Bethel points Christians to New Age in ‘Physics of Heaven’

Written By Keith Kraska

This is part 2 of a five-part series of posts reviewing the book The Physics of Heaven, which came out of the hugely popular Bethel Church in Redding, California.

The claims of this book are so shocking and dangerous that Living and Powerful is doing something we’ve never done before — examine a single work in-depth.

Here are the other installments:

Part 1: Leaving the Bible behind

Part 3: Chasing sensual mysticism

Part 4: Twisting and perverting Scripture

Part 5: A weak, helpless, puny god

The first post explained how The Physics of Heaven urged Christians to leave behind “old truth” and “what God has done in the past,” which ostensibly means the teachings and stories of Scripture. Instead, God is giving new revelation of new ways He wants to interact with us.

These ways involve quantum physics and quantum mysticism — things like wavelengths, frequencies and vibrations. The authors say these truths have been hidden from Christians for generations — which is them admitting that we won’t find them in the Bible.

Ellyn Davis (one of the book’s primary authors) writes, “I believe that a great work of God is in process as He restores knowledge and insights that have been lost to Christians but are now hidden in the teachings and practices of Quantum Mysticism.”

The authors are specific about where we can find these “knowledge and insights”: the New Age movement.

New Agers get what we don’t

Jonathan Welton writes about this in chapter 5:

“The way that God moves in power looks a lot like the New Age.”

“Are psychics and New Agers operating in real power? The answer is yes.”

“With all this talk about counterfeit and authentic, by now you may be scratching your head hoping for examples. The best examples I have found are in the New Age Movement.”

In chapter 2, Davis writes, “Now we are beginning to hear more and more revelation that is in line with what New Agers have been saying all along.”

In chapter 10, Larry Randolph writes, “Many New Agers … are desperately trying to ‘tune in’ to multiple realms of spiritual reality. In a small measure, many have succeeded in this spiritual quest.”

In chapter 12, Davis writes, “It’s obvious that the New Age has used quantum physics as part of its belief structure. But are any of the ideas advanced by quantum mysticism compatible with Christianity? Yes, they are. I think the beliefs of quantum mysticism are compatible with Christianity in many ways …” (in that chapter, she discussed the power of consciousness to influence reality; a single, universal consciousness that permeates all things; our thoughts and emotions emitting energetic vibrations, which can be positive or negative; parallel universes; and mankind evolving to higher levels of consciousness).

So the claim is that the New Age movement has operated in a “spiritual” way in which God wants to interact with His covenant people, His children.

This book from Bethel is saying pagans are doing what we should be doing. That in some way, they get what we don’t. That they have more insight into how God works than His church does. That what they do looks more like the Bible than … the Bible does.

New Agers.

They stole God’s power!

To be fair, they’re not saying that we should become New Agers, or that New Age is Godly spirituality. Davis completes her chapter 12 quote with “… but (the ideas of quantum mysticism) are totally incompatible (with Christianity) in a few, most important ways.”

The book depicts New Agers as the bad guys — specifically, as thieves and counterfeiters. A recurring theme throughout is that the New Age movement has stolen truths that belong to the church.

Randolph writes that psychics and New Agers “have climbed in as trespassers.” He says they “have been trafficking in the church’s stolen goods for a long time.”

In chapter 11, Davis writes, “... many quantum concepts appropriated by the New Age are actually distortions of Christian spiritual truths.”

Welton makes this startling analogy: “I believe that much of the spiritual discoveries of the New Age movement could be likened to the time in the Old Testament when the Philistines stole the Ark of the Covenant from Israel. In both cases, then and now, that which belongs to the church fell into the hands of unbelievers.”

Never mind the differences between Old Testament Israel and the church; the New Age has the ark!

Therefore, Christians need to take these truths back, because they “really belong to citizens of the Kingdom of God” (chapter 2). Welton completes his ark analogy with, “So, in order to posture ourselves for the next move of God, like King David, we must take back what is ours. ... we need the spirit of David to rise up within us and declare, ‘I’m taking back what belongs to God!’”

Learning from the counterfeit

So how do we do that, Physics of Heaven? Do we stick to the Bible and practice only what it teaches, thereby operating in every truth God has given us, regardless of what the unbelieving world is doing?

Physics of Heaven: No. We look to the counterfeit.

Davis writes in chapter 2 that she “decided to examine New Age thought and practice for anything ‘precious’ that might be ‘extracted’ from the worthless” (alluding to Jeremiah 15:19). The principles that guide her, she says, are “whenever you see a counterfeit, it means a real exists” and “a lie just proves the existence of a truth.”

Larry Randolph: “If you see a counterfeit, use it as a signpost that points to the authentic.”

To find and prove the truth, they look to the counterfeit.

They look for good fruit on a bad tree.

In Deuteronomy 18, God commanded the Israelites not to practice the occultist ways of the nations they were entering — things like divination and sorcery. He didn't say, try to extract the good from that and learn from them, or that they were counterfeiting what rightfully belonged to Israel. He called it an abomination to be avoided.

Yes, the New Age movement has counterfeited the truths of Scripture. They’ve perverted them. But this book from Bethel is saying we should practice the perversions!

They’re like the opposite of the Bereans. Their logic is horribly backward.

The signpost that points to the authentic IS the authentic: the Bible. The Bible itself proves the existence of a truth.

We extract truth from the Scriptures, and nothing else. We don’t import it from something that counterfeits it.

We don’t look to pagans — to demonic spirituality — to show us what the Bible teaches about God! What reckless, dangerous madness! It’s an unholy abomination. Strange, strange fire.

Par for the course from Bethel.

God decides who knows what

What this idea gets heretically wrong, what the hypercharismatic movement doesn’t get, is the sovereignty of almighty God. Bethel’s Bill Johnson has taught that “God is in charge, but He is not in control.”

But on the contrary, Jesus teaches us that God sovereignly controls who knows what about Him:

  • When Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus told him, “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17).

  • When Jesus’ disciples asked Him why He spoke in parables, He answered, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given” (Matthew 13:11).

  • In Luke 10:21, Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.”

  • Twice in Luke’s gospel, when Jesus foretells His death and resurrection, understanding was “hidden” from His disciples (9:45, 18:34). He concealed it.

  • When He appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, they didn’t recognize Him because “their eyes were restrained” (Luke 24:16). Then when He ate with them, “their eyes were opened and they knew Him” (verse 31).

Jesus was not only in charge, but He was in control, as He always is. He has all authority in heaven and on earth.

Revelation of truth and knowledge of God, of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, is under the absolute control and authority of God alone at all times. He alone decides who He reveals it to, and no one can know it apart from Him. God’s word says “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Therefore, THEY CANNOT BE STOLEN.

Bethel’s helpless god

But instead of a sovereign, personal God who chooses to interact with His children according to His will, this book presents a helpless, impersonal god whose power can be commandeered by anyone according to their will, regardless of their relationship with it — even animals! (One section is about the healing ability of frequency-emitting dolphins.)

The Physics of Heaven reduces God to a battery. It splashes together a confusing amalgamation of nature and supernature, of Christianity and panentheism. Once you mix Christianity with something else, it isn’t Christianity at all.

Bethel is teaching pagan mysticism. It’s teaching occultish sorcery and divination, and blasphemously saying it’s God, like the golden calf.

If you were to tell a typical Christian that we should do what New Agers are doing, they’d rightfully run from you. But because it’s Bethel, it must be God?

Well, if god is so puny that he can’t control knowledge of him, that unbelievers can steal from him, then maybe the New Agers are right after all.

We’ll look more at Bethel’s low view of God in the fifth installment.

More resources

Here are some more videos by other Christian commentators about The Physics of Heaven, Bethel and the New Age movement:

Keith Kraska
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Bethel’s quantumania: The sensual mysticism of ‘The Physics of Heaven’
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Bethel’s ‘Physics of Heaven’: A new way to interact with God?