BETH MOORE & BELLEVUE BAPTIST:
A WOLF COMES TO MEMPHIS
BY SETH DUNN
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
If you had the chance to meet Joel and Victoria Osteen, two of the world’s most prominent purveyors of the prosperity gospel, would you beg them to stop twisting God’s word for profit? If you were able to sit down with Brian and Bobbie Houston, the founders of the worldwide prosperity movement that is Hillsong, would you rebuke them? If you had the opportunity to go on television with Matt and Laurie Crouch, who broadcast heresy into nearly every household in America through their TBN network, would you beg them to stop fleecing shut-ins for “seed money?” Each of the parties mentioned above are ravenous wolves. They are the very type of people that the Apostle Paul warned Titus about when he wrote the following:For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11 who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.Titus 1:10Titus was under Paul’s instructions to appoint elders in local churches. Paul very clearly instructed Titus that he should appoint no elder who was fond of sordid gain. To the contrary, Titus was to appoint men to lead churches who could rebuke the kind of ravenous wolves who taught the type of false doctrines purveyed by the Osteens, Houstons, and Crouches. This rebuke was to be done out of a proper understanding of God’s word.Beth Moore is perhaps the most popular Bible teacher in America. She is, being a woman, not eligible to hold the pastoral office. Nevertheless, she teaches the Scriptures to as many women, if not more, than any pastor in the country. Beth Moore should know how to handle heretics like the Osteens. Beth Moore should know what to do with wolves.Beth Moore, I believe, is a wolf. Birds of a feather flock together, wolves run in packs, and bad company corrupts good morals. When Beth Moore literally embraces heretics like Brian Houston and the Osteens, what else can I think? Beth Moore is clearly in the God business, right along with the Crouches…and it is a profitable one. In the course of her business, Beth Moore is set to appear this month for one of her Living Proofconferences at the flagship church of the Southern Baptist Convention, Bellevue Baptist in Memphis. That church is pastored by former SBC President Steve Gaines, who was a member of the study committee that helped to draft the official confession of faith of America’s largest protestant denomination. That church was formerly pastored by the great Adrian Rogers, who chaired the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 Committeeand led the Southern Baptist Convention back from the brink of liberalism in the early 1980s.Surely, Joel Osteen would never be allowed to host a conference or fill the pulpit at Bellevue Baptist Church…but Beth Moore is coming and being embraced with open arms. Is Steve Gaines letting a wolf in his pulpit? Sadly, that’s a moot point. Adrian Rogers’ old pulpit at Bellevue is already filled by a man who would preach prosperity theology. That man is Steve Gaines himself, who once warned his congregation that their children would get sick if they didn’t tithe (to his church).Beth Moore isn’t someone to warn Bellevue Baptist members about, she is a judgement upon them. They already tolerate Steve Gaines. Surely the women there hunger to hear a speaker like Moore, and this March they will flock to her. God only knows if their kids, in the midst of allergy season in the south, will get runny noses.*Please note that the preceding is my personal opinion. It is not necessarily the opinion of any entity by which I am employed, any church at which I am a member, any church which I attend, or the educational institution at which I am enrolled. Any copyrighted material displayed or referenced is done under the doctrine of fair use. I exhort you to read the powerful testimony of a pastor’s wife named Lauran who grew up at Bellevue and now seeks to warn other women about Beth Moore and her ilk.