Would you buy a house without doing research on the realtor, mortgage company, home, area, neighborhood and market? Would you invest money without doing research on what you're investing in, the company, etc.? Do you get into the shower without testing the temperature of the water first? Yet we gamble with eternity by not testing teachers and what they're teaching.
I realize pointing out the problematic teaching of these popular women's teachers is going to make a lot of women angry and most will gloss over this post, brush it off and keep following them. I wish it weren't so, but, according to the Bible, most people will flock to heretics, believe every word they say and follow along because they're hearing exactly what their itching ears want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3). But if just a few women will begin comparing what they're paying to learn, from those like Julie Clinton, to the Bible then that will be a good thing.
Most professing Christians in the States alone don't even read their Bibles. Statistically, only 10% of professing Christians read their Bibles regularly. Therefore, most have no idea what kind of teaching they're getting from teachers like Julie Clinton. Even people who read their Bibles more than the average person can be easily deceived because these teachers spin worldly philosophy and pop-psychology, slap a "Christian" tag on it and pass it off as Biblical. We think because they used scripture it's kosher. Satan used Scripture (and twisted it) all the time too and had the audacity to do it on the Word of God Himself. Why would we ever think he wouldn't do it to us?
We judge by popularity and use a "follow the herd" mentality. We'll follow them just because they call themselves "Christian", most are flocking to them and/or what they're teaching kinda sounds like the Biblical story we're sorta familiar with so it must be all good. It's not. Following the herd is beneficial in the animal kingdom, but it spells death to the Christian considering Satan has dominion over the world and controls all of its philosophy.
We're so inundated with Bible Teachers who all have a product to sell us, special secrets and revelations from God and who all claim to be changing lives and making a difference, but a few questions keep coming up for me...
1. Up until modern times with the explosion of so called "Bible" teachers, how did Christians grow and mature in the faith without Julie Clinton,
Beth Moore,
Priscilla Shirer,
Sheri Rose Shepherd, Joel Osteen, etc.,?
2. If these teachers really have all the secrets to living how God wants us to live then why do their teachings, supposedly from God, so horrendously contradict God's Word? And does that mean the millions of Christians dealing with atrocious persecution in the rest of the world are out of the loop and not blessed? (For a tiny idea of the enormity of Christian persecution see:
Sheri Rose Shepherd - God's Warrior Princess Apparently Graphic Pics and NSFW)
3. How do those persecuted, suffering Christians handle it all without Julie Clinton and yet have astounding maturity in the faith that makes us in the west look like preschoolers?
Julie Clinton, President of EWomen, sounds like all the other popular teachers out there. It's an extraordinary bandwagon they want us to jump on. She even peddles a skin care line on her site. Obviously God wants us to have great skin too. Poor saps out there with genetically bad skin...well it just stinks to be you apparently.
"Therefore," declares the LORD, "I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from Me. Jeremiah 23:30
Julie Clinton and all the others share the same pop-psychology, worldly philosophy and doctrine that we can actually get cheaper (and wouldn't have to get out of our jammies) from watching a few episodes of Dr. Phil and Oprah. Julie Clinton, like all the others, claims she's unlocked secrets to living better and living how God wants us to live. I guess her teachings are mystical secrets when people don't read the Bible. 66 books written over 1500 years and God left stuff out? Did He suddenly remember, therefore plucked Julie Clinton out of the bunch and whispered them to her? Since when are "secrets" meant to be sold? Give me a break! There were plenty of people doing the exact same thing in Paul's day that we're warned about. They're called
Gnostics, children of the devil, false Christs, false prophets and
false teachers.
Here's a few experts from Julie Clinton's book
Extraordinary Women: Discovering the Dream God Has For You ( I'll write more on her in the future)...
"you'll learn how the supernatural person of Christ gives us the ability to see with different eyes..."
Supernatural? Is he the Son of God sacrificed on the cross for our sins that were sending us straight to hell? Did He pay the penalty for our offenses against a Holy God who demands the wages of our sins be paid with or without Christ? Did He offer us His righteousness and merit for eternal life because even our best, most "extraordinary" efforts God compares to a woman's used menstrual cloth
(Isaiah 64:6)? Or is Christ a genie in a bottle?
Different eyes? Are these a separate set that we mount on our foreheads? How, exactly, do we get this ability to see differently? Just more "motivational jargon" that makes Julie Clinton no different than any other motivational speaker out there that comes and goes Christian or not.
"Julie has unlocked the secrets to capturing the dream God has in mind for you."
Don't worry everyone! Don't panic! Julie Clinton risked it all for us and shook her fist at the enemy. She bravely and defiantly picked the lock to some secret chest, only she knew about, and pulled out The Secret Dream of God! Don't forget to buy something from her skin care line. You can't be extraordinary if your face looks like its melting.
Here's the real "secret" that's not a secret and I won't charge you for it either. You just need to read the Bible...
Romans 8:29 "For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son,"
"Thinking of yourself as an extraordinary woman might seem arrogant to you, but that's how God designed you. You are a one of a kind woman, with a distinct personality, unique gifts, and the potential to make a mark in this world that is different from any other."
Sounds good on the surface. Makes me feel good about me. Makes me want to give myself a great big squeeze because God needs me. I have all these unique gifts, personality and my pedicure is unlike any other I've seen in months. I ♥ me! So does God. AWESOME!
Since God's intentions for us are to make us into the image of Christ and NOT a better us, how is Julie Clinton teaching women to do that? How is she teaching women to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus, walk the narrow path and prepared for His return as He warns us about several times throughout the New Testament particularly in Matthew 25. Instead, Julie Clinton keeps us fixed on us and all our problems, insecurities and failures which are ultimately our weaknesses, because keeping us fixated is making her money. Satan wants us fixed on us too because that keeps us unproductive. The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that when we are our weakest then does God work through us so we have nothing in ourselves to boast in because everything about us is extraordinarily
wicked.
What Julie is teaching is arrogant. In fact, all her teachings do is encourage us to puff ourselves up even more with self pride and God hates pride. What part of the following scriptures make me extra-ordinary? Where in the following scriptures does God even imply we are extraordinary, wonderful, beautiful, special things?
"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," Romans 3:23
"What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin;" Romans 11:2
"As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God." Romans 3:10-11
"There is no one who does good." Psalm 14:1
Sin is filthy and vile to God. Sin is Satanic. Sin is absolutely contrary to the nature of God. Sin has infected us and made us depraved creatures and hostile toward God at conception. There is no one good, but God (Luke 18:19) nor anyone who does good. The only good in us after regeneration is the Holy Spirit who immediately sets out to change us into Christ's image because even a "better us" is vile to God. Of course Julie's not going to tell her followers that. She wouldn't be making money with the truth.
Since the standard of testing teachers and their teachings is Scripture, I'm not getting how I should love me, feel good about me and think I'm extraordinary from those Scriptures or any other Scripture. I'm not getting how feeling good about me and my
failures (ie. sin), sorrow over sin and genuine repentance can co-exist? They simply cannot. Genuine repentance and salvation can only come when one's eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit and they finally see how vile, bankrupt, corrupt and lost one is when faced with God's holiness and righteous standards. God doesn't bend to meet our standards. He demands we meet His (ie. the purpose of the Law). Since we can't because of our corrupt nature and have, in fact, broken every law He ever made, hence our desperate need of Christ.
I can't stress enough that any gifts or talents we have are given to us by God alone for the distinct purpose to glorify
Him. To esteem
Him. To point to
Him not us.
To serve
Him. But like all the other popular teachers, Julie Clinton wants us focused on us, esteeming us so we can feel like special flowers.
We didn't develop any talent all on our own and for our own esteem and edification. Not a single human being is anything without Christ other than fuel for a fire. I can't even change a single hair on my head (Matthew 5:36)
Her book is written in such a way as to make women feel as if they've joined an exclusive club. Unless you are an extraordinary woman, like she is, you'll never do all these great things she's discovered that God wants for you. She has all the secrets and we must listen to her and buy her material in order for us to become anything.
"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me" Philippians 4:13
"And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." 2 Corinthians 12:9 (Not Julie Clinton)
"that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man," Ephesians 3:16
What part of those Scriptures tells us to look to ourselves or Julie Clinton for secrets, strength, learning, peace, joy, blessedness, etc? She has no secrets. She's plagiarizing the Word of God. Everything we need to know about God and about us is in
His book not Julie Clinton's. But we don't read the Bible. Instead we listen to false teachers because they make us feel good about ourselves. They appeal to the sin nature. God doesn't. In fact, He demands that whatever in us runs contrary to His nature we must cut off and plucked out (Matthew 5:30).
"for 'In Him we live and move and have our being’" Acts 17:28
Everything outside of Christ doesn't even matter. Everything outside of Christ is worthless. We all exist, move and have our being in Him. Outside of Christ none of us can do anything no matter how many workbooks we buy and conferences we attend or how many secrets Julie Clinton claims to have. We are nothing without Christ and even in Christ we are desperately dependent on Him for all things from salvation to even the very next breath we take in. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 we're told God's power is perfected in weakness not in being strong, independent, extraordinary women.
Why are we looking for secrets when we don't even read God's Word? Everything we need to know, everything God wants us to know about Him is already in His Word. There are no secrets. If you belong to Christ then you're being changed into His image and all things in your life whether good, bad or downright awful are used for the sole purpose to conform you to that image.
Lastly, Julie Clinton's teachings are worldly not godly. She's preaching to women everything the world preaches, floods us with and keep the focus off of Christ and on us. That is a man-centered philosophy, "Self" idolizing doctrine and it's everything Satan wants for you and not God.
There is one thing we actually can feel good about, that if you're in Christ...
that you're in Christ. He chose you and didn't pass over you.