No, we don’t need another Pentecost
Jesus Culture, a group that originated at the mega-popular, hypercharismatic Bethel Church in Redding, California, is releasing a song in summer of 2025 with the following lyrics: “We need another Pentecost, yes we do / We need another Pentecost.”
Some Christians interpret this to mean a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, or a cry for revival. The Holy Spirit does indeed fill Christians continually, to empower and embolden us for ministry. But a call for a new Pentecost isn’t new for Bethel, and that’s not what they mean by it.
Bethel’s ‘Pentecost’
In the book The Physics of Heaven, written by members and leadership of Bethel — including Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton — one of the contributors writes that “the power of the world to come” in Hebrews 6:5 is not referring to the new heavens and new earth, but something God will do in our world, in our age, and that “The power of the world to come will be 10 times that of Pentecost … We haven’t received Pentecost yet. We received a token 110 years ago. But we didn’t get the main. We’re being prepared for the main Pentecost and millennial power, our priesthood power.”
Related: Bethel’s ‘Physics of Heaven’: A new way to interact with God?
One of Bethel’s foundational beliefs is that the church today needs to operate in miraculous signs and wonders that not only match the miracles seen in the New Testament, but exceed them. Jesus said we would do greater works than He did, right? They interpret that to mean in frequency and magnitude, so that they would be normative. They don’t even think evangelism counts unless it demonstrates miracles; Johnson has said that a gospel not accompanied by experiential manifestations is “a different gospel.”
To bring this about, therefore, they believe we need an outpouring that’s more significant, effective, and spectacular than what happened on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, as The Physics of Heaven claims. What God did then is the past, they believe, not the future. It’s “old truth.”
Like so many other Bethel doctrines, this is a fundamental misunderstanding and low view of Scripture. Let’s look at what the Bible says Pentecost is, and what was said about it that glorious day.
Our Pentecost: All we need today
Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks, in the late spring, is one of the three major festivals that God established for Israel, along with Passover (spring) and the Feast of Tabernacles (fall). It’s believed to be when Moses received the Ten Commandments from God on Mount Sinai. As God gave the law on Pentecost then, He gave the Holy Spirit on Pentecost in the New Testament. (One parallel is that 3,000 Israelites died in judgment after the golden calf incident at Sinai, and conversely, 3,000 people were saved in Christ on Pentecost.)
In Acts 2, Peter preached that the outpouring of the Spirit fulfilled this prophecy in the book of Joel:
17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
21 And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.’
Notice that Joel’s prophecy has a time frame — it’s for “the last days,” leading up to “the great and awesome day of the Lord.” In other words, the church age — the period between Christ’s first and second comings. The outpouring that began that day continues in and covers all of the church in all times. That’s how long that Pentecost is good for.
During that time, all of it, the Holy Spirit — the fullness of God, Ephesians 3:19 says — fills every believer. His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, 2 Peter 1:3 says. He freely gives us all things (Romans 8:32), everything we need, every day. As I said, He fills us with His Spirit over and over. As for signs, wonders, and miracles, the Lord sovereignly does them as He pleases, whenever He wants, for whomever He wants, according to His will, as He does everything else (Ephesians 1:11). He knows what we need, and therefore we need nothing.
This is another example of Bethel ot being satisfied with what the Lord does today. They don’t believe in the power of the preached gospel or of Scripture. Nothing seems to matter to them but sensual manifestations and experiences, so much that they dare tell God what we need. It seems that in demanding “another Pentecost,” what they really want is another New Testament, because the one we have isn’t good enough.
What we need — which the Lord has already provided — is to trust in the message of the cross, which the Holy Spirit says is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18). We need to trust that Scripture is sufficient to thoroughly equip us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). We need to learn that what He gives us is all we need.
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See also this video about the song from Jesse Westwood, a graduate of Bethel’s School of Supernatrual Ministry.
More on Bethel’s false teachings:
