Hijacked Studies - Beth Moore Rant

Trying to find an actual Bible study where someone's book isn't the center is like trying to find the Loch Ness Monster. Women's/girl's Bible studies have been hijacked by Beth Moore and others. Beth Moore is charismatic, funny, pretty and animated. I use to love her too and attended several studies until problems began popping up. Before you close this page thinking I'm just another person picking on Beth Moore, take a few minutes to read. I was just as disappointed and disturbed by the truth as you'll be, but the truth is rarely easy to take, but always necessary.

Beth Moore studies are not Bible studies. The Bible isn't used much at them. What scripture is used is taken out of context, twisted and severely distorted at times.  One instance as an example is HERE. We're encouraged and taught to get rid of insecurities, to have self esteem and confidence and try to make sense out of our pasts. That's not even Biblical. (To read more about the sin of "Self Esteem" go HERE.) God has never advocated or encouraged such teachings, which is what Beth Moore's studies center around. Paul pointed out teachers that would come and prey on weak women who are loaded down with sins (2 Timothy 3:6) What kind of sins are us girls prone to and often loaded down with? Searching for security, wanting to love ourselves, wanting to feel good about ourselves, emotional satisfaction in ourselves or with mates, obsessed with physical imperfections, abuse mentalities, victim mentalities, grief, worldly success and security, etc,. The Bible calls these things sin and sin is to be cut off not cultivated. (Mark 9:43)

We're all damaged goods. Every single one of us. It's the affects and natural course of sin past on and getting worse as man increases on the earth. How often is "sin" even mentioned by these teachers? How often do they even bring up the Gospel or repentance and need for a Savior? Not very often I can tell you from experience. 

God chose the weak things of the world, the despised things, the beaten down things, the poor things, the unwise things and the things the world looks down on (1 Corinthians 1:27). Every human being has been bulldozed somewhere and wounded deeply. But only in our constant weakness and understanding that we are nothing without God does He work in us and through us. Wanting to feel good about ourselves and having self esteem is a direct affront to God and His greatness. It's a direct affront to the work of the Holy Spirit and the purpose for which Christ died. Wanting these things and chasing after them is pride and of the sin nature.

So we buy someone's book and watch their DVDs to hear from God and to feel good about ourselves when we already have God and His book. But, more often than not, the Bible doesn't tell us what our itching ears want to hear especially when we're being convicted of sin. So we surround ourselves with teachers that will.

My husband heard about her involvement with contemplative prayer HERE.  This made me start looking deeper at her studies and noticed how she incorrectly handles scripture, twists scriptures and even lies. Beth Moore was called out by apologetic groups about her involvement in the "Be Still" DVD and initially she backed away from it, but then she dug her heels in and  sided with the new age Contemplative Prayer and eastern mystics advocating it. It's really not a surprise to me now noticing how much pop psychology Beth Moore uses in her studies.

 Beth Moore studies keep us so focused on ourselves and problems we never look up long enough to notice God. I asked my husband one day..."When you and your family were being persecuted in Iran (after they converted from Islam) did anyone ever whip out a Beth Moore book to help get you past it and protect your self esteem?"

Obviously the answer was "No". They survived. In fact their maturity in the faith under such extreme conditions is staggering. They did it with God alone. The Bible is where they went for answers, comfort and assurance. No one even knows who Joel Osteen or Beth Moore is over there. Only in America, a capitalistic society where everything is about making a buck, do we find these types of things. While they keep Christian girls and women wading in the mire of their past and sins, throwing out "self help" books as useless life rafts and making empty promises, these teachers are getting rich while millions are drowning. If we could help ourselves by reading books, doing workbooks and watching DVDs then no one would need God. Self help is just that: self help. God is not included.

What God does want us to do is....

"Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead," Philippians 3:13

"But Jesus said to him, 'No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.'" Luke 9:62

God wants us productive for Him and through Him. God already saved us from our pasts, but these pop psychology teachers like Beth Moore keep telling us to run back there, jump in the mire and sift through it. Love yourself, feel good about yourself, God wants you to be a better you." God wants us to be like Christ.

When the Egyptians  were coming for the Jews at the Red Sea did God yell "Ok everyone! Stop, drop and analyze why this is happening and what it could all mean for the future. You can't move ahead until you all understand how being a slave effected you for the last 430 years. Moses you wanna add anything to this?"  He told them to get going to the sea.

Do we ever see Joseph running back to the rotten way his brothers treated him and picking it apart in order to serve Pharaoh effectively or perform his duties? No. Did he tromp through the prison and yell "Come on girls! It's time to say so long insecurity! I know I gotta break free from the stuff my brothers pulled. Man was I treated bad and where was my father when this was all happening? Let's spend the next 10 years having circle time and discussing it."

I'm not trying to minimize what people have gone through. I truly can sympathize/relate. My life hasn't been all fun and games either. That's what makes me so angry about these teachers. They prey on some of God's weakest lambs. We're supposed to be running a race, but Beth Moore, Priscilla Shirer and others keep us stagnant and focused on ourselves. That's not what God wants. That's what Satan wants.

When crushed women and girls fail to attain to the level Beth Moore and those like her advocate and claim they've ascended to...it breeds depression. When it fails to be manifested in their lives after repeated studies and very little results they turn in on themselves. They think God doesn't love them, they lose hope, they beat themselves up, ultimately crushing any morsel of faith.

Our joy, peace and comfort is found only in Him. There's nothing in us to feel good about. There's nothing in our flesh deserving of confidence, love or to esteem. We're sinful creatures and filthy before God. That's what repentance is...realizing we're all bankrupt and on our way to hell without Him. Without that we have no idea what true repentance is, therefore, true and saving faith. God doesn't want us like us or a better us. God doesn't want us like Beth Moore, Osteen or anyone else. He wants us like Christ and we can only attain that through Christ. Everything we go through, every obstacle, struggle, trial, persecution, hardship etc., is for the sole purpose to make us into the image of Christ. And if Christ learned obedience through what he suffered (Hebrews 5:8) so will we.

If our behavior, mentality and personalities are running contrary to what God demands then it's sin. And how are we to handle sin? He never tells us to examine it and try to figure it out, where it came from, why it's still there. We're told to...

"If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if you right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." Matthew 5:30

"No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." 1 Corinthians 9:27

"We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ" 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

Here's a quote from John Piper that's fitting...

"I hear so many Christians murmuring about their imperfections and their failures and their addictions and their shortcomings and I see so little war! Murmur, murmur, murmur 'why am I this way?' Make war!" 

Any book or commentary on God or the Bible is only opinion. All commentaries, no matter who they're from, are always low man on the totem pole and last things to be consulted in Bible study, but we've made them the first things we run to. I know I've done it because I'm lazy. Someone else has figured it out for me so I'll go with that, but that's not what God requires.

We get caught in a vicious circle and same tired rut because focusing on ourselves and problems keeps us in the same sad state and so many wounded women are falling prey to this. God doesn't want us esteeming ourselves. We're supposed to esteem Him. But as long as we're busy esteeming us He doesn't get any.

I'm not against workbooks. There are 2 amazing ones at the top of this page by Paul Washer that are invaluable and free for download and printing. You'll learn more from one page in those then 5 Beth Moore studies combined and you'll be getting good doctrine. But just like with all things everything in moderation and if they take the place of the Bible, and that's all we do and never feeding on the Word daily, then we have a serious problem. When only 10% of Christians in this country read their Bibles regularly then we understand how teachers like this hijack so easily and get a large following.  


"My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6

"Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge; And their honorable men are famished, And their multitude is parched with thirst." Isaiah 5:13

"Though I wrote for him ten thousand precepts of My law, They are regarded as a strange thing." Hosea 8:12

It's regarded as "strange" because we don't know it. And we pay the price. Hopefully more and more will toss out the books and DVDs and turn to the Word of God. Otherwise we're starving and being led around by a hook through the nose.


Until Beth Moore repents publicly of her Bible twisting, involvement and agreement with Contemplative prayer, Eastern Mysticism and being in agreement with known heretics she will stay in the "Heretic" category.