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September 13, 2017

Bethel Once Again Makes Dr. Michael Brown Look Foolish

By Anthony Wade

Bethel's resident false prophet dude Shawn Bolz wants to teach you how to give words of knowledge. Dr. Michael Brown insists the opposite.

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Do not be deceived: "Bad company ruins good morals." -- 1Corinthians 15: 33 (ESV)

Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac is often given credit for the old adage that if you lay down with dogs, you're going to get fleas. Perhaps the real genesis of this sentiment comes from the above biblical verse. This is not merely a proverb from Solomon about life principles. The Apostle Paul is teaching the new believers in Corinth about the dangers of associating yourself with false teachers. You can have all of the good intentions you want -- God does not care about them. You can strive for good morals but who you line up with will direct your moral path more than your desires or intentions. This is why you do not lend your credibility to people who have not earned it and do not deserve it.

This was the case several years ago when I addressed Dr. Michael Brown on his radio program about his decision to appear for a week on the Benny Hinn television program. At the time Dr. Brown insisted that he did not really know a lot about his teachings. Recently I appeared again on his program, as a guest this time and not just a caller. This was to discuss recent criticism, including mine, about who Dr. Brown continues to share the stage with that is irreparably damaging what was once a sound reputation. Early on he admitted that if he had to do it over again he would not appear with Hinn, although the reason offered was that he reneged on airing the last taping. By the end of the appearance, Dr. Brown admitted that he sees no reason to not consider Benny Hinn as a brother in the Lord. That alone disqualifies Dr. Brown as someone to take seriously. Mind you, I am again not speaking about intentions as I can believe that he is well intended. This is about biblical discernment. Benny Hinn should be low hanging discernment fruit. Despite his false prophecies and false teachings over the years, congressional investigations into his finances and his propensity to waive a magical suit coat to "heal people," Hinn is still a charismatic darling and if there is one huge blind spot Dr. Brown has it is Charismania.

During this recent appearance on his show however we were speaking about an equally heretical figure -- Bill Johnson of Bethel Church. This is someone who pumps smoke into his auditorium and calls it glory clouds. He claims angel feathers start magically appearing around him all the time. Gold dust, and gem stones false manifestation have been attested to by Johnson. Yet Brown insists that he is solid and that I was disparaging him and the one item he took great offense to was the accusation that he operates a school for the supernatural where he pretends to have the ability to teach the gifts of the Spirit. Not teach about them beloved -- teach them to people. This is utter and rank heresy by egregiously violating 1Corinthians 12:11. It is literally usurping the power of God. Only the Spirit decides who gets the gifts and when. Not Michael Brown. Not Bill Johnson. And as we will see today -- not Shawn Bolz. This is the backdrop because on that program Dr. Brown insisted that I was mistaken. That Johnson did not promote the actual teaching of the gifts. I was actually accused on this national broadcast as "misrepresenting" Bill Johnson. My follow up devotional included two Course Outline snippets from the Bethel Supernatural School's own website:

"Spiritual Formation and Community is designed as hands on learning experience for students to put into practice the disciplines they are learning in the school.ie: prayer, worship, community, study, words of knowledge, prophecy, healing, etc."

"This course is designed to give students an overview of the purpose of prophetic ministry, a historical understanding of prophetic ministry in the Bible, the characteristics and creation of a healthy prophetic culture, and practical training in operating in the spiritual gift of prophecy."

So according to Bethel, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are "disciplines" that can be taught. That they can provide practical training in operating in the spiritual gift of prophecy. The language is plain and clear and consistent throughout the poisoned minds affected by Bethel and Bill Johnson. I watched a training video from Bethel for worship leaders instructing them in a made up concept called "prophetic worship"; where they tap into their deceitful heart, assume what they hear is from God and sing it over and over again as a mantra. I saw this once live at a local church where the guest worship leader kept singing for over 15 minutes -- "jump in the river if you want a hug from Jesus." It was just utter nonsense. Despite the obvious fact that my criticism is correct, Dr. Brown still defends Bethel and insists I am wrong. So today let us look at the most recent example proving Dr. Brown is sorely mistaken.

Shawn Bolz is the resident false prophet dude from Bethel. His specialty is falsifying "words of knowledge." Let us first deal with what this gift is because there is some debate. The reason why there is some debate is the Bible never truly defines it. Those outside charismatic circles refer to words of knowledge as factual insight into the Word of God. While we are all supposed to do the work of Bereans for ourselves, we all know there are some who clearly are more gifted at the understanding of Biblical texts. I could even go as far as to say that under this explanation, Dr. Michael Brown could be accused of possessing this gift. This is not to be accused of the gift of wisdom, which under this paradigm is the ability to take biblical knowledge and correctly apply it. That is what Dr. Brown appears to be sorely lacking. Let me give you a practical example. Dr. Brown has written possibly the defining book speaking against the greasy grace error known as antinomianism. He clearly displays a grasp on Scripture to explain why we need to be very careful in applying a grace only model. Yet when I asked him about Joseph Prince, who is the current king of antinomianism, Dr. Brown refused to call his teachings false. He said he was a good brother in the Lord who had some holes in his theology. No Dr. Brown, he is a vicious wolf devouring the sheep of the Lord. This perfectly illustrates how one can have a gift of knowledge but lack the wisdom to correctly apply it. It is fantastic to have the ability to theologically understand why antinomianism is heretical but relatively useless if you cannot use that knowledge to rebuke, mark and avoid people who actually teach it.

The second accepted definition for a word of knowledge is within charismatic circles and that is information supernaturally revealed to you about someone else, which is then used to provide divine proof of God. For example, when Jesus tells the woman at the well that she has had five husbands and the one she was currently with is not her husband that is a word of knowledge in this paradigm. The woman immediately accepts that Jesus is a prophet because He contained information He could not have possibly known about her except to have been given it by God. That is the paradigm Shawn Bolz operates under and that is neither surprising as he is charismatic, nor troubling as the Bible is simply not clear on this matter entirely. For the purposes of this discussion we do not need to wade into this debate, as we will be dealing with the charismatic definition. The issue here is not what a word of knowledge is but can man teach it. The answer is no but not according to Shawn Bolz and Bethel Church who continue to erode what credibility might be left for Dr. Michael Brown.

http://courses.bolzministries.com/p/god-secrets

This link is to a new E-Course offered by Shawn for a measly fifty dollars. When the Bible speaks about making merchandise of the sheep of the Lord this is what it is referring to. Bolz is offering 23 video teachings that apparently must be less than 5 minutes each in length. Let us reason together in this brief description:

"Join Shawn Bolz, as he takes us through 5+ hours (23+ videos) of teaching and activations. Throughout the ecourse you will gain a deeper understanding of Words of Knowledge and their application in your life today!" -- Shawn Bolz

I did a quick bible search and cannot quite find the term "activation" when it hit me that this entire concept is unbiblical. Shawn makes up the word activation to sound super-spiritual. The real problem Bolz has here is the notion that he is going to teach you a deeper understanding of words of knowledge and their application in your life today. Why is this troubling? Here is what the Bible has to say about words of knowledge:

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. -- 1Corinthians 12: 7-11 (ESV)

That is it beloved. In the entire canon of Scripture the term word of knowledge appears in one verse. It is not even listed in the other sections of Scripture dealing with the gifts of the Spirit. From this we can faithfully conclude very little. We can be assured that it is a gift of the Holy Spirit. We can conclude that different gifts are given to different people, so we know that not everyone can have the gift of knowledge. We can conclude the gift must somehow serve the common good. We can conclude that the Spirit alone determines in whom and when these gifts manifest. That is it. There is no "deeper understanding" unless you leave the confines of Scripture. Secondly, words of knowledge in this charismatic paradigm are not for application in your life. It is meant for application in the life of another. Why let a little thing like obvious coherency get in the way of making a buck by exploiting the people of God?

"One of the most comprehensive courses ever made on the subject of Words of Knowledge! Shawn Bolz shares from the most immersive platform with videos, quizzes, blogs, and audio clips. Do you desire to learn and grow in Words of Knowledge? All of the content will be dropped one week at a time. Each lesson contains: teaching, testimonies, a scriptural study, impartation, and prayer." -- Shawn Bolz

To once again return to the obvious fact that Bethel believes in the teaching of the gifts to believers, which is discounted as unbiblical based on the 1Corinthians 12 verses, Bolz here claims you can learn to grow IN words of knowledge. He also uses an abused charismatic term known as impartation, which is the belief that humans can transfer the gifts from and to each other. They cannot. Beloved this is the same sin that God cast Lucifer out of heaven for and he then tempted Eve with in the garden. To usurp the power that belongs to God alone. While it would be quite revelatory to see the content of some of the proposed session topics I have no intention of enriching someone working against the kingdom of God. We do not need to however as there are obvious red flags in his weekly topics alone, such as:

LESSON 4: How To Grow In Words of Knowledge

LESSON 5: Connector To Words Of Knowledge

LESSON 7: Personal Words For Yourself

LESSON 8: Words of Knowledge For Healing

LESSON 9: Words of Knowledge For The World Around You

LESSON 14: Core Values for Pursuing Words of Knowledge

LESSON 15: Risk-Taking

LESSON 16: Performance Issues

LESSON 17: Ways God Speaks

LESSON 19: Pressing in for More

Beloved we cannot "grow" in words of knowledge as the Spirit wills them alone. He is the only "connector" but He is so much more than that. He is the source and the determining factor. Sure we can pray and Paul says we should pursue the greater gifts, of which words of knowledge are not under consideration, but The Holy Spirit still decides. There are no such words for ourselves even within this paradigm unless someone else is given a word about us. I am unsure why he conflates this gift with another, healing, but it cannot be good knowing the Bethel track record on not understanding divine healing. The lesson on this gift for the world around you is essential NAR theology that believes we are to influence and in fact conquer the world in order to facilitate the second coming of Christ. Lesson 14 again emphasizes the Bethel belief that Dr. Brown refuses to accept -- they believe the gifts can be taught. Risk taking is a typical refrain within the false prophecy teachings of this group. That we have to tap into some still small voice inside of us, which is always our lying hearts, and assume it must be God. Perhaps the most telling and frightening topic is week 16 -- performance issues. It is telling because what this is at its heart is a performance. Bolz is a master at this as he utilizes his smart phone to clairvoyantly "download" words of knowledge about people at the events he speaks at. Despite the obvious absurd nature of this transparent scam people still fall for it by the thousands and Peter Popoff must be laughing somewhere. The frightening disconnect however is the cavalier attitude he has regarding "misses"; which we always see in the false prophetic realm as well. Take chances and risks they teach knowing that if you are wrong 35% of the time you are somehow considered a solid prophet. Never mind the 35% of lives you have potentially ruined and faith destroyed. After all, it is just "performance issues." The ways God speaks lesson is probably just to reinforce this false prophecy teaching of direct revelation. God did not forget to include something in His Word that He has now given to Shawn Bolz to bring to the body. Even within the Charismatic paradigm, a word of knowledge is to prove divine connection and thus edify the faith of someone. Not to provide extra-biblical revelation. Lastly here we see the typical "pressing in" false teaching. You must understand that within these false teachings you become God. If you want more of something the Bible says you have no control over, just "press in."

Beloved, we need to mark those that cause division by introducing such demonic doctrines. Damnable heresies that usurp the power of God. That have Christians and people seeking God chasing myths and super-spiritual powers they cannot attain. People who not only make merchandise of the sheep but of the Gospel itself:

For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ. -- 2Corinthians 2: 17 (ESV).

Shawn Bolz is a peddler of the Word of God, insincerely marketing an ability he does not have. Dr. Michael Brown should know better. Bad company does indeed corrupt good morals as the key verse teaches us. Someone as learned as Dr. Brown is, with so much biblical knowledge, should not be so easily made a fool of.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- September 13, 2017



Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

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