Bethel Church Preaches WHAT NOW?!

Bethel Church, False Prophecy, and the Decreeing-and-Declaring Controversy

Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to Fight For Truth, the channel where we bring you Christian commentary about the things that matter. In today's video, we're going to be talking about Bill Johnson and Bethel Church.

Now, as we and many others have documented for years now, the Bethel movement and its leader Bill Johnson are inescapably connected to false teaching, false prophecy, and unbiblical practices. As many Discernment content makers are fond of saying, never trust a faith healer who wears glasses.

But beyond that, Bethel is a movement with aberrant and utterly bankrupt theology, especially as it relates to the spiritual gifts. And today we are going to prove this yet again, but this time with a little twist.

We will be using the very own words of Bill Johnson himself in context. In today's video, Bill Johnson is going to tell you himself that Bethel Church not only has false prophecy, but that they actually encourage it.

In a recent sermon that he gave at James River Church, the evidence is easily found in the last 10 minutes or so. The sermon was entitled, quote, Some Things Just Need To Be Spoken. In the first three weeks, it had already racked up 60 ,000 views, but by now it's probably more.

You see, Bethel Church is a worldwide movement, and in many ways, it is spearheading the modern hypercharismatic church at large. But as you're about to see, Bethel is simply not to be trusted, biblically speaking.

Not even close. In the first clip here, Bill tells you a story, one about Bethel's resident prophet, a man named Chris Vallotton. As the story goes, Chris was sitting down and eating dinner with a couple who had been told that they would never be able to have children.

And here's what happened in this situation, again, in Bill's very own words. Watch this.

Chris Vallotton, one of my favorite stories of Chris is he was sitting across the table from having a meal. So he and his wife, Kathy, were having a meal with some good friends of ours. They had been married for, I don't know, I think 16 years, something like that.

They wanted to have children, they never could. It was actually impossible for them to have children, they finally found out. And the Lord spoke to Chris and said, tell them they'll have a child by this time next year.

Well, that tends to make one nervous.

So, apparently, God told Chris Vallotton, the prophet, to tell this couple that they would be having a baby by that time next year. And this was a rather stunning claim, because again, these people could not have children, at least according to Bill.

Naturally, Chris was not eager to communicate this information to them, as it would be going out on a limb. But God responds to Chris audibly and directly, and you won't believe what God allegedly said.

Watch this.

You know, how about if I go to my prayer closet and pray for that to happen, right? And he's really sweating bullets, you know, getting to the place where he would be willing to say that. And he said, Lord, I can't do that.

And the Lord spoke to him and said, if you don't say it, it won't happen. And there are things that won't happen without your decree.

So then God tells Chris that if he refuses to tell this couple his prophetic message, then their baby will never be born. He will literally prophesy the baby into existence by repeating what he was told by God.

But we need to pause here, because we're already running into a problem. Imagine that. If Chris is a genuine prophet of God, and God told him that these people would have a baby by the next year, then that event is already set in stone.

It is guaranteed to come true because God does not lie, and He declared it to be so. Numbers 23 19 says, quote, God is not man, that he should lie or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said and he will not do it?

Or has he spoken and he will not fulfill it? But if the future that these people were destined for can be altered simply by Chris Vallotton not giving them the message, then it's not really guaranteed to be true in the first place, is it?

So this is not a clear cut example of prophecy. Instead, it's really more of a confusing paradox. Also, this makes it seem as though God cannot accomplish His purposes without Chris Vallotton's human intervention.

This does not fit with what we know to be true about God's omnipotence and power. In Luke 19, we find that Jesus is entering Jerusalem triumphantly, and the people are saying, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

But some in the crowd are opposed to such language. The Pharisees. They respond by saying, quote, Teacher, rebuke your disciples. But Jesus does not respond by saying that without His disciples, He wouldn't be getting the praise.

Instead, He says this, quote, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. You see, the decree of man was not necessary to accomplish the purposes of the Lord. God saw fit to use man, as He so often does, but this is not out of any kind of need or deficiency on His part.

So if God had ordained for these people to have a child, they would have that child, whether Christ the so-called prophet said something or not. But just after this, Bill Johnson follows up, saying, quote, There are things that won't happen without your decree.

And this is another example of the doctrine of positive confession, otherwise known as decreeing and declaring, being used at Bethel Church and really the whole Word of Faith movement. First off, God will accomplish all of His purpose whether you cooperate or not.

God can make anything He wants to have happen, regardless of your decree. In Acts 17 -24, Paul says that the true God is not, quote, served by human hands as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

And secondly, decreeing and declaring is not a practice that Christians ought to participate in. At least, certainly not in the way that modern Word Faith teachers would advertise it. When Jesus tells us how to pray in Matthew 6, there is no decreeing and declaring.

He tells us to simply acknowledge the power and authority of God, to ask for our daily needs to be met, to ask for spiritual protection from the Father, etc. But nowhere are we told to decree and declare things into existence so that our faith-filled apostolic words can go out into the atmosphere and change our environment.

Never is that said. I will link a few videos in the description that utterly dismantle this false doctrine. But that is not the main purpose of this video. Regardless of any positive confession or decreeing and declaring which we know to be false, the question of false prophecy still remains.

And this leads us to the next clip.

False Prophecy, Deuteronomy 18, and the Biblical Test of a Prophet

Watch this. So he did. He leaned over the table. He said, by this time next year, you'll have a child. And they did. Within the next year, they had a child. It's impossible.

Well, would you look at that? Isn't that incredible? Because of the faithfulness of the prophetic man Chris Vallotton, a baby was born to these two people who were completely barren. I guess that means that Chris must be a very powerful prophet of the Lord, a real modern-day Elijah.

I mean, the evidence is right there. He spoke the message, and it came to pass. He must be a prophet, right? Well not so fast. First of all, we need to ask some common-sense questions. Questions that any reasonable person would be asking at this point.

First, why exactly was it impossible, in Bill's own words, for these two people to have children? Was one of them in a coma? Did the woman get her womb surgically removed? What exactly did a doctor say about their condition specifically?

Well, frankly, we have no idea. Because Bill never said anything about that, did he? But that's not even the most important of questions. Here are a few more. Was this couple using any kind of fertility treatments or medical interventions to help them have a baby?

If so, what exactly were those things, and could they have had an effect? Again, ladies and gentlemen, we have absolutely no idea what the answer is to any of these essential questions. If this couple was indeed using powerful fertility drugs and treatments, then we can't exactly attribute this entirely to the prophecy, can we?

But for many people, they will just take what Bill Johnson says and eat it straight out of the can with a spoon. They'll just believe everything he says wholesale just because he's Bill Johnson and he talks about Jesus every now and then.

But this is not what we are commanded to do in the Scriptures. The Bible gives us clear directives when it comes to discerning who is a true prophet and who is not. And these directives are completely and utterly ignored by Bethel Church, Bill Johnson, and Chris Vallotton.

Case in point, watch this next clip. Check this out.

I should probably add this. When you get it wrong, don't quit. Clean up your mess and try again. This may sound strange to you, but in our school of ministry, our students are actually required to get it wrong.

If they don't fail at least three times in the first year, we won't let them in the second year. Why? If you're not willing to take risk to the point where you get it wrong, you probably won't get it right in the way you need to.

But secondly, we want you to get it wrong in a loving environment so you know how to clean up your mess.

So Bill said a few very eye-opening things here. He said that at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, the students are encouraged to make false prophecies. No, I didn't make that up. That's actually what he said.

Rewind and go watch it again. But more than this, if they do not make false prophecies, according to Bill, if all of the prophetic statements they make turn out to be true, then they cannot progress to the next grade.

In order to be a prophet at Bethel Church, you must make false prophecies. Ladies and gentlemen, Bill Johnson has just put the final nail in his own theological coffin, so to speak. And then he put some whipped cream and a cherry on top for good measure.

This demonstrates not only that Bethel Church has outright false prophecy, but that they actively encourage and promote it to everyone at their church. Just let that sit and remember again that Bill himself just said that.

There are a few glaring biblical problems with this. First, Christians are not encouraged to say false things. Truth is an essential aspect of our faith, especially in our speech. Ephesians 4 .25 says,.

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are all members of one another. Second, according to Bill's own words, a true prophet of the Lord would not be allowed to attend his school.

If Elijah or Isaiah or Moses attended Bethel's School of Supernatural Ministry, they would never be able to progress to the next grade. Because there is absolutely zero evidence that any of these men ever made a false prophecy in their life.

Because unlike Chris Vallotton, they were actual prophets, imagine that. Having this standard of Bethel Church is so asinine, so ridiculous, it's almost beyond comprehension. It's literally like saying that if a baseball player only hits home runs, you're going to have to kick him off the team.

It's like saying that if a student gets every single answer on every single test correct, you're going to have to hold him back a grade because he's not performing well academically. It's like saying that no one is allowed to preach a sermon at your church until they teach at least three heresies beforehand.

The fact is, when you have a policy like this, one that encourages false prophecy, that's one thing. That's already bad. But when you have a standard of prophecy that would exclude every single actual biblical prophet in Scripture, you're demonstrating that you don't have a clue what you're talking about.

But then Bill says that he wants his prophecy students to learn how to, quote, clean up their mess when they're wrong. This is a problem too. Effectively, all Bethel School is doing is getting really good at pumping out false prophets, especially those who know how to make things up and then use manipulation and excuses to cover up their false prophecy.

When you have a system that promotes that kind of person to do that kind of behavior, don't be surprised when you end up with some really unbiblical people coming out of your movement. We're already seeing that.

The fact is, Bethel Church have disqualified themselves time and time again. Deuteronomy 18 .22 says, quote, "...how may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken.

The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.". It is that clear, folks. Bethel Church encourages people to call themselves prophets of God while giving words that do not come true and do not come to pass.

Jeremiah 28 .9 says the same thing, quote, "...as for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent that prophet.". End quote.

Now pay attention because Bethel is saying the exact opposite thing. The Bible says that we only know you're a true prophet when your prophecy comes true. But Bill says that the measure of a true prophet is a willingness to get it wrong.

Do you see the difference? Now the way that hypercharismatics get around this is by saying that the definition of prophecy has changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament. But this is both logically and biblically absurd.

First off, the basic definition of a false prophet is a person who prophesies falsely. So the idea that someone could prophesy false things and not be a false prophet is absurd beyond belief. It robs the word of any true definition.

And secondly, there is no good evidence for this so-called change in the New Testament. I will link an excellent article from Pastor Derek Brown that demonstrates this well. And in Matthew 7, 15, Jesus says, quote, "...beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.".

End quote. Everyone in Jesus' day would have understood what a false prophet was in light of the Old Testament passages that we just read previously. So where is the clear evidence that this has changed?

Where exactly does Jesus prepare His audience for such an astronomical shift in definition? From what I can tell, He doesn't. You see, there is a massive biblical burden of proof on anyone who suggests that someone can prophesy falsely without being a false prophet.

And that burden has not been met at all. Not even close. You see, 1 Corinthians 12, 29 says, quote, "...are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?". As Paul writes this in the Greek, there is a clear indication that the answer to these questions is an emphatic no.

Not all are prophets. So here's a question. How exactly are we supposed to discern who has the gift of prophecy and who does not, if every single person who claims to have the gift is allowed to declare false revelations as much as they want?

The fact is, false prophets are dangerous. They claim to speak a message from God when that message is not from God. Thus, we are given many tests in Scripture to discern the difference between a false and a true prophet, since it is the difference between hearing God speak and not hearing Him speak.

One of those tests is whether or not the prophecy is true or false. But the so-called prophets at Bethel Church fail this test miserably. They are false prophets, and therefore, according to Jesus Himself, we must mark and avoid them.

But at this point, what do we make of the prophecy of Chris Vallatin, the one about the baby that supposedly came true? Well, first, as I alluded to previously, there's a whole host of other factors here in that situation that are totally unaccounted for.

One example would be if there was any medical intervention on the part of the couple in an effort to get pregnant. And secondly, Chris Vallatin, by virtue of being the official prophet of Bethel, has himself participated in, and outright encouraged, false prophecy.

This makes him by definition a false prophet, who ought to be avoided, and certainly not seen as a biblically trustworthy leader at all. But this brings up another question. How did he get the prediction right here, if he's a false prophet?

The answer is simple. A broken clock is right twice a day. And by the same standard, if a false prophet makes enough predictions, one of them is bound to come true at some point, especially with the vague, ambiguous, emotional predictions that are usually coming out of Bethel Church.

You see, when you throw enough peanut butter at your kitchen wall, something is going to stick eventually. But that doesn't mean you're not making a mess. And regardless, if a prophet gets just one prophecy wrong, or endorses false prophecy, they are still a false prophet who should not be followed by the standard of both the Old and the New Testaments.

The Bethel movement is absolutely dangerous. They are filled to the brim with false prophecy and false teaching. Mark and avoid them, and get your biblical teaching from someone that you can actually trust.

Closing Appeal, Supporter Shout-Out, and Sign-Off

I pray this video has been a blessing to you. And please know the video isn't meant as a sinful attack, but rather as a biblical critique. Pray for this channel, and for anyone mentioned in the video.

Many of you are looking for teaching resources or trying to find a new church. If so, check out the teaching ministries and church networks linked in the description. And by God's grace, let's move forward joyfully, holding to the truth of God's Word.

Thank you so much for watching. Please like, subscribe, hit the bell, and subscribe to our Rumble channel, link in description. And before you go, take a look at this list here. These are the people who make all of our free content possible with their monthly support.

Today's highlighted channel supporter is Lily L. If you would like this channel to do more research, make more videos, and reach more people, please hit the link in the description and join the Truth Army today.

And until next time, fight for truth. Thank you, and God bless.