Is Bethel a Cult? Understanding Bethel Church Beliefs -

Ryan James
Explore the question: Is Bethel a cult or something else entirely? Discover insights into Bethel Church beliefs and understand the controversies surrounding this organization.

The question has been asked many times, is Bethel Church a cult? While the church does display some characteristics of a cult I do not believe it fair to label them as a cult. While they do follow a zealous belief system given to them by a charismatic leader, I do not believe they fit the full description of a cult. For one they are not secretive about their beliefs. Also, Bethel does not isolate themselves as they welcome anyone into their church happily and actively inviting people to join them. while misguided and often contrary to scripture their belief system is not illegal or physically dangerous. Now they do have unquestioning loyalty to their doctrine and seem to follow the authority of their church leaders without question.

One of the biggest issues I have with calling Bethel a cult is that the term cult is not well defined and could be applied to the entire Christian faith with some of its loose definitions. Some of the most popular definitions of a cult are “a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious” and “great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work”. These definitions unfortunately could be applied to the Christian faith as we should be greatly devoted to Christ and by modern society standards we are considered unorthodox. The second issue is that real cults are incredibly dangerous and can result in completely destroying a person or death. While Bethel’s doctrine is dangerous in the sense that it can misguide believers and non-believers into an incorrect belief system that is contradictory to the bible it is not trying to get them to drink the poison punch. Another key characteristic of a cult is isolation from friends and family. Bethel does not encourage their believers to isolate themselves but instead encourages them to both connect with and maintain a relationship with family and friends to minister to them. For this reason, I would not label them as a cult, I would call them something arguably worse, heretics.

The real question that we should be asking is not if Bethel is a cult but if they are heretics. The definition of a cult is to lose to be an accurate definition for Bethel. I believe a more apt definition for Bethel would be heretics. The definition of Heresy is “a belief or doctrine that is considered false or contrary to the teachings of the Christian faith”, Bethel’s teachings does seem to lean far more toward heresy than cultims. Bethel’s belief in grave soaking (which has now been denounced) and belief in unbiblical signs point towards a heretical belief.

The first issue I want to address with Bethl’s doctrine is that of their strange belief in “grave soaking” or “grave sucking” which is the act of going to the grave of a deceased Christian and soaking or sucking up the anointing they received from God to become a more spirit filled Christian. While Bethel denies that they teach the practice of grave sucking there does seem to be some validity to this claim. Bethel seems to believe in a doctrine of receiving the mantle or anointment of Christians who came before us. In Bill Jonson’s book, he states “There are anointings mantles revelations and mysteries that have lain unclaimed literally where they were left because the generation that walked in them never passed them on. I believe it’s..possible for us to recover realms of anointing, realms of insight, realms of God that have been untended for decades simply by choosing to reclaim them and perpetuate them for future generations.” In a video released by Bethel’s leadership Dann Farrelly and Bill Jonson, Farrelly explains how this supposedly started. One of the leaders in the school of ministry at Bethel was speaking about a profound experience at the grave of a former church in which the students responded with the idea that you can meet the lord at a grave. Farrelly responded to this incorrect and dangerous doctrine by ignoring it as not to kill something too early. Farrelly stated later in response to the accusation about grave sucking, “So I remember in that as the Dean watching like ‘whoa what what?’ But I’ve had to learn over time if I try to kill something too early we totally miss the potentially good things and again, the weird things that come, but when I kill everything too early, our people, our students stop taking risks.” Farrley then discusses that he did not want to kill any ideas that you could gain faith, deepen spiritual gifts, or even gain new ones because he wants his students to keep taking theological risks even if it means going to a grave and absorbing the power of a saint who came before. He wanted to allow the students to take theological “risks” stating that you never know what will happen. There are also quite a few videos and pictures of the students and members of Bethel visiting graves to soak in the blessings of deceased Christians. While Bethel does not state that they actively teach grave soaking they do teach that you can gain blessings and gifts by horning the saints who came before us through artifacts. Of course, the whole issue with this practice is that there is absolutely nothing in the bible that gives the notion that you can gain power by honoring the dead. In fact this sort of practice is more in line with the occult than the word of God. Now it is true that we should learn from the teachings of the saints who came before us through careful study and making sure it aligns with what the bible teaches. We can not gain blessings or gifts by honoring them or absorbing their spirit, mantle, or anointment. But we will give them the benefit of the doubt and believe that they did not teach this and it is the result of some misguided students. However, that does put the blame on Bethel’s leadership for not correcting this false doctrine and allowing it to spread through their church and creating a false doctrine that is borderline occult practice so that the students can take risks. Titus 1:9-16 Paul reminds us that we must rebuke false teachings that are infiltrating the church.

Continuing our journey into Bethel’s incorrect doctrine we will be looking at the strange “phenomenon” of the gold dust. For those who do not know, Bethel claims that gold dust or glory clouds fell from the ceiling one day. Starting off there is no grounds in scripture for this to happen. Putting aside the criticism that they are putting gold-colored dust in the air ducts. The claim that because their church is so spiritual God would fill the room points to a dangerous idea that miracles will happen if your church is spiritual enough. While I will not argue that miracles can happen I can without a doubt say that this either did not happen or it was a deception done by Bethel. If your faith is reliant on meticulous events and supernatural phenomena then it is either so weak that it can be easily broken or it is not placed on God. In Bill Johnson’s own words, “I have to serve someone who is awe-inspiring constantly”. This sort of Idea that you won’t serve god unless he is always performing miracles can demonstrate that you are not saved at all. One of the flaws that was shown in Judges was Gideon’s need for miracles in order to serve God. God told Gideon that through him Israel would be saved but Gideon’s lack of faith meant he needed signs in order to do the work of God and even after receiving a sign he would ask for more further showing that he lacked faith, unlike the judges who came before him who would serve God without needing a sign or Miracle. Faith that requires miraculous signs is not a complete faith. In John 4:48 Jesus rebukes a man for needing a sign to believe. In Mathew 16:1-4 after being asked for a sign so that they might believe Jesus responds by calling them a wicked and adulterous generation. We should have faith In Jesus not because of signs or miracles but because he is who he says he is, the one true God who saves us from our sins. Relying on signs shows that we do not have true faith in Jesus Christ. The author of Hebrew makes it clear that our faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the confidence of things not seen. Bethel’s reliance on miracles to believe creates a concern that the many who attend the church have either built their house on sand and not the rock of God or do not truly receive the hope of Christ which is salvation from sin.

While not truly a cult, Bethel so far appears to be heretical in their doctrine. So far we have only scratched the surface of the issues with the church of Bethel but I can honestly say that so far they are either blatantly heretical at worst and careless with their doctrine at best. We as a church should seek to protect our doctrine by constantly checking it against scripture to make sure that it aligns with the true word of God.

Bibliography

Bethel.com
The Bible Knowledge Commentary| Walvoord & Zuck
Protestia.com| Bethel Church Does Damage Control over ‘Grave Sucking’- Fails Miserably| Pastor Ed Litton

Is Bethel a Cult? Understanding Bethel Church Beliefs

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