I threw that “Christian” sermon CD in the trash! Maybe I should explain myself. Let me start from the beginning. I have been a youth pastor and in youth ministry for nearly all of my professional career. A little less than 20 years ago my wife and I picked up our lives and moved to California to become a youth pastor at a church in the San Francisco Bay Area. Shortly thereafter our first daughter was born to us. Surprisingly to us, she was born with Down syndrome. With that came many health complications. Some of which included a hole in her heart, oxygenation deprivation issues, and then 10 months later infantile spasms (epileptic seizures) developed. We were deeply supported by our loving and amazing church.

During the time that our daughter was experiencing epileptic seizures because of an ailment called “infantile spasms”, a woman approached my wife and gave her a sermon on a CD. The sermon was by a “pastor” named Bill Johnson. I don’t remember everything about the sermon, but the one thing I do remember was he said, “God is good, Satan is bad; cancer is bad, therefore cancer and sickness come from Satan.” I was so angry I threw the CD in the trash because that was the only place where such teaching and theology belonged in my mind.

This person meant it as an encouragement for us, however, it had the opposite effect. It was deeply discouraging, while angering and frustrating me. It enraged me that this woman had been so deceived that she would think it was a good idea to give such a condemning sermon CD to my wife—one that directly condemned our actual situation, as if our daughter’s sickness and disability came from Satan. To give my wife a CD that would be so condemning of us and our struggle did not encourage us through the difficulty, but rather it communicated that our trials and the sickness that our daughter was experiencing were from Satan.

I did not keep track of Bethel Church in Redding, CA, until much later. Honestly, at that time 18 years ago, I thought they were on the fringe and an extreme movement. Moreover, at that time, I did what I only knew to do, which was to go to my supporters and my church family and describe my experience. So, I made a Facebook video called “The Pain of the Prosperity Gospel” to chronicle our experiences and give our testimony, which is still available today.[i]

Since that experience nearly 20 years ago our family has consistently had contact with this healing theology that says it is always God’s will to heal. Not only do they teach that it is God’s will always to heal, but they teach that it is what Christ accomplished for us through the atonement. This theological perspective says Christ’s atoning work on the cross purchased our physical health.

I believe this view originated in the more recent past in and through the theology of A.B. Simpson (1843-1919), who is the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.[ii] We’ve heard things like, “Don’t you have enough faith for your daughter to be healed?” “Where’s your faith?” “Why don’t you claim your healing?” “Christ paid for her healing why isn’t she healed?” “God can heal your daughter of Down syndrome.” The worst thing that has been said to us is when a church leader recently told my wife that our daughter’s Down syndrome is from Satan. All these things have been said to us, not just on one occasion but frequently. This has been a constant recurrence for the last 18 years of our daughter’s life. Of all these things that have been said to us about our daughter, the last one was the most recent, and it was said to us by a leader of a church that has become a Bethel proxy where we currently reside. And has, like Bethel, left the evangelical denomination of which it was previously a part.[iii]

After our wonderful time as youth pastors in California, God called us to become missionaries in Germany. We have been here for 10 years doing youth work, church planting, evangelism, and—most recently for me—theological work. After moving to Germany, we became aware of Bethel and the New Apostolic Reformation’s (N.A.R.)[iv] influence here in this country.

I became very concerned when I saw the same movement that I had been introduced to nearly 18 years ago making huge strides and inroads into the mainline evangelical movement in Germany. I commenced investigating and researching. What I found was that this new movement coming into Germany was the same thing that I had encountered years ago in California. I discovered this movement coming into Germany had deep connections to Bethel Church in Redding, CA, the same church I had been introduced to years ago. This was deeply disconcerting. What I began to uncover was shocking, to say the least.

The first thing that alerted me to Bethel and their aberrant teachings, as well as their influence in Germany, was a thing that has been called “grave sucking”, “mantle grabbing”, “re-digging the wells”, or what became a sort of pejorative term called “grave soaking”. I was alerted and interested because, as a missionary and youth worker here in Germany, some of the young men I was teaching to be disciples of Christ were interested in “Awakening Europe” events, whose leaders have appeared in several videos engaged in this strange practice. I was immediately shocked about the discovery of these practices and that the young men that I was working with, and teaching, were being sucked into this movement. That’s when I started writing and researching for my book, Divergent Theology, hoping to warn my own personal friends about the aberrant teaching, theology, and practices—especially those coming out of Bethel, a big cog in the machine that is the New Apostolic Reformation.

As I discovered, the practices of this movement were numerous strange and unbiblical practices. Bill Johnson, the senior leader and “apostle” of Bethel Church in Redding, documents these strange manifestations himself in his book, When Heaven Invades Earth: A Practical Guide to a Life of Miracles. He claims that small gems have appeared on people, angel feathers fall in their church building/meeting locations, and other phenomenon.

Even recently, leaders at Bethel have claimed angel feathers have fallen during their church services.[v] Johnson claims they experience laughter, falling, shaking (in the Spirit; i.e., the Toronto Blessing), gold dust falling, oil, and “glory clouds” as signs of God’s presence.[vi] These practices and emphases on such teaching diminish the message of the gospel. Johnson’s teaching either truncates or adds to the message of the gospel. One glaring example of this is when Bill Johnson—in that same book—writes, “without miracles, there can never be a full revelation of Jesus.” Johnson also emphasized that miracles are essential for gospel proclamation when he wrote, “miracles provide the grace for repentance.”[vii]

This teaching destroys the heart of the gospel, which is that its message may be presented and understood by anyone at any time in any place. The message is the power, not any particular miracles, manifestations, or any other insider secret, preserved for some elite class of Christian. The Neo-Gnostic practices that they label “signs and wonders” such as the “glory cloud”, “gold dust”, “angel feathers” falling, gems appearing, conjuring “angel orbs”, fire tunnels (in which they employ Kundalini methods), “spirit travel”, out-of-body experiences, and “healings” are practiced often enough at Bethel that they take great pride in trying to document them.

In other words, these strange things have not just happened once. Johnson prides himself in that they are a place where these things regularly happen. They also practice “prophecy”, “portal travel” (where people can go through portals to other places physically—so they claim—which is obviously a New Age/Occult practice), extra-biblical revelation, raising the dead (supposedly), charismatic praying in tongues, “soaking/grave soaking”, the New Wine movement, “drunken glory”, visualization, laughter (Toronto Blessing), and animal sounds…all while supposedly filled with the Holy Spirit. I do not condemn tongues—if done orderly—as the Bible explains in 1st Corinthians 14:26-40, but the many practices that the N.A.R. employs when “slain in the Spirit” are never mentioned in the Bible.

One of the primary reasons Christians should care about Bethel Church is the divergence from evangelical theological orthodoxy present in much of its teachings.[viii] Bethel’s teachings, practices, and theology veer into theological error and excess, if not outright heresy. For example, the healing (dominion) gospel that I mentioned; gnostic, mystic, and occult-like practices[ix]; their emphasis on apostolic and prophetic government[x]; and their emphasis on a Kenotic view of Christ—namely that Jesus “laid aside his divinity.”[xi] If someone has an improper Christology—for example, the Kenotic theology—then he/she also has an improper view of the Trinity. The true historical Christian view of the Trinity is that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son, the second person of the eternal Triune godhead. If Jesus laid aside His divinity at some point, then He is not part of the Trinity, because that “god” cannot be the God of the Bible. God is immutable and so He cannot not be God, otherwise He was never God, and thus not part of the triune Godhead. This is why Bethel and Bill Johnson’s precarious view of Jesus’ divinity also brings their trinitarian beliefs into question.

Furthermore, Bethel and the wider N.A.R. emphasize dreams, visions, and revelations over and against Scripture. Bethel also emphasizes prosperity (i.e., Bethel’s weekly offering readings)[xii], and physical healing in this life (included in Christ’s atoning work) as I have explained. Bethel also emphasizes New Age practices.

In the book, The Physics of Heaven: Exploring God’s Mysteries of Sound, Light, Energy, Vibrations, and Quantum Physics, which has the Bethel author’s seal of approval on it, one author writes, “…the New Age has counterfeited, such as having a spirit guide, trances, meditation, auras, power objects, clairvoyance, clairaudience, and more. These actually belong to the church, but they have been stolen and cleverly repackaged.”[xiii] These emphases can and do lead to a distorted understanding of the gospel, and an unhealthy pursuit of dangerous New Age experiences, all at the expense of sound doctrine.

Because of my work in this area, I receive consistent communication from people who have come out of this movement. I can confirm that these emphases by Bethel and others in the N.A.R. do lead to a distorted understanding of the gospel. Among people who come out of this movement, the story is consistent: that they finally first perceived and understood the true gospel only after leaving Bethel. Some must first deconstruct their faith away from the tenets of the N.A.R. and Bethel’s practices, theology, and teachings, before being able to understand and receive the true gospel.

Another grave concern is the impact of Bethel’s teachings and practices on the wider Body of Christ. Bethel’s influence extends far beyond its local congregation. Among many other advancement programs from Bethel, their musical endeavors are probably the N.A.R.’s leading global mouthpiece. Nearly every song released by Bethel Music has millions of YouTube views. Their channel has 4.5 million subscribers, and their more popular songs have 50 to 100 million views (not counting other YouTube channels that have re-posted these Bethel songs).

When Bethel releases an album, it tops iTunes and other music charts. These huge numbers testify to the church’s following and global advancement. Additionally, the N.A.R. controls a large segment of video, music, radio, and print media—such as Destiny Image (their printing arm), GOD TV, and Charisma Magazine, all of which have been purveyors of N.A.R. content.

A clear example is Bethel worship leader, Brian Johnson, son of Bill Johnson, who recently posted on Instagram his yearly Spotify stream numbers for 2023. His music was streamed 192.4 million times.[xiv] At 3-5 cents per stream, he could have very easily earned a humble estimate of 5.7 million dollars from his royalties on Spotify alone. And that is only one Bethel artist! This is not to mention any of the other Bethel artists on all the streaming platforms combined could be in the ballpark of billions of dollars.

Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI) is a global company that licenses Christian music for use by churches and other Christian organizations. As of September 2022, of the 10 songs most widely used through CCLI, eight were from N.A.R.-related churches or artists.[xv] Another just-completed study found that of songs that made the Top 25 for CCLI between 2010 and 2020, all but two had originated from four N.A.R.-oriented churches or organizations: Bethel, Hillsong, Passion City Church in Atlanta, and Elevation Church in North Carolina, USA. The researchers pointed out that only a few of the most popular songs talk about the cross or salvation, instead highlighting personal experience and blessing. They concluded that the theology of these four churches has deeply influenced the spiritual practices of many evangelical congregations.[xvi]

Furthermore, through Bethel conferences, music, books, and online resources, Bethel’s teachings reach millions of Christians worldwide. Consequently, theological errors or excesses within the Church can have ripple effects throughout the global Body of Christ, leading to confusion, division, and spiritual harm.

In light of these concerns, it is vital for Christians to engage with the teachings and practices coming out of Bethel Church with discernment and biblical scrutiny. This means evaluating teachings and practices in light of Scripture and the historic Christian faith. It also means speaking out against any deviations from biblical truth, while “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) to those within the Bethel community.

Ultimately, the goal is not to condemn but to promote sound doctrine, spiritual discernment, and unity within the Body of Christ. By engaging in respectful dialogue and upholding the authority of God’s Word, Christians can navigate the complexities of issues surrounding Bethel Church and work toward greater doctrinal clarity and spiritual health within the global Church.

Paul, the apostle, dealt with the Judaizers, who consistently spread their false teaching in his time. He saved his harshest and most damning words for those people who falsified the gospel. He said of the false teachings of the Judaizers that added circumcision to the gospel, “a little leaven leavens, the whole lump” (Galatians 5:9). The same thing is happening with Bethel. The little leaven that they insert into churches and other ministries is spreading rapidly throughout the whole Body of Christ. By the spreading of Bethel’s theology, they falsify the gospel.

Unfortunately, the leaven that Bethel has produced has leavened the nearly entire lump of evangelical Christianity. Everyone—from the layperson to local elders, pastors, and deacons—must react and either purge the leaven or suffer the consequences of false teachings and heresies, which could change the shape of the evangelical world if we do not react.

In my 20+ years of study and research into this movement, I have personally heard the tragic stories of many people who have had their faith shipwrecked (1 Timothy 1:19-20) by the Bethel/N.A.R. movement. Let me tell you a story of a faithful mainline evangelical church. This church was vibrant and lively, however they wanted more. This church started to incorporate Bethel worship music into their worship time. Bethel Music has an air of depth, devotion, and deeper spirituality, but is a theological Trojan Horse, which smuggles in N.A.R. theology.[xvii] Pretty soon young people at this church started getting interested in Bethel, and many even decided to pick up their lives and travel to Redding, California to attend the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM). If the youth could not make it for BSSM, they would go to Bethel or other New Apostolic Reformation-type conferences (I call them N.A.R. pilgrimages). After a few years, the church started a SOZO ministry through the help of people who had been trained by the parent ministry of the same name at Bethel.[xviii] This church leadership became more and more influenced by the theological aberrations found and propagated by Bethel.

The church started showing Bill Johnson sermons along with all sorts of other invited N.A.R./Bethel guests, including “prophets” and “apostles”. Speakers started speaking less from the Bible and more from “God spoke to me”, or other dreams, visions, and revelations that they had supposedly received directly from God. Such preaching became commonplace, and on many occasions, preachers quoted verbatim the “apostle” of Bethel, Bill Johnson, and or the “prophet”, Kris Vallotton, and many other N.A.R. leaders. The one true holdout, who was trying to hold all these theological developments back, was the pastor. However, the eldership conspired to get rid of that pastor. They were successful after years of effort. After that pastor’s departure, there was very little resistance to all these new developments and affinity for Bethel.

A couple of other elders were also holdouts to the Bethel theology, teachings, and practices. However, they were summarily bullied and forced out. The few leftover leaders who opposed these new developments very closely followed the exit of the pastor. After the final opposition departed, there was very little resistance to the transition to a Bethel/N.A.R. church. Subsequently, the remaining elders tried to implement a “fivefold ministry” leadership structure by having the congregation vote on “an apostolic leader, a prophetic leader, an evangelistic leader, a teaching leader, and a pastoral leader.” The congregation voted against “an apostolic leader” and “prophetic leader”. However, that did not deter the eldership. They kept pushing for a full takeover of apostolic and prophetic leadership.

A war of attrition became the ensuing strategy. The few remaining holdouts who had not given in to the new direction could holdout no longer, and their long battle to save their church ended. The eldership in opposition to all the previous members’ requests installed the pastor (“apostle/prophet”) who was a Bethel missionary.

Even though the membership had up to this point consistently voted down and voted against these developments, the elders kept pushing forward, hoping and seeking a Bethel takeover. Eventually, this pastor (“apostle/prophet”) was installed and a proxy organization for Bethel took over. After a short while of this pastor (“apostle/prophet”) and his organization being the new de-facto leaders of the church, they exited their evangelical denomination and renamed themselves to their N.A.R./Bethel branding.

The fledgling proxy Bethel church replaced the previous members (those who had left shortly after the original pastor left) with a new congregation that would be completely on board with everything that the new leadership had planned. After installing the new pastor (“apostle/prophet”) and all the other leadership that came with him, the takeover was complete.

You may read this story and wonder if this is an exaggeration. It is not. It is a true story, albeit one containing an amalgamation of all the churches that I have observed over the years of my research, including the stories that my contacts from those churches shared with me, as well as personal experience. This is not an exaggeration. Details reflect actual events in churches that have experienced Bethel/N.A.R. teachings and its Dominionism takeover mandate (Invading Babylon: The 7 Mountain Mandate).[xix]

What this movement does, in essence, is it displaces numerous faithful Jesus-loving Christians, and—as I have personally witnessed over and over again—shipwrecks people’s faith. If not opposed, it runs roughshod over people who are kind and accommodating Christians, those who do not want conflict. This movement takes advantage of true Christians who are honest, kind, faithful, and meek. And if not opposed, it will take over such wonderful, faithful, Jesus-honoring, and vibrant evangelical churches. I have both witnessed and experienced the same story over and over. I have people contacting me consistently who have lost their own children to this movement, lost their churches, or tragically both. For these reasons, we must speak up and oppose this movement, because it might just shipwreck your faith, and even worse yet, change the face of evangelical Christianity.

This moment in church history is not unlike the threat posed by Arianism to the Church around the time of the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. Arianism threatened to change the definition of the gospel, and the everlasting Son of God into a created and finite being. Bethel and the N.A.R. may pose a similar multifaceted threat to evangelical orthodoxy that could redefine a great many churches within the Body. To preserve evangelical biblical orthodoxy, we must stay vigilant; otherwise, theological entropy takes hold. This has been the pattern across church history; it could happen to us, too. Evangelicalism could wake up one day and discover that it is no longer what it once was.

 

References:

 

[i] Richard Moore, dir. 2008. Pain of the Prosperity Gospel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdORim9vVW8.

[ii] @Richardpmoore. 2022. “Desperate Imitation of Christ: A.B. SIMPSON’S ABERRANT VIEW OF DIVINE HEALING.” Desperate Imitation of Christ (blog). November 9, 2022. https://richardpmoore.blogspot.com/2022/11/ab-simpsons-aberrant-view-of-divine.html.

[iii] Bethel left the Assemblies of God denomination in 2006 according to Bill Johnson, for irreconcilable theological differences. Likewise, G5 in Germany left the free evangelical denomination of which it was previously part and changed its name to Awakening Church. Poloma, Margaret M., and John Clifford Green. 2010. The Assemblies of God: Godly Love and the Revitalization of American Pentecostalism. New York: New York University Press. pg. 202

“FeG-Gemeinde aus dem freikirchlichen Bund ausgetreten.” n.d. Accessed March 27, 2024. https://www.idea.de/artikel/feg-gemeinde-aus-dem-freikirchlichen-bund-ausgetreten.

[iv] Moore, Richard, P. 2023. “The New Apostolic Reformation and Its Threat to Evangelicalism.” Evangelical Review of Theology 47 (2): 133–45.

[v] Justin Peters Ministries, dir. 2024. My Open Challenge to Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton and Bethel Church. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f78nDMj_bzw.

[vi] Johnson, Bill. 2003. When Heaven Invades Earth: A Practical Guide to a Life of Miracles. Shippensburg, PA: Treasure House.

[vii] Ibid, 126.

[viii] Recent work critiquing N.A.R. and Bethel practices, teaching, and theology include…

Moore, Richard, P. 2023. “The New Apostolic Reformation and Its Threat to Evangelicalism.” Evangelical Review of Theology 47 (2): 133–45.

Krohn, Jeffrey S. 2023. “The ‘Third Mention’ of Apostles and Prophets: Ephesians 4:11 in Light of 2:20 and 3:5.” Evangelical Review of Theology 47 (4): 292–383.

Geivett, R. Douglas, and Holly Pivec. 2022. Counterfeit Kingdom: The Dangers of New Revelation, New Prophets, and New Age Practices in the Church. Nashville, TN: B&H Books.

Pivec, Holly, and R. Douglas Geivett. 2023. Reckless Christianity: The Destructive New Teachings and Practices of Bill Johnson, Bethel Church, and the Global Movement of Apostles and Prophets. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.

Mohler, Albert. n.d. “The Briefing: Friday, December 20,2019.” Accessed September 30, 2022. https://albertmohler.com/2019/12/20/briefing-12-20-19.

Moore, Richard P. 2017. Divergent Theology: An Inquiry Into the Theological Characteristics of the Word of Faith Third Wave Movement and The New Apostolic Reformation. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

[ix] Moore, Richard P. 2017. Divergent Theology: An Inquiry Into the Theological Characteristics of the Word of Faith Third Wave Movement and The New Apostolic Reformation. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Pgs. 44-53.

[x] Pivec, Holly, and R. Douglas Geivett. 2023. Reckless Christianity: The Destructive New Teachings and Practices of Bill Johnson, Bethel Church, and the Global Movement of Apostles and Prophets. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books. pg. 32.

Johnson, Bill. 2003. When Heaven Invades Earth: A Practical Guide to a Life of Miracles. Shippensburg, PA: Treasure House. Pg. 10

[xi] Franklin, Judy. 2012. The Physics of Heaven: Exploring God’s Mysteries of Sound, Light, Energy, Vibrations, and Quantum Physics. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, Inc., pg. 49

[xii] “Offering Readings | Bethel.” n.d. Accessed March 26, 2024. https://www.bethel.com/offering-readings.

[xiii] Franklin, Judy. 2012. The Physics of Heaven: Exploring God’s Mysteries of Sound, Light, Energy, Vibrations, and Quantum Physics. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, Inc., pg. 49

[xiv] “Brian Johnson (@brianjohnsonm) • Instagram Photos and Videos.” n.d. Accessed March 27, 2024. https://www.instagram.com/p/C0jf7IMM2TE/.

[xv] “CCLI — Christian Copyright Licensing International.” n.d. CCLI – US. Accessed September 22, 2022. https://us.ccli.com/.

[xvi] Service, Bob Smietana-Religion News. 2023. “How Bethel and Hillsong Took Over Our Worship Sets.” News & Reporting. April 12, 2023. https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2023/april/bethel-hillsong-worship-sound-christian-research.html.

[xvii] Geivett, R. Douglas, and Holly Pivec. 2022. Counterfeit Kingdom: The Dangers of New Revelation, New Prophets, and New Age Practices in the Church. Nashville, TN: B&H Books. pg. 143

[xviii] “Bethel Sozo.” n.d. Bethel Sozo. Accessed March 27, 2024. https://www.bethelsozo.com.

[xix] Ahn, Ché. 2010. The Reformer’s Pledge. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers. pg. 86, 88

Johnson, Bill, and Lance Wallnau. 2013. Invading Babylon: The 7 Mountain Mandate. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image.

Critique of the 7 mountains Mandate: Poythress, Justin N. 2023. “A Critique of the Seven Mountain Mandate.” The Gospel Coalition. July 10, 2023. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/seven-mountain-mandate/.

 

False Teachers: Exposing the Wolves Among the Sheep

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