Types of Rapture (~9.1 MB) - Moriel Ministries

Point of Interest
Mike Oppenheimer
Todd Bentley
“Meet the New thing- Same as the Old thing”
“Will We get Fooled Again”
By Mike Oppenheimer
The newest
wandering star
breaking forth
on the Signs
and wonders
scene is Todd
Bentley, a Canadian
evangelist
from Abbotsford,
BC,
Canada. He
and his team
hold crusades
in over 55 nations where they say,
“Thousands have been saved, healed
and delivered.”
Todd claims that in his late teens he
had a dramatic encounter with the saving
and delivering power of God, which
brought him out of a lifestyle of drug and
alcohol addiction, without cravings or
withdrawal symptoms. He was also delivered
from a lifestyle involving criminal
activity, youth prisons, drugs, sex,
satanic music and bondage. Todd’s miraculous
conversion to Jesus seems much
like the Apostle Paul’s on the Damascus
road. Todd was instantly transformed
into a radical disciple and soul-winning
evangelist for Jesus. (Website- About
Us, Todd Bentley’s Personal Profile).
“Saved” at 17, he began preaching
and prophesying shortly after.
In his Biography, Bentley says that
God has drawn him into deep and intimate
places of prayer. These extended times in
God’s presence have released a fresh prophetic
and miracle-healing anointing.
He wants to “see others set free
through the anointing of the Holy Spirit
and to see others come into the reality of
intimate relationship with Jesus.” We are
told that “he ministers prophetically, corporately
and personally as well as brings
forth the word of God with the power and
demonstration of the Spirit – God confirming
His word with signs and wonders
following. God has released an increase
of the healing anointing into Todd’s life
to the point where the blind see, the deaf
hear and growths dissolve as Jesus still
heals every sickness and disease.”
Wow, these are just a few impressive
marketing phrases that do not even compare
to the supernatural stories that surround
him. His ministry is called, “Fresh
Fire Ministries International: Apostolic
Network.” After a short visit to Ignited
Church in Lakeland, Florida, last year
Bentley was invited by the pastor, Stephen
Strader, to return. He has been conducting
“healing meetings” twice daily in Lakeland
since April 2, 2008.
The 700-seat sanctuary of Ignited
Church is filled up as people have been
waiting for hours for the doors to open.
It has now been attended by more than
20,000. Stephen Strader is the son of Karl
Strader, former pastor of Carpenter’s Home
Church in Lakeland that launched Rodney
Howard-Browne’s ministry in the US. TBN
carried its services, and the church was
influenced to believe this kind of preaching
and behavior is what revival is about.
Like previous revivals, people from
all over are willing to fly to Lakeland to
catch the revival fire and bring it back to
wherever they live, not knowing that if it
is God, you are unable to capture Him (or
His anointing) and distribute Him (or it) to
others. Instead of getting people saved they
are getting people lost by their listening to
a man’s experiences of the supernatural
that are both unbiblical and untrue.
This revival has all the spiritual sensations
and activities of the other revivals
combined: roaring, groaning, burning
sensations in the body, head, and stomach,
shaking, jerking, spiritual drunkenness
and uncontrollable laughter. Then there
are some new manifestations: people have
their eyes rolled in the back of their heads;
reports of women gyrating and pulsating
as if they’re being ravaged from behind by
some unseen force. Whether these things
are holy or unholy may still debated by
some, but to those of us that are knowledgeable
on the previous revivals and the
power of the occult, the jury is in: maximum
unholiness. The source is not the God
of the Bible. This may disturb some, but if
they will use their Bible, pray, and think
it through, they will gain discernment and
spiritual understanding.
The shakes, jerks, twitching, frozen
stillness, laughter, and falling to the floor
have all been standard in revivals since
Benny Hinn passed “it” on to Rodney
Howard-Browne. It came through Randy
Clark and filled many of the Vineyard
churches as well. It continues today, but
this time the conductor of this orchestrated
supernatural hodgepodge is Todd Bentley.
When it comes right down to it, Todd
Bentley and the Lakeland Outpouring is
just another chapter added to the various
“false revivals” of our time. This revival
is a continuation of the Pensacola Revival,
that came from the Toronto Blessing, that
came from Rodney Howard-Browne, that
came from Benny Hinn, etc.
I’m able to say this because I have studied
these revivals from when the Kansas City
prophets came into the Vineyard churches,
which began in the 80’s. And now this.
Bentley has been doing his take on
miracle ministry for over 8 years:
It wasn‘t long before he began to
pray for people who needed fillings in
their teeth. Seven people received gold
teeth last night. One lady was standing at
the front, and while waiting to be prayed
for received five gold teeth in a row. Not
just filled, but bulging with gold. People
were being healed in their seats; others
heard the instruments prophesy in an audible
voice; over the two nights there were
salvations and more healings (Source:
Message posted on the pro-Toronto
Blessing New Wine mailing list (item on
file), March 22, 1999) -underline mine)
Diamond-dust manifestations of God’s
presence have appeared in meetings led
by Todd Bentley in Canada and Ian Turton
in Australia. There have been other
places where they have appeared also, but
it seems that they are not as commonplace
as the gold dust and gold dental miracles.
According to Bentley they look like fine,
sparkly, ground glass reflecting light in
beautiful colors. (Message posted on the
pro-Toronto Blessing New Wine mailing
list (item on file), Feb. 16, 2000).
Once we identify the people Todd
Bentley associates with, the angels that
work among him (which he claims to have
constant experiences with), we can then
understand exactly what this is all about.
Bentley has shown no sign of leaving
Lakeland since an angel, he said, visited him
the day after he arrived. “Prophetic min-
18 June 2008 • Moriel Quarterly