Christian Idolatry? Evaluating Bethel Church and Bill Johnson

Author:

Anne Kennedy

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Article ID:

JAF0722AKTT

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Updated: 

Jul 31, 2025

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Published:

Jul 30, 2025

Theological Trends Column

 

 

This article was published exclusively online in the Christian Research Journal, Volume 48, number 03 (2025).

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On June 14, 2025, Vance Boelter (allegedly) stalked and murdered Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and wounded Senator John Hoffman and Yvette, his wife.1 In the days immediately following the shooting, David French wrote an article in The New York Times titled “The Problem of the Christian Assassin.” In the piece, French broadly hints that Boelter, who attended the Christ for All Nations Institute in the 90s, is an “evangelical Christian” who belonged to the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). “Boelter,” French wrote, “wasn’t just a political assassin; he was a Christian assassin — and a person deeply connected to one of America’s most radical religious movements.”2 But is the NAR really an “evangelical Christian” movement?

NAR might be thought of as a “loose” affiliation of churches and organizations that share common doctrines and styles of worship. The vanguard of the NAR is Bethel Church in Redding, California, led by the charismatic (in both senses of the word) pastor, Bill Johnson, who has stretched Bethel’s influence over the entire globe through the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM).3

Like all heretical movements, it is Bethel’s proximity to the truth that generates confusion within American Christianity. God has the power to raise the dead. He brought forth the cosmos by His Word. He is the omniscient observer. In the more intimate arrangements of life, the Christian faithfully declares that the Lord is sovereign over the affairs of presidents and schoolteachers, over the cattle on a thousand hills, over your soul and mine. Often, it sounds as though Bethel teachers believe that God is in control and that the Bible is His trustworthy Word. Until you listen a little closer and discover that is not the case. You as a Holy Spirit-indwelled believer have such an important part to play, that if you don’t do it, God won’t act.

I Don’t Know If That Made Sense. Almost ten years ago, a young man named Seth Dahl was invited to preach on stage at Bethel. Lacking training, knowledge, and gumption, this young preacher leaned over the podium and claimed that Jesus had come to him in a vision to apologize, personally, for pain caused:

I’m laying on the floor and in a vision — in an encounter with God in a vision — Jesus picks me up and holds me so close that I can’t see anything, and he holds me so close, and Jesus starts to weep, and he says, “Please forgive me. Please forgive me.” I said, “What are you talking about, please forgive you?” He said, “When that pastor hurt you it’s as if I hurt you because he’s a member of my body. Please forgive me.”4

The young man’s brow furrows as he speaks. It is almost as if he knows it’s not going well, and so he tries to clarify his point:

And I wept and I wept, and I wept, as I forgave Jesus for something he didn’t do, but someone else did. And I didn’t realize until that moment, holding it against them, I was actually distancing myself from God. To distance myself from them, I was distancing myself from God.5

In the middle of the clip available online, the preacher says, “I don’t know if that made sense.” No, in Christian terms, it doesn’t make sense, because it’s not true. But by the measure of Bethel’s theology, because any prophet or apostle can say anything at any time, and because the Scripture is continually undermined as the trustworthy and definitive Word of God, the preacher is free to wander around in his own imagination, trying to make sense of something he doesn’t personally understand.

Who Am I Worshiping? The singer, eyes closed, hands clasped around a microphone, leads the congregation as part of a three-hour Bethel Worship Night. Impassioned, she sings about sacred love, about seeing God face to face, about a flame of fire.6 This, for a vast number of American Christians today, is the essence of worship. The music rises and falls as one vocalist makes way for another. Somewhere before the two-hour mark, Bill Johnson ascends the stage to honor his son and daughter-in-law, worship leaders at Bethel for twenty-five years. Toward the end, there are some declared healings and the congregational credal declaration of wealth. Otherwise, though, the gathering sings, hands raised, accompanied by the band on stage.

What could possibly be objectionable about songs of praise like “God, I Look to You,” which vaguely draws on various sentiments from the Psalms?7 Bethel is one of the most popular sources of music in evangelical churches. If you are an evangelical, whatever brand of church you attend, there’s a good chance you will have sung some pieces produced by Bethel.8 It’s the music, initially, that makes its way into a congregation, and then, as the melodies become familiar and loved, the theology begins to divide unwary Christians from each other.9

Open Your Bible. At first glance, it would appear that Pastor Bill Johnson has deep affection for God’s Word. He refers to it as to a companion and friend. If I were unsettled in my Christian life, anxious or in trouble, and I wandered into Bethel without knowing anything, I would find Pastor Johnson’s manner pastoral, kind, and full of what all of us need in life no matter our spiritual condition — hope.10

Consume a lot of Bill Johnson content, however, and an unsettling theme emerges. The Bible is insufficient for rebuke, correction, teaching, and training in righteousness (contra 2 Timothy 3:16).11 The Christian also needs to hear God’s voice outside of the Scriptures.12 Pastor Johnson somehow manages to set the second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God, incarnate in Jesus, at odds with His own Word. Jesus, for Christians the key for interpreting the rest of the Scriptures, in the preaching of Bill Johnson, becomes something of a talisman. He is appended at the end of every sermon as a person who died for your sins; he doesn’t allow you to hold on to bitterness or unforgiveness, but what he really wants for you is to experience “breakthrough.”13 To do that, you have to get your head and heart into the right state, which is a complicated and onerous business.

Johnson’s use of Jesus as an essence set apart from the Scriptures produces a similar, though arguably, more subversive result as the progressive attempt to create a canon within a canon based on “love.” Johnson is more subversive in the sense that he affirms a conservative sexual ethic. He preaches fidelity in marriage and abstinence before marriage. He is prolife and against the rainbow acronym.14 Nevertheless, he strays from the path of biblical fidelity when he insists that Jesus does not intend for the Christian to suffer material or physical deprivation, and that believers, commanded to do “greater works than these,” should be able to raise the dead, eradicate sickness, and perform visible signs and wonders, including creating an earth that is the same as heaven.15

It’s Your Fault. The most common objection to the claim that every Christian should be able to raise the dead, heal the sick, suffer no material lack, and be emotionally happy in the Lord is that God, in His providence, doesn’t always confer these temporal blessings. “In this life,” Jesus pointed out, “you will have trouble” (John 16:33). You have to pray for your enemies because you will have them (Matthew 5:43–44). When you suffer reproach and rejection, you are to count yourself blessed, for you are walking in the steps of Jesus. I must admit that this objection makes a lot of sense to me, being a person well-versed not only in the Scriptures but in life in general. I don’t get to have everything I want the moment I want it, and this is a grace, for it is generally in times of suffering and deprivation that my love for Jesus is revealed, both to me and to others.

Bethel Church does not take this view. If you have not been materially blessed and temporally healed, it is because you have not had enough faith. One shouldn’t say that in a bald, crude way, however. Rather, according to quantum physics, nothing happens in the cosmos without a conscious observer, without spiritual sound, and without will and intention. God called everything forth because he, the ultimate observer, sees and knows everything. And he created the world by a mystical quantum sound, and he intended to do it.16 But he didn’t do everything he intended to. He is waiting for us, his creatures, to call forth more miracles. In fact, like Hannah, one might say the cosmos is pregnant with unrealized and undeclared outcomes.17 Do you have enough faith to declare your healing? To raise the dead?

As the Bethel prophets on stage call out about creaky elbows, gut problems, dislocated joints, and not enough money, it seems that some among them must have something called “faith.” Sure, it is mechanistic, it seems unrelated to a Personal Being, like God the Father, who revealed Himself in His Son, Jesus Christ, that we might be redeemed from sin and raised to new life, but is it wrong?

The Physics of Heresy. Heresy generally arises when two truths that are meant to be held tightly and paradoxically together are over explained, or one is relinquished in favor of the other. Christians have to affirm that God is sovereign over His creation, and yet that each individual is responsible for his or her own choices. Likewise, God embodies perfect justice and perfect mercy at the same time. He is Three and also One. Jesus is both truly God and truly man.

In a misguided effort to bring the benefits of heaven to earth now, Bethel smooths out many difficulties regarding the Christian life. Clinging to the rich and hopeful promise that God will bless those who love Him, when confronted with suffering, self-proclaimed prophets and apostles don’t do the hard work of digging in the Scriptures for the truth that God works even our suffering into our good and His glory. Instead, they shift the burden back onto the hapless believer. You suffer because you haven’t brought God’s will to the earth through your faith power.

This distorts the true nature of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit. He isn’t any longer the Person who understands your tribulations and sorrows, your faithful high priest who intercedes for you continually from heaven (Hebrews 4:14–16). The Spirit isn’t your comforter, your guide (John 14:15–21). Instead, through cacophonous and unbiblical words of knowledge, the churchgoer spiritually bobs along the surface of the Bible, grasping at the shiny baubles of wealth, physical health, and vain imaginations of happiness.

No Laughing Matter. The maniacal laughter in the background of so much of what takes place at Bethel is unnerving. Whenever Bill Johnson tells a joke, even when it isn’t particularly funny, he is greeted by an overeager, keyed up crowd. He believes the laughter is a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit.18 Coupled with the prophets who stand up and speak “words of knowledge,” it lends Bethel a hyper, spectacular feel. There is the semblance of spirituality and worship, but the problem is the object of that worship — it isn’t the Jesus we see in the Bible.

Hours and hours of Bill Johnson’s preaching did not increase my sense of joy, the relief that Jesus — the real one — offers in His gospel. If I, as the worshiper, have to do God’s work for Him, if I can bring material blessings to me by the power of my intentions and words, if Jesus comes and apologizes to me, then the person I am worshiping is myself, not God. The traditional word for this form of worship is idolatry. It is what happens when the Christian casts a picture of herself into the heavens and calls it a god, instead of endeavoring to accept God in the way He reveals Himself.

Bethel Church, under the leadership of Bill Johnson, isn’t leading people to know and love the Lord, to hear the gospel, to become sheep who follow the Good Shepherd through the shadow of death into eternal life. Instead, he teaches spiritually hungry seekers to look for themselves, to lean on their own understanding, to acknowledge their own ways, and to expect to become rich in consequence.

Anne Kennedy, MDiv, is the author of Nailed It: 365 Readings for Angry or Worn-Out People, rev. ed. (Square Halo Books, 2020). She blogs about current events and theological trends on her Substack, Demotivations with Anne.

 

NOTES

  1. Julia Bonavita, “Accused Killer of Minnesota Lawmakers Teases ‘Important Details’ in Letter During Jailhouse Interview: Vance Boulter Denies President Donald Trump or Pro-life Motivations in Jailhouse Interview About Minnesota Political Assassinations,” Fox News, July 14, 2025, https://www.foxnews.com/us/accused-killer-minnesota-lawmakers-teases-important-details-letter-during-jailhouse-interview. Boulter, from prison, claims his violent act was motivated by something other than his pro-life views: “I will just say there is a lot of information that will come out in future that people will look at and judge for themselves that goes back 24 months before the 14th. If the gov ever let’s [sic] it get out,” he said.
  2. David French, “The Problem of the Christian Assassin,” The New York Times, June 19, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/opinion/minnesota-killings-boelter.html.
  3. Marsha West, “Update — Research: New Apostolic Reformation,” Christian Research Network, January 2, 2025, https://christianresearchnetwork.org/2025/01/02/update-research-new-apostolic-reformation/.
  4. Seth Dahl, “Forgiveness That Leads to Joy,” Bethel Church, YouTube.com, September 2, 2015, 3:05, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPOl3B4wgtc.
  5. Dahl, “Forgiveness That Leads to Joy.”
  6. “Bethel Church Service | Worship Night with Brooke Ligertwood, Kari Jobe-Carnes, and Cody Carnes,” Bethel, YouTube, July 13, 2025, 3:22:20, https://youtu.be/IjN5UaKhiuA?t=8347.
  7. Jenn Johnson, “God I Look to You,” Bethel Music Lyrics, AZLyrics, https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bethelmusic/godilooktoyou.html.
  8. Bob Smietana, “How Bethel and Hillsong Took over Our Worship Sets,” Christianity Today, April 12, 2023, https://www.christianitytoday.com/2023/04/bethel-hillsong-worship-sound-christian-research/.
  9. Alisa Childers, “Bethel Redding & Modern Apostles: A Biblical Analysis,” Alisa Childers Podcast, November 13, 2022, https://blubrry.com/the_alisa_childers/91291908/177-bethel-redding-modern-apostles-a-biblical-analysis/.
  10. A good example of Bill Johnson’s preaching is the sermon “Why You Need to Let Go of Regret, Bitterness, and Jealousy,” Bethel Church, YouTube.com, December 4, 2023, 39:22, https://youtu.be/fMsnZXwtZZo?si=IOvggyVOL-dG35us.
  11. Holly Pivec, “Why Bill Johnson Says the Bible Is Not Enough,” HollyPivec.com, January 25, 1018, https://www.hollypivec.com/blog/2018/01/why-bill-johnson-says-the-bible-is-not-enough/7702. See also Bob Hunter, “Bill Johnson and the Extrabiblical Teaching of Bethel Church,” Christian Research Journal 37, no. 05 (2014), https://www.equip.org/articles/off-map-bill-johnson-pursuit-extrabiblical-authentication/.
  12. Bill Johnson, “It’s in Your Nature to Hear God’s Voice,” Bethel Church, YouTube.com, February 13, 2023, 9:17, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taRKeaMwR4E.
  13. Bill Johnson, “Knowing the God of the Breakthrough,” Bethel Church, YouTube.com, November 6, 2023, 52:40, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgzkzwCKwP0&t=2s.
  14. Alisa Childers, “Bethel Redding & Modern Apostles: A Biblical Analysis,” Alisa Childers Podcast, November 13, 2022, https://blubrry.com/the_alisa_childers/91291908/177-bethel-redding-modern-apostles-a-biblical-analysis/.
  15. Bill Johnson, “The Biggest Lie Sold to Christians,” Destiny Image, December 15 (year missing), https://www.destinyimage.com/blog/bill-johnson-the-biggest-lie-sold-to-christians.
  16. In The Physics of Heaven (Destiny Image, 2012), the authors Ellyn Davis and Judy Franklin, and contributors, including Bill Johnson, make a confused effort to appeal to science to justify a “Second Pentecost” that resembles the spiritualist practice of manifesting.
  17. Bill Johnson, “How to Pray Like Hannah and Birth the Promises of God,” Bethel Church, YouTube.com, May 16, 2025, 40:16, https://youtu.be/xWB3ZKSMSrA?si=hrON_AsKSPUq4oEt.
  18. “Holy Laughter: Being Drunk in the Spirit,” Rediscover Bethel, YouTube.com, June 28, 2021, 14:32, https://youtu.be/QKpievvFhMI. For a critique of so-called holy laughter, see Hank Hanegraaff’s two-part series of articles, “The Counterfeit Revival: Rodney Howard-Browne and the ‘Toronto Blessing’” (Part One), Christian Research Journal 19, no. 04 (July–August 1997), https://www.equip.org/articles/the-counterfeit-revival/ and “The Counterfeit Revival: Visionary Hoaxes and Revisionary History” (Part Two), Christian Research Journal 20, no. 01 (September–October 1997), https://www.equip.org/articles/the-counterfeit-revival-part-two/.
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