Bethel releases an absurd statement regarding Shawn Bolz that reveals their complicity

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As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. - 1Timothy 5:20 (ESV)

Bethel Statement on Shawn Bolz to Alumni

For background, let me briefly discuss Bethel Church in Redding California. Bethel is a cesspool of false doctrine. Most apostate churches specialize. Hillsong is known for prosperity doctrine. Joel Osteen is a word faith heretic. Elevation specializes in Narcigesis, or reading oneself into scripture. This is not to say they do not promote and support other heresies such as elements of prosperity, word faith, false signs and lying wonders, and certainly NAR dominionism. Again, it is specialization. Bethel is like spiritual Jell-O in that you can't just nail them down. They subscribe to nearly every false teaching under the sun. They are word faith, prosperity and false signs and lying wonders. Heck, they are the ones that originated the "glory cloud" nonsense. They also embrace the more extreme beliefs such as grave sucking and employing a dead raising team. The are one of the chief sellers of divine healing, which usurps the sovereignty of God to claim He must always heal us. You name it, they will say yes to it and then figure out how to monetize it. That is because at the end of the day they are grifters. Bethel is run by the lead demoniac, Bill Johnson. His number one guy is Kris "Poverty Mindset" Vallotton. Kris never met a sheep he didn't want to fleece. The number two guy throughout the years has been their resident prophet-dude, Shawn Bolz. Even though Bethel now claims he was never an employee, he sure acted like one over the past ten years. Either way, Johnson, Vallotton and Bethel routinely platformed him, promoted him, and supported him. Now of course, they are treating him like plutonium, and I do not mean the nice kind from Back to the Future.

Shawn Bolz has always been absurdly fake. He had a schtick where he would pretend God was giving him words of knowledge about people at his events that he would literally be reading from his smart phone. This lazy arrogance was spotted by anyone with a sliver of discernment, and it was reported by many, including this ministry, that he was obviously data mining social media in order to fake these words of knowledge. These fake words bolstered his prophetic profile within Charismania, which grew his ministry and thus his profits. Remember, at the end of the day it is about the grift. Even though this was reported for many years, Bethel, Johnson and Vallotton largely ignored it. Until last year when a brave young woman named Jubilee Dawn came forward to tell a horrific story of the result of believing these words of knowledge. The summarized version is that a man was attending a Bolz event and Bolz shared a word of knowledge with him that the Lord was "showing him, the number 50 and we know 50 is the year of Jubilee and does that mean anything to you." Bolz already knew it did because the man's Facebook page showed his girlfriend's name was Jubilee. The man was amazed, and Shawn assured him that God said he was "giving her to him." When Jubilee saw the footage, she too was amazed and felt that God Himself had spoken into their lives and that they were meant to be married and despite dating very briefly, they proceeded to follow the "word of knowledge" and marry. And then the man proceeded to nearly kill the young girl on multiple occasions. Spitting on her and choking her twice to near death. He cut her off from her family and because she believed that Shawn Bolz had heard from God, leaving the marriage felt like it would be disobedient to God. Jubilee felt that this abuse, was somehow what God had willed for her life. After one more incident where he almost choked her to death, Jubilee did manage to leave. Now, she has a better understanding that all of this was orchestrated by Bolz, who lied about hearing from God. There are always victims of false teaching and prophecy - always. Some do not survive. Most never come forward. As this story has been making the rounds for the past few months, Bethel has been suspiciously silent. Perhaps they were waiting to see if the story would blow over, but it has persisted and finally this week they put out a statement, linked above. Let us reason together beloved as we review what is sure to be damage control, spin, and moonwalking away from their resident prophet-dude as fast as humanly possible.

"Dear Alumni, We know this feels very late for some of you. Sorry this has taken so long. We are aware that a conversation is happening regarding Shawn Bolz, and our confrontations with him that took place more than five years ago. We have delayed in an effort to reflect our recollection accurately, as the issues are important and complex. Shawn Bolz had ministered with us many times for many years, and had a great impact on our house. We deeply valued and trusted him and appreciated his prophetic gift. Many of us have received important, accurate prophecies, and words of knowledge from him (prior to social media being so pervasive) that we had great confidence in." - Bethel Church

So their opening position is to maintain that he had and apparently still has, a prophetic gift. That is all you need to know about the sincerity if Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton and Bethel Church. This man has been exposed as the huckster the bible warns us about. He is a charlatan. A fraud. Why would anyone who genuinely hears directly from God use social media to mine information and then lie that he heard it from God? Does Bethel think that Elijah would ever lie and manipulate the people into thinking he had heard from God when he had not? Isaiah? It is ok to say we trusted him, believed him and were deceived. But the brand always protects the brand. We are supposed to believe that they delayed in responding to "reflect our recollections accurately?" You mean to get your stories straight, right Bill? Now that we all know Bolz was faking his primary gift, why would you still think you received anything "accurate" from him? By the way, we see what you are doing there in pretending that somehow this is all the fault of social media. That Shawn was gifted prophet until the corruption of social media? Are you serious?

"In 2019, some significant concerns came to us from respected international leaders regarding irregularities in Shawn's word of knowledge gift that caused them to wonder if he may have been using social media to generate them. We believe that these concerns and the evidence to support them were gathered and shared in good faith and out of concern for the global Church. Their presentation of over a dozen words amongst the hundreds he's given was a small sample size, but regardless, was validly concerning and needed to be addressed. For some of our team, the evidence felt conclusive but for others it was not. We did not have a consensus, but we were very concerned and sought clarity from him. Two of our leaders met with Shawn on two separate occasions about this. Kris flew down for his meeting with Shawn at Bill Johnson's request. Our leaders also met with Shawn's board and shared the evidence and our concerns. Each time, Shawn absolutely denied using any social media in his words of knowledge or prophecies. Shawn still maintains he never used social media in any words. And truthfully, unless something changes, only he and the Lord really know what took place." - Bethel Church

No Bill, we all know. Can you look Jubilee dawn in the eye with this lie? Who cares what "Shawn maintains?" Do you know of any people caught red handed who admit what they have done? Why would he when he knows you will keep running cover for him? We have the facts laid before us and you had more proof submitted to you from international leaders. Someone needs to ask Bethel leadership if they believe there is any chance that God spoke a word of knowledge to Shawn Bolz regarding Jubilee Dawn being given to the man who would nearly kill her. What Bethel is trying to do here is make things that are crystal clear as murky as possible. Oh, some of us were convinced but others were not? What idiots were not convinced and are they still on your staff? If so, why? What is the point of muddying the waters with this garbage about it only being a dozen or so words of knowledge among hundreds he had given? Who cares what the denominator was? If the numerator is one, isn't that too many? How many falsified words of knowledge, where Shawn scrubbed victim's social media accounts to fake a word from God Almighty, would be acceptable to Bethel Church? By the way, did Bill Johnson need a consensus to take action? Is he not the leader of that church? So, with no respect because none is deserved, we knew what was taking place back when it was taking place. This is shaping up to be a statement desperately trying to find as many excuses as possible to hide their willful complicity.

"We ended up in a stalemate, without a satisfactory resolution of our concerns. Without definitive proof, repentance, and/or team consensus, we made no public statement because we weren't sure. The leaders who previously investigated and gathered the evidence were, of course, free to do what they thought best going forward. Around the same time, one of Shawn's employees made allegations concerning inappropriate behavior and an unacceptable work environment. Though Shawn was not, and is not under our authority, one of our leaders found another impacted former team member, went to Shawn and confronted him on those issues over several difficult conversations and admonished him that this behavior was completely unacceptable and that he should take responsibility. He indicated to us that the behaviors that had taken place had stopped. Though we are not experts, these behaviors seemed to fit the descriptions of sexual harassment and a hostile work environment as commonly taught in HR training, and had potential legal ramifications. We recommended they take action in seeking a remedy through the justice system (such as the labor board, arbiters, or courts) as there was no real movement from Shawn to address the past situations, and we had done what we could given the limited level of knowledge we had at the time. We spoke to his board regarding this area of concern." - Bethel Church

So far, Bethel has tried to say that the reason they said nothing for the past eight years is that the sample size of offenses was too small. No wait, it was because we could not get consensus as to the offenses. Just kidding, it was really because Shawn denied it and who can really say? Now it was because there was no definitive proof or repentance. We did not say anything because we just weren't sure. All the leaders who were sounding the alarm? Hey, they were free to do whatever they wanted but Bethel would keep its mouth shut. Even though now Bethel is admitting that on top of faking words of knowledge that could ruin people's lives, Bolz also engaged in sexual harassment and potentially violations of other labor laws. Did Bethel not own a calculator back then because this seems pretty easy to add up. If his character is so weak as to create hostile work environments through sexual harassment, doesn't that make the likelihood of the fake words of knowledge seem more credible? Also, all you did was recommend to the victims to seek legal action? And what? You walked away? You thought you had done your due diligence? Let me tell you what you didn't do. You didn't warn anybody! You kept feeding your sheep into the Shawn Bolz woodchipper and that culminated in the near death of Jubilee Dawn! We spoke to his board and had limited knowledge? Is that the best you can do?

"Romans 13 teaches us that God has placed civil leaders in place as ministers of God for the kinds of issues his former team member brought to us. Furthermore, their experience was absolutely important and personal, and as such was their story to tell, not ours, and to take action if they desired. This is the general context to which Kris was speaking in the text messages that were posted on social media." - Bethel Church

Oh, so now it is because of Romans 13? Not. There is no prohibition in Romans 13 that says a church leader cannot warn the flock about a wolf. None. The texts from Vallotton to the former Bolz Ministry worker were damning. Essentially, Vallotton told this person, hey sue him if you want. Also in these texts, Vallotton admits that he was pulling all of Shawn's books from the Bethel bookstore, referred to Shawn's prophetic ministry as dishonest, told Shawn to not invite any Bethel staff on his podcast, that he has no desire to have any relationship with him, advised Bolz's board to pull him from ministry, and spoke to other false teachers to advise them to cancel Shawn from their events. Wait a minute. I thought there was no consensus and only Shawn and the Lord know the truth? I thought it mattered that Shawn denied all of this? This statement contradicts itself all over the place. Keep in mind that Bethel is saying that Bolz was so bad that his prophetic ministry was false, pulled all of his books and forbade their staff from going on his podcast but not bad enough to actually warn the sheep? Perhaps this nugget from these texts gives the game away:

"At this point we don't intend to make a public statement about Shawn. As you pointed out, a public statement wouldn't just hurt Shawn but the entire prophetic ministry world wide." - Kris Vallotton

Uh-huh. Protect the brand at all costs. Screw the sheep. Screw the truth. Screw Jubilee Dawn. By the way, since it is obvious Kris Vallotton knew full and well that Shawn's ministry was entirely fake, why would that damage the prophetic ministry worldwide? Wouldn't it show that you could police your own? Wouldn't it start a needed conversation about standards? The bottom line is Kris was concerned about the bottom line, which is always, the grift.

"Shawn was a trusted guest minister who spoke often on our platform. If Shawn worked for us, or was truly or officially under our covering, the situation would have been handled much differently. We would have not just appealed to Shawn, we would have required a comprehensive and righteous response. Whether related or not, shortly after we addressed our concerns, it appeared that Shawn took steps to adjust how he operated in words of knowledge. He just recently spoke to some of the changes he has made, which can be found on his website." - Bethel Church

Oh, now it was that he wasn't an employee? That he was just a "guest minister?" If this guy was so false and toxic years ago, why are you posting links to his site in this very statement and selling the notion that he has made "changes." Who cares! The man was caught LYING about what God had said. He was caught mining social media and then faking words of knowledge, one of which almost got someone killed! Who cares if he updated his fake "prophetic standards?" He had no standards, and he is not prophetic! Why are you still treating this as if he is anything but the wolf, we all know that he is? It does not matter if he worked for you. You promoted him! You owed your sheep a warning.

"In the absence of clarity about both what really happened with some of the words of knowledge, and having addressed the issues with his former team members and found his response lacking, we made the decision to step back from our ministry connection. This meant: 1. We did not have him ministering to our people or movement, or have his materials in our stores (though we missed some things until recently). 2. We communicated our concern, confusion, and his denials to the leaders who initially raised concerns about the words of knowledge with us, as well as to leaders closely connected to Shawn and made the evidence available to them for them to make their own decision. 3. We firmly admonished and warned him, and he responded by making some changes in both of these areas. 4. We made it clear that global leaders were concerned and watching closely. These were all clear boundaries that produced some of the necessary changes." - Bethel Church

Stop pretending that you just didn't know. It is insulting to the intelligence of everyone. So, you went through all of these steps and referred to his entire prophetic ministry as false, but did not think you needed to warn the sheep at all? Realize that the picture Bethel is painting is that they did their due diligence. They distanced themselves, cast Bolz into the outer darkness away from Bethel and should not be criticized for anything because gosh darn it, they just couldn't know a thing that was right in their face. That might vaguely believable except they never truly distanced themselves from Bolz at all because at the end of the day it is always about the grift and Bolz meant money. In light of this absurd statement, perhaps Bethel can explain this video, from mid-2023 (shout out to Steve Kozar):

100% Proof: Bill Johnson Gladly Promotes Fake "Prophet" Shawn Bolz! - YouTube

When discussing Bolz's 2015 ridiculous book about "translating God," Johnson gushed about Shawn Bolz: "well the book by itself is incredible but knowing the life that backs it up, adds a power to it" Wait a second. The life that backs it up? The same guy that you forbade your workers from going on his podcast? The guy whose prophetic ministry was false? The guy, who if he worked directly for you, would have faced public rebuke? That guy? Beloved if Bethel was not an active partner in this grift, then why would Bill Johnson be appearing with Bolz and praising him on TBN less than two years ago?

"I Timothy 5:20 says to publicly rebuke elders "who continue in sin" (NASB20). We weren't entirely clear what was happening in the words of knowledge and unaware of the scope of his issues with his former team members, but believed he changed his behavior and the work environment going forward after our confrontations, so we did not make a public statement. In the past, we have only brought public admonishment to those outside of our organization in cases where no acknowledgment and change has taken place after correction." - Bethel Church

Wow, what an abuse of scripture. I have included this verse above as the key verse for today. The exhortation here is not designed to deny rebuke to someone unless they continue in sin. Either way though, how can you make an argument with a straight face that Shawn Bolz did not continue in this sin? These allegations were made over several years. Shawn Bolz has never admitted anything has happened nor repented. Yes, he changed his website, like a month ago. The notion that he has not continued in this sin for several years is absurdly unsupported. Make sure you follow this logic. Bolz is credibly accused by multiple leaders within the apostate church system they all work in. At least 12 instances of faking words from God by data mining social media are revealed. Then he is credibly accused of sexual harassment by a former ministry worker. Bethel confronts him and he says, "my bad," so we all sing Kumbaya as if nothing happened? Oh, and we tell the ministry worker to sue him if they want? Oh, and then we say absolutely nothing to our own sheep and the church at large? Oh, and then we continue to go on TV shows with him, praising his life? Are you serious right now?

"We empathize with those who are confused and disappointed over this situation; we feel the same"this is a tender, confusing, and complex situation. As it stands, our trust in Shawn is still unrepaired. Having privately admonished him, this letter is only intended to clarify the journey we were on, and the steps we have taken given that it is now a wider conversation. We receive and value the feedback that our actions may have been too subtle and difficult to decipher, and that it would have been more helpful to at least openly acknowledge that we were creating distance with Shawn due to our concerns. We acknowledge we have more to learn in handling situations outside of our staff environment with greater clarity and have been working for the last several months on standardized procedures for hearing and responding to concerns in order to create an even healthier church culture." - Bethel Church

Whatever. This is not a tender, confusing, or even complex situation. Shawn Bolz is a liar. He is an agent of Satan, who has deceived untold numbers of people by raiding their social media to fake words of knowledge from the creator of the entire universe. That is not too confusing at all. Your trust in Shawn remains unrepaired? Then why did Bill Johnson appear with him on TBN less than two years ago praising his life? The wider conversation was happening eight years ago. The texts from Vallotton reveal that Bethel was having this same conversation and it was not "tender" or "complex." It was an admission that he was a false prophet! Why are you still promoting a false prophet who likes to sexually harass his employees? Because he told you he wasn't going to do it anymore? The actions of Bethel Church are not subtle here or difficult to decipher. Vallotton spelled it out quite clearly. They chose to not publicly warn the church that a man they had spent years promoting and platforming was a false prophet because it might damage the international prophetic movement and there is a lot of money at stake, should that happen. You think this all produces a healthier church culture? Are you insane? Do you even own a bible? You had a rogue snake oil salesman lying to people about what God had said and almost got a woman killed. Now, after being fully exposed for your own complicity, you refuse to admit you did anything wrong and instead offer up a myriad of reasons why you didn't do anything. None of which are biblical and many of which directly contradict each other.

"Words of knowledge are a significant and important element of conveying the heart of God, demanding high levels of integrity, accountability and responsibility, and our work environments and team relationships must be full of holiness, respect, appropriate behavior, and safety, such that they reflect the joy and glory of God. We pray that the Holy Spirit brings wisdom, humility, comfort and instruction to each of us." - Bethel Church

How pious and completely vacuous. Words of knowledge are significant in that they convey that someone has a direct word from God almighty about another individual. God does not stutter. He is not vague. Bethel admits that they received no less then 12 examples of instances where Shawn Bolz faked words from God by abusing people's personal information on social media. That should have been 12 too many. Was the sexual harassment Bolz visited upon his worker operating in holiness, respect and safety? Does the employee matter? Does Jubilee Dawn matter? Do the victims of Shawn Bolz matter? This statement is not wise at all. It is devious and cunning. It is trying to rewrite history and muddy the waters so badly that you hope most will just gloss over the obvious errors of your choices. This statement is not made with humility at all. It is staggeringly arrogant. It assumes the readers are too stupid to do Google searches. This statement provides no comfort to the church at all. It provides no comfort for the victim of Bolz's sexual harassment. It certainly provides no comfort to Jubilee Dawn. It provides no comfort to the church as a whole. It does however provide instruction to us all. It instructs us to the duplicitous nature of Bethel Church. It instructs how false they are and have been throughout this entire debacle. It instructs that Bethel was a willful partner with Bolz until he got caught and then they tried to distance themselves privately, while still partnering with him where they could because in the end, this is always about the grift.

Reverend Anthony Wade - February 5, 2025

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.