Joaquin Evans is the Senior Leader of Bethel Austin, part of Bethel Church’s eastern expansion pack. Because he believes the same sketchy theology that Bethelites do, he declared in a recent sermon that as part of the apostolic mission, Christians are supposed to own the airwaves and take dominion over the air.
This is pretty standard charismatic fare, unfortunately. Evans teaches that maladies like depression, sickness, anxiety, fear and confusion travel through the air, and that every time a Christian worships, they bind and lose the demonic through no-fly zones.
Does it make a lick of biblical sense? Not at all, but we’ll let Evans try to explain it.
In an apostolic mission, we’re supposed to own the airways. Now the model that we just talked about the the Roman Armada, in those days, they didn’t have airplanes, and so they probably didn’t, you know, militarily they weren’t worried about the air so much. But in current times, how…many know governments have restricted airspace? Listen if you have governance over a land, part of binding and loosing is what comes through the airwaves.
Binding and loosing- what comes through the airways? Enemy aircraft can’t just fly through your land, that they actually set up perimeters not just in the land, but in the air. And actually, there is a declaration that this is our space.
How many people know that we’re supposed to live in an open heaven? That we under apostolic mission as the body of Christ, that we are supposed to have authority on the land where our feet tread, but also in the air. Come on, thank you, Jesus.
Ephesians 6:12 You’ve heard this before, ‘for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.’ Or some translations say ‘in the air’.
Really? Name one translation that says “in the air.” Here are 65 or so of the top translations from Bible Gateway. Not one one of them translates it as ‘air’ Even Bethel’s Passion version doesn’t say it. He’s just making stuff up at this point.
That on apostolic mission, we take the land, and we take the airways. Like we have an assignment to own the airways. Listen in Austin, Texas, we have an assignment to own the airways. Over this house, this church ,we have an assignment to own the airwaves. It is part of the reason why worship is so central and so important. That we are breaking through and taking authority over our airways every time we worship.
We’re creating-listen- for the demonic and for the enemy, we’re creating a no-fly zone. Listen, you can’t come through here because we have dominion in the name of Jesus. How many people know the church is supposed to own the airwaves? Not the new age, not witchcraft. This is our land. This is our territory. This is our heavens. This is our airspace.
You can no longer come through here. Depression you cannot fly through here. Anxiety you have no place here. Fear you can’t come through here. Confusion. You cannot come this way. We have dominion over the air. In Jesus name
When you’re at Bethel, bad theology abounds, and this is no exception.
h/t to Salt and Light for the vid and the image cover.
Bonus. Look how awful the Message Bible translates this verse :
ESV: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
MSG: This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.
