Together Again: Beth Moore & Christine Caine - Outraging the Spirit of Grace?

“And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.” Matthew 24:11

She promotes contemplative prayer. She teaches the Bible by narcigetical eisegetics. She gets revelations. As Elizabeth Prata points out, at The End Time blog, Jesus calls her “honey, babe, kiddo and other terms of intimate endearment.” Malcontent with these mere heresies, now, it seems, she’s reviving Old Testament protocols for new covenant believers.

Proving she has never read, studied, nor exegetically understood the Book of Hebrews, Beth Moore hosts her “1^st ever Messianic Seder” with Hillsong’s “pastrix” Christine Caine. It’s unclear, at this time, whether Beth will be instituting “Christian bar mitzvahs” as her next act of “new covenant” disregard.

Beth Moore, the Southern Baptist Convention’s favorite false teacher, has 709,000 followers on Twitter. Her gal pal pastrix Christine Caine has 264,000. Between them, nearly one million people, mostly women one would presume, seek encouragement, solace, and, allegedly, “Biblical” teaching from these patently unbiblical sirens of falsehood.

Jesus is quoted, up there at the top, as recorded in Matthew’s Gospel. Many will be led astray. Does one million seem like “many” to you?

If Jesus’ warning were the only one in Scripture, it alone would be enough to compel us to be wary of the wolves. Earlier in the same Gospel, He said, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” Matt 7:15

Yet His divine warning does not stand as a solitary admonition against the diabolical threats under which the church is constantly assaulted. Indeed, the New Testament is as awash in warnings against false teachers, false prophets, and other “gospels” as the SBC is awash in a godless culture.

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. Romans 16:17
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths 2 Timothy 4:3-4
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. Galatians 1:8
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Colossians 2:8
I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you,not sparing the flock; Acts 20:29
Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Jude 3
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 2 Peter 2:1-3

The problems with Beth Moore are notorious, though intentionally neglected by a convention, and a convention agency, Lifeway, that cares more about profits that it does to heed the New Testament warnings about false “prophets”.

You can google “Beth Moore False Teacher” and find “many” pages – 47,500 to be exact. Or you can search “Beth Moore Heresy” and get 93,100 Google hits. If you don’t have the time to sift through the plethora of those results in order to arrive at the need to “avoid” her, here are a few notable resources for you:

The issues with Caine are equally woeful. A few links about her for you. (She’s a woman and a “pastor”! How much more could you need?)

So, here’s what you’ve got. These two women gathered to celebrate Easter by observing a Jewish Passover meal and tweeted their celebration to their nearly 1 million collective followers. Jews, you may recall, denied Jesus as Messiah, and directly demanded His crucifixion. Not to worry, though, Beth and Christine celebrated the seder meal in a “Messianic” fashion.

The author of Hebrews, writing to 1^st century, Jewish Christ-followers, as well as to Jews who had not yet believed, was intent on teaching from Old Testament Scripture how Jesus brought a better covenant. He was writing to encourage those Jews that the rites and sacrifices instituted under the old Abrahamic covenant had now been supplanted, that the Mosaic law was fulfilled in Christ, our Great High Priest. There was no need for them to continue under the yoke of law or ritual-induced works but were now under the liberty instituted by Christ’s new and better covenant.

The writer says, “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” Hebrews 13:8

That those requirements of the old covenant were ready to “vanish away” became evident to many of this letter’s recipients when the temple was subsequently destroyed in 70 AD. Their Levite high priest now had no temple in which to perform the most fundamental functions of his office. As the author of Hebrews pointed out, though, those functions were no longer required.

Flash forward, then, to the Southern Baptist Convention’s maven of eisegetics, narcigetics, feel good, listen for Jesus, mystic faith. Moore has revived a non-Easter, Old Testament, Jewish tradition to celebrate Easter.

The requirement to observe Passover ended when our Lord became the final, and the ultimate, Passover lamb on the cross. While it would remain a historic, revelatory act of God’s redemptive plan, Passover ended with Christ’s work. What was foreshadowed had become substance.

Is it Biblically mandated that a Christian should observe feasts such as the Passover seder meal? In Colossians, Paul says, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” Colossians 2:16-17

So while the Apostle tells us not to pass judgment on such things, the problem here is that, given their identity as false teachers, perhaps Beth and Christine ought to consider this warning from Hebrews:

“Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?”

By their Twitter-cast example, do these two charlatans not suggest that observation of feasts and rites ended by the new covenant should now have a place in the Christian’s life? Do they not come precipitously close to profaning “the blood of the covenant” by implying a protocol not called for in the New Testament? By their example, are they outraging “the Spirit of grace” by misleading others who may take their observation as a duly-interpreted requirement of Scripture? (No doubt, He is outraged by these charlatans, and the observation of a “feast” is the least of their worries.)

Given the enormous following these two women have, there can be little illegitimate concern that their public celebration of an unneeded Jewish feast will now lead many “naïve” to pursue similar things, believing them to be Scripturally-prescribed. But, those things were a “shadow of things to come,” as Paul says. How can it be sound to implicitly endorse such things when we have Christ, to whom “the substance belongs?” If Moore and Caine were legitimate (they are not), the example they set by broadcasting this behavior is poor. Since, though, they are known false teachers, their promotion of such a celebration is particularly worrisome for those who obviously follow them and don’t know any better.

(Don’t think people do dumb, seemingly “Christian” things? Consider the 125,000 who paid – PAID – a charlatan to pray for them!)

False teachers mislead, not only by mishandling “the word of Truth”, but by providing a poor example of New Testament Christianity. The false teacher will always create obstacles because, fundamentally, they act of “contrary doctrine.”

Eat what you want. Just beware. “Many” will be led astray.

And remember, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Galations 5:1