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Wednesday, October 6, 2021

False Teacher Teacher of the Day #41: Lisa Bevere - By REFORMATION CHARLOTTE

Found here. Our comments in bold.
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Perhaps Ms. Bevere is a false teacher. Perhaps she is the great evil Reformation Charlotte says she is. But if this is true, there ought to be many examples of this evil that can be documented.  After all, it justified the writing of an article, right?

But what does RC do? They nit-pick points of doctrine, and relatively minor ones at that. The level charges and make claims. The problem is, the standard for being deemed a false teacher is a high one. False teachers are egregious and public sinners, they are not people with whom you happen to disagree.

Astonishingly, RC can't even manage single Scripture quote. How does one refute a "false teacher" without quoting the Bible?
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Lisa Bevere and her husband, John, operate a ministry called Messenger International. The ministry exists, according to their website, “to develop uncompromising followers of Christ who transform our world.” Lisa Bevere is a regular conference speaker at highly charismatic church conferences such as Bethel’s Women’s Conference, which lauds her teachings as “authentic, passionate, and witty,” while “weaving profound biblical truths with practical application.”

Lisa Bevere, in stark contrast to the biblical mandate of women’s silence in the church (1 Corinthians 14:34-35),  is a staunch advocate of female preachers in the church. (The author provides a Scripture, referenced but not quoted. Let's do the author's work for him. 1Co. 14:33-35:
As in all the congregations of the saints, 34 women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. 35 If they want to enquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.
With the Scripture now before us, let's consider the context. Is Paul telling the Corinthian church that women cannot utter a word? No. Is Paul discussing women preachers? No again. It is clear here that certain women were enquiring about things in a manner detrimental to proper order, and Paul tells them to ask their husbands at home. This is clearly not a blanket forbiddance to speak.

In fact, we are pretty sure the author doesn't believe women should be absolutely silent at all times. His church probably has women speaking all the time: Talking to their children, their husbands, to friends, etc, etc. No one believes that women must be absolutely silent, which means we need to contextualize Paul's command.

Paul is not commanding absolute silence, for women can pray and prophesy in church. 1Co. 11:5, 16:
And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head... 16 If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice — nor do the churches of God.
So the author cites a verse that has nothing to do with teaching or women's roles in the church, while simultaneously ignoring evidence to the contrary.)

Not only does she regularly fill in as a Sunday morning preacher at various churches, but she also writes:

For centuries, a select few verses in the New Testament have been held over women to effectively limit their role and contribution in the church. But is this really what Jesus intended? If men are the only ones who are to preach, then what do we make of Jesus telling Mary Magdalene to go proclaim the news of His resurrection to His disciples? And what about when He gave the Great Commission? Jesus didn’t just give it to the men in attendance—He gave it to all. In case you were wondering, all include women. In fact, I believe the Great Commission is exactly that—a co-mission, one that will take men and women working together in unison to fulfill.

Here she twists God’s commands to fulfill the Great Commission to mean that it is now acceptable for a female to assume teaching authority (There is no such thing as "teaching authority.")

over men in the context of the church. (Where is this prohibition found? Is the author referring to 1Ti. 2:12? We don't know because the author seems to have a penchant for making undocumented claims. 

We have dealt with the verse in quite a bit of detail here.)

All are called to evangelize, only men are called to teach and preach. (Undocumented claim.)

While giving lip service to the authority of Scripture, Lisa Bevere actually rejects Sola Scripture (Sola Scriptura is not a Bible term, it is a belief about the Bible.)

in favor of extra-biblical revelation. (We have written extensively about this.)

She is a proponent of the false teaching of “God-whispers,” or “heart whispers.” She regularly writes about how the Holy Spirit tells her things and gives her specific revelations. She writes:

Last year I was at the Colour Conference with my beautiful daughter-in-law, Juliana. While I was there, the Holy Spirit said to me, “You’ve written on lions. You’ve written on swords. Now you’re going to write on a crown.”


She doesn’t say exactly how the Holy Spirit revealed this to her, but in another article, she writes:

I believe that when God speaks, it always begins as a whisper. God is whispering to His sons and daughters, and each of us longs to hear His words. We were created to hear our Creator.

Lisa Bevere teaches a false, man-centered humanistic gospel. (Undocumented statement.)

In her teachings, we repeatedly find that Jesus is the means to the ultimate end–man’s accomplishments. (Undocumented statement.)

Closely aligned with charismatic Word of Faith teachings, you will find her saying things such as, “lovely one, if you dare to dream, you must be brave enough to fight.” Christ has already won the battle, it is in Him that we find rest if we will come to Him (Matthew 11:28). (Waaait. The author thinks Ms. Bevere is wrong about fighting battles, and that we should be at rest instead? Does rest exclude fighting battles? This would be a surprise to Paul:
2Co. 10:4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
Ep. 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
1Ti. 1:18 Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight...
1Ti. 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith.
2Ti. 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
He. 12:4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
This is a clear example of the superficial level at which the author engages his rebuttals. If Ms. Bevere is the evil false teacher the author believes she is, then there needs to be some effort expended to identify this situation and refute it with powerful arguments. But the author doesn't bother.)

You will regularly find Lisa Bevere aligned with other false teachers such as Joyce Meyer, Beth Moore, and Christine Caine. She is also tied to the New Apostolic Reformation false teachers Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton out of Bethel Redding. This is fitting since Bevere is also a proponent of mysticism in the church. She affirms the mystic charismatic gifts of today (which are nothing even closely resembling the apostolic sign gifts of the early church). (Again, this is what passes for a rebuttal from the author.)

Bevere also promotes a heresy known as positive confession, which teaches that your words have the power to speak things into existence. In a post on her Facebook page, she writes,

Proverbs 18 tells us that both death and life are in the power of the tongue. So what are you speaking over your children—God’s promises, or your fears? Let’s not position them for normal, because normal has not served the church well. Rather, let’s position them for signs and wonders and miracles by speaking their God-given identity and destiny over them. They are sons and daughters of the most high God. Our words can either cause them to shrink back and live small lives, or frame a world large enough for them to be heroes in. Which will you choose? (This is not "positive confession." "Positive confession" is the idea that the things you speak actually become real, like health, wealth, solving problems, etc. We discuss this here.

Ms. Bevere is not engaging in positive confession, she is doing something else entirely. She is speaking blessings over her children and reminding them who they are. And what does the Bible say?
Mt. 18:10 See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.
Mk. 10:14 Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
De. 11:19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.\
Ps. 78:3-4 ...what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done.
In addition, the OT contains account after account of parents blessing their children, proclaiming God's purpose over their lives, and reminding their children of who they are. We are mystified that the author could object to this.)

She also affirms this in the video below. Notice that she is telling her children that they are already “sons of the Most High God,” though she is alluding to the fact that they are too young to have an understanding of the gospel when she is telling them this. (??? This is an example of her being a false teacher, that she thinks her children are Christians???)

But the idea that we can speak or confess anything into existence is a blasphemous claim, as this is something only God can do.


https://youtu.be/MLTFnMo82WY

(The author utterly failed to demonstrate a single thing about Ms. Bevere that justified his categorization of her as a false teacher. Now there may indeed be significant problematic things about Ms. Bevere, but the author doesn't bother to cite them.

We would expect evidence of her denying or misrepresenting at least secondary doctrines if not primary doctrines. But the most the author can come up with are tertiary things, and much of that is by inference.

Remember, the author's purpose is to warn us about false teachers. The least he can do is prove his target is indeed a false teacher.)

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