WACKY THINGS HAPPEN IN THE CHURCH OF THE WALKING DEAD

By Akin Ojumu

Bethel Church is a Redding, California-based neo-charismatic megachurch best known for its music labels i.e., Bethel Music and Jesus Culture. These two musical groups have released several songs which have topped the Christian music charts. Bethel Music has many songs with tens of millions of views on YouTube. Three of them – Reckless Love, No Longer Slaves, and Way Maker – have garnered over 100 million views so far.

Without Bethel Music and Jesus Church, Bethel Church would have been just another Church. The global reach and influence of the Church is a direct result of the popularity of its music labels around the globe. 

Besides its music though, Bethel Church is also known for engaging in and promoting certain practices in the Church in the name of Christianity that range from the bizarre to the downright occultic.

Take for instance the case of the 2-year-old daughter of one of their singers and music writers who died suddenly about 3 years ago. The Church leaders enlisted the help of millions of their social media followers to pray for the child’s resurrection. They fervently believed they could raise the child from the dead.

“We are asking for bold, unified prayers from the global church to stand with us in belief that He will raise this little girl back to life. Her time here is not done, and it is our time to believe boldly, and with confidence wield what King Jesus paid for. It’s time for her to come to life,” the child's mother wrote on a GoFundMe page set up for the family.

Well, the prayer efforts concluded six days after the passing when the church put out a press release that the family would transition towards a memorial service. The girl was subsequently buried without a resurrection.

Another example are the strange things that happen at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM). As the name suggests, the school trains its students in the supernatural and miracles, such as faith healing, in order that they may become revivalists. The students boast of prophetic and miraculous abilities.

According to BSSM’s website, “the atmosphere of the school is built around the presence of God. An entire culture is lived out day after day with worship as a primary expression. Passion, purity, power, and love of the presence of God are center stage. These values define our atmosphere and are manifest in our worship, ministry, and relationships.” 

So heavy is the presence of God that they once experienced a cloud of what they described as gold dust or gold glitter falling from the roof of the auditorium during one of their Church services. This they claimed was the gold dust from the golden street in Heaven, the shekinah glory of God, or angel feathers. 

And that’s not all. 

The students are known to practice what is termed “grave soaking” or “grave sucking”, where they would lay down on the graves of deceased revivalists in the belief that they would absorb the deceased's anointing from God. They tap the anointing of deceased powerful men of God by sleeping on their graves.

What’s more. During one of their Sunday evening baptismal sessions, Bethel leader, Joel Power was up on the stage encouraging people to share why they were being baptized. Crystal was one of those getting baptized. When it was her turn, the following exchange took place:

Joel: “Hi friend. Tell us your name and why you are being baptized tonight.”

Crystal: “Hi! I am Crystal. Haha! I just know that God is calling me to be a warrior for his animal kingdom. And that I am to lead angels – an army of angels to protect animals across the world. (Starts sobbing as crowd applauses). And I know I just can’t do it without God.”

You heard that right. Poor Crystal wanted to get baptized because she was being called by God to be a warrior for His animal kingdom.

If that doesn’t break your heart, I don’t know what will. Such a shallow misunderstanding of the purpose of baptism is the logical consequence of the erroneous preaching that comes from the pulpit in Bethel Church. It is the bad fruit that falls off a rotten theological tree.

It's impossible for a bad theological tree to produce good spiritual fruit. Bethel Church is a spiritually bankrupt religious organization that preaches a corrupt Gospel and leads people down the primrose path to hell. It is a church of the walking dead.