OneNewsNow weighs in on the Bogus Bentley Bigtop, that crazy counterfeit revival in Florida led by Todd Bentley. This is what happens when the biblical Gospel is not preached. (Make sure you watch the video below where Todd tells people that the church already believes in Jesus and that we need to “believe in the angel.”)
The 32-year-old Canadian, tattooed to the fingers and neck, puts a palm to the forehead of the sick, desperate and faithful. Bentley yells “Bam!” they collapse and he proclaims them cured. Attendees dance in the aisles, shout to Heaven, laugh, shake violently and cry.
Such revivals aren’t new, but Bentley’s stage show has become a phenomenon in the religious world – for both its pull and the criticism it has attracted – in just a few months.
He claims to have medical proof of mass healings, but has not produced widely convincing evidence.
His tactics, sometimes violent, have made skeptics even of Pentecostals who believe in concepts that aren’t accepted by all branches of Christianity such as speaking in tongues, miraculous healing and spontaneous twitching from the Holy Spirit.
“Some of the language used during the Lakeland Revival has created an almost sideshow atmosphere,” wrote J. Lee Grady, editor of the Pentecostal magazine Charisma, in an online column. “People are invited to ‘Come and get some.’ Miracles are supposedly ‘popping like popcorn.’ … Such brash statements cheapen what the Holy Spirit is doing.”
Bentley gives the credit to God, but Christian critics say he rarely opens a Bible or sermonizes about Jesus Christ. They worry he is too little about conversion, too heavy on his own hype and too focused on self-proclaimed miracles. Read the rest of the article here.
Paul Latour
Eric Bierke
Lawman