My thoughts on Todd Bentley and the Lakeland outpouring

 

I’ve just started university a couple of weeks ago and as a result I have not been able to spend as much time reading, blogging or exploring Lakeland stuff. As I scanned the internet today in order to find out how people are responding to Lakeland my heart was saddened by two things.

 

The first thing that saddened me was the people who seemed to be glorying in the fall of Todd Bentley. This isn’t good, while I share the conviction that Todd was in huge biblical error spiritually, theologically and morally, it is equally a biblical error to rejoice at the fall of Todd Bentley. Christians ought to pray that Todd will be brought to repentance in all areas of his life. Any believer can fall, one need only think of the examples of Samson and King David.

 

The second thing that saddens me is that many people continue to support the ‘revival’ in spite of recent discoveries.

 

The following quotes taken from a news article on the revival highlight what I mean.

 

“Stephen Strader says “One of the things we don’t understand is how God uses people of flawed character. People ask me, why choose someone who’s dysfunctional? Because God does it,”

Ok here is the problem; error is mixed with truth here. Let me explain, does God use imperfect people? Yes. However, in this situation we are dealing with a leader who had huge public influence. This leader was promoting false doctrines and pseudo Christian experience and none of these issues were corrected or challenged.

Lynne Breidenbach, a Lakeland woman who had acted as Bentley’s spokesperson, echoed Strader’s remark.

“This is a personal failing on Todd’s part, and he can recover from it. It’s not an excuse to live a sloppy life, but there should be some encouragement here. God knew ahead of time Todd’s frailty but chose to use him anyway,” she said. “Unfortunately, some Christians are going to be disappointed with God. It’s a good lesson for Christians to say, maybe you had unrealistic expectations.”

Again, ‘frailty’ is being used instead of ‘sin’ or ‘deception’ and what is worse is the continuing belief that God was using Todd in Lakeland. This is the really sad issue that very few seem to have discerned that it was a humanly manipulated ‘movement’ from the start. Lakeland demonstrated how gullible many charismatic Christians are. Todd’s fall is another test and it has not brought about the desired effects in those believers who are currently deceived. What will it take? I am not sad that Todd fell, but I am glad and remain hopeful that the current events will lead many out of their deception. However the following comment may reveal the reality of the situation.

Strader stressed that the revival is still continuing at Ignited Church, although with smaller crowds.

 “Miracles are still happening. God’s power is still present in the building,”

This is sad, very few miracles that were claimed where actually verified, the claims of the resurrections have proven false. Todd’s theology is completely off the wall and far removed from biblical Christianity. Yet the promoters of this circus continue to play the game. Many believers who blindly followed Todd continue to play the game. It is a very sad time in history for the Pentecostal and charismatic movements. A movement which once offered so much is now causing so much confusion and pain to the body of Christ. I am becoming increasingly convinced that if there is to be revival in the future it will not emerge in the charismatic wing unless there is some huge in-house renovation!