In April Todd Bentley of Fresh Fire Ministries in Canada began leading a revival in Lakeland, Florida. Intended to last just a few days, he has extended these revival meetings well into this summer, taking a small break after this ABC Nightline interview, but returning not long afterward. Very concerned about what is happening in Lakeland, I'd like to write about this Nightline interview.
'Just him and God'
In this interview, we learn that Bentley "defiantly steers clear of any organized denomination, any chain of accountability. As he sees it, it is just him and God." The idea of 'just him and God' sends off alarm bells in me. I am not so much bothered that he is not connected with any denomination, for I myself attend a nondenominational church. But the fact that he is not connected to any denomination for accountability and is not accountable to anyone in what he is doing in these revivals- again, alarm bells.
A person of Mr. Bentley's growing fame needs the accountability of counselors. (Actually, all believers need accountability.) That person can get lost in his own thoughts and ideas, believing he is walking in the way of God, yet, without the wise counsel of of othrs, can err in doctrine and even in conduct. He can be caught up in secret sin, as well-known men and women of God can be more tempted than other believers in areas of pride, self-righeousness, greed, and other sins, only to eventually fall loudly and disgracefully.
I can understand the idea of 'just me and God', I really can, having spent spent most of my Christian living that way. However, I can also attest to the freedom I found from secret sins and in incresing faulty ideas about God born of my own fallen mind and introspection when I began adding other believers into the 'just God and me' formula.
As Psalm 37:30 says, "The godly offer good counsel; they teach right from wrong." Proverbs 11:14 says, "Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety." Proverbs 19:20 says, "Listen to counsel and accept discipline, that you may be wise the rest of your days." Colossians 3:16 says, "Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he (Christ) gives."
'I believe miracles happen in their own time'
June Cochran (sp?) interviewed in this piece says Bently's followers pressure her to come to the revival and be cured. "They're not hearing what they're saying," Cochran feels. "They're saying something's wrong with us, and if we don't already have our self esteem already built up, then it just tears us down even more. Like we're not even worthy to be here."
I have to wonder. How many of Christ's followers would notice a woman like June Cochran, a woman who gets around town in an electric wheelchair, were it not for the idea that 'revival' is happening and the belief that people like 'that' are getting healed? How many of Christ's followers really see Ms. Cochran, beyond the disability to the woman, instead of a broken body needing to be mended.
How many of Christ's followers have seen Ms. Cochran and invited her to church, just as she is, no strings attactched, no expectation of healing, just invited her to be a part of the community of God, encouraging her toward repentence and faith in Christ and in growing fully in that relationship? How many respect her belief of, "I believe miracles happen in their own time", understanding that the timing of physical and other kinds of healing in a person are up to God?
How many followers will go back to ignoring the June Cochrans when the sensation of the healing revival dies down?
'Not a single miricle claim of Bentley's could be verrified.'
And how about those healings?
When asked by Nightline for verifiable information of just three people who've been healed (we just want three people, they said), Bentley offers a them a 'media package' with incomplete contact inormation and a few pages of incomplete mediacl records with doctors names crossed out.
Nightline was given the name of a woman whose cancerous tumor had shrunk upon returning to the doctor after she saw Bentley. However, her husband stated that this could just be a coincidence because she is still receiving medical treatment. He did send Nightline some of his wife's medical information, but with doctors names and clinics named obscured. Not a single miricle claim of Bentley's could be verrified.
I am concerned that the ministry of Todd Bentley is clearly spiritualy abusing and deceiving many. More on that later.
Pt. 1
Pt. 2
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