A horrific look into the teaching of Bethel Church via Kris Vallotton...

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All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. -- 1Corinthians 12:11 (ESV)

https://krisvallotton.com/church-should-be-cultural-leaders/

We have written about Bethel Church many, many times. About how large a cesspool it is for false teaching. How it operates a school for teaching the gifts of the holy spirit. How its students practice grave sucking and operate a dead raising team. How they openly embrace word faith, prosperity gospels, false signs and lying wonders, healing on demand, gold dust, gem stones, angel feathers and glory clouds. They are ground zero for experiential Christianity which seeks to supplant scripture with our own personal experiences. It is a highly dangerous place for Christendom because it attracts so many youth. It has three primary leaders. Bill Johnson is the senior pastor. Shawn Bolz is the resident prophet who does cold readings through his smart phone. Lastly, but not least, is Kris Vallotton, executive pastor and false teacher extraordinaire. Above is a link to his latest heretical rantings about how the church should be cultural leaders in society. Within this article is a serious glimpse into the inner workings of the depraved mind. Buckle yourself in because it gets real bumpy from here.

"It troubles me that many people who claim to be Christians live with limited, powerless, finite thinking. How is this even possible? I mean, how do people who claim to have the Creator of the Universe living inside of them, the mind of Christ thinking through them, and the Spirit of God influencing the world around them even have the nerve to think small? I'd propose that we believers don't have permission to live with limited mindsets as that would be a waste of our heavenly inheritance!" -- Kris Vallotton

This is the troubling mindset from Bethel Church that is taught to so many youth today. Bethel actually targets youth, which should make adult believers cringe. Bethel encourages a brand of Christianity that exalts man. Sure it is done with some clever double speak about how great God is but you can see just from this intro that Kris Vallotton is exalting YOU, not God. what is really at stake here is how we view what God wants us to do. To pick up our cross daily. To deny ourselves for Christ. To represent Jesus in the way we live our lives. These are not "small things" as Vallotton alludes to here. These are THE things we are to do yet so many from Bethel chase these dreams of grandiose importance while not caring one bit about the fundamentals. It is beyond insulting to infer that leading a life worthy of Jesus by obeying what he has commanded is somehow living "limited." In fact the opposite is true. God needs people to start living with a more limited mindset. Limit yourselves to His teaching. Limit yourselves to His word. Then if God gives you more you run to embrace it but Kris would have you seeking exaltation before basic obedience.

"We have a mandate to make earth like heaven and to disciple nations, so it's time we begin to bring heaven to earth! We're called to transform the world in such a way that when they see our good works they will glorify our Father in heaven. NEW GENERATION OF CULTURE SHAPERS IS RISING. I'm baffled by the fact that some of the greatest thinkers in the world are often godless, humanist, self-centered, self-absorbed atheists! This is an open indictment against the Body of Christ. The world today is facing some of its biggest challenges yet -- the cultural side effects of a fatherless generation run rampant -- and the global Church has an opportunity to stand up and be the light to even the darkest situations. I believe the Lord is raising up strategic Kingdom leaders who can think like heaven to bring solutions to humanity's greatest problems. I see a company of light-thinkers coming to the forefront of the world's stage to shape culture"" -- Kris Vallotton

While this sounds all serious and pious it is not even remotely biblical. The core of the Bethel cry is this ridiculous bring heaven to earth mantra. Read your bible! Nowhere does it suggest we are to strive for this. There will be a new earth! The fact is that Kris and his ilk love this world because of the sin and excess. Like the Pharisees before them, they hold enormous power and wealth from the world and have no intention of giving it away to some carpenter from Nazareth who claims His kingdom is not of this world! We are not supposed to embrace culture, define it, redefine it, shape it, or try to find relevance within it. We are in fact to not partake in it, separate ourselves from it, and provide the godly alternative to it for those who stumble in the darkness. Vallotton is baffled that some of the greatest carnal thinkers come from the carnal world and not from church? I know plenty of fantastic thinkers within the church who are able to discern, learn and teach from His word. I do not need to know the next great theory from the godless and the fact that Vallotton admires and chases it reveals that Bethel is nothing but pure carnality at heart. The way the church is a light in the darkness is not found in chasing the darkness but separating from it! Look, the world has plenty of problems and they all stem from sin. There is but one solution and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. There is one vehicle to impart this message with the supernatural availability of salvation and that is the Gospel. Kris is not the least bit interested in solving the only problem we have been tasked in assisting with. Instead he sees the church becoming the savior of the world. One problem -- the world already has a savior.

"Futurists: Prophetic visionaries who with divine foresight and inspired insights peer into the future as it was meant to be, to direct society towards their noble purpose and timeless promise.

Solutionaries: People who bring wisdom, knowledge, experience and skill to pressing challenges in an effort to create positive change in our communities.

Cultural Architects: Leaders who shape culture and inspire collective reasoning that helps to create healthy, happy, safe and prosperous communities for the generations to come.

Kairos Conductors: Those who know the times and the appropriate action, act or attitude is in the times." -- Kris Vallotton

Spiritual gobbledygook. A futurist according to Vallotton is a false prophet. Someone who will say nice sounding benign prophecies and claim God told them it when He most certainly did not. Notice though that to the world loving Vallotton, society has a noble purpose to fulfill and a timeless promise granted unto them. Yet if we read the bible, we know that promise is destruction. This world will end and Jesus will return to judge the very nations that Kris Vallotton thinks have so much nobility. A "solutionary" appears to be the people just spoken about who will seek carnal answers to the world's carnal problems. This will be devoid of the only true solution they need -- the Gospel! Who cares if the community improves and everyone is still going to hell? The recurring problem of course is in championing this life and this existence instead of the eternal life God offers through His only Son. Collective reasoning? Seriously? Is there no level of pure carnality Kris Vallotton is not willing to stoop to? Once again, creating happy, safe and prosperous communities means absolutely nothing if they are all still hell-bound. Kairos conductors is just a term he made up. If he were to truly act according to the times he would stop teaching the church so falsely to create a carnal utopia that saves no one.

"There are profound advantages that we, followers of Jesus, have over those who have yet to experience His transforming power. But it should suffice to say that the most creative, inventive, ingenious, imaginative, inspired, brilliant, resourceful, innovative, advanced ideas should be flowing from the sons and daughters of God!"

If you're not yet convinced of your role in God's plan to demonstrate this on the earth, let's consider the distinct advantage you have as a born-again believer:

1. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit; consequently, the God who envisioned everything and spoke the world(s) into existence lives inside of us. (See 1 Corinthians 6:19)

2. You have access to the gift of wisdom, which is one of the nine supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit listed in the book of 1 Corinthians. Think of it like the wisdom of King Solomon on steroids. (See 1 Corinthians 12:8.)" -- Kris Vallotton

Once again, can you see the disconnect? We may indeed have certain advantages over the unsaved but what would Kris have us leverage them for? For the advancement of the kingdom? For the spreading of the Gospel? No. These advantages should mean that we have overcome sin and the world. That when the rest of the world runs to medication and therapy we are sound in Christ. When the rest of the world demands vengeance and violence we prefer peace and giving. Why is it "suffice to say" that we should be all of these carnal markers of greatness that Kris has outlined? Shouldn't we be the most humble, loving, and holy? Remember the brilliance, resourcefulness and advanced ideas of God are mocked by a world that sees them as foolishness. The creativity, imagination and inventiveness of God? Dismissed outright by atheists and essentially dismissed by agnostics. The indwelling of the spirit should speak to our new life in Christ. It can be considered the source of our spiritual gifts. It is our gateway into understanding scripture. To Vallotton it is the inside track on becoming great in the world. How profoundly sad. What is equally sad is Vallotton's understanding of scripture. He quotes 1Corinthians 12:8 and fails to see the key verse just three verses away that clearly teaches not everyone gets all of the spiritual gifts. That the Holy Spirit gives these out as He wills. Kris obviously also believes this to be carnal wisdom. It is not. He continues with his list of advantages:

"3. You have the mind of Christ, which means you think like God. We are His divine think tank! (1 Corinthians 2:6-16) The Apostle Paul points out in these verses that what was a mystery to God's Old Testament people is actually revealed to us because we think like God! Read it for yourselves, "We have received the Spirit of God who knows the mind of God." Therefore since the same Spirit lives in us who lived/lives in Jesus we actually think like God. Do you want to know what God is thinking; what are you thinking? When you are right with God you think His thoughts! The Old Testament prophet went on to ask, "WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD"?" The great apostle Paul replied, we do! "We have the mind of Christ!" The mind of Christ is your X-factor, your secret weapon"But to activate your heavenly advantage you must lose the compliant, religious rule keeper, black and white mindset so you can journey out into the world of mystery, miracles, and divine mayhem. We have become predictable, boring, vanilla, uninspired people. Yet our Founder is a radical fore-thinking activist, who in three short years, altered the course of human history. Jesus transformed the way the world viewed God, money, nature, religion and kingdom life etc." -- Kris Vallotton

Wow, how breathtaking bad is this? First of all, believing you are God's think tank indicates that you are clueless because you cannot see how that means you are thinking FOR God instead of LIKE God. Now, let's deconstruct this heretical pile of nonsense. First of all, the mystery to the Old Testament folks was because they had no written word. They relied upon revelation through the prophets. For the New Testament believers, Kris already pointed out that we have the indwelt Holy Spirit but he missed the reasons why. The spirit leads us into all truth contained with His word -- which is the mind of Christ! Instead, Kris tries to turn it into the esoteric and Gnostic response that anything I think is what God thinks. What is worse, is he believes it is some kind of secret weapon only usable once we forget about religion, rules and get this -- compliance! Do you want to know a great synonym for compliance? Obedience! Instead of being confined to the word of God and the truths the spirit can lead us into, Vallotton openly teaches an asinine concept of "divine mayhem." Jesus transformed everything away from false teaching! Not so the likes of Kris Vallotton can teach so falsely again without objection. I object. If God is a God of order and one of the fruits of the spirit is self-control, in what kingdom do you think "divine mayhem" resides?

"4. You are a "new creation" born again into the kingdom of God. The word "new" here means "prototype" -- something never before created. (See 2 Corinthians 5:17.) We are the first creatures to live on earth and in heaven simultaneously. Our head isn't stuck in the clouds; it's positioned in heavenly places.

5. You are endowed with "the manifold wisdom of God" by which the Lord reveals the mysteries of the kingdom "through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places." The Greek word translated "manifold" here means multicolored or multidimensional. Jesus has granted us multidimensional wisdom"the ability to understand challenging situations from every conceivable perspective and from every imaginable realm. (See Ephesians 3:1-10)" -- Kris Vallotton

Wow, aren't we great? I mean, we are prototypes, never before created, living on earth and in heaven at the same time, endowed with the manifold wisdom of God. Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back just yet. If you actually READ Ephesians 3, you discover the context is talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The usage of manifold is not to infer multidimensional wisdom for the believer. Everything the bible says Kris tries to warp into some kind of superpower God has given him. As for the usage, let's turn to Poole's Commentary:

"The manifold wisdom of God: exceedingly, or many ways, various. The Divine wisdom is in itself one simple thing, but appearing in so great variety of works, it is said to be various." -- Matthew Poole's Commentary

The manifold wisdom of God applies to multi-dimensional nature of God, not a secret power we can wield. This is the constant theme of Bethel Church. They take whatever is meant to be applied to God and they try to usurp it. They even operate a school where they teach the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which is pure blasphemy. It is the Luciferin sin of wanting to ascend to the throne of the Most High. They take the manifold wisdom, which applies to God and instead they teach it means you can solve all the worlds problems because you can see them from every conceivable perspective and every imaginable realm! Except you can't. You are not God. Sorry Kris.

"6. You are seated in heavenly places with Christ. Think about it like this; Jesus said to the Apostle John "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things." (See Revelation 4:1) In other words, our heavenly seat gives us insight into the future. There are so many ramifications to our raptured status that it makes my brain explode with possibility! Maybe it's easier to illustrate by thinking of what it would be like if we lived in 1850 and we got invited to "Come up here" for a look at the world in 2019. In this exalted position we would see televisions, computers, cars and planes etc."a world much different than our own current condition. What an amazing advantage this would give us as business people or inventors! Or how about if we were invited to view the future of medicine from 1810. We would see polio, smallpox, tuberculosis, leprosy, (to name just a few), that plagued our generation completely eradicated in the future! This is isn't a pipe dream or science fiction, this is our reality"our advantage"our right of passage." -- Kris Vallotton

This is just vile and disgusting. First of all, Vallotton tries leveraging what belongs to the Apostle John in Revelation and pretends it was meant for everyone! It was not. The entire book was a Revelation given to John to warn the church of the end times. It was not meant again as some new super power we have access to in order to see the future and make a killing at business! It is not our right of passage as that is an obscene mangling of Revelation. It is true that Ephesians also says we are seated in heavenly places but that is in relation to overcoming sin and so that in the coming ages He might show us the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ -- you know -- like when we stand in judgment! Kris Vallotton cannot help himself in turning every eternal blessing we have and make it carnal and to the relevance of this world only.

"7. Friendship with God is your game-changer advantage. Jesus put it like this: "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. (John 15:15) When we transition from slavery to friendship with God, (by keeping His commandments), we are suddenly introduced into a realm of revelation that only Jesus walked in. We have access to "all things" that were revealed to Jesus." -- Kris Vallotton

Ugh, a game changer advantage. Yes that was why Jesus died on the cross beloved. So we could have all of these carnal advantages in this world. Except that is not remotely biblical. Where does Kris get the idea that we are introduced into a realm of revelation that only Jesus walked in? What verse did he see that we would have the same access as Jesus to all things? I can think of two similar scripture references to such falseness:

"How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' -- Isaiah 14:12-14 (ESV)

But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." -- Genesis 3:4-5 (ESV)

I will make myself like the Most High. You will be like God. We have access to "all things" that were revealed to Jesus. Are you sensing a pattern? Well, in case you missed it, Kris sums up his glorious view of himself and humanity:

"When the first-century Corinthian church was struggling with jealousy and strife the apostle Paul rebuked them by reminding them that they were behaving like "mere men." (See 1 Corinthians 3:3.) We are not just humans! We are alive in the Spirit, sons and daughters of the God of the universe, endowed with wisdom, commissioned with power, and given authority to make a profound difference in the world. It's past time that we rise to our high call in Christ Jesus and start thinking like royalty! As children of God, we should be some of the most original thinkers and culture transformers on the earth. We believe in the impossible, therefore we can count on miracles to happen to us and through us. We live by faith (Romans 1:17), not by facts, which means that the truths we choose to believe sometimes override the facts that we face in life. Faith says there is nothing impossible with God (Luke 1:37). In other words, everything is possible with God! What would happen if we really lived with an "anything is possible" attitude? The world could call us crazy and they may vilify us, but they won't be able to ignore us. How do you think in a way that brings heaven to earth? How do you see the Church stepping up to think outside of the box and bring clarity and wisdom to the world's greatest challenges?" -- Kris Vallotton

The box Kris wishes to think outside of is known as scripture. The rebuke of the Corinthian church was indeed as if they were behaving carnally -- with jealousy and strife. That is what it means to have the mind of Christ and to be born again. The ways in which the world behaves are not the ways we ought to behave. We are supposed to not think of ourselves. Instead of humility, Kris thinks it means we ought to behave like royalty. Realize what he describes is exactly how the Bethelites think and behave because this is what Vallotton and Bill Johnson teach them! This is why they create "fire tunnels" outside of Jesus Culture concerts and lay hands on everything that moves; dangerously ignorant to spiritual warfare. This is why they have a dead raising team that claims 15 resurrections without a shred of proof. This is why they are constantly going on "treasure hunts" where they go and pray for people to be healed of all sorts of innocuous conditions. If the world mocks them it is because they deserve mocking but they take it as a badge of honor. They have been taught that everyone is prophetic. They have been taught that they are little gods. They have been taught everything that Vallotton outlined in this article and that should give us all pause.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- September 30, 2019

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.