In this blog post Elizabeth Prata of The End Time reveals the results of 30 years of letting false teaching in the Church slide. Prata laments that we are reaping the penalty of false teaching from the likes of Beth Moore, Christine Caine, Lysa TerKeurst, as well as “Experiencing God” that took the SBC by storm. Now we are faced with a “soft youth who are growing up as the next generation of leaders.”
Elizabeth offers her view of what should be done about this…
A friend and I were talking about the younger church generation. A kind of “Kids these days” conversation, lol. She said, “They’ve been swimming in Beth Moore stuff for so long they don’t know if they are even in troubled water.” She and I, and others I’ve spoken with, notice the younger generation of 16-25 year olds simply do not have a solid theological grounding. They do not approach Bible study credibly. They infuse it with feelings, mysticism, romanticism, and subjective experience. They think this is the norm.
This is wrong.
And it is our fault.
This problem is what I dub the ‘Symbolic Jezebel problem’. It’s a generation thing. You see, in Revelation 2 metaphorical Jezebel who was a false prophetess of Thyatira. She was tolerated (one would assume, by the elders of the local church) for so long, unfortunately another generation of spiritual daughters had sprung up under her influence with her false teaching as a model. The ones coming up didn’t know any better, because they had false prophetess ‘Jezebel’ as their example. They must have figured this is the right way to practice the faith, because after all, the elders were not saying anything. It was tolerated. The issues were her false teaching, her false prophesying and the fact that she was teaching in a position of authority in the church. There’s a lot wrong right there. Jesus said to this church-
But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23and I will strike her children dead. (Revelation 2:20-23).
The other day I was talking with a 25-year-old. He was frustrated his peers could not see the truth that certain teachers are false or they could not understand why they approaches to study and communing with God were false (liver shivers, manifestations, circle praying, contemplative prayer…etc). I’d replied that his generation was the first one to have grown up completely under the false emergent, purpose driven, emotional, romantic, mystical model. An entire generation has been exposed to false teachings of one sort or another that have been tolerated by elders.
Beth Moore has been teaching locally since 1984 and went public with incorporating Living Proof Ministries in 1994. She’s nearly 60 now, Christine Caine is turning 50 next month. Lysa TerKeurst is 47. “Experiencing God” the terrible mystical curriculum that took the SBC by storm was published in 1976 and grew to monstrously popular proportions in the 1980s. All this is 25-30 years ago and we are reaping the terrible penalty for it now with our soft youth who are growing up as the the next generation of leaders. The problem is seen in this 2015 headline from Christianity Today, which unwittingly puts its finger dead center on the problem-
No. It’s about what happens when we see not what’s possible, but what’s tolerated. Continue reading
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You know what the bible says……… In the last days people will gather teachers around them that say what their itching ears wan to hear. It’s so sad that “church” now has to be treated like the public school system. Send your kid to public school and most likely you’ll get an evolutionist, send your kid to church and chances are you’ll get a heretic.
What to do? Simple, let the Christian education begin at home, teach your children from the bible, not man’s wild imagination. Time was when it was safe to send your child to Sunday school, these days we have to be vigilant as to what is being taught in Sunday school. I believe we are headed to a time when home churches and tiny congregations will be the norm for those wanting to worship Jesus and learn scripture in an unadulterated way.
I love your last sentence Manny. We might also ask ourselves whether there was ever any justification for abandoning scriptural practice in the 1st place. Seeing that heaven will be entirely sufficient with God, His Word and His people as was 1st century Christianity, why then all this church related stuff?
Church is the invention of men, always was, always will be. Thank God that Jesus is in the process of shaking it now, as well as every other foundation not established upon Him. It’s not just the aforementioned false teachers who pose a problem, but every professing “Christian” hireling who continues to pose as a mediator all the while promoting an entirely unscriptural paradigm and precedent. These are equally to blame.
Michael,
I always think of church as a gathering of Christians. I assume you mean “church” to be a denomination?
As long as the return of Jesus tarries, we will continue to need mature pastor-teachers to teach sound doctrine. Also important in the church (no matter what size) is a climate that encourages questions and feedback, as well as loving reproof, because this is part of the learning and growing process. There also needs to be respect shown for each Christian, as individually gifted by the Holy Spirit, to minister in the church body. We need to continue to pray that God raises up pastors who fear God and have a heart for God’s people, and not hirelings who have their own agenda.
We need men who will preach sin and repentance at the foot of the cross. So few dare speak of sin. Jesus came to earth to wash us from our sins in his own blood (Revelation 1:5b KJV). We need people who will cast off this world, and speak the word boldly, seeking to save souls rather than win friends and gain popularity. We must not be afraid to judge righteously, as the word commands us to, and we must call out false prophets who never preach the real biblical Jesus, but preach a fake one that tickles our ears. We ain’t got time to play. We must step on the gas for Jesus Christ by obeying his word, and sharing his love, which was best exhibited by baring our sin in his body on the cross that we might die to sin and live for righteousness, for by his wounds we are healed. ( 1 Peter 2:23-24)
From Genesis to Revelation we see a pattern: Idolatry is the main culprit of Israel going astray, nothing has changed today as many “churches” allow Paganism/Nimrodism to dwell in the congregation and the pastors KNOW this but continue to believe Yaweh is fine with paganism under the age of “grace”…we shall see brethren very soon because Abba will not be accepting Baal into His house.
The most crass example being the Roman Catholic Church, with priestly castes, occultic rituals, idols, religious dogma, slavish obedience required along with works and cult adoration……truly paganism in its purest form.
Hi Anthony .. not sure if you’ll see this but yr comment brings to mind my concerns about christmas. Our pastor gave me an article re why its ok to celebrate Christmas (i didn’t read it all as it was justification for it but recall a para anout letterism). Our and my mother’s church continue to erect xmas trees in the church blding each xmas see Jer 10 pagan idol of trees brought into the home.
Despite christian friends saying its ok, Im becomjng more of a puritan & seek deeper truths and obedience, but not in a legalistic way.
Our pastor also preaches that under grace we don’t need to observe the sabbath any longer.