Recently, I took the time to listen to one of Mike Winger's latest podcasts that exposes some pretty dark and awful truths about Bethel Church out of Redding, CA. The episode's primary focus looks at false "prophet" Shawn Bolz and how Bethel helped him rise to fame inside the church, and continued to support him and promote him all while allegations of fraud, deception, and sexual deviance and harassment continued to come in against him. Really though, this is part of a larger picture of what's been going on inside many churches in the NAR movement, involving many other "leaders" like Bob Jones, Paul Cain, Benny Hinn, Mike Bickle, Bob Hartley, and now adding Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton, and Che Ahn for starters. I have a feeling that as this momentum for reform within the church builds, we will find that this list is much larger and disturbing than we even now think it is.
Now, let me just say first that I have always been a person who is usually reluctant to throw out the baby with the bathwater. I think one of the greatest tragedies for the church is that you have people like those currently being exposed who are willing to give into their temptations for power and greed, and allow that to infiltrate the church and mislead and promote false teachings that lead people further and further away from Jesus. One of the most dangerous things about movements like this is that they are based on a lot of truth, with lies mixed in. I know full well that there are many Christians in this movement who love the Lord with all their heart, and have had good experiences themselves, and I am thankful for that. You can take the good but you need to see the bad for what it is, and you need to respond accordingly, not tolerating an environment that allows sin to be present for the sake of preserving a culture that is built on a bad foundation.
Nonetheless, the recent exposure of Bethel leadership is extremely disturbing when you see how far back the awareness of fraud goes and their willingness to allow it anyhow. It is disturbing when you see the depth of cover-up culture inside of Bethel and the greater NAR movement, going back many years, at the expense of people who were being victimized by those the church chose to prop up and promote. I wish I could say I was surprised, but I have been aware of the dangerous nature of these types of churches for quite a while and have seen the effects that it has on believers who pursue it. These types of churches place an enormous weight on "signs and wonders" and the experience of emotional encounters as the sign of authentic faith, typically at the cost of biblical teaching and what I would consider a "balanced faith." Those who stay in this sort of environment often learn to suppress their own discernment because if you question anything leadership or false "prophets" are teaching, you are seen as "putting God in a box" and it means you are a doubter. It's a dangerous path to follow, so although my heart is broken for those who have been victimized by these churches, I'm so glad it's finally getting more exposure and I'm hoping for true change in the church.
If you aren't aware of any of this and follow Bethel teachings or anything of the like, I would encourage you to look into it. It's gotten tons of press in the last couple weeks, and Bethel themselves did address this in the last few weeks. Is their repentance true? Only time will tell, and I pray that it is. I can tell you though that it feels a little too late to be genuine. It feels to me like when Samuel called out Saul in 1 Samuel 15 when the Lord commanded him to completely destroy the Amalekites and Saul chose to spare King Agag and the best of what they had. When Samuel confronts Saul, he responds by insisting that he did obey the Lord! It was only when Saul saw the consequences were real, that he finally admitted he was wrong, which is not true repentance. This situation with Bethel and the NAR movement feels a lot like that to me. In my personal opinion, what Bethel leadership chose to do is in direct conflict with very clear Biblical teaching, and they should consider themselves completely disqualified from being in ministry and step down immediately. If this doesn't happen, I fully believe once the spotlight is off of them they will resume the same old stuff. I hope I'm wrong though.
In conclusion, I just want to say that if you are someone who has been hurt by the church, or by fellow Christians, I just want to encourage you to keep looking at Jesus. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to associate the church or another believer with Christ himself. Now, it is true that as Christians we should be representing Christ in truth and without error and be practicing all that the Bible teaches. The reality is though, that we are all broken humans, and not all who say they follow Jesus are truly even following Him:
"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’" -Matthew 7:21-23 NIV.
Just because someone calls themselves a Christian, or is leading a church or a movement of the church, doesn't mean they are Biblically grounded. If Christianity is true (it is!), then we should also expect that there is a real enemy who hates God and wants to pull as many away from Him as possible, so we should be well aware of the infiltration of false teaching into the church. This is why it is so important as believers to be well grounded in scripture OURSELVES, so that we can test what is taught to ensure we are following what is true. Paul offered a good balanced view for us in 1 Thessalonians:
"Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. Do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil," -1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 NLT.
If you have been burned by the church, realize that church will never be perfect, because it has people in it. All you have to do is read the New Testament epistles and you will see that the church had problems from it's very beginning, but that doesn't mean that God isn't real and at work in spite of it. Allow these situations to bring us to a place of greater faith in Jesus himself, even as we sometimes find depravity in those we hoped we could trust within the church. Never place your pastor or teacher above the Lord himself. Keep following Jesus with all of your heart, you may be disappointed in the church at times, but you will never be disappointed in Him. He is the good shepherd, and your faith is well placed in Him:
"I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep," -John 10:14-15 NLT.
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