This book is the seedbed of his later one Unpunishable. Let’s get to know the source of the errors and confusion through this review of the Culture of Honor, which was a tough slog for me.

Why review a book published in 2009? It is still influential. It is referenced all the time by video podcasters, so I had to look into it more deeply, for myself.

It was published by Destiny Image (of course), and it is connected to Bethel, Redding (of course).

The full title: Culture of Honor: Sustaining a Supernatural Environment.

The Review

I include a few criticism here and there; then I have a separate section of my criticisms, below.

A Supernatural Environment

So how does a church sustain a supernatural environment? Churches must shift from a leadership structure of teachers, pastors, administrators, and evangelists, which is earth to heaven, towards an apostolic (and prophetic) structure, which is heaven to earth. An apostle does not directly care for the needs of the people (p. 64). Leave that to a pastor. (Never mind the fact that the Apostle Paul’s letters, particularly his Corinthian Correspondences, are all about meeting the needs of ordinary Christians.)

Hierarchy

Silk gets his apostolic model from 1 Corinthians 12:28, where Paul writes: “And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, next miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, leading, various kinds of tongues” (1 Cor. 12:28). Silk assumes that first … second … third is a hierarchy.

First = apostles= top tier

Second = prophets = below the apostle

Third = teachers = lower level.

Thus teachers get in the way of a heaven-to earth environment and push rules and being doctrinally right, front and center in the church. They slow down the top two tiers. (No wonder “apostle” Bill Johnson of Bethel, Redding loved the book and wrote a forward to it. No doubt “chief prophet” Kris Vallotton liked it too.)

This is full-scale New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), and this movement is turning into a disaster. Silk gets the idea to denigrate teachers, pastors, administrators, and evangelists from C. Peter Wagner’s book Churchquake! For him, it is all about apostles and prophets overseeing local church governments. This explains why so many pastors and evangelists claim to be apostles nowadays, when they are really just pastors and evangelists. They truly believe they are restoring the Scriptural teaching on church government.

However, Wagner defined apostleship too broadly, and this is causing the NAR to shipwreck. Pastors and evangelists are out of line and have become inflated beyond their true calling. They are deceived. They have become arrogant, and God himself opposes arrogant people (1 Peter 5:5-6).

Another interpretation of 1 Corinthians 12:28 is possible, however. First … second … third are terms used in a simple list, without hierarchy. Note the other gifts that follow: miracles, and leading (also translated as ability to lead, administrate, or manage). Those gifts are just as valid as the first three in the same verse. No hierarchy needed.

But I concede that I cannot emphatically prove the hierarchy interpretation is not in the verse. I believe, however, the list is the better exegesis. But I’m a lowly teacher, so why would Silk care about my interpretation? I live in an inferior earth to heaven system, he believes.

The real solution is found below, where I define apostleship more biblically.

Teachers Pushed off to the Side

Let’s move on to the practical outworking of the hierarchy.

Silk writes:

Unfortunately, the same issue still needs to be addressed in many of our churches. The downfall of the teacher’s anointing is to elevate the teaching of the rules as the supreme environment, leading people to pay attention to and cultivate our relationship with the rules of God, of Christ. […] But look at how most church environments respond when someone breaks the rules. All the responses are to shepherd the person back into a right relationship with the rules. Punishment is the tool par excellence to restore a person to a right relationship with the culture of rules. (p. 84)

Life in the Spirit v. Rules

The problem, Silk believes, is that we don’t live in the Spirit, but by rules. The solution to a rules-based church is simple. Those who break the rules can just return to walking in the Spirit. Rules punish. The Spirit enables the rule breakers to keep themselves from the punisher, and towards a heart-to-heart connection, a union and relationship with Christ. And thus the rule breaker become unpunishable. “Being unpunishable is the result of walking through faith and grace, in relationship with the Spirit” (p. 86). He has other sections on non-punishment for straying leaders.

Clearly this book is the seedbed of Silk’s later book Unpunishable (2019).

Early Critique

Silk confuses genuine repentance and restoration of a rule breaker’s relationship with Christ and life in the Sprit with his restoration to leadership. This is simplistic and naive, even dangerous in some cases.

Recently (May 2026), Bethel put out a statement that distinguishes restoration and reinstatement. Yes to restoration to God, always. But reinstatement to leadership no, or possibly no, depending on the rules that were broken and for how long. The restoration / reinstatement distinction is sound and contradicts Silk’s basic confusion that all restorations work out to be the same: restoration to relationship with Christ and to leadership.

I concede, however, that the first chapter was about an unmarried young couple, students, who turned up pregnant over the summer, but apparently they were not in leadership at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. The other students, faculty, and staff restored them to being students. This honored them, Silk believes.

But the rest of the book leaves them behind and discusses the apostolic environment and restoration to leadership of others.

The Case of an Adulterer and Silk’s Wham! Restoration

So how does Silk’s views work out in practical terms in different contexts? In Chapter  4, pp. 100-14, an unnamed man was living in a perpetual state of adultery for four years. He was cheating on his wife with her best friend. He had also cheated previously with another of his wife’s best friends. Yet at the same time he was seemingly anointed by God to grow a distant church to great health and numbers.

Living in an apostolic government system helps us naturally to pull light from Heaven into our pastoral relationship with people who break the rules. It makes us powerful in the presence of sin. We’re not afraid of sin. Sin is nothing! Sin is darkness! One flick of the switch and click–it’s over! (p. 103).

Note the easy and quick solution to sin summed up in one word: Click. Yes, God instantly forgives a man who truly repents, but what about pastors or other church leaders who are sexual predators? It takes time to overcome it, if they ever do. They should never return to ministry, either (I believe). God can forgive and restore them to a right relationship with his Son, but not restore them to leadership. There’s a difference between the two:

Restoration to God ≠ Reinstatement to Ministry

However, Silk did not know about this obvious wisdom back in 2009, even though it is so obvious that a book writer with a Master’s degree in counseling of some sort should have seen it

Let’s continue with the review.

Through careful interview questions Silk managed to get the repeat adulterer to see that he had a love problem. He never told his wife he loved her. When he realized this and told her how sorry he was for his years of adultery with her friends and he loved her, and when he took a few minutes to forgive his father for his absent love, “wham!” All is well (p. 107). Silk actually wrote the onomatopoeic word “wham!”

Problem solved. Immediate. Instant. Unpunishable. Such is the greatness and power of an apostolic church government. Heaven to earth.

The adulterous man, healed instantly of his adulterous lifestyle and clergy sexual abuse (or so Silk believes, “wham!”), was concerned about his church and future leadership there. Would they reinstate him? Or would they demand him to follow the rules? The couple went home to find out.

Three Reasonable Options Rejected

A short while later the leaders of the other church called Silk, who counseled immediate reinstatement to leadership (Silk used the word restoration in his 2009 book). He said that a rules-based church, an “earth to heaven church,” (teachers, pastors, administrators, and evangelists), as opposed to a “heaven to earth church” (apostles and prophets), would have likely imposed one of the following rules on the man and his wife, who was just counseled back to health in a short time. “Wham!” “Click“! Here are the options: (1) Tell the congregation and let them pray for restoration (2) The couple should step down for a few months and work on their marriage. (3) Review the couple’s progress for three to six months and then slowly reintroduce them back into ministry (p. 110).

No, says Silk. Those three options (which seem much too lenient, to me), are not based on life in the Spirit or grace and faith. Put him back in ministry immediately, but tell him he must be accountable to others.

The devil is working to destroy us, and the “earth to Heaven” model will usually help him to accomplish his goal in the Church. I know that we are not trying to be destructive, but we are confined to our earthly limitations when our senior leaders are teachers, pastors, administrators, and evangelists who have not been hooked up to the flow of anointing and revelation in an apostolic government. (p. 113).

What Happened to the Couple?

Since Silk did not name the couple and their home church, we cannot check up on them. Did the man stay true? To judge from the criticisms of his later book Unpunishable, where the two cases named there are utter failures (see below), I doubt that the couple remained stable in their marriage and were effective leaders. Hyper-charismatics are vulnerable to magical changes and quick fixes. They borrow heavily from American culture and a “drive-through breakthrough.” “Wham!” “Click“!

Honor Culture Summarized

To close out this section, how does an honor culture figure into the heaven-to-earth church model? It was not as clear as I had thought. Apparently honor is the hardware, and life in the Spirit is the software. We honor people by restoring them and not shaming them. (Honor and shame are opposites.) Punishing the rule breakers with rules shames them. Restoring fallen rule breakers immediately (“wham!” “Click“!) honors them.

Fuller Criticisms

I have already inserted my criticisms of Silk’s ideas, here and there. Now let me move on to my fuller critiques.

Trigger warning to all apostles and prophets of the NAR: I’m a teacher, and I’m about to teach. So buckle up. Or relax because in your ecclesiology I’m a second-class citizen. You don’t have to take me seriously. But let me proceed, anyway. Give me a fair hearing.

(The previous paragraph was divine sarcasm, which is found many places in Scripture. Shhh! Don’t tell the NAR apostles!)

Basic Biblical Leadership

Mr. Silk needs to find a passage that shows Paul appointing apostles and prophets to lead a local church. He did not. He appointed elders or overseers or pastors (functionally equivalent). He told Titus to appoint elders in every town on Crete (Titus 1:5) and Timothy to shore up the elders / overseers and deacons in Ephesus, to ensure they meet high qualifications (1 Tim. 3:1-13). He never once said to appoint apostles or prophets.

Biblical Description of Apostles

So what are apostles? Clearly they are itinerant missionaries. In the Great Commission, Jesus commissioned the eleven to go into all the world and disciple nations, teaching (uh-oh, teachers) them to obey (uh-oh, submit) everything he commanded (uh-oh, rules) (Matt. 28:18-20). In the last chapter of Luke’s Gospel, he commissioned the eleven (and others) to go into the world and proclaim repentance and forgiveness (Luke 24:47-48). If you accept the longer ending in Mark, Jesus appeared to the eleven and commissioned them to go into all the world (Mark 16:14-15). He did the same for the eleven in Acts 1:8. Acts 13-14 is about Paul’s and Barnabas’s first missionary journey, and they are called apostles (Acts 14:4). The entire second half of Acts is about Paul’s itinerant, on-the-move ministry.

What those verses have in common is that apostles are sent out to unevangelized territories. They are not sedentary pastors / overseers / elders. They are not network leaders to every church that joins their cause. In contrast, modern apostles are settled down in big, luxurious houses, leading their networks from their prosperous, powerful jacuzzis, just chillin’.

Therefore, since apostles are itinerant, it would make no sense for Paul to tell Titus and Timothy to appoint apostles to lead the local churches. Apostles are on the move, always traveling. Elder, overseers, pastors need to stay put and shepherd people.

Paul told the Romans that he was going on to Spain after his visit to them (Rom. 15:24, 28). He does not like to preach where Christ is already known and build on another man’s foundation (Rom. 15:20). Early church historian Eusebius (c. AD 260/265 – 30 May AD 339) reports that the twelve (and others) did go out into the world as missionaries.

Other Apostles

What about the kind of apostles who function as messengers or representatives or emissaries of the churches? They too are on the move, leaving and arriving and communicating messages to local churches. They don’t seem to have any extra authority. They follow orders. We now have zoom calls and emails. Maybe these formats can replace the traveling apostle-messengers.

Does Bill Johnson and the countless number of other apostles popping up everywhere, who are really just glorified, inflated pastors and evangelists, want to be called :”Apostles of Church Zoom Calls and Emails”? I doubt it.

Negative Description

Apostles are also called scum of the earth, garbage of the world (1 Cor. 4:13). So much for Silk’s heaven-to earth-model. Do today’s apostles want to be called scum and garbage and earth bound? Not on Silk’s model of heaven to earth.

But Paul, a genuine apostle, would not recognize Silk’s description of an apostle.

10 Apostleship

11 Two Genuine Apostles

Untethered, Innovative Interpretations  = Disaster 

Silk was being innovative, untethered from the Bible (as I see things), when he claimed that modern apostles can call down heaven to earth, and teachers, pastors, administrators, and evangelists are powerless hindrances who are bogged down in an earth-to-heaven church model. But Jesus told all believers to ask the kingdom to come and God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:10).

Silk just made the whole thing up. Innovative interpretations, so rife among hyper-charismatics, can lead to distorting or ignoring Scripture. But closely studying and following the Bible is too teacherly and beneath apostolic and prophetic dignity, apparently.

And so Scripture does not teach this massive gap between the roles and the heaven to earth or earth to heaven differences. Just the opposite. Elders who work hard at preaching and teaching (word and doctrine) are to receive double honor in leading local churches (1 Tim. 5:17).

The NT Is Full of Rules

Rules are stomped on in Silk’s book. It is true that at least some leaders of all kinds are excessive in their demands to keep the rules. Legalists and Christian Pharisees do exist. However, Silk simplifies things too much when he automatically and always equates teachers, pastors, administrators, and evangelists with the guardians of too many rules that hinder the flow of God from heaven to earth. But this problem clears up when apostles are in place, Silk believes.

No, Mr. Silk, no.

Here are examples of imperatives or commands (rules) in the NT from Jesus and Paul and Peter:

• Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near (Matt. 4:17).
• But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. (Matt. 5:22).
• But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt. 5:28).
• But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also (Matt. 5:39).
• But I tell you: Love your enemies (Matt. 5:44).
• Be completely humble and gentle (Eph. 4:2).
• Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Eph. 4:3).
• Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor (Eph. 4:25).
• Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths (Eph. 4:29).
• Be imitators of God (Eph. 5:1).
• Wives, submit to you husbands (Eph. 5:22).
• Husbands, love your wives (Eph. 5:25).
• Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).
• But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Pet. 1:15-16, quoting Lev. 11:44, 45).

Those are mere samples. I could have quoted many commands in the Sermon on the Mount alone. Jesus affirms the Ten Commandments (Matt. 19:16-19) and so does Paul (Rom. 13:8-10), though the Sabbath is optional.

General and Special Revelations and Moral Law

I believe the Lord Jesus, and Paul and Peter, two apostles, would not recognize Silk’s oversimplification of the rules. Jesus experienced the glory of heaven during his visit to the Mt. of Transfiguration, and Peter witnessed it (Matt. 17:1-13; 2 Peter 1:16-18). Peter saw a vision of a big sheet coming down from heaven three times (Acts 10:9-16). Paul was invited up to the third heaven to receive revelations (2 Cor. 12:1-10). The three of them taught rules, as the above sample list demonstrates, yet they experienced heaven to earth. Rules and heaven do not conflict. Heaven established the rules.

Hyper-Grace

Silk thus engages in hyper-grace, which we can also call antinomianism. He is a deficient interpreter of Scripture. Too bad he did not consult with careful and doctrinally sound teachers. They could have saved him from many errors. But evidently teachers are beneath the long-range purpose of the church and must be shoved off to the side and ignored. Apostles and prophets = true church government (Silk and NAR proponents believe).

Summary Criticism

Throughout his book Silk engaged in magical and free thinking, disconnected from a careful reading (exegesis) of Scripture. An apostolic government over a local church and many local churches in a network will not solve real problems.

So the book was wrongheaded on multiple fronts. He should study the Scriptures very carefully, just like a teacher does. His wham! and click theology and ministry practices are misguided and naive.

I can summarize his book with these words: Erroneous. Innovative. Foolish. Dangerous. Simplistic.

If a man publishes a book filled with errors, he must repent in public, in detail, because the book is public. But will Mr Silk do this, even though it is years after it sowed confusion in the church? It still inflicts damage on the church, especially the victims of clergy sexual abuse.

No wonder predatory pastors love it. Instant reinstatement. Wham! Click!

Recommend the Book?

I would not recommend the book. But if you want to keep track of and review the NAR, hyper-charismatic movement over time, you should buy it for that reason alone.

Silk’s More Recent Book

His more recent book Unpunishable (2019) would be a better purchase if the reader wants an update of his ecclesiology and counsel about reinstatements.

But warning! It is now being slammed hard. According to recent reviews, the two leaders Silk names and highlights in his book are still dysfunctional, despite his best efforts to rehabilitate and restore them to leadership.

Click on the YouTube channel Minor Prophets for a review of his book on May 21, 2026, here. Bethel’s “Unpunishable” Doctrine Is Reckless and Wrong.

Also see from Minor Prophets: Bethel’s Book Platformed a Wolf and Silenced His Victims. The book in the title is Unpunishable.

Also on YouTube, Wake up and Win, February 13, 2026: Bethel Survivor Sarah Shares Her Experience of Clergy SA by Ben Armstrong *Trigger Warning*. SA = sexual abuse. Evidently Armstrong is one of the two men highlighted in Unpunishable. Blaise Foret puts on the thumbnail: “Punishable.” Exactly.

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