"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. - John 15:12-14 (ESV)
Bethel Church in Redding California is a doctrinal cesspool. The teachings they live by indoctrinate people into pious and sweet-sounding rhetoric that is barely comprehensible, let alone biblical. They teach a reliance upon personal experience and mysticism, calling it a move of the spirit. This pursuit of carnal spirits masquerading as God relegates the bible to a second-class citizen in the lives of their followers. We have debunked Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton extensively at 828 Ministries but perhaps the one that sneaks under the radar too much is Shawn Bolz, their resident false prophet. Bolz' favorite shtick is to fake "words of knowledge" by using his smart phone during "prophecy" to look up the people he is pretending God is giving him information about. So he will be at an event, which people have to pre-register for with personal identifying information, and Shawn will pretend God is giving him "a download"
"God is showing me a B, is there a Bob or a Bill out there from Pasadena..."
Of course, there is because Bob or Bill gave their information to attend. Bolz will sit there, looking at his smart phone presumably on their social media page to come up with other pieces of identifying information to make it appear as if God is giving him these words of knowledge. The crowd oohs and ahhs without asking why in the world God would reveal himself in such a manner and what in the world Shawn is doing with his phone. Either way, the above link is to a recent piece on Charisma News where Shawn displays the sloppy agape love taught at Bethel. Our society and culture have redefined love throughout the millennia according to the flesh we live in. God's ways are so much higher than ours, however. The key verses today spell out Jesus speaking about love:
Love one another as I have loved you.
I loved you by laying down my life for you.
