Bethel Church is full of crazy kooks. If it isn’t senior pastor, Bill Johnson and his false prophecies, fake healings, and promotions of false signs and wonders, then it’s his associate, Kris Vallotton doing the same thing.

Not too long ago, Vallotton told of a time when he had an “encounter” with Jesus while he was sitting in his bathtub. “I had an encounter with God years ago that has changed my life forever,” Vallotton said. “As I laid in my bathtub one night Jesus walked into my bathroom and told me, “You’re a great leader. You’re going to be a prophet to kings, prime ministers, and governors.”

You can check out that video at this link.

But in keeping with Bethel’s heresy of “encounters”—particularly those that contradict Scripture—another Bethel pastor in a recent interview with Vallotton explained how he had his own coming to Christ “encounter” and decided he “wanted this” long before he ever heard the gospel. This is almost as bad as the time that another Bethel pastor said that Jesus asked him for forgiveness.

And it wasn’t a slip of the tongue, he said it twice. Watch:

This false teaching completely contradicts the gospel itself and the Scriptures that say we cannot believe or come to Christ without first hearing the gospel.

¹³ For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

¹⁴ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵ And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” ¹⁶ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” ¹⁷ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. —Romans 10:13-17

The Scriptures are clear—it is the gospel itself that is our “encounter” with God. Without it, we are dead in our trespasses and sin (Ephesians 2:1) and it is the gospel that is the power unto salvation (Romans 1:16).

Whether it be one of their female pastors declaring that the coronavirus has already been defeated — which obviously didn’t come to pass — or them spending days trying to raise a two-year-old from the dead by practicing witchcraft, one thing is for sure, Bethel Redding is a cult that twists the Scriptures and practices divination that should be avoided at all costs and exposed for what they are.