09. Chapter 8: The Plan Of Salvation According To Beth Moore

Chapter 8 The Plan Of Salvation According To Beth Moore

Beth Moore is a successful bible teacher who founded Living Proof Ministries. You can learn a great deal about her life, her viewpoints, and her ministry by visiting her Living Proof Ministries Website.

Moore has been teaching for approximately 30 years. She is known world-wide for both the content of her messages and for her ability to engage an audience on a very deep, emotional level. Through her lectures, books, CD’s, DVD’s, and live-streamed video conferences to church audiences everywhere, she has helped many people to better understand themselves and the bible. Quite simply, Beth does a good service to everyone who encounters her within the framework of her Christian-oriented career. The purpose of this chapter is to present Beth Moore’s plan of salvation along with Jesus Christ’s plan of salvation so that you may be better informed about the differences between the two, thus allowing you to make a more qualified decision in terms of which plan you will decide to trust for your eternal destiny.

If you will visit Moore’s Living Proof Ministries Website, move your mouse pointer to where it says “Looking For Peace With God?” If you have a modern computer capable of handling standard graphics, you will see Beth’s plan of salvation pop up in a special window as you hold your mouse pointer over the aforementioned label. Now, because of potential copyright issues, I’m only going to paraphrase for you the plan of salvation according to Beth Moore. To see it for yourself, simply visit her site and you can read her salvation statement word-for-word. Without further pause, let us take a look at the plan of salvation according to Beth Moore.

Beth Moore’s plan of salvation consists of four basic parts. Part one is an introduction of sorts that is meant to gain our attention about both our sinfulness and God’s love. She says that we disobey God and that Jesus is the only solution to our sin problem. She says that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and that He did come back to life afterward, and that because He did this, that chasm between God and man has been bridged. She then says that we must personally invite Christ into our hearts. Then Moore presents a three-step approach to trusting Christ as savior. The first step instructs us to admit our needs for both peace and forgiveness. The second step instructs us that we must be “willing to turn” away from our sins, and to believe that Jesus died for us and that He rose from the dead. The third step instructs us to invite Jesus through a prayer to be our savior and to forgive us of our sins. What you have just read is the plan of salvation according to Beth Moore. By contrast, I would now like to tell you the plan of salvation according to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ says “believe” in Him, only. The original manuscripts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were written in the Greek language. In Greek, “believe” is “pisteuo,” which means to “trust.” When Christ tells us to believe in Him, He is speaking of “trust.” In every case that Christ says to “believe in Him” for salvation, He is referring to the fact that He is the Messiah who was promised to us by God as the one who would pay for the sins of the world, that He would be “lifted up” upon a cross where He would shed His blood and die to pay for the sins of the entire human race, that His dead body would be buried in a grave for three days, and that on the third day He would come back to life; therefore, “trust” in who Christ is and in what He did for us by His death, burial and resurrection from the dead is the only biblical basis for a person becoming born again. Let me give you some scriptures that prove the legitimacy of Christ’s free gift of everlasting life through faith alone in Him alone:

John 14:6 tell us, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” According to this verse, which Moore presents on her mission statement page, Jesus is the only way to heaven, and this is true because Jesus Himself said this; however, when you couple faith in Christ plus turning from your sins in order to be saved, you will not be saved, according to Christ, because He says to the self-righteous Pharisees who were trusting in “turning from sins,” among other things, and not trusting in the Messiah alone for the gift of everlasting life, that they would “die in their sins” and not be saved. Look at what Jesus says to these “self saviors” in John 8:24, “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” In Mark 1:15, Jesus said, “...The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” That “repent” is translated as “change your mind” about Jesus being the Messiah, to trust upon Him alone, not upon the law of Moses or by any combination of faith plus good works. A very common mistake made by bible scholars today is to apply the English definition of repent, which is completely different from the Greek definition. The English definition means to turn from sins, to feel remorse or sorrow for sins, etc., whereas the Greek definition simply means to have a change of mind from one thing to a different thing. In context, Christ is saying to trust Him rather than to trust in self efforts or discipleship because these things, as wonderful as they are, will cancel out His grace according to Galatians 5:2, which states, “Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.” In context, Paul equates circumcision with “keeping the law” which erroneously caused people to assume they could earn their way into heaven by doing good works and avoiding sin.

You can trust Christ with all of your might and do your best to turn from you sins and still end up in the lake of fire. That is shocking! You can do your best to trust that Jesus died for you, that He rose from the dead, and try your best to live a good, holy life and “still” end up dying in your sins because you have not placed your trust “alone” (apart from turning from your sins) in what He did for you. The sad thing about adding “self efforts” such as turning from your sins to Christ’s plan of “trust only” is that, while it sounds right, it sounds good, and it feels right, it is not the gospel message that Christ has so plainly given to us in His bible. Jesus said in John 3:16 that “whosoever believeth in Him” would be saved. He did not say “whosoever believeth” and turn from your sins. He did not say believe and be willing to turn from your sins. He did not say believe and follow Him in obedience “in order to” have everlasting life, nor did He ever imply such things when He spoke of salvation.

I use a sword in my line of work. Of course, I am speaking figuratively when I say that I use a sword in my line of work because I am referring to the King James Version of the bible when I refer to the word “sword.” I got the term “sword” from when we did “sword drills” in Sunday school. A sword drill was when the teacher would call out a verse or quote some portion of a verse to us and the first one who found the verse would stand up and read it. It was merely a way to make learning bible verses more fun at that young age. But in my Christian career today, I wield my sword with boldness. The edge of my sword is very sharp. This bible (or sword) that I use can cut through every falsehood concerning man’s way of salvation. Ironically, at the same time, this sword gives “life” to those who are spiritually dead, i.e., who have not yet trusted Christ alone as their only hope of entering heaven. I have an e-mail pal, Arashi, who runs his own ninjutsu school. I have learned many things from him, from how to properly throw martial arts stars to the concept of the “life-giving sword.” According to Arashi, in ancient Japan, when an honest man used his sword in self-defense only, it was a weapon that struck fear into his enemies but also insured peace, safety, and harmony amongst his family, his land, his harvest, and his neighbors. The instrument of death literally became an instrument of life when wielded by the right hands. Similarly, those who are without Christ often view the bible as dreadful, loathsome, and without any redeeming qualities; however, when lost people are “cut” by this bible, such as by a “thrust” of John 3:16, which says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”... the enemies of God soon come to realize (through the ministry of the Holy Spirit Himself) that what they were initially afraid of was actually very good for them, after all. Once they are “cut” in their soul, the “sword” helps them to trust on Christ alone as their savior, and they have everlasting life as a result of being cut with the Sword of the Lord, i.e., the bible. You see, according to Christ, anyone who is not born of Him is the equivalent of an enemy toward Him. Also, those who are not born again at this very moment, are said to be on “death row,” awaiting the “death sentence.” Take a look: “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).

Christ separates the human race into two specific categories: 1) those who believe, and 2) those who believe not. If you have trusted Him alone as your savior, you will never stand before the Great White Throne Judgement, i.e., you will never have to answer for your crimes and you will never be sentenced to the lake of fire. On the other hand, if you have not trusted Jesus Christ alone as your savior, you are already condemned. You will face the horror of the Great White Throne Judgement. You will be sentenced by Christ to the eternal lake of fire.

While I appreciate what Beth Moore has done for so many people, and I am behind her all the way in continuing to help as many people as she possibly can through both bible and popular psychological concepts that provide real encouragement and healing in these desperate, uncertain times, Moore’s plan of salvation will not save anyone because the addition of “turning from sins” to singular, simple faith in Christ is not the plan of salvation according to the bible. Look at this: “And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:39). Here, God is speaking through Paul. Paul did not write the book of Acts, rather, God wrote Acts “through” Paul. God is literally telling us that we are made righteous through faith alone in what Christ did for us by His death and subsequent resurrection from the dead, and that deeds of the law, such as “turning from sins” will not justify us. Neither will any combination of partial faith in Christ coupled with partial faith in turning from your sins save you. By implication, “believing on Christ” always refers to the fact of what He did for us at Calvary. The gospel message is the same throughout all of scripture. Those in the Old Testament looked “forward” to what Christ would do for them, and everyone from the time of Christ’s resurrection to this very day look “back ward” to what Christ accomplished for us by His finished work at Calvary. The gospel message of Jesus Christ, i.e., the “plan of salvation according to Jesus Christ,” is always the same and it never changes. This message is: 1) we cannot save ourselves, 2) Jesus died for our sins, 3) His dead body was buried, and 4) Jesus arose from the dead three days later. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (1 John 5:10-13).

Reader, of the two plans of salvation presented to you in this chapter, one of them has no power to save. You will either trust one plan or the other. One supplies the necessary grace that it takes to credit you with His righteousness, and the other one does not. It matters not which one appears to be more lovely; the only thing that matters is that one is genuine and the other one is counterfeit. My prayer for you is that God will help you see the difference between the two and that He will help you to choose the only one that He will honor. If you trust in any other plan of salvation that is offered to you by anyone other than Christ Himself, God says that you will be cast into the eternal lake of fire:

“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire”(Revelation 20:11-15).