please help...about Bill Johnson & Jesus Culture..

Hi all, I need to know about Bill Johnson, Bethel church...Is Bethel a Bible believing church? I have a lot of friends who look to Bill as a mentor.. Somehow I do not have a good feeling in my spirit...
Also sometime in March there's going to be a conference on Moral revolution by Jesus Culture and Kris [ I think he is also from Bethel ]..Any thoughts?
Thanks so much in advance. God bless.

I don't know a lot about Bill Johnson however, I did notice that there is a fee to watch iBethel.tv which is an extension of Bethel and Jesus Culture. Charging in any shape or form to hear the gospel whether it's online, in person or via iTunes just rubs me the wrong way. Nothing personal against Bill I just don't agree with the teaching. Money was never a gate that people had to pass through to hear Jesus.

After 30 days you can get their stuff free. However, a subscription gets you the 'latest sermons and worship sessions'. Again, personally I don't think giving people 30 day old bread is ok, but that's me.

Zac Poonen's stuff is all free and he's says freely I've received, freely I give.

I would tell my flesh and blood brother the same thing.

In Christ,
Earl J.

Why don't you contact Bethel and ask them instead of opening up to all the critics?

Ruf

p.s. You may find people madly in love with Jesus.

Ruf is right; although we may not agree with charging and such (I don't either but); I believe there are many good people who love Jesus there.

People who love Jesus comes in all shapes and sizes and different denominations and teachings. We must have patience with one another!

I personally really enjoy a lot of Jesus Culture's music. And some of country gospel... my taste runs the gamete!!!

God bless you,
Lisa

Sorry, I have no idea about the person you are asking.

But I would say Sems did nothing wrong by asking. Don't shut a person off just because he's wanting to know more about a minitry/church etc.

Would you tell someone that he should not ask or give the answer some eg: Rufnrust have given if the person was asking about Todd Bentley, Rick Joyner (false professors) or Leonard Ravenhill, Paul Washer (godly Christians). Would Todd Bentley(false professor) say that he's not a true Christian or he is more likely to say--pls come, you can feel God's presence here, people are being healed etc. Would you say go and ask Paul Washer's Heartcry missionary itself or would you be happy to let the person asking know that Paul Washer is a godly man and encourage him to listen to his sermonsif someone were to ask about him. Would you shut off your children/friend if your children needed help in discerning some stuff or asking whether they should go to a certain function eg: Todd Bentley's ministry. Pls folks, we need to know how to discern. Don't shut off somebody who is asking genuinely.

Hi Sems,
Your question caught my attention. Rather than me doing the “foot work” about this particular situation, I am sharing some food for THOUGHT. After all, in scripture we are instructed to THINK –exercise discernment, judge fruit, etc. We have the MIND of Christ. His Spirit works by equipping us to THINK – and grow in wisdom and discernment.

I’m sure you know all too well that we live in a culture that judges by emotions: What feels good must be right and what feels bad must be wrong. Yet, in truth, it may be the opposite, what feels bad may be the work of God for our own growth - even though sinners. It may be his way of stirring us on towards deeper conviction and repentance. Scripture does not call us to rely on our feelings.

Perhaps God has brought this situation into your life path simply for your own growth. Perhaps God wishes to use your uncertainty to stir you towards deeper biblical exploration. Turn your eyes in that direction. That may be more beneficial than formulating a verdict of these people. As you know, it’s easy to hastily form an opinion about other Christians. We are eager to put them into either the bad camp - or the good camp (the one we always put ourselves in. Ha! ) That’s a shortcut and it robs us of the lengthy open-ended thinking process. But worse, once we put other Christians in a camp, we are blinded to anything else about them – be that shades of truth (if we judge them as bad) or shades of falsity (if we judge them as good).

I say, take the path less travelled. It pays off:

“So we are no longer to be children, tossed back and forth by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes.” Eph. 4:14 NET

Diane

With regards to roadsign's post.

I believe that we should do our footwork/research too. And that footwork includes using our discernment, what the bible says, what the other ministry say (have to be careful here because if the ministry is really out of whack, we may open ourselves up to deception/demons) and also asking others (asking others is a choice--whether we want to do so or not. Its not a 'must' but its not a 'must not' either). I'm sure that even godly pastors will at times check with other godly pastors on certain people/ministry when they feel the need to.

Forgive me. I didn't mean to exclude seeking godly advice from people we trust,although it sure reads that way. This is obvious throughout the Word to do such.

Just get both sides of the story.

Ruf

Rufnrust,

Thanks for clearing the air and that was a very nice apology to Sems. Thank you.

I want to take this time THANK YOU to everyone of you for taking time to give me your thoughts. God bless:]

Interesting...
because I also had a friend mention Bill Johnson and Bethel church to me awhile back. My friend was very involved with IHOP and asked me if I had heard of Bethel church in California. I had not, but decided to 'YouTube' it and was very concerned at what I found...

Which led me on a trail to videos with Todd Bentley, and then an interview where Todd Bentley and Bill Johnson were together and Bill seemed to approve of Todd or at least be some sort of ministry partner to him. And that fact alone: that Bill Johnson associates with Todd Bentley, is a HUGE flag. FLEE!

Scripture tells us to tests the spirits, so observe some of the Bethel YouTube videos and I believe you will get a glimpse/taste of what goes on. It seems they do a lot of 'prophetic dances' at Bethel... enjoy this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo72jKxa4ks&NR=1

What goes on at Bethel church reveals something about its leadership. So what kind of shepherds are shepherding this church?

May the Holy Spirit guide you into all truths

Hop3, that Bill Johnson. Forgot about him. Anyway did a quick search on Sermonindex and came up with some threads. There may be other threads, you can try searching.

https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic_id=23253&forum=36&start=0&viewmode=flat&order=0

https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=35750&forum=40

Anyway, I really do not know what he's doing now as I don't follow him.

I found a video on Bethel Church and healings around town done by CNN:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw-0wR87okY

God bless,
Lisa

Sems, its advisable to stay away from Bill Johnson. I did a check and found from his official website his friends list to false Christians.

His friends list are people like Todd Bentley, Rick Joyner, Patricia King etc. These people are clearly false and very dangerous.

Here's the link
http://www.bjm.org/friends.html

Sems, other brethren:

I experienced just what you described recently. God brought Bethel and related teachings directly across the street from where I live (a public school started hosting a new church group) and through visitors into my own church, which led me to discover a large conference that Bethel/Jesus Culture is staging in Chicago at the Allstate Arena on August 3-5, 2011, focusing on youth.

This led me to do my own footwork and to start a blog of the information I gathered.

An excellent personal testimony of someone who says they 'escaped' from Bethel church, because of the admonition of others who warned them (1 Timothy 1:4,6) is found here:

http://jesuscultureawakening.blogspot.com/2011/03/saved-from-deception-of-bethel-church_08.html

May it serve you and others and glorify the Lord!
Todd

Okay, I was talking with somebody about the gifts of the Spirit just an hour ago and she mentioned Heidi Baker, and Bethel Church, and how there's a conference this August with Jesus Culture and Hillsong and other speakers including Bill Johnson. I had my suspicions, and then I come onto Sermon Index and I read this topic. I thank you all for your contributions.

Brothers, must I remind us of wolves in sheep's clothing; of false prophets and false teachers? I can never seem to stress enough these days the need for genuine discernment. Oh, I pray that our Father would give us wisdom and a spirit of discernment, that we would not be led astray...

How would I go about telling my friend to avoid attending such a conference?

I did a blog article outlining the doctrine and teachings that are coming out of Bethel, and how they stack against scripture. Some of the errors include:
- Low view of God's sovereignty in contrast with a high view of humanity
- Affirmation of Jesus' divinity, yet an open denial of it's role in Jesus' life on Earth
- Jesus had to be "Born again" (YIKES!)
- If you pray for healing and it doesn't happen, it's because of the person being prayed over and not God's will
- A "Jesus-Only" hermeneutic (i.e., following only the precedents set out by Jesus at the exclusion of anything else in scripture)

http://ben-valentine.blogspot.com/2011/02/some-honest-concerns-about-teachings-of.html

Ben's blog article will really help, Elowel. I have been collecting information on the conference at a blog here:
http://jesuscultureawakening.blogspot.com/

I hope this is helpful for your friend.

Why do these various people continue to be maligned by name when others have been locked out for the same reason?

Ruf