Living proof you should follow Beth no Moore - by Michelle Lesley

Excerpted from here. Our comments in bold.

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We have no desire to defend Beth Moore; rather, it is our intent to examine the author's erroneous and sometimes foolish assertions.

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Beth Moore claims to receive direct, personal, extra-biblical revelation from God

Beloved, I am convinced one of our severest needs is pure rest. Not only sleep, but refreshment and recreation. Recently God spoke to me about capturing what He and I are calling “Sabbath moments.” Like many of yours, my schedule right now is particularly tough, and I see no time in the near future for a number of days off. God spoke to my heart one Saturday morning while I was preparing for Sunday school: “My child, in between more intense rests, I want to teach you to take Sabbath moments.” I wasn’t certain what He meant. Just that morning God confirmed His desire for me to drive all the way to the other side of Houston to the medical center to visit a patient with brain cancer. I was very thankful for the privilege of visiting this patient, but I knew in advance it would be tough emotionally and far from restful.- 

- Excerpted from Beth Moore’s The Beloved Disciple

Aside from the fact that it’s unbiblical in and of itself for Beth to claim that God is talking to her, God is not inventing new teachings besides the ones He has already given us in Scripture. And this “Sabbath moments” teaching is found nowhere in Scripture. (Picking nits is not a great way to refute someone. Moore was clearly not creating a new doctrine or making a novel teaching. It seems pretty innocuous to suggest that taking moments to rest is a good thing. Giving it a name like "Sabbath moments" is hardly egregious.)

Passages like 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and 2 Peter 1:3 explain that Scripture is sufficient to teach us everything we need pertaining to life and godliness. (We discuss sufficiency here. Suffice to say, cessationists like Ms. Lesley redefine the word to mean something it doesn't.)

Additionally, notice that Beth says “I wasn’t certain what He meant.” When you have a few hours, go grab your Bible and look up every single passage about God actually speaking to somebody. Did any of them ever say, “I wasn’t certain what He meant.”? Absolutely not. (How about Ac. 15:28? It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements...)

When God speaks to someone, He is completely, perfectly clear about what His message means. 

What God began to say to me about five years ago, and I’m telling you it sent me on such a trek with Him, that my head is still whirling over it.

He began to say to me, ”I’m gonna tell you something right now, Beth; and boy, you write this one down. And you say it as often as I give you utterance to say it: ‘My Bride is paralyzed by unbelief. My Bride is paralyzed by unbelief.’” And He said, “Startin’ with you.” 

- Excerpted from Beth Moore’s “Believing God” video

The infamous “hairbrush story” in which Beth claims God told her to go up to a stranger in the airport and brush his hair.

In her blog article It’s Hunting Season for Heretics, Beth defends herself against those calling her to repent of believing and teaching extra-biblical revelation with this comment, displaying either her confusion or ignorance about God’s Word and His authority:

“Nothing equates with the Scriptures: no word of knowledge, no prophetic message, no insight, no revelation, no dream, no vision. Nothing. That doesn’t mean they can’t be valid. The New Testament says they can. But they must never supplant or be placed on the same level with the Scriptures.”

This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. First of all, where – in context and rightly handled – does the New Testament say this, as she claims? It can’t. All of the dreams, visions, prophecies, etc. in the Bible from God to His people became Scripture once they were written down, (This is categorically false. To the contrary, we see all sorts of prophecy, miracles, and other supernatural events that didn't make the cut, as it were. For example, some of the great exploits of King Solomon were not deemed worthy of inclusion in the Holy Writ. Here we find that readers are directed to the "annals of Solomon," something we do not have today:

1Kg. 11:41 As for the other events of Solomon’s reign — all he did and the wisdom he displayed — are they not written in the book of the annals of Solomon?

King Saul prophesied to the extent that the people wondered if he was included among the prophets. However, we don't have any of those prophecies:

1Sa. 10:10-11 When they arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came upon him in power, and he joined in their prophesying. 11 When all those who had formerly known him saw him prophesying with the prophets, they asked each other, “What is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?”

Luke tells us that

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eye-witnesses and servants of the word. Lk. 1:1-2 

Why don't we have those other records?

Agabus was a N.T. prophet worthy of special note in the Church. It is interesting that only two of his prophecies were included in the narrative, while any other prophecies he spoke were omitted:

Ac. 21:10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

 In fact, his famine prophecy is only a summary, not the actual prophecy:

Ac. 11:27-28 During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world.

Similarly, we don't have any prophecies from Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, or Manaen (we would note that the narrative does not say who gave this particular prophecy):

Ac. 13:1-2 In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

Nor do we have any from Judas or Silas, even though they "said much:"

Ac. 15:32 Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers.

And these twelve men prophesied, but we don't have a record of their prophecies:

Ac. 19:6-7 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.

Philip's daughters prophesied, but that all we know:

Ac. 21:8-9 Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

Even Jesus, as critically important are His words and deeds, was subject to editing by the Holy Spirit:

Jn. 21:25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

We do not wish to belabor the point any more. Why would contemporary revelation have the requirement imposed on it that it must be included as Scripture, when so much of the prophetic mentioned in the Bible was not? 

Conclusion: Ms. Lesley is either ignorant or a false teacher.)

and we know that all Scripture is breathed out by God. Know what that means? God Himself equates all of these types of revelation with Scripture. (We would challenge the author with her own words: "...where – in context and rightly handled – does the New Testament say this...?" 

Ms. Lesley, where in the Bible does God equate all revelation with Scripture? Well, He doesn't.)

When God speaks, God speaks. He doesn’t speak authoritatively in Scripture and non-authoritatively or less authoritatively outside of Scripture. (Who makes this odd claim?)

Doing so would make Him imperfect and, thus, not God. (Ms. Lesley is on the wrong end of the transaction. The issue is people hearing imperfectly from God, not God speaking imperfectly:

1Co. 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part...

1Co. 13:12 Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.)

People who claim to receive “words of knowledge, prophetic messages, insights, revelations, dreams, and visions” claim that these extra-biblical revelations are God speaking to them. If this is true, and this really is God speaking, then His spoken word to them is “on the same level as Scripture”. (Ms. Lesley doubles down on her spurious claim.)

(And I won’t even go into the instances in which these folks, including Beth Moore, have said God has told them something that conflicts with Scripture or that God told them something was going to happen and it didn’t. I guess God just gets it wrong sometimes?) (Again Ms. Lesley is on the wrong side of the transaction. God is perfect; people hear imperfectly.)

If it is not true and it really isn’t God speaking to them then why are we listening to them and why are they saying that their own ideas and imaginings are God speaking to them?

These are just a few of the numerous examples of Beth Moore supposedly receiving personal, direct revelation from God. Pick up any of her books or watch any video of her teaching, and count how many times she says, “God told me…” or “God said…” or “I think…” or “I believe…” or bases her teaching on a personal experience, story, or what God supposedly spoke to her rather than teaching what God’s all-sufficient word clearly says. (Ms. Lesley apparently has no idea what God's all-sufficient Word says.)