Benny Hinn renounces prosperity gospel, but...

[NorrinRadd]

Sounds weird and I have heard it connected to the "do not touch the anointed means don'tdisagree with the preacher" idea. Which happens to be a red flag. If a church leader refuses to accept disagreements with what they say... not good!

That is not the usual context. Usually, it is taken to be the Holy Spirit overwhelming a person, in a favorable way. NT scholar Gordon Fee has opined along the lines that some people are immature or undisciplined, and kind of "act out" whenever they feel the Spirit moving at all; in this context, he relates recollections from his youth, and a character at his church nicknamed "Ow-oo Ferris."

[NorrinRadd]

As long as he is still preaching his slain in the spirit nonsense, he is still a false teacher. ...

Do you mean that advocating the "slain in the Spirit" experience is equivalent to preaching a false gospel? Or do you have a softer meaning of "false teacher"?

[Sparko]

When Jimmy Swaggart was caught in sexual sin for the second time, he told his followers "God told me it's none of your business." I suppose you can't really argue with that

I've noticed a lot of these disgraced televangelists repeatedly try to make a comeback. I honestly think it would be for the best of the gospel if they didn't (or if they did, if they focused on the local church instead of making a celebrity comeback). Many of them may mean well but tend to be unable to completely shake off their old habits in the end. There are other people who can take up the slack.

I agree. I think it was the popularity and fame which caused much of their problems in the first place. They let it go to their heads. So if they truly are repentant and want to change, they should be humble and remain out of the spot light, stop writing books, preaching on TV or large crowds. Stay away from the temptation of power and adulation.

[Sparko]

Do you mean that advocating the "slain in the Spirit" experience is equivalent to preaching a false gospel? Or do you have a softer meaning of "false teacher"?

yes.

When people fell down before Christ, they fell towards him and bowed to him in worship. Benny pushes people away. But he still seems to glory in the adulation and power as he struts around raising his hand and knocking people over. He is not Christ. He is not healing anyone. He is teaching a false gospel of him knocking them over with the Holy Spirit. In fact, it is mostly people playing along because they don't want to appear to be unworthy or him actually pushing them over. He sells holy anointing oil and prayer rugs that he claims he has imbued with power. He teaches a gospel that says if you are sick it is because of a lack of faith. He has claimed to raise the dead. Over TV.

[mossrose]

Um, Benny?

What's this about? I thought you've repented of your false teachings.

https://www.bennyhinn.org/event/2019...tners-meeting/

[Christianbookworm]

Poor guy's an addict! To something. Power? Fame? Wealth? He seriously needs a metaphorical two by four to the head before he finds out what "your best life now" would really mean for his eternal quality of life! I'd rather have my best life in the new universe in the presence of God, thank you very much!

[Adrift]

yes.

When people fell down before Christ, they fell towards him and bowed to him in worship. Benny pushes people away. But he still seems to glory in the adulation and power as he struts around raising his hand and knocking people over. He is not Christ. He is not healing anyone. He is teaching a false gospel of him knocking them over with the Holy Spirit. In fact, it is mostly people playing along because they don't want to appear to be unworthy or him actually pushing them over. He sells holy anointing oil and prayer rugs that he claims he has imbued with power. He teaches a gospel that says if you are sick it is because of a lack of faith. He has claimed to raise the dead. Over TV.

While I agree that plenty of people fake it, I've actually known several people personally who sincerely had experiences where their knees buckled in very powerful services. Maybe it was psychosomatic, or maybe they locked their knees or something, but they claimed it was something spiritual and intense. I've never been "slain" (which I think is a goofy term), but have also felt what I can only describe as a sort of...I don't know...exhilarating energy (?), like almost an electricity in the air, during very Holy Spirit filled services. And there is precedence for this sort of atmosphere in the early Christian church (not necessarily falling out, but of spiritually charismatic services). I don't think there's any reason to think that's completely gone (unless you're a cessationist).

Benny Hinn's type of ministry which is light (or absent) on theology, heavy on emotionalism doesn't seem legit to me, and I think he's up there with snake handlers on making Spirit-filled services look silly, so that people avoid them for mostly dead churches devoid of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. But that's how it goes with people. We're creatures of extremes. Finding the middle way is hard.

[Adrift]

Um, Benny?

What's this about? I thought you've repented of your false teachings.

https://www.bennyhinn.org/event/2019...tners-meeting/

Eh, technically a "healing service" isn't the same as a "prosperity service." Knowing Hinn's record, it's not at all unreasonable to think he'll slip in some of that prosperity gospel, but it's at least conceivable that he won't.

[mossrose]

Eh, technically a "healing service" isn't the same as a "prosperity service." Knowing Hinn's record, it's not at all unreasonable to think he'll slip in some of that prosperity gospel, but it's at least conceivable that he won't.

The healing is no better than the prosperity. Both are false teaching.

[Adrift]

The healing is no better than the prosperity. Both are false teaching.

I don't necessarily agree with that, but if memory serves, you are a cessasionist, so I can understand why we might disagree. At any rate, I guess my point was simply that this isn't necessarily the same thing as what's mentioned in the OP, not that I don't think Hinn won't slip into prosperity teaching in the course of a healing seminar.

[mossrose]

I don't necessarily agree with that, but if memory serves, you are a cessasionist, so I can understand why we might disagree. At any rate, I guess my point was simply that this isn't necessarily the same thing as what's mentioned in the OP, not that I don't think Hinn won't slip into prosperity teaching in the course of a healing seminar.

[NorrinRadd]

yes.

When people fell down before Christ, they fell towards him and bowed to him in worship. Benny pushes people away. But he still seems to glory in the adulation and power as he struts around raising his hand and knocking people over. He is not Christ. He is not healing anyone. He is teaching a false gospel of him knocking them over with the Holy Spirit. In fact, it is mostly people playing along because they don't want to appear to be unworthy or him actually pushing them over. He sells holy anointing oil and prayer rugs that he claims he has imbued with power. He teaches a gospel that says if you are sick it is because of a lack of faith.

I wish you would not lump so many things together. There is no necessary link between being sanguine about the "slain in the Spirit" practice and the other things you are deriding.

And while those other things are obnoxious, they do not in and of themselves constitute a "false" gospel in the sense of a gospel that cannot save. Granted, they can certainly harm a person who is saved, and lay a foundation of wrong expectations for those being evangelized.

He has claimed to raise the dead. Over TV.

Ew.

Ok, technically, he claimed to be prophesying, and claimed the dead *would* be raised, not that he *had* raised them.

That was almost as good as the 1980s tape I have of Cope, prophesying that "in six months" people would be raised from the dead "in wholesale lots," and that it would become widely known. (I've lost track of that tape, alas.)

[Sparko]

While I agree that plenty of people fake it, I've actually known several people personally who sincerely had experiences where their knees buckled in very powerful services. Maybe it was psychosomatic, or maybe they locked their knees or something, but they claimed it was something spiritual and intense. I've never been "slain" (which I think is a goofy term), but have also felt what I can only describe as a sort of...I don't know...exhilarating energy (?), like almost an electricity in the air, during very Holy Spirit filled services. And there is precedence for this sort of atmosphere in the early Christian church (not necessarily falling out, but of spiritually charismatic services). I don't think there's any reason to think that's completely gone (unless you're a cessationist).

Benny Hinn's type of ministry which is light (or absent) on theology, heavy on emotionalism doesn't seem legit to me, and I think he's up there with snake handlers on making Spirit-filled services look silly, so that people avoid them for mostly dead churches devoid of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. But that's how it goes with people. We're creatures of extremes. Finding the middle way is hard.

Even if you do believe in such experiences (I am not sure myself) - Benny Hinn has proved himself a false teacher many times over with his prosperity gospel and claims of raising the dead over TVs. So I am sure that the Holy Spirit is not involved in him slaying people in the 'spirit' on his stages. Why would God validate him in such a way? So if people are not faking, or just being pushed over (as I have seen several times) they are swooning because of some psychosomatic placebo effect.

[Sparko]

I wish you would not lump so many things together. There is no necessary link between being sanguine about the "slain in the Spirit" practice and the other things you are deriding.

And while those other things are obnoxious, they do not in and of themselves constitute a "false" gospel in the sense of a gospel that cannot save. Granted, they can certainly harm a person who is saved, and lay a foundation of wrong expectations for those being evangelized.



Ew.

Ok, technically, he claimed to be prophesying, and claimed the dead *would* be raised, not that he *had* raised them.

That was almost as good as the 1980s tape I have of Cope, prophesying that "in six months" people would be raised from the dead "in wholesale lots," and that it would become widely known. (I've lost track of that tape, alas.)

OK I am not saying that God can't heal through others (I believe he healed my father after my mom's church anointed him with oil and the elders prayed over him) - I am condemning Hinn and the other so-called preachers on TBN who are obviously phony showmen who are making a mockery of God and the Gospel with their fake nonsense and their obvious greed.

[mossrose]

I wish you would not lump so many things together. There is no necessary link between being sanguine about the "slain in the Spirit" practice and the other things you are deriding.

And while those other things are obnoxious, they do not in and of themselves constitute a "false" gospel in the sense of a gospel that cannot save. Granted, they can certainly harm a person who is saved, and lay a foundation of wrong expectations for those being evangelized.



Ew.

Ok, technically, he claimed to be prophesying, and claimed the dead *would* be raised, not that he *had* raised them.

That was almost as good as the 1980s tape I have of Cope, prophesying that "in six months" people would be raised from the dead "in wholesale lots," and that it would become widely known. (I've lost track of that tape, alas.)

In Justin Peter's DVD series, Clouds Without Water, he shows a clip of Hinn saying that he did raise someone from the dead, and another clip saying that it didn't happen. Hinn also says he's never been sick, then contradicts himself by complaining about having a cold, and he wears glasses and is aging.

Peters did his masters thesis on Hinn. He knows what he's talking about.

Hinn is a charlatan and a false teacher.