Sunday, February 24, 2013

Jesus Culture?

Bill Johnson and Bethel Church, while on my radar, have never been my focus. But seeing this post by fellow CRN contributor Erin Benzinger on her blog, especially this video, disturbs me greatly. Anyone with the Spirit of Christ in them should feel a gut reaction to the demonic presence in that video clip.

The problem with Bethel Church and Jesus Culture is obvious when we see that nothing in there has any basis whatsoever from Scripture, and yet these false prophets lie and blaspheme God and especially the Holy Spirit in putting words into His mouth, claiming divine revelation where none is given. The Holy Spirit speaks (present tense) in Scripture and through Scripture, not apart from it. To claim divine revelation from God where none is given is the height of hubris, and anyone who knows their Bible knows what false prophets deserve from God.

There are many watchbloggers I am sure who are busy exposing the errors of Bill Johnson and the "New Apostolic Reformation." But we can discount all their heresies at its root: the charismatic claim of new revelation. God has revealed to us how He has and how He will reveal Himself to us (Heb. 1:1-2; 2 Peter 1:19-21; 2 Tim. 3:16-17). God will never contradict Himself. Since God has already told us how He has and will reveal Himself to us, to claim knowledge of God and His Will from any other source is to call God a liar. God will NEVER give us any more new revelation, because God does not contradict Himself. God has NOT given those visions to Kim Walker-Smith, for He will never promise us one thing in His Word and do another thing altogether just for her. Therefore Kim Walker-Smith is being deceived and not telling the truth. The entire Bethel and Jesus Culture movement is built upon something other than God, and we know there are essentially only 2 sources of supernatural power and visions in this world.

There is nothing much we Christians can do except to pray and evangelize. We should not treat these people as Christians, as they are even more deceived than the Roman Church is. At least the Roman communion strive for biblical accuracy, although they will never achieve it since they interpret Scripture through their (false) traditions. Those who belong to the NAR and the Bethel/ Jesus Culture movement are to be treated as objects for evangelism, and treated as worshipers of another God, for that is what they are in truth.

8 comments:

hanguoxiong said...

Hi Daniel,

This lady is deluded. I believe she really needs to go and read Matthew 11:28, to know that she is weary and burdened, to come a conviction of her sins, repent of her sins and come to faith in the true Lord Jesus Christ who alone is the King of kings, the Lord of Lords, the Prince of Peace, Mighty God, Wonderful Counselor.

Regards,
Guo Xiong

Daniel C said...

@Guoxiong,

indeed

wakawakwaka said...

so then you said that the RC reads the bible through false traditions what do you mean and how do you prove they got it wrong?

Daniel C said...

@waka:

I mean they read the Bible through false traditions. Do you know how RC does theology?

wakawakwaka said...

Sort of, the pope and his bishops says its true, therefore it's true, something like that?

Daniel C said...

No. It's Scripture plus tradition as interpreted by the Magisterium. Go do some reading up, thanks.

Unknown said...

You contradict yourself. You are adding to Scripture by saying that there can be no new revelation. There is no Biblical basis for that.

You are right that we will not be told anything that contradicts Scripture, but the Bible itself tells us that prophecy is a spiritual gift that we should all desire. (1 Corinthians 14:1)

If you want to claim that Ms. Walker-Smith is a false prophet, that's fine, but do so by indicating how she is violating Scripture, not by claiming a false doctrine yourself.

Daniel C said...

On the contrary, those who are advocating for modern day prophecy are adding to Scripture. By definition, prophecy is inspired by God to the same extent as the Scriptures. That is the nature of prophecy from the Old to the New Testament. The prophet speaks in the name of God and his word must be obeyed.

Your theory does not hold water because you have no idea what prophecy is. You have no idea how prophecy relate to Scripture, even though the Scriptures equate the two:

knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21)


You further flatten the biblical horizon to say that 1 Cor. 14 is just as valid in the SAME WAY now as it was the early church. You don't have a proper understanding of how the Spirit works in Scripture, and how He give gifts for the work He is doing in building up the Church. As such, you do not relate the Gifts with its intended purpose in redemptive-history. Rather, you read the text as if the Gift just drop out of the sky and thus must be always present in the SAME manner.

Thus, it is you that is claiming a false doctrine