Bethel Church Pastor Says Michael The Archangel Is “Grumpy”!

Fight For Truth

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

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

00:05

Christian commentary about the things that matter. Thanks so much for watching, let's get into the video. So Bethel Church is a church in Redding, California that is highly involved with the

00:15

New Apostolic Reformation and the Hypercharismatic Movement, which is a movement of modern

00:20

Pentecostal Christianity which has a high emphasis on signs and wonders and miraculous things.

00:26

Among these signs and wonders, though, are encounters with angels, angelic beings. And one of the most famous angels in the

00:33

Bible is Michael, the archangel. Now Michael is an essential part of the hierarchy of the

00:38

Lord's angelic army, or his angelic host. As Revelation 12, 7 -8 says,

00:43

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.

00:55

Michael has a lot of responsibilities, but one of these responsibilities, according to Bethel Church, is appearing in the bedroom of one

01:02

Bethel Church leader and teacher, Chris Velotten. I really couldn't make up a more ridiculous story than what you're about to hear if I tried my very best, but here's a clip of Chris Velotten telling the entire tall tale himself.

01:16

The video and audio will be distorted for copyright reasons. Check this out. And I look back just a little bit like this, and there's a man standing there.

01:24

Like, I can see him in my eyes. Like a really big guy. I'm laying on my back, so I don't know how tall he is.

01:30

Close to seven foot, probably. And he's got, he has, he has wrestling tights on. He's got no shirt on.

01:40

He's built like... Bet you wish you wouldn't have said that.

01:51

So we start off this encounter hearing that Chris woke up with his bed shaking violently and a large man in wrestling tights standing above him, watching him.

02:02

And when he says that the man is wearing wrestling tights, of course, the whole crowd of, of Pentecostal Christians start laughing.

02:08

They think it's hilarious. And worse than that, when he says that the angel's shirt was off, one of the women in the crowd makes a clearly suggestive cat -calling type of sound.

02:17

And the pastor and the congregation, of course, they didn't find this disturbing and weird. In fact, they thought that cat -calling

02:24

Michael the Archangel was extremely funny, and they all burst into laughter once again.

02:30

So this is the discernment that's being practiced in movements like Bethel Church. Supposing that this story is real, we have a sexually suggestive comment being made about an angel, and the crowd and their

02:41

Bible teacher are laughing at that hysterically. This church, and the hypercharismatic church movement at large, is demonstrating a trend.

02:49

Lots of entertainment, but no discernment. Their encounters with angels, they can't just be miraculous.

02:55

They have to be funny as well. There has to be some sort of entertaining substance to it. There is a constant need for entertainment in the

03:03

Pentecostal church, and overall, there's a lack of attention span when it comes to serious Bible teaching.

03:09

So we end up with these embellished and ridiculous stories that belong more in the routine of a stand -up comedian than they do in a church gathering.

03:17

Now, I actually have a biblical critique for this in a moment, but first, let's keep watching this train wreck.

03:57

So we have a situation here wherein Mr. Volatin meets an angel that is dressed in wrestling tights with no shirt on and apparently looks like a

04:06

Native American, and as if it can't get any more ridiculous, he says that the moment he figured out that this being was truly an angel, the angel vaporizes and leaves.

04:16

So at this point, I have strong biblical proof that this story is not real. He may be convinced wholeheartedly that he saw this angel, but none of us, no

04:24

Christian, in other words, should believe this story. How do I know this? Well, because the Greek word for angel in the

04:30

Bible is ongelos, I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, which translates roughly to messenger.

04:35

So biblically speaking, angels are God's messengers, His servants. That's what they are by definition.

04:42

So why on earth would God send an angel just to stare at someone while they sleep? And more than that, why don't we have even one example in Scripture of anything even close to this happening?

04:53

Because the story is fake, folks. That's why. Not only is it not found in Scripture, but it actually contradicts what the

04:59

Bible says angels are there to do. They are messengers and soldiers of God, not weird looking buff dudes who stare at you in your sleep.

05:07

I mean, think about it. This whole thing is a story about apparently a messenger of the Lord. That's what he is, an angel, a messenger of the

05:14

Lord, if that's what actually appeared to him, came into this guy's house and brought him no message from the

05:20

Lord. Messenger of the Lord brings no message from the Lord. He just stares at him and then leaves.

05:25

I mean, what on earth is this accomplishing for the kingdom of God? And how is this story helpful to anybody?

05:32

Who is this encouraging to follow the Bible? This sounds like a fantasy, the fantasy specifically of a madman more than anything.

05:40

And I wish I could tell you there wasn't more to this, but unfortunately there is. Check this out. Right before my eyes, he vaporizes.

05:47

So I call Bob Jones. And I said, Hey, Bob. I said,

05:54

I think I just saw an angel. Goes, Yeah. He go, Did he look like an

05:59

Indian? He looked like an Indian. I go,

06:05

Yeah. He goes, Did he have cool black hair? I said, Yeah. He goes, Did he had wrestling tights on and no shirt?

06:14

I said, Yeah. He goes, Was he in a bad mood? Was he in a bad mood?

06:24

Yes. It was in a bad mood. I said, Yeah. He goes, Oh, that Michael. He always in a bad mood. So in response to all of this,

06:32

Chris calls fellow charismatic leader Bob Jones. And Bob Jones, of course, apparently corroborates his entire story and his description of Michael as grumpy.

06:42

And some people in Christian circles are tempted to take this as evidence. Some people are like, Well, he called Bob Jones.

06:47

And then Bob Jones asked him what the angel looked like, and they corroborated it from two different parts of the world. It's got to be real, right?

06:53

No. Don't be fooled by this kind of thing. Guys, this is not evidence of literally anything at all.

06:59

Besides the fact that we have two delusional people instead of one. I mean, don't we understand that it's totally possible that two people can believe something stupid at the same time?

07:08

In fact, there are entire groups of people called cults who believe all sorts of wacky things altogether.

07:14

And again, we have reason to believe that this story is not true because it goes completely against the pattern of Scripture, regardless of how many people corroborate it.

07:23

But, of course, if you're the average Pentecostal Christian these days, you usually don't mind going against the clear pattern of Scripture, as long as your private emotional experience tells you to.

07:32

And this is what I'm wanting to highlight in this video. 1 Thessalonians 5 .21 says, But test everything, hold fast to what is good.

07:41

We are not called to believe every weird story a charismatic tells us. We are called to test these stories and these revelations.

07:48

And in this case, when you compare this story to Scripture, you end up realizing how false and bankrupt it truly is.

07:55

There is not a single example in Scripture of a person interacting with an angel and thinking about how funny that angel looks.

08:02

In fact, in Revelation 19 .10, John sees an angel and he, quote, fell down at his feet to worship him.

08:08

He was in awe of how this angelic being looked. And in response, the angel, of course, tells him to worship

08:13

God, not angels. But the point is that angels are not the comic relief of the

08:18

Christian life. They are not court jesters who watch you in your sleep so that you can tell funny little stories to your church on Sunday while they laugh and catcall.

08:27

These are servants of God with real tasks to complete. And this whole story, quite honestly, is an attempt to turn them into a sideshow for our entertainment.

08:38

So how do we avoid these things? How do we avoid telling weird stories in church that offer no edification for the people of Christ and are completely pointless?

08:46

It's really simple, actually. 2 Timothy 4 .2 says, quote, In other words, you can't preach nonsense like this when you're busy preaching the

09:02

Word of God. There is so much time wasted in hypercharismatic churches today with pointless and fake stories just like the one you heard.

09:11

The rest of us need to stay focused, preach the Word, as the passage says, and be ready for the coming of our

09:17

Savior. That's what we're called to, not this nonsense. Now is not the time to entertain ridiculous myths and silly stories.

09:25

Now is the time to get serious, to preach the Gospel, hold to it firmly, and be ready in season and out of season.

09:31

So please pray for Chris Velotton and for all the false prophets out there who are like him these days. Pray that they would start focusing on what matters and obey the truth of Scripture.

09:40

Thanks so much for watching. If you enjoyed that video, don't forget to like, comment, share, subscribe, and hit the notification bell so that you never miss another one.

09:48

If you didn't like that video for any reason, then I'd invite you to watch my Frequently Asked Questions video, link in description, wherein

09:55

I deal with common objections and define the purpose and the goal of my channel using Scripture. This channel is funded by generous donations from my amazing patrons.

10:04

If you'd like to help us put out more videos fighting for biblical truth, hit the link in the description or go to patreon .com

10:10

slash colinamiller. You can donate to my ministry there and earn tons of rewards just like these.

10:15

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