What We Can Learn from the John MacArthur Beth Moore Battle

I’m a prof on a state university campus. We get a constant stream of speakers proclaiming the CRT dialectic. According to them I am an irreversibly, inherently racist as a white guy. I am the reason black men are in jail. I am the reason black families are struggling. I am the reason black students do poorly in class. The entirety of Western civilization is irredeemably racist and sexist. On and on. It is non-stop. The Leftists on campus drink it up like ambrosia.

If you think your version is different from there’s, feel free to try to give me a definition. If you do, make sure to clearly state how Critical Theory and Critical Race Theory are not derivatives of Marxism and its economic dialectic.

I guess the only thing for you to do is repent continuously … (smile)

How many of you have made bad theological statements, or failed to properly nuance a statement or two in sermons?

All of us. But if we do this regularly and repeatedly, isn’t it a problem, perhaps even disqualifying since it would be an indication we are not “able to teach” or “not able to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict”? It’s one thing to make an occasional mistake either in content or in presentation. It’s another thing to not address something fully. But it is a whole different matter to make such statements regularly and refuse to clarify or double down on it.

How would pastors here react if people spent untold hours pouring over audio files from your church websites, and compiled quotes that “showed” your false teaching over a period of many, many years? What if you didn’t even know these people? Would you graciously respond? Or, would you dismiss them as deranged people who didn’t deserve a response?

I would hope we would respond graciously. To do otherwise would seem to be disqualifying at some level, would it not? It might indicate a self-will (meaning an imposition of our will over that of Christians around us with the unwillingness to be questioned), a lack of gentleness or peaceableness, a pride that is unable to be questioned, a failure to deal gently with those who disagree in case God might lead them to the truth.

There is a man in my church who apparently listens to my sermons two or three times during the week. He frequently questions me about something I said. Should I be bothered by that? Perhaps, but I am not. I am glad he is thoughtfully listening and studying. I wish there were more of these people, not fewer of them. If I regularly hear the same questions, it causes me to look at my own teaching. Maybe I am not as clear as I should be. The fault is not always with those who question. It is sometimes with those who speak.

What is it that makes pastors or teachers beyond question? If a man can’t be questioned, I would suggest he might be disqualified to be a pastor because he might not be humble and gentle (cf. 2 Tim 2:24). As much as people profess to reject the “Big Man” complex in historic fundamentalism, the MoG that cannot be questioned, I wonder if we have really gotten that far away from it. It reminds me that many ex-fundamentalists are not ex-fundamentalists at all. They simply changed their fundamentals. They are still the same hate-filled, rumor-mongerings, intolerant people they used to be. They only changed the side they are on.

Don’t criticize a Christian for false teaching unless you’ve read her written work and have seen it yourself

Don’t rely on secondary sources for your information - or else you’re no better than the KJVO guys who rail against things they’ve only heard filtered through Sam Gipp.

Where did these come from? Are they actually biblical requirements?

I think this article has a good, balanced take on this issue. I hope it blesses all who read it!

I have followed Beth Moore on social media for about two weeks. now. I have yet to find anything heretical or troubling; although, to be sure, material may be forthcoming. I also have yet to receive a recommendation from anyone on SI about a troubling book she’s written that showcases her bad theology.

Moore posted this insight this morning, which I actually thought was pretty helpful.

I have followed Beth Moore on social media for about two weeks. now. I have yet to find anything heretical or troubling…

Then clearly you’re a Marxist rebel intent on overthrowing the church and the US government then with critical social engineering! Repent, evildoer!

\_(ツ)_/

Or a bit Moore? Seriously, one of the things I’ve noticed in her work is that if you’re looking for strict, Aristotelian logic, premiss A/premiss B conclusion syllogisms and all that, that’s simply now how she works. Rather, she tells a story where she describes, fairly loosely, what she believes to be her leading by the Holy Spirit. Now if you are a died in the wool cessationist (again, I am not, I’m a mild cessationist) with a very narrow range of permissible expressions of the leading of the Spirit, you are going to think that she is a loosey-goosey charismatic. But reading her work, I don’t know that is the case. At any rate, you cannot take a quick “prooftext” from her writing or speaking to prove the point.

The other criticism is that she’s inserting herself into a strict area of male authority; again, is she leading in the church, assuming a pastoral role, or is she speaking to mixed groups on occasion, as with ERLC? I think you’re going to have to make a much more strict interpretation of 1 Cor. 11 (etc..) to suggest the latter imposes an authority on men and the like.

And a final note; again, if the leaders of Southern Baptist (and other) churches were to take a hint from how Moore works—making the Scriptures relatable to their personal lives—I’m pretty sure that Beth Moore would be ecstatic that her ministry opportunities had shrunk. Her books reveal that she’s got plenty of opportunities close to home.