BETH MOORE PRAISES BROTHER LAWRENCE AND OBSCURES THE REFORMATION

By Ken Silva pastor-teacher on Sep 4, 2011 in AM Missives, Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism, Current Issues, Features, Southern Baptist Convention

The largely pretending to be Protestant evangelical community continues its pilgrimage back to the legalistic spiritual bondage of apostate Roman Catholicism and its evil author the Church of Rome.

As an online apologetics and discernment work Apprising Ministries does what we can to document this woeful walk away from the truths recaptured during the Lord’s Reformation; how sad He must be.

Southern Baptist Bible teacher Beth Moore remains enormously popular within today’s anything goes evanjellyfish.

Not unlike charismatic prophet-pastors like PDL Pope Rick Warren, Moore is also an SBC figure receiving direct revelations from God.

The Slowly Becoming Catholic (SBC) is said to frown upon charismatic practices; but I guess they’re okay as long as someone isn’t a Calvinist, I mean we can’t have that. Like Warren, Moore’s teachings are peppered with things God “told me,” “spoke to my heart,” etc.

Interestingly enough, both of them are pretty iffy about Reformation theology, most specifically that the Roman Catholic Church teaches another gospel. This clip from Emergent Watch Media is from the Be Still DVD, which is an ode to the unbiblical practice of Contemplative/Centering Prayer (CCP).

You may remember that in Alabama Baptist Convention (SBC) Encourages You To Learn Lectio Divina From Apostate Tony Jones—yes, you read that right—I explained CCP, a form of transcendental meditation, is the crown jewel of the highly subjective Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM).

Under the guise of so-called Spiritual Formation this spurious CSM— a refried Roman Catholic mysticism—has been taught for years now within evangelicalism by Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster. As a matter of fact, Foster is featured prominently in Be Still.

So is his spiritual twin and Southern Baptist minister Dallas Willard; what many don’t seem to remember is Foster was once Willard’s pastor in a Quaker community and what Foster catechizes so does Willard. That understood, after Max Lucado’s quick comment in the video, listen closely to Beth Moore.

Using contemplative-speak concerning someone she refers to as “a true lover of God,” Moore is obviously lavishing praise upon this unnamed person, whom she tells us “spoke about practicing God’s presence.” I wonder why Moore apparently felt she needed to obscure who she is talking about.

In fact she’s speaking of apostate Roman Catholic Carmelite monk Nicholas Herman (1614-1691) aka “Brother Lawrence” and his little book Practicing The Presence of God, which is also highly recommended by Gary Thomas. ^[1] Now, you might be wondering why I would mention Gary Thomas.

Well, I’ve got a little SBC charismatic/contemplative thing going on here and Thomas, who happens to be a preaching pastor at the Southern Baptist megachurch Second Baptist Church of Dr. Ed Young, ^[2] also comes highly recommended by the SBC flagship Saddleback Church of Rick Warren as well. ^[3]

However, the idea of “practicing the presence of God” is meaningless. Do we also practice the omniscience of God; or perhaps, we need to practice His omnipotence? You may recall that in Disciplines To Deception In The Southern Baptist Convention I told you more about this mystic monk.

You see, it’s important to this discussion that you understand the very spiritual practices of Herman’s monastic order were developed by Teresa of Avila. If you wish to know more about this emotionally troubled Roman Catholic nun I’ll refer you to Who Is Teresa of Avila?

Here I’m only going to point out that Dr. Ursula King, a proponent of mysticism herself, informs us that Teresa’s:

mysticism was influenced by the spirituality and methods of the Jesuits and Franciscans, but given her partly Jewish background, her thinking was also affected by Jewish Kabbalistic mysticism, elements of which can be detected in her writings. ^[4]

Sadly, today these Roman Catholic mystics are being romanticized and undergoing a revisionist history within the visible church. For Lawrence, his supposedly being so in tune with God’s’ presence would lead him to remain in spiritual slavery to the apostate religious system of the Roman Catholic Church.

An organization that has anathematized the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and which Dr. John MacArthur rightly referred to as “Satan’s best front for the Kingdom of God.” So, why would we even want to follow this kind of stupid spirituality; rooted, as it is, in the Counter Reformation (hello!) of the Church of Rome?

This is precisely the point: Those who chase after this heart murmur mysticism always end up, at the very least, sinfully ecumenical; and at worst, driving toward Christian Universalism as with the Love Wins mythology of the Emerging Church rock star mystic Rob Bell. Look at his drift over the past few years.

In closing this, for now, here’s another example of the effects of this romanticizing Roman Catholic mystics. Also in Be Still we hear the following repudiation of the Reformation by Beth Moore, one of the best known Bible teachers in the largest Protestant denominations in the United States:

You know, one of the things that time gives us is that it erases the lines in between people so many different sections of the people of God. Because many years later it doesn’t matter any longer that this person was of this practice in the Christian faith and this person of another.

Time somehow blurs those lines and we are profoundly moved by the historical narratives of all their lives, of so great a cloud of witnesses; that we can look back on and see what kept them running the race, what kept them running toward the face of Christ at the end of that finish line. (channel 1, 00:18-00:50)

So what do you suppose it is that Beth Moore is talking about in this section of the Be Still DVD, dedicated as it is to the praise of so-called “Christian” mystics who were members of the apostate Church of Rome, when she says that time “erases the lines.” She’s referring to the Protestant Reformation.

A time during which many of Christ’s beloved children were brutally murdered on the orders of Popes of the Roman Catholic Church. O, but for these compromisers “time” has somehow erased all of this. No, it hasn’t; consider the following from Dr. R.C. Sproul:

The Roman Catholic Church condemns “sola fide! (L.)” Now if, please understand this, if “sola fide (L.)” is the gospel, then the Roman Catholic Church has condemned the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, nobody who went to the Council of Trent, as a delegate, went there with the intention of condemning the gospel.

The theologians of Rome really believed that they were defending the gospel and that the Protestants had in fact committed apostasy. And I admire the Church, the Roman communion of the 16th century for at least understanding what apparently people don’t understand today, and that is what is at stake here. That they understood that somebody is under the anathema of God!

And we can be as nice, and as pleasant, and as gentle, and as loving, and as charitable, and tolerant as we can possibly be, but it’s not going to change that folks. Somebody is preaching a different gospel! And when Rome condemned the Protestant declaration of “Justification by faith alone” I believe, Rome, when placing the anathema on “sola fide (L.),” placed the anathema of God upon themselves. I agree with his [John MacArthur] assessment, that the institution [Roman Catholic Church] is apostate! (Online source)

As you’ll see in Has The Roman Catholic Church Really Changed? the answer is crystal clear: Absolutely not. Rather, this despicable reversal of the Reformation currently going on within squishy evanjellyfish is the work of spineless professing Christians who are themselves now covered in the blood of the martyrs.

Believers in Christ who were murdered because they believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ i.e. salvation is by God’s grace alone; through faith alone, in the finished work of Christ alone on the Cross. Shame on such as these like Beth Moore for forgetting the price paid so she’d even have a Bible to teach from.

Should the Lord choose to sustain me, be sure that I’ll have more to say about this travesty in the days to come. It’s one thing to lament the lack of those of us who make a bold stand for Christ in this tepid time; but it’s quite another to pay the price in standing with us as the enemy then quickly steps in to vilify us.

I wonder, suppose time and Love Wins mythology has erased the deaths of beloved of God like these…