Charismania

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Don’t Try This, Please!

These folks sicken me to the core. It’s no wonder that the world doesn’t take Christ and His true church seriously anymore, because you now have more of such clowns running about town! Besides, who can hear the Gospel when they are too busy laughing themselves silly?

If you aren’t convinced, here’s a secular TV show in the United Kingdom having a whale of a time poking fun at some of our “favorite” Word-of-Faith preachers.

I can’t wait for our Lord’s return when He will clean this all up just as He chased those merchants out of the temple!

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Breaking: Todd Bentley can heal cancer, but not his own marriage

Just found this over at I’m Speaking Truth:

It also appears that Todd’s is leaving his wife:
Separation May End Bentley’s Lakeland Appearances

Todd Bentley, the evangelist who has led the Florida Outpouring revival here in Lakeland since April 2, has filed for separation from his wife and might not return to the revival, according to his former local spokesperson, Lynne Breidenbach. She said Bentley made the announcement to his staff this afternoon. Bentley and his wife, Shonnah, have two daughters and a son and are Canadian citizens. Under Canadian law, separation is a first step in divorce proceedings and takes nine months. Bentley and his wife have been in marriage counseling for several months, Breidenbach said. She called the situation “very sad” but insisted it “doesn’t invalidate what Todd did” at the revival.

I hope I don’t sound like I’m laughing at this situation, as God hates divorce (Malachi 2:14-15). But, like IST, I find this situation highly ironic, in that Bentley claims that God is working through him to work “signs and wonders,” yet God can’t manage to put the Bentleys’ marriage back together.

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Does anyone else see the similarities?

I discovered the following comparison chart on the blog End Times Deception.

Toronto/Brownsville/Lakeland

Manifestations

Kundalini Yoga

Manifestations
Uncontrollable laughter Laughing and weeping are as unintentional and uncontrollable as hiccoughs
Jerking, tremors, shaking Jerking, tremors, shaking
Involuntary body movements Postures or moving one’s body in unusual ways
Spontaneous trance states Spontaneous trance states
Making animal noises, roaring, barking, mooing Spontaneous vocalizations
Muscle twitches or spasms Muscle twitches or spasms
Guidance through inner voice falsely thought to be God. False visions and dreams Guidance through inner voices, visions, dreams
Being “drunk in the spirit” Mental confusion, difficulty concentrating
Feeling rushes, heat, electricity Energy rushes, electricity circulating in the body
Many fleshly sensations Vibrating, tingling sensations
Supernatural smelling of scents Experiencing the smell of flowers, incense
Out-of-body experiences Out-of-body experiences
How one receives this “blessing”
Impartation through the laying on of hands		 How one receives Kundalini Awakening
Through the laying on of hands during “Shakti-pat” initiation
Who can administer this “blessing”?
Anyone who has received the false anointing		 Who can give Shakti-pat?
Anyone who has received the ability from the Guru or one of his disciples

Read more about it here.

And for those who want to see a video comparison, I found the following videos on YouTube:

Can anyone tell the difference between the things being done in the next video by this charismatic, energetic, Alex P. Keaton look-a-like named Dr. Richard Bartlett who’s peddling the New Age, and what Todd Bentley and other Word of Faith, self-proclaimed prophets of God are doing? The similarities are striking.

I suppose I shouldn’t “touch” this guy because he’s obviously performing “signs and wonders,” and to millions of biblically illiterate experience-chasers, this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s anointed.

Dr. Bartlett even has testimonials like faith healers have.

Here is some additional material.

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Strange fire.

I am sure some of the people in the following two videos sincerely believe that they are participating in a form of “worship” that is acceptable to God. I grieve for them, especially the young, because I was there not too long ago myself. With very limited Biblical literacy and understanding, I too was swept up in all the emotion that these kinds of “shows” are designed to create. I was front and center to the wolves in the pulpits and the snakes with the guitars who were drumming up false fire and false excitement because the Holy Spirit was not in it.

VIDEO 1

The deep doctrinal truths found in the lyrics of Rick Pino’s worship music reflects the deep doctrinal truths found in Todd Bentley’s messages.

If you can get through the first 4 minutes of annoyingly juvenile repetitious “worship,” you get even more annoyingly juvenile repetitious “worship.”

HT: Dale McAlpine

See another, more deeply disturbing, Bentley “worship” service here on this previous post.

VIDEO 2

And if the first video isn’t bad enough, Mr. Pino caters to the lusts of the flesh as he takes an 80’s secular song and interjects the name Jesus into it.

“Jesus spins you ’round like a record” (where’s that in Scripture?). But it’s what he makes the people do with their socks–in the name of Jesus–that’s really disturbing.

See more foolishness from Rick Pino here.

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Bezel333 on Kim Clement, TBN’s “prophet for profit”

Bezel333 takes on TBN’s favorite false prophet, Kim Clement. Clement puts on one heck of a show, very entertaining, very ear-tickling. Not a lick of the presence of God, and nothing is done for the glory of Christ. But very entertaining, in a heretical, blaspheming kind of way.

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“Slain in the Spirit”–almost literally!!

Two of our favorite subjects lately have been:

(1) Charismatic chicanery, and
(2) lawsuits

Well, like the old Reese’s® Peanut Butter Cup commercials used to say, “Two great tatstes that taste great together.” How ’bout we roll both subjects into one post? Here’s a lawsuit, brought on by Charismatic chicanery, right here in good, old K-Town (via Charisma Magazine):

A man is suing his former Knoxville, Tenn., church and its pastors for negligence, claiming he was severely and permanently injured when church “catchers” failed to assist him during a prayer service last year.

In a $2.5 million civil action filed last week, Matthew Lincoln, a 58-year-old recording engineer, accused Lakewind Church pastors Michael and Monique Sexton of not properly “supervising the catchers.” Both the church and the pastors are named in the lawsuit.

Lincoln, who had been a member of Lakewind since 1995, claims in the suit that in his many years attending the nondenominational church, he was always “caught” if he “fell out in the spirit” because altar workers were customarily in place during prayer ministry. According to the complaint, Lakewind Church typically positions altar workers behind parishioners who receive prayer to catch them in the event that they experience “dizzying, fainting or falling in the spirit.”

But during a service on June 6, 2007, Lincoln said visiting minister Robert Lavala slightly touched his forehead, and he “received the spirit,” fell backward and struck the carpet-covered cement floor with the back of his head and back. The lawsuit claims the fall aggravated a degenerative disc disease in Lincoln’s neck and back that he had “reasonably recovered” from before the incident.

“To me this is not a complicated matter,” said Lincoln’s attorney, J.D. Lee. “The [church] had a set duty that they recognized, that the [church] board recognized … and they didn’t catch him. The poor guy fell out, and they breached the duty that they had.”
But David Long, an attorney representing the church and the Sextons, disagrees with Lee’s premise and does not believe his clients should be held liable. “The church has not done anything wrong and was not negligent,” he told Charisma.

In addition to losing income due to his alleged injuries, Lincoln claims he can no longer care for his disabled 25-year-old daughter. His wife, Shirley, is suing Lakewind for $75,000 as a “derivative action” that resulted from the “loss of consortium, loss of services and companionship of her husband.”

Oh….

My….

Gosh………..

Is there anything to add? Or does this story just kinda speak for itself?

OK, so let me get this straight. The guy “receives the Spirit,” which causes him to fall backwards. And it’s the church’s fault? Shouldn’t this guy join that Nebraska congressman who sued God over natural disasters, and the gay guy that’s suing Thomas Nelson and Zondervan over what God wrote in His word and sue God? Think about it folks: if it was the Holy Spirit that caused Lincoln to fall backwards–I mean, wouldn’t the Holy Spirit be able to know that there wasn’t going to be somebody to catch him? Or was the Holy Spirit too busy giving out tongues and interpretation and making people bark like dogs? And shouldn’t the Holy Spirit have told the evangelist to hold up a minute until He could get somebody to catch him?

See, this is the kind of thing that makes me shake my head over how people can believe this kind of stuff is of God. If these people would actually pick up a Bible and read what it actually says, rather than basing their doctrine on a bunch of “feelings” and experiences, perhaps this wouldn’t have happened.

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Crosstalk interviews Justin Peters on the heretical Word of Faith movement.

Ingrid Schlueter (of Slice of Laodicea and Hope in Laodicea) hosts this edition of Crosstalk. Her guest is Justin Peters (of JustinPeters.org) and they discuss the heresy of the Word of Faith movement.

In this episode, A Call For Discernment – Exposing the Word-Faith Movement, audio clips from Benny Hinn, Gloria Copeland, and Creflo Dollar are examined. They also discuss Todd Bentley.

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I didn’t realize Mormons and Word of Faith Charismatics had so much in common.

Do you see any similarities between Mormonism and Charismatics in the following quote from LDS prophet Brigham Young? Aren’t these the same “symptoms” that Charismatics cite as proof of being baptized in the Holy Spirit (and thus, salvation)? Of course, to be fair, the Charismatics don’t believe a person’s blood literally changes when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, but I’m confident that most Mormons don’t believe that now either (darn those advances in science and human anatomy not foreseen by LDS prophets of old).

“Again, if a pure Gentile firmly believes the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and yields obedience to it, in such a case I will give you the words of the Prophet Joseph—’When the Lord pours out the Holy Ghost upon that individual he will have spasms, and you would think that he was going into fits.’ Joseph said that the Gentile blood was actually cleansed out of their veins, and the blood of Jacob made to circulate in them; and the revolution and change in the system were so great that it caused the beholder to think they were going into fits. If any of the Gentiles will believe, we will lay our hands upon them that they may receive the Holy Ghost, and the Lord will make them of the house of Israel. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 2, Page 269, 1855

Good thing Brigham Young was just giving his opinion and not speaking as a prophet when he quoted Joseph Smith who must have been giving his opinion and not acting as a prophet when he said this!

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Exposing Kenneth Copeland’s doctrines of demons.

This is a fantastic video comparing the truth of Scripture with that of Kenneth Copeland’s false teachings spawned from the abyss of Satan. If you want to view the complete video (about 7 minutes longer than the one below) you can find it here.

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Captured on video: Todd Bentley knees a man in the stomach with stage 4 colon cancer to facilitate a “healing.”

Todd Bentley bragged (in the video on this previous post) about kicking a lady in the face with his biker boot to heal her. In that same video he also boasted about tackling, leg-dropping, punching, and choking people to generate “healings.” Well, now he’s battered someone for real and it’s been caught on video.

And why did Todd Bentley unexpectedly and without warning run up to this dying man with colon cancer and knee him in the stomach? Because, as he says, “I had to be obedient to the Lord, sir.”

No, Mr. Bentley, if you were obeying the Lord you wouldn’t be doing this stuff.

Source: Slice of Laodicea

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Sermon: “Are signs and wonders for today?” by John Piper.

piper-pic.jpg I interrupt your previously scheduled Saturday sermon series, Studies in Ephesians, to bring you the following thought-provoking and brutally honest sermon by John Piper.

There’s been a lot of scuttlebutt lately regarding all the hoopla going on with Todd Bentley’s circus show in Lakeland, Florida. This has brought up some serious questions about whether or not signs and wonders are for today. Well this message by John Piper (from the early 1990’s but rebroadcast now) is very timely and I recommend it to all those who want a serious look into the matter.

Are Signs and Wonders for Today – Part One (Sermon starts approximately 5 minutes in)

Are Signs and Wonders for Today – Part Two

Now in case anyone’s wondering, I personally don’t ascribe to the complete and utter cessation of all signs and wonders, and I base this solely on the fact that God can use any sign, wonder or healing at His will. He’s God.

I do not, however, believe what we are seeing from Bentley (or any of those other charlatans on TBN) is genuine. Some of the most godly people I’ve ever known don’t speak in tongues, heal the sick, etc. Yet when I was in the charismatic circles back in the 1990’s, every Tom, Dick, and Harry (and every Julie, Sally, and Sue) had some “gift” or were prophesied to one day possess some gift. Even though so many of their lives in no way reflected true, regenerated followers of Jesus Christ and Biblical Christianity, I was still supposed to believe that God was pouring out His anointing on them. Oh what foolishness I embraced. I am so grateful that gone are the days of “activations” and coaching someone to speak in tongues. “Repeat after me . . .”.

And by the way, I’m still waiting for my “healing ministry” that my former (and recently divorced) female pastor (who now heads the church without her husband) prophesied that I would have. It’s only been a decade and a half and she’s still giving out prophetic words like candy and the sheeple still keep eating it up.

But I digress. When a gift happens, it will just happen. It’s not something anyone can conjure up, force, or make happen (as if God’s our puppet and we’re some pagan witch doctor barking out our orders to the Almighty that He must obey).

And when it happens there won’t be big healing revivals or conventions. That’s not the way it was done by the Apostles and that’s not the way God would do it today. To borrow a favorite verse from Charismatics–no, not “touch not my anointed;” their other favorite verse–“God is the same today, yesterday and forever.” If the Apostles didn’t batter people or market themselves as “healing prophets” (and thus draw attention away from the Savior) then those who God chooses today to heal through will also be humble, not market themselves, and not expect God to act upon their every demand.

So in a nut shell, I believe that God can perform any miracle through anyone He chooses, I just have yet to meet someone who has performed a genuine and legitimate sign or wonder. And every time someone claims to be anointed with these gifts, I do the following:

1) Test the spirit.

2) Watch to see who is really getting the glory.

3) Examine their lives.

This is a very effective way to tell a genuine from a counterfeit and to keep from being deceived and led astray.

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Choose this day whom you will serve!

I was speaking with The Desert Pastor the other day and we were discussing the amount of attention Todd Bentley was getting on DefCon. We were apparently both thinking the same thing: this false prophet was beginning to get too much coverage on this blog.

I expressed to him that I think we’ve posted more than enough information on this false prophet that those who are discerning (and truly seeking after truth) will benefit from what we’ve made available. On the flip side, however, that same information has been seen by those who still defend and follow him and their continued allegiance to this man will only add to their condemnation. They will not be able to proclaim “ignorance” on the Day of Judgment.

So with that said, barring some periodical event that requires commentary, this will probably be one of my last posts on this pied-piper who draws the selfish after him as they chase signs and wonders and the next big thing/experience/spectacle.

This video is one of the best examinations of Bentley that I’ve seen so far. I can only hope and pray that those who haven’t drank the Kool-Aid can watch this and come to understand that not everything that glitters is gold, and even Satan himself can disguise himself as an angel of light.

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Todd Bentley’s message: Believe in THE angel.

“Lord, why can’t I just move in healing and forget talking about all that other stuff? He said, ‘Because Todd, you got to get the people to believe in the angel.’ I said God, why do I want people to believe in the angel, isn’t it about getting the people to believe in Jesus? He said, ‘The people already believe in Jesus, but the church doesn’t believe in the supernatural.’ The church has no problem believing in Jesus, what we don’t believe in is the supernatural. We don’t believe in angels, we don’t believe in the prophetic, we don’t believe in what’s going on, and I’ll tell you what, we need to have an awakening.”

– Todd Bentley

Notice how Todd Bentley claims “God” told him that he needs to get the people to believe in “the angel” and not “angels”? Anyone want to guess what “angel” he’s speaking about?

No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

2 Corinthians 11:14