My name is Noemi. I am a member of a Baptist Church. I was saved about 20 years ago at the age of 13 when I was convicted in church that I needed to follow Christ. A few years later I went to college and started reading many theological books. Somehow, some of Beth Moore’s books slipped in my pile, but I didn’t see anything wrong with them at the time. I even attended Passion Conferences, where she is a frequent speaker, a few times. If someone hadn’t pointed out to me that something was wrong with her theology, I don’t think I would have seen it on my own. Thankfully, someone did and I have broken free of Beth Moore.
My eye-opening experience with her started at a church I visited for a while and considered joining; a church that loved Beth Moore “Bible” studies. At that time I didn’t think anything of it. After about 8 months of visiting that church, something didn’t sit right with me and I wasn’t sure what it was. I prayed that God would make it very clear to me if I should stay or leave. One Sunday, someone from within the church filled in for the main pastor. From beginning to end, his sermon was suspect. All the scriptures he was using to back up his teaching were just slightly and very subtly twisted. It was a lot of truth wrapped up with a little deception. It wasn’t quite wrong but it wasn’t quite right either. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and hoped that maybe he just didn’t know better. I watched the church’s reaction to his sermon and hoped that at the end someone would pull him aside and correct him the way Aquila and Priscilla did with Apollo. Quite the opposite occurred, the whole church gave him a standing ovation. My jaw dropped to the floor. In a very unexpected way, my prayer was answered; I knew that was the last Sunday I would ever show up to that church.
Thankfully, soon after that I found a wonderful Biblical Reformed church that I’ve since joined. Our pastor faithfully exposits God’s Word and strives to protect us from false teachers! It was there, about 5 years ago, that I started learning about the problems with Beth Moore and others like her. Someone from our church connected me to a link from a website called ExtremeTheology.com where Chris Rosebrough did a radio show and analyzed one of Moore’s entire “sermons”. For the first time, it was very obvious to me just how badly she twists Scripture and how utterly inaccurate she is in her teachings. The entire time she was speaking she used Hebrews 10:35-36 to communicate that we need to have confidence and competence in the things we do and that we will be rewarded for it. She completely removed the verses from the context of the Chapter 10 and said absolutely nothing whatsoever about the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, our freedom to boldly approach the throne of God through Christ, and our call to persevere – which is really what the pericope is about. That’s the context of verses 35 and 36, not what Beth Moore was teaching. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with being confident or competent, but to misapply the Bible this way is inappropriate regardless of the conclusion!
I know a lot of people will want to defend Beth Moore and say that anyone can make mistakes in preaching, that no one is 100% correct 100% of the time. Such a defense is wrong-headed. The way Beth Moore took Hebrews 10 out of context is not an isolated incident. It is part of a larger and frequent pattern is scripture misapplication. It’s just plain typical of how she teaches. The things she was saying were absolutely inexcusable for a “teacher” of her status The Apostle James wrote that teachers “will incur a stricter Judgment”. Beth Moore’s constant misapplication of the biblical text completely disqualifies her from teaching anyone anything from Scripture. That’s to say nothing of her Word of Faith associations, strange prophecies, and advocacy of contemplative prayer.
I’d like to challenge anyone to show me a single sermon where she exegeted a text and taught what the Bible actually means to say in a lengthy passage. I can tell you right now, you will struggle mightily to find one. My own testimony may not be adequate “proof” for those who don’t want to hear it, but for those who are in a place where they know something is wrong but can’t put their finger on it, I want to appeal to them to go ahead and take one of her teachings and compare it to scripture in context. I recommend that you use resources from discernment ministries like Pulpit & Pen, Justin Peters Ministries, and Pirate Christian Radio. You can even ask a Southern Baptist Theology Professor. Take the time to read and listen to what Moore’s critics have to say. I’m so grateful for the grace God has given me to break free from Beth Moore’s teachings and I want to do everything I can to warn others about her. I’m also grateful to see other testimonies on Pulpit & Pen of those who are realizing more and more how erroneous she is in her so-called “Bible studies”. Seeing how blind I was about her for many years, I think it was truly a the work of the Holy Spirit to open my eyes to see the uncompromised truth of Scripture and be able to shun away false teachers like Beth Moore. Today, not only do I avoid her teachings, I personally wouldn’t participate in or support any church or ministry that promoted her.
[Edited by: G. Seth Dunn]
