False Teachers, Part 1: Joyce Meyer

All of my life I have been a student of the Bible. The Bible declares that God is the author and finisher of our faith; He gives us faith and sustains it.  But this does not mean that, because of our sincerity, we are free from falling into error.  The only way to remain free from being duped by a counterfeit is to be an expert in the genuine.  So it is the plan of God, the expectation of God, and the responsibility of men, to read the holy Scriptures often, to study them diligently, and to go back and check them when some preacher or spiritual teacher brings us a message or an idea foreign to what the Church has taught for centuries.

I can attest that it takes time to discover whether or not a certain preacher or teacher is teaching false doctrine; I was once a fan of Frederick K. Price and Kenneth Copeland, both of them false teachers. It was the 1970s, and I was a young man still studying.  Also, I had little knowledge of all of their teachings; I did not know exactly what they taught about the nature of Christ, or the full nature of what it means to be a Christian. But, after a while, yet not a very long while, their teachings on these subjects, and others, showed them up as false teachers when I checked them out with the holy Scriptures.  Therefore, I do not throw rocks at others when I find out that they are following a false teacher, for they, like I once was, may not have been exposed to a particular false teaching. I do, however, correct unbiblical doctrine when I find it, because that is my job; it is my job as a Christian educator of over thirty-five years, as well as my job as a Christian.  But I do understand that it sometimes takes extra time to study and pray through the various layers of someone's teachings, until the truth is revealed.  But start we must, and we must continue to uncover truth until the day that they stick us in the proverbial pine box.  So I encourage you to start now, and keep going; do not stop.

This year I will highlight, mostly using other sources and websites that are trustworthy, some of the false doctrines and false teachers that the Church has to contend with in our days. One of the most revered and oldest, apologetics ministries that I will use will be the Christian Research Institute, founded by the late Dr. Martin. Since Dr. Martin's passing, Mr. Hank Hanegraaff has been manning the helm; he has done a profoundly excellent job of it. Their website is http://www.equip.org/.  Their daily radio broadcasts, in which they field questions over the phone, is called "The Bible Answer Man," and was started many decades ago by Dr. Martin.  In addition to the website and the radio show, their publications, including popular and scholarly works, are of the best to be found anywhere, and have proved invaluable to me in my teaching ministry.

My first installment of "False Teachers" centers on Joyce Meyer, an extremely charismatic and popular teacher within what we call the aberrant "Prosperity" or "Positive Confession" movement. I have chosen Ms. Myer because, over the past three or four months, she has again popped up on my radar. People that I know and care about have purchased and read her books and, I believe, may have been tainted by her teachings, which are completely unbiblical and, therefore, dangerous to the Body of Christ. She is a wolf in sheep's clothing, to be sure.

I say that she is a wolf because she has been confronted by many godly, learned men and women of The Gospel.  And though she has been shown her many biblical errors, and been urged into accountability, she continues to defy these godly counselors and to teach and promote these "doctrines of demons."  She sometimes even lies about her past, with respect to them, saying that she never taught or believed them, though she was well on-record (including her own, written material) when she DID teach\believe these false doctrines.  So I use the word, wolf, because that's exactly what a wolf does; it defies the warnings of the goodly shepherds and, because it is hungry (in this case, hungry for money and power), it sneaks its way into the flock and feeds off the weak ones.  But the weak sheep are most important to God, so we must warn the entire flock when we see a wolf lurking about.  The good thing, for both you and me, is that I have no radio or televison producer to stiffle my words, as some ministries do; I am free to call out "WOLF" when I see one, for the good of the sheep in God's flock.  Joyce Myer is a wolf. 

Now, one last thing.  Before I give you the link to the Christian Research Institute information, concerning Joyce Meyer, I encourage and admonish you to read the entire web page that I lead you to read. Surely your faith is worth reading the entire thing. Next, I would caution you to check your pride; Joyce Meyer is not your mother that you should feel defensive, nor should you feel embarrassed if you, up until now, had been taken in by her supposed ministry and teachings. After all, she does do a good job of twisting Scripture in a way that appears to "prove" her doctrines.  She is good at what she does, this twisting of the Bible and this charasmatic, false honesty, else she would not be so rich and of celebrity status.  Yes, she is good.  So there is no reason for you to feel embarrassed over the fact that you were duped by her; please put any pride you have away; I am your brother, and you need not feel embarrassed.  As a friend and teacher, please just give me the benefit of the doubt, fully read the resource material I commend to you, check it against Scripture and the teachings of The Church, and then you will see, for yourself, that you have been duped by a wolf in sheep's clothing.  But you must do the due diligence of fully reading, without pride involved, and the rest, if you are to do it rightly and achieve truth.  That's your part in all of this.  Read everything, study, pray, and put away pride.

Here, in the link, below, is "the skinny" on Ms. Meyer and her ungodly, unbiblical teachings.  If she should come to your church to "preach" to your congregation, I advise that you run, do not walk, to the nearest exit.  Then, stand guard at the church doors so that no sincere seeker of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ gets past you and inside.  We must not only fight the heretics - we must protect others from their lies. 

May The Holy Spirit of God open our minds to the truth of His Word, and keep us from all error.

CRI, on Joyce Meyer: http://www.equip.org/articles/the-teachings-of-joyce-meyer