Bethel Church: A Pastor’s Resource

Bethel’s senior pastor, Bill Johnson, teaches a form of kenosis that states Jesus operated only as a human on earth, not as divine, implying believers can perform all of Jesus’ miracles because they share the same human nature (which is opposite of the orthodox belief in Christ’s full divinity and humanity, or hypostatic union).

• Johnson wrote: “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. If He did miracles as God, we would all be extremely impressed, but we would have no compulsion to emulate Him. But when we see that God has commissioned us to do what Jesus did—and more—then we realize that He put self-imposed restrictions on Himself to show us that we could do it, too. Jesus so emptied Himself that He was incapable of doing what was required of Him by the Father—without the Father’s help. (Source: Johnson, The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind)
  
  
• Johnson 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” (Source: Johnson, When Heaven Invades Earth, p. 29).

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Question: I don’t understand why Bill Johnson and Bethel Church in Redding are not classified as a cult by Berean Call-(Continuationist)

What is the Kenosis Heresy? by Got Questions

• Bethel routinely promotes name-it-and-claim-it/health-and-wealth teachings, such as the idea that believers can “speak” or “call things into existence” through faith, akin to God’s creative power. Bethel’s teaching that it is always God’s will to heal physically, and that sickness results from a lack of faith or demonic influence. Bethel’s teaching that “God is in charge, but not in control” and that human prayer “frees” God to act is denying God’s sovereignty. Video here

• Bill Johnson calls his second-in-command Pastor Kris Vallotton Bethel’s Prophet, who frequently makes false prophecies, who says, “We will make mistakes, mess up, and even fail at times.” Video Here
  The idea that true prophets of God can deliver erroneous prophecies is a common teaching in the NAR. Deuteronomy 18:21-22 requires that a prophet’s predictions must come true or they will be put to death.
  
  
• Vallotton claims that Jesus appeared to him while he was in the bathtub: “As I laid in my bathtub one night Jesus walked into my bathroom and told me, “You’re a great leader. You’re going to be a prophet to kings, prime ministers, and governors.” Video Here

• Ordained woman pastor Jenna Wilson said Jesus climbed into bed with her one night and played with her hair. Video Here
  
  
• Students at Bethel’s School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM, run by Vallotton) are encouraged to deliver prophecies from God, and are also encouraged to learn by making mistakes (false prophecies) as a requirement to graduate.

• Church attendees have witnessed a mist containing feathers, gold, and jewel dust descending on the worshippers in the sanctuary. Bethel claims phenomena like “glory clouds,” gold dust, and “angel feathers” falling from the ceiling during Sunday services are manifestations of God’s presence. A former church worker claims she put gold glitter in the HVAC vents. Video -+- Bill Johnson explains it
  
  
• Johnson asserts that Jesus performed miracles to set forth a model to show us that we could do them too: “When Jesus performed miracles, he wasn’t demonstrating what God can do, but what God can do through a man.” (Source: Johnson, “Experience the Impossible: Simple Ways to Unleash Heaven’s Power on Earth”)
  
  
• On healing Johnson preaches and writes about the biblical mandate for healing and emphasizes acting in faith to heal, not just praying passively, saying, “Jesus did not command us to pray for the sick. He commanded us to heal them.” (Source: Johnson, “The Essential Guide to Healing” by Bill Johnson and Randy Clark
  
  
• Kris Vallotten (Bethel’s Prophet), says he has seen thousands of peoples’ virginity restored: Video
  
  
• Bethel’s teachings on angels, such as “healing angels” or “fiery angels” that need to be awakened (e.g., shouting “Wakey Wakey” to activate them)
  
  
• Additional teachings and practices include Visualization, “Fire tunnels,” Visualization, spiritual drunkenness, “Toking” the Holy Ghost to get “high on Jesus.
  
  
• Children’s Church teaches children to take trips to heaven and learn how to prophesy. “We had 44 kids (ages 9-10) prophesying over two days,” says Deborah Reed, Bethel’s children’s minister, who explains that dozens of children began speaking in tongues after walking through a “fire tunnel.” The children were taught how to raise each other from the dead, and take trips to heaven, drawing pictures of what they “saw” when they were there. Full video here. “Let’s say a kid gives a Word of Knowledge that isn’t accurate. We’re okay with that. We just have a high value for risk. And if it didn’t work, it didn’t work, and we move on.”  –Eric Johnson, Bethel Redding Pastor

• Students and Bethel’s School of Supernatural Ministry are taught how to wield the power of the spiritual realm to endeavor in New Age and occultic practices such as out-of-body experiences, holy drunkenness in the spirit, hypnosis and a focus on the demonic.
  
  
• Many churches are modeling a demon deliverance method developed by Bill Johnson himself called SOZO, a technique based on psychology and used by so-called “inner healing ministries” using hypnosis and New Age guided meditation and age-regression techniques that help counselees conjure up images of painful childhood memories through visions from God. Video

• Bethel’s belief that believers can and should raise the dead, exemplified by their attempt to resurrect a dead toddler in 2019 (#WakeUpOlive), giving false hope to grieving families. This gained international news headlines as tens of thousands from around the world joined the livestream of the 6-day prayer service over the 2-year-old’s body, as participants prayed and chanted “Wake Up, Olive,” and singing, “Olive, Come Out of That Grave.” Video, -+- News coverage
  
  
• In an Oct. 19, 2008, sermon, Johnson shared a story about a former BSSM student who moved to Washington State and started a ministry called the Dead Raising Team. In a video of the sermon, Johnson said the team got approval from Mason County to be listed along with other county services and had been given badges so they can go behind police lines if there’s an accident or fatality. Johnson told the audience, who erupted in shouts of “come on, Jesus” and cheers, that there had been one resurrection so far. Bethel’s claims of numerous resurrections lack verifiable evidence, often involving anonymous cases.

• Many leaders at Bethel as well as Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM) students have practiced “grave soaking,” which involves going to cemeteries and lying on graves of deceased revivalists to absorb their divine spiritual anointing that lingers on graves. There are many photos showing evidence of necromancy-like practices rooted in unbiblical mysticism. (Got Questions: What is Bethel Church, Redding CA?)

• Bethel’s portrayal of the Holy Spirit attributes unbiblical behaviors to Him, such as causing uncontrollable laughter, shaking, or “drunkenness” in the Spirit.
  
  
• Worship leader, Sunday preacher, and daughter in law Jenn Johnson has said numerous times that the Holy Spirit is “just like the genie from Aladdin, and He is blue.” She and her husband Brian (Bill’s son), write many of the Bethel songs people sing at church. Video