“BAM! BAM! BAM!” said the false prophet
By Marsha West
Faith evangelist Todd Bentley has drawn hundreds of thousands to his Florida Healing Revival to “soak in the glory and spread the fire.” Before you pack up the car or purchase an airline ticket and head to Lakeland Florida, here’s a word of warning: Christians who play with fire will get burned.
All the controversy over the Lakeland Outpouring is causing deep division within the Church. Some Christians believe Bentley is bringing a long overdue revival. They argue that since people are getting healed it’s a move of God. But a growing number of believers say he’s a fraud. So which is it? Is Todd Bentley a prophet of God, or just another huckster? Let’s examine the evidence to find out if a genuine revival is going on in Lakeland.
There’s a plethora of video clips online that show Bentley in all his raging glory, stalking the stage. In one clip I watched, he’s bragging about “grounding and pounding” people who have come to him for healing. In another clip he declares that God told him to batter a woman’s legs with a baseball bat. He then boasts how he has applied choking moves on sick people who come to him for help. Then there’s the story of the “Chinese guy” he “hit so hard that a tooth popped out of his mouth.” Bentley’s “healing” is often so brutal that some witnesses compare it to WWF Smackdown! The man may be a wrestling aficionado, but he’s definitely not a prophet of God. No offense, but he is as phony as most professional wrestlers. But don’t take my word for it. Watch the video clips in this article and you’ll discover that I’m not making any of this up.
Here’s the first clip: http://youtube. com/watch?v=_K8XjObzfXM
What struck me about this clip is that people in the audience, most of whom are professing Christians, laughed and applauded as Bentley blamed God for telling him to inflict pain on people! The Apostles never behaved in such an appalling manner. Would Paul kick a senior citizen in the head, even with lightweight sandals on his feet? Peter may have been hotheaded, still he would never have resorted to grounding and pounding the sick in order to heal them. Now, imagine John choking someone and saying that God told him to do it! What I have just described is Todd Bentley’s WWF style of healing.
Many of Bentley’s “healings” are not instantaneous, by the way. For example, a man claimed partial restoration of his hearing on Wednesday and on Thursday he claimed his hearing was completely restored. Both Jesus and the Apostle’s healings were instantaneous, and that’s because they were authentic. People were restored to full health. Not in Lakeland, though, where they experience “miracles in progress.
”
Something I found odd is how Bentley feigns wide-eyed surprise at some of his “miracle healings.” Since he’s allegedly healed masses of people for a number of years, why does he look so amazed when people are healed? The answer is obvious. He plays the audience! And he’s oh so effective at “priming the pump” to keep their minds engaged.
Restoring someone’s missing eye or severed hand is an outward healing. Todd Bentley’s “healings” are inward. Glaringly absent are restored body parts. Several video clips show people allegedly healed of cancer, heart problems, tumors, diabetes, deafness, asthma, fibromialgia, broken bones, and so on. Again, Bentley’s healings are not outward like the genuine healings of Jesus and the Apostles.
Moreover, he claims to have raised people from the dead!
The obvious question is if miraculous healings like the sort Jesus performed are actually taking place in Lakeland, where’s the proof? Photos and videos of people with restored limbs and missing body parts would be splashed all over national TV and the Internet, especially on Christian news sites. Where are the “before” and “after” pictures of burn victims, kids with cleft pallots and other obvious birth defects? Absent are stories from Alzheimer’s sufferers who miraculously regained their memories.
One blogger made this astute comment:
“Bentley’s close friend and mentor, Bob Jones is sick with kidney problems and is obese. Todd Bentley is overweight and balding and had a recent heart attack. Quite a few of Todd Bentley’s musicians and singers, as others have remarked, are also very big so there is no miraculous weight loss anointing or healing baldness anointing or any healing anointing working among them -- and Todd claims the anointing drops pounds off fat people and puts hair on heads. James Goll’s wife is seriously ill with cancer.
Get my drift?”
In the next clip an eleven-year-old boy with Cerebral Palsey who cannot walk without a walker has a dream of running around the baseball diamond. The boy sincerely believes he’s been healed. (This one brought me to tears.) He struggles to speak as he relays his “healing” experience to the crowd. All the while his mother holds onto his shaky body to keep him from falling. The boy cannot stand alone, let alone run. Yet he’s told by Bentley that he’s a “healing in progress.” Then before the boy knows what hit him, BAM! he’s “slain in the spirit” (pushed to the floor).
Watch it and weep: http://youtube. com/watch?v=dcqmShgqbw8&feature=related
What did Jesus do?
“But that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, (then said he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise take up your bed, and go to your house. And he arose, and departed to his house.” (Mat 9:6-7).
By Marsha West
Faith evangelist Todd Bentley has drawn hundreds of thousands to his Florida Healing Revival to “soak in the glory and spread the fire.” Before you pack up the car or purchase an airline ticket and head to Lakeland Florida, here’s a word of warning: Christians who play with fire will get burned.
All the controversy over the Lakeland Outpouring is causing deep division within the Church. Some Christians believe Bentley is bringing a long overdue revival. They argue that since people are getting healed it’s a move of God. But a growing number of believers say he’s a fraud. So which is it? Is Todd Bentley a prophet of God, or just another huckster? Let’s examine the evidence to find out if a genuine revival is going on in Lakeland.
There’s a plethora of video clips online that show Bentley in all his raging glory, stalking the stage. In one clip I watched, he’s bragging about “grounding and pounding” people who have come to him for healing. In another clip he declares that God told him to batter a woman’s legs with a baseball bat. He then boasts how he has applied choking moves on sick people who come to him for help. Then there’s the story of the “Chinese guy” he “hit so hard that a tooth popped out of his mouth.” Bentley’s “healing” is often so brutal that some witnesses compare it to WWF Smackdown! The man may be a wrestling aficionado, but he’s definitely not a prophet of God. No offense, but he is as phony as most professional wrestlers. But don’t take my word for it. Watch the video clips in this article and you’ll discover that I’m not making any of this up.
Here’s the first clip: http://youtube. com/watch?v=_K8XjObzfXM
What struck me about this clip is that people in the audience, most of whom are professing Christians, laughed and applauded as Bentley blamed God for telling him to inflict pain on people! The Apostles never behaved in such an appalling manner. Would Paul kick a senior citizen in the head, even with lightweight sandals on his feet? Peter may have been hotheaded, still he would never have resorted to grounding and pounding the sick in order to heal them. Now, imagine John choking someone and saying that God told him to do it! What I have just described is Todd Bentley’s WWF style of healing.
Many of Bentley’s “healings” are not instantaneous, by the way. For example, a man claimed partial restoration of his hearing on Wednesday and on Thursday he claimed his hearing was completely restored. Both Jesus and the Apostle’s healings were instantaneous, and that’s because they were authentic. People were restored to full health. Not in Lakeland, though, where they experience “miracles in progress.
”
Something I found odd is how Bentley feigns wide-eyed surprise at some of his “miracle healings.” Since he’s allegedly healed masses of people for a number of years, why does he look so amazed when people are healed? The answer is obvious. He plays the audience! And he’s oh so effective at “priming the pump” to keep their minds engaged.
Restoring someone’s missing eye or severed hand is an outward healing. Todd Bentley’s “healings” are inward. Glaringly absent are restored body parts. Several video clips show people allegedly healed of cancer, heart problems, tumors, diabetes, deafness, asthma, fibromialgia, broken bones, and so on. Again, Bentley’s healings are not outward like the genuine healings of Jesus and the Apostles.
Moreover, he claims to have raised people from the dead!
The obvious question is if miraculous healings like the sort Jesus performed are actually taking place in Lakeland, where’s the proof? Photos and videos of people with restored limbs and missing body parts would be splashed all over national TV and the Internet, especially on Christian news sites. Where are the “before” and “after” pictures of burn victims, kids with cleft pallots and other obvious birth defects? Absent are stories from Alzheimer’s sufferers who miraculously regained their memories.
One blogger made this astute comment:
“Bentley’s close friend and mentor, Bob Jones is sick with kidney problems and is obese. Todd Bentley is overweight and balding and had a recent heart attack. Quite a few of Todd Bentley’s musicians and singers, as others have remarked, are also very big so there is no miraculous weight loss anointing or healing baldness anointing or any healing anointing working among them -- and Todd claims the anointing drops pounds off fat people and puts hair on heads. James Goll’s wife is seriously ill with cancer.
Get my drift?”
In the next clip an eleven-year-old boy with Cerebral Palsey who cannot walk without a walker has a dream of running around the baseball diamond. The boy sincerely believes he’s been healed. (This one brought me to tears.) He struggles to speak as he relays his “healing” experience to the crowd. All the while his mother holds onto his shaky body to keep him from falling. The boy cannot stand alone, let alone run. Yet he’s told by Bentley that he’s a “healing in progress.” Then before the boy knows what hit him, BAM! he’s “slain in the spirit” (pushed to the floor).
Watch it and weep: http://youtube. com/watch?v=dcqmShgqbw8&feature=related
What did Jesus do?
“But that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, (then said he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise take up your bed, and go to your house. And he arose, and departed to his house.” (Mat 9:6-7).
