The warnings for this church group should raise RED FLAGS for anyone involved with this movement!

The theology promoted by Bill Johnson (senior pastor at Bethel) along with sycophants teachers like Kris Vallotton is what should be raising RED FLAGS for Members and anyone looking at this group!
What these guys teach is a far cry from Orthodox Christianity!
This church movement falls more in line with the "Word Faith" "Signs & Wonders" New Age Mysticism Hypnotherapy and the Prosperity movement. These teachers are embracing such teachings like;
1. They demote God and deifies man.
2. You are or can become a god, they teach that you can heal yourself and others. (the same temptation the serpent came to Eve and Adam with in Genesis)
Johnson teaches that Jesus was simply a man who was some how was spiritually connected to God.
3. Jesus became sinful and had to be born again (see bill Johnson's teachings).
4. They teach that Jesus went to hell
5. Bethel's association with the New Apostolic Reformation NAR embracing the many false teachings coming from this group. Such as modern Gnosticism. The teachings of the 'Latter Rain' with self proclaimed prophets like Bob Jones who would have women come into his office and disrobe in front of him in order to get a supposed word from god. More like a word from a pervert.
6. IF you are not healed it is because You Do Not have enough Faith
Basically MIND OVER MATTER...HYPNOTHERAPY

More recent news from Bethel should raise even more concerns!
"Rather than call police when their drinking partner fell — or was pushed — off a nearly 200-foot cliff, two students at a Redding Bible school tried first to reach the severely wounded man and pray him back to life, a lawsuit alleges."
I wonder why they didn't they have the charlatan David Hogan go over and pray for that young man who is now a paraplegic?

Or 'Angel Feathers,' 'Diamonds,' and 'Gold Dust'
When "angel feathers" first started to fall at Bethel Church, Bill Johnson thought birds had nested in the air conditioning ducts, he said.

And yet Bill Johnson in his very own apathetic response to the gold glitter cloud that appeared at Bethel last year. Bill along with his security guys on stage respond so apathetically to what they say is the manifestation of the Lord. Bill is clearly responsible for having this goofy silly stunt appear over the heads of his congregation after hours of hypnotic 7-11 (seven words repeated eleven times) transcendental music, they call worship. once again the lyrics are man focused "I am here to.... I am.... show me... give me.... etc.
It is classic crowd manipulation in the first degree, mixing in some New Age Mysticism & Hypnosis with a few biblical terms. Gold Glitter blowers

you see Satan only tells lies when they're almost the truth!

BraveHeart



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/13/2012 08:00AM by BraveHeart.

I finally left my last church because of prosperity gospel teaching imported unquestioningly from Bethel. I do not see how you can square this kind of thing with the New Testament, but I suppose it is useful if you want to get people to give you their money. You can also sell them loads of material to teach them how to minister in the Bethel way. So you can learn all about the special Bethel method of prayer, the Sozo ministry.

Buy the “Sozo Basic Saved, Healed & Delivered” DVD set for $105 and learn all about how to use a set of techniques, the “Father Ladder”, “Love Languages”, “The 4 Doors”, “The Wall” etc. Then you can move on to Sozo Advanced (DVD set $125) where you can learn about a whole load more “tools”. Then for people where this does not work you can move on to the Shabar Ministry (DVD set $60, but it’s included in the Sozo Advanced series – a bargain!)

Whatever happened to simple prayer? That just cannot compare with all these supercool sounding techniques reserved for those who have taken the courses.

The Illusion of gold glitter is so easy to reproduce yes even the Peterborough video is simply some gold glitter in a spray bottle.

For people to put their faith in such a hoax like the glitter cloud demonstrates the accuracy of the Bible where the apostle Paul implores Timothy to Preach the word.
2 Timothy 4:2-4
Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

But the issue at Bethel in Not only the gold glitter hoax but the false teaching that you are a god. Mr. Johnson teaches his followers that they can become a god as he deifies man and humanizes God through his teachings, much like the Mormons believe. Bill Johnson's view and teaching of Jesus is, he was a man living in a Supernatural Realm. In Bill Johnson's teachings he rejects the trinity and embraces a loose form of Sabellianism or Modalism.
Modalism is a heresy that teaches the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do not simultaneously exist as distinct persons. Rather, God at some times and places is the Father, at some times the Son, and other times the Holy Spirit. the Modalistic view of God, we are left with many errors regarding the incarnation of Christ. When Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane to the Father, some Oneness theologians argue that Jesus’ flesh is praying to His divine self. If this is the case, then Jesus’ divine self has not been truly incarnated. The incarnation is not a true incarnation if God is sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son, and then sometimes the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was incarnated on the earth, He was fully divine the entire time. His divine self did not leave His human nature to go govern the universe, etc.
According to Scripture Jesus was eternally the Son (Heb. 13:8; John 1:1). According to Oneness Theology, the being that is incarnating is not the eternal Son, but the eternal Father.

For the sacrifice of God the Son (Jesus) on the cross to have any significance He must atone for sinners before God the Father. If Jesus is dying to reconcile people to Himself, it is incompatible with the Biblical view where Jesus dies as a substitute to satisfy the wrath of God the Father (1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; cf. Rom. 5:9; Eph. 2:3-5; 1 Thess. 1:10; 5:9).

I stopped in and visited Bethel the other day, what I found was a book fair going on for the children's school they have there, yes they have hundreds of children being influenced through their schools. What I noticed is the majority of books they were selling and promoting are straight out secular books teaching science, biology from a secular prospective a blending of Evolution - Darwinism.
The theology and fantasy reading sections were very dark with word faith authors and two I have never read Ted Dekker and Chuck Black. I found a statement of faith for Chuck Black's church and they are more of a Modalist oneness pentecostal church. The problem with this point of view is you're embracing more of the ancient heresy of Sabellianism or Monarchianism. These teachings reject the understanding of the trinity that God is three individual persons the father Sons and Holy Spirit.

I walked into the auditorium and took a very close look at the ventilation system and lighting used in the auditorium along with the placement of the stage fixtures. I see that they have typical duct-work on the ceiling pointing down toward the floors for heating and air conditioning. What I also discovered are two rather large vents located on each side of the podium where Bill Johnson will stand, these are designed to blow air in an upward direction from the floor up to the ceiling.

Going to an AC specialist and drawing him a diagram of the building and stage, I asked him why would a stage have this kind of venting? He said simply to help stir the air for special effects such as fog machines. I was hopping he was going to say something like to help stir the air to keep the people on the stage comfortable. I then showed him the video of the alleged glory cloud tha is found on youtube and he said immediately they are using the the updraft of the vents to push the glitter back up to the ceiling! He asked me, have you ever see glitter painted boat and or show cars? Most likely they are using a paint grade glitter that will not plug up a spray nozzle, microscopic glitter.

Very interesting
I recently watched a video with Bill Johnson teaching a group of people In the video He humanized Jesus as being a man operating in a different realm calming the sea he elevated man or believers as being able to access this same realm that Jesus was operating in (in other words you can become more like God that Jesus)
Johnson did everything to humanize his out look of how God thinks ignoring all the scripture that clearly lays out how God is a judge and can not tolerate lying lips.

Johnson promotes a works righteousness with his followers, in other words, if you want God to be happy with your life then you need to be doing more to get him to see you or notice you.

Here is an open letter from a former member of Bethel church

"In August 2008 I moved to Redding, California to attend Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM). I graduated in May 2009... Almost right away I began to question the bizarre behavior that is so normal there.

"At Bethel, there are many sayings that are tossed around daily... "God only has nice things to say," "There´s no high like the Most High." There would be all kinds of distracting behavior (random shouting, laughing, etc.) during school sessions and church services. When any guest speaker came to school, students would flock to the front to get as close to the speaker as possible. We were taught that any anointing we wanted could be received by simply "claiming it" for ourselves. Students would rush the stage and the front of the sanctuary so the speakers could lay hands on them.

"Among the guest speakers were Bob Jones, Heidi Baker, Georgian and Winnie Banov, Randy Clark, John and Carol Arnott... We also had regular sessions with Bill Johnson, Beni Johnson... and other Bethel pastors. The drunken behavior and questionable teachings from some, if not all, of these speakers was shocking at times. I can safely say that I never heard the word "repentance" once in any teaching.

"I remember when the Banovs came, the whole place was complete chaos. When they touched someone, that person would jerk violently or stumble around as if they were drunk. The Banovs minister to people in trash dumps around the world... What I remember them talking about was love, joy, bliss, and the new wine.

"Angels were often talked about. I remember Beni Johnson actually took an RV across Arizona and New Mexico to wake up angels that were supposedly sleeping. (Another one of the common phrases, "Wakey wakey"). I would always hear people talking about their encounters with angels and how they visited heaven. One young woman I knew said she could see angels everywhere, she talked to them all the time, and she would help her friends to do the same... God becomes like Santa Claus. Without the preaching of the true gospel, the fear of the Lord is lost.

With young people being encourage to disown and abandon their parents, young people are flocking to Redding California to enroll into Bill Johnson’s supernatural school. This a CULT to keep your eye on.

People attending Bethel Church need to STOP and evaluate the theology being taught by Bill Johnson
They need to look very closely at the simplistic message the apostles preached being the presentation of God's law, Repentance of sins and Faith in Jesus for salvation. Now compare what the apostles taught to what is coming of out of Bethel with Bill Johnson including the shallow lyrics and hypnotic repeating droning music of Jesus Culture. While Bill comes across like a nice old hippie he can sprinkle in a very small bit of truth to what he teaches, like salt on mash potatoes yet his pile of mash potatoes are laced full of heresy and false teachings including New Age Mysticism crystals, tuning forks, and the blowing on a shofar to some how bring healing to an individual. Bill’s theology is way off the reservation, with fire tunnels that resemble and mirror Hinduism worship rituals and Occult rituals, Johnson brings his focus onto signs and wonders that mostly reenact old parlor tricks form the old circus side shows with the ever popular growing leg trick. Bill says more about his heresy in what he fails to teach. In researching the theology behind Bethel the Jesus Culture and the teacher Mr. Bill Johnson, its clear Bill Johnson is a wolf in sheep’s clothing deceiving people and leading them to Hell with the help of his multi million dollar band Jesus Culture.

I challenge you to look in the book of Acts, Romans, Hebrews and throughout the Epistles including the Revelation, I would challenge anyone to see how these men who walked with Jesus, they referred back to the Old Testament scriptures that foretold of Jesus and his coming. They preached Repentance of sins and Faith in Jesus the cross and Jesus him crucified

I want to remind anyone reading this blog of the words of Dr. Ebert describes his Mennonite heritage in the following way;

"The first generation of Mennonites were people preoccupied with the gospel, but who also felt there were cretin social responsibilities for which the needed to be concerned.
The second Generation of Mennonites, assumed the gospel, and became increasingly adsorbed with social responsibility.
The third Generation of Mennonites, abandoned the gospel, and have consequently become altogether preoccupied with social responsibility.'
"Preoccupied, Assumed, Abandoned"

This is a trend we see in the history of the Christian church and I believe History can teach us how Satan attacks the Christian church (the bride of Christ)
From the book of Revelation, Jesus brings a critical critique of 7 churches to point out the ways Satan attacks the church. The above quote from Dr. Ebert echoes the trends for churches fight against. A good Christian church will fight against, becoming a church that is very orthodox yet lacking a true love for Jesus. Churches are constantly under attack to tolerate non biblical world views or to tolerate what society and government deem moral. Indiscriminating Tolerance of false teachings or rituals that are outside of what the bible teaches we see a blending of New Age Mysticism into Christianity at Bethel. Remember Jesus said I hate the teachings of the Nicolaitans a teaching that had become part of the church.
We can see historically Churches that have succumbed to Idolatrous Compromise and Inanimate Spirituality to the ever popular Nauseating Ineffectiveness.

Its time for Christians to stand up against this deceptive teachings of Bill Johnson

Caryl Matrisciana will be releasing a DVD, "Wide Is the Gate", part 3 in a few months, that will feature a segment on Bill Johnson and his demonic enterprise. Go to [caryltv.com] for info. Parts 1 & 2 of her "Wide is the Gate" series are some of the best current info on all of the satanic garbage that is flooding the Christian church today.

Anathema to Bill Johnson.

Hello, I created my own post before I found this one. I read everything posted here with interest, but I am mainly concerned for my friends who have moved across the country to join this church. They did not move their for gold glitter, they want to serve Jesus, but could they be being taken advantage of? Are they at risk? Is Bethel truly a cult? Do they control people? I don't care as much about your theology arguments, just want answers for my friends. Any current/former members out there?

Thanks,

Grace Y.