Systematic Theology: The Doctrine of Bethel Church
And why you should flee from it
Bethel
Bethel Church is a member of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). Bill Johnson, the head of Bethel Church, is recognized as a modern-day apostle in the NAR, and Kris Vallotton, also of Bethel, is recognized as a modern-day prophet. At this link, you can find numerous articles from different Christians from various theological and denominational backgrounds who all agree on the very un-Biblical and downright dangerous beliefs of Bill Johnson/Bethel Church.
Unbiblical beliefs promulgated by Bethel include:
Paterology (study of God the Father): Bill Johnson teaches that we shape God the Father’s desires. In his book The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind, Johnson wrote, “For many years I misunderstood the biblical concept of desire. Psalm 37:4 tells us: ‘Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.’ Like many pastors, I foolishly taught that if you delighted yourself in the Lord, He would change your desires by telling you what to desire. But that’s not at all what this means. That verse literally means that God wants to be impacted by what you think and dream. God is after your desires. The word desire is made up of the prefix ‘de’ meaning ‘of,’ and sire meaning ‘father.’ Desire is, by nature, of the Father.”
Christology (study of Christ): Bill Johnson teaches the kenotic heresy. In his book When Heaven Invades Earth, Johnson writes, “Jesus had no ability to heal the sick. He couldn’t cast out devils, and He had no ability to raise the dead. He said of Himself in John 5:19, ‘the Son can do nothing of Himself.’ He had set aside His divinity. He did miracles as man in right relationship with God because He was setting forth a model for us, something for us to follow….Jesus so emptied Himself that He was incapable of doing what was required of Him by the Father – without the Father’s help.” Johnson also wrote, “He performed miracles, wonders, and signs, as a man in right relationship to God….not as God. If he performed miracles because he was God, then they would be unattainable for us. But if he did them as a man, I am responsible to pursue his lifestyle.” In the same book, Bill Johnson also teaches that Jesus became “the Christ” when he came up from His water baptism.
Of this teaching, Bob DeWaay rightly wrote, “If Johnson is right and Jesus had laid aside His deity, then the mighty works prove only that Jesus learned what anyone could learn if he had the right faith and relationship to God. The claims of the gospels thereby become moot. Jesus is no longer unique, but only a special enlightened one who could lead the way to many such enlightened ones in the future. Thus, we have a New Age Christ rather than the Biblical one. If Johnson is correct and we can do greater works than Jesus (based on his misinterpretation of John 14:12; Johnson: 136), then whoever did greater works would have even greater reason to make himself the object of someone’s faith and worship. The apologetic that points to Jesus’ life and miracles as proof of His deity would become worthless because others could do the same.”
Pneumatology (study of the Holy Spirit): Many, many things can be said about Bethel’s teachings on the Holy Spirit. Jenn Johnson, Bill Johnson’s daughter-in-law and co-founder of Bethel’s music school, said she thinks of the Holy Spirit like the sneaky blue genie from Aladdin. One of the foremost scholars on the NAR, Holly Pivec, visited Bethel and witnessed Bethel church leaders encouraging attendees to get drunk (and act drunk) on the spirit. In this article out of Bethel, a church leader said, “Drunkenness” is a term to describe the manifestation of how someone looks and feels in the presence that can appear nearly identical to being drunk on alcohol.” Rather than a spirit that exhibits fruit like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, the spirit at Bethel exhibits a distinct lack of self-control, peace, gentleness, or joy. Watch here and here as individuals at Bethel, under the influence of a spirit they call the Holy Spirit, scream, bark, laugh uncontrollably, and writhe around as if demonically possessed. Bethel has also claimed that the Holy Spirit appears in their services as a cloud of gold dust (watch here to see Johnson’s explanation, and if you want to see the video of the alleged miracle, you can skip to around the 6-minute mark).
Bibliology (study of the Bible): Bill Johnson does not hold Scripture in high regard. He does not believe it to be infallible and believes in the need for continued revelation from God. There are numerous examples of this.
In When Heaven Invades Earth, Johnson wrote, “None of us has a full grasp of Scripture, but we all have the Holy Spirit. He is our common denominator who will always lead us into truth. But to follow Him, we must be willing to follow off the map—to go beyond what we know.”
In the video Friendship with God, Johnson said, “It’s difficult to expect the same fruit of the early church when we value a book they didn’t have more than the Holy Spirit they did have. It’s not Father, Son, and Holy Bible.”
Holly Pivec helpfully consolidated the following examples:
“I'm convinced that the pace of revelation will increase very rapidly in these last hours of history.... That acceleration of revelation is beginning in our day... It's about the purposes of God being unveiled on the planet. On-going revelation and encounters with the power of God launch us into understanding of things we've never understood before." (The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind, page 68)
"It is absolutely impossible to live the normal Christian life without receiving regular revelation from God." (The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind, page 58)
"I am convinced that as His government and Kingdom rule increase on this earth ... the Church will receive revelation like we've never known.... But first we must learn to hunger for and receive revelation as part of our everyday lives. That revelation will help us to carry out our earthly assignments with greater precision and wisdom." (The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind, page 56)
"There are vast resources of revelation in heaven for the areas of education and business, the arts and music, and these resources have yet to be tapped anywhere near to their fullness…. Our job is to tap the revelation of the Lord in our area of talent or gifting so that we can accurately and powerfully reflect the King and His Kingdom." (The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind, page 67)
"Presently, every denomination, church, and group seems to have revelation into certain Kingdom matters. Nobody has the whole picture.... But in these last days God is going to release a Spirit of revelation over the Church... We are coming into an hour where there will be a common revelation.... an hour when the people of God will simultaneously hear and see similar revelations, no matter the church or group." (The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind, page 68)
"Revelation comes piece by piece, layer upon layer, to generation after generation." (Hosting the Presence, Kindle edition, page 52)
"In this hour the experience will help to open up those portions of Scripture that have been closed to us. No one in their right mind would claim to understand all that is contained in the Bible for us today. Yet to suggest that more is coming causes many to fear. Get over it, so you don't miss it!" (When Heaven Invades Earth, Kindle edition, pages 104-105)
Soteriology (study of salvation): Because Johnson is gravely confused about who Jesus is (see the section on Christology above), he has a profound misunderstanding of how Christ's death secures salvation for those who believe and what Christ's death on the cross and resurrection from the dead meant for us. Rather than believing in grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, Johnson preaches a works-based gospel that requires us to do supernatural wonders, teaches that we can do greater things than Christ, and that physical healing is part of the atonement. He has gone so far as to say that those who do not preach physical healing are preaching a false gospel and that Jesus had to go to hell and be born again. Johnson said that Jesus was the first born again man. Regarding physical healing, Johnson has also said, "How can God choose not to heal someone when He already purchased their healing? Was His blood enough for all sin, or just certain sins? Were the stripes He bore only for certain illnesses, or certain seasons of time? When He bore stripes in His body He made a payment for our miracle. He already decided to heal. You can't decide not to buy something after you've already bought it."
Eschatology (study of end times): Johnson has an over-realized eschatology and preaches the Seven Mountain Mandate/Dominionism. Additionally, Bill Johnson co-wrote a book with Lance Wallnau called Invading Babylon: The 7 Mountain Mandate. This book is marketed as a collection of teachings from “some of today's most anointed and prophetic voices” about how to strategically implement the 7 Mountain Mandate.
Hamartiology (study of sin): Bill Johnson rarely talks about sin. Sin, in his view, is not what you commit against God that incurs His wrath. Instead, sin is something that prevents you from having your best life now. When speaking about repentance in The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind, Johnson stated, "Renewing the mind begins with repentance…" Re" means to go back. "Pent" is like the penthouse, the top floor of a building. Repent, then, means to go back to God's perspective on reality." Self-proclaimed Bethel prophet Kris Vallotton says it would be wrong to confess our sins to each other because that would "create a culture where we are always looking for what is wrong with each other." Instead, Vallotton says we should look for the "goodness, the GODness, the gifts that God has given us."
Angelology (study of angels): Bill Johnson claims to find feathers from angels constantly. Additionally, as Joe Carter wrote, Beni Johnson (Bill Johnson's wife, also a senior "pastor" at Bethel) "teaches some peculiarly unorthodox views of angelology, such as that there are "different kinds of angels: messenger angels, healing angels, fiery angels" who have "fallen asleep." In a blog post, she wrote, "I think that they have been bored for a long time and are ready to be put to work." She relates a story about one of her students at the Bethel Supernatural School of Ministry who claims God told her to go to the chapel and yell "WAKEY WAKEY!" Nothing happened for about five minutes, so [the student] turned around to cross the road to go over to a shop. As she turned around, she felt the ground begin to shake and heard this huge yawn. She looked back at the chapel, and a huge angel stepped out. All she could see were his feet because he was that large. She asked him who he was, and he turned to her and said, "I am the angel from the 1904 revival and you just woke me up." She asked him, "Why have you been asleep?" The angel answered and said, "Because no one has been calling out for revival anymore.””
Other unbiblical teachings found at Bethel:
Leaders at Bethel teach there are modern-day apostles and prophets
Bethel promotes the use of "Christian Tarot Cards"
Bethel promotes The Passion Translation (TPT). TPT was written by Brian Simmons. Holly Pivec summarized an interview Sid Roth conducted with Simmons wherein "Simmons claims that, in 2009, Jesus Christ literally visited him in his room, breathed on him, and commissioned him to write a new translation of the Bible. He claims that, by blowing on him, Jesus gave him 'the spirit of revelation'...” Specifically, Simmons said, “he breathed on me so that I would do the project, and I felt downloads coming, instantly. I received downloads. It was like, I got a chip put inside of me. I got a connection inside of me to hear him better, to understand the scriptures better and hopefully to translate.”
In the same interview with Sid Roth, Simmons claimed that God showed him an additional chapter of the book of John which he will reveal to the world in the future and which will spark a great end-time revival.According to the in-depth research of Calvary Chapel pastor, Mike Winger, the translation has been infused with terminology unique to the teachings of the New Apostolic Reformation.
Bethel promotes the occultic practice of grave sucking/soaking. Some members of Bethel—including senior pastor Beni Johnson—engage in the practice of "grave sucking" or "grave soaking"—lying on a person's grave to "soak up" the deceased's "anointing" (see videos and screenshots of Facebook posts here and here). In The Physics of Heaven, Johnson wrote, "There are anointings, mantles, revelations and mysteries that have lain unclaimed, literally where they were left, because the generation that walked in them never passed them on. I believe it's possible for us to recover realms of anointing, realms of insight, realms of God that have been untended for decades simply by choosing to reclaim them and perpetuate them for future generations."
Bethel promotes dead raising and has a dead raising team (their website link seems to be broken, but Bethel has never repented or publicly renounced its views). In late 2019, they gained particular notoriety when they attempted to raise 2-year-old Olive from the dead.
Bethel runs the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (dubbed the Christian Hogwarts by students). The BSSM website says their students will "learn how to read, understand, and 'do' the Bible, how to practice His presence, to witness, heal the sick, prophesy, preach, pray, cast out demons and much more."
Bethel teaches that modern-day prophets are not held to the biblical standard for prophets and can be wrong. One of many false prophecies to arise out of Bethel include Kris Vallotton's prophecy that Donald Trump would win the 2020 election.
Bethel teaches the Word of Faith/positive confession heresy (that we can speak things into existence). That is an ability only God has, but they say Christians have it too. They teach the little gods doctrine. Bill Johnson said, “As He is, so are we” while Kris Vallotton told Bethel parishioners, “Yea is big ‘G’ and you are little ‘g’, you’re a little ‘g’ god.”
Bethel preaches a prosperity gospel. As an example, before taking the collection the congregation chants, "We are believing the Lord for: Jobs and better jobs, raises and bonuses, benefits, sales and commissions, favorable settlements, estates and inheritances, interests and income, rebates and returns, checks in the mail, gifts, and surprises, finding money, debts paid off, expenses decrease, blessing and increase."
Bethel claims to have put an end to racism by decreeing and declaring it gone while banging a stick on the ground like Gandalf. View this here.
Bethel promotes people like Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Todd Bentley, etc.
Why you should flee from Bethel and Bill Johnson
In all but one book of the New Testament, we are warned against false teachers/false teaching. The Bible, in its entirety, warns us strongly against the lies, the false doctrines, and the false teachers who will exploit others for wicked gain.
The following warnings were compiled by Mr. Michael Pugh and succinctly walk believers through a few of the warnings about false teachers and how we as believers should respond to false teachers/teaching.
Scripture is our best resource for being taught, reproved, or corrected. It is
through this lens that all of the following Scripture is included. And it is only
through Scripture that we can understand God’s standard for teaching and
worship.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. – 2 Timothy 3:16False teachers are around us. They teach heresy, and many follow. They exploit people because of greed.
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. – 2 Peter 2:1-3
False teachers will try to blend in. We are to recognize them by their fruits.
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are
ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. – Matthew 7:15-18False teachers may creep into our lives unnoticed, as they did in Jude.
For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. – Jude 1:4
People will seek false teachers that suit their own passions. These teachers do
not speak against sin, they teach myths.For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. – 2 Timothy 4:3
Some are led away from the faith by deceitful spirits and even demons.
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons – 1 Timothy 4:1
We are to test everything and abstain from every form of evil.
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. – 1 Thessalonians 5:19
We are to take no part in what is unfruitful, but call it out.
Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of
darkness, but instead expose them. – Ephesians 5:10-11We are to worship God in spirit and truth. This comes from true knowledge of Him through the scriptures.
You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. – John 4:22-24
We are to teach only what accords with sound doctrine.
They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. – Titus 1:16 – 2:1
False teachers will attempt to distort the gospel. If anyone preaches a different gospel than what is in the Bible, let them be accursed! We should be seeking to please God, not man.
There are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if weor an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one wepreached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: Ifanyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him beaccursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying toplease man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. –Galatians 1:7-10
We are to have nothing to do with churches and teachers like Bethel and Bill Johnson. Scripture is clear on this count. Bethel and Bill Johnson teach another Gospel and preach another Jesus. While some of the doctrinal issues raised in this article are indeed secondary issues, several are salvific issues, dear Christian.
Flee from Bethel and Bill Johnson, precious sheep. Cling to Christ and the true Gospel! Rest in Him.