F4F | Bethel, WAKE UP!

Bethel’s Resurrection Claim and the Tragedy of Olive

Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Rosebro. I am your servant in Jesus Christ. This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God.

Now if you've heard the big buzz about Bethel, how apparently they're contending for a resurrection of a two-year-old girl who is the daughter of one of their prominent worship leaders, yeah, go ahead and hit the subscribe button down below.

Don't forget to like the video. Ring the bell so that you can be notified when we update the channel. This is probably one of the most tragic, abusive, and manipulative things I have ever seen in my life as a Christian, as a Christian apologist, theologian, and pastor.

And we're gonna walk through what's going on, what Bill Johnson has said, and we're gonna take apart the the false theology of Bethel Church, which is what's driving this terrible story, and we're gonna call, and I'll just say it right now, I'm gonna call for Bethel to wake up.

You need to bury Olive. Olive will rise again when Jesus returns on the last day, and you need to let these parents grieve. But all of that being said, let's take a look at my desktop, and we will pull up our screen.

And I've tried to come up with an order in which to address this, and so let's get to it. The first soundbite is from the worship service at Bethel in Redding, California. Benny Johnson has taken the stage, and this is December 15th, so Olive died apparently on Friday, and she's been with a coroner ever since, at least up to this point that I'm aware of.

And let's listen to what Benny Johnson, the wife of Bill Johnson, said at the opening of that service, and see if we can make heads or tails of all of this. Here we go.

Hello, everyone. I think that we are just a little bit excited. I don't know about you, but I feel the anticipation of what God is about to do tonight, and I just.

Want to thank you for rallying. So she feels the anticipation about what God is gonna do tonight. What's He gonna do? I mean, that's my question. What are you trying to create in the people's minds there, the expectation of what's gonna.

Happen? I've been texting Eric and Candice who are in New Zealand, and they're like, how are things going? How did the prayer time go at Twinview? And I said, the place is packed. They're out in the lobby.

He goes, I love our church. I love you guys. I just love what's happening amidst a tragedy, but we are.

Contending for resurrection power. How exactly does one go about contending for resurrection power? Where in the Scripture is this laid out as a doctrine, as a teaching, as a principle, as an action? We are to contend for resurrection power.

Yeah, because here's what I see, is that the parents of Olive being very, very firmly embedded in the false teaching of Bethel because of the false canonic Christ that they've been taught. Bethel teaches, and Bill Johnson makes it very clear, that Jesus did all of his miracles by not tapping into his divine nature, but instead by being a Spirit-filled human being, and so he's like the ultimate example of what you and I can do as Spirit-filled Christians, and by virtue of the power of the Holy Spirit, and so we're supposed to follow after Jesus's model.

This is one of the things that they teach. Bethel also teaches that without signs and wonders, the gospel is impotent. It is powerless, and we'll talk about that in a little bit too, but you're gonna note that the parents of Olive, being high-profile people, leaders, worship leaders at Bethel, that they've bought into this false theology, and this is the reason why, rather than burying their dead two-year-old girl, and again this is utterly tragic, believe that they are somehow, you know, stepping out in faith, and this is somehow honoring to God.

It's not, because the false theology they've bought into, it's heresy. This is not Christianity, and this is not smart, wise, or audacious, or faithful of them to not bury their daughter. It's far from it.

Far, far from it. And the fact that Chris Vallotton, Bill Johnson, Benny, and all of the other leaders at Bethel are exploiting this couple in the midst of their tragedy to garner all of this attention in the media, and also raise $100 ,000 on a GoFundMe campaign for her resurrection?

Yeah, that's weird. They're exploiting them. Exploiting them with these false words, exploiting them with this false doctrine, and rather than helping them in the midst of this tragedy, they are holding out a false hope that Jesus is going to raise their daughter from the dead, and are twisting the Scriptures in.

The process. Listen, this morning in worship, I was sitting there in worship,.

And this came to me, the third day. Now, know what she said back on December 15th. This came to me. The implication is, it came to her from God, the third day. Oh, anticipation, expectation. The third day is a good day for resurrection.

Well, the 15th of December is come and gone, and Jesus didn't raise Olive on the third day, or the fourth day, or the fifth day, or the sixth. How many biblical numbers do we need to get up to? 40? Maybe 70?

When are they going to bury this girl and let.

This family grieve? My personal opinion is that three is God's favorite number. You know, think about that. Lazarus was dead in the tomb for three days. Jesus was dead for three days in the tomb. Just a lot of threes in the Bible, and when I heard that, I went,.

It's the third day. The third day. Yeah, and you claim that that was given to you, implying that God gave it to you. He didn't. What are we looking at? Three, three. That works.

All you prophetic people that get all that stuff all the time. Isn't it fun?

Yeah. Wow. Prophetic people. They got it, man. What did they get exactly? Because Olive is still dead, and her parents still are not getting on with grieving. So, yeah. So, that was December 15th. Now, let me show you some of the social media of examples of the people at Bethel contending for Olive's resurrection.

Let's see if we can make.

Sense of this. All right. So, you'll know this is some kind of a mantra at this point,.

And I would remind you of Christ's words here, and let me pull these up, and what I'm going to want to do is this. I'm going to duplicate this tab, because I've got a lot of biblical teaching I want to get to.

Prayer, Vain Repetition, and the Limits of Human Authority

But in Matthew 6, Jesus says something very important regarding prayer. He says this, Matthew 6, 5, and this will be our context. So, when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues, at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.

Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you go into your room, shut the door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

So, you'll note that the prohibition against vain repetition. So, apparently, this is an example of prayer. No, this isn't. This isn't an example of prayer. Just singing this mantra over and over again.

Notice they're not praying. They're just screaming out, Olive, come out of that grave. Come out of that grave in Jesus' name. Olive, come out of that grave. This is utterly vain repetition, and you don't have the authority to call people out of the grave.

This isn't prayer. Prayer is humbly asking God for things. Let's look at some more.

Examples here. I think this is another of the mantra type things. Yeah, you need to put Olive.

In the grave. That's where her body will remain until Christ returns. Let's look at another.

Yeah, so, and let's take a look. This is one of the saddest things I have ever witnessed.

I mean, I cannot imagine the pain that these parents are going through. I just, I mean, I raised my kids, and I got to tell you, it was hit and miss at times. I mean, small children don't seem to have any concept of the danger of crossing the street and are constantly getting themselves into dangerous situations that could result in bodily harm, and I'm thankful that my children made it through childhood.

But all of that being said, these, I just feel terrible that this is what they've gone through. But to add insult to injury, they think they are doing the will of God here by somehow decreeing and declaring and commanding and contending for resurrection as if somehow it's up to them to do enough of these things, and finally God will answer with resurrection.

None of us has, none of us has a command to raise the dead, and we'll talk about that, nor are we promised that we can do so. We are promised that when Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, he will raise us and our loved ones and everyone else from the dead.

There is a resurrection coming. So how did this get this way? Here's your primary culprit. This is the scene of the crime, if you would. This is the guy who's culpable in creating the false theology that has resulted in this family being exploited this way and not being able to bury their own child.

And again, it's just utterly sad. So I'll back this up. I was doing a little research listening to it, previewing it ahead of time, but here's Bill Johnson to apparently explain to us why they're doing what they're doing.

Hi, I'm Bill Johnson from Bethel Church.

In Redding, California. First of all, I wanted to say thank you to the countless numbers of people around the world that have been praying with us for the miracle that we need this week. Saturday, just a few days ago, we had a great tragedy.

One of the key individuals in our world, their two-year-old little girl died quite unexpectedly, just out of nowhere. And so we've been praying for the miracle of God. Mom and Dad, Andrew and Callie, have asked us to pray for resurrection, and we've joined with them.

We have a biblical precedent. Jesus raised the.

Dead. We have a biblical precedent. Jesus raised the dead. How many resurrections have there been since the death of the apostles? Is raising people from the dead a standard practice? In the Christian church, and has been for 2 ,000 years?

You have a biblical precedent. Now, I'm going to point out here that Jesus raising people from the dead is a sign of who He is, and the gospel of John chapter 20 helps us out in this regard. Let me, there it is, John chapter 20 verse 30.

Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples. And you know, throughout the gospel of John, the miracles that Jesus performed are held up as signs of who He is. And so Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.

But these signs, these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you might have life in His name. So you'll note that even the raising of Lazarus was a sign that Jesus performed, so that you might know and believe that He is the Son of God, and that by believing in Him, you might be forgiven of your sins and might have life in His name.

So the signs, the miraculous signs performed by Jesus are not some precedent that we point to and say, oh, well, if Jesus did it, I'm going to be able to do it too. No, that's not how that works. Now, while I'm here, before we go back and listen to Bill Johnson, we're going to tackle one of the teachings that they have there, and that is that Bethel teaches that without signs and wonders and miracles, the gospel is powerless.

And so they say that signs and wonders and miracles are mandatory, and without signs, wonders, and miracles, the gospel is powerless. It's impotent. This is quoted so many times, I'm just not going to reference it here in this teaching.

You can find these quotes all over the internet. Now we're going to challenge that fact. We're going to challenge this teaching, because we're going to note in two successive chapters of the book of Acts, chapter 13, the apostle Paul performs zero miracles, zero.

In chapter 14, there's a particular miracle that takes place, and it doesn't result in the gospel going out with power. Actually, the miracle gets in the way, if you would. I'll kind of explain that in a second.

So we'll do a little bit of work in the biblical text here. Again, this is going to be a little bit of a long teaching in this, but I want to cover this from so many different angles so that you can see what's happening at Bethel.

Acts 13, 13. The apostle Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga and Pamphylia. John left them and returned to Jerusalem, but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia.

And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and they sat down. Notice, no miracles have been performed yet. He's on a missionary journey. After reading from the Torah and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them saying, brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.

So Paul stood up motioning with his hand. He said, men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. The God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers, made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt.

And with a lifted arm, he led them out of it. And for about 40 years, he put up with them in the wilderness. And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance.

All of this took place, took about 450 years. And after that, he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. And then they asked for a king and God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years.

And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart who will do all my will. Of this man's offspring, God has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus, as he promised.

Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, what do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, behold, after me, one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.

Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent this message of salvation. For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, they fulfilled them by condemning him.

And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in the tomb.

But God raised him from the dead. And for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus.

As also it is written in the second Psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you. I'm going to note here, it is Jesus's resurrection from the grave that Paul preaches as the quintessential sign that not only is he the Messiah, he's the Son of God, and he, in his more developed theology in the Epistles, points out that that resurrection proves that his sacrifice was accepted by God, and that he truly is who he claimed to be.

So Jesus's resurrection, not Olive's, is the important one to point out to. And so you'll note here, Paul has performed no miracles here, none at all. And what is he doing? He's preaching the gospel. He's preaching the word.

Now I'm going to come back to this, and before I do, I'm going to head over to another text, and it's Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. This is an important bit of biblical doctrine that we need to throw into the mix.

And this is the part we're talking about, how does one believe that Jesus is the Messiah? How does one go about going from being a pagan, an unbeliever, to being a Christian? So I'll pick up partway through the text here, I'll back up into...well, let's see here.

I'll start at verse 5 for our context so that you can see this. Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does them, does the commandments, shall live by them.

But the righteousness that is based on faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead.

But what does it say? The word is near you, it's in your mouth, it's in your heart, that is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and here Lord is not merely saying Jesus is your boss, that's saying Jesus is the Yahweh of the Old Testament.

If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, for with the heart one believes and is justified, with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

For the scripture says, everyone who believes in Him, will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him.

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That's a big deal, that's a great promise. So then, how then will they call on Him and whom they have not believed? That's the obvious question.

How are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear, watch, without someone preaching? Notice, no mention of signs and wonders here, but of preaching. So how are they to preach unless they are sent?

As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news, the gospel. But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed us? Who has believed what he's heard from us?

So here's our operative verse. Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ, through the preaching of the gospel. Faith comes by hearing, hearing through the word of Christ. So note in this text that we're looking at in the book of Acts, Paul is performing zero miracles, zero, no miracles at all, none.

What is he doing? Preaching the gospel, preaching the word of Christ. Faith comes from hearing, hearing by the word of Christ. So no miraculous signs are being performed at all. So that being the case, if Bethel's theology were true, we should expect nobody's going to be a Christian, right?

So we'll go back to Paul's sermon here in the synagogue. So, this he has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus as also it is written in the second psalm, you are my son today, I begotten you.

And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he's spoken in this way, I will give you the holy and sure blessing of David. Therefore he says also in another psalm, you will not let your holy one see corruption.

For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers, and he saw corruption, but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. So let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Note here he doesn't have an altar call, instead he gives a warning. Beware therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about.

Look you scoffers, be astounded and perish, for I'm doing a work in your own days, a work that you will not believe even if one tells it to you. So as they went out, the people begged that these things might be told to them the next Sabbath, and after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who as they spoke with them urged them to continue in the grace of God.

Oh look at that! No miracles are performed, and yet now there are penitent believers in Jesus Christ who want to hear more and be discipled in this, and Paul's encouraging them to continue in the grace of Christ.

So the next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him.

And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, well it was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you have thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold we are turning to the Gentiles.

And so the Lord has commanded us, I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And so when the Gentiles heard this, began rejoicing, glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

How is it possible that you have all these people believing in Jesus when no miracles were performed by Paul or any of his companions? Because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

We need to preach the gospel. We're not commanded to perform signs and wonders, nor are signs and wonders necessary to accompany the gospel. Preach the gospel. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of Christ.

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. You see it? All right, now let me give you another text, next chapter. In this one, we're going to see that a sign and wonder was performed, and it actually kind of got in the way of things.

A little bit of a note there. So Acts 14, now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet, and he was crippled from birth, and he never walked. He listened to Paul speaking, and Paul looking intently at him, seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, Stand upright on your feet.

And he sprang up and began walking. Now note, Paul's an apostle. He's sent by Christ. He has the ability to perform the signs of the apostles. And so he tells the fellow to stand upright, and he began walking.

And when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the Laconian language, The gods, plural, have come down to us in the likeness of men. Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

And so the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments, rushed out into the crowd, crying out, Men, why are you doing these things?

We also are men of like nature with you. We bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways, yet he did not leave himself without witness.

For he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful season, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the people from offering a sacrifice to them.

But when the Jews, having come from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. So you'll note here that this particular miracle didn't help in the preaching of the gospel.

It kind of got in the way. So I'm pointing all of this out to point out that what they are teaching at Bethel is not consistent with Scripture at all. And we're going to get on to another passage here in Matthew chapter 10, but I'm going to come back to Bill Johnson first and let him continue to spin out his twisting of Scripture, which is the core reason why they.

Haven't buried Olive at this point. We continue. Jesus raised the dead. Not only that, he introduced himself as the resurrection and the life. In fact, in John 11 verse 40 he says, if you believe, you will see the glory of God.

All right, John 11 verse 40, if you believe,.

You will see the glory of God. Is that a promise to us? That if we believe, we'll see the glory of the God in resurrection? I mean, after all, John chapter 11 is a resurrection text, right? Well, let's take a look at it, shall we?

John chapter 11. I'm not going to do a whole teaching on it because I've recently done it on Fighting for the Faith on our channel. This is the story of the raising of Lazarus, so word gets to Jesus that the one whom he loved is sick, and Jesus says that this illness will not lead to death, it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

Again, note again that the Son of God may be glorified through it is coming back to what John wrote in chapter 20. These signs, these things, these signs that he performed were written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life in his name.

And so Jesus heads off now to Bethany, the town of Lazarus, and he's confronted by Mary and Martha, and there's a whole dialogue that goes on. And we'll start at verse 17, and keep reading for a little bit here, so we can point out who the you is there.

Did I not say, if you believe, you will see the glory of God? Now, when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off. Many of the Jews had come to Martha and to Mary to console them concerning their brother.

So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.

Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. And Jesus is speaking the truth here, and she interprets what Christ is saying in regards to the last day, on the day of the resurrection. Martha said, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.

And then Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. In fact, that resurrection on the last day is connected to me, because I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.

And there's our promise. Anyone who believes in Jesus, though he die, and we all will die if Christ continues to tarry any longer. It's just a matter of time, yet you will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

Do you believe this? She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, who's coming into the world. And when she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying, in private, the teacher is here and is calling for you.

And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. And when the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And when Jesus saw her weeping, the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in the spirit and greatly troubled.

Now I won't get into this here, but the words used for deeply moved in spirit and troubled are pointing out that Jesus is angry, but he's not angry at Mary, he's angry at the situation that the devil has created.

So he asked, where have you laid him? And they said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. So the Jews said, see how he loved him. But some of them said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?

So then Jesus deeply moved again, came to the tomb, it was a cave, a stone lay against it, and Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to her, Lord, by this time there will be an odor, he's been dead for four days.

Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? And you're going to note here, the you is singular. Did I not tell you? Soy is you singular. Did I not say to you?

Who's the you there? It ain't me. It ain't you. It ain't the parents of Olive. It's not Bill Johnson. Jesus is speaking to Martha. Huh? The sister of the dead man. Did I not say to you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?

So they took away the stone. Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.

So note the purpose of the sign again is so that people would believe that God the Father sent Jesus. These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing, you might have life in his name.

You're not commanded, by the way, to raise the dead. So he said with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. And the man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, his face wrapped with a cloth.