting down in front of a ball, meditating on it and contemplating it. He becomes better by actively practicing it, and applying his knowledge daily.

Despite her attempt to brush off the accusations of promoting and practicing mysticism, this isn’t the only time she’s been involved in this activity. She has written at least two booklets in which she claims that mature Christians should be able to hear audible voices from God. In her booklet, Is That You God, she writes:

Before you read any further, let me assure you of an important point. To not speak contradicts God’s nature. The second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, is called the Word (see John 1:1). That designation stands at odds with silence. God loved you enough to die for you; He loves you enough to communicate with you. The Lord can and will speak to you if you’ve placed your faith in Jesus. First, however, you must expect and anticipate that the divine voice of God can ring in your ears and heart.

Nowhere in Scripture does it teach that we must expect and anticipate the divine voice of God ringing in our ears and heart. Scripture is clear that the Word of God, as once and for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3), sufficient for our salvation and instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). But apparently, that’s not enough for Priscilla. In Day 4 of Week 2 in her Bible study on her Book, He Speaks To Me, she writes:

How can we consistently hear God’s voice? We must take the focus off ourselves, looking instead to His glory and priorities, meditating on His attributes. To worship God appropriately, we also need to grasp His acceptance. As long as we feel condemned, we will have difficulty hearing God speak.

Again, she seems to believe that God speaks to our hearts in other ways besides Scripture. The Bible doesn’t teach us that we can hear God speak to us as long as we don’t feel condemned, and focus on his priorities and attributes. Paul says in Hebrews 1:1-2

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

The key here is the past tense, “has spoken.” God has already spoken to us through the revelation of Jesus Christ, and his revelation has been recorded by the writers of the New Testament canon. Though God uses the Holy Spirit to illumine the Word of God for us today and interpret it for us, he does not speak directly to us through any other means than the closed canon of Scripture.

Priscilla Shirer teaches contrary to Scripture — she teaches Eastern mysticism and other unbiblical behaviors. Besides the fact that she’s a lady-preacher who shouldn’t be handling the Word of God in front of an audience period– let alone an audience with men, she mishandles the text egregiously enough to be marked as a false teacher, and should be avoided.

Posted with permission.

Priscilla Shirer, Contemplative Mystic Seeker-Sensitive False Teacher (disntr.com)

Research:

Priscilla Shirer

Contemplative Prayer

Academic stopped from researching ‘sex-swap regret’ says accusations of ‘transphobia’ are stifling debate

In October a group of 54 academics wrote a letter to The Guardian, outlining their concerns about “the suppression of proper academic analysis and discussion of the social phenomenon of transgenderism”.

(The Christian Institute)  An academic has challenged a decision by Bath Spa University to refuse him permission to research trans regret.

Psychotherapist James Caspian wanted to study people who had undergone ‘sex-change’ operations only to later regret their decision and seek to reverse their transition. Continue reading

You Can No Longer Be A Decent Person And A Democrat

“In just over a decade and a half, Democrats have gone from “safe, legal, and rare abortions” to “kill ’em all and don’t stop when they’re born.” Many of us warned that the first slogan would lead eventually to the second. We take no pleasure in our vindication.”

(Matt Walsh – Daily Wire)  Last night, Senate Democrats blocked a bill called the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Act. The media tells us that this was an “anti-abortion” bill. The blood-drenched scumbags of NARAL call it an “extremist” and “anti-choice” bill. Elizabeth Warren calls it an attack on women. It was none of those things. Continue reading

Jussie Smollett, Fake Hate Crimes, and a Biblical Perspective

“It pays to be a victim. Sympathy is the currency of narcissists. It makes people feel good to receive sympathy and turns victims into instantaneous heroes for no reason other than that they were victimized (which feeds the narcissism). Likewise, showering sympathy upon the allegedly oppressed signals virtue which, again, makes narcissists feel good about themselves.”

(JD Hall – Pulpit & Pen)  Jussie Smollett will forever be known as the celebrity who put a noose around his own neck, paid his friends to lightly beat him up, and falsely claimed that MAGA hat-wearing Cretans gave him a racist and homophobic working-over. Fewer will remember the name of ‘Charlie’ Rogers, a lesbian from Lincoln, Nebraska, who carved a cross on her chest and falsely claimed that she was beaten for being a sodomite. Fewer still will know the names of hundreds – if not thousands – of fraudsters who wrongly claim to be the victims of so-called “hate crimes.” Continue reading

Witchcraft, Lies and Football

Gisele wrote in a recent Instagram post, “Words have power. If love and kindness lie behind these words, they become charged with positivity and can have a magical effect. But if thoughts and words arise from anger or jealousy, they can do a lot of damage….”

(Linda Harvey – Mission: America)  So Tom Brady says his wife is a witch and her rituals helped the Patriots win the Super Bowl.

But she’s a “good witch, “ Brady laughingly told the media. There’s actually no such thing and Brady’s reckless ignorance will now help promote witchcraft and sorcery to an American public that’s already confused enough. Continue reading

To Protect Our Culture We Must Protect Our Children

“The rights and wellbeing of children should be at the top of the list here, but sadly this is not the case. The whims, lusts and desires of adults are trumping the needs of children, and they are paying a big price as a result. And as a consequence, society is paying a big price as well.”

(Bill Muehlenberg – Cultural Watch)  Some 2000 years ago the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder very wisely said this: “What we do to our children, they will do to society.” In a very similar vein Karl Menninger much more recently put it this way: “What’s done to children, they will do to society.” Continue reading

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is an economic illiterate — And that’s bad news for America

“Ocasio-Cortez does not seem to understand that by helping to drive Amazon away, she did not save New York $3 billion; she cost New York $27 billion. There is a difference between having bad ideas and not grasping basic facts. Reasonable people can disagree about whether New York should have offered Amazon $3 billion in tax incentives — or anything at all — to build its headquarters in the city. But that is different from not understanding that New York is not writing a $3 billion check to Amazon.”

(Mark Thiessen – Fox News)  The left complains that conservatives are “obsessing” over Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Well, there is a reason for that: Ocasio-Cortez is driving the agenda of today’s Democratic Party— and her economic illiteracy is dangerous. Continue reading

Embracing a New-Age Charismatic Worship on Sunday Mornings

“When you walk into any modern Evangelical church, the airwaves are filled with the sounds of electric guitars, drums, and a multitude of instrumental riffs that tickle the ears of hundreds, even thousands of people who stand with their hands in the air swaying back and forth.”

(Jeff Maples – Reformation Charlotte)  There was something peculiar about the old hymns that churches would embrace and sing together on Sunday mornings. For the most part, they were rich in doctrine — they actually communicated something to the congregation. They were exegetical, they told us who God is and about what He has done. It was in response to this rich theology and the knowledge of God that the congregation responded in praise and worship. Continue reading

From Trayvon to Jussie — Poll Shows Media Hoaxes Killed Race Relations

“Although exonerated in a court of law, Zimmerman was tried and convicted by the media using lies, fabricated evidence, and outright racism; and to their forever disgrace, President Obama and the Democrats milked this hoax for all it was worth.”

(John Nolte – Breitbart)   Gallup began polling opinions of race relations back in 2001. At that point, 70 percent of black Americans graded race relations as “very good” or “somewhat good,” while 62 percent of white people agreed.

Think about that… Eighteen years ago, black people were more satisfied with race relations than white people. Continue reading

From Mars Hill to Harvest: Hope for a Wounded Church

“While Harvest and Willow Creek represent two recent, prominent examples in the Chicago area, abuses of power and church mismanagement happen across denominations and in churches of all sizes. Plenty in the pews have been left with the twisted grief of watching once-respected leaders leave their positions and facing the reality of a church in crisis.”

(Kate Shellnutt – Christianity Today) Last weekend was the first time Harvest Bible Chapel gathered for worship without James MacDonald as its senior pastor. Continue reading