Discerning if SHE is a False Teacher: What Does She Believe About Scripture?

We have lost our confidence in the authority, the sufficiency, and the power of the

Word of God. That is what ails the church in the West. We have lost our confidence in the authority, the sufficiency, and the power of the

Word of God. The church in our age is characterized by a lack of confidence in those things.

The way in which the Word of God takes a backseat in the worship service, the preaching, the ministry, and the life of most churches in our land.

The Word of God is put on the back burner, the back shelf. You can exegete and your heart can be totally removed from that.

And I'm not knocking next to Jesus. I love studying the Word of God and having context. But I can give you a

Greek verb tense and not give you any of my heart. But if I go, let me tell you where I was dying and God pulled me out of a pit.

I dug myself and rescued me. Let me tell you about the God who set my clumsy, mistake -prone feet on solid ground.

Then you go, dang, that dog will hunt. That carries weight.

And so it's not that they don't quote Scripture. It's they do. It's just that they don't spend as much time exegeting Scripture and explaining

Scripture as they do explaining the context of the movie clip they're about to play, or the music video they're about to play, or a song lyric, or a life lesson from the life of the pastor, or something, anything other than Scripture.

My journey with forgiveness. You know, it's kind of ironic that I'm preaching a sermon today on forgiveness when this very week

I have struggled to forgive something hard that has happened. It's that the

Word of God just doesn't take center stage in all that it has done. It's just not there because they have a confidence in almost anything other than Scripture.

Well, what I want to do is I want to take you a little bit on a journey through my life because as I was praying about what to bring tonight and I had the freedom because it was in the middle of the summer and they're just giving me free reign tonight to talk about what

I want to talk about what's on my heart. I thought the best place to start would be the most life -changing moment of my life.

I've said this through the years to so many men. I can hear you preach, and I can look at your church and how you do ministry, and I will tell you your view of Scripture.

I'll tell you what it is. I'll tell you whether you believe in the inerrancy and authority of Scripture.

I'll tell you whether you believe in the sufficiency of Scripture for everything. I'll tell you that by what

I see. Your confession that you believe in the authority of Scripture, the single authority of Scripture, is only valid if that's what

I see in your life and in your ministry manifest. If we only believe that the

Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two -edged sword, we would never give our time to all of this other silliness and the chicanery and the gimmicks and the themes and the entertainment and the drama and the skits and the giveaways and the props and the themes and the sermon series and all of the other nonsense.

If we only believe that the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two -edged sword. Welcome to the

Thoroughly Equipped Podcast, where we compare the teachings from popular women's ministry, books, conferences,

Bible studies, etc., to Scripture. Our focus is 2 Timothy 3, 16 -17, that all

Scripture is God -breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so the man or woman of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I'm your host, Melba Toast. May this episode bless you and bring glory to God.

Ladies, welcome to Thoroughly Equipped. If you are new to this channel, welcome. I just want to first off say to all of you who have subscribed to the channel, thank you.

Went on there again to find this. Be so incredibly surprised to go from 150 subscribers to now

I'm at 323 subscribers, I think, this morning. I was just like, okay, wow.

No pressure. But anyway, I'm finding myself really enjoying this.

I love talking about Scripture. I love talking to women.

Especially my goal in all of this, of course, is to reform women's ministry. I see that there's a failure, obviously.

You probably joined the channel from that actual episode. And so you probably agree with me.

And so I want to bring Scripture back to being the central authority for women's ministry and just help you guys grow in Scripture as much as I can.

So thank you guys for liking the channel, subscribing the channel. Especially thank you those who have been listening to the podcast for a while, who have been faithful to listen on a regular basis.

Thank you so much. It blesses my heart. All right, but if you are new, so I'm going to get into the kind of context of what we've been doing the last couple episodes.

I have been, after I presented to you guys where I thought women's ministry was failing,

I began to realize I wanted to help you guys learn discernment, bring discernment back to women's ministry.

And been slowly and very thoroughly deep diving into discernment and how we can discern women, female teachers in women's ministry.

And so that was the last episode. We looked at the very first question. So I'm presenting to you guys these questions in which when we observe their teachings and their ministry to answer these questions.

And the first one was the what does she submit herself to the authority of Scripture?

Today, however, I want to show you how you can determine what a teacher believes about Scripture. In the last episode, like I said, showed you how we can determine what a female teacher believes about the authority of Scripture by basically asking if she obeys to one of the clearest instructions to the church about women in ministry.

Today I want to present to you how we can discern what she believes about the other qualities of Scripture.

See, there's this doctrine that I knew very little about when coming in, when

I was involved in the Seeker Sensitive Church. It was never talked about. And so surprisingly, when

I started to listen to more Reformed preachers and learn more Reformed theology, this was a doctrine that just was everywhere.

And I was like learning about this going, why did I not learn this in all the work that I did, all the ministry work that I was involved in?

This should have been a central doctrine that came right in. Even when, you know, being they put you through membership and stuff like that.

This is like not even, you know, it is so far removed in the typical evangelical church.

And that doctrine is the doctrine of sola scriptura. Now, if she holds to this doctrine, you can pretty much be sure that she is a trustworthy teacher and it will be displayed in how she teaches and even what she teaches.

And so this is what I want to help you learn how to discern today. We're going to ask the question, does she hold to sola scriptura?

But first, what is the doctrine of sola scriptura? Well, sola scriptura is the

Latin term meaning scripture alone. In essence, scripture is a soul infallible, inerrant authority that guides us into all righteousness, salvation, sanctification, and it thoroughly equips us for every good work.

Right? Now, this is not a claim that there's no other authority. This doesn't mean you cannot read other books or listen to others who hold knowledge.

But it does mean that all other books and all other teachers, philosophies, ideas, worldviews are going to be compared to scripture because scripture is our ultimate sufficient authority.

It also does not mean that only scripture holds all truth. We don't learn about cells and their function in scripture, but we do learn about the one who created those cells.

And we learn even through the observation of creation that it proclaims the glory of God.

Scripture itself says that we can know about God by observing creation, but even the facts and truths we learn in creation are going to be limited.

Scripture reveals to us God's nature, his son and his work, the Holy Spirit and his work.

This means that scripture is unique being God breathed, God inspired instructions and revelations to which we compare all other authoritative information to.

The Westminster Confession of Faith claims that scripture is the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory.

Man's salvation, faith and life is either expressly set down in scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from scripture onto which, listen to this, onto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the spirit or traditions of men.

Now, there are five things that the Holy Spirit has laid out for us about God's word of scripture.

We can take these five teachings about scripture and use them to judge what a teacher believes about scripture, because if she believes them, she will show that she believes them in her ministry.

Now, why do I know this? Because one who believes these things about scripture, they will actually produce a certain type of fruit.

It's the fruit that we want to look for, not what they claim, because they can claim to hold the scripture, but their actions, what they teach, the way they teach and do ministry.

Well, these these things will reveal what they truly believe about scripture for each of these teachings.

As I'm going through this episode, I will lay out for you what the Holy Spirit through scripture reveals about scripture.

And then I will show you how false teachers actually like undermine the teaching in their ministry.

All right. So let's get started. What does the Holy Spirit say about scripture?

Well, number one, the Holy Spirit says that the scriptures are breathed out by God, making it therefore authoritative.

The scriptures have a lot to say about itself. Second, Timothy 316, my favorite verse, says that scriptures are theophanoustos.

I hope I pronounce that right. Theophanoustos. This word in some Bibles is translated as the word inspired.

This word inspired does not mean what we typically use it today.

It doesn't mean an author of scripture received like some kind of mental stimulation to do or, you know, like feel something or be encouraged to write.

In this case, it's not meaning that the author was encouraged or motivated to write what he's writing, though there is motivation, absolutely.

But it's not reserved only to that. The better translation for this word is breathed out.

What this means is that the scriptures are the words that are breathed out by God, written through the prophets and the apostles.

And we see this in 2 Peter 1, 20 to 21, where he explains this very clearly.

And it says, and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of men.

But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So this is the uniqueness of scripture.

It is this uniqueness sets it completely apart from any other authoritative book or teaching.

All right. So how do we discern if she believes scripture is authoritative?

That was what I did in the last episode. Basically, we dived into first explaining the authority behind scripture and the authority given to the writers of scripture by God to instruct his church.

And this is the most easiest way to discern if a female teacher is a false teacher, or at least to assess if scripture is her authority by asking if she preaches over men in the church gathering.

Now, if she does, this reveals where she falls on the authority of scripture. So if you've missed that episode, feel free to check it out.

I will try to do these. I don't know how they do them. The connection links up at the top, but hopefully there's a connection link up there and you can click on it if you've missed that episode.

So the second thing that the Holy Spirit teaches us through the scriptures, about the scripture, is that the scriptures are true.

So because the scriptures are authored by God, the Bible has to be true.

God's character is true. So he cannot lie, Numbers 23, 19.

You can see also 1 Samuel 15, 29, Hebrews 6, 18.

And therefore what is written cannot be a lie. Scripture claims that it is perfect,

Psalm 19, 7 -9. See also 1 Nineteen, 160,

Proverbs 30, 5 -6, and John 10, 35, and 17, 17.

Scripture claims that it is flawless, Psalm 12, 6, and Proverbs 35.

The Holy Spirit claims through scripture that it is eternal, Psalm 119, 89.

See also Isaiah 48 and Matthew 24, 35. That it is unbreakable,

John 10, 35. Boundless in perfection, Psalm 119, 96.

And completely confirmed, 2 Peter 1, 19. Scripture being breathed out by God is therefore authoritative.

And the Holy Spirit, through the apostle James, writes in James 1, 22, for us to be doers of the word and not hearers only.

So God is our creator, and he is the ultimate authority, and he's laid out his authority in his word, and those words are to be obeyed.

So, how do we discern if she believes that the scriptures are true? Now, discerning this can be a little tricky.

One would think, and many, many people in the evangelical world I think assume this, that teachers who enter into Christian culture naturally confess, or just right away confess and believe that scripture is inerrant.

But this is a thing. They can be deceptive. Surprisingly, teachers who don't believe scripture is true are all over the place, especially the colleges and seminaries.

So, how? How do teachers who believe that scripture is not true actually enter into Christian culture and these authoritative educational spheres of life?

Basically, they claim on one side of their mouth that scripture is without error, and then on the other side teach the opposite.

So, how is this done? They claim that the scripture in its original manuscripts is where there is no error, but then they challenge the truth of what we have now by basically asking, did

God really say, or was that what the authors really meant? This is deconstructionism, and it's prevalent in popular seminaries.

It is a strategy used by teachers in the progressive liberal church today, and it is readily inching its way, slowly but surely, maybe faster than even what

I'd like to admit. It's entering the seeker -sensitive churches, and it's entering it through certain theologies, certain philosophies and ideologies that are entering the church.

Correction, philosophies and ideologies. But that is something for a totally different episode.

Anyway, it doesn't start with teachers just coming out and saying, I no longer believe that scripture is

God's very words, and therefore can have errors. It basically starts with asking these questions, and then using scholarly articles, revised history, cultural and societal norms from the past, etc.,

etc., to come to scripture to basically make the claim that what scripture clearly states now is not so clear and is not really true.

We see these arguments surrounding scripture crop up everywhere on topics of women, and the pastorate, and homosexuality.

And if you are familiar with TikTok, you have probably more than likely come across these.

Questions like, is it really true that it's a sin to be a woman pastor? Is it really true that homosexuality is a sin?

Is it really true that the Son of God had to die for his people's sins? Is it really true that God is wrathful and wants to punish people in hell?

You know, etc., etc., questions like these. If a female teacher starts asking these questions or presenting these type of questions, you can know that, one, she doesn't believe that scripture is true.

And two, she doesn't believe that scripture is clear, which is the third teaching from Sola Scriptura.

So the Holy Spirit explains to us that scripture is clear, even though it's an ancient document and can be confusing at times.

The Bible is clear enough that the unfolding of God's words gives light.

It imparts understanding to the simple. Psalm 119, 130.

It's clear enough that God commands even parents to teach the Bible to children.

Deuteronomy 6, 6 -7. Because the Bible is clear and gives understanding, then it's important that a woman handle it correctly.

And here is how we're going to discern if she believes that the Bible is clear. This is another one of those harder ones to discern because you have to really be listening to a teacher for a while and see the way she uses scripture to present a teaching.

So we ask these questions. Does she exegete the passage she's teaching on? Does she use words correctly and in context?

Or does she mesh all sorts of meanings into biblical words? Does she do her best to present herself to God as one approved, rightly handling the word of truth?

Now, this is quite common for charismatic teachers to sprout off verses by the boatload.

And Beth Moore is a good example of this. While this may make the teacher look like they know their scripture, what ends up happening is it makes verses say what they do not actually mean in context.

Now, check out this clip. So this is an old clip from way back when for Beth Moore's popular story about brushing a man's hair.

But notice what she says before because the teaching is about that she's going to present it from this.

The whole teaching was about the fullness of Christ. And she uses the hairbrush story to talk about what the fullness of Christ means here.

I want to tell you a story that I told many, many years ago that remains dear to me, particularly because people bring it back up to me over and over again.

It's probably the thing I've been asked about as much as anything regarding stories and Bible studies along the years.

But it's such a statement in my own life and such a memory of God overtaking me and enabling me to do something

I couldn't do. You have no idea how dangerous you would be if you would live filled to the measure with the fullness of Christ.

You have no idea how dangerous you would be if you would live filled to the measure with the fullness of Christ.

A hostess that is pushing up a man in a wheelchair right to the end of my row, and there's nobody between us.

And this place is packed. So I want you to know that Jesus went to a significant amount of trouble to make sure that I saw this man.

So I wait until everybody else gets more polite, and then I go. And when I look over at him, he was the oddest sight.

He looked like he was not one iota less than about 129, and I'm not kidding. His head was just hanging down like this, and his hair was in strings like this high.

This is how much God thinks of us just memorizing Scripture but not doing anything with it. Because the

Lord begins to compel my heart, overwhelms me, overwhelms me. Well, I have learned.

I've walked with him a long time. I knew by now, that is scary. God is up to something when he is overwhelming your heart like that.

And I just thought, oh, please, God, no. Oh, please. Please, God, no.

Because I'm already knowing he wants me to witness to this man. And so I say to myself in my spirit, and I'm not talking out loud, but in my spirit

I'm talking to God silently, and I'm sure my mouth is going. Because I say to him, do not make me witness to that man.

And now I'm going to tell you as clear as I'm talking to you now, the Lord spoke to my heart.

There have been very few times I've ever heard God be this articulate with me. And I'm telling you word for word, these words came into my heart.

I'm not asking you to witness to him. I'm asking you to brush his hair. Lord, that man needs witnessing to.

Okay, so she is connecting the fullness of Christ to an incident where the Holy Spirit led her to brush a man's hair, describing it as a time

God used her to do something that she wouldn't normally do, right? Okay, sure, the

Spirit can empower us to do things we couldn't normally do on our own, like overcome sin, enlighten

Scripture, be sanctified, and even endure suffering. But it's empowering us to do things we are uncomfortable doing, or these things that are out of the ordinary.

Is that what Scripture means by fullness of Christ in Ephesians 4 .13, the

Scripture that she blurted out so easily. If the fullness of Christ means that we will be led by the

Spirit to do extraordinary things, then Ephesians should explain it, because several times

Paul uses this phrase, the fullness of Christ. Let's take a quick look at this.

Alright, so the first place that we see this phrase being used is Ephesians 1 .23.

I'm just going to read this whole thing in context. So, Paul writes,

What are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe?

According to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ, when He raised

Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is

His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Here, Paul is relaying that he prays that the Ephesians know all the wisdom and revelation that is found in Christ.

To understand that the power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at the right hand of the Father is at work to help us know the hope that we have been called to in Christ Jesus.

This power put all things under the authority of Christ who is given as head over all things to the church.

This church is His body and His body has the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

So one who has the wisdom and revelation of Christ is filled with Christ.

And who has this wisdom and revelation? But Christ's people. Christ's church.

Now the next passage that talks about fullness is Ephesians 3 .19

and I'm going to read from verses 14 to 19. For this reason,

I bow my knees before the Father, for whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory,

He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now here we see another prayer where we see that Paul asks God to strengthen the Ephesians with power through His Spirit so that we may accomplish extraordinary things that the

Holy Spirit revealed to us through personal revelations? No, but that Christ dwell in their hearts richly so that we can comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge.

This is what it means to be filled with all the fullness of God. Okay? Now the third passage is

Ephesians 4, 13. And this is a passage that Beth Moore really is referring to when she stated the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

As I read this passage, ask yourself if it even refers to anything about receiving personal instruction from the

Holy Spirit to do extraordinary or even uncomfortable things. Or ask yourself if the fullness of Christ here means receiving and understanding the knowledge, wisdom, and revelation of Christ like we've been reading in the previous passages.

And I'm going to read from 11, verse 11 to 16. So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way unto him who is the head unto

Christ from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Notice two consistent themes here related to the fullness of Christ. One, the church.

In this context, the church is given apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds to equip them for the work of ministry.

The fullness of Christ is given to the church, which is his body. We saw that in Ephesians 1, 23.

And the second theme, that it's connected with wisdom and revelation that brings the unity of faith and the knowledge of the

Son of God. And what does this fullness produce in us? Extraordinary acts.

No, they produce mature children that are not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and I would even say every whim that comes to our heart as well.

So as you can see, the slight hand of teachings like this, which

Beth Moore consistently does, eventually lead to misunderstandings of scripture that undermine what is clear in the passages.

Doing this confuses Christian women and confuses what is meant by those phrases ultimately making scripture unclear.

An easy way to discern this is to ask, does she teach about the passage or does she use passages to support her topic?

This is not always bad, but it will require that we dive into the passage and look into the context to see if the author is stating the same thing.

Misrepresenting and misusing verses to support a topic brings confusion, not clarity.

It leads to false doctrine many times. 2 Peter 3, 14 -18 here states this,

Be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace and count the patience of our

Lord as salvation. Just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters.

There are some things in them that are hard to understand which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures.

You therefore beloved knowing this beforehand take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

So Peter relays here there's some things that Paul writes regarding the wisdom of God that are hard to understand.

They are clear like Paul says himself can be foolish to the

Gentiles and a stumbling block to the Jews making it hard for them to understand them.

But for us who have the Holy Spirit and the mind of Christ are to know beforehand that they find it hard to understand and therefore they will twist the clear teachings to their own destruction.

We are not to be carried away by their error but are to rest in the promises the clear promises of God and grow in grace and knowledge of our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ which the scriptures testify of therefore a female teacher who understands how to rightly interpret and handle scripture supports the fact that it is clear when teaching it in context.

All right. So the fourth thing that the Holy Spirit teaches about the scriptures is that it is powerful since the

Bible is God's very authoritative words that are without error and are clear because its author is

God himself. They are also powerful or what we would call efficacious.

It is active and alive sharper than any double edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit joints and marrow.

It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4 12.

Basically the Bible is effective. It's living and it's active. It has power.

The Holy Spirit accomplishes his plans by it. Isaiah 55 10 to 11.

How do we discern if she believes that the scripture is powerful or efficacious.

OK. Ask these questions. Does she believe the Holy Spirit will sanctify women through the teaching and expounding upon his word or through her testimony and funny moving or even miraculous life stories.

Now a teacher is not going to outright express that scripture is not powerful but the bulk of what she gives in a presentation will.

Does she present more moving stories or more of exegeting the word. If you have ever listened to Lisa Harper speak you know she is a terrific storyteller.

I'm going to present to you a clip where you will see what she believes about scripture. But take note most importantly here what she believes or where she believes the power to bring people to God resonates from.

I listen sometimes to younger communicators. They're so excited to share all their verses and their things and their rhyming outline. I think sometimes they tend to forget the power of the richness of just a simple story.

And I love being a lifelong learner. Whatever it is. Whether it's learning how to chainsaw, having that little thing.

And I know with all your stuff you are constantly learning. And it's fun to me. And if all truth is

God's truth, I don't care what you're studying if you get to the truth of the matter there's going to be a divine carnival.

But when I'm looking at something to teach, like for instance one of the last big curriculums

I did was on the book of Job. And I did not want to study Job. I was like Oh Lord you're kidding me.

This is going to be like sticking my hand in a blender. See that right there. Rich illustrations. I spent a year just sitting in Job.

Just sitting in the narrative. Sitting in the story. But I just sit in the story because I do think when it comes to the gospel we forget they're real stories.

And that's what our heart connects with. I think that's why he says the enemy is defeated by the blood of the lamb.

Word of the testimony. Because if I told you Jenny I was just studying the

Hebrew term for you'd be like well cool. I mean that's good for context. But when you say

Lisa here's how I put one foot in front of the other after we lost Linya. Here's how I saw God. When I wasn't sure

I could pick my heart off the pavement I go tell me more. Because the authenticity in that actually lends credibility to the compassion of God in your life.

You can exegete and your heart can be totally removed from that. And I'm not not going to exegete. I love studying the word of God and having context.

But I can give you a Greek verb tense and not give you any of my heart.

And it's because I'm trying to be self -protective or at some point there's still unbelief in me. But if I go let me tell you where I was dying and God pulled me out of a pit

I dug myself and rescued me. Let me tell you about the God who set my clumsy mistake prone feet on solid ground

Then you go dang. That dog will hunt. That carries weight.

Alright. So she basically believes that our testimonies she quotes

Revelation 12 11 here to say that it is our testimonies that in essence bring people to Christ.

And this is where a lot of female speakers fall. We are as females relational beings that we think that if we can just bring people to understand our stories they too will come to Christ.

But this is a faulty belief because the power of God unto salvation is not what

God has done for us individually. God works in all people's lives providentially.

This is the common grace of God. Besides that many non -Christians can attribute what

God gives here to other things other than God such as fate higher power or even some man -made deity.

The power of God is simply what Christ has done period. What God has done for us is many many different things.

God provides for me and works providentially in my life and this is usually what people in the secret sensitive movement mean by their testimony as Lisa Harper here describes.

But what God has done in these areas is not the testimony that is meant by scripture especially in the verse she references here.

Revelations 12 -11 and you can do more study on your own looking into what it means to those who testify of Christ but I'm just going to kind of give you a bird's eye view

I'm just going to give you the quick understanding here of Revelation 12 -11.

Revelation 12 -11 is apocalyptic literature describing the persecution of the saints and in this context the casting down of Satan and the overcoming of him by the saints because of the blood of the lamb.

These saints are basically holding fast to Christ who shed that blood and cleansed them from all their sin.

This is what is meant by their testimony. They hold to this testimony the testimony of Christ so much so that they even give up their lives because of the testimony because of the gospel.

Now the scriptures being the word of God testify to this gospel. They explain what it is and what the effects are of trusting in the gospel.

The Old Testament testified of the Messiah and his salvific work that was to come and the

New tells us of how he came and what he did. Almost every epistle in the

New Testament starts with the gospel and the salvific work done for us to which the authors proclaim to which the authors use the proclamation of the gospel to urge us on to the fruits or good works that come from believing the gospel.

So within the scriptures we have the explanation of the fruits of belief which every Christian is called to.

The writers of scripture show that believing in this good doctrine actually produces good works.

Jesus himself believed it was the word of God that sanctified John 17.

This is the power of scripture from which we receive Christ and the gospel.

It is by itself the power that God uses to save and sanctify. Now the question is does the particular female teacher believe this?

That the scriptures and especially the gospel are not only the power to save but the power to sanctify?

Or does she believe that her life stories, her testimonial truths to what

God has done in her life that these things have power? If she does either she will raise her stories to the level of scripture or she will lower scripture to simply life stories.

I'll make a little distinction here for clarification though. I'm not saying a story can't be told in a sermon or a presentation.

The question is what is the purpose of the story they're presenting? A good story is used to explain the passage being taught or is the teacher using the passage to kind of supplement or heighten this story or life lesson that she wishes to present.

Usually this can be determined by the bulk of the sermon or presentation by looking at what it's about.

Do they spend more time exegeting the scripture and using a story to bring more understanding a better understanding?

Or do they spend the time telling stories and then just kind of sprinkling in scripture here and there to support their main topic or what they really want to teach?

Moving on to the final thing that the Holy Spirit teaches us in scripture about scripture and that is that the

Bible scripture is sufficient. It contains all the words from God that we need to know him truly, trust him fully, obey him perfectly and enjoy him abundantly.

Everything we need for a godly life is available in scripture, 2 Peter 1 .3. Like my podcast name, it thoroughly equips us for every good work and is fully comprehensive in that regard.

Here's the crutch of it. Because scripture is God's very breath, because it holds authority, that it is without error, that it is clear and it is powerful.

Therefore, as 2 Timothy 3 .16 -17 says, it is sufficient to completely thoroughly equip us for every good work by teaching, rebuking, correcting and training us in righteousness.

So how do we discern if she believes the Bible is sufficient? Now this is one of the ones that is a bit easier to discern.

The only problem is we don't necessarily want to hear it. Here are two ways we can discern if she undermines the sufficiency of scripture.

So a female teacher rejects the sufficiency of scripture by bringing in other things such as history, science, psychology and sociology to make scripture more relatable or submit it to the world's teachings on these.

A lot of us like to use sociology and psychology, especially in the seeker sensitive church, like to blend in psychology and psychological teachings that come out of it to kind of support what scripture is teaching.

Or, most likely what you'll see is the bulk of psychological teachings and then just saying, oh see, scripture had something to say about this as well.

Scripture is in agreement with it. When in all actuality psychology and scripture, a lot of the philosophies and the worldview in psychology does not match up with scripture.

First off, doesn't hold to that there is a God. And second, psychology, one of the deepest foundations within psychology, well more,

I would say more psychiatry instead of psychology, one of the underlying foundations of psychiatry and stuff like that, and typical world counseling is that man is inherently good.

And if he can only self -actualize, then he can become the best, or in Christianese terms, he can become what

God called him to be. Now, that's not what scripture teaches.

Scripture is very clear that we have a sinful nature. And so there's conflicting foundations between the two.

But a lot of teachers, Jenny Allen would be one of them, teach that they can bring in psychological teachings and kind of worldviews and philosophies to support what she might want to teach from scripture, or she uses scripture basically to teach her psychological kind of get out of your head, find your people, learn about your emotions type of teachings.

So Jenny Allen would be an example of this, of incorporating other worldly philosophies in with scripture, making it as authoritative as scripture, and yet in adopting that, those philosophies and ideologies within it, neglecting the clear teaching of scripture about the sinful nature of man.

Another example is to incorporate critical race theory. This is becoming really, really big and is really sneaking in, really sneaking into the church.

A lot of people don't quite understand what critical race theory is. I've done some podcasts because I've had to look at one of the people who often speak at the

IfGathering, one of them is Latasha Morrison from Be the Bridge, and if you have a church that has, back in a couple years ago, probably becoming more popular from about 2011 on, the teachings about racial reconciliation and this kind of stuff,

Latasha Morrison brought in her Be the Bridge ministry and now they have all sorts of books and training seminars on how to be racially reconciled and how to bring that into your church and all underneath that teaching, they bring in feminist ideology, they bring in critical theory, they look at just, there's just so many things wrong with it.

I hope to redo or re -up my previous podcast episodes to try to do it more visually on YouTube here for you guys because I we can truly see, especially if you know anything about the

Methodist church that's come through and the changes and the admitting to homosexuality and of course now with the

SBC not passing the law amendment and women pastors, it's just an incremental idea of this worldview that comes with critical race theory that there is oppression and there is the oppressed and this is the foundation of all their kind of teachings, what they based all the teachings on and they have a faulty view of God's justice.

Anyway, that was a whole tangent but you can tell I'm passionate about it.

So people like this like LaTosha Morrison and Jenny Allen by proxy,

LaTosha Morrison bring in critical race theory and bring in these other sociological psychological teachings and they end up undermining the sufficiency of scripture.

They end up undermining the authority of scripture as well and in essence, those who do this add to what they would call necessary readings that would submit scripture to deconstructionism or a sort of revised history type of hermeneutical reading that starts with anti -racist social justice and critical race theory lens basically and by doing this, they elevate these books and theories to or above scripture to interpret scripture.

Alright, the next way that we can discern if she submits to the sufficiency of scripture and this is an extremely popular one this is probably going to be one that triggers you a little bit but I say bear with me and stick with this episode and then watch the coming episode is does she need a specific vision or more revelation from God to disciple other women?

Teachers who teach this, they teach what's called the hearing the voice of God doctrine.

If they teach others to hear the voice of God you can know for sure that they abide in this doctrine and they themselves try to receive extra biblical revelation for their teaching and their ministry and this teaching directly undermines the teachings that spring forth from Solus Scriptura by claiming that God gives personal revelations to his people that he still speaks like he did in the past for the

Old Testament and the New Testament people he does that for us today. This is a whole episode and more topic which

I want to really dive in and present an argument for why scripture is sufficient to disciple

Christian women and I hope to show you how teachers who teach this reject the teachings of Solus Scriptura that are found in scripture itself and I want to do that in the next episode

Lord willing. So I'll be interviewing very excited to have

Jim Osmond the author of God Doesn't Whisper who has in my opinion written a book that just demolishes demolishes all the main teachings that are taught in this doctrine but for today's episode it's enough to understand that if 2

Timothy 3 16 -17 is true which it is then to claim that we need additional words from God or an additional revelation or additional prophecies etc etc is to say that scripture is not enough to equip us so we either believe what these teachers teach or submit to the clear teaching from the

Holy Spirit that scripture is enough. Now I want to end this the last little bit as we talk about scripture

I've talked about what the Holy Spirit who is the author of scripture the

Holy Spirit who worked through men to say exactly what he wanted to say and in it he has laid out for us these qualities of scripture but now

I want to look at what does Jesus say about scripture and there are many examples in the gospels revealing to us how

Jesus used the scriptures and what he believed and explained to us what he believed about scriptures when

Jesus was in the wilderness in Matthew 4 1 -11 and he was tempted by Satan he used scripture to refute and rebuke

Satan to fight off temptation he refers back to the creation story to teach on divorce and adultery in Matthew 19 -4 many times he states in his teachings have you not read referring back to the law and the prophets this type of questionnaire have you not read have you not read is assuming okay you're supposed to be reading this word this is in the word of God this is important you should be reading it and you should be understanding it especially if you read it in Luke he does a parable meant to teach that all that is written that was given by Moses and the prophets the

Old Testament was sufficient enough to lead one to eternal life aka Abraham's side we see that he rebuked the

Pharisees for making God's word worthless or void by obeying commandments of men instead of doing what

God clearly commanded that's in Matthew 15 -6 and Mark 7 -13

Jesus informs the Pharisees that Moses and the prophets testified of him of whom they were to come to for eternal life

John 5 -37 -40 Jesus believes God's words were true and had power that in his priestly prayer before his death acknowledged that God's word is truth and asked that God sanctify all his people through it

John 17 -17 in all of what Jesus says about scripture it reveals that to him scriptures

God's revealed revealed word that was written down to testify about him he believed that it was clear that it had power is sufficient and has authority so much so that to neglect it for a tradition made by man is condemned by him false teachers spend more time giving disciples advice on how to live your best life now or how to achieve your purpose they will spend more time exegeting their life stories and testimonies instead of using the scriptures to testify about Christ they will play some sort of personal word of God through inner heart impressions and spirit nudges at the same level or higher than the written word of God they will say that scripture is authoritative and inerrant but will in practice reject its authority clarity sufficiency and power by just not exegeting it they will not handle it with reverence and they will not teach from it if our

Lord believed that scripture the Old Testament at the time which is also God breathed has authority is true and powerful to sanctify and is sufficient to testify about him eternal life and his purpose i .e.

the gospel then we should believe it too my conclusion so it's solar script

Torah a big deal and then how does it affect the life of a godly woman so as you can see the doctrine of solar script

Torah is a very big deal it is the most important doctrine for Christian living as it is where we receive all other doctrines that direct us and train us in righteousness the

Protestant reformers called this the formal principle for this very reason it was the driving doctrine behind the

Reformation is what separates us from Roman Catholic theology and the church really it separates us from all other religion so how does this affect

Christian women this means that the Bible will be the most important book in a

Christian woman's life if you want to know how to be a godly woman you will read the scriptures if you want to know how to be a godly wife you'll read the scriptures if you want to know how to be a godly mother you read the scriptures if you want to know how to be a godly friend or employer or how what to do out in society ethically and morally you read the scriptures you want to know how to be saved and all that's entailed in that you read the scriptures you want to know how to be sanctified you read the scriptures you want to know

God you read the scriptures You want to know Christ? Read the scriptures. You want to be guided by the

Holy Spirit? You read the scriptures. You want wisdom and knowledge? Read the scriptures.

And so forth and so forth. This doesn't mean, of course, that we don't read books on spiritual living, books that talk about salvation, doctrine, and theology, etc.,

but these books that we choose. And the woman, the female teachers we learn from, should exegete the scriptures.

They are there to help us understand God's word better, or at least they should be.

And that's the type of woman we want to put ourselves under. Women who hold to the authority, the sufficiency, the efficacy, the clarity, and the truthfulness of scripture.

So, as always, we compare teachings and what female teachers say to what scripture says.

This is my prayer for this podcast and this channel and for my website. It's to show you how to compare what is taught by female ministers in their conference speeches, their book studies, their books, and all their presentations and compare them to scripture.

Believe me, you start holding to the doctrine of Sola Scriptura and it will change everything.

So, until next time, let us be Sola Scriptura sisters. Let us be in His book.