Voice of Truth - Todd Bentley

Why are so many fooled be false teachers? I have recently come across a man named Todd Bentley. He is part of several ministries, Fresh Fire Ministries and Ignited Church being the main ones. This a man drawing 10,000 people a day in Lakeland Florida. When you read the belief statement on his websites, his statements are perfectly within orthodoxy. When you get into his claims and testimonies things go out of control. He claims his conversion was similar to Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus. He claims to be a modern day prophet, much like Elisha. And he claims to have healing power and to have raised people from the dead. I find him to be more of a Benny Hinn of this generation. He does the typical slaying of the spirit thing, where he lays hands on a person and they suddenly fall down and flop around. He actually ran across the stage and kneed a man in the stomach who had colon cancer, because God told him to. I must have missed that kind of healing in the Bible.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 - 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

I think the time has come where we are seeing this on a regular basis. He claims to be doing what the apostles did in the New Testament. The purpose of healing and miracles by the apostles was evangelistic in nature. It was always done in the name of Jesus and for the advancement of His kingdom. Mr. Bentley will go through several healings and rarely even mention the name of Jesus. You will hear plenty about demons, vampires and white lights. His classic line after someone falls down is, "you don't even know why you fell, do you?". One lady gets up and says into the mic, "because you pushed me down". I write this now because he will be in Louisville tomorrow, not far from home. We need to pray the people who attend this event will have discernment as to what is false and what is true. He claims to have visions of Heaven and of Jesus in his room talking to him. If he is truly having visions, my guess is they are demonic in nature. This is a very dangerous man and a very dangerous situation. We need to be sure we are judging all thinks according to Scripture.