All posts tagged John Piper

The other night me and my dad sat down and watched the God channel together. Not something we usually do for obvious reasons, but we did so with a specific intention; to see, understand and analyse the theology and methodology of Todd Bentley. This is big news – Bentley has been running large ‘revival’ meetings for several months now in Lakeland, Florida. He is currently in Los Angeles, and had been due to be at at ‘outpouring’ event in Birmingham (UK) in the middle of September (although this has been postponed/cancelled).

This is definitely a global event. People from all around the world are heading to Florida to receive an ‘impartation’ – now I don’t really know how to explain this, but the idea seems to be that you go, receive some of the Spirit, some ‘revival fire’ and then take it back with you so that the revival spreads and God can work around the world. Here’s what Mark Stibbe from St. Andrew’s Church Chorleywood says:

Since coming back from the Lakeland revival in Florida on Tuesday 13th May, we have seen the fire of God’s Holy Spirit fall on the staff, the leaders and the people of St Andrews [Chorleywood]. Sunday May 18th was particularly exciting as hundreds of people came forward to receive an impartation of the Holy Spirit for evangelism with signs and wonders.

There’s also something happening near me… the Sussex Healing Outpouring, and the Brighton & Hove outpouring. I suspect there’ll be something similar happening near you too!

If you’re in to Todd Bentley then let me ask some questions that have been prompted by listening to him preach? If you’re not, then they will reveal some of my perceived issues with his teaching…

What is Sin? – Is Sin something that you do that you need to repent of, or is it demonic, is Sin caused by the power, the dominion of the Devil? I think it’s a bit of both, but if you place your emphasis on the latter, you won’t be convicted, you won’t acknowledge your responsibility and you won’t come to repent.

How is Sin defeated? – The power and hold of Sin is according to Bentley defeated by a supernatural work of the Spirit, it’s something we have faith for and pray for. Now while it is true that there is an on going battle between Spirit and flesh, the fact is that the penalty, power and hold of Sin was defeated once for all time at the Cross – an emphasis on the battle now diminishes the centrality of the Cross.

Who is at work – God or man? – Bentley seems to call on the congregations to pray, have faith, give yourself, stir up feelings and emotions, to strive for faith. This is all very man-centred and actually religious. While they talk about faith, it’s not as a gift from God, but as something that you do, something that you put your mind to. God’s work in salvation from beginning to end is diminished as the focus is put on man and his faith… which will force God to act.

Is Bentley promising prosperity? – At first I didn’t think Bentley was preaching a prosperity gospel, I thought it was just healings, miracles etc. But here’s where the prosperity comes in – we have faith, we pray to be released from the dominion of sin, likewise we pray against the ‘dominion’ of financial difficulty, sickness, relationship breakdown – once we defeat the devil’s power over us we will have prosperity! This is more subtle than most prosperity preachers, but it is still false promises, a false gospel.

What is the central message in Lakeland? – Healings, Miracles, defeat of Sin/demons, power evangelism, impartation etc. This seems to go against two main themes – firstly the Gospel, which is Christ crucified, atonement for sins by the shedding of his blood – Sin, Jesus Crucified, and repentance and faith are not prominent, the main message here. Secondly, while I agree that revivals will be marked by some or all of the events in Lakeland, the overwhelming defining feature of revival will be repentance, humility and genuine conversions.

…and I’m not even going to touch on the stuff you see in the YouTube videos about Todd healing people by kicking them in the face, about visitations from an Angel called Emma, and about Todd manifesting a demon… I don’t have any response, but my instinct is to simply say that it’s wrong and messed up!

Some verses for consideration:

1 Peter 2:1-3 – There will be false teachers in the church. I’m not saying Todd Bentley is an anti-christ, but he is teaching things that are false!

Colossians 2:18 – This sounds worryingly like Todd Bentley, “goes into great detail about what he has seen”… worship of angels?

One thing that has surprised me about this is the lack of senior leaders in the church speaking with some authority about what is happening – so it ends up that half-informed bloggers (like me – and appologies that I have nothing to reference, this is simply my thoughts on watching God TV) are the only voice in the debate. However, John Piper did blog yesterday with some thoughts shared from Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine – he asks some probing questions of Bentley and the ‘revival’. Two key thoughts came across:

• Discernment was lacking and discouraged
• Revival is marked and tested by its doctrine

In recent news, Todd Bentley has separated from his wife which is a tragedy. I fear this is the start of the collapsing of this revival movement which will inevitably result in a fallout of confusion. PRAY, for Todd and his wife, and pray for discernment and true revival. Go and read John Piper, and this guy Lee Grady…