-1 Star: FALSE TEACHER: Lisa Bevere's "Be Angry But Don't Blow It!"

Readers should know who the author is before they read the book, so they can know what to expect and be cautious when discerning the truth. Lisa Bevere is the wife of John Bevere, a prosperity gospel member of the Word Faith "denomination" or what I would call "cult". I do not use the term "cult" or "heresy" or "false teacher" lightly. I use these terms to describe someone who I believe knows full well that they are teaching falsehood and still teach it for riches. After reading John Bevere's outrageously false book "Relentless", I am certain the three terms fit the Beveres. Still, with an open mind, looking for any benefit this book might have, I read this book. I mean, even false teachers might get something right, right? I have seen Sheila Walsh write one good book after a lifetime of false teachings, but sadly, this Lisa Bevere book is filled with the same errors her and her husband have tricked people with for years. I hope after reading my review, you will understand how this book "sounds good" on the surface, but if you discern carefully, you will see the errors.

Ch 1: Lisa Bevere throws a plate at her husbands head in anger and blames him for making her mad. She writes, "Anger in and of itself is not wrong, but rage and fury escalate it into the dimention of the destructive."
=== TRUTH: Godly anger is not wrong, but selfish humanistic prideful anger is always wrong. In the greek language, Godly anger is a different word from selfish anger. In the original Greek, the Bible is very clear: only godly anger or righteous anger is ever considered good. Selfish anger is always wrong. Lisa should have clarified, because her teaching will lead readers to believe all anger is okay, as long as you don't let it turn into rage. Clearly, throwing a plate at John's head had nothing to do with "godly anger" or "righteous anger" and even Lisa admits this on page 5, when she writes, "I fell asleep under the blanket of self-justification and righteousness. Gone was my repentance."

Ch 2: Lisa Bevere quotes Ephesians 4:26 as a command to "Be angry" and she even puts it in italics, giving readers free reign to sin in anger as much as they like. She writes "God gives us permission to be angry. He knows and understands man's inborn capacity for anger." "Anger is as valid a human emotion as joy, sorrow, faith, and fear. God tells us, "Be angry", because it is okay to be upset. Even God gets angry... as a matter of fact, quite frequently." "There is a fine line between anger and sin." Bevere alludes to the idea that "age, personality, position and place" help determine sin. Her examples: The older you are or the more authority you have, the more responsible you are and the more you should know better. TRUTH: A sin is a sin, no matter who does it. Pg 9, she explains that when she was younger, that she would honk and curse people while driving, but when her "little ones were copying [her], [she] no longer enjoyed the priviledge of yelling at strangers." Wow. That's scary. Her only reason for stopping was that her children were mimicking her. It had nothing to do with repentance and acknowledging the error of her sinful ways or obedience to God or Christ-likeness or living a life to glorify God.

Pg 10, Bevere uses dictionary definitions for anger to show us that anger is okay and not sinful. She determins that "Anger by definition should be brief and transitory, not drawn out and dangerous." She even has the nerve to falsely teach, "God models the healthy type of anger for us: "For His anger lasts only a moment" (Ps 30:5). The rest of the chapter is spent showing us how "short-term anger" is good, but "long-term" anger is wrong, when it turns into "bitterness." Bevere even uses Eph 4:26 out of context to justify her claims, declaring that "letting the sun go down on anger" shows that holding anger for a long period can "progress toward the destructive ledge of being angry and sinning." Bevere's teaching that short-term angry is not sinning is completely false. All selfish anger is sin. Only righteous anger can be good.

Ch 3: Bevere tells how she used to punish her husband in anger until he had earned his way out of punishment. This chapter is spent telling readers to make sure not to carry anger past nighttime in accordance with "Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry" or you will carry that anger into the next day and the next and the next until you have a weeks worth of anger.

Ch 4: This chapter is about "the progression from anger to sin, or the progression of anger to rage to fury." Again, Bevere is teaching falsely that anger is natural, normal, healthy and not a sin. She calls "rage and fury" the sin. But she justifies "anger" as normal and good because it is "short-term". Bevere quotes Neil Clark Warren's book, "Make Anger Your Ally", "anger is described as a completely natural, perfictl legitimate. It is that internatl happening which prepares us to cope with hurtful, frustrating, and fearful exdperiences." And "anger is simple a state of physical readiness." She uses the horrific analogy of holding a gun and claims "Of course, there is nothing wrong with being ready, willing and able to respond, or shold we say to shoot. no harm has yet been done, we are just booting up for what might lie ahead." In describing rage as not yet sinning, she writes, "Aiming [the gun] doesn't necessarily come with a commitment to shoot." Then she begins to add the last part, "Rage continue to progress to fury as our temperature rises, and at this point we are committed to shoot." So only when we are COMMITTED TO PULLING the trigger we are sinning? This is completely false! Didn't Jesus say Mt 5:22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister, will be subject to judgment. Jesus does not seperate anger and rage and say these are okay and only fury is wrong. According to Bevere, fury is where you pull the trigger. That is the point where you physically act out. Jesus' entire point is that the inner man counts, not just the outward physical demonstration. Bevere caps off her false teaching, "We [just] watched as the natural response of "anger" was escalated to the dangerous final and regrettable stage of fury. This example illustrates the dividing line between constructive anger and descructive fury." FALSE. This internal anger is not constructive to say the least. In otherwords, Lisa Bevere is teaching that in chapter 1, her anger towards her husband was "constructive" all the way up until she threw the china at his head. And this would also mean that in chapter 2, where she spends a great deal of time telling how she would punish and make her husband "pay" in her mind, that all this anger was "constructive" because she "didn't pull the trigger" yet? Wow. What a false teaching.

I could not read any more of this book. But I read this review to show those open enough to read my review that the Beveres are false teachers and to warn them that these "wolves" will devour those who do not discern wisely.