Mann’s Word

Defending the Christian faith and promoting its wisdom against the secular and religious challenges of our day.

Monday, April 17, 2023

NAR, BETHEL CHURCH, AND THE NEW AGE CONNECTION

Are the “apostles” and “prophets” of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), centered at Bethel Church, Redding, California introducing New Age teachings? If so, this alone should discredit their teachings, despite their many claims that God is validating their movement through miracles, even though Satan can also perform miracles:

• The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. (2 Thessalonians 2:9–10)

Perhaps the most profound evidence that Bethel has adopted many teachings of the New Age come from their endorsed book, The Physics of Heaven. Kris Vallotton, an NAR proponent, senior associate pastor, and lead prophet at Bethel has written “Through their collective intelligence, these seers [the many contributors to this book] have emerged with new perspectives never before pondered.”

Such a claim is problematic since the Bible instructs us to not go beyond the teachings of the Bible:

• I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. (1 Corinthians 4:6)

Regarding the authors of this book, Vallotton suggests that we should join the authors’ readiness to go beyond what has long been accepted as the final truth:

• Leaving the safe haven of conventional thinking, they set sail in uncharted waters with a passion to discover new lands…If you are tired of being a settler, existing on the shores of tradition [the Bible] and riskless living, this book is for you.

However, the Bible instructs us that the Scriptures are all that we need to live for Jesus:

• All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16–17)

Nevertheless, the author/editors, Ellyn Davis & Judy Franklin of Bethel, claim that the bulk of the Christian world  are missing the:

• …sea of quantum light that undergirds everything, and more importantly, we need to know how to access it.

Davis is convinced that we can and must supplement the Bible with New Age thinking:

• I decided to examine New Age thought and practice for anything precious that might be extracted from the the worthless…now… we are hearing more …Christians “taking back truths.”

Stalking the New Age for truth is like going to mediums. instead, we should seek truth from God and His Word:

• And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. (Isaiah 8:19–20)

One contributor, NAR Prophet Jonathan Welton, wrote that he had: 

• “…found throughout Scripture 75 examples of things that the New Age has counterfeited …such as having a spirit guide, trances, mediation, auras, power objects, clarivoyance. Clairudience, and more…  These actually belong to the Church but have been stolen and cleverly repackaged…now whenever you see a counterfeit, I hope you’ll ask yourself…what is that a counterfeit of, ‘what is it’s source,’ and how can I have the authentic?’”

Although the authors, professed Christians, clearly reject the warnings of the Word of God, they offer no justification for their own “insights” and imaginations other than asserting that others are coming to the same “insights” through their own personal experiences. However, Satan is the master deceiver:

• For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. (2 Corinthians 11:13–15)

How then can we protect ourselves against deception? By “not going beyond what is written” in the Scriptures. Jesus had warned that Satanic deceptions will be so compelling that even believers would be led astray apart from our Savior’s protection:

• For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. (Matthew 24:24)

The NAR is never lacking in “prophesies”:

• Just as the people were in the upper room on the day of Pentecost, when suddenly there came from heaven a noise, and this noise was like a violent rushing wind, there will come again a noise that I will release from heaven…I am calling them to a place where their spirits are in an upper room position to receive what I am about to release. This sound that I will release will cause people to think differently. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOwcAVdPyAQ&ab_channel=JesusChristIsTheAlmightyCreator%E2%80%A0KingJamesBibleColossiansChapter1%F0%9F%8C%BEChristina

Franklin claims that the Spirit will give new revelations to the NAR prophets and their followers, but is there any compelling reason to believe this? Scripture provides a way to discern the true prophet from the false:

• But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18:20–22)

Unfortunately, Franklin places no time limit on her prophecy. Therefore, if there is no Upper Room experience during the next 20 years, she can conveniently say, “There was no time frame placed on its fulfillment.” Even worse, the Bethel prophets admit that their prophecies have proven wrong. At best, this should disqualify them. They are preaching, “Thus sayeth the Lord.” However, their mistaken prophecies prove that the Lord hasn’t spoken. Therefore, they have prophesied according to their own imaginations, while claiming their prophecies came from the Lord—a serious, careless, arrogant, and presumptuous error—according to the false prophets of the OT:

• Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’” For who among them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened?” (Jeremiah 23:16–18)

The NAR prophets are simply asking us to place our trust in them. But do they merit our trust? Not according to the God of the Bible! Even if they are producing miracles, they must not be trusted if they are distorting God’s Word:

• “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.” (Deuteronomy 13:1–5)

Bill Johnson, lead pastor of Bethel, is both a contributor and endorser of The Physics of Heaven. He believes that it is enough to merely “sense” that God “is on the verge of releasing something new”:

• All of the contributors to chapters in this book sense that God is on the verge of releasing something new on the earth and that new thing somehow involves vibrations, frequencies, energy, sound, light, and taking “quantum leaps” by faith. (The Physics of Heaven, Chapter 16: Pulling the Tomorrows of God into Today, http://heavensphysics.com/chapter16/) Also: https://www.youtube.com/embed/weHo7pO6cmQ“

Johnson believes that we have the power and authority to prematurely “pull into our day” something that is only reserved for Christ’s return:

• If it’s true that the promises of restored cities and healed nations are actually millennium promises…and if the promise of God’s glory being manifest all over the earth is far off into the future…and if in fact the people of God will not reach a place of true maturity, living like one mature man—then I must ask the question—is there anyone hungry enough for what He has shown us in the Scriptures that we will pull into our day something that is reserved for another? Is there anyone willing to lay themselves down to bring more of God’s promises across another great divide? If you can see God’s coming future promises, and He hasn’t blinded your eyes to His intent, then He is hoping to hook you into the role of calling “into being that which does not exist.” It is the role of the desperate heart of faith. We have the opportunity to affect the direction and flow of history through our prayers and intercessions. This is where we take hold of the future. This is why He wants to show us, “things to come.” The future is now, and it belongs to us. (The Physics of Heaven, p. 178.)

Many of the Prosperity Preachers also erroneously believe that we have the power, only claimed by God, to call “into being that which does not exist” (Romans 4:17).

There is no provision for the Church to “pull into our day” the Millennial Kingdom nor is there a promise that the Church can “call into being that which does not exist.” The future belongs to God, and only He knows the day and hour of the return of Christ. But Johnson adds:

• All of the promises He reveals to us will be realized in time, but the acceleration of events is largely determined by the desperation of God’s people. (Bill Johnson, The Physics of Heaven, Chapter 16: Pulling the Tomorrows of God into Today, http://heavensphysics.com/chapter16/)

Bill Johnson absurdly claimed:

• “You can only give away what you have. Can God give away sickness? No, he’s not sick. You can’t give cancer if you don’t have it.” (Video clip at 1:02; http://web.archive.org/watch?v=FYA7ZkkutPw)

However, God can and does afflict with disease:

• Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? (Exodus 4:11)

• Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason, many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. (1 Corinthians 11:27-30)

Against the Bible’s warnings, Johnson and the other Bethel leaders assure their naïve youthful followers that there is no danger in giving themselves over to the imaginations of their heart in the place of true prophecy. Consequently, the most loving thing that we can do is to warn.