Beni Johnson of Bethel is dealing with cancer and this blog believes it is terminal. This is a policy post that explores the following question. What will happen at Bethel Church in Redding when Beni Johnson passes away? This is a look at what is going to happen in the near term and a few years out. From trying to raise Beni from the dead to Kris Vallotten making a power play behind the scenes. When a personality cult dies it tends to also bring down an organization.
“Power-lust is a weed that grows only in the vacant lots of an abandoned mind“
Ayn Rand
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Ezekial 37: 4-8 NIV
Before I dive into the following post there are two items this blog wishes to communicate. This blog has been approached about health issues with individuals in the past and it has not written about them because of privacy issues. In the context of this post there has been information about Beni Johnson’s health that has been shared by Bethel online. This blog is taking that information and doing a policy post today. That said there are also gaps of information. This blog is attempting to write an accurate post but in some ways this blog is doing what the CIA used to do in the Cold War in following Soviet leaders like Stalin or Brezhnev. This blog is thousands of miles away and it’s trying to analyze a situation. This blog communicates this information beforehand so that the reader will know.
What Happens When a Personality Cult Individual Dies?
It’s the story of history and it replays itself over and over. A personality cult is born and a movement gains traction. There is a person who has a lot of sway and influence, and people are committed to following him or her. Ultimately, it’s a movement that is not sustainable because so many lean upon that person. That person becomes a part of a person’s identity and gives them their purpose in living. For those people who are lost and confused they can find a home in a personality cult. And then at one point the person becomes ill and dies. There is a void, a vacuum that exposes the personality cult for what it is. It becomes a destabilizing situation as some people leave the movement now that the person, they followed is dead. Others see an opportunity for a power play, and they plot their move to try and step into the void. What usually happens in this blog’s view is that the death of a person who is a part of a personality cult starts to lead to the organization’s demise. But when Beni Johnson dies what you are going to see at Bethel is going to be profoundly interesting. As a critic of evangelicalism and movements like Bethel this blog wants to make clear that it is not looking forward in gloating in her eventual death. That would be cruel and wrong. What this blog is doing is pointing out the problem that Bill Johnson has on his hands. One of the sustaining pillars of Bethel it appears has her days numbered allegedly. And this blog believes that Bethel has some rough days ahead.
Beni Johnson and Her History with Cancer, It’s Return, and This Blog’s Belief That it is Terminal
Beni Johnson has a history with cancer. In 2018 she was diagnosed with breast cancer which shocked her. “When this all began in March and I walked out of the doctor’s office shocked. I asked Jesus, ‘what do I do now?’ I heard Jesus tell me, ‘just love me’. I said, ‘I can do this’. There has been so much peace and at times those decisions that have to be made the peace has helped me navigate through.” Beni revealed her cancer situation in a series of Facebook posts at the time. Bethel as you know is a prosperity gospel organization that practices a name it and claim it faith. When Beni Johnson was diagnosed with cancer that is what they clung to. She claimed publically that God would heal her cancer. She underwent several surgeries and had cancerous tumors removed from her breast. The tumors were later revealed to be high risk for breast and ovarian cancer. As a conspiracy theorist and later believer into Q Anon she also sought alternative treatments as well that were more holistic and not approved by the FDA here in the United States. The Johnson’s traveled to Spain for Beni’s additional treatment.
When it appears the cancer treatment worked the Johnson’s and Bethel claimed that it was God at work and their faith in action. But a couple of years later the cancer returned. On February 6, 2022 at Bethel’s worship service Dann Farrelly and other leaders led the church in prayer for ten minutes for Johnson. Beni has allegedly developed sleeping and breathing problems as the cancer has progressed. Farrelly prayed for Beni to be able to “sleep that is deep and beautiful” and “breath that is without problem.” This blog looked for the video to include in this post but Bethel made the video private thus removing it from YouTube. As Beni’s health has degraded this blog has learned that Bill Johnson has expressed worry about her sleeping issues and breathing difficulty.
In response Bethel alerted the church through Instagram and made a public prayer request. Bethel is again claiming the name it and claim it theology. In the most recent prayer request people are being asked for God to take care of every cancer cell in Beni’s body. They are also asking for people to pray for her medical caretakers and doctors treating Beni. Also, for grace and courage for the Johnson family during this difficult time. At Bethel they stood up a 24/7 ministry and are asking people to pray in fifteen minutes increments around the clock. People are signing up at the Bethel website. You can see some of the prayers shared on social media. I took two screenshots just for this post.
If you would like to read more about this issue you can do to the following articles.
- Charisma News, “Bethel Church Launches Prayer Campaign for Pastor Beni Johnson’s Cancer Fight.“
- CBN News, “‘Raise the Shield of Faith’: Bethel Church Announces 24/7 Prayer Campaign for Pastor Beni Johnson.“
- The Christian Post, “Bethel’s Beni Johnson having trouble breathing amid cancer battle; church launches 24/7 prayer campaign.“
Before this blog moves into the next section let me share with you my beliefs about the current situation with Beni Johnson. This blog believes that Beni’s cancer is terminal and that many at Bethel are in denial about how serious the situation is. This church and many of Bethel’s followers are also going to be in an incredible bind when the cancer gets worse, the prosperity gospel theology fails and the situation crumbles. This blog also believes that any “alternative” treatment that the Johnson’s may try will be acts of desperation as they cling to straws in trying to avoid the unavoidable. It also depends how aggressive the cancer is and how quickly it moves, that needs to be raised as well. But this blog believes that Beni’s cancer is terminal, and that recovery is not going to be an option. So when Beni dies how will Bethel Chruch of Redding react to the situation? That is going to be the subject of the next section.
How Will Bethel Church of Redding Respond to Her Death? These are My Predictions of This Cult Going into the Next Several Years
In the view of this blog a number of situations will develop over time. Some will be immediate, and others will be long term. Part of the reason why this blog is writing this post is to get this on the record to be able to compare and watch how Bethel is going to react when Beni Johnson does pass away. Bethel is going to go through a number of situations that will reveal how toxic it is as an organization. This is what this blog is telling people to expect.
- Bethel will be in denial as the prosperity theology failed in an epic and profoundly disturbing way. The name it and claim it gospel will backfire, and people will be stunned and asking what happened. And yet the cognitive dissonance will start to kick in because people cannot admit that they are wrong.
- Bethel will try and raise Beni Johnson from the dead. As in the case of Olive Heiligenthal Bethel will try and raise her from the dead in a name it and claim it fashion. They will fast and pray and predict that Beni Johnson will pop out of the Shasta County morgue free of cancer. God will be victorious and sovereign, and they will cling to this hope desperately…until it does not happen because Beni Johnson is dead and she is not coming back.
- Some people will be confused and disorientated about the faith and theology they clung to and wonder why did this not work? Bill Johnson is going to have a crisis on his hands when some people begin to realize that they were conned. In a few situations some of the families who lost relatives to the Bethel cult will reconnect as some abandon the Bethel cult. In a few other families that were torn apart it will take longer as people slowly process out and will be reunited as people see each other again. Other people who will realize they were had will become an atheist and be done with faith. This is logical and in the view of this blog also healthy.
- For others the cognitive dissonance will deepen as Beni’s death lingers and drags on. Like the Mormon who can’t quite admit that Joseph Smith is a fraud, some at Bethel will double down and re-invest in their “faith.” They will recommit to the prosperity gospel and apostolic reformation. They will find ways to work around the theological problems. And they will be completely unable to admit that they were conned, had or a part of a cult. These are the people who will quaff the kool aid
- Bethel as time moves on will develop new problems now that the personality cult tied to Beni Johnson is gone. Expect a power play by a narcissist like Kris Vallotten and a possible move behind the scenes. Bethel will start to look like a banana republic in Central America where people will wrestle for power. In time this will likely tear the organization apart. This will take several years to get to this point and will not be immediate.
- If and when Bethel collapses those who are in the cult will migrate to another cult because they are incapable of living independently and knowing how to act. They need to be told how to live. Brainwashed and manipulated they will need another cult to join. People like this will live out their life going from cult to cult.
Feel free to challenge this blog and call me out if I am wrong. This is predictive analysis and a possibility on what is going to happen when Beni Jonhson passes away which this blog believes will be sooner instead of later.
Wondering Eagle 
I’m guessing that a lot of their members will switch from “God will heal Beni” right over to “God called Beni to be with him in heaven” without giving it a second thought. The usual fundagelical doublethink. But what happens with the power vacuum will be interesting to watch.
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Just like the social media traces in Reddit’s Herman Cain Awards – the calls for Mighty Prayer Warriors (such as a 24/7 ministry praying in fifteen minute shifts around the clock), followed by the Homegoing Announcement (some almost word-for-word “God called [Name] to be with him in Heaven” or “Today [Name] Received Ultimate Healing from The LORD”) and the GoFundMe for seven figures worth of COVID ICU/Vent bills.
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Just like the climax of the Hate Week scene in 1984, when suddenly Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia, not Eurasia.
Orwell based that scene on an actual event in June of 1941, when a Communist Party orator in some Allied country was citing the Nazi-Soviet Pact and gushing about how Hitler was the USSR’s Eternal Friend and Ally and always had been. In mid-speech someone passed him the news that Germany had just invaded the USSR (Operation Barbarossa). The Party orator flipped one-eighty into the Fashisty Are Our Eternal Enemies And Always Have Been in mid-sentence.
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I don’t think Bethel is going to be as affected as one might think from Beni’s death. Bill and Beni are only two of 28 people on the “senior leadership team.” There *might* be a struggle for power on the senior leadership team, but I think Bethel has so many “pies” (conferences, BSSM, Bethel Music, other ministries) for people to be over, this is diffused somewhat. Plus, Bethel has hived off somewhat over the years. Banning Liebscher used to be on staff at Bethel Redding, but he’s now pastoring Jesus Culture in Sacramento and it looks for all the world like it’s become a self-sustaining clone of Bethel. While they don’t have a BSSM, they do have a “School of Leadership” and of course “Jesus Culture Music.”
I honestly do not believe they’re going to try and raise Beni from the dead. The Olive Heiligenthal attempted dead raising was a fiasco and I suspect they do not want to draw attention to that failure. I also think they’re going to go with the explanation of “After a lifetime of good and faithful service, God called Beni to himself” and stick to that like glue. The fact is, the people who attend Bethel or their conferences have people in their lives getting sick and dying all the time. And some of them are bound to be extremely God-fearing. So I think many of them will just explain away a prominent death in just this fashion.
I also think Beni is pretty far along if she’s having breathing problems. One of my friends learned she had advanced lung cancer in 2015. The tumor was inoperable and its growth was going to impair her breathing sooner or later.. Given the state of Canadian politics at the time (Stephen Harper of the Conservatives was PM) she was terrified that she’d be forced to remain alive and in pain instead of being allowed to die. Instead, she went through many hoops (seriously, I was surprised about the number of hoops) to go to Switzerland for assisted suicide. Which she did. I don’t know that I could do that, but I thought it was incredibly brave of her to do it.
And it’s not like these churches last forever. Headless Unicorn Guy probably remembers Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim, which was a huge center of charismatic culture in the 1970s. Melodyland no longer exists, it was gone before the turn of the century. By hiving off and producing graduates from BSSM, the Bethel message will continue to flow outward, even if the actual church in Redding were to fall apart. This stuff never goes away, it just changes into something else.
Anyway, just my thoughts.
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Always welcome!
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Yes, I remember Melodyland. Located on the present-day site of the Pumbaa Parking Lot on what’s now Disney Way half a block east of Disneyland. (The derivation of their name was obvious.)
Never been there, but it was all over Christianese AM Radio of the time. Miracles and Healings, that sort of thing. The End-of-the-World Not-a-Cult I was mixed up with in the mid-Seventies also talked about it between End Time Prophecy Fulfillments and love-bombing me to move into their compound. When my mother was dying in spring of ’75 (small cell lung cancer) I remember freaking out about trying to get her to Melodyland to get her Healed or Saved (the second taking priority in the thinking of the time), this being well before Pious Pipers and “Don’t Waste Your Cancer”.
Though Melodyland was still mentioned in the Eighties, by that time it was being displaced on the AM airwaves by Calvary Chapel after Calvary Chapel after Calvary Chapel and the occasional Vineyard.
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I forgot another point! It looks more like Hillsong is going to collapse before Bethel Redding, in between Brian Houston’s upcoming criminal trial (for failure to report his father Frank’s child sexual abuse) and now, learning that Brian has been “inappropriate” with women, and blaming it on prescription drugs and alcohol. Brian Houston is more the face of Hillsong in a way that Bill and Beni Johnson are not the complete face of Bethel Redding.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/19/hillsong-church-apologises-after-investigations-find-brian-houston-engaged-in-inappropriate-behaviour
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Wondering Eagle – great that you’ve sourced as much accurate information about this as you can, but sad you’ve made such extraordinary judgements about the people, motives, leadership and church in the process. If your many and far reaching predictions about how the leadership and church will respond to Beni’s death do not come to pass, will you think again, will you retract any of your statements, will you review your position? Do you really think these guys are living in denial? Bill lost his Dad from cancer after they prayed for his healing, and now he is facing his poorly wife day in, day out. He’s also lost friends from cancer. They have faced this over and over again. Their public statements are an invitation to pray, not an statement of denial. The other option is, you could pray for them all, or if you didn’t want to, just ignore it all!
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May whomever was responsible for this blog, all involved, get their just reward… Amen…
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I equate it more to David pleading with God to not take Bethsheba’s baby. Once the baby was dead David cleaned himself up and worshipped God. I’m guessing when and if she passes Bill will grieve and also worship the Lord and move on. He would be more likely to retire if she lives.
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Pingback: Bethel Church Senior Pastor, Beni Johnson, 67, Dies from Cancer
espero que este sea un block de no cristianos, que triste ver como se despedazan, no hay amor ni gracia, ni misericordia!! como buitres esperando la muerte o mejor como hienas!! muy triste realmente!!
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