Thursday, July 03, 2008

Todd Bentley's Revival

I wrote this as a response to the following post on Irish Calvinist:
http://www.irishcalvinist.com/?p=1358

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Thank you so much for this post. A good friend of mine has recently been falling into this despicable deception. But I consider that you haven't got the right end of the stick here. The first thing to do is to see what he is actually preaching. And as it says in Isaiah, "To the law and to the testimony!" I would greatly appreciate if you could write a post in response to his teaching.

I praise God that when we study His word and judge by His precepts that the things that these dogs say and do are self-condemnatory. Look at this remark as an example of his teaching:

"Be like a little child, the simplicity of when you were a young child, and receive the kingdom heaven (Matt. 19:14). Allow God to speak to you like that. Be sons and daughters, not preachers, not ministers, not pastors, evangelists, prophets, teachers; forget about that for a moment and begin to receive the Father’s love. Begin to receive His goodness; that the mercy of God would begin to wash you in those areas in your life where there has been condemnation, guilt and shame, sorrow and grief."

Besides the mysticism and experiential goo, he continually emphasises the physical blessings in this life (he treats Paul's settling with his thorn with utter contempt it seems - remember Paul's words, "I consider that my present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us." and the Lord's words, "My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness."). What about the glorious sufferings and persecutions and afflictions of those who would also share in Christ's glory for His sake?!

Compare his above statement with Ephesians 4:11-16, especially verse 14. Not only that but we are to be like children only in the sense of [sic - being] humble before God and utterly dependent on Him. This is twisting scripture and introducing damnable heresy deceptively attacking the pastoral offices - which according to 1 Co 12 we must eagerly desire. Notice that healers are not on his list above, rather those responsible for teaching sound doctrine.

Reference for above excerpt from Todd Bentley's teaching:
http://freshfire.ca/index.php?Act=read&status=teaching&Id=247&pid=954&bid=955

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When I said experiential goo, I do not mean that we do not experience God. In fact we must experience what we have learnt to be true. But we must believe His goodness, whether we feel it or not! And it is by this faith, through thick and thin by perseverance and character and hope enduring suffering as a good soldier for Christ that we will begin to feel His goodness.

But consider for a moment how glorified the Lord Jesus is by your faith if you continue to cling to Him while having "felt" not an iota of Him. Consider the joy and the wonder of Jesus being glorified and lifted high in your life despite your physical circumstances!

Sing Habakkuk 3:16-19 with me and rejoice in such a great Saviour!