Sifting through the wreckage of an exceptionally false teaching...

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They said to him, "Where is Sarah your wife?" And he said, "She is in the tent." The Lord said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son." - Genesis 18:9-10 (ESV)

And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. - Genesis 18:9-10 (KJV)

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The above link is to a video teaching from another false teacher littering the Charismatic landscape. Lovy Elias is his name, and he fancies himself a prophet. I do not know why anyone would trust this obvious charlatan who apparently was named after Thurston Howell's wife on the old Gilligan's Island sitcom. Nonetheless, he has 348,000 followers on YouTube alone, so he must be fooling quite a few people and I pray this writing finds them and frees them. The good thing about blatantly false teachers is they are easy to expose because they do not have the indwelt Holy Spirit inside and thus, have no sense of how to rightly handle scripture. They rely on charisma and manipulation to sucker people in. Throughout this video we hear people who sure seemed to be strategically placed next to microphones so they can gush at the "teaching" they are receiving. This is more than just the usual amen chorus that the likes of Steven Furtick employ. These folks are shouting silliness like "teach us papa" that makes you just cringe inside. This video starts off apparently selling the notion that our birthday is somehow cosmically connected to God and the blessings we receive from Him, but it goes wildly off the rails because the key verse he hangs this entire mess on, he clearly does not understand. What is more, he is clearly lazy because a simple google search and five minutes in commentaries would have revealed the truth for him before making an ass of himself here. Of course, he does not care. As long as he sounds sincere and pious, then he assumes the suckers will accept everything he has to say. Let us reason together again beloved as we sort through this pseudo-spiritual slop.

"Everything spiritual was designed for you to take advantage of. No spirit comes into the world except through a portal. Your birthday communicates when heaven opened to release your spirit into the world. For your birthday, there is a special grace that you receive every year that is supposed to carry you through that year. Every year marks growth and there is a special grace for every growth. I feel like I am talking to myself. If you are there shout fire." - Lovy Elias

Ah yes, the old "portal" theology. It is a favorite among the Charismatic crazy crowd. According to this false prophet, my own special portal opens only when I am born and when I die. Thus, he concludes that our birthday holds special significance. Again, the idea is to sound esoteric and mysterious. To achieve that, he teaches we receive a "special" grace. Not just your ordinary grace! In the video, he teaches that just like we are expected to grow physically every year, we are also supposed to grow spiritually, and our frustration is often born out of not advancing spiritually. Huh? Without being saved, there is no "spiritually." Then Lovy starts this pattern where he fishes for feedback by saying he feels like he is talking to himself. I watched another horrible teaching from him on finances where he literally would not move forward with the teaching until the number of "thumbs up"; or likes, increased past a certain threshold. Then for some unknown reason he demands the people there shout "fire", to which they eagerly obey and call him papa again.

He then has someone read from Genesis 18, our key verses today. He gets unnecessarily hung up on the phrase "according to the time of life" and wrongly equates this to mean "birthday." It does not and if he were not so arrogant or lazy, he could have figured it out. I placed both the KJV and the ESV in the key verses and we see that this mysterious phrase simply meant - "about this time next year." To be sure, I check the commentaries and none of them claim this phrase found in the King James meant birthday. Nonetheless, Lovy Elias actually claimed here that the "grace Sarah desired", to have children, could only be given on her birthday. As if God was somehow limited in His own creation. This is very important because his entire teaching hinges on this absurd understanding of this sentence fragment in Genesis. From this launching point, Lovy flies off the rails, crashes and burns.

"Have you investigated the day you were born? Why you were born? The attacks on you didn't start when you believed in Christ. Or when you started going to church. Or when you started hanging out with other Christians. The demonic attacks began in your life the day you were born because the devil understands what you came to do. The devil observed the day you were born but you have no idea why you were born." - Lovy Elias

Interesting here that Lovy Elias has clearly drunk the purpose driven Kool-Aid. Beloved, this was one of the greatest atrocities ever committed against the church by Rick Warren. You may want to sit down for today's deep theology. You're not that important. Sorry, but you're not. Neither am I. The purpose of a Christian is to grow into the fullness of Christ, live a life the represents Him and be prepared to answer for our faith. That can be accomplished as an accountant, or a farmer, or a housewife and mother. This notion that there is some hidden purpose for every single Christian is simply not supported biblically. Realize that what Rick Warren was doing, was ensuring that his mega church always had a plethora of volunteers so he would not have to pay to staff it. If you want to help your church in the Parking Lot Ministry, knock yourself out but do not think for a second it is a "calling" or that you are fulfilling your purpose.

Perhaps the more astounding thing here is the power Lovy Elias gives to the devil. The devil understands what I am supposed to do the moment I am birthed? The devil himself personally observed the day I was born? So, the enemy is omnipresent? He is omniscient? He is omnipotent? No beloved, he most certainly is not. When you got into that fight in the sandbox at age five it was not a demonic attack. When you fell off your bike at age 11 it was not a demonic attack. This teaching scratches itching ears because it proffers the silly notion that you are just so important that the enemy of our souls was waiting and watching when you were born so he could spend a lifetime attacking you to prevent you from realizing the true measure of your greatness. It is a theology born for the NAR apostate church that has poisoned itself on Warrenology for decades now. Elias was far from done with his insanity however:

"Moses was born in Egypt. The devil already knows there is a spirit that has entered the world. This boy will deliver the children of Israel. I want the children of Israel in bondage because if they get delivered a great nation will come of this and that great nation will produce the Messiah. So the devil wants to kill Moses as a child then the whole plan is aborted because Moses was the only one designed to do that one thing." - Lovy Elias

Right. So, the devil knew that "a spirit" had come into the world when Moses was born that would deliver the children of Israel and that this would lead to a great nation and thus the birth of the Messiah? Are you serious? This is not only extra-biblical, but it rewrites the reasons God already gave us in the text. A new Pharoah had come to power who did not know of Joseph, and he saw the Israelites were growing in number and he feared they would revolt and join the enemies of Egypt. It is for this reason the Pharoah eventually ordered the death of male children, not just Moses. The more insulting thing here is this notion that God is somehow inept with His own creation. That if Moses had been killed then the entire plan of salvation was off! As if the grand plans of God relied solely on Moses instead of the Almighty! Moses was only special because God made him special. If he had died or refused, God would still have accomplished His desires regardless.

"Don't you realize it is very dangerous when the bible says when you don't do what you are supposed to do the blood of people will be on your hands. There are people who cannot get saved that will never receive Jesus because you never did your work. And there is no one who can save those people because you are the only one designed to reach them. So those people's blood will be on your hands." - Lovy Elias

This is just scripturally criminal to assault the bible like this. God did say to the Prophet Ezekiel that if God had told the wicked they will die and Ezekiel did not warn them, then their blood would be on his hands. Here is today's second deep theology point - you are not Ezekiel. This is not a point God is making to everyone. You know why? Because He said it directly and audibly to Ezekiel. Just think of the loathsome arrogance to assume that you are so special that people will end up in hell if you do not embrace your specialness. This blood warning also appears when Paul says goodbye to the Ephesian elders and declares he is free from their blood because he did not hesitate to teaching them the entire gospel. So, yes there are certain callings such as pastor where the lives of your listeners are at stake as Paul teaches Timothy. That is why preachers and teachers are held to a higher standard and why false teachers are storing up wrath against themselves. That is NOT what Lovy is trafficking in here. He is telling John Q Public that they too have special people that ONLY they can reach. That God assigns these tasks to individuals and if they fail, the people are lost forever. How ridiculous and dangerous. God has a plan, and we might even be used as part of it but do not think for a second that God needs us to accomplish anything. He does not.

"If Moses had never become what he was supposed to be then the blood of Israel would be on his hands. How can the devil know more about your future than you? John the Baptist was born knowing exactly what he was supposed to do. Samson knew what he came to do. Joshua knew what he came to do. You see God can stop the devil from touching your future but you yourself can destroy your future because you don't know what you are supposed to do. Do you understand the devil cannot hinder what God has ordained. The only way the devil can hinder it is by putting a stumbling block before you. The day you received the Lord Jesus you were given a second chance to fulfill why you were put on earth. You were enforced and empowered to fulfill why you were put on earth. There are some of you that are born again but still do not know what you are supposed to do." - Lovy Elias

Wow, this is so breathtakingly bad. So, if Moses had never become who he was supposed to be, than the blood of all of Israel would have been on his hands? Beloved, the devil does not know more about your future. There is zero indication that John the Baptist knew anything of his eventual service unto God while growing up. Samson knew? Really? He knew and he still ended up with his eye gouged out? This nonsense is the end result of decades of stupid teaching from the Purpose Driven Life. It belittles the ordinary life that is still yielded to Christ. Not everyone is called to a grandiose ministry or purpose. The reality is most are not. Most are called to the mundane. Within that mundane life however, so much fruit can be borne. I am sure we all know lives well lived that no one really heard about. They still touched so many people and they deserve to not be cheapened the way this huckster does. By the way, didn't this teaching start out being about birthdays and portals or something? Hard to track when it results in a train wreck this bad.

Thankfully, I know why I was born. It was to expose false teachers and prophets like Lovy Elias.

Mission accomplished.

Reverend Anthony Wade - October 16, 2023

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.