Bill Johnson DEFENDS His Son’s False Teaching!

Fight For Truth

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where the Bible and critical thinking meet to give you real

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Christian commentary about the things that matter. Thanks so much for watching, let's get into the video. So Bethel Church is a hyper -charismatic megachurch located in Redding, California, and it's led by Pastor Bill Johnson.

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If you've ever watched my videos on them, you probably already know this. And Bethel have said some pretty wacky things over the years, and I suppose that's par for the course when it comes to hyper -Pentecostal churches.

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But unfortunately, sometimes they've gone too far, they've gone from wacky to just plain false.

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And that was certainly the case for Bill Johnson's son, when he seemed to directly deny the doctrine of original sin during a sermon he entitled,

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The Joy of Consecration. Here's the clip of that sermon that you need to see. Watch this.

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You're not born evil. It's amazing how many teachings in theology start with that thought.

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Anytime you start with that, you will create a controlling, manipulating environment. Every government, every structure, every system, fundamentally and theologically, must start with the concept and the idea that people are good, and they mean to do good.

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So the first thing that Eric says, the one that's gonna catch your eye, is that, quote, you're not born evil.

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And then he says, quote, every system, fundamentally and theologically, must start with the concept and the idea that people are good, and that they mean to do good, even if they are not saved.

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We have to start from that premise, end quote. This should be absolutely horrifying to you if you have any experience with biblical theology and anthropology, that is, the study of man.

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You see, the Bible's anthropology is very, very clear. Men and women have been corrupted by the Fall, and therefore every human being born after the

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Fall, even up until this very day, is sinful and depraved beyond any ability to save themselves.

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First Corinthians 2 .14 says, quote, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned, end quote.

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The natural fallen person is so utterly lost that they cannot see the truth at all without God's help.

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Psalm 51, verse 5 says, quote, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me, end quote.

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This passage talks clearly about the sinfulness of even pre -born human beings. We come out of the womb in sin.

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We are born into sin. The doctrine of original sin is inescapable unless you purposely choose to ignore it.

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So for Eric Johnson to obviously say in a sermon at church in front of an entire crowd of professing

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Christians that, quote, you are not born evil, that is absolutely appalling. There is virtually no statement out there that's a clearer denial and rejection of original sin than the statement that you are not born evil.

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Yet, that's what Eric said nonetheless. And to this day, there has been no clear public apology that I know of for this statement.

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In fact, it's actually been defended. But that's beside the point. In an interview with Dr. Michael Brown, Bill Johnson, Eric's father and the leader of the church, was directly asked about this comment his son made and what he thought about it.

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Here was his response. Watch this. There's a clip.

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I only heard the short part of it from Eric Johnson, I believe at Bethel, basically saying that human beings are born good as if there's no fall, as if we don't have a sinful nature, that we're fundamentally good.

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Now, it's just a limited clip. I didn't hear the whole message. But what do you believe about human nature outside of God's redemption?

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That's my son, actually, that Eric Johnson is my son. No, people are born with a sin nature, and we need forgiveness, we need deliverance.

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He believes that. We all believe that. So instead of giving a clear apology and saying that the statement was unbiblical and wrong and it won't be tolerated,

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Bill proceeds to tell the viewers that he and his son actually do, in fact, believe in original sin, and his son's comments did not contradict that view at all.

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That is what you might call beating around the bush. The actual issue at hand is the comment of him saying, you're not born evil.

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That's the issue. And there was no apology or clarification about that in the comment at all. Instead, Bill simply reassures us that his son's comment was acceptable, and that they do believe in original sin.

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But ladies and gentlemen, one of those statements must be false. Let me explain why. If you believe in original sin, then the comment, you're not born evil, would contradict that position, and therefore it would not be acceptable.

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But if you believe the statement of you're not born evil was acceptable, then you evidently don't believe in original sin, or at least you're not supporting it in the way you run your church.

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It's that simple. In order to be honest and consistent, you must dispense with one of these statements and affirm the other.

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They contradict each other. You cannot affirm both at the same time, in other words, and claim to be answering the question honestly.

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But Bill Johnson goes on offering more and more excuses about why his son is allowed to preach unbiblical things at his church with seemingly no consequences.

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Watch this. He believes that. We all believe that. He was just, he was emphasizing an approach to people where we honor the fact that people are made in God's image.

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It doesn't mean they don't have sin to repent of, it just, it changes our approach to people and how we value them, how we...

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So he says here that his son was just, quote, emphasizing an approach to people where we honor the fact that they're made in God's image, end quote.

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And I'm going to respond to this by saying something that should be obvious. If your approach to people denies what the

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Bible teaches about people, namely that they're born evil, then your approach needs to change.

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Effectively, the argument here is, well, what my son said was okay because he wants us to love people.

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But this is yet another problem. Yes, as Christians, we want to love people, that's true. First Corinthians 16, 14 says, quote, let all that you do be done in love.

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But we do not love people by offering them false and unbiblical statements. Colossians 3, 9 says, quote, do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, end quote.

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In other words, yes, Christians are supposed to love people tremendously, but we do not love people by lying to them.

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And telling people that they aren't born evil is one of the biggest lies you could possibly offer. But of course, there is no clear apology, only convoluted reassurances that his son meant well when he was spreading false doctrine.

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It's good that his son was not intentionally trying to deceive other people, but he was still deceiving them nonetheless.

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And he did it from Bethel Church's pulpit, and here we have excuses made for it. So why don't we stop the excuses and move to a genuine apology?

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Let's have forgiveness. Let's have repentance. I am not advocating that we cancel Bill Johnson and his son.

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What I'm advocating for is that we should do what the Bible says and ask for a real, genuine apology when false doctrine is preached at your church.

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I don't think that's too much to ask for. At least, we definitely shouldn't be defending this. We all make mistakes, so we can always apologize and receive grace from one another, and just move on.

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So with that said, let's watch the final statement offered by Bill, and this one is particularly telling. Watch this.

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It changes our approach to people, and how we value them, how we... We have found that by celebrating, you know, that touch of God on people's lives, sometimes even before they're saved, it warms them up to the gospel so powerfully.

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You know, you see Paul, you know, most excellent Felix, you know, statements like this where there would be this moment of honor, and that's what we're trying to do.

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Now I believe that he's really showing his cards here when he says this, quote, We have found that by celebrating that touch of God on people's lives, sometimes even before they're saved, it warms them up to the gospel so powerfully, end quote.

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So now we get down to the very bottom of things. It's okay that my son said people aren't born evil because our statement of faith affirms original sin, but more than that, we want people to get saved.

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Please don't call us out for false doctrine being preached in our pulpit. We just want to warm people up to the gospel.

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That's all we're doing. It's just excuse after excuse. The man literally said, and I quote again,

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You're not born evil. That is an unbiblical false teaching that clearly denies original sin.

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It is not excusable for any reason. Human beings are born evil to say the opposite of that is to contradict scripture.

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Imagine for a moment, if you will, that John MacArthur's son said this exact same thing from the pulpit.

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That would probably never happen because they actually have standards as to what can be said from the pulpit at Grace Community Church, unlike Bethel Church.

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If that were to somehow happen, there would be an immediate apology the very next day from Grace Community Church, and they would say that what his son said was completely wrong and unbiblical, and that they deeply apologize.

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They would be appalled by this statement, and they would promise to fix it in the future. No excuses, no cancel culture, just true biblical repentance.

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But Bill Johnson, on the other hand, decides to make excuse after excuse about why his son is allowed to say that people aren't born evil in his church for the sake of converting people and warming their hearts.

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And Bill even says, quote, you know, you see Paul, he says, most excellent Felix, this moment of honor, end quote.

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I believe he's referring here to Paul's statement, which he offered to Felix, who was a powerful Roman governor in the book of Acts.

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My question to this would be, how on earth is Paul saying most excellent Felix somehow the same thing as your son saying that people aren't born evil?

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How on earth can you compare those two things with a straight face? It makes no sense. It is true that in Acts 24 verses 3 through 4,

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Paul does say the following to Felix, quote, since through you we enjoy much peace, and since by your foresight, most excellent

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Felix, reforms are being made for this nation, in every way and everywhere, we accept this with all gratitude, end quote.

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But Paul was not making any kind of statement affirming Felix's position before God with regard to original sin.

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He was telling Felix that he appreciated his political work, and he called him most excellent

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Felix because he was simply addressing him the way any respectful Roman citizen would address a political leader, especially one of such high standing.

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This isn't rocket science. If I were to testify before Congress, and if I were to call the person I'm talking to Congressman so -and -so,

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I'm not telling them that they weren't born evil. I'm simply addressing them respectfully. So in order to defend his son's false teaching,

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Bill Johnson has done basically everything he can do other than apologize, and that even includes taking scripture out of context to prove his point.

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Again, I've been guilty of the very same thing, and that's why we all have to apologize and repent. That's all

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I'm suggesting. So in conclusion, Eric Johnson clearly said during a sermon at Bethel Church that human beings are not born evil, and that they are really good at their core.

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Apparently, he said this in order to warm people's hearts to the Gospel, whatever that means.

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Of course, it's important for us to recognize that using falsehood to warm people's hearts to the Gospel is completely unbiblical, and it will not work.

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Yet, when Bill Johnson was asked about this, he made constant excuses for his son, and claimed that his comments don't contradict the doctrine of original sin, when of course they do.

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I think we should add this to the ever -growing list of contradictions and strange teachings from Bethel Church.

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And let's earnestly pray that Bill Johnson and his church would repent of all this falsehood and turn to the truth of God's Word.

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And until next time, fight for truth, never surrender, and keep your eyes open. Thank you and God bless.