Beth Moore's Illicit Tent of
Meeting
By Bob DeWaay
Recently, on Ingrid Schlueter's Web site, Beth Moore denies
that she promotes approaches to prayer that have Eastern overtones. The issue
arose from her participation on the Be Still DVD which has been
critiqued on this site by Ingrid and then Brian Flynn. Brian and I viewed a
segment of Beth Moore on that DVD. We found disconcerting her poor
understanding of Exodus 33:7-11, the passage she uses as her proof text. In her
discussion of Moses' tent of meeting she proposes that each believer can have
their own tent of meeting where they can go to have two way conversations with
God.
Commenting on Exodus 33:7-11, Moore states: "It says
all of them could have approached, but as Moses approached they would stand
back and watch." Then she implies that people are just standing back when
they could have their own tent of meeting with God. Then she claims:
"The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man
speaks with his friend." That is part of contemplative prayer. When we sit
back and realize that it is not just that we have something to say to God, it's
that God has something He has to say to us . . . I want to be in that tent of
meeting.
Every believer, according to Moore, can have a private
non-literal tent of meeting in which God will come and speak to him or her.
This claim introduces serious theological problems. Let us
first examine the claim that it was God's intention that every Israelite enter
the tent of meeting. This is simply false. Moses was uniquely the mediator of
the Old Covenant. God chose to speak His authoritative words to Moses alone.
God said that it was good that only Moses heard God's voice: "This is
according to all that you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the
assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, let me
not see this great fire anymore, lest I die.' And the Lord said to me, ‘They
have spoken well'" (Deut. 18:16, 17). In context Deuteronomy 18 was
about prohibiting divination. God spoke to them through Moses and promised to
send a future prophet like Moses; and when God sent that prophet, they should
listen to Him (that prophet was Jesus; see Deut. 18:9-19; other passages in the
New Testament claim Jesus was the one Moses predicted). Several Old Testament
passages show that God spoke to Moses alone directly (Deut. 5:30, 31; Exo. 19:21-23; Exo. 20:19-21; Deut. 34:10).
When Moses' unique role was challenged some very bad things
happened to the challengers. In Numbers 12, Miriam and Aaron said this:
"Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He
not spoken through us as well And the Lord heard it" (Num. 12:2). God called them out to the
tent of meeting, and the cloud came down to the doorway of the tent. The result
was, after God spoke about Moses' unique role, Miriam was leprous (see Num.
12:2-10). In Leviticus 10, Nadab and Abihu tried to do things their own way and
they died. In Numbers 16, Korah started a protest movement that denied Moses'
unique role and all who participated and their families dropped directly into
Sheol (Num. 16:1-33). For good reason the people stayed at their own tents when
Moses entered the tent of meeting—they
did not want to die! Moore's claim that God wanted them all to enter and
receive personal revelations from God is false.
The New Testament makes it clear there is only one
legitimate tent of meeting: Christ. Jesus, Peter, James and John ascended a
mount in Mark 9; and Jesus was transfigured. During this event, Moses and
Elijah appeared and were talking to Jesus. Here, three people who were God's
authoritative spokespersons, stood on one mount. So Peter determined that they
should build three tabernacles (tents of meeting). Why? So they would have
three places they could go to enquire of the Lord. But what happened?
"Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the
cloud, ‘This My beloved Son, listen to Him!' And all at once they looked around
and saw no one with them anymore, except Jesus alone" (Mark 9:4b, 5). The phrase "listen
to Him" alludes to Deuteronomy 18 and shows that Jesus is the prophet
Moses predicted. God provides but one tent of meeting—Jesus Himself. And that
tent would not remain pitched on earth (John 1:14 says Jesus
"tabernacled" among us).
The book of Hebrews elaborates on this. God has spoken
through Jesus Christ in full and final revelation (Heb. 1:1, 2; Heb. 2:1-3
tells us that His apostles gave us Jesus' authoritative words). Jesus is our
High Priest who passed through the heavens and sits at the right hand of God where
He carries out His mediatorial role. Hebrews 8:1, 2 claims that the true
tabernacle is in heaven and was pitched by God, not man. This claim is repeated
in Hebrews 9:11, 12. The entire book of Hebrews is about Christ's unique role
and warnings against apostasy for those who think they can come to God by some
way other than Christ (in their case going back to the temple in Jerusalem and
the earthly high priest and the blood of animals).
Hebrews also tells us the only way to draw near to God:
through Christ who is in heaven and can only be seen by faith (Heb. 10:22; Heb.
11:1). All believers have the privilege of access to the throne of grace (Heb.
4:16). But there they find help in their time of need—not new, personal
revelations.
The New Testament promises that if we come to God on His
terms through Christ in prayer, He will listen. It does not promise us our own
new words from God. The contemplative prayer movement wants what God is not
offering: a way to feel closer to God and gain personal revelations. God has
offered His Son so that we may draw
near to God, not feel near to God. Many who are on the road to Hell feel
near to God. Many who are truly saved sometimes do not feel near to God. There
is nothing in Hebrews that promises we will feel near to God. To draw near is
to come to God through faith in Christ and His once for all shed blood, and
abide by faith in the terms of the covenant. To draw near is to have access to
the throne of grace in prayer.
Beth Moore teaches error on the Be Still DVD. She
claims that in the Old Testament God wanted each person to enter the Tent of
Meeting; this is false. The tent of meeting that Moses entered was a precursor
to the Tabernacle. Only the high priest on the Day of Atonement could enter the
holy place in God's presence and even he could do so only under the terms God
revealed to Moses. Moore claims that we can each have a tent of meeting; this
is false. There is one tent of meeting, it is Jesus Christ who entered the
heavenly tabernacle and sits at the right hand of God. God commanded us to
listen to Him, not to seek new information from God that He has not already
spoken through Christ and His apostles. Moore wants to distance herself from
mysticism, but her own words dangerously mislead people. Rather than pointing
people to illicit tents of meeting not ordained by God, she should have pointed
them to Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant, the blood atonement, and the
throne of grace. Being dissatisfied with what God has provided is very
dangerous, as certain individuals in the Old Testament discovered for
themselves.
For further study on this issue, please watch
this video from one of our conferences:
Session 1: Mystical Tents of Meeting or The Objective Tent of Meeting.
Bob DeWaay shows from both ther Old and New Testaments that the true "Tent of Meeting" is where God gives objective, binding revelation to the mediators of the covenants...Moses in the Old, and Jesus in the New. Personal "tents of meeting" as proposed by Beth Moore on a popular Christian DVD, are false.