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Before we start diving back into the Richard Dawkins book, Amy and I felt it necessary to address a heartbreaking, but concerning cultural issue that cropped up over the holidays. On December 14, 2019, Bethel worship leaders Kalley and Andrew Heiligenthal’s two-year-old daughter stopped breathing in her sleep and was pronounced dead by doctors at a nearby hospital. This is undoubtedly every parent’s worst nightmare. I cannot begin to imagine the kind of grief that this family experienced, and especially right before the holidays.
We at Mama Bear Apologetics want to stand beside a family that mourns and mourn with them. Period.
That being said, when a family’s private grief turns into a worldwide movement that misrepresents Scripture, we must both mourn and speak a gentle word of correction – not to the family, but to those following the story. Apologetics is about giving reasons for faith, and when there is a worldwide hashtag that has the potential to change who or what people are putting their faith in, then we must say something. Unfortunately, this is what happened. Mourn with those who mourn, but not at the expense of the faith of immature and young believers, and not at the expense of our witness to the world. #apologetics Click To Tweet
Within hours, the family had called upon the worldwide church to pray for the resurrection of their daughter with the hashtag #wakeupolive. I don’t blame them in the slightest. If I were a parent, I would do everything I could to pray for a miracle. However, there were several concerning messages that surrounded this global call for prayer which we discuss in this podcast. Here are three of the biggies.
1. God’s miracles are dependent on the strength of our feelings of faith (which is proved by how loudly we proclaim what God is about to do)
The main message that was being circulated was asking for people to believe that God would raise this child from the dead. We should absolutely pray with hopeful expectation, but some feeling of “belief” is not the barometer that God is looking for. Otherwise, the miracle becomes a work of ourselves. We are asked for the faith of a mustard seed – the smallest seed known at the time. Jesus healed people who didn’t know who He was, and sometimes who didn’t even ask for healing (John 5).
Why is this concerning: When people think that it is their level of faith that will determine whether a miracle is performed, then there is nothing but self-condemnation left if the Lord chooses to not answer the person’s prayer the way they hoped. This is also leaving us with faith in faith instead of faith in Christ. It’s a weird kind of idolatry, but idolatry nonetheless. If your 'amount of faith' is what unlocks God's faithfulness to do what you ask, then there's nothing left but self-condemnation if He doesn't do what you ask. It's also faith in faith, and not faith in Christ. Click To Tweet
2. We can declare God’s will
This was honestly one of the most concerning aspects that we noticed over and over. People not only declared what God was going to do but declared that it was His name and His goodness that were on the line. Yes, lots of Moses and Joshua quotes were cited. And those quotes definitely applied to Abraham, Moses, and Joshua, for whom the Lord did declare that His goodness was contingent upon bringing the people of Israel successfully out of slavery in Egypt and into the promised land. But we can’t analogize the “promised land” to any request that we make “in faith.”
Why is this concerning: If God’s name and goodness are dependent on Him acting in a particular way, what happens to His name and goodness if He chooses not to act according to our wishes? We have now brought His goodness and faithfulness into question before the world. While this should go without saying, I’ll say it anyway: be careful what you declare to be a “promise” of God, especially in front of new believers or non-believers. If you call something a “promise,” or declare that God already told you that He was going to do something, you better be right because you are essentially making Him out to be a liar (to the peanut gallery) if you spoke too hastily. Christ promised us eternal life for those who believed, trials and tribulations in the meantime, and His continued presence in the midst of said trials as we persevere. Beyond that, I think we should be very cautious to declare something a promise. The ramifications on a new Christian’s faith cannot be overstated.
3. Being unsure that God will is akin to saying that He can’t.
This was the most common accusation I heard lobbed at people who didn’t want to jump on the “In God’s name, we declare Olive resurrected” bandwagon. Anyone who tried to interject a sense of God’s sovereignty was shot down as having a small view of God or denying that God was capable of doing such an act.
Why is this concerning: Again, I saw many people express confusion on social media about wondering if they were bad Christians for not being 100% sure that God was going to resurrect this sweet child. (Even a Christian in a Christian group I am involved with accused me of this.) Is God able to heal or resurrect? Absolutely. Does He always choose to? Absolutely not. Saying that He may not is not the same as saying that He can’t. (See Daniel 3:17-18.)
All in all, we are to mourn with those who mourn, but we are not to do so at the expense of the faith of immature Christians or at the expense of our witness to those who still do not know Christ. While this is a very sensitive topic, I hope that Amy and I adequately addressed the issues with both grace and truth. As #apologists, we are trying to remove barriers to faith. If we see something that could wreck someone’s faith unnecessarily, then we have to speak out against that. But always with gentleness and love. Click To Tweet
Main Points Covered:
- The background behind #WakeUpOlive
- The difference between a private pain, a public pain, and a public claim.
- The 7 main movements that came out of #WakeUpOlive
- The difference between the leadership and the followers
- The idea of “faith in faith” versus “faith in God.” Is declaring the same as faith?
- “We can declare God’s will and he is bound to our declarations.”
- If you doubt that He will, that is equivalent to doubting that He can.
- “Christ’s payment of sin and promise of resurrection is for the here and now.”
- Christ commanded us to heal the sick and raise the dead.
- The idea that we’re entitled to a long and healthy life; the difference between the temporal life and the eternal life
Key Resources Mentioned
Bill Johnson: The Heart Behind Praying For Resurrection / December 18th 2019, YouTube
Mama Bear Apologetics: Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies, Amazon
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Quotable Quotes
- “The problem [with #WakeUpOlive] lies in creating a global movement that is literally saying that God’s faithfulness is contingent upon all of your pronouncements being fulfilled.”
- “It’s concerning when we place another being’s resurrection as more important to our faith than Christ’s resurrection.”
- “This is a longing for signs and wonders more than a longing for Christ.”
- “As apologists, we are trying to remove barriers to faith. If we see something that could wreck someone’s faith unnecessarily, then we have to speak out against that.”
- “We do not serve a trained poodle. That is not the God that we serve.”
Hillary Morgan Ferrer is the founder of Mama Bear Apologetics. She is the chief author and editor of Mama Bear Apologetics: Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies and Mama Bear Apologetics Guide to Sexuality: Empowering Your Kids to Understand and Live Out God’s Design. Hillary has her masters in Biology and has been married to her husband, Dr. John D. Ferrer, for 15 years. Don’t let her cook for you. She’ll burn your house straight to the ground.
Thank you so much for addressing this. Several other “mama bears” I know were discussing their differing perspectives on what happened and I wanted to ask about how we should respond to the video footage from the worship services where various leaders were prophesying that Olive would rise from the dead. But it’s such a sensitive issue you can’t really say anything without causing offense. What are your thoughts about how we should respond to false prophecies?
Hi Julie! Amy here. You’re so right. It’s a very sensitive issue so we have to be on-so gentle in our response. I think it’s helpful first to reference some of the qualifications of a true prophet of God: a believer, affirms the deity of Christ, prophecy is consistent with God’s nature/word/etc, and the prophecy comes true. This may not come up in every conversation, but they’re helpful to have on the mental back-burner for situations like this.
As you saw in the instagram videos (some of which have now been removed) much of the worship team were claiming certain attributes of God as promises that He would act in that situation, e.g. “You are the Resurrection and the Life therefore you will resurrect Olive.”
These folks were believers who affirmed Christ, it’s certainly within His power and consistent with His nature to raise the dead, yet in this instance this did not occur so it wasn’t a true prophecy. But I have my doubts that it was ever intended to be in the first place.
When you read the posts and watched the services, this was more of a, “You are capable of doing it so we believe you will and declare that in faith.” Aka: name it and claim it.
As far as I saw (and it’s possible I missed something) no one actually said that they had received a message from God that she would raise, only that because God was the Resurrection that He would raise Olive. Which is more of an argument than an actual prophecy.
However, because this declaration was made very publicly and drifted into a sort of idolization of Olive it needed to be addressed.
There’s nothing wrong in believing God will heal, and He does still today, but we have to be careful that we don’t confuse God’s ability with His will for every similar situation. As we mentioned in the podcast, the heart of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is a better outlook when you haven’t been given a direct message from God on the matter. Daniel 3:17-18.
Now, as to actual false prophecies. We’re told not to despise prophecies but to “test everything” (Roar method!) so if someone says they have a message from God we should listen up and have our discernment tools ready, 1 John 4.
If the prophecy fails any of the above standards then it wasn’t a divine revelation from God and the person wasn’t His prophet. Respond by:
1.Recognizing the message: What are they saying/claiming? What justification do they are? What evidence, verses, etc are they appealing to?
2. Offer discernment: Are there any standards it fails to meet? Is there anything conflicting with God’s nature, His word, His promises, or what happened? (E.g. It was said that the world would end May 27, 2011; but it’s 2020 so there’s a problem with this prophecy.)
3. Argue for a healthier approach: Restate their claims and address where there’s a problem. Share evidence that supports your argument . If it’s someone is your circle it’s possible that they made an mistake during their reading. Offer a correction with truth and grace (Col 4:6) and hopefully they’ll love you for it.
4. Reinforce through discussion, discipleship, and prayer.
If you find yourself “chewing” on a false prophecy, spit it out and move through the ROAR method.
Hope this helps!
Thank you for this. I recently read something similar and was not sure what to think about it because they constantly quote Scripture. When something is replete with Scripture, it is really difficult to separate fact from fiction and a true reading from a false one. The book is by Dee Henderson and is called “An Unfinished Death”. She has also written “Healing Is By Grace Alone” which is related. I would be interested in hearing more about this topic and these two books. I appreciate you.
Thank you for the book suggestions Kimberlee! I’ll have to check those out. Yes, scripture was quoted a ton, which can sometimes make figuring out the what’s true and what has been taken out of context seem a little overwhelming.
As my bible study prof would say, “Context is king!” If we don’t know the context of the verse being used we can find biblical support for just about everything, so the ROAR method is super helpful as you “chew and spit” by:
1.Recognizing the message: What are they saying/claiming? What justification do they are? What evidence, verses, etc are they appealing to?
2. Offer discernment: Are there any standards it fails to meet? Is there anything conflicting with God’s nature, His word, His promises, or what happened? (E.g. It was said that the world would end May 27, 2011; but it’s 2020 so there’s a problem with this prophecy.)
3. Argue for a healthier approach: Restate their claims and address where there’s a problem. Share evidence that supports your argument . If it’s someone is your circle it’s possible that they made an mistake during their reading. Offer a correction with truth and grace (Col 4:6) and hopefully they’ll love you for it.
4. Reinforce through discussion, discipleship, and prayer.
The Mama Bear Book is a great resource to sharpen these skills and I can’t recommend it enough. Keep pursuing after Christ as you seek wisdom!
~Amy
I should note too, that discernment also includes us affirming what is correct in the message. We should strive to be honorable and charitable in every conversation, and it does wonders for bridge-building when we say, “You’re totally right on this point!” Salt and grace is vital to every discussion, Col. 4:6 🙂
~Amy
Such a terrible tragedy, and yet it is magnified by an even greater one in all of this madness. Olive is healed. She is alive. She is in the arms of her loving Savior. And yet there seems to be such hopelessness left in the hearts of those who’ve been duped by the false “word-faith” doctrine. To me, this is the greatest tragedy put on display during the week of #WakeUpOlive declarations and decrees coming out of Bethel Redding’s own leadership and thousands of their followers. Instead of proclaiming, “Where, O death, is your victory?” (1 Cor. 15:55) and reminding a watching world that Christians have a hope beyond this life and the grave, their hope was instead to “rob that grave” and resurrect Olive back to this life. And do we now say “Where, O Lord, is your power?” When hope in this life becomes greater than our hope in Heaven, we risk losing all true hope and all true faith, in Jesus. Thank you for addressing this. My heart breaks not only for Olive’s parents but for all who are living in such hopelessness.