We should pray for healing to come to faith-healer, Beni Johnson, who has recently announced having cancer. Beni is the wife of Bill Johnson, with whom she serves as co-lead pastor of Bethel Church.
Bethel Church in Redding California famously has their School of the Supernatural, where they practice simony and for an exchange of money, claim to impart and teach the apostolic gift of miraculous healing. Several times in the last year, Bethel has had high-profile opportunities to demonstrate something supernatural by performing miraculous signs and wonders over tragedies, but have thus far been unable. First, their Jesus Culture worship band CEO’s child was desperately sick and dying in the hospital. After Bethel leaders decreed and declared his healing to no avail, he eventually got better after a hospital hydrated him via intravenous fluids. Most recently, the tragic Carr Fire consumed the homes of more than 25 Bethel staffers, even though they tried to prophesy away the blaze. All of this in spite the fact that Bethel pastor Bill Johnson claims that God has given man all authority over illness, disease and tragedy.
“God is in charge, but he is not in control. He has left us in control.” – Bill Johnson
One of Bethel’s core teachings is that physical healing is provided for in the atonement of Christ. Johnson regularly goes to the podium at Bethel Church and recalls lots of (unsubstantiated) fantastical tales of divine healing that he regularly hears from students and missionaries affiliated with the school or those performed by Bethel church staff. It is odd, then, that Bill Johnson’s wife, Beni, is seeking traditional medical treatment for her recent diagnosis of cancer.
Johnson has also turned to homeopathic remedies for her cancer, traveling to Europe for a reprieve from its symptoms.
To clarify, Johnson is married to one of the most famous faith-healers in the world who regularly claims to heal Stage-4 cancer. He teaches that with enough faith, one can be healed. He decrees and declares such things, and weekly claims to do it. His wife is receiving medical treatment at hospitals and from naturalists. Think about that for a minute.
Beni Johnson is widely considered the “health guru” of Bethel Church, writing a popular blog on how to maintain a healthy and disease free body. She has cancer. Think about that for a minute.
Beni has written a book claiming that “Christians should be the healthiest people on Earth.”
Beni Johnson is not one of the healthiest people on Earth.
To be clear, we should pray for Beni Johnson. God can heal Beni Johnson through his Divine Providence. We pray God does heal Beni Johnson. However, God does not do the types and kinds of signs and wonders that he performed through Apostolic gifting because there are no more Apostles. There are no more Apostles because we no longer need them because we have God’s completed canon. Bethel Church does not have the power of healing. If they could decree and declare healing, they would have healed their pastor by now.
Instead, she’s turned to the same medical treatment as the unbelieving pagan. Her faith did not make her physically cured of disease, because it does not work that way.
