Deception in Lakeland, Florida – False 'Revival'
Posted on : 06-06-2008 | By : Dan | In : Church, Deception, Emerging Church, General Teachings, News
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I hate to do this sort of thing, but I am almost moved to tears when I see this kind of deception. Charisma Magazine put out a piece on it entitled ‘A Holy Ghost Outbreak in Florida’ – “…Charismatics are flocking to the sleepy town of Lakeland, Florida. to attend evangelist Todd Bentley’s unconventional revival services.” Is Charisma preparing to hype this one to the skies like they did with Toronto and Rodney Howard-Browne? It seems perhaps they are. I keep getting emails from my Pentecostal friends about the revival breaking out in Lakeland, Florida. I did some research, and sad to say, this may be one of the most dangerous ‘revivals’ to date.
Todd Bentley is the premier evangelist at the charismatic church in Lakeland, and he has deep roots in the Prophetic movement. He has long taught that:
- We should seek to encounter angels and he continually does so
- Gold dust falls when Jesus or an angel passes through your midst
- Guided visualizations of the “Third Heaven” that are straight out of the New Age
And much, much more. Here is how Charisma describes his Florida meetings-
“His methods are far from polished. When he prayed for people in Lakeland, he usually began by laying his hand on their heads and then yelling, “Bam!” Often the people fell backward to the floor. After one elderly woman fell, Bentley told the audience: “She doesn’t know why she fell down.” The woman then laughed and said to him in the microphone: “Because you pushed me!” He prayed for her three more times that night, and she said she could hear better…During the past three weeks people have testified of being healed from heart conditions, skin rashes and back problems, and many said scars disappeared…Many charismatics are wondering if the protracted meetings will become a phenomenon similar to what happened in Rodney Howard-Browne’s meetings in Lakeland in 1993, at the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church in Canada in 1994 and at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola in 1995…”
I believe in signs and wonders, but they are given when the true gospel of Jesus Christ is being preached. Jesus didn’t come so people could bark like dogs and come under the control of demons, but to seek and save the lost.
Below is a testimony by Lynn Clark about her involvement with Todd Bentley’s ministry:
“I decided to check out Patricia King and Todd Bentley and, ignorant of their ‘third heaven’ guided visualizations, attended a five day conference of Patricia King and then two of Todd Bentley’s conferences and began to imagine third heaven visitations – guided visualization – still not realizing that these are actually spirits of darkness – the New Age calls them spirit guides – demons is what they are. And so I bought Todd Bentley’s teaching on third heaven visitations and brought it home to listen to. “I was in my living room laying on the floor listening to the teaching on how to visualize the third heaven and what to say and was getting caught up into his teaching and all of a sudden I began to shake uncontrollably and jerk and groan, and no sooner had this taken place I became frozen stiff – I could not move any part of my body and I knew this was a demon trying to take hold of me, and so with all the effort I could muster I cried out, “God save me – Jesus help me” – and as soon as I cried out to the Lord my body went limp. God spared me that night and I will be forever grateful. “I spent much of the night in tears asking God to forgive me – and renouncing all the hands layed on me and all the awful deception I had opened myself up to…”
From Sola Dei Gloria:
The “Jesus” that Todd Bentley is preaching is not the Jesus of the Bible. His “Jesus” doesn’t preach and emphasize deep repentance, denying self and carrying the cross, selling one’s possesions to give to the poor and needy, forsaking ALL to follow him, and freely bestows his “anointing” on all who have heretical or bad doctrine and loose, immoral lives.
The “spirit” that Todd Bentley is operating under is causing manifestations that DO NOT APPEAR anywhere in the Bible. He has been known to cause animal manifestations as well (clucking like chickens, barking like dogs, etc.), all of which are manifestations that have long been associated with pagan and heathen religions but are found nowhere in Scripture, except with Nebechanezzar at the judgement of God.
The “gospel” that Todd preaches is a gospel of seeking after signs and wonders. It’s hocus pocus. Angel feathers, gold dust, diamonds falling, seeing female angels, again, all of which are found nowhere in Scripture. Seeking after miracles and not after the face and heart and burden of God is a deadly delusion that will lead one straight into accepting “another spirit”. There are MANY spirits in the world, which is why we are called both to test the spirits, and to test those who purport to be prophets and teachers by their DOCTRINE. Their doctrine must be solid and sound, and Todd’s is more new age and hype than it is sound Bible doctrine.
I cannot plead with you enough to avoid this dangerous deception! Angel encounters are a constant theme in his meetings, and people just soak it all up, not even thinking to seriously question it. But who is to say these angels are truly the angels of the Lord God, and not emissaries of Satan sent to deceive? Todd claims that his healing anointing comes from an angel, but there is no record in all of Scripture of an angel giving somebody an anointing. The Holy Spirit is the only One who anoints God’s ministers. If the anointing is from an angel, it’s a huge red flag.
In my past post entitled Spirit-Filled?, I talk about how Scripture warns repeatedly against the type of miracle-mindedness which places undue emphasis on the performance of supernatural deeds rather than on the proclamation of the Gospel: “Jesus therefore said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe’” (John 4:48). Jesus warns the church against being deceived by signs and wonders which will appear in the last days to lead Christians astray: “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24). Scripture warns the world against demanding miracles from the church to prove its faith: “‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah.’ So he left them and departed” (Matthew 16:4). Luke reports: “The seventy returned with joy saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!’ And he said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven’” (Luke 10:17-20).
It is important that Christian people be warned against doctrine or teaching which is presented as the Word and will of God, when in fact the Scriptures do not clearly teach such doctrine. The Holy Scriptures forbid the teaching of pious personal opi
nions and private interpretation of Scripture as God’s Word and will: “Behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their tongues and say, ‘Says the Lord’” (Jeremiah 23:31; also 2 Peter 1:20).
The ‘revival’ in Lakeland, Florida is false and it is dangerous. When demons are manifesting in people and taking over, it should be obvious what is really going on. When Todd Bentley is teaching New Age concepts, encouraging encounters with angels, using gold dust, diamonds falling, guided visualizations, etc. some red flags should go up in our heads. THIS IS DANGEROUS! I praise God for freeing me from all of this before I got in it too deep. But now, almost in tears, I plead with you to understand that this is a deception. I have so many Pentecostal friends who are being deceived by this, and they have no clue. God please reveal your truth!
Related posts:
Thank you for this blog post. This subject matter is confusing for some, including me, at times.
I was reminded of 1 Corinthians 14:33 today, which states: For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
My prayer is that each person will take the time to pray about this and read you ENTIRE blog. People need to know the dangers that are befalling the church, which includes our brothers and sisters in Christ.
This is very dangerous. I have tried to avoid public criticism of other believers, but in this case I must conclude that Todd Bentley and those in this movement are deceived themselves, and are thus not true believers. It is very unfortunate and sad, but this goes against clear Scriptural teachings.
I must protect people from demonic influence, and this new wave is even more dangerous than ever before.
Amen. Todd Bentley is not, however, the pastor of a Lakeland charismatic church. He comes from a town in Canada and has quite an interesting history!
Please see “A Call for Discernment” by going to http://www.justinpeters.org. Justin is an evangelist and in addition to expository preaching, also holds seminars on the “Word of Faith” movement. He has cerebral palsy and concurs with the apostle Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”
You can view his brief overview of the misleading Word of Faith movement given at Southwestern Theological Seminary here:
http://www.justinpeters.org/demo.htm
This presentation exposes the roots this movement has in the metaphysical cults.
To God be the glory!
Thanks for the information and link Caron!
Isn’t this something like Benny Hinn who has people go up on stage and he’ll push them and they’ll fall and then all of a sudden they’re “healed”?
Similar to that, Chrissy, yet much more dangerous. Hinn typically at least gives Jesus credit for healing, but Hinn is a false prophet who uses religion for financial gain. He has made numerous predictions that have not come true, see this link for more info. He’s motivated more by greed than by the Holy Spirit.
With Todd Bentley, he fails to give the glory to Jesus, instead attributing healing to angels and encouraging encounters with those angels. In addition to this he spreads other nonbiblical teachings regarding the supernatural. This should not surprise us, since the Bible says that “the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4
Todd Bentley teaches myths and New Age concepts as Biblical truths, when in fact they are not. He is misleading many people and people need to be warned.
I agree with the comments on the revival…but please do not broad brush people who believe in faith as all being “Word of Faith.” Also please note there is no specific “Word of Faith” doctrinal statement therefore you cannot lump people into a doctrinal category that doesn’t even exist. And also please realize that Todd Bentley is not a Word of Faith teacher and should not be cast in comparison to them…he is a “manifest sons of God” type preacher who has more roots in the prophetic and Toronto type movements…Many of your brothers and sisters in Christ (including me) could be judged by you without you even understanding us…I don’t listen to Todd B, or Kenneth C, etc. yet I do believe in miracles, praying and confessing the Word of God (what is wrong with praying the Word of God – David did it) and I believe the Lord does miracles…does this make me a false brother for simply believing the word? Remember that those who judge can easily cross over into wrongly judging people who to you “appear” wrong…but this appearance is only on the surface. Take David Wilkerson for example…he believes in the gifts of the Spirit…but you’ll probably not find a person who believes as strongly as he that things should be done decently and in order…and he doesn’t live in a mansion or promise hundred fold returns or seek gold dust or angels. Anyway, just my thoughts. By the way, there are other VERY good teachers you might classify as WOF, but dig deeper, listen to them, and you’ll hear a difference – you’ll hear the Word and heart of God being preached. ex. David Wilkerson, Chuck Smith, Billy Joe Daugherty, John Bevere, Andrew Wommack, etc. Sure…they may attend an event where someone else attends that may be off…but how can they control this…so please evaluate teachers INDIVIDUALLY, and not by groups. Jesus judged people individually he didn’t broad brush an entire group.
Point taken. I have no issues with people confessing the Word of God, my issue is when people believe that by some spiritual principle God MUST do things for us if we use His word properly, as though we can manipulate God by quoting Scripture. This is a dangerous teaching called positive confession and it is often practiced by WOF teachers:
The basic premise of ‘positive confession’ is:
- God created things by speaking them into existence.
- We are created in God’s image.
- Therefore we, too, can create things (or situations) by speaking them into existence.
If I can demand that God does anything, if I can lay out demands to which God must acquiesce because I’m demanding it in Jesus’ name; or if I can just make positive confessions and start laying claims to things and, by my positive confessions, create situations and things for my life, then God is no longer in control of my life. I take control by the demands that I make upon God and by the confessions I make of these things. And God becomes the magic genie! I rub the lamp and God must come out to follow my orders.
Not so! God is far too loving for that. He loves you too much to let you run your life. When you put the “I” in “run,” you’ve got the true picture: you’ll ‘ruin’ your life when you try to run it.
Paul tells us that we don’t always know what the will of the Lord is. That’s one of our problems in prayer. From past experience, I realize that I made so many mistakes in the analyses of my own needs that if God had answered some of those prayers, it would have been absolutely tragic!
What if I were in control? What if God were acquiescing to every confession that I made? People say, “Be careful not to make a negative confession! What you say is what you get.” That’s ridiculous!
David said, ‘I know one day Saul is going to kill me.’ Don’t say that, David! That’s negative confession. Now it’s going to happen, because what you say is what you get! And now one day Saul is going to kill you. But Saul didn’t kill David.
Todd Bentley is dangerous for teaching the dangerous doctrines I described in this post, if you choose to identify with WOF and don’t embrace positive confession — great! But understand that a majority do. It would be like making a generalized statement that Pentecostals are charismatic. Sure, some are not, but MOST are.