Sunday marked the day when the counter on my blog showed 10 million views. Ten million times eyes have passed over something written here. Over ten years of daily essay publishing (4,955 of them) and now 10 million views. I feel the weight of responsibility to readers and especially to the glory of Jesus.
Some of the more popular posts have stood out, and always surprise me with what becomes popular. I'll be posting the popularly viewed essays this celebration week. I'll also be posting some of my personal favorites that didn't receive so many views. The top was the Sideways cross necklace, and in the top ten was the Ghost Horse of Tahrir Square.
1. Sideways Cross Necklace
2. Ghost Horse of Tahrir Square
For 8 solid years, I've been blogging against Beth Moore's ministry and teaching. Since 2011 when I became aware of her mode of living, her method of study, and her manner of delivery, I have loudly and constantly decried all that she is about. In the early years, really until 2018, it's been a slog. In the early years, there were precious few fellow bloggers warning about her danger to women and the church. The push-back I received of this deeply embedded minister of satan was pitched and sometimes virulent. Hence the comment from a reader that she was surprised that the top viewed essay wasn't one of my discernment lessons on Beth Moore. I was too.
Below is the only mention of Beth Moore in my top ten all-time viewed, from August 2014. It was partly about Moore, but also about the difficulty in determining the moment that a person, or a church, should make the decision that a certain teacher is no longer to be trusted or followed in their teaching.
In the case of this essay, it was the moment when Moore partnered with heretic Joyce Meyer. Moore appeared on Meyer's TV show. In a bitter irony, the topic was "Unity." Moore praised Meyer as a sister and gushed about how happy she was to be on her show.
It had been easy for followers, the less mature, and the undiscerning to ignore Moore's profligate lifestyle of wealth and feminism, her preaching to men in flagrant violation of 1 Timothy 2:12-13, her terrible eisegesis, her self-centeredness, but this photo shook many out of their slumber. It was hard to ignore the meaning:
So I wrote the following:
At what point does one declare a teacher like Beth Moore false?
If you have a discerning person in your church, please understand they are there to employ a gift from the Spirit, not a harassment to torture you in your love for certain teachers.
Author Dan Phillips wrote a helpful list of warning signs of false teachers called Red lights. I recommend it.
It occurred to me that many might be served if we offered warning-signs of (at worst) false or (at best) unreliable teachers. Here are a number of such indicators. Some are instantly obvious; others only over the passage of time (cf. 1 Tim. 5:24).As always, thank you for reading!
