HERESY-NEUTICS: A REVIEW OF “DESTINED TO WIN” BY KRIS VALLOTTON

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

Destined To Win: How To Embrace Your God-Given Identity And Realize Your Kingdom Purpose

The endorsements alone are enough to warrant a “Warning: Heretical
& Hermeneutical Danger Ahead” notice on its cover.  With glowing
endorsements from the likes of “apostle” Mike Bickle, Jesus Culture
founder Banning Liebscher, Ted Dekker, Che Ahn, Heidi Baker, and Shawn
Bolz, there is little doubt that Destined To Win is borne of a “wide path” false theology.  Add the obligatory laudation from Vallotton’s cohort in charlatanry, Bill Johnson – whom Vallotton compares to Moses
– and the assurance that the book will distort and defile the truth of
God is more manifest than fake Holy Ghost gold dust blowing through
Bethel Church’s air ducts.

Kris Vallotton, the author of this “everything God does is about you”
tome, is the “senior associate leader of Bethel Church and co-founder
of Bethel School of Ministry, where he has served with Bill Johnson for
more than three decades.”  This just goes to prove that one can spend
decades in the “Jesus biz,” presumably surrounded by Bibles, (serving primarily as visual aids to prop up the “Christianized” illusion of Bethel’s otherwise heretical endeavors) and still not apprehend Biblical truth.  As Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again.”  (John 3:7)

Oh, and it is noteworthy that the book’s bio makes references to the
“Bethel School of Ministry” when actually it’s the “Bethel School of Supernatural
Ministry.”  It’s where, if you’re devoid of authentic Christian
doctrinal understanding, you go to be anointed and receive an
“impartation” in order to heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the
dead.  I’m not sure if “grave-sucking” – for which Bethel is notorious –
is part of the core curricula or if it’s an a la carte elective. Anway,
the book curiously downplays the “supernatural” element and adjective
to Vallotton and Bethel’s frolics in falsehood.

Another – perhaps surprising – endorsement comes from Eric Metaxas,
the Greek Orthodox, Yale-graduated author of some recent, more
mainstream books of a Christian slant. (His bio on Bonhoeffer won a Christian Book of the Year award)
He may have been tapped with an invite to endorse in order to give
Vallotton and Bethel a more cultured, dignified, mainstream appeal.

“Vallotton’s faith is contagious.  That’s the point.  Read this book and catch it.”  Eric Metaxas

Frankly, if you’re a believer, you’d be safer waltzing into a CDC
ebola biohazard lab in your birthday suit than to risk catching any of
Bethel’s toxic spiritual microbes.  What was it our Lord said?  “And do
not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear
him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”  (Matthew 10:28)
 Spiritually cavorting with the toxins of Vallotton may not kill your
body, and though the subtle incubation period of Bethel’s lethal virus
may seem temporally-appealing, the full-blown contagion is eternally
terminal.

Consider Mark Batterson’s endorsement.  You know Batterson from circle-praying false-teaching fame.  He said, “Destined To Win
gives readers a proactive plan to deal with the true, deep needs of
their souls.”  Well clearly, the capacity for discernment from a guy who
actually believes that Christianizing spirit-summoning prayer
techniques from the world of witchcraft are legitimate ought not require
much Berean examination to be summarily dismissed.  Following
Batterson’s method, you end up with an unbiblical technique that leaves
the “circle” of truth broken, shattered, and its practitioners
spiritually comatose.  Little wonder he’s endorsed a book that offers
much the same fare.

Vollotton’s book opens with a Foreword penned by pastrix and fellow Bethel charlatan Lisa Bevere.  Well … it was possibly penned by her.  She promotes some sort of Holy Spirit automatic writing so it’s possible that she’s claimed somewhere that she
actually didn’t write it.  But, given the glowing words it contains,
it’s a certainty that the Holy Spirit didn’t automatically – or
accidentally – write it.  God does not use charlatans to endorse
charlatans, nor does He do it Himself. Had the Holy Spirit actually
aided Bevere, His Words would doubtlessly have had a much more
first-century, Biblical ring to them … something more like … “For the
time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having
itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their
own passions.”  (2 Timothy 4:3)

(Just a rabbit trail here before proceeding. While this may be
common sense to many folks, I’ve encountered many who don’t do it. Pay
close attention to who is endorsing a book. I generally will read every
endorsement before I’ll even read the dust-jacket or back-cover synopsis
of the book. If a single known false teacher – or, as in this case,
enough of them to make a baseball team – endorses a book, then it most
surely ought to be avoided. Charlatans are not asked to endorse the
works of Biblically responsible authors,and vice-versa. You’ll not find a
toothy-grinned Osteen giving a gleaming review on a work of John
MacArthur. And you won’t find R. C. Sproul endorsing Jesus Calling.  It’s a useful practice to employ in order to avoid unhelpful books by unfamiliar authors.)

IF THE ENDORSEMENTS DON’T WARN YOU OFF, THE MAN-CENTERED THEOLOGY SHOULD

The modern superficial Christian church echoes so much of the post-modernism of culture around it (or, more correctly and more often, that culture isn’t just echoed, it’s invited in to “take a pew and enjoy the show.”)
  It disregards absolute truth. It doesn’t do the diligent work to
comprehend, teach, and preach what accords with sound doctrine, instead
opting to promote the popular, the appealing, and all things that tend
to fill pews, sell books, and keep coffers brimming.  It’s far more
important for the church to have hipster appeal in a Youtube video than
it is for it to offer the faith-maturing truth of God’s Word for the
souls of authentic sheep.  Such is the case with anything coming out of
Bethel Church.

Though the superficial church has largely jettisoned adherence to any
absolutes of Biblical doctrine, Vallotton’s book hawks the one
persistent, but false, absolute that remains ecclesiastically
pervasive.   What is that one absolute? That nothing in all of creation
is more important than you. That God wakes up every morning fixated on
how to make your dreams, hopes, and desires come to fruition. That He
wants to you be actualized, to be anointed, to be imparted some
supernatural empowerment to achieve your dreams.

“God is all about you!   I don’t mean you are all He has; I just mean you are His favorite.” Kris Vallotton

Scripture, though, teaches a rather different exalted One.

But Destined To Win is less high-pressure with its emphasis on the supernatural than Vollotton’s previous tomes. (He’s currently got 20 titles listed on the Bethel Church store website.) This latest volume doesn’t carry the same charismatic tone as, say, Developing A Supernatural Life: A Practical Guide To A Life of Signs, Wonders, and Miracles.
Published in 2007, the marketing hype for that book proposed to find
Vallotton reaching “into God’s arsenal” to equip the reader with
supernatural weapons that will “catapult you into your divine destiny.”

His 2016 volume, Heavy Rain,
finds Vallotton offering “guidance and inspiration … to become a vessel
that catches the downpour of the Spirit’s rain – and helps release
God’s Kingdom like a flood.” The 2014 text by Vallotton, Basic Training For the Prophetic Ministry,
is hawked as a resource to help “all believers to operate in prophetic
ministry.” In it, one will presumably “learn the languages of God and
hear His voice like never before,” how to “discover and develop your
prophetic gifts,” as he helps one to “step out and confidently share
words of knowledge, wisdom, and prophecy.”

Though he has certainly not recanted the charismatic false teachings from his earlier books, Vollotton has toned them down in Destined To Win.
You’ll still find such notions as anointing, impartation, and Holy
Spirit “gifts” mentioned throughout the text.  Yet their mentions are
subtle but no less dangerously toxic to authentic faith.  The book
maintains more muted undercurrents of NAR dominionist theology (God’s kingdom being made manifest on earth by your God-empowered success)
as well as a smattering of the “little gods” teaching from the
prosperity gospel.  Shades of covetousness for the supernaturally
miraculous are persistent in the book, unlike the importance of sound
doctrine which is absent.

“I dream of a day when the people of God are so
filled with the Spirit of God that by the Word of God we calm storms,
stop earthquakes and reconcile warring nations. I envision a time not
too far into the future when tens of millions of believers unleash
heaven wherever they go and thereby shift the atmospheres of nations.”
Kris Vallotton

Destined To Win is
much like a plagiarized and expanded outline of power point slides from a
rah-rah, pump-you-up, you-can-do-it self-help pep rally from some
soap-selling pyramid scheme seminar. It’s alleged to be a “how-to” book
on getting “actualized” (a New Age notion, perhaps, but not a Biblical one), to operate as a leader in your divine capacity in God’s kingdom.

Vallotton gives an inane evidence for why God wants you – and everyone else – to understand that “You are destined to win!”

“We don’t have eyes in the backs of our heads,” he says, “because we
weren’t designed to back up, retreat, or lose ground.” “Our arms were
created to only work in front of us,” he writes and, “our feet point
forward and are incapable of swiveling rearward.” What’s all this
anatomical reality mean? “It’s all a sign of our Creator’s desire for us
to gain ground and to live successful, productive lives. God is our
rear guard and we are to face forward.”

God is our rear guard?   Jesus never taught that. In fact, far from even implying that “God’s got your back,” he said the exact opposite, “Follow me.” (Matthew 8:22, Matthew 9:9, Matthew 19:21, Mark 1:17, Mark 10:21, Luke 5:27, John 1:43, John 21:22)
 Not only that, but Jesus clarified “follow me” even further: “If
anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but
whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24)
Now that’s worrisome. How am I supposed to have my “best life now” a la
Vallotton if, according to Jesus, I might be dead? Somebody’s wrong …
 and it is not the Son of God.

“I long to see people fully actualized in a way that
causes them to embrace their God-given identities and fulfill their
divine purpose.”  Kris Vallotton

In order to achieve your destiny, posits Vallotton, you must realize
that you can only accomplish the task – be actualized in it – by

knowing who your peeps are. You’re the leader and your identity, your
divine destiny, is tied to your followers.   “It’s impossible to escape
the fact that our destinies lie in our people,” writes Vallotton.
 Elsewhere he says that “you can’t find your purpose until you have
found your people, because your ultimate purpose is in your people!”  By
comparison, the Apostle Paul said, “For to me, to live is Christ.”  (Philippians 1:21)

SCRIPTURE IS CITED, BUT HERESY-NEUTICS IS APPLIED

To substantiate this claim with Scripture – which itself is not
heralded as the place for a believer to go to find their purpose –
Vallotton, citing Acts 9:27,
says, “Think about it: would Paul have become an apostle if Barnabas
hadn’t ‘taken hold of him’ when he was still young in the faith?”

This fails the basic rule of hermeneutics: context rules. Barnabas was “taking hold” of Paul AFTER
the Lord’s dramatic interruption of his Damascus road trek. By the time
Barnabas took hold of him, Paul (then Saul) had already been chosen by
the risen Lord. Barnabas was merely taking him to the Jerusalem
disciples who were wary of the well-known former persecutor of the Way.
Barnabas testified on Paul’s behalf, but Barnabas’ actions didn’t “make”
Paul an apostle.  The Lord had already chosen him.  But this contextual
fact was in the way of Vallotton’s narrative.

No doubt it’s this sort of disregard for “rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15)–
consistent throughout the book – that prompts Vallotton to suggest that
the work of the Holy Spirit might more appropriately be credited to
Barnabas:

“It’s possible that Barnabas inspired Paul to write as many as thirteen books of the Bible.”   Kris Vallotton

Possible encouragement aside, Paul did not write because of Barnabas; he wrote because the Holy Spirit prompted him to.

But Barnabas didn’t pose the only hermeneutical challenge for
Vallotton. So did the “heart.” In the book’s second chapter, the author
proceeds to lay out the solution to all the ills of the world, and a
truth necessary for us to succeed. He says, “I am convinced that wars
would cease, crime would plummet, divorce would diminish, and immorality
would fall if the human race just experienced these three words: you
are loved!”

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

Vallotton’s not merely hyping Arminianistic salvation here. He’s
towing with a twist the “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your
life” false gospel.   He’s promoting a sort of universalism in which
the depravity of man suddenly vanishes not because of
 Gospel-born regeneration, but if and when the “truth” of God’s love
“stored in their heads” makes the “eighteen-inch journey to their
hearts.” Citing Proverbs 3:5, Vallotton states that “I am convinced that your heart can take you places your head can never go.”

This false – but culturally and ecclesiastically prevalent –
dichotomy of heart and mind may be dismissed to read further what is
being posited.   Referring to the verse from Proverbs, Vallotton asks,
“Did you just notice the wisest man in the world clearly said that we
must trust God with our hearts, not our heads? In fact, he went on to
say that we shouldn’t put a lot of weight on what we understand.”  We
can be certain that Vallotton’s gleaning from Proverbs is completely
erroneous because the Holy Spirit who inspired Scripture never inspired
anything in it that is self-refuting, as the Apostle Paul does with
Vallotton’s interpretation.  Writing to the Colossians, Paul emphasized
learning and knowing and understanding as paramount to faith, not
thoughtless, heart-driven emotionalism.

But Vollotton is somewhat of a Proverb-ial bi-polar. Some 70
pages later he cites another Proverb that refutes the very “follow your
heart” point he made earlier: “He who trusts in his own heart is a
fool, But he who walks wisely will be delivered.” (Proverbs 28:26)

In providing a “guide” to help readers achieve their God-given
destinies, which can only be found once they’ve found their “people,”
Vallotton takes a different tack on an age old technique of Biblical
interpretation.  Instead of hermeneutics, you might consider what he
does more akin to heresy-neutics.  Vallotton doesn’t encourage
readers to play Bible roulette, randomly opening Scripture, pointing to a
verse, and interpreting it as a valid, imminent revelation for their
lives.  He’s not suggesting random verse-plucking for personal gain.
 Instead, he recommends parable-plucking.

“Discovering which descriptions of the Kingdom you most resonate with
and then finding others who resonate with the same aspects of the
Kingdom will help you find your people,” he writes.  “I suggest you
reread all the parables of Jesus in light of this revelation and pay
attention to the ones you relate to the most.”

Well, charlatans for centuries have been doing this very thing with Scripture.  (Rome, for example, has constructed a massive religious empire through this practice.)
It’s been treated as a self-help smorgasbord of pithy witticisms ever
since the canon was closed.  Convenient, personally embraceable nuggets
of Scriptural wisdom are often subjectively selected and placed on the
cafeteria tray of our preferential beliefs, while the more difficult,
unpalatable lessons from the Word are left untouched (and often
unserved by the attendant pastors of the church who prefer to offer only
a menu of nutrition-void, Scriptural feel-good food to their “flocks.”) Vallotton does the same here.  Find what you like, embrace that, find like-minded folks, and skip the rest.

Vallotton serves up various parables as examples of how someone might
search for clues to their divine purpose through resonating
characteristics from within the parables.  He cites  Matthew 13:33,
the parable of the leaven, as examples of people “hidden in society”
who are “doing ordinary things in extraordinary ways.”  Their “good
works” are “secretly causing society to rise.”  If you resonate with
this, you must find others who also want to be “stealthy in society” as
cultural influencers.

Perhaps you’re more attracted to Matthew 13:45-46,
the story of the merchant who found a pearl of great value and who sold
all he had to acquire it.  That could mean you are a risk-taker.
 “Maybe the risk-taker in you connects with a Kingdom that has embarked
on an exhilarating and dangerous journey…”

Or maybe you’re more the “fishers of men” type, exhibited in Matthew 13:47.
 “Does your soul long to capture the hearts of people and inspire them
to join the kingdom of heaven? … Then there is a strong possibility that
these desires should guide your destiny.” Yet “maybe you relate more to
the business side of God,” suggests Vallotton, who cites Matthew 20:1.
 “As the Lord unfolds the parable of the landowner, the challenges of
his business, and the descriptions of his employees, you find yourself
basking in His insights and wondering at his wisdom.  If this is true
about you, then these aspirations are signs that you may have found your
people.”

This technique for identifying your personal “resonances” with
Scripture, to thus be enabled to seek your like-minded peeps in order to
find your destiny, graphically violates the apostle’s admonition to
Timothy to “rightly handle” Scripture.  It fails to heed the Lord’s
warning to “take care then how you hear.”

The parables of Jesus are fundamentally intended to convey profound
spiritual truth.  As John MacArthur writes, “Parables are not to be
mined for layer upon layer of secret significance.  Their lessons are
simple, focused, and without much embellishment.”  “If it seems,” writes
MacArthur in his book Parables,
“the stories Jesus told are capable of endless interpretations and
therefore devoid of any discernible objective meaning, that’s because
truly understanding them requires faith, diligence, careful exegesis,
and a genuine desire to hear what Christ is saying.”  MacArthur adds,
“…all unbelievers lack that capacity.”

Vollotton goes to lengths to emphasize finding your destiny by
finding your people.  He describes in some detail the organization of
Bethel and how creating the proper “environment” for the pursuit of your
divine destiny is critical.  “An environment helps to actualize a
specific people group with a specific vision,” he writes.  “One of the
difficulties in becoming fully actualized occurs when you find yourself
in a community that doesn’t have the capacity or vision to collaborate
your calling.”

The latter third or so of the book offers superficial and euphemistic
encouragements for accelerating your actualization into your peep-found
destiny.  “Too many of us are spiritual mummies,” he suggests,
comparing to Lazarus who emerged from the tomb “alive but bound.”  To
get unbound, you have to confront pain and proceed to freedom.  Later he
offers “five foundational questions” that “are meant to help you
process and proactively evaluate the structures [your environment and
its accouterments] with which you are currently living, so you can
determine whether they are empowering or constraining you.”

His five closing questions, “Who is leading?” – “Who are the people
you are leading?” – “In what season are you leading?” – “What are you
called to accomplish in this season?” – “What core values are guiding
you in life in leadership?” – each are bullet-points supported by yet
other related questions.  These subjective queries are simply fodder for
Christianized psycho-babble self-analysis. They are not in response to
the important apostolic exhortation to “Examine yourself,” (2 Corinthians 13:5) but are posed to put you in the position to be the winner God expects and wants you to be.

The words “vision,” “hard-work,” “courage,” and adjectives consistent
with self-help pop psychology are strewn liberally throughout the book,
spiritualized, of course.  Vallotton couches them with Scripture to
provide an appearance of Christianity and slathers the book with Bible
verses so that a veneer of divine authority seems superficially evident.
 The “supernatural” elements of his – and Bethel’s – well-known, errant
theology are present in the book, but only subtly.  For example, he
cites direct revelations he or his wife have received from God.  (For
example, God told Vallotton’s wife they should move and take a job
offer with Bethel.  God told Vallotton that he should make a lifelong
covenant with Bill Johnson.)

For the minimal importance that genuine salvation matters in the
book, the closing chapter – “Unleashing Heaven” – includes a passing
remark reflective of the less-than-sovereign God well known to the
prosperity-gospel and much of the modern church, “What I mean is that
when you asked Jesus into your heart, you joined the Bless Me Club,
because wherever Jesus lives, He prospers.”  But this magic genie “God”
does not exist and does not save.  And authentic salvation isn’t winning
the golden ticket to Bless-Me-Land; rather, it’s “deny yourself, take
up your cross and follow me.”  (Matthew 16:24)

The closing section of the book offers a self-scoring “Nobility
Assessment Test,” to “help you get a better picture of where you are in
your lifelong journey to nobility,” writes Vallotton, adding that, “You
are called to be a noble person, a winner, and a champion.” While it is
true that we are adopted into God’s family, the full realization of that
relationship will not be known on this side of eternity.  While we’re
here, it is not the pursuit of supernatural nobility or supernatural
gifts or supernatural self-actualization that is to drive us, but rather
obedience to Christ in His Word.  (John 14:21)

The Apostle Peter reminds his readers, and us, what our life’s aim ought truly look like, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”  (1 Peter 1:16)

Destined To Win is
merely poorly Christianized pop-psychology motivational fodder.  It is
absolutely not worthwhile reading for a believer.  The only thing going
for it is that for heresy-neutics, it’s a worthy example.