A California megachurch has suspended its “faith healing” ministry amid fears of the coronavirus, begging the question “what were they really doing?”
Bethel Church in Redding, California has told students of its Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry to stop going into hospitals and touching sick people.
“Though we believe in a God who actively heals today, students are not being encouraged to visit healthcare settings at this time, and moreover, are taught that even under normal circumstances, they must receive permission from both the facility and the individual before engaging in prayer,” Aaron Tesauro, a church spokesman, told The Sacramento Bee.
One Redding woman told The Sacramento Bee on Saturday that on Jan. 31, she was approached by two Bethel students in the emergency room at Mercy Medical Center in Redding. The pair said “they would pray over the people there and put Jesus in their hearts and this would heal us all and we didn’t need to stay at the ER and could go home,” the woman said in a text message. She asked not to be identified to protect her family’s privacy.
She said she filed a complaint with the hospital after one of the students touched her 5-year-old daughter without permission. Mercy didn’t return a message seeking comment.
The church’s founder, Bill Johnson, states on his website that not everyone who wishes to be healed will be healed.
“Many visit Redding weekly, hoping that God will touch them. I am happy to report that many leave well and whole,” Johnson wrote. “But many others leave in the same condition in which they came. I refuse to blame God for this, as though He has a purpose in their disease. While Jesus did not heal everyone alive in His time, He did heal everyone who came to Him. His is the only standard worth following.”
Talk about a tight rope to walk. Bethel Church leadership believes they are capable of healing people, yet they are now telling their congregation to stop going out and healing… The message seems mixed to say the least. If they have the power to heal, then why would they not use it?
This is hardly the first time Bethel has been criticized for its “faith healing” ministry.
Late last year, hundreds of church members gathered in an attempt to resurrect a 2-year-old named Olive Heiligenthal, hours after the toddler had stopped breathing and died on Dec. 14. Church members gathered to sing, “Come alive/ Come alive/ Come alive, dry bones/ Awake, arise/ Inhale the light.” Thousands of people posted on Instagram with the hashtag #WakeUpOlive, writes the Sacramento Bee.
Again, if the faith healing ministry works, and is of God, why would Bethel tell people to stop in the midst of the biggest health scare our country has faced in generations?
Some might say “there’s no win for Bethel in this situation,” and they would be correct. Bethel can’t claim to have the power to teach faith healing, while saying “hey, stay away from the sick.”
While I’m sure it’s fun to LARP around as a Wizard for Jesus, these ministries ultimately hurt Christianity, especially when compounded with bold proclamations from church leadership that prove untrue:
The Lord showed me The end of the Coronavirus…the tide is turning now!
He is answering the prayers and cries of the nations and is putting an end in sight. The exaggerated fear based tactics of both the enemy and several media outlets for political reasons is coming to an end. The enemy has been trying to distract and steal from several equally important purposes and issues by dominating airwaves with conspiracy and fear.
Even now several vaccines are coming out as well as a natural dying out of the virus itself. The Lord is saying “I am removing the threat of this.”
Within a short amount of time the extreme threat will feel like it is in the way past.
-Shawn Bolz
Several states have since declared official states of emergency since this “prophecy”.
“When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him”
-Deuteronomy 18:22
We could get into a long theological breakdown of Bethel Church’s practices, but at the end of the day, the church has suspended its “faith healing” ministry. In a time where this “faith healing” would be needed most, they are hiding their “light” under a bushel.
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