The proliferation of contemporary “apostles and prophets” is the result of a narrative that’s been pushed for decades – the restoration of the offices of apostle and prophet to the church. If this were true, then God has failed his church by depriving it of two essential forms of ministry. Furthermore, if God has restored the office of apostle, then contemporary apostles who claim to hold the office should meet the biblical qualifications, if they don’t, they’re self-appointed false apostles.
Thayer’s Greek Lexicon gives the following definition of the word apostle in scripture (ἀπόστολος): “a delegate, messenger, one sent forth with orders. Specially applied to the twelve disciples whom Christ selected…In a broader sense the name is transferred to other eminent Christian teachers; as Barnabas” Barnabas and other apostles mentioned in the New Testament, apart from the original apostles (including Matthias and Paul) did not hold the office of Apostle (capitalized when referring to the office). The office of an Apostle was unique and restricted. Their commission was extraordinary, and they alone had been delegated special authority and had to meet specific requirements to hold the office. This article examines the claim that the office of apostle has been restored.
Contents of this article: • The office of Apostle based on texts in Ephesians. • The biblical qualifications to hold the office. • The contemporary movement promulgating the restoration of the offices of apostle and prophet. • Clarification that they are indeed referring to the office of apostle. • How modern-day apostles deal with (or ignore) the biblical qualifications for the office. • The crucial role modern-day apostles play in the movement. • The attraction – why is this a coveted position? • Conclusion Extra content – a brief look at the office of a prophet for those who wonder if it still exists – since the office of Apostle has ceased.
THE OFFICE OF APOSTLE – TEXTS IN EPHESIANS. Three important passages in the book of Ephesians: (continue reading article)….
This is a video of the Alabaster House of Bethel Church of Redding, California. According to the Bethel Redding website it is a place to “be incontemplative prayerand enjoy God’s presence.” You are listening to the voice of Bill Johnson from a sermon given some years ago, and Johnson is poisoning his flock with the heretical doctrine of kenosis. He wants them to believe that Jesus gave up his divinity and performed miracles etc. solely via the power of the Holy Spirit. This is false. This is not what Philippians 2:7 means at all.
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. (Phil 2:7)
According to Bill Johnson (Start at 2:37): If the Spirit of God is on a person, so what’s going on? Jesus was so empty of divine capacity. Eternally God, but He chose to live with the restrictions as man. Why? To set a model. To set something to follow, an example. His lifestyle … if He did all of his miracles as God I’m still impressed, but I’m not compelled to follow. I just stand back and go that’s amazing God, do some more, that’s awesome do some more God but when I find out that He set aside divinity…
Bonus kenosis quote: According to Bill Johnson, Christ “performed miracles, wonders, and signs, as a man in right relationship to God . . . not as God. If He performed miracles because He was God, then they would be unobtainable for us. But if He did them as a man, I am responsible to pursue His lifestyle. Recapturing this simple truth changes everything.” — Bill Johnson, When Heaven Invades Earth: A Practical Guide to a Life of Miracles, op. cit., Kindle location: 259.
Christ never separated Himself from his divinity. He limited Himself, but not in the way Bill Johnson teaches. This will be covered in the article “Bill Johnson, Kenosis, and The Chosen Bible Consultant,” which, God willing, will be posted soon.
Take the Mother Goddess from the hellish book, The Shack, and deposit her in a church strongly influenced by Bill Johnson of Bethel Redding, and what do you get? Click here for the Most Significant Article of 2019…
“These are critical days for the body of Christ. We are in the epoch of church history spoken of by the apostle Paul as ‘perilous times’ (2 Timothy 3:1). What makes the danger all the more imminent is that not much of the church believes it. Many of us have owned the glorious but erroneous vision of an end-times remnant walking in unconquerable power, transforming entire societies,” writes Kevin Reeves. (Click here to continue reading)
(Back from the Classic Articles 2015 store room. His picture is still on the website, but this kids’ pastor is no longer with Bethel Redding in 2019. During his tenure he was in a position to spiritually influence thousands of young children.)*
1. “We also have a curriculum, four lessons on that that will just get your kids activated in prophesying over each other, over teachers, and learning how God will talk to them, learning to hear Him…” [1] –Seth Dahl, Bethel Redding Children’s Pastor
2. “Oftentimes, I think we get too concerned about is that God or is that me. I think we get way too concerned since we have the mind of Christ. Much of what God will do will feel like us or seem like us. ” [2] –Seth Dahl, Bethel Redding Children’s Pastor
3. “That’s the goal, is to get the children experiencing the works of God from a young age, having experiences to do with God, so they can never be argued out of their experience.” [3] –Seth Dahl, Bethel Redding Children’s Pastor
4. “You know, I think our environment, we have a lot of grace for, let’s say a kid gives a Word of Knowledge that isn’t accurate. We’re okay with that. We just have a high value for risk. And if it didn’t work, it didn’t work, and we move on.” [4] –Eric Johnson, Bethel Redding Pastor
5. “You had me come down and bring some kids to do Words of Knowledge on the stage. Like, how can we activate the kids more?” [5] –Seth Dahl to Eric Johnson
Activate the kids?
Bethel Redding leaders continue to present an unbalanced and unhealthy preoccupation with signs and wonders–or, as I have come to call it, a bells-and-whistles theology. It should be no surprise that this is also present in Bethel Redding’s children’s ministry. It seems as if it is more important to encourage children to seek angelic visitations, visions, and Words of Knowledge than it is to actually determine whether the experience/communication with God is genuine or not.
In other words, there is little discernment at Bethel Redding. Children’s Pastor Seth Dahl’s response to the interviewer about discernment is telling. Watch from the beginning of video to 1 minute and 40 seconds:
Interviewer: “How is it you guys help the kids learn to discern encounters, dreams, visions, those kind of things?”
Seth Dahl: “I had a mom come, they moved here not that long ago. Their son would come home and say, Mom, I’m seeing angels. Mom, I’ve seen Jesus. She came and said, how do I know he’s not just making it up? I said, what’s the fruit? Does he love God more? Does he love Jesus more? Is he more on fire for God? What did the angel tell him? What’s the angel doing? Things like that. Oftentimes I think we get too concerned about was that God or was it me. I think we get way too concerned with that since we have the mind of Christ. Much of what God will do will feel like us or seem like us. Like, He has a thought through us and it’s like a thought. Wow, I could have missed that or dismissed something God sent me as if it were my own.” (bold mine)
Now, please note how Children’s Pastor Seth Dahl seeks to determine if an experience is from the Lord or demonic:
Seth Dahl: “But, when it comes to discerning if it’s God or the devil, like, does it steal, kill or destroy, or does it give life and life more abundantly? That seems to me a bit easier. Like, how did you feel? Were you scared? Was it bad fear? You know, versus did you feel peaceful. Did you feel loved. Watching the fruit of the lives too.”
In other words, if it feels bad, it must be the devil. If it feels like peace and love, it must be from God. This is astonishingly naïve. We know from the Word of God that Satan is a master liar. For deception to be effective, it must be perceived as good.
Christ tells us the devil “was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)
Bethel Redding has tasted many demonic deceptions through false visions, dreams, and prophecies. There are also the false prophecies and visions that come from the imaginations of eager Bethel Redding supporters. In Bethel Redding culture, it almost seems like the sky is the limit when it comes to spiritual experience.
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (2 Peter 1:20-21)
Seth Dahl describes an alleged angelic encounter that took place in children’s ministry. He says, “I asked the little girl where the angels were in the room, and she pointed off and said, there’s one over there by the first graders. So I asked her, I said, do you know why he’s here? And she took off, and I think she went and talked to the angel and when she came back she said, he’s here for healing. So I had her send all the kids over to the first grade mat where the angel was. And just a little bit of time later, every single child was healed in the room, and no one even had to pray.” [6] There are many claims about healings in children’s ministry.
The continued spread of Bethel Redding’s hyper-charismatic/New Apostolic Reformation approach threatens to sooner or later infect the remaining traditional Pentecostal churches, whose saints believe in the gifts of the Spirit but who are far more conservative in application.
Through the popular music group, Jesus Culture, Christians throughout the Body of Christ are being exposed to Bethel Redding theology without even realizing it. (Read)
Observing the horror and wreckage of hyper-charismatic excess has also caused some in the Body of Christ to pull back from intimate relationship with God.
One last observation about Bethel Redding Children’s Pastor Seth Dahl. Even with his giant finance angel, his false vision of Jesus asking forgiveness, don’t make him your perfect storm of a villain. He is accountable, and he is going to have to answer to God, but in many ways he is simply a reflection of Bethel Redding culture.
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. (Jude 1:21-23)
This may surprise you. Start at 5:08, but I hope you have time to watch entire 11 minute video. Also, Francis Chan spoke at Bethel Church, but it is not the Bethel Redding of Bill Johnson. (7:53 in video). Wretched Radio has been contacted and hopefully will edit this error.
For such men are falseapostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:13)
Promoting one of his webinars, Mark Chironna writes, “It is becoming increasingly evident that preoccupation with end-time scenarios is ‘in vogue’…BUT ONLY within a small subculture of the Body of Christ. Trans-generationally, the majority of the Church globally is seeing something that the Western Church seems to be missing and misinterpreting.” [1]
As is usually the case with New Apostolic Reformation apostles and prophets, Scripture is secondary to dreams, visions, and new revelations.
According to Chironna, “You and I need to decide whether or not we will be part of a company of believers, followers of Jesus, who will participate in the new thing that the Spirit is doing in the earth, or whether we will passively continue to misinterpret the signs of the times and follow the same mistakes previous generations have by being distracted by endless speculations that we are warned not to get involved with.” [2] (emphasis mine)
Like Bill Johnson of Bethel Redding, Mark Chironna leans towards new age/quantum mysticism. That became obvious when Chironna spoke at Bethel Redding. READ
Chironna declares, “It is time to LEAP INTO THE FUTURE, however that cannot happen unless we embrace the Prophetic Paradigm of the Spirit, and not the pathetic paradigm of foolish speculation based on Scriptural misinterpretation. [3]
I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to befalse; (Revelation 2:2)
Source Notes:
1. Leap into the Future: The Spirit’s 21st-Century Prophetic Paradigm
Another good one from Pivec. Holly Pivec of Spirit of Error writes:
I was disturbed this week by Kris Vallotton’s article titled “5 Tests of a True Prophet.” I was even more disturbed to see that his article was published by Charisma Magazine. For those who don’t know, Vallotton is the senior associate leader of Bethel Church in Redding, California, and a bestselling author. His article in Charisma is excerpted from a curriculum he developed titled Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry.
Not a single one of Vallotton’s five tests of a true prophet is given in Scripture. Astoundingly, he completely overlooks the three tests that are given. Here are Vallotton’s woefully inadequate tests.
Holly Pivec of Spirit of Error nails this one down. She writes:
Following Christianity Today’s recent cover story on Bethel Church in Redding, California, I’ve been contacted by people wondering about Bill Johnson’s statements made in that article distancing himself from the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). The two specific statements he made are that his church does not have any official ties to the NAR and that he’s “not completely clear on what it is.”
Despite Johnson’s distancing himself from the NAR, he very clearly is part of it. Let’s look at his two claims.
What makes the NAR the NAR?
One of Johnson’s claims is that he’s not completely clear on what the NAR is. Interestingly, the author of the Christianity Today article said she laughed with disbelief. I, too, find Johnson’s claim hard to believe because the NAR is all about apostles–and Johnson clearly sees himself as one.
What makes the NAR the NAR? While there are a number of associated teachings, the core NAR teaching is that present-day apostles and prophets must govern the church. By govern, I mean they claim to hold formal offices in church government–like pastors or elders. Except NAR apostles and prophets wield much more authority than pastors and elders because they get direct revelation from God. Pastors and elders are supposed to submit to apostles and prophets, receive their new revelation, and implement the revelation in their churches.click here to continue reading
The Word Like Fire 