A little while ago, I was going through my YouTube “For You” page and ran across a video by a dude named Bryce Crawford, a 20-year-old Gen Z street preacher with an audience of 177K subscribers on YouTube and 693K on TikTok. In this video, he was sharing the Gospel to people at a L.A. Pride Festival and the thumbnail showed him praying with a furry. Being a GenZer myself and being interested in hearing what he was saying to these people, I clicked on the video. At first, what he was saying seemed to be doctrinally sound. He talked a bit about the Trinity, how Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sin (which leads to death), etc. Then things started getting iffy when he started giving his testimony in a way that seemed to imply that what happened to him will happen to everyone who gets saved (more on that in a later post) and started praying that Jesus would reveal himself to people through visions and other such signs and wonders. From that alone, I was able to deduce that he’s a hyper-charismatic, a sect of Christianity that really emphasizes having experiences with God (more on hyper charismatics later in this post). Later, when I went back to his channel to see what else he had, I found that he does things like faith healings, videos about how God (supposedly) has a word for you today, etc. This immediately had my alarm bells ringing and the plot continued to thicken from there over the past few months. So, here’s why, if you’re a millennial, Gen Z, or Gen Alpha reading this (or anyone else, really), you shouldn’t listen to Bryce Crawford and why he’s, unfortunately, dangerous to the faith. This will be a three-part series because there is simply too much to cover in one post, though I suspect it may become longer if the plot continues to thicken like oatmeal.
While writing this post, I wondered where I should start because there is so much wrong with this dude that’s super detrimental to the faith. I figured that I should probably start by talking about the fact that he is being discipled by the false teacher, Todd White. Understanding this is the beginning to understanding everything wrong with Bryce Crawford’s ministry.
For those of you who have never heard of Todd White and are wondering “Why should I care who he is?”, Todd White is a pastor and the founder and President of Lifestyle Christianity University in Watauga, Texas. He’s become famous for his charismatic preaching style and the videos of him allegedly “healing” people of physical ailments, usually short legs. He’s come under fire by the Christian community in recent years for his heretical practices and his healing videos have been debunked time and time again by channels like Fighting for the Faith, Mike Winger, Justin Peters Ministries, etc. If you just look up “Debunking Todd White” on YouTube, you will see tons of videos that show him as the charlatan that he is. One such video is this:
I encourage you to watch some of the videos about the scam he’s running, because it is truly sad how he’s grifting off of desperate peoples’ pain while taking Scripture completely out of context (some examples of Scripture he and others like him constantly take out of context are: James 5:14-15, Mark 10:27, Jeremiah 30:17, Acts 5: 15-16, Acts 19:12, Matthew 9:22, Mark 10:52, Luke 8:50, etc.)
Now, to bring it back to Bryce Crawford, the reason why it’s concerning that he’s being discipled by this guy is because he is being taught to do the same thing that White is doing. In a collaboration that they did on White’s channel titled, “Bryce Crawford: Discipling Gen Z”, White even prays that his “torch” (a slang term used by people in the hyper charismatic/ New Apostolic Reformation movement that basically means the same as “spiritual gifts”) be passed down to Crawford to help him in his ministry.
I didn’t know that being a conman – intentionally or unintentionally – was considered a spiritual gift, but okay. What do I know? It’s not like I’ve spent the last three years studying Christian apologetics while trying to figure out my faith.
“But M.J.!” you may be saying. “What does hyper charismatic mean? Why is it bad? And what’s the New Apostolic Reformation?”
Good question. I shall explain.
In short, the hyper charismatic movement is a sect of Christianity that heavily emphasizes having spiritual experiences and gifts such as speaking in tongues, being able to prophesy, heal people through faith, etc. and churches who practice this usually are characterized by their vibrant worship and teaching style that is more reminiscent of a rock concert mixed with the occasional Bible verse taken so far out of context that you can hardly recognize it. The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR for short) shares a lot of overlap with this, but takes it even farther, combining Pentecostalism, evangelicalism, and the Seven Mountain Mandate that desires to bring about Christian dominion over everything and end the separation of church and state.
How do they plan to do this?
By acquiring a ton of money, power, and disciples first, though that’s a topic for a different blog post.
The reason why this belief system is so dangerous is because it focuses so much on experiences that it doesn’t really focus on what the Bible actually says or how to discern whether or not what’s speaking to you is God or something else. This means that it can become incredibly easy for people to fall into the trap of combining beliefs that are antithetical to Christianity with Christianity without even knowing it or start listening to things that aren’t from God through practices like spirit channeling. When you make experience the core of your religion, what you end up getting is a house built on wet sand. If you’re not getting experiences, why should you believe? If you are getting experiences, how do you know that it’s really God and not just coincidence or something else? In the Bible, Pharoah’s magicians were able to do magic tricks too thanks to the demonic entities that they worshiped and that can still happen today. Those things are real, and they want to deceive you. If you don’t have discernment, then you won’t be able to differentiate the two.
And what makes this even worse is that these types of people will often target people who are very vulnerable and want/need help, or they will annoy them until they tell them what they want to hear to get them to go away. I’ll talk about this some more in later posts because Bryce does this a lot, but I’ll just leave you with this video as an example for you to think about. Just watch how she leans over on the chair to get the weight off of her hip….
That’s the first reason why you shouldn’t listen to Bryce Crawford and why he needs some serious help.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
I was also impressed, in a positive way, by him, but then, when I saw all the “healing” vids I was shocked. he’s not following Jesus words Properly. But if you see this in a bigger context he’s doing something good, going to hopeless people and trying to give them motivation and strenght. I think that a part from healing and stuff like that, hyper charismatics christianity could be a good thing for make more people intrested in god. But I don’t know, maybe they are using their fake powers only to make more followers and more money. It’s a complicated theme, it would be great to have a conversation with him, but I can already predict his words… “The worst sin is judging other christians and their tipe of faith”.
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While he and other hyper-charismatics may be doing something that seems good on the surface, I tend to think of the effect of Bryce’s work in terms of long-term and short-term results. Short-term, yeah, he’s giving these people hope that if they accept the message he’s giving them that things will get better. But long-term, what happens if they don’t see any real, tangible healing even after accepting the gospel that Bryce presented to them? Then things start getting tricky. They’ll either deconstruct from the “faith” (that they never fully understood in the first place) and fall back into old ways, or (best case scenario) God can use that bad experience and lead them to true repentance, faith, and understanding. Unfortunately, while there have been people in hyper-charismatic and NAR churches who have been saved by God and come to understand the true Gospel (which is what happened to my family and I, which I wrote a blog post about last year if you’re interested), there are many who deconstruct instead because, based off of one bad experience, they see all Christians as religious quacks.
For example, I have a deadly allergy to peanuts and tree nuts. When I was 7, I was blood tested to see how sensitive I was to peanuts, and the results came back as over 100 IgE (Which is the protein released by the immune system to fight foreign substances. In allergy testing, the more IgE is present in your blood sample, the worse the allergy. 100 is typically the worst it can get and anything over that is almost unheard of.) Later, when I was 13, I was tested again and my IgE levels were around 50, a far cry from what they had been before. It looked like there had been an answer to prayer and I was going to possibly be able to outgrow my allergy. However, just a few months ago, I did another test, and the results were 92 IgE. My allergy has gotten worse somehow. Though I’m grateful that I’m not as sensitive to peanut as I was as a child, it is sad that I haven’t been cured and has taken a toll on me mentally. I’ve learned to accept that if it’s in God’s plan to cure me, it’ll happen, but no amount of “claiming” healing from Jesus like we see Bryce doing with Todd White on his podcast will change anything. And that’s not even mentioning the chronic health issues and anomalies that my family has just learned to deal with. Because of this, if Bryce walked up to me like he does so many other people and started diving into his testimony saying that God’s going to heal me like He did him, I would be trying my best not to roll my eyes as I try to correct him.
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MJ, God bless you for trying to protect people. While I believe your heart is in the right place, you are throwing out God’s Word. You simply cannot throw out the book of Acts….the Baptism of the Holy Spirit….the command to pray over the sick and watch Jesus heal….He has done this through me as I pray over people and give them a Bible. But I almost never ask God for a word about people and then verbalize it. That feels too borderline New Age to me. I also don’t agree with slaying of the Spirit where the power og God knocks people over. He doesn’t need to do that. I just preach the gospel….give them a Bible and pray for them if they let me. Jesus heals sometimes and sometimes not, but I did as He commands. Be careful of your anti charismatic brainwashing because it grieves Him. There are many healthy Spirit Filled and led Christians who are not crazy or unbiblical. Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. Blessings to you.
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I don’t deny that God can heal people if He wants to. Members of my family have experienced healing that can only be chalked up to God’s hand in their life. I also don’t disagree with praying over the sick. We’re called to do so, and, once again, if it’s in God’s plan, He can and will do it. I’m also not “brainwashed” to hate all charismatic Christians. There are absolutely some charismatics who aren’t crazy or unbiblical. In fact, some of the people my family and I listen to are charismatics, such as Jack Hibbs and Gino Geraci. I may not agree with them on everything, but they’re theologically sound and don’t compromise on the essentials.
Where I don’t agree with some charismatics – hyper-charismatics especially (there is a difference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxPi5mInFts) – is when they seem to be using the Bible out of context to make themselves look more spiritual for the purpose of gaining power or money, which is what I believe Bryce is doing under the influence of Todd White.
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Bryce Crawford is comes off nice I like what this blog said he evangelizes to people that are vulnerable he’s trying to recruit possibly for Todd White if he was saved why would associate himself with several false teachers with Todd White, Isaiah Saldivar with so called demon slayers and they edit their videos I’ve read testimonies of Todd doing fake healings in Hospitals Todd is dangerous and so is bryce these false teachers don’t work a job like a normal person and they use Jesus as leverage for money to post their YouTube and get a bunch of views to become popular and go on christian podcast to get recognized that’s how they make their money Todd White is bethel and they pray for the dead there all connected I preached to Bill Johnson in Los Angeles and I rebuked them for even calling them self christians their a cult Bryce is being used by Todd Jesus said false teachers would arise in the last days
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Exactly. You hit the nail on the head.
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I think you’ve been taught the false gospel thst has not real power your whole life. I doubt you even have the Holy Spirit
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The Holy Spirit, the gospel and discipleship should not be placed behind a pay-wall, as Bryce Crawford does. He sells discipleship to those who can afford to be in his personal circle. Tell me, is Bryce Crawford truly Spirit filled considering this sham of a business model? Simon the Sorcerer tried to purchase the power of the Holy Spirit and look how things worked out for him.
Acts 8:9-24 — Now there was a man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astounding the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great; and they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, “This man is what is called the Great Power of God.” And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astounded them with his magic arts. But when they believed Philip proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly astounded. Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit had been bestowed through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you supposed you could obtain the gift of God with money! “You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. “Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray earnestly to the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. “For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of unrighteousness.” But Simon answered and said, “Pray earnestly to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”
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