In the first chapter of God Is Good, Bill Johnson said, “Almost every believer confesses God is good. We have to. It’s in the Bible.” But how this goodness is defined has brought debate, conflict and turmoil into the church, into the family of God. So, we need to be clear that our understanding of the goodness of God is consistent with what Scripture says about God.
What Does “God is Good” Mean to Bill Johnson?
Johnson immediately associates his belief in the goodness of God with his understanding of the meaning of “greater works than these” in John 14:12: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” Johnson said Jesus meant that his disciples would do signs and wonders, greater miracles, than he did himself! He believes “God is good,” means He never causes or allows sickness. “But the bottom line is, it was never meant that the hour we live in was to be inferior to Jesus’ earthly ministry.”
Johnson said he looked forward to the day when the Church stands up and says, “Don’t believe us unless we are doing the works that Jesus did!” However, the “greater works” in John 14:12 is the salvation of all those who the Son will raise to life, just as the Father raised Him. In his commentary, D.A. Carson said the following:
The ‘signs’ and ‘works’ Jesus performed during his ministry could not fully accomplish their true end until after Jesus had risen from the dead and been exalted. Only at that point could they be seen for what they were. By contrast, the works believers are given to do through the power of the eschatological Spirit, after Jesus’ glorification, will be set in the framework of Jesus’ death and triumph, and will therefore more immediately and truly reveal the Son. Thus greater things is constrained by salvation-historical realities. In consequence many more converts will be gathered into the messianic community, the nascent church, than were drawn in during Jesus’ ministry.
It seems Johnson presumes a false dichotomy between his understanding of the doctrine of cessationism, or no miracles today, and his belief in modern believers doing the works that Jesus did. He said:
Creating doctrines of no miracles today not only contradicts His Word, it is a sneaky way to avoid responsibility. Instead of changing the standard for life given by Jesus, who walked the earth two thousand years ago, we are to embrace it and follow His model.
Not only are miracles supposed to be a normal part of the life of the church as we embrace and follow the standard of life given by Jesus, but we are also about to experience “the greatest harvest of souls of all time.” This won’t happen because of our preaching, our use of media, or our powerful music. Although each of these areas has importance, they do not exist by themselves. “They are important in that they are vehicles that carry the greatest revelation of all time—God is good, and He is perfect Father.” See “Kingdom Now: Bringing Heaven to Earth” for further discussion of John 14:12.
Experiencing God’s Goodness?
According to Johnson, God’s goodness is beyond our ability to comprehend, but not our ability to experience. “Our hearts will take us where our heads can’t fit.” This means experiencing God leads to understanding the goodness of God, as in “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). “If you’ll taste it for yourself, you’ll see it more clearly.” We need to put a demand on what we believe: “Simple mental assent must not be the end of the story.”
This leads Johnson to say in the section “Heavenly Mind,” of chapter one: “The biblical concept of the renewed mind is in part an answer to this problem.” It is a gift from a good Father— “it is the mind of Christ.” Quoting Romans 12:2, he says the renewed mind proves the will of God. He then pivots, and quotes Matthew 6:10 from the Lord’s Prayer, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” In When Heaven Invades Earth, he said that the Lord’s Prayer provided the clearest instruction on how we can bring the reality of His world, heaven, into this one.
It can be said that the renewed mind is what reveals and illustrates God’s will on earth. The mind of Christ, seen in Jesus’ lifestyle, illustrates this beautifully. He confronted storms, healed bodies, multiplied food, and did countless other miracles to reveal Heaven’s effect on earth. The renewed mind in us should do the same. “We will know our mind is renewed when the impossible looks logical.”
He then said the gospels tell of how person after person is healed and delivered by the love of the perfect Father. There wasn’t one example of Jesus giving a disease to anyone. Using an analogy, Johnson said the renewed mind can reveal when a conclusion with “God’s signature” is a counterfeit; a forgery.
Tragically, many forgeries are accepted by believers day after day and then sold to others in the Christian marketplace as authentic revelations of the will of God. They in turn distort the revealed will of God throughout the Scriptures, perverting our sense of what He is like. The biggest forgery of all may just be the teaching that Jesus no longer heals people from sickness and delivers them from torment. Simple examination of Scripture proves that such a concept is a devilish misrepresentation of the One who gave Himself to reveal the Father and redeem humanity. Many good people believe such lies. They must be treated with kindness—they were poisoned with a lie. But it’s equally true that the lies they promote must be exposed as forgeries. What causes me the most grief is that this way of thinking misrepresents the nature of God. It hurts our approach to life, seriously damaging our ability to represent Him as good. Perhaps it’s these forgeries that have been marketed for decades by well-meaning people, believers that have contributed to the single greatest vacuum in human consciousness—the knowledge of the goodness of God.
Bill Johnson unequivocally states that knowledge of the goodness of God requires that Christians today believe they can do greater miracles than Jesus did. By praying the Lord’s Prayer, he thinks we can bring the reality of His world, heaven, into this one. What is free to operate in Heaven (joy, peace, wisdom, health, wholeness, etc.) is “loosed” on earth. And what is not free in Heaven (sickness, disease, spiritual bondage, and sin) is “bound” here. See “Deconstructing the Lord’s Prayer.”
By systematically deconstructing the Lord’s Prayer and how it has been traditionally understood by the Church, he imposes his distorted understanding of God’s goodness upon it. In the end, it gives a radically different meaning and significance to the goodness of God than Scripture. Johnson’s understanding of the goodness of God seems to be itself a forgery or misunderstanding of the goodness of God. See Part 2 for a discussion of the traditional, orthodox understanding of the goodness of God.
