Todd Bentley: Mighty Man of God or Rebellious Agent of satan?
And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying,
Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming,
and of the end of the world?
And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. (Matthew 24:3-5)
Jesus told us there would be many deceivers at the end of the age that would deceive many. How are we to tell who they are?
How are we to tell if a man is sent from God or an agent of the devil? God has not left us without a way to tell. The answer is found in the Bible, God's Holy Word:
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. (Matthew 7:15-20)
So we are, according to the Word of God, fruit inspectors. We can use the Word of God to discern if the fruit is good or evil.
(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. (Ephsians 5:9-13)
So, let's look at Todd, the man and see if he is a tree of good fruit, walking in the light of God's Truth, the Holy Bible. Let's see if he is walking in obedience to God's Holy Word or just the opposite, in rebellion:
1. Looking at Todd, we first see he is covered with tatoos and piercings. Did he get these before or after he was saved?
Below is a link to a Youtube video where Todd Bentley is preaching in early 2004 at the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. Notice he is tatoo free:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fFp1tG9z7SM
Below is a link to a Youtube video of Bentley now at the Lakeland meetings:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=T0kXO6r30CU
To me this goes to the heart of discernment about this movement. Yes, as obvious as this seems to be, I believe we cannot skip the message that is being portrayed, up front, for all the world to see:
GOD DOESN'T MIND HIS CHILDREN TO GO TO THE HEATHEN TATOO AND PIERCING PARLORS AND "GET SOME". WRONG!!!!
Some scriptures:
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD. ( Leviticus 19:28 )
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? ( 1Corinthians 3:16 )
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
1 Corinthians 3:17)
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Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law
Main Entry: de·file
Pronunciation: di-'fIl
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Forms: de·filed; de·fil·ing
: to dishonor by physical acts (as trampling, dirtying, or mutilating) —de·file·ment noun —de·fil·er noun
2. wrestling lingo and congregational abuse
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)
According to Todd's MySpace website he loves wrestling. He evens looks like one of his favorite wrestlers, the late Bam Bam. He also uses wrestling terminology when "ministering":
Todd says God told him to grab a woman's legs and "pound them" on the ground.
He said God told him to "kick a woman in the face" with his biker boot for healing.
He said God told him to "run 'em down" in a healing line and Todd then hit a man with "full mount, ground and pound", a wrestling term, knocking out the man's tooth.
"I grabbed him by the neck and started choking him"...
God told Todd to "leg drop" the pastor.
This unbelievable video can be seen here (you can be sure God did not tell Todd to do these things!):
http://www.deceptionbytes.com/BentleyKicksWomen
3. Todd constantly yells "Fire, Fire".
The Lord calls for rain, not fire, in the latter days:
Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. (Joel 2:23)
Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. (Zechariah 10:1)
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. (James 5:7)
4. Todd sends out the call from Lakeland: "Come and get some". He claims the Lord is there and to come down there.
Jesus told us what to do if we received a call to come somewhere to see Him:
Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. (Matthew 24:26)
5. Why are we seeing people who call themselves Christians running down by the thousands to take part in this "3 Ring Circus" (chosen words of Todd's head false prophet, Bob Jones)?
Because they have rejected the TRUTH of God's Word, the Holy Bible. They do not like to read or obey the commandments of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. They stand in disobedience before Him. In their lawlessness, they are forerunners of the "man of sin", the lawless one, who comes on the heels of their appearing:
Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12)
6. There is a great separation at the end of the age. God sends out His angels to separate the wheat from the tares:
Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?
He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. (Matthew 13:24-30)
Now we see the tares are gathering together in bundles. Church bundles, conference bundles. "Fire", "Fire", they yell. They will be burned in the Tribulation fires, unless they repent.
Under a strong delusion, sent by God, can they repent? Already many reports detail how angry and vicious they can be if the error of this movement is pointed out.
My prayer for anyone caught up in this movement and they are under conviction from the Holy Spirit for their error:
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Please open their eyes to the Light of Your Holy Word. Give them the revelation to repent and turn from this disobedience and to return to Your Holy Word and the Truth of Your Word. Give them a renewed love for Your Son, Jesus and a desire to walk in holiness and righteousness.
In Jesus Name, Amen