Todd Bentley was the Canadian faith-healer of last year’s Lakeland, Florida, “outpouring” who said God told him to kick an old lady in order to miraculously touch her (and he described other, equally strange stories, too). Since the Lakeland “outpouring” dried up, Bentley has been in a “restoration” process with Rick Joyner and Morningstar Ministries of Charlotte, N.C., following Bentley’s divorce and other issues.
Even though Joyner says in a video message that Bentley is still in a restoration process, Bentley has a new book and a new Web site.
So Bentley has had trouble in his personal life, and he’s not fully restored, but he’s still written a book and got a Web site going, one that Joyner urges us to check frequently.
In the introductory video message presently posted on the home page of Bentley’s new Web site, Joyner says, “We’re coming to the days when we’re gonna have to live by miracles.”
Wow.
The hopelessly outdated Scriptures say, “the righteous will live by faith,” but in the Joyner/Bentley movement, faith has to equal miracles.
The Bible indicates that our faith does not always see a miraculous actualization in this life.
Consider this passage from the Epistle to the Romans: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35, 38-39). This is a reassurance for our thought lives, a comfort, not a promise of temporal victory over everything that comes our way in a fallen world.
Notice how the Biblical view of faith is oriented in an entirely different direction than that of Joyner/Bentley: a belief in the love of God despite circumstances versus bizarre voices telling an unhinged man to kick an old woman so she can get a special dose of the Holy Spirit.
Unfortunately, Bentley’s stories of God telling him to do such things became, in certain circles, their own proof of veracity: it’s just so crazy, it must be from God!
But sometimes, it’s just so crazy, it is crazy.
With the new book and the new Web site, we’ll have to wait and see if God tells Bentley to kick more people. (See video clips of the outrageous claims he made last year.)
2 responses so far ↓
edmond kwan // July 13, 2009 at 8:30 pm |
I don’t think Joyner was talking about faith when he was talking about having to live by miracles,but rather about the coming days of distress that Jesus warned of,that are unequaled since the beginning of the world.Easy for first world christians with electricity to worry about faith and debate,and talk about living by faith…but the faith isn’t just about producing salvation..indeed that faith should also produce healing,deliverance and miracles from disciples and believers for those they witness to and for themselves.Paul speaks of the power of signs,wonders and miracles,that helped his listeners to believe.When the 9 at the foot of the Mount of transfiguration could not drive out the demon,they resorted to arguements..but Jesus said it was their lack of faith that prevented them from.Joyner is right that in the days to come we will have to live by miracles speaking as he is to those who already have faith,if anyone is to survive the days of distress that are coming,which is why the peddlars are selling their books on the rapture. Anyway..since there are no sick or needy in heaven..when should a christian practice doing miracles..there or here?The love of God keeps us safe,yes..but what about those who do not yet know God.Is it not our job to keep them safe until they are ready to repent and accept Christ?In 20 years with the Lord,I have noticed that those believers who have the signs accompanying their ministries are much more effective than those who do not have them,even when both varieties are as full of the fruit of the spirit. I am a medico..my patients would certainly stop seeing me if I can’t deliver what I am supposed to do..so little wonder so many do not want to go to church,because the church does not deliver what Christ said they should..”Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing..”John14:12 Faith confirmed by works?.sure the works of Jesus,including His miracles,than one will really appreciate what God meant when he said “the righteuos will live by their faith.”Dr.Ed
mikekendall // July 15, 2009 at 3:31 pm |
Todd Bentley and Rick Joyner are wolves in sheeps clothing. Beware of their false doctrine and false teachings.
Scripture speaks of Todd Bentley and those who surround him:
2 Peter 2:13-22,
13They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. 14With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! 15They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—a beast without speech—who spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
17These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. 20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit” ,and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”
Jude 1:8-13
8Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. 12These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
Matthew 7:15-23
15″Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
21″Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Most false teachers/false prophets/wolves/heretics have two things that bring them down: sin with money or sexual sin. Always happens and always with one or both of these sins. Todd Bentley is no exception, and he will surely fall again unless he truly repents and follows Jesus.