So I'm interested to hear you guys' thoughts about the "revival" going on down in Lakeland, FL led by Todd Bentley. I first heard of this during my honeymoon and saw this guy preaching asking God to change people's silver cavity linings to gold, and was pretty skeptical. But I mean supposedly like 13 some people have been raised from the dead, people are growing new limbs, all sorts of crazy NT kinda-stuff, that we typically only hear about happening in third-world countries, is now happening here in America.
Of course you have the traditional naturalists and secularists of our day doing everything they can to discount him and mock him, and you have the conservative evangelicals (of which I would most likely be placed if placed in a grouping) that use hermeneutics to make the things he does look somewhat ungodly, if not for any other reason than the bizarre methods he is known for, such as kicking people in the face or kneeing them in the gut.
The thing that really started me thinking about this was recently when Megan and I were at her home in Pennsylvania, her dad (who is into healing) and I started talking about this, along with her mother (who is not really that into healing). They told us how several members of their church (which is barely even an it's allowed to raise your hands during worship kind of church) traveled down to Lakeland to see what this was all about. Those members have, according to the witness of Megan's parents, come back from the Lakeland meeting "annointed" (whatever that means) and have been the vessels of numerous healings.
I am split. Part of me says it's all non-sense and the guy is crazy. (One of the things he says he was told by God was not to preach Jesus, but to preach the angels, because everyone believes in Jesus, but no one believes in the supernatural. Kinda makes sense, kinda is iffy, in my mind.) The other part says what if I am missing out on experiencing God in a way like I've never experienced him before. Charismatics seem to experience God so intimately, and Christianity Today recently had an article entitled "Teaching a Calvinist to Dance" which was about a Reformed Charismatic. The link is below, but it has just made me wonder if there is a better balance to the Christian life than I am living, is it possible to have the theology of a Calvinist but the experience of a Charismatic? I have never been close to Charismatic in my relationship with God but I used to note hesitate at asking God to heal people and even seeing them healed (much lesser things than regrowing limbs) but now I feel as if I have been so educated in my faith as to have shut that part of me off, and I want it to turn back on in the most Biblical way possible.
http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/2008/may/25.42.html
I want to hear your thoughts on this, and if anyone wants to take a weekend down to Lakeland, let me know, could be interesting.
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5 comments:
Good post Chris. Part of me always wants to believe stuff like this, but the main part of me just rejects it immediately. Sometimes I feel like maybe I'm not being faithful enough or I even feel like maybe we should just let people be. Maybe it's not our job to make every Christian in our image. But, with this guy, at least, I think he's gone way off the deep end and isn't preaching what the Bible teaches. Here is an article and a blog about him that I think sums up a lot of what he teaches:
The article: http://www.goodnewsfl.org/local.asp?page=bc/0608/front/todd.asp
The blog:
http://jesusshaped.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/does-todd-bentley-have-anything-to-do-with-jesus/
Also, and I know you can't just dismiss people based on some shortcomings but I think this is applicable to how we interpret someone like this, Todd and his wife are getting separated with the plans for a divorce right now. One of the reasons at least seems to be that he had an inappropriate relationship with another woman on staff at the church.
What do you guys think?
ps - where is everyone? the blog's been kind of silent lately.
Joel has several posts about the Lakeland phenomenon. This one is from after the news came out about Bentley and his wife: http://thejoel82.blogspot.com/2008/08/god-of-restoration-thank-you-jesus.html
I haven't made any comments yet because I grew up in the charismatic church and I wanted to see what the other guys would say.
Like Randy said, I have been posting a bit on this guy for a while now.( www.thejoel82.blogspot.com )If you have read any of them, you know I don’t like the guy! His theology is waaay off, even for a charismatic.
Also like Randy I grew up in "Charismainia". Like you have been on this journey of "balance" in my Theology. I know that healings are real along with the other gifts. I have seen them with my own eyes when a friend has prayed for someone’s bone sticking out of her leg and it goes back in and heals over. All glory was given to Christ not the guy who prayed! I also know that that world is filled with emotionalism, WEEK theology, and self-centered / righteous, none of which are of God. They tend to forget about the Old Testament unless it justifies there need to dance and wave flags. (non of which are wrong, well the flags are pushing it!)
Theology wise I think the “reformed” have got 90% of it. I think there is an aspect of the gifts of the spirit that is missing and is needed. Because they are value what the Bible says and not how they are feeling at the time they can bring order and accountability to it. (What 1 Cor talks about.) A good example of this in action is Mars Hill, in Seattle. (Mark Driscoll) There is a great balance there. I could write so much more….but I got to go to work!
Maybe some humor...
LAKELAND, Fla. — Reliable excuses which have served the Body of Christ well during past scandals are proving useful yet again after the demise of the Lakeland, Fla., revival.
"It’s great to see the old tropes circulating again," said one man. "These are valued, trusted excuses. They play an important role in the church at times like this."
People who might otherwise have felt burned by revival leader Todd Bentley’s confession of various sins say that familiar phrases like "It doesn’t change what God did in people’s lives" and "There but for the grace of God go I" have given them a sense of comfort during the fall-out.
"I get that wonderful feeling of uncritical grace that I get during every scandal," says one prophetic intercessor who had moved to Lakeland to work under the leadership of an angel named Louise.
Other traditionally helpful phrases such as "Man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart" and "The devil goes after leaders to try to scatter the flock" rattled around blogs and gave a deep sense of reassurance. Many found it easy to dust off the expressions because they had been so recently used with scandals involving Ted Haggard, Paula White and several lesser-known revival leaders.
The effect seemed to be working. Many revival-hungry believers say they already look forward to uncritically embracing the next revival leader. They also anticipate Bentley’s premature return to ministry and his diminished spiritual stature thereafter.
"If he goes down that well-worn path I think we’ll all be just fine," says one Lakeland follower. "It’s a familiar road to all of us." •
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I am catching up here and plan over the next week to have read every post and comment. Thanks for lettin me oberve and learn from you guys here.
Having grown up where the only expression of charisma was "shouting or holy dance" I lean towards sceptical and ignorant of how the Holy Spirit works supernaturally but always pray that God would help my unbelief.
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