The Threat Within (IV)
For those who are new to this series, we are discussing the threats inside the church. Each post can be read independently however, each post is dedicated to a different type of threat inside the church. We would encourage you to go and read the previous posts as there is some progressive development within each. For those who have been keeping along with our series, thank you for staying each week with us as we go through this eye opening review of those who claim to be Christians and yet are nothing more than imposters of the faith.
I want to again bring about our advisory note.
“If you have followed along with us, I want to take this time to say thank you! This discussion is not an easy one and one that I do not take with quick words. I want to strain a point to you that must be taken seriously. Here at Mill House Ministries we are not in the business of attacking, and/or attempting to cut down any part of the Body of Christ over areas to which the Lord has been silent on.”
This does not mean we are to keep silent when we see a present danger that is pulling people away from the truth of Jesus Christ. We are to be vigilant and warn others when a threat arises. This series is aimed at warning believers of what is amongst us right now.
Now imagine that it is Sunday and you have just left church. The sermon was on point, the pastor was teaching the Word of God, and everyone left ready to start a new week keeping Christ as the center. If you go to a western church (United States, Canada, Australia, Western Europe, South Africa, etc) chances are you helped financially support a group that has been literally snatching young adolescences and indoctrinating them to believe false realities. This group creates fake memories to distort innocent children into trusting only them, in order to manipulate and spiritually destroy. They teach New Age practices such as “soul sucking” and even support the practice of tarot cards. This group pressures young adolescences into their worship of demons and they support directly what God in His Bible not only told us not to do, but forbid it to the point of death.
By now you might be wondering who is this group or you might already have an idea. This false group is Bethel Church in Redding, California. They are well known for their massive influence in worship music. If you turn on any Christian radio station you will without a doubt hear one of their songs. Their massive influence has been financed through the unwittingly ignorant, and at times willful pawns, who play their music at church or listen to their music. Each time this happens, they get financial support and their beliefs are proclaimed and sang.
Unlike previous weeks with one Biblical example to compare, this week I want to provide core warnings found in scripture regarding the actions of this group. I can tell you there have been many articles written about such a church. Faithful brothers and sisters in Christ have taken direct issues with the church and their false teaching.
Bethel is known for supporting the practice of divination, pagan practices, worship of an alternative Jesus Christ, worship of self, and even the worship of demons. If you want greater details regarding the specifics of Bethel Church, please look into Pastor Billy Crone at getalifemedia.com and Jan Markel at olivetreeviews.org. Both have written and discussed numerous times the issues and concerns any Bible believing Christian should have with Bethel Church.
Nevertheless, while there has been a plethora of articles, radio shows, documentaries, and postings regarding Bethel Church; we have almost nothing on calling out churches who support them. I must confess, for months I went to a church that each Sunday would have the worship director get up and lead the church in worship music. This music would be directly from Bethel. For me I was not yet fully aware of Bethel and the issues concerning what they were doing, but I quickly recognized that some of the worship songs either did not have the glory going to Jesus Christ or they were blatantly singing false doctrine. The Worship leader was confronted by some of the Church and he adamantly defended the music, the Pastor was notified and he strongly defended the worship leader. Those who were wanting to accurately worship the Lord were being thrown to the side for those who wanted their ears tickled. The pastor explained this is what the people wanted while the worship leader threatened to quit if he was not given the liberty to seek music to his style of worship. The result of this situation? Born again believers started to leave.
Why do I tell you this? I tell you because it is important to see what Bethel Church is doing to churches all around the world. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 states, “3 For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”
By allowing anyone who can play an instrument lead the worship music, we have handed over the power of one of the most important roles in gathering believers. Some Pastors have no idea what is going to be played until Sunday during the service. Other pastors encourage their worship teams to play what people want to hear. Instead of directing our worship and the focus onto Jesus Christ, we have turned it into a worship of self. What a shame! Those who play Bethel music are supporting such beliefs.
Some pastors have even started to duplicate Bethel beliefs into their own church. One church, which started off on fire for God, now has eastern mythical walk ways where you are able to collect spiritual guidance and reflect on what you are enlightened with. These churches follow the Bethel example of self over God. But do not take my word for it, just look at what Bill Johnson’s book “The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind,”
“For many years I misunderstood the biblical concept of desire. Psalm 37:4 tells us: ‘Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.’ Like many pastors, I foolishly taught that if you delighted yourself in the Lord, He would change your desires by telling you what to desire. But that’s not at all what this means. That verse literally means that God wants to be impacted by what you think and dream. God is after your desires. The word desire is made up of the prefix ‘de’ meaning ‘of,’ and sire meaning ‘father.’ Desire is, by nature, of the Father.”
This week the threat within can be identified as nothing more than the laziness of Christians to stand firm on the Word of God. How abhorrent it is that we are not only supporting this with our own finances, but we allow pastors and worship leaders to do this. One pastor was reported to our ministry as responding with, “Get over it and just enjoy the music” when confronted by the Biblical inaccuracy of a specific worship song. What a shame! What a sad day for the Christian Church. We have people asking for songs that are so unbiblical that you have to wonder if you are singing anything that was ever created with the purpose to be played inside a church. But what is worse is we are giving our financial support to the very group that is helping to produce this abomination on a global scale. Every time these songs are played in church and on the radio, these groups get royalties that allow them to make more unbiblical music that draws the focus away from Christ. How unfortunate, how sad.
However, I do not want to end on a sad note but rather on what we as believers can do regarding this. We must first examine our own life and see if we have any abominations that we are hiding. Before we go up to church leadership and demand change, we must first make sure we are spiritually Christ centered so that we do as Matthew 18:15-17 states, “15 Now if your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that ON THE TESTIMONY OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY MATTER MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17 ‘And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, he is to be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” We must have a clean heart, which only comes from Jesus Christ.
Worship leaders need to be helped, guided, and taught to use their talents wisely. They should not have the burden alone to see what music we take to the Lord and glorify Him with. We need to make sure that our local Christian radio stations are petitioned to play music that is Biblical. And finally most importantly, we need to encourage those faithful believers to learn how to play musical instruments so that we can benefit the local body of Christ.
We need to keep our focus on Jesus Christ. We need to make sure that Biblical councilors, discipleship teams, Bible study groups, worship leaders, sunday school teachers, teachers, parents, and dare I say pastors are armed with the precious Word of God so that the ministry of Jesus Christ can continue. For one of the greatest threats inside the church is lazy, non vigilant Christians who take their role as Bereans without the solemn duty that it deserves.
Next week, as we tackle our final threat to the Church we will see that there is an individual who has been identified by the world as the figurehead of Christianity. This man misleads billions of souls away from Christ who is the true leader of the Church.
Hold until relieved, our Blessed Hope is coming
JL