PENTECOSTAL EVANGELIST’S HEALINGS NOT VERIFIABLE

The following was found at the Way Of Life Literature website:

PENTECOSTAL EVANGELIST’S HEALINGS NOT VERIFIABLE
(Friday Church News Notes, July 18, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) -

Todd Bentley, who is at the head of a Pentecostal healing “revival” in Lakeland, Florida, claims that multitudes have been healed and some raised from the dead. He slams people on the forehead, shoves them, and has even kicked an elderly lady in the face and banged a crippled woman’s legs on the platform. “Holy laughter,” spiritual drunkenness, violent shaking, and “falling under the power” are an integral part of the “revival.” The meeting has a sideshow feel with raucous music blaring and Bentley, who is covered with tattoos, crying out, “Come and get some,” and “[Miracles are] popping like popcorn.” He claims to know what is happening in the audience, calling out things like, “Someone’s getting a new spinal cord tonight.” The crusade began in April at Ignite Church and the crowds keep coming. Bentley’s healing claims have been spectacular, with one man even saying he can now see out of a glass eye. The Associated Press tried to follow up on a list of 15 names that were given by Bentley’s ministry that is supposed to represent healings that can be medically verified. “Yet two phone numbers given out by the ministry were wrong, six people did not return telephone messages and only two of the remainder, when reached by The Associated Press, said they had medical records as proof of their miracle cure. However, one woman would not make her physician available to confirm the findings, and the other’s doctor did not return calls despite the patient’s authorization” (“Controversial Revivals Draw Even Pentecostal Critics,” Christian Post, July 13, 2008).

It seems to me that the ability to see out of a glass eye could be easily verified. Bentley could send the guy for an eye examination, and that would be that, but don’t hold your breath. Bentley claims to be following in the footsteps of the apostles and exhibiting “kingdom power,” but he is doing no such thing. The apostles did not conduct healing meetings. They didn’t call out psychic healings. They didn’t shake and laugh hysterically and stagger around like drunks and flop around on the floor. We believe in divine healing for today, but we don’t believe in Pentecostal showmen (see “I Believe in Miracles” http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/ibelievein-miracles.html).

The devil is just as much in the business of religion today as God, and the only way we can discern the difference is by comparing all teaching and practice to the Bible. In The Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements: The History and the Error, we document the phoniness that has characterized the ministries of Kathryn Kuhlman, Aimee Semple McPherson, William Branham, A.A. Allen, Jack Coe, Oral Roberts, Derek Prince, Charles Price, John Wimber, Charles and Frances Hunter, Benny Hinn, and many others.