“Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart” (Jer 14:14 KJV).
For many years from the time it began, Pentecostalism was a sideline within Protestant Christianity, regarded as an aberration by many Christians; part of the “lunatic fringe”, as some saw it. Indeed, G.Campbell Morgan graphically called them “the last vomit of Satan”. And R. A. Torrey accused them of being founded by a sodomite. And it is still so regarded by many Evangelical Christians, with any number of books written against the movement by well-known and popular authors. But ironically, Pentecostalism’s worst enemies are those within its own walls, men and women who not only do not display the fruit of the Spirit but exemplify the works of the flesh (Gal 5:19-23). These frauds are the face of Pentecostalism and its leading and most public figures. They are the televangelists who live like kings and queens in their huge palaces, ruthlessly fleecing their devoted and gullible followers of their hard-earned money to feed their insatiable lust for earthly possessions and power.
Peddlers of God’s Word
Many men and women televangelists have made themselves fabulously rich at the expense of the faithful Christians who follow them and believe their teaching. Promising healing and wealth, they brazenly lie to their audiences that if they will be faithful and sow a seed of faith in the form of a cash donation to them, God will open the windows of heaven and pour out his blessing on them. Their personal wealth has become so great that they can and do build extravagant and palatial homes for themselves, dress in the most expensive clothes, own their own personal jet airplanes, and spend fortunes on themselves to indulge their every fancy; and they can build huge church buildings on huge properties to accommodate huge congregations.
A well-known televangelist, John Avanzini, spoke contemptuously of poor (i.e. non-wealthy) pastors, and said that he wouldn’t even talk to such a pastor (DVD – “The Blind and the Dead” by Texe Marrs). But God loves all his people, and John Avanzini’s sin is discovered in these words from God: “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons…..Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?….But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors” (Jas 2:1, 5, 9).
On TV I saw a slick black pastor in an African country wringing the congregation for all he could get from them, trying to tantalise them by holding out the prospect of their owning a Ferrari if they would give him money. What on earth would a poor African villager want or do with a Ferrari? Nevertheless they seemed to fall for it.
Even now (2017), Benny Hinn still uses the same old techniques and promises to fleece faithful and gullible Christians of their money which continues to pour into his yawning coffers, as he razenly uses the bible to squeeze his followers for more and yet more. In the DVD “The Blind and the Dead”, we see Benny Hinn talking to an audience and laughingly saying he doesn’t want to wait until heaven where the streets are paved with gold; he says “I want it now! By the time I get there, my bills will be paid and the gold on the streets won’t help me. I’ve got bills to pay here. I need it now!” Laughing as he speaks, he unashamedly reveals his covetousness and repudiates the scriptures which warn against it (1 Tim 6:10).
Beware of False Prophets and False Teachers
These televangelists are also false prophets and scripture abounds with warnings about them. Jesus said, “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” (Matt 7:15-16). And Paul warned, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Cor 11:13-15).
Benny Hinn
When on the stage Benny Hinn acts as if demonically possessed, frantically hurling power in every direction. It is pure showmanship but also real power emanating from him. But most of the Pentecostal televangelists have similar power and, like Hinn, are characterised by abounding arrogance, superiority, and pride as, god-like, they strut around the stage, bestowing the gift of the Holy Ghost, of whom they’re the self-appointed custodians and dispensers, to a devoted and gullible people over whom they hold sway. Even Judas Iscariot, betrayer of Jesus, was able to cast out demons and heal people (Lk 9:1-6); he was also a thief and helped himself to the donations of Jesus’ supporters (Jn 12:1-6).
Of his many false prophecies, Hinn once told his audience and the world that the Lord told him that in 1994 or 1995 God was going to destroy the homosexual community of America by fire. He also told them that God told him Fidel Castro would die in the 90’s – see link:
http://www.equip.org/hank_speaks_out/benny-hinns-false-prophecies/
Obviously these prophecies have not been fulfilled and the time prophesied for them has long since passed. According to scripture, this makes Benny Hinn a false prophet (Deut 18:20-22).
If the people who support Benny Hinn took heed of this command and warning, he and the others like him would disappear and both the Church and the world would be better for it. But Christians are too ignorant of doctrine now, and experience means far more to them. Indeed, one Pentecostal man, owner of a bookshop which sold Pentecostal books exclusively, once told me this very thing, that experience carries more weight with him than doctrine. As long as they see Benny Hinn (and his ilk) doing fake miracles and spewing out false prophecies he will continue to fleece them. As the saying goes, “a fool and his money are easily parted”.
Kenneth Copeland
Along with fellow televangelists such as Kenneth Hagin, Benny Hinn, Oral Roberts, Joyce Meyer, and others of the Word of Faith theology, one of Pastor Copeland’s heresies states that Jesus’ death on the cross did not atone for sin; atonement was achieved after he died when he descended to hell and was born again.
There is not a word of any of Copeland’s idea of what Jesus did in hell in scripture, or any of the other heresies scattered liberally throughout his false teaching. Jesus achieved our salvation from the cross, not from hell. The gospels tell us that Jesus’ last words from the cross were, “It is finished” (Jn 19:30). This tells us that Jesus had accomplished the work of atonement as a result of his death on the cross. This is confirmed in the letter of Hebrews: “…when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb 1:3). This purification for sins refers to the cross, as seen in Heb 10:14.
And Paul also assures us that it was by his death on the cross that Jesus reconciled both Jews and Gentiles to God and to each other (Eph 2:11-16; Col 2:14). Paul also specifically says that Jesus accomplished it in his flesh, not his spirit, contrary to what Kenneth says (Eph 2:16). Furthermore, Paul tells us that Jesus did the very opposite of what Pastor Copeland would have us believe: “…having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Col 2:15).
And, so far is the truth from what Pastor Copeland says about Jesus’ “emaciated, poured out, little, wormy spirit without legal right”, that the apostle Peter writes of Jesus going to the underworld in power and triumph: “Christ…being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison” (1 Pet 3:18-19). According to many evangelical teachers, Jesus, in between his death and resurrection, went to the underworld (Jude 6) to proclaim his victory over them and to assure them of their final judgment.
And as for God having “faith-filled words” to speak into the depths of hell, God doesn’t have faith! God is God! God didn’t create the universe by faith-filled words either, as Pastor Copeland says in his Study Bible (Genesis 1) and other places. Rather, the bible tells us: “The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew” (Prov 3:19-20). And: “He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion” (Jer 10:12).
God speaks and his command must be fulfilled – not by God’s faith but by his sovereign command! God doesn’t speak by faith because only humans need faith, a faith that is in God. It suggests that there is the possibility of the desired end not happening if the right faith is not exercised. It suggests that there is someone or something more powerful than God in the universe; that God doesn’t have full control over all things, even “things that do not appear”. In whom or what would or could God have faith anyway? The universe? NO! Fate? NO! God is God and therefore there is absolutely no possibility that what he declares or orders or commands will not happen. God is God and he “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph 1:11).
The Source of Their Power is Obvious
The presence of demons in churches has become more blatant and obvious now as we see the new breed of Pentecostal leaders with “Christian” mediums posing as prophets brazenly bringing their victims under the power of demons in the name of Jesus; and brutes like Todd Bentley, a sorry figure trying to cultivate a “bad boy” image by covering his skin with tattoos and shaving his head. God doesn’t need us to do these things to preach the gospel; this is just worldliness and witchcraft. He wants us to avoid even the appearance of evil (1 Thess 5:22).
Todd Bentley
On YouTube, for example, you can watch Todd Bentley laughingly boast how the Holy Spirit pointed out an old woman who was praying, facing him as she stood close to the platform; the Spirit told him to go and kick the woman in the head. So Bentley did just that. In another YouTube video you can see a man who had been brought to Bentley for healing. He had advanced cancer in the stomach and had to be supported by another person because he was so ill and weak he could hardly walk. Bentley, looking at him, ran up to him and punched him in the stomach as hard as he could. Needless to say, the man doubled in agony and dropped to the floor.
It is far beyond reasonable to expect that Jesus would have instructed Peter or Paul or any other apostle to kick one of his people in the head, or to punch a person who had come to them for healing. All those who were healed went away whole and rejoicing. What a condemnation of Todd Bentley!
Bentley sees angels everywhere and even knows them by their names; he also has pagan drumbeat music in his services, and to the beat of these drums he presents a woman who has all the signs of a demon-possessed and controlled medium who prophesies in a drunken, slurring way and who can hardly stand erect because she is so overcome by an unclean spirit – although Bentley claims it is the Holy Spirit.
Sadly, this weekly scenario is all about Todd Bentley and has nothing of God in it. It is his regular platform where, while he may pay lip service to Jesus and/or the Holy Spirit, he is in reality promoting himself. It is “The Todd Bentley Road Show”. He does not display a shred of humility, nor holiness, as he has his church members metaphorically lapping out of his hands. And his adultery and immoral lifestyle has been all over the internet.
I’m dumbfounded as I wonder how Christians accept such a brute as this as a Christian and a leader – even the secular world is not so stupid. There must be gales of laughter in hell as the demons look approvingly on Todd Bentley and his antics.
Heidi Baker
Baker is a more appealing figure in that she doesn’t have the gross appearance of Bentley but has a kind of motherly demeanour; but this is merely a deceptive outward appearance. To see her on YouTube is alarming and sickening as she goes into seeming demonic trances herself and brings her victims to the same, some of whom writhe and scream as they’re invaded by demons. These are nightmarish scenes one would expect to see only in horror movies, yet here they are in reality, disguised under the name of Jesus.
Foolish and gullible Christians accept all this as the work of the Holy Spirit and not only condone it but join and encourage it. And it is happening universally, not just in the West but in Africa and Asia. Millions are caught up in a Pentecostal parody of Christianity which presents a false gospel and is promoted by false teachers and false prophets. Hopefully, some people at their meetings will be saved and go to be with Jesus when they die; but too many have simply fused their shamanistic religions with Christianity and what they think is the Holy Spirit, and will perish in their sins.
The majority of these televangelists have been tainted by one or more characteristics which are rampant within Pentecostalism: immorality, adultery, multiple divorce and remarriage, homosexuality, embezzlement, theft, fraud, lies, deceit, arrogance, pride, hatred of any who expose them, greed, covetousness, and false teaching. Their false witness causes those who admire and love them to become discouraged and confused, they grieve the Holy Spirit, and open the gospel to the ridicule of its enemies.
So experience alone is no indication of a person’s spiritual state or of their relationship with God. As can be seen with people like Todd Bentley and Benny Hinn, spiritual experience is very dangerous and is frequently Satanic in origin rather than of the Holy Spirit.
Scenes of hell
As I watched the DVD “The Blind and the Dead”, and “The Great Apostasy: The Lost Sign”, I was absolutely appalled as I was slapped into reality. Here I saw the chaos, insanity and utter ungodliness of even the most senior and well-known Pentecostal leaders such as Kenneth E. Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, John Avanzini, Rodney Howard-Browne, and many others whose names and ministries I’ve not heard before, displaying everything that the bible is against. It was sickening to see the antics that went on in their “worship” meetings. I felt like I was looking at scenes from hell. And watching Copeland and Hagin, along with other Pentecostal leaders and a whole congregation laughing uncontrollably, barking and howling like dogs, men and women moving around the open floor space on hands and knees like animals, one man on his hands and knees with a leash around his neck as another held on to it There were people rolling on the floor in uncontrollable fits of laughter, and men and women were sliding off their chairs onto the floor in a sadly undignified manner – it sounded and looked like the cackling of demons – hideous, ugly, degrading, and frightening.
I wondered how these people can call themselves Christians and teach in the name of Jesus when everything they do is so totally opposed to everything he exemplified and taught. And I saw that the local Pentecostal churches are no better, in general, because they do exactly the same only on a smaller scale. If their most prominent leaders and teachers can give notably false prophecies, teach false doctrine, are led by their spirit to behave like animals, while many of them have been caught up in sexual immorality, adultery and divorce, or been caught stealing large sums of money or embezzling from their own churches, what does this say about them and the Pentecostal movement at large? What does it say about the spirit that motivates and energises them?
And what of the televangelists who deceive their followers, steal their money, and leave them with a false hope? Jesus tells us. He says “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt 7:21-23).
All scriptures in this article are taken from the Authorised King James Version of the Bible.