Todd Bentley raising the dead or just raising cash?

This is Marsha West’s follow-up on “Bam! Bam! bam! said the the false prophet” article. I posted it on this blog not too long ago and there is a also a link to it at the end of this article. This article gives quite a bit of additional information to her above article and she also writes about a first hand account of someone who actually went to Lakeland for healing. I have already told my readers what I think of the Todd Bentley freak show so I will not repeat it all here. If you have not read what I wrote. Go to “home” on this Blog and type in the name “Todd Bentley” in the search box and the articles should come up.

By the way, there is nothing new about people like Todd Bentley. I have already seen this act first hand thirty years ago by those who started this Word-Faith movement spin off. They used to make the Charismatic mega church circuits in Phoenix when I was living there. One guy I am thinking of also saw angels and later he saw jail (for embezzlement or fraud I believe). Let me assure you that the claimed healings are all nonsense. I personally knew people who claimed healing they obviously never had.

The crowd is put into an auto suggestive state and the rest is much like a stage hypnotist act. They have no problem making people look like fools and I think that is some of their intent. They are actually mocking these gullible people and Christianity. The same gullible people followed these clowns around from venue to venue in the Phoenix area when I was there hoping that this would be the day they would get their healing. It would be laughable if it was not so tragic to the sick and dying and deadly to the true gospel. Now they tie money to the amount of healing you will get which is a refinement of what they used to do. They used to just keep passing the basket until they got what they wanted. Three collections was quite common.

Don’t be a sucker, learn to discern good from evil.

Marsha West — Learn to Discern Good From Evil

There’s a rumor going around that dead folks are coming to life again, the blind see, the sick are getting healed, amputees are even growing new limbs, all due to the supernatural healing powers of Canadian faith-evangelist Todd Bentley. Some believe there’s a “Holy Spirit breakout” going on at the “Lakeland Outpouring.” Fresh Fire Ministries is behind the so-called revival. The burning question for the Fresh Fire team is, where’s the flesh? Doubting Thomas’s would like to hear a couple of the prior dead stand up and give their testimonies. One verifiable testimony would help.

Here’s another question: Why hasn’t Oprah invited one of the 30 plus people Bentley claims have passed over to the other side, then suddenly reentered their bodies due to his “God-given” healing powers, onto her daytime show. Her audience would eat it up!

My final question is for the Christian who believes Todd Bentley hung the moon and stars: Are you serious?

In my commentary “Bam! Bam! Bam! said the false prophet”[2] I exposed Todd Bentley as a fool and a fraud. Not surprisingly I received a large number of email from Christians who accused me of judging him. Several emailers claimed they’ve been to the Lakeland Outpouring, thus they feel they’re experts on what’s happening there. Because I haven’t “experienced” the “move of the Holy Spirit” first hand, I have no business “judging” Bentley. Which is like saying that those who haven’t been to Afghanistan or Iraq shouldn’t express their opinion on the war. That’s ridiculous! The greater a Christian leader’s responsibility, the greater his/her accountability. Judging is not only permissible, it is every Christian’s duty. But that fact has not stopped some “protectors of the prophet” from being put out with me. And so I received this dire warning: “!” What do they mean by that threat? Critics must keep their hands off word-faith teachers. Which is ludicrous on its face since it’s scriptural to expose false teachers and abusive pastors.

I responded to my critics by saying that my marching orders come from the King! As such, I will continue speaking publicly about Todd Bentley’s unscriptural theology. My mission is to expose Christian liberalism and the influential “Christians” who are leading the undiscerning into neo paganism. Ever wonder why professing Christians say they’re “spiritual” instead of religious? It’s because they’ve strayed from the straight and narrow path and are following the path of the mystics! In other words, they’ve strayed from historic orthodox Christianity and now embrace beliefs acquired from Eastern mysticism! As a result of the Progressive Christianity movement, liberalism and occult practices have made their way into mainline churches.

Progressives have mounted an all out assault on the validity of the Bible. Why? They want to remove the only source of real truth. Who’s behind it? Our adversary the devil! His goal is to rid the world of the Book that conveys God’s redemptive plan to fallen humanity. Listen to what Paul says about the Bible:

What Dembski reports next is profoundly disturbing. He explains that after Bentley “preached,” an offering was taken. During the offering he asked the crowd:

“’How much anointing do you want to receive?’ Thus he linked the blessing we should receive with the amount of money we gave.”

Following the prayer for mass healing, Bentley told the crowd he would pray for the severest cases. What happened next is beyond belief: