So it is encouraging that this pastor could properly two problems with Bethel. Notice how he still feels compelled to downplay even these two! Their understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit is heretical! They teach an experiential form of Christianity that emphasizes how we feel and then ascribes those feelings to being from the Holy Spirit. It is not a mere matter of disagreeing with them. You must rebuke them so people do not follow such blatant false teaching and begin to design their own faith following their feelings. Along these same lines we come to the Bethel definition of prophetic. They teach prophesy at their false school! The Bible says that only the Holy Spirit gives out the gifts but not in Redding California! I watched a worship leader training video from Bethel where they taught their worship leaders that all worship leaders are prophetic. No they are not. They taught them to tap into that "still small voice" inside of them and whatever comes into their wickedly deceitful hearts, they should assume is from God and they should sing it out as prophecy, understanding they may be wrong as much as 65% of the time! That is spiritually criminal! I saw this idea manifest live once at a local church when the guest worship leader just kept repeating "if you want a hug from Jesus jump in the river" for over 15 minutes straight! Here is the question for us to consider. What is the job of the shepherd who realizes one of the most popular teachings on the Holy Spirit today is false? It sure is not to merely lament that it is hard to take beloved. It requires that the shepherd take out the rod and beat back the false teaching away from his sheep. It requires a pastor, not a hireling.
"But I do appreciate they are just people, like me, trying to connect with Jesus and proclaim & live out his love." -- Pastor X
This is at best dangerously naïve. Yes Bethel is comprised of people just like us and that is exactly the point. Romans teaches us that only the Gospel has the power to save man. Matthew 7 speaks about people standing before Christ saying, "Lord Lord, did we not try to connect with Jesus and proclaim and live out His love?" To which Jesus will say away from me, for a never knew you. There is no "A for effort" and sincerity does not count. Allow me to provide an extreme example. There are small rural churches in this country that practice the handling of live, deadly snakes during worship services because they cannot properly understand Mark 16. Two pastors (father and son) actually died as a result of snakebites received yet they still believe it. I will go out on a limb here and say that Pastor X would have no problem telling these people to stop acting like fools and explain what those verses actually mean. Yet he will not do it for Bethel which is far more deadly and infects far more people. God has not charged us with trying to figure out if people are genuine in their apostasy, only if they are apostate. Beloved, you cannot "live out His love in disobedience to His Word:
Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me. -- John 14: 23-24 (ESV)
If a church is proclaiming a false jesus then the love they have is false as well. The bible warns that we can believe in vain and says we ought to test ourselves. God has given us His Word for a reason! It alone is the final arbiter of what is right and what is wrong. Any responsible pastor must be a watchman on the wall, crying out to these entrusted to him to stay away from the leaven of false teaching.
"I know people at many of our baptist churches, including XXX, who are positively influenced by Bethel and these are people I worship and serve among and call my friends. So for their sake I stop at expressing any over-riding concerns with Bethel." -- Pastor X
No, no, a thousand times no. You cannot have it both ways. A little leaven ruins the entire batch. One cannot be positively influenced by false teaching! Notice what is so telling here however. It is for the sake of those he calls friends that this pastor refrains from warning them that they are in mortal danger! How in the world is that being a friend? I cannot tell you how prevalent this is today. People and pastors alike are infinitely more concerned with offending wolves than protecting sheep. This man knows that Bethel teaches wrongly about the role of the Holy Spirit and the prophetic -- which is what God has, and has not said -- yet refuses to warn anyone under the guise of friendship.
"Rightly or wrongly being a local church pastor is about going forward among a family who genuinely love God - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit but express it in different ways." -- Pastor X
