Bethel Tabernacle
Bethel Tabernacle is a message church in Beaufort, South Carolina . The pastor is Jason Watkins.
It is part of the "Bride Coming" sub-sect within the Message which has become decidedly more cultic in recent years.
An open letter to Jason Watkins
November 14, 2013
Dear Bro. Jason,
I was busy working and saw you had responded to my comment the day before yesterday, which I appreciated. I finally had time last night to respond, so I came back to continue the conversation which I felt was friendly, but found my post removed and unable to post further. That disappointed me.
You may try and control truth, and may succeed in pulling the wool over people's eyes, but the truth won't be controlled. On your post to me you tried to sound bold, i.e. inviting me to a debate 3000 miles away from where I live, which will probably never happen and you well know it. However, your cowardice to engage me on a public forum is evident, so I highly doubt you'd fare any better in person than you would on Facebook.
This is the new forum which makes it unnecessary for people to incur ridiculous travel expenses to debate matters of importance, and your unwillingness to engage is what many people are seeing through. I say I stand for truth, you say you stand for truth, but I am open about conversation and you seem to just block anything that challenges your preconceptions.
Myself and others don't need to listen to a one-way monologue in the form of one of your sermons... I’ve heard quite a number of your sermons and I doubt I’d hear anything I haven’t heard from you before. I also don’t need to listen to a lying ‘prophet’ to get answers. These one-way streams of consciousness don’t lead to conversation or relationship, in the message these generally lead to abuse and preacher/prophet worship, and condemnation of those who won’t bow to your idol.
Before I left the 'message', I went to my pastor and he couldn’t answer my questions, so naturally, I continued to search. The ‘message heavy-hitters’ have been noticeably silent on the major matters of concern as well. They berate their congregations and warn them of the evils of listening to anyone but the ‘prophet’, but don’t address the real problems with the message even to their congregations.
The Jason Watkins, Donny Regans, Ed Byskals, Tim Pruitts, Ron Spencers, etc. of the world have not been forthcoming and it has been noticed. That is why traffic on sites run by ex-‘message believers’ who have left it all for Christ are way up. ‘Dumb, easy sheep’ only put up with so much abuse before they start seeking answers, and when they begin to discover the truth, it rocks their world.
So keep playing your games, keep blocking and ignoring the issues, you guys are your own worst enemy. The message itself is so full of imaginations, vain babbling and cover-ups that it is rotting from the inside out. Jesus Christ is the truth, the life and the way, and he is truly setting people free.
You said something to the effect that your experience is that the message contained all your answers. My experience is that it perpetuates the insanity and complexes of its self-professed neurotic ‘messenger’. But the truth of the matter is that neither your experience nor mine is the foundation for establishing absolute truth. Devout Mormons, Buddhists, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. all have experiences that make them committed followers of their belief set.
I believe Jesus Christ and the Bible, He is absolute truth and only he is the way. To me, He is the only thing that makes sense, and all truth is subject the Word of God... the real Word of God, not some sorry excuse in 1100 tapes. Not Jesus plus William Branham. Jesus plus anything will likely get you nothing. Jesus plus nothing will get you everything. All the ‘message’ can offer is a lying prophet and additions to the Bible. Additions and bold-faced lies that according to the bible carry very heavy consequences. Jesus offers himself, and he is the greatest treasure. Jesus is worth everything, and I am sold out to him.
I wish you and all the other message preachers could be honest enough to address the concerns that have been brought up over the last couple of years. If you can address the problems of the message plainly, I’m sure you will win many back to your fold. If you cannot, be honest about it for the sake of your own soul. And if you continue the cover-up, I’m sure you will keep losing sheep that know the voice of Christ alone saying, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins.”
With Godly love and concern,
Jake Bergen[1]
Promoting Message Urban Legends
You can find some conspiracy theorists on the internet that believe that there is a secret U.S. Navy submarine base under the Nevada desert and that submarines travel to the Pacific Ocean using underground ocean caverns that run several hundred miles from Monterey, CA inland. There is also a story floating around that the U.S. Navy discovered a huge network of tunnels under portions of the west coast of the U.S. and that U.S. nuclear submarines had explored some of these tunnels, which are accessible just off the continental shelf, and had followed them inland for several hundred miles. The story goes on that a well-known U.S. Nuclear submarine lost its way in one of the passages and was never heard from again (it would have to be either the U.S.S. Thresher and the U.S.S. Scorpion).
It should be added that there is no scientific report for these claims. It is quite obvious that they are false and the product of the conspiracy theory rumor mill. That is, of course, unless you are in the message.
Jason Watkins told the story of a nuclear submarine that was exploring a large cave system under California but lost its way and was unable to find its way out. Everyone on board perished. He went on to state that these caves are structurally unsound and a large earthquake would cause Los Angeles to fall into the sea.
Nice story but simply another message urban legend.
Footnotes
- ↑ Posted on Facebook on November 14, 2013