How Bethel Church Encourages FALSE Prophecy!

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Hey guys, Colin here, and welcome back to the channel where we bring you Christian commentary about the things that matter.

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As ever, please know this video isn't a sinful attack, but rather a Biblical critique. In today's video, we're going to be talking about Bethel Church.

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Now, Bethel is a hypercharismatic church located in Redding, California. But they have a church planted in Austin, Texas as well.

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In the following video, you're going to see a pastor named Renee Evans preaching at an official

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Bethel church gathering. She talks about how she teaches herself a prophetic 101 class to equip her students, and she talks about how much fun they have prophesying over each other.

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But it doesn't end there. Watch this. I want you to ask Holy Spirit to give you a word for someone.

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It can be a single word, a sentence, a scripture, a picture that you're seeing.

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Just ask Him for a word. If you're not hearing one, make one up.

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You think I'm joking, but I'm not. If you have the mind of Christ, then

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He can work through your mind, and your thoughts line up with His thoughts.

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Now, this is very interesting, very notable. It's important, because many, many

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Reformed Christians have been criticizing Bethel Church for years, about the fact that they encourage false prophecy especially, and we always get the same answer, don't we?

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Bethel don't tell people to prophesy falsely. That's not a fair characterization. You need to be more charitable and more

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Christ -like. You sound like a judgmental Pharisee. But here, ladies and gentlemen, is undeniable proof that Bethel Church does indeed tell people to prophesy falsely.

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She literally told all of these people to, quote, make up a word from the

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Lord. This, of course, begs the question, if God is speaking through Bethel Church all the time, as they claim

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He is, why is it that they need to make things up? If they have such an abundance of true and genuine prophetic power at that church, why is it that they need to manufacture made -up prophecies in the church?

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This is very important, but these questions, unfortunately, will usually not get answers. So let's go ahead and analyze that clip again, point by point, and compare it to Scripture.

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Watch this. I want you to ask Holy Spirit to give you a word for someone.

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It can be a single word, a sentence, a scripture, a picture that you're seeing.

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Just ask Him for a word. So I want you all to notice something. Interestingly and importantly, notice that she says your word from the

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Lord can be pretty much anything. And look at the examples she gives. It could be a word, a picture, a sentence, or a scripture.

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We need to see this, folks. She literally uses the example of Scripture in and among all of the other examples of random words, random phrases and pictures that might pop into your head.

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And folks, this tells us regarding what Bethel Church thinks about the authority and sufficiency of the

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Bible. When it comes to revelation from God, the Word of God should not be mentioned in passing as an option among many other man -made concepts.

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But for some reason, that's exactly what Bethel Church's pastor does here. 2 Timothy 3 .16

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says this, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

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You see, the Bible says that the holy scriptures are breathed out by God Himself.

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The same thing, of course, cannot be said about the pictures or words that pop into your head throughout the day.

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In John 17 .17, Jesus says this, Thus, we can see that the

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Word of the Lord is truth itself. We know that the same cannot be said, again, about the random words and pictures that you imagine in your mind.

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Those are quite often untrue or even irrelevant. And additionally, Psalm 119 .105 says,

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Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. So God's Word is also what guides us actively as God's people.

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The Word of the Lord offers perfect and unfailing revelation, truth, and guidance, among many other things.

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It should be striking to us, then, as Christians, that personal, private, and often random revelation is being mentioned alongside the everlasting and perfect Word of God by Bethel Church, as if these two things are almost equal.

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But that is not the only concern that we should have with Bethel's teaching. Let's watch this second part again.

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Watch this. Just ask Him for a word. If you're not hearing one, make one up.

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You think I'm joking, but I'm not. Now, in all honesty, this is perhaps the most concerning part of the entire video.

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Rene Evans says that you should ask God for a prophetic word about someone else. But in the case that God does not speak to you, you should just make one up and say that He said it anyway.

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She quite literally just told a room of professing Christians to make up false prophecy and attribute it to God.

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The Scriptures directly warn us about this kind of thing. Lamentations 2 .14 says,

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Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions. They have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading.

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You see, a false prophet is, by definition, one who prophesies falsely. If you have a prophetic word that does not accord with the truth of reality or originate from God, then that's a false prophecy.

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As the Lord says in Jeremiah 14 .14, the prophets are prophesying lies in my name.

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I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds.

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Pay attention to that last part. The Lord says that these false prophets, the characteristic of them is that they are speaking lies in His name.

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And specifically, they do this by telling people a message that, according to this passage, comes from their own minds.

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And then, of course, they take that message and attribute it to God. Sound familiar? So here's a question.

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How is this Old Testament warning any different than what Renee Evans is preaching at Bethel? It's not.

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She's telling the congregation to make up things in their own minds and then say that they came from God.

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That's false prophecy. That is speaking human thoughts, by definition, as if they're from the mouth of God.

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This is giving a word that the Lord has not commanded you to give, and you've just admitted it by saying that you made it up in your own head.

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So it's very clear what's happening here. Bethel Church, one of the most influential churches in the world right now, is actively telling people to oppose

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Scripture. They are plainly and obviously encouraging professing Christians to make things up.

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If that is not enough to get us to wake up and start avoiding the teaching of Bethel, I'm not sure what is.

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Now, one might ask at this point, why do Renee and Bethel preach these things? Where do they see this in Scripture?

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Well, that will be answered in the next clip. Watch this. If you have the mind of Christ, and he can work through your mind, and your thoughts line up with his thoughts.

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So effectively, her argument hinges on the idea that believers have the mind of Christ, and because we have the mind of Christ, whatever random thought pops into our head must align with Christ.

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Most likely, she's referring to 1 Corinthians 2 .16, which says this, For who has understood the mind of the

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Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. But as you may have already guessed, this passage has nothing whatsoever to do with prophesying thoughts that pop into your head.

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The verse here stands in contrast. It's related to the verse that came before it. 1

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Corinthians 2 .14 -15 says, The natural person does not accept the things of the

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Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

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The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

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So this passage is contrasting the natural person, one who does not believe in Christ, does not have the

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Spirit of God regenerating them, and cannot understand the things of God, with the spiritual man, who has been given the knowledge of Christ, who understands these things and can judge rightly in light of God's truth.

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This is what it means for Christians to have the mind of Christ. But does this mean that every thought that pops into our heads is guaranteed to proceed from Christ?

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Of course not. Here's one biblical example. James 1 .4 says, Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

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So we cannot always trust the internal workings, the thoughts that pop into our heads, because there's always the possibility that these thoughts are sinful or tempting.

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We live in a fallen world, we still have fallen bodies that are marred by sin, and we need to be aware of that.

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We must test our thoughts by the objective Word of God, rather than simply believing them wholesale without any biblical discernment.

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Long story short, the biblical concept of having the mind of Christ is completely unrelated and irrelevant to Renee Evans' teaching here.

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She is using that passage incorrectly as a proof text for Bethel Church's false prophecy.

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Your thoughts are not infallible, only the Word of God is. So please, cling to the

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Word of God above all else, and submit every picture, every word, every sentence of your own thoughts to God's standard.

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And run far away from Bethel Church. They affirm false prophecy and encourage their congregation to actively create it.

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This is not Orthodox Christian teaching, not at all. In fact, it's very dangerous. I pray that this has been a blessing to you, and please know this,

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I do not offer any of this correction from a high and mighty position. I am nothing but a wretched sinner saved by the grace of Jesus Christ.

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So let's pray for Bethel Church that they would stop this false prophecy by God's grace and turn to the truth of God's Word.

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