I rarely write in criticism of the theology of others. It doesn’t seem to be a calling of mine at this time. Yet I’ve been seeing something over the past day and a half on social media that has burdened me to write. It stems from a tragedy within the family of Bethel Church and their ministry of worship. Two of the church’s prominent worship leaders, Andrew & Kalley Heiligenthal, announced over this weekend that their two-year old daughter, Olive, suddenly passed away without apparent cause. There are few things in this world that are more heart-wrenching than the death of a child and the subsequent anguish of the parents. There are abuses and pains and groanings in this world that threaten to shake the faith of even the most faithful believers. The death of children is near the top of that list. I have not lost a child, but I worked for years investigating the abuse and death of children. I often stared at the bodies of little ones on the morgue tables. Very often, they were the same age as my children. And when those bodies had arrived on those tables by the avenue of abuse, neglect, or murder, the pain of it all ran even deeper. I won’t deceive you by leaving out the detail that many times I was angry with God for what I saw before my eyes.
I say all of that to lay a backdrop for this post. I mean to address a critical point of theology here. I do not mean to attack or diminish the pain of the suffering parents. I do not mean to attempt to judge or critique the response of these grieving parents. I cannot place myself in their shoes. I cannot attest to this experience first hand. What I can do though, is hopefully help someone else not be mislead about the character of my God because of this tragedy. That is the point here. I am contending that the response of the parents and the church in these first few days is laying the ground work for serious damage to the souls of a lot of people. It also drives at a deeper error in theology which again, leaves many in great spiritual danger.
The parents and their church, along with other big name worship leaders and church (i.e. Hillsong, Jesus Culture, Passion, etc…) have gone to social media to raise up an “army” of believers who will join together for prayer. They are asking the world to pray that Olive will be resurrected now. Here is some of the vernacular they are using:
“Please join us in contending for resurrection life for this precious baby girl…”
“We believe in a Jesus who died and conclusively defeated every grace, holding the keys to resurrection power. We need it for our little Olive Alayne, who stopped breathing [yesterday] and has been pronounced dead by doctors. 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.”
“Would you join us in prayer believing for Olive to wake up, may these be the days our faith matches even a fraction of who our God is…”
There are many more like this, but these cover the specific issue I’m getting at here.
First of all, Jesus is obviously capable of raising a child back to life (Mark 5:41-42). He did it in person, and without having the time to do the research, I doubt not that children have been raised to life since Jesus and the Apostles left planet Earth.
How many more times though since Jesus’ days here, has a child died, a parent asked for a reversal of that death, and the child remained dead? The answer is probably in the hundreds of millions (just a personal guess with no supporting proof). How many times has that happened to a believer who held fast in faith to the power of God? Many, many times; only God knows.
Second, Jesus did die, He did conclusively defeat every grace, and He does hold the keys to resurrection power. This is all true. Here though is where the theology begins to take a nasty turn. Let’s say for the sake of argument that all of the miraculous powers of Jesus and the Apostles are still alive and active today within the global church. Let’s agree for a moment that Christians, through the Spirit of God, can raise people from the dead. And let’s go with the theology of Bethel Church that Christians can execute the power of God at will. In fact, they teach that no revelation of God (gospel proclamation, salvation, etc…) is authentic unless it is accompanied by a manifestation of spiritual power. See this link for detailed references of Bill Johnson’s (Bethel’s founder and pastor) theology.
Why then are so many Christians dead? Why are so many of their children dead? Why are their unsaved family members dead? If I agreed with Bethel’s theology here, and if I had the power to raise people from the dead, why on earth would anyone I know and love be dead? I would just bring them back to life. Especially children. Especially unsaved family and friends. We could keep everyone from going to hell if, once they arrived there, we could bring them back and allow them another chance to repent of their sins. Surely they would all do that to avoid going back to hell.
Taking that a step further, why is this church not completely focused on that very thing? They believe very intensely that Olive is not supposed to be dead. “It is time for her to come to life” They said “the doctors pronounced her dead” which implies that the family and church are not pronouncing her dead. This echoes the language of Jesus who said in Mark 5 that Jairus’ daughter was not dead, rather asleep. If all of this is true, it seems that a people with the power to raise the dead at will, should go about all the earth raising all children back from the dead. Because, again, what is more painful than the death of a child? What could be more convincing to an unbeliever than to see Jesus raise their dead child to life? Why is this not the sole focus of the church at large? I’ve been following these churches and their leaders on social media for quite some time (for what it’s worth I personally love and use most of their worship music). Never before have I seen such an outpouring of request for prayer and power. Surely other children have died around them. Surely unbelievers have died around them. Why raise up the millions for this one particular child? Most likely because it hits so close to home. She’s one of their own. I don’t blame them one bit for asking millions to pray for Olive’s resurrection. I would also ask others to pray for my sons’ resurrections immediately after their deaths. Yet there is an inconsistency. And my point is that it drives at a flaw in their theology. They believe in the use of God’s power at a deeper level when it comes to their own lives. This is evidently displayed in this event. And I believe that it devastates faith at a deeper level when one thinks that God will do more for them, in the way they way they want, than what He actually does.
The third thing I want to point out, is the soul-crushing third quote listed above, which, with great disappointment to myself, comes from a member of Hillsong Worship. In the quote she accounts the resurrection of this child to the faith of the believer. And this is where the theology of Bethel and others like them comes crashing down – along with the believers who hold to it.
What will the pastors and leaders of this church say to the grieving parents, and the stunned congregation, when Olive remains dead? Because of their level of influence, these parents had literally millions of Christians praying for Olive’s resurrection within a matter of hours. Millions of people all over the globe “believing” that she would come back to life. This is recorded in their comments and posts on social media. Let’s fast forward a week… Olive is not alive and she is buried. Let’s fast forward a month… still nothing. Let’s fast forward six months… still nothing. There will be no one left by then who believes that she can be resurrected. In theory they may believe it since God is omnipotent, but practically they will not believe it and will not ask for it. The parents might… but not the millions who initially did.
What happens to their faith then? According to the theology of Bethel, their faith was too weak. Their faith was lacking and it prevented the resurrection power of God from coming to fruition. Perhaps they’ll pinpoint sin or blame someone specifically. I don’t know exactly. But if they remain faithful to their own theology, man will be to blame here because he did not properly use the unlimited power available to him. So one grave outcome is that believers will blame themselves for the lingering death of Olive.
A second consequence will be that some blame God. They will say that He did not hold true to His promises. These promises are those as explained by Bethel. The promises are things like, “Jesus defeated every grave”, and thus no current, mortal graves have real power and believers can boss these graves around the way Jesus can. The promises are that Jesus is making all things new and bringing Heaven to earth (where there is no death or sickness or suffering) and that believers have 100% access to that now. Consider the gravity of this: a young believer is told of these promises of power that the church has. The young believer sees an opportunity in the death of Olive to experience the realities of the promise. The “promises” don’t come true the way he was told they would. The only conclusion is that God is a liar or is not capable. Hopefully many will simply realize that Bethel was wrong, rather than God. But history shows us that is not the case for the greater majority.
A third consequence will be that many people will be left even more confused about God’s character. They will be confused about the point of Jesus’ miracles and power on earth. They will be confused about what Jesus has already accomplished and what is yet to be fulfilled. They will be confused about God’s design in sin and suffering. They will be confused about the suffering in their own lives and its purpose. They will miss out on enormous depth of joy and communion with Jesus through the embracing of suffering. The spiritual loss will be enormous. From an eternal perspective it’s more tragic than Olive’s death. Her death causes temporary pain here, but the pain is assuaged by the reality that she is in the arms of Jesus now. However a poor understanding of God could quickly lead to a misunderstanding of God which often amounts to an eternal misguidance with the worst of consequences.
The ultimate question will be whether or not these millions of people can land in a place where they are comfortable with God’s plan for Olive. Will they ever be able to see it as God’s plan? Will they continue to say that it was NOT God’s plan for her to die? Will they unintentionally attach the lack of manifest power to the lack of control God has over this world? The potential damaging consequences of this theology seem endless to me. And having a right theology is never more important than in situations like this. It is in our darkest moments that we need to think most rightly about our Lord.
Is God all-powerful? Yes.
Does God still raise people to physical life after death? Yes.
Does God typically raise children back to life today? No.
Because Jesus defeated the grave does that mean any human can defeat the grave too? Obviously not.
Does Bethel’s theology of unfettered access to and use of God’s power prove true? No.
Does good theology matter? Eternally so.
aschristlovedus 