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By Didi Williamson
PEOPLE SAY there’s a modern-day Pool of Bethesda
– in Lakeland, Florida, of all places.
Evangelist Todd Bentley of Abbotsford’s Fresh
Fire Ministries came to the small town of 90,000 people April 2 for a
weeklong revival at the charismatic Ignited Church, and reports of miracles
like those from Bethesda in Jesus’ day began pouring out of Lakeland.
Broken elbows heal. Hepatitis C disappears. Heart
murmurs are no longer recognizable. Crippled people walk. And the dead
rise.
These claims come with very little documented proof,
but Bentley says he wants to certify every healing he can.
“The Bible is full of visions, encounters, signs,
wonders, miracles and manifestations that people have experienced, some of
which may be downright hard for many to wrap their minds around, let alone
believe it could happen today,” Bentley wrote in a letter to the
public June 8.
Bentley’s nightly meetings, called the Florida
Healing Outpouring, are now held under an air-conditioned tent with room
for 10,000 visitors at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport and are broadcasted
online at GOD.TV.
They’re drawing international attention, and
hundreds of thousands from all over the world have been flocking to
Lakeland for healing, revival and “more of God,” which Bentley
frequently cries out for.
Answered prayers
Pastor Mario Bramnick of New Wine Ministries in Cooper
City say the Florida Outpouring is an answer to his church’s prayer
for revival.
When he visited on more than one occasion, he says,
“It really appeared that there was a sovereign move of God at
Lakeland . . . Some believe that healings have
stopped with the apostles, which is not scripturally true. Jesus said these
signs shall follow those who believe. They shall heal the sick, cast out
devils and raise the dead . . .
“It would be difficult to fabricate so many
miracles.”
But many notable Christians say these miracles are
indeed a result of fabrication – and are merely magic meant to soothe
“itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
“I have no problem going on record and saying
this guy is a false prophet . . . with a capital ‘F,’”
says Tullian Tchividjian, grandson of Billy and Ruth Graham and pastor of
New City Church in Margate, Florida.
“And it shouldn’t surprise any of us,
because the Bible warns us about this from cover to cover. John Piper once
said that Satan does not tempt us with poison, but with apple
pie.”
Tattoos and piercings
Bentley’s prickly exterior and colourful past
make some Christians flag him as a ‘questionable.’
He is covered in tattoos and piercings, was reportedly
imprisoned for sexual molestation prior to becoming a Christian, and
practices being ‘slain in the Spirit,’ which sometimes makes
him laugh hysterically or roll on the floor in fits of spiritual fervour.
But Bramnick says God uses the foolish things of the
world to confound the wise.
“Todd is very clear about glorifying the
Lord,” he says. “Anyone who has accepted Jesus has the same
power to pray for the sick in the name of Jesus, and they will
recover.”
While Bentley frequently rouses the crowd to cry out
for “more of God” in anticipation of healing, Tchividjian, who
recently authored Do I Know God?, says promising to heal hurting people is dangerous.
“At least from a biblical standpoint, there is no
doubt that God can and does heal people . . . Sometimes he chooses to do
so, and sometimes he does not,” he says. “There are many
people, like my grandmother, who God chose not to heal – and
that’s okay.”
In fact, accounts have surfaced that Larry Reed, pastor
of Olympic View Assembly of God in Silverdale, Washington, visited the
Florida Outpouring in early May and celebrated being healed from terminal
bone cancer – before passing away May 27.
Tchividjian also notes that Bentley claims to
physically abuse people in order to heal them.
In one sermon recording provided by Way of the Master
Radio, Bentley said the Holy Spirit told him to bang a crippled
woman’s legs up and down on the stage.
After that, says Bentley, “The Holy Spirit came
over me . . . and said, ‘Kick her in the face’” –
and he did. Only then was the woman healed, he says.
Angels and accountability
Bentley also says he’s been visited by many
angels, and seen Jesus in the flesh. Bentley says one female angel, named
Emma, visited him and sprinkled “gold dust,” illustrating
financial blessings, on the congregation where he was preaching.
“She floated a couple of inches off the floor. It
was almost like Kathryn Kuhlman in those old videos when she wore a white
dress and looked like she was gliding across the platform,” Bentley
wrote on a page he has since removed from his website due to controversy.
“Within three weeks of that visitation, the
church had given me the biggest offering I had ever received to that point
in my ministry,” he adds. “Thousands of dollars!
Thousands!”
When Geraldo Rivera questioned Bentley about his
finances, he said he receives no monies from the offerings taken at the
Florida Outpouring. His salary provided by Fresh Fire Ministries provides
him with a modest living, he says.
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In another interview, he also noted that one
night’s offering at the Florida Outpouring was being sent to help
refugees in the Sudan.
Heavenly anecdotes
Bentley also claims to have visited the “third
heaven” on more than one occasion.
In one interview with Patricia King of the TV show
Extreme Prophetic, he claimed to have ascended into heaven with prophetic
minister Bob Jones after simply closing their eyes at a noisy restaurant.
In another instance, he said he visited the cabin where
Paul lives in heaven – and Paul told him that he and Abraham co-wrote
the Book of Hebrews.
“We obviously have a problem with these
statements and do not believe them to be biblical,” stated Dan
Hickling, ministry assistant to pastor Bob Coy of Calvary Chapel Fort
Lauderdale.“We would hesitate to put the ‘revival’ tag on
what’s happening in Lakeland. True Spirit-led revival is always
accompanied by the conviction of sin, the confession of sin and the
repentance of sin. And if these aren’t the dominant evidences in
Lakeland, I don’t see the scriptural validation for true
revival,” Hickling said.
Saving the lost
Despite the criticisms, Todd Bentley maintains the
entire point of the Florida Outpouring is indeed salvation.
“Our mission is to save the lost. Period.
Everything that is happening at Lakeland is to that end,” he says in
a letter to his critics. “God is good. People are being
saved.”
According to Bentley, his visions, manifestations and
encounters with the Lord – like when he saw Jesus in his kitchen and
God in his living room (as referenced in his November 13 sermon, available
via his website) – are God’s response to his faith, and are
meant to point him closer to Jesus Christ.
“To apply doctrine to the response of God in our
lives is wrong,” he wrote. “For someone to assume that
something that happens to us isn’t of God because it’s not in
his or her doctrine or knowledge of Jesus is, in my opinion, to grieve the
precious Holy Spirit.”
He also says that he does not practice the worship of
angels, like many people claim.
“Mary, Paul, Peter, Jesus, the shepherds and
several disciples . . . had angelic encounters, and some interacted with
them in conversation. That doesn’t suppose they worshiped these
angelic beings or sought them for revelation apart from God.” he
says. “Let it be said, that I seek only God for revelation –
and should he send me an angel to me to impart revelation, get my
attention, or open wells of revival and healing, so be it.”
He also writes that he is well aware Jesus said there
would be false signs and wonders in the last days, done by workers of
iniquity.
Bentley writes, “Salvation is knowing Jesus and
being known by him; it’s much more than spiritual works or a verbal
confession. I understand that lofty places in this visible kingdom are no
proof of anyone’s acceptance with God, and neither are the mighty
works, even done in Jesus’ name.”
No limit on God
However, he also says his miracles and healings are
proof that the Florida Outpouring is a move of God and that “we
should place no limit on further revelation from God.”
Bramnick of New Wine Ministries also believes these
miracles validate Bentley’s ministry.
“It is just elevating the faith of the church to
believe what the Bible says. Beyond the signs and the wonders and the
healing, it is bringing a new dimension of hunger and intimacy with our
Heavenly Father,” he says.
“With the fruit of drawing people closer in their
relationship to Jesus and people who are bound with cancer, crippling
diseases and other infirmities being set free, I have a hard time
understanding how other Christians would say that this is not a move of
God.”
However, Tchividjian reminds Christians to test every
word that comes out of Bentley’s mouth like the Bereans tested what
Paul said in Acts 17:11.
“We increase our scrutiny of people like Hugh
Hefner, and we decrease our evaluation of people like Todd Bentley just
because he comes in the name of Jesus,” Tchividjian says. “Hugh
Hefner is not nearly as dangerous to the church as someone like this . . .
“I would pay much more attention to those people
who have stood the test of time.
I would pay very little attention to anyone who comes and says, ‘God
told me something that he’s never told anyone else, and you
can’t find it in the Bible.’ It’s a lie, it’s that
simple.”
– This article originally appeared in The Good News in South Florida.
Used with permission.
August 2008
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