I finally managed to get my first solid block of sleep for days last night and so feel a little better, even if Zair may have given me his cold. This week has been an amazing whirlwind and left me with so much to do. But i feel the need to slow down temporarily as my brain really can’t be made to operate 24/7.

The big debate in the Church at the moment, and for most Christians, is the so-called “Florida Healing Outpouring” or the “Lakeland Revival” led by the Charismatic Canadian evangelist Todd Bentley and his organisation “Fresh Fire Ministries”. It is being broadcast every night by God TV all around the world, and spreading absolutely everywhere. Bentley is unusual as he is covered in tattoos and piercings, as well as having been a former drug addict that was imprisoned for child molestation. Thousands of people are reporting that they have been miraculously “healed” through faith just from watching it (legs stumps regrowing etc), and up to 15,000 people a night turn up to sing and dance at his religious circus.

One thing is clear - it is great TV. One hell of a TV programme.

For me it’s been mentioned at Acorn and my mum has been a big supporter. I, like many others, have serious doubts. The Church debate is about how genuine this guy is, and whether what is happening is from God or something else. You have to be extremely careful about typecasting the Father, as he really does do things weirdly. An open mind is paramount, although cautiousness and scepticism is necessary (just as with the New Age family of beliefs).

This one is very tricky and not clear at all. It needs immense discernment and wisdom – more than i have. Discernment is the ability to know whether the source of something spiritual is good (i.e. of God) or evil (from His enemy), and/or sometimes, how it is being used by God for what purposes, as He permits temporary bounded evil in certain circumstances.

I have a massive problem with the Charismatic movement in general simply as it’s totally neurotic and sensational crap that can usually be put down to religious crowd hysteria. The idea of human beings barking like dogs, trembling and laughing insanely like they are “drunk” doesn’t strike me as what a God of order and peace would choose to work, even if he always does the unexpected. The order of creation puts humans above animals and to act like a beast is an act of judgement, not a blessing. The “Gifts” of the Holy Spirit they refer to come from a very specific prophecy that was fulfilled in the form of Pentecost – it was a one-off incident.

One of the pastors involved in the “Toronto Blessing” later went on to call it the “Toronto Deception” that was unhealthy and ended in the near-destruction of the community. His letter to the Church is an interesting read.

Bentley’s past is no real issue, as clearly his life has taken an entirely new direction. In fact, scripture reflects that the Father *always* uses unexpected people – David was an adulterer, Moses a murderer, Christ a peasant carpenter, and Paul a genocidal maniac. The fact he is very different is no cause for concern, neither are his tattoos, his MySpace page, general appearance or the mistakes he may have made before. All men are fallible, and it is wise to remember that. Again it brings us to the point of whether the attention is on the “movement” and/or Bentley, or it is on God.

The vast majority of his supporters, and those who defend him, seem only able to repeat what they’ve heard and use the same pseudo-logic to answer very childishly. You can’t hang someone by their crowd, but they’re really not helping by arguing their point badly.

Why Florida, and why do you need a revival?
Why is this sensational madness always in the US, and always with charismatic Christian communities? Again it’s foolish to pre-empt God, but It would seem to me there are far more effective places to bring out an uprising – like Iraq, Darfur or China. God is everywhere, all the time, for all time, and He is not something that needs to be “revived”. Perhaps it’s a clash of words, but i personally cannot see another one of these “movements” being an episode of a 10-part series by the Father to swoop in dramatically to a bunch of rabid Americans. What is this one different? Because it’s on TV.

Hype and confusion
All i see with this is increasing confusion, and a growing train of hype about miracles, wild testimony about all manner of spiritual things going on. The Father i know is one of order, simplicity and peace, who does all things for the long-term, albeit in a very unpredictable manner. Hysterical crowd behaviour, fast-moving chatter without external verification and the kind of reason-less abandon that surrounds this “revival” don’t fit the mould described in scripture. The TV viewers reporting they have been supernaturally “healed” all seem to talk of the show being “addictive” and the warm fuzzy religious feeling drying up after it’s ended. Scripturally, prophecy must always be 100% accurate to be valid, and it seems up to 90% of Bentley and his associates’ is very wrong. Why do we even need Prophecy after Christ?

No medical evidence or testimony
There is a concerted effort from Bentley’s team to publicise that all the evidence and testimonies of “miracles” are officially recorded and given medical verification. To date, none of these have been produced, and media enquiries have been met with delaying and silence. The Placebo Effect and psychosomatic causes can quite easily duplicate these hysterical crowd “healings”. Only time will tell, as it is difficult to criticise on this alone. Tales of “resurrected” children appear to have been exaggerated and subject to Chinese whispers. It is so frighteningly obvious that he is pushing people over when “lays hands” on them.

Egomania and the Todd Effect
The first thing you notice about Bentley’s approach is that he is very shouty and quite aggressive, and although he appears to be self-deprecating and uplifting of Christ, there is some serious egomania at work as he really seems convinced he is God’s messenger (Christ was the very model of humility). Power is the ultimate human weakness and always corrupts. I personally can’t stand that kind of emotive worship and preaching, as many others can’t. Intuitively my own thought is that it is pretence, and i am clearly not alone in thinking that. I have yet to find out whether he is a self-confessed “prophet” or whether he has simply not rejected the label put on him. BAM! No, thanks.

Known associates – Bob Jones/Kansas City movement, Mike Bickle, Paul Cain, William Branham et al
Bentley’s school of thought is derived from a number of very dubious sources, principally the “Latter Rain” movement headed up by William Branham, and a number of self-appointed “prophets” who all seem to have a real fetish about angels and their healing/guiding abilities. They have all been comprehensively exposed in the 1970s by Ernie Gruen. Bob Jones is laughable - a man who had young ladies strip naked before him to receive a prophetic word from him in private, and who claimed Jesus told him when he was in mental asylum he had to kill or forgive people to get his mind back. Each and every one of these men is morally, intellectually and spiritually espousing doctrine that is inconsistent and closer to New Age belief than scripture.

Cold reading techniques
This is how Tarot and psychics pry their revolting trade, and an exceptionally powerful skill of gathering clues from someone from their body language, guessing and observation (it is even more powerful if you’ve seen the psychic before and it’s the 2nd/3rd time, and massive confidence mesmerises those being read). There is a definite process of it going on in a number of his services, without a doubt. It is the opposite of scriptural prophecy. Is there any footage of Bentley being critical, or is he doing what astrologers do and saying generic positive comments that everyone wants to believe about themselves?

Healing without repentance
An old grey friend of mine peacefully pointed out something so very wise about the process of healing in scripture as it is very clear and specific. It is transactional and comes in several parts, but one thing is always constant – genuine repentance must occur beforehand, and healing is God’s response to that quiet repentance. Christ’s mission was to seek out the sinful and bring them to the light, carrying a (metaphorical) sword that divided peoples to make choices. It is like a handshake and you meet Him halfway, but the repentance must be first as a choice and act of will. I cannot see any call to repentance in any of what Bentley is doing, and the people crying and weeping are simply religious hysteria.

Those angel visitations
The most disturbing part of Bentley’s spiritual doctrine is his frank confession in his own blog and book about being “introduced” to an angel named “Emma” by Bob Jones (a corrupt evangelist) who floated above the ground and sprinkled gold dust in a church that culminated in a financial blessing. There are more – for example, another called “Grace”. Angels are very rare. Only 2 have ever given their names. They don’t float. They do not administer healing and are not to be worshipped or appealed to. They always point to Christ. They always appear as men without exception. They do not need to be “introduced” as they are terrifying. This story of “Emma” appears to be very embarrassing for his ministry and the story changes for every account of it that is given.

A quick note on angels:
Believe me, i have met people who claim to have seen angels, most in human form (one undeniably saved the life of my friend when she was 2 miles offshore in the sea and too exhausted to swim back). All of them report the same thing – they were struck dumb with sheer awe and abject *terror*. They can’t draw or recall what they saw even though they can see it in their head, but they are not describing what they see in books or the movies. We’re talking 8-14ft high, violently powerful and extremely intimidating. It’s for that reason the very first thing they say is always “fear not”.

And in case you’re wondering, the evil version also comes in the form of light, but is most commonly seen as wearing dark, ragged grave clothes with ripped flesh interspersed between the threads. Nice.

It’s consistent in being inconsistent
No matter what you see Bentley say or read what his defendants claim, when these ideas, reports, concepts and events are put under scrutiny, the story keeps changing. The openly contradictory answers are worrying – about his mother’s death, his tattooing, who was healed and who wasn’t, what Christ looked like, talk about the “third heaven”, visions of meeting Paul and Abraham (wtf?) whether it’s a money-making episode, and mostly importantly, about those angelic visitations. Again, God is not the author of confusion, as scripture says. Only intervention from man causes that kind of fog.

All the signs and wonders
We live in an age of scientific reasoning where we believe what we can see. Stage magicians dumbfound their audiences each night because of the “wonders” they do, and they are believed even though we know it is not real. Scripture specifically commands that we are *not* to accept signs and wonders as truth, and we are we to test what we see at all times (in fact, it goes one step further to say that evil *will* do such things and to watch out for it). One of the wisest things i have ever heard was one of my old greys pointing out that if evil can inflict suffering (emotional and/or physical, as in the Book of Job), then it can also lift it – which can appear as “healing”. Signs alone are not trustworthy and must be seen in context.

You will know it by the fruits
Scriptural wisdom asserts that the way to discern if anything is good/healthy r bad/evil/unhealthy is to look at what fruit grow from it. Quite a profound thought for anyone, spiritual or not. The true test of whether this “outpouring” is a blessing from God as claimed is in whether it brings people closer to God, makes them stronger in their faith, and to be blunt, how many homeless people are still out there hungry on the street in Lakeland. The biblical commandment is to GO OUT, not go into a building and get healing for free. According to Paul, a Christian is known by one thing – their love. We must wait to see what comes from what is going on over there.

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It’s a sad fact that human beings will believe almost anything if they want it badly enough. We’ll even stubbornly believe what we want regardless of the evidence placed in front of us. There are so many people just desperate to meet God somehow (to be healed mostly), and so angry that He doesn’t crash through into their life automatically without asking (he’s either in your life punishing you or he’s not interested and doesn’t care – make your mind up). I believe we are all born with an intrinsic link to our creator that drives us insane if it’s not connected to Him, and evil revolves around creating counterfeit alternatives to fill this need somehow (e.g. Tarot, astrology, paranormal etc).

There is no question as to whether God is involved, as He always is. He was there in the Nazi concentration camps, and in the twin towers on 9/11. The question for ms is *how* God is involved, and my gut instinct it’s not through Todd Bentley as His chosen prophet. If a person genuinely wants to know Him, He will meet you wherever you are, right there, right then (you can’t escape the Father, ever). Despite being a corrupt blasphemous heresy, He has allowed the Roman Catholic church to continue, and i bet He has also reached out to people in the pews who were being given sermons by a paedophile priest, just because they wanted to know Him. He works in everything and it is not for us to say, but as my mum so rightly says, God will not be mocked, and He will bring Bentley down if he is corrupt.

So there is no doubt that it is igniting debate, making the church study what is truth and what is not (which is wisdom), and ultimately, bringing a lot of people closer to their own spirituality and God Himself. If it is not from God, i find it difficult to reconcile why it would b leading people to Him. But if it does come crashing down, it could be catastrophic for God’s PR when it has been put on such a pedestal. It is not prayer that is spreading this “anointing” across the world, it is television and the Internet.

For me, miracles aren’t some weird unexplainable event. They are a supernatural intervention in a natural system that is governed by natural laws, but they are still observable scientifically if necessary. A violation of the natural laws of physics is an act of science like any other, only differing because we cannot explain it with the knowledge and tools we have. Can God heal? Yes. Will He? Yes. How? We can’t explain it scientifically yet. Does He use strange situations and unexpected people? Yes.

In conclusion, my own opinion is that Bentley is a little too hung up on being Mr Healer to a religiously hysterical crowd and heavily misguided in his doctrine and philosophy that has been passed on by his contemparies . I think time will show that the Father is using him for a purpose other than what he thinks – to bring us to the place where we make choices and meet those who want to be near Him, en masse if necessary. Time will tell if my judgement is right.

In 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 it is the lack of love of the truth that causes the Father to send a “powerful delusion” so people make their choice and become divided into those mark themselves out to be His and those who say they are not. As was so wisely pointed out to me recently, Christ is a King that rules above all the other kings, not a fucking circus trainer.

Further reading (or just look on YouTube):

http://endtimespropheticwords.wordpress.com/2008/05/26/index-to-all-articles-on-todd-bentley-lakeland-outpouring-florida-revival/