Apparently, the great man of faith does not even have any faith in God to restore his own marriage!

Charisma magazine has a soft piece on the restoration waiting out the bad press for Todd until someone is gullible enough to let him fleece them again.

From the article: “In the current case, Joyner said Bentley does not believe his marriage to Shonnah is salvageable. “[Bentley] has also taken steps to make the relationship with the girl that was inappropriate, appropriate,” Joyner said.

The next time you hear Todd talk about faith you can be sure he doesn’t believe what he is selling.  He does not believe that God is big or strong enough to salvage his marriage, and his marriage problems are too big for God.  Qal Wahomer Mr. Bentley.  If God can’t do this little thing like save your marriage then how is he going to do the big things you so flippantly promise?  How do you make a relationship with another woman appropriate while you are married and in the ministry?

I suppose though that since God is a force and not a person in Bentley’s “theology” (for lack of a better word) you can always trick the force by saying the right combination of words from his magic book after an astral trip to the third heaven while your fillings turn to gold.

I hate to say I told you so… but I told you so.

I told you he’d be back, but even I didn’t foresee the unmitigated arrogance that would begin his return to “ministry.”

Todd Bentley has slowly started to re-insert himself into his mistress er, the charismatic consciousness by creating a myspace page and a Facebook fan page:

Apparently Todd really likes weightlifting and working out… about every two or three years by the looks of things.

The pages are full of the usual Bentley lingo and crap.  I’m looking forward to his prophecies about 2009.  Let’s see if can make some of my own and how close I can come to his: “2009 is the year of the Lord; the year of His anointing; the year of the breakthrough and the heavenly blessing. 2009 is the year of the believer; the year of the heavenly restoration and the supernatural blessing. The year of the outpouring of God’s spirit, and his great abundance and riches on his people. The year of soaking stupid Christians out of their money er, in his presence…”

Surprisingly (even to a cynic like me) the first two posts at Todd’s myspace blog are about restoration.  If you feel like experiencing true heavenly righteous indignation give them a perusal.  His abuse of Scripture is shocking.  He even has the nerve to talk about God’s justice and vengeance and he means towards people that are  unrepentive sinners and NOT himself.  Seriously, if I was Todd the last topic I would talk about is God’s vengeance.  I would of thought the taste he had of that in 2008 was enough.  Apparently not.

The saddest part is that all he will have to do is say that God turns ashes into beauty and he will be right back running his shenanigans again.  Todd Bentley is living proof of how easy it will be for the Antichrist to deceive many Christians with rhetoric that sounds biblical–but really isn’t–and signs and wonders.

Clearly the mantle of prophet needs to be added to my list of spiritual gifts because, well… I told you so: first HERE, loudly HERE, once again HERE, especially HERE, and HERE. Openly mocked HERE, HERE, and HERE. Called to task those with an uncritical allegiance HERE, and HERE. Finally giving up and hoping that satire and humor might somehow get through to those that for whatever reason just could not seem to deal with the matter at hand in a critical manner HERE. My concern? Todd Bentley and The Lakeland ‘Outpouring’.

In response to the usual jargon from a Bentleyophile on May 28, 2008 I wrote:

My mind is not “closed” rather, having years of church experience, a degree in Religion and Theology with an emphasis on biblical studies, a minor in Greek and Hebrew, serving in a church community, having read and re-read the Bible, and most of all having LISTENED and WATCHED Bentley I find him not profitable for myself or my church community.

My attitude is not “bad”, my reaction is not “knee jerk”, and my mind is not “closed”.

Blind unthinking allegiance, however, I find very disturbing.

If you take the time to read through all of the posts and comments one thing becomes painfully obvious: clearly some sort of super cool title should be granted unto me soon; however, “prophet” (of humility) shall have to suffice in the meantime. Anyways…

So here we find ourselves post-Lakelandianity and a lot of people are now commenting about what was going on there and how Todd conducts himself; especially in light of the revelation that Bentley is involved with another woman that is not his wife. With the amount of deception that has poured forth from him recently I find it highly doubtful whether his admission to that relationship only being “emotional” is truthful. This is not the ‘enemy’ as Fresh Fire Ministries (FFM) is asserting breaking into Todd’s camp and attacking; it’s just the way sin works (the cosmic passing of the buck in the latest FFM letter show some of the serious theological assumptions that lead to problems for the movement – more later this week). When you operate in sin, unfaithfulness, and deception in your married life it’s going to take control of some other areas as well, it is not compartmentalized; as Paul says it becomes our master.

Some recent articles on Bentley and Lakeland:

• Michael Spencer: A Note to Todd Bentley
• John Piper: Test Revival With Doctrine
• And in what must surely be a first and most likely NOT a regular occurrence at Scotteriology an actual link to Charisma Magazine. It must be bizarro backward universe day: Life After Lakeland: Sorting Out The Confusion
• And using all of his usual gifts of tact, diplomacy, and understatement Dr. Jim West: Todd Bentley: Deluded False Teacher. Don’t mix words Jim tell us how you really feel! Anyways, Jim’s support and links throughout this discussion have been greatly appreciated
• The Jesus Paradigm: We Have, And It’s On. Via: JSS
• There are more; many more, though the amount of hypocrites within the charismatic movement now coming forward and expressing their “concerns” they have “always” had with Todd’s doctrine but did not want to question a “move of God” because of “signs and wonders” show just how easy it will be for the Anti-Christ to deceive many believers who have absolutely no concern for Scripture and discernment but love the “spiritual masturbation” of signs and wonders and nothing more

There really is about a million ways I could go with this from here. I could point at Todd’s lack of training, theological weaknesses (which are many), unverified healings (which are many), lies or elaborations (which are many), or fallen humanity (which we all have) as a way to discount his ministry. I won’t do that. I could ask questions like Grady who wrote the Charisma article (and he asks some very good questions from within his bubble). My questions are the same ones before, during, and after Lakeland. I’ve asked some of them before, and I’ll save the others for another day.

See the thing is, in some of my weaker moments, I sometimes want what was being reported about at Lakeland. God shows up and moves in ways that no one, and I mean NO ONE has any choice but to believe. One hundred percent epistemic certainty. Signs and wonders that leaves no one wondering. I understand that sort of hunger.

But I have these problems: I can’t stop reading Scripture and thinking it is valuable for the way we conduct ourselves as followers of Jesus together and in the world; I think the witness of brothers and sisters in Christ who came before us is very useful; I think the many things I have witnessed, profitable and hurtful to the body, are experiences that are beneficial; and all of these things taken together give me a litmus test and questions that I can’t help but apply to situations such as Lakeland and Bentley’s “ministry”.

Like Nate who wrote the Jesus Paradigm article I have no problem with Todd Bentley as a person. I mean he’s Canadian so he can’t be too bad away from the podium right? I wish him no ill will and earnestly hope that his marriage can be restored because Todd’s public failure is our public failure. Secular persons cannot discern the difference between pentecostal Christians or baptist Christians. We’re just Christians. So yeah, you should be praying for him and his marriage, and his conduct, and his theology, and his ministry, because a lot of people are getting exposed to “Christianity” by him. I know, I know… I wish it was someone else as well. I would way, way rather unsaved people meet Shaine Claiborne than Todd Bentley too.

But I don’t have a problem with Todd the person. However, I have massive problems with the church culture and horrible doctrine that created Bentleymania… and it turns out I was right. This is why way back in May I directed your attention to a quote by Philip Schaff commenting on the original Todd Bentley and the movement that grew up around his leadership called Montanism

It is the first example of an earnest and well-meaning, but gloomy and fanatical hyper-Christianity, which like all hyper-spiritualism, is apt to end in the flesh.

There is an incredibly, massive, large difference between spirituality and hyper-spirituality. Next time sane, sober minded, well trained men of God and theologians point out that difference: LISTEN! And I am NOT talking about myself here, but the many voices that said, “Something is wrong here,” and the usual garbage that was thrown in their faces to not question God, that they had no ‘authority’ to question Todd (because clearly the ones who did were doing an excellent job), to not question the man of God, or signs and wonders… sigh. It genuinely depresses me when people abandon Christianity for the heresy of Neo-Gnosticism and Neo-Montanism that was being offered up at Lakeland.

Finally, Todd is stepping back for a season for some restoration and this is good because there may have been nothing more pathetic and sad than Paula White getting separated last summer (which led to divorce) and the following week leading a conference for women called ‘Satisfied Woman’… my brain still near reaches stroke levels when I think about that. At least FFM is smarter and more humble than that, and I wish Todd all of the best and truly hope he can find some peace and healing in this time.

This part is for Todd: I have moved right down the road 15 minutes away from your office. If you’re looking for some mentoring and a little tutoring in biblical hermeneutics, exegesis, and theology during your break I would love to help you out after you are done working on the marriage… because not only am I good at these things clearly I’m a prophet!

Here’s the problem that I have with so many churches in the North Atlantic part of the world today: they are so individualistic and me centered I fear their existence as they become increasingly useless in the economic world we may soon find ourselves in the North — and that our brothers and sisters around the globe do find themselves in. Let me give a couple of quick examples.

Neo-Montanism. No matter how I read the biblical text there is one conclusion I can’t avoid when I consider the earliest church: after the upper room experience the disciples left the upper room! I could only imagine some “leaders” “preachers” and “theologians” of our generation if they had been part of that experience. They would have tried to stay at God’s “special portal” and “get more of the Spirit,” sending letters to Corinth, Ephesus, and Philippi to “Come Get Some.” I know you can imagine the Christianese right now, “Lord we just invite you into this place today, Lord God. And God, we just want more of your pillar of fire; release your pillar of fire in this place Lord. Fill us Father, we ask Lord God” (repeat ad nauseum no matter what God does). This sort of repeated focus on self experience is epitomized in the famous line “they are so focused on heaven they are of no earthly good.” Me, me me; more of you giving to me.

Mammonianity. You may have heard that the economy is not doing so grand. Oil is up, gas is up, food is up, and foreclosures are up 120 % over this same time last year. For some, and maybe very soon, for the majority, life is not one of economic surplus. Christians and Non-Christians are losing their homes and their jobs. Life is hard. Guess what the lovers of Mammon are selling? That’s right so much economic prosperity it can only be called gross opulence. Please god (Mammon gets a little “g” no matter what they say) and you will be rich. Give to god and you will be rich. Are you rich? Our god will make you richer. Me, me, me; more of you giving to me.

Julian the Apostate came to power in Rome in 360. Despite His predecessors Christinization of the Roman empire Julian hated Christianity, withdrew Christians religious freedom, and rigorously attempted to create a religious alternative. Julian attempted to persuade his followers to adopt a religious organization and practice of charity modeled on Christianity, and famously lamented about the successful spread of the Christian faith, “Why do we not observe that it is their benevolence to strangers, their care for the graves of the dead and the pretended holiness of their lives that have done the most to increase Christianity.” Let those that have ears hear. In 250 CE the church in Rome has records where they are feeding 1500 distressed persons a day. The worse thing that the church’s greatest enemy can basically say at this time is, “I hate Christians, all they do is help people! Let’s get rid of them by emulating them.”

We are entering a time where it is very probable that we will be asked to bring the Kingdom of God into North Atlantic areas in ways that will be challenging and unique. How do you minister to the “least of these” that are still among the world’s elite? If a family has lost the ownership of a house and their nest egg, but still has their health, food, and a roof over their heads (which makes them very rich by global standards) how do you minister to the broken heart of those experiencing relative poverty?

What then? Should we give everything and live a life of poverty to help them attain prosperity? I don’t think that, but I do think churches such as these are creating a model of how to use their resources to help others and not grossly indulge themselves over and over again that other churches will have to follow if they are to impact our world during economic crisis.

Greg Boyd has a wonderful quote that has become part of the manifesto at Jesus Shaped Spirituality

There is a beautiful and powerful grassroots Kingdom movement arising all over the globe …. Millions of people are abandoning the Christendom paradigm of the traditional Christian faith in order to become more authentic followers of Jesus. From the Emergent Church movement to the Urban Monastic Movement to a thousand other independent groups and movements, people are waking up to the truth that the Kingdom of God looks like Jesus and that the heart of Christianity is simply imitating him.

I’ve got my eye out for these people that simply imitate Jesus, and I’m keeping my ear to the ground as we enter uncertain and difficult times listening for the complaint “All those Christians do is help people.”

The kingdom of God is among you. Spread the word.

You have to admire Todd Bentley in some ways. Just when you thought things couldn’t possibly get worse than yesterday’s horrible preacher you stumble across a video that makes your brain cramp in ways you didn’t think possible.

Todd simply could not let the charge pass that there was someone, somewhere that was a worse preacher than he was, and therefore, he released this video to the public. Crowder threw down the gauntlet with theological imbecility forever declaring “I am the worst preacher ever.” Bentley responded “Oh no you didn’t” and picked up the challenge with spiritual arrogance that may only be paralleled in the words “I will be like the most high.” Actually, even that ancient pride is better than Todd’s; Bentley is not trying to be like the most high, he is declaring that he is stronger than the most high. Unparalleled spiritual arrogance.

And while trying to finally decide who is a worse preacher between John Crowder and Todd Bentley may be like trying to decide whether you want herpes or syphilis there is no doubt that both take insulting Yahweh to such heights that even Lucifer would stand back and say, “Dudes, that’s too much, tone it down a hair.”

Yes, he said what you thought he said but hoped he hadn’t.

When God does not show up and when God is not moving, I thank God I have a gift, and I thank God I move by faith, and I thank God when God’s not moving I move God.

I’m left wondering where the omnipresent God might be when he doesn’t “show up.” Hmmmmm. I might have to add a “Really, Really Bad Theology” category for these two clowns.

I think I have finally figured it out, and really it is the only tenable solution: Peter Kirk has been playing us all for his own private humor.

Being from North America I didn’t get the joke right away, sort of how so many folks get tricked by Sacha  Baron Cohen when he is performing Ali G or Borat. As near as I can figure Peter picked a person that he knew would drive bibliobloggers and theobloggers crazy, decided to whitewash his many problems, and defend him ad nauseum no matter what Todd Bentley did!

Once I figured that out I looked over some of Peter’s latest posts, and his commitment to character and subtle dry British humor are amazing. I mean it really is brilliant stuff, I was crying I was laughing so hard. Brilliant, brilliant comedic performance. And to keep the gag running for so long, and be that patient just shows how committed and ingenious he is.

Some recent highlights correlating Bentley with Jesus and Paul (outrageous and hyperbolic comparisons are a valuable tool of the greatest comedians):

Few people alive today are following these aspects of Jesus’ example more precisely than Todd Bentley.

Eventually Jesus’ critics had him crucified. I hope and pray that Todd won’t meet a similar fate! But I also hope and pray that he, like Jesus, will remain steadfast in the face of criticism to complete the ministry which God has for him.

LOL!!!! Outrageous. Well done: the unmitigated gall, the confusion. Cheers.

But I suppose he is feeling under the same compulsion to continue his ministry that the Apostle Paul felt

ROFL!!! The same compulsion as Paul: that’s awesome. When Peter used 1 Corinthians 9:16 to imply that the compulsion Bentley was under was to “preach the gospel” I darn near peed my pants. You just can’t find humor this good anymore.

I look forward to upcoming performances by Peter’s brilliantly funny theologian character:

• On this Todd I will build my church
• But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what Todd Bentley proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed!
• Before Lakeland: Todd Was
• One might even say that Todd Bentley himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.
• Todd is just like Peter
• Todd is just like James (all of them)
• Todd is just like John (all of them)

Of course, a comedian of Peter’s obvious ability will have some hilarious posts and ideas that I do not have the comedic capacity to foresee, but hopefully they come soon because we can all use another laugh.

—————————————

In honor of Peter’s amazing comedic performance I am suggesting that fans of his around the internet select their own Christian leader on the fringe of Christianity and defend them theologically and make outrageous comparisons of that person to characters in the Bible.

There is only one rule: no matter what you can never say or acknowledge anything negative about the person whom you are defending: there must be a complete whitewash. This person can be doing some good things (as Todd may) but you can never acknowledge the bad: the ends justify the means in all things! 10% good and 90% bad? You only talk about the good, and must defend that person like they were the second coming of the apostle Paul himself. Some people to consider though you can always select your own:

• Creflo Dollar
• Kenneth Copeland
• Paula White
• Jesse Duplantis
• John Crowder
• Bob Jones
• And if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery: Todd Bentley!

… or the church? or any church leaders for that matter?

Let me first give a seemingly unrelated situation that I would like to stand as a parallel:

I know several people that are primarily influenced in their parenting by a need for their child to love them and be their friend. While this may seem like wisdom the repercussions of that parenting motivator in the long term can be quite destructive. Discipline for them is a repeated begging process for the child to do something or not do something. It is not uncommon for the child to tell them when this is over. In fact, for one acquaintance of mine it is not uncommon for the child to yell at the mother “NO MOMMY” and have her capitulate to his petulant demands.

I would be willing to bet that many readers know a child like this in our era of everything ‘fun’. Here’s the thing: has anyone ever come across a child where this was healthy? Probably not. All the children like this I know are at some stage of spoiled brat ranging from mildly annoying to needing a severe beating. In an attempt to validate every action by the child and say nothing ‘negative’ parents create little self centered monsters.

Now the parallel:

During a recent conversation a friend of mine, let’s hypothetically say his name is Mark, replied to a question in a group conversation about the church, “We shouldn’t criticize or judge the church.” He said it in the context that it was a badge of maturity and humility to validate every action and belief of our churches regardless of what they did, and those horrible rude people that had the audacity to ever say even something as mild as “Perhaps, we should try doing this a little different,” well, they were critical, negative, people that should not judge lest they be judged.

Seems like a good idea right? If we really loved our children we would give them what they wanted and not be negative towards them; and if we really loved our churches we would only say positive things about her. However, here’s the problem: just as friendship parenting leads to self absorbed bratty children; an attitude of false positivism towards the church, without any boundaries, blindly validating any behavior leads to self absorbed leaders, petulant leaders, truncated theologies, and me centered fleshiness.

Disciplining your children is hard; it can be a major inconvenience and can even lead your children to questioning your motives for the short term. They might even cry themselves to sleep once in awhile. But the point of parenting and discipline is to raise your children to be good functioning people in society. It takes patience and love towards this long term goal. it is easy to take a  shortcut and not discipline your kids and get a hug as they run away to play. It is easy to be your kids friend. Give them candy and toys. It is hard to give boundaries and discipline. However, I think proper discipline is based on an abiding love for the long term future of a child, and friendship parenting is built on a short term love for the self and not the child.

In the same way there are those that judge, evaluate, praise, criticize, meditate, discipline, discern, and wonder at the church out of a deep and abiding love for her. Not because we are “mean,” not because we are “judgmental,” and not because we think we are “superior.” But because we love her and we know what she can be when she is at her best. Sometimes this takes correction and discipline… and that can be hard, but it’s because we want her to grow up right.

Finally, this leads me to some of the defenders of Todd Bentley. Unfortunately, it seems to me that many are involved in following Bentley ala the “friendship parenting” model; unable to critically discern or correct lest he yells at them “NO MOMMY” and takes his anointing away. What does the enabling defender of Bentley do when someone mentions that perhaps not all of his behaviors are appropriate and bendficial? Deal with the real issues? Any issues? No. Of course not. Their wonder child can do no wrong.

The benefit of being realistic about your church, and its leaders, is that you get to practice all sorts of Christian ideals. Humility, grace, forgiveness, and charity. I readily admit that I make mistakes and I am open to correction, and I hope that I never fall into a pattern of behavior that is enabled by my friends and gets worse and worse. It also leaves open the possibility that I can correct negative things while keeping the positives.

The kind of enabling defense of the sheeple that often defend Bentley affords few of these possibilities. It leaves the possibility of IGNORING the negative things while keeping the positives. He is never wrong, and if he is it is not discussed because the good outweighs the bad, and the ends justify the means. Very Christian ideas right?

He claims to have medical proof of mass healings, but has not produced widely convincing evidence.

Expecting critics, Bentley’s ministry distributed a list of 15 people it said were cured, and vetted by his ministry, with all but three of their stories “medically verified.”

Yet two phone numbers given out by the ministry were wrong, six people did not return telephone messages and only two of the remainder, when reached by The Associated Press, said they had medical records as proof of their miracle cure. However, one woman would not make her physician available to confirm the findings, and the other’s doctor did not return calls despite the patient’s authorization.

And in the ignoramus quote of the week:

“Miracles and healings are evidence,” Bentley said. “They are signs of the Kingdom, and if we don’t have signs then all we have is a bunch of theology…”

Leave the soup kitchens, the hostels, the prisons. Stop caring for the poor and downtrodden. You don’t have “signs” just theology. Forget living the Christian life in a patient unspectacular manner daily laying down your life in community; reading and meditating on the word in prayer and reflection. You don’t have “signs” just theology.

That sort of thinking is sick. Basically what he is saying is that if your church does not look like his outpouring “it’s just theology.” Hmmmmm. I am feeling like I’m supposed to heal Todd… with a quick palm strike to the nose!

Read the whole article

One link later and a lot of traffic from End Times Prophetic Words where they have been discussing the Lakeland issue quite a bit to say the least.

Well there has been some discussion of the issue here as well. Click the link and join the conversation:

Everything Lakeland on Scotteriology

The question is not mine but Michael Spencer’s aka iMonk. He asks the question on his new site Jesus Shaped Spirituality

Michael makes an excellent point when he writes:

I can evaluate Bentley, but I can’t judge him. God will judge him and God will judge me.

It sometimes seems to me that people on both sides of the issue lose sight of that distinction. There is a qualitative difference between the two. It is OK as a Christian to “test the spirits” and evaluate situations and teachings. To put any evaluation into some sort of negative category of “judging” is to ask for unthinking, uncritical, automaton followers.

Of course, iMonk does go on to evaluate Bentley:

How can we describe Bentley’s revival? Take the KC Prophets, add a downgraded version of Benny Hinn, season it with Rodney Howard-Browne’s Laughing “revival” and top it all off with the Biker-Church-Store-Front-Christianity that has gained ground in this era of purpose-driven, subculture dominated evangelicalism.

Bentley is crude. Raw. Violent.  He’s phenomenonally ignorant. He’s an obvious liar who is claiming resurrections into double figures. His raw ambition for major media coverage isn’t even subtle. He’s self centered and hearing voices telling him to do terrible, violent things.

Cricket. Cricket. Awkward… so Michael heading to Lakeland any time soon?

Read the whole article.