Biblecia.comCoram Deo

This letter was written to expose the falsehood of what was called "the Lakeland Revival," and to respond to the false preaching of Todd Bentley. This exposes some of the unscriptural foundation and fallacies present within the of Word of Faith & Holy Laughter Movements. The letter was addressed to members of a local church congregation in response to several people asking about his purported miracles and the media's coverage of the event.

                                False Movements
                                  (The Lakeland, FL "Revival)


Hello,

 

I write today concerning a certain revival happening in Lakeland called the Lakeland Revival by Todd Bentley. I live in the Tampa Bay area, home to the Lakeland Revival and several Word-of-faith teachers such as Rodney Howard Browne, Paula and Randy White, and many others. I'm writing as to someone who thinks that this revival is a genuine revival and may be entangled in the movements associated with it. Please, hear me out as what I have to say concerning the matter. If what I've written is all wrong, you'll only be strengthened in your opinion and standpoint. But, if the passages of scripture I quote to affirm this message are in context and interpreted soundly, then it pleads your attention to the message and behooves you to read through this because it concerns important truths that may have deceived you (because they certainly at one time deceived me). I write this to you as a brother in the Lord who is concerned that you, the reader, may be overtaken in a fault - believing that this revival is a genuine revival reflects hard on what you believe and affirm as a Christian in the faith in which you now stand (Galatians 6:1). This message is concerning teaching behind Todd Bentley's revival, but they also concern and apply to movements at work today associated with it that Todd Bentley himself practices and teaches in the revival, namely the Holy Laughter Movement (Toronto Blessing) and the Word-of-Faith Movement. These are modern-day winds of doctrine (which the Bible warns about in Ephesians 4:14) that have crept into the church's modern day preaching that are very popular and very deceptive. I've included a list of all of the videos and some resources at the end. It may be good to watch some of them if you're unfamiliar with the subject-matter.

 

I sincerely write this to you who read it in a spirit of meekness. Well, I just wanted to say, in no way am I trying to talk evil of people I've never met and don't personally know... I don't speak against any position of authority that any of these people hold, but I do speak truth against the lies of their teachings and false, unbiblical, spiritual experience that doesn't come from God. Please don't mistake what is said for any form of slander against the people that go along with the false teachings. It isn't wrong to speak the truth about a deception - it's a virtue. Jesus did this about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and lawyers of His day. So, I speak evil of no one. I only speak the truth concerning their teachings and I certainly don't attempt to personally attack anyone, if it would appear that way due to the nature of what I'm writing. I pray that the Lord undoes the damage these people have done to the body of Christ and the name of our Lord among the world.

 

When I speak against false spiritual experiences, I'm not saying I don't believe that the Church, with its true worshippers and believers, can get beside themselves in worship from time to time; and I'm certainly not saying that God doesn't show up personally in many people's lives daily, because this also is very biblical. Paul talks about this in 2 Cor. 5:13 saying, "For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause." However, I am saying that the spiritual experiences shown in these videos aren't what Paul described in that same passage as the Church being 'beside ourselves,' aren't truly from the Spirit of God, and certainly isn't worship done in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24) or in decency and order (1 Cor 14:40). It should always be a right faith that orders our worship, as people in the true faith authored by God; otherwise, we aren't doing anything in worship different from what pagans do in religions they themselves have made up. Our worship and spiritual experience should always be in response to what we've learned about God in scripture or from sound preaching, otherwise it isn't done 'in truth' as Jesus required it to be done in John 4:24. We worship God because He deserves it: His works are mighty, He is good, and He is merciful towards His people. If worship isn't done in response to revealed truth we wouldn't be true worshipers. Worship, in scripture, is based on what God has revealed about Himself and His character to us through the Holy Spirit. We worship Him for who He is, because He deserves it (Gen. 24:48; 1 Chron 16:34; 2 Chron. 5:13; Jeremiah 33:11; Rev 7:9-12 [they could see Him]). Unfortunately, The Holy Laughter Movement isn't an act of worship at all. It isn't biblical and any attempt to reconcile it with the scriptures is twisting scripture. The spiritual experience in the holy laughter movement isn't in the bible. Please watch these videos and I'll explain further through the videos why I say these false spiritual experiences aren't of God. Ask yourself, based on the preaching and the spiritual experiences: are those in these videos worshiping God in spirit and in truth?

1 Tim 4:1-2, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;"

 

The second half of this passage reveals false teachers to be liars that lead a life one way on camera and lead another life off camera a different way, saying 'speaking lies in hypocrisy,' but since, as I mentioned before, I don't know the men in these videos personally, I wont make that presumption and that can be left for another writing (some of them have been exposed to have been hypocritically lying about their ministries and the finances behind them).

The Holy Laughter movement and the movements associated with it, such as the Word-of-Faith movement, are seductive. There are some common trends in their preaching. The ministers often come offering great debt reduction, straightened finances, and fixed homes. Who would turn down an opportunity to get debts and finances straightened out by God? This encompasses a majority of the preaching. This wouldn't be too detrimental to its listeners except that this is ALL that they preach: there's almost no mention of sin being forgiven because these preachers rarely ever mention the word sin - most of the time it's disguised as 'the mistakes that you've made' or 'the bad things you've done,' if mentioned at all. They will rarely ever go into detail about eternal judgment, repentance from dead works, or any of the basic teachings that the Bible says are essential for new believers (Hebrews 6:1-2, Hebrews 5:12). They never seem to seriously talk about 'faith' as it pertains to believing on Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. The only 'faith' they preach is one that would do the aforementioned functions to make your life more comfortable by less financial debt and struggle. This takes the focus off of preparing for the coming kingdom and the life to come and puts it on self.

 

These teachers preach the comforts of a life without suffering in place of the Gospel, a faith that offers relief from the world, not the faith that brings the comfort of your sins being forgiven. The Gospel isn't preached: it's a me-centered preaching style where if Jesus on the cross is mentioned, the atonement for sins isn't preached -- it's only about Jesus dying for your personal happiness and comfort. In these movements, they don't preach the way that Jesus does in the Bible, or any of the apostles that He taught for that matter. In the bible, you will find that Jesus talks heavily about the kingdom of God (Matthew 12), the glories of His Father (John 17, Matt. 16, Mark 8), repentance (Luke 13:3-5, Luke 15:7, John 5:14, John 8:11, Matthew 4:17), the judgment to come (Matt 5, 10-12, 23, 27; Mark 6; Luke 10-11; John 5, 7, 8-9, 12, 16, 18-19), and devoted a considerable amount of time in His teaching to believing on Him and the doctrines mentioned in Hebrews 6:1-2. He talks more about hell than anyone else in scripture and rebuked His disciples for not believing and being hard of heart to believe these things, having heard and had read to them Moses and the Prophets all their lives, which testified of the same things. And when it was their time, the Apostles labored hard in the epistles to convey the same teachings and they all speak heavily on doctrines and teachings that the preachers from these false movements never seem to get to. The Christian Church, by and large, has reiterated the same sound teachings of the New Testament with the same emphasis on Repentance from sin, salvation by grace through faith towards God, and the judgment to come throughout its history. The works and writings of men like Augustine of Hippo, Martin Luther, Zwingli, John Calvin, Charles Spurgeon, A.W. Pink, John Wesley, John Newton, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and even early church fathers such as Polycarp or Justin Martyr, will speak about these same things. Yet, the preaches from these false movements in all of their preaching seem to leave these important teachings out and preach a more “comfortable” gospel in place of what should really consume their preaching.

 

They have faith statements that appear to be sound in which they affirm that the Bible is inspired and infallible, that God is one Being eternally existent as a trinity of 3 Persons, that salvation is by grace through faith and not of our own works. But, they never preach on any of these things - any of them. You'll never hear any sermon where the main focus of their teaching is on what they believe - no teaching on the Trinity, no teaching on salvation by grace through faith alone and not from works, no teaching that the Bible is our only rule of life and godliness, and is to be believe as inerrant. So, then, we can never confirm that these ministers really believe what their statements of faith say or that the churches full of people have ever heard the true Gospel, which the Bible says is essential to genuine faith (Romans 1:16, Ephesians 1:13, Romans 10:17, Galatians 3:2, 5).

 

So, unfortunately, even though they may in their sermons appear to be very intellectual at times by quoting the original Greek or Hebrew, or giving facts about biblical history and anthropology that may be unfamiliar to the listeners, their preaching is far removed from what Jesus, the apostles, or Pastors and Teachers given to the Body of Christ throughout church history for the edification of the Church lay heavy on in their sermons. Of course, since they're preaching from the Bible, they're going to say a lot of things that are true, because the Bible is truth (John 17:17). But, even demons and demon-possessed people in the Bible acknowledge and speak the truth (James 2:19, Acts 16:16-18). This isn't enough. The life-saving message of the death, burial, and resurrection, Paul said, is the power of God to save a person (Romans 1:16), which they never seem to preach. How can someone faithfully present the Gospel without speaking about repentance from sin - the very thing that Jesus was dying to take away? They quote scripture, but even Satan on occasion quoted scripture (Matt 4:6, Luke 4:9-11). This isn't enough. There are cults ministering day by day preaching a false Gospel that the Bible says are accursed (Galatians 1:9). The Bible says even if an angel of light appears to use and preaches 'good news,' but it differs from the biblical Gospel, to let them be accursed (Gal. 1:8).

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YItyiDlNTOY

In this video, a popular Word-of-faith Movement preacher, Rod Parsley, invites someone on his program who would appear to preach the Gospel. He goes into the Hebrew of the text and says 'God spoke to me...' It looks so genuine. Towards the end, the gentleman goes through the list of comforts promised as a result of his preaching. He mentions generational curses, sickness, poverty, debt, addiction, cancer, anger, disease, infirmity, and children not serving God. He preaches about the miracles and changed lives. These all appear to be good. But in all of this the life-changing, saving power of the Gospel message wasn't there. Listen for an explanation of the death, burial, or resurrection of Jesus or sound preaching on repentance from sin or the impending judgment to come – it isn't there at all. He preaches about miracles, but Miracles without Message isn't biblical. It is unaccompanied by the preaching of the Gospel that saves. Jesus always taught and preached the good news to the house of Israel as He did miracles, and the miracles were performed to confirm He was sent from God and that they should believe the message. But, the preaching behind the Word-of-Faith movement makes the miracles the main deal. Changed lives alone isn't why Jesus came and wasn't His main goal - it was that we would believe on Him to receive eternal life (John 20:31).

 

Leonard Ravenhill, a British preacher at one time identified as the world's foremost expert on revival, used to say about Jesus, "He didn't come to make bad men good, He came to make dead men live." False religions can change people's lives. Self-help and new age diet plans, yoga and pilates, even martial arts and ways of life - these all have “changed people's lives,” so to speak. There are millions of money schemes that have richly 'blessed' people. God can and will do the same for His children, but His main focus isn't temporarily relieving our suffering or comfort here on earth, it's eternal life by believing on Jesus for salvation from our sins (John 6:40). Paul gladly suffered discomfort, even as an apostle, because he knew this fact (2 Cor 11:22 through 2 Cor 12:21; Acts 20:24).

 

A lot of their preaching is on healing. But, Jesus and the Apostles would only heal to confirm the message being preached. Healings confirmed that the messenger was indeed sent from God and that God was doing a work among the people. They could see miraculously that the message was sent from God because God reaffirmed it with signs and wonders (Acts 2:22, Acts 6:8, 8:6,13; Acts 15:12 ). Jesus would heal someone and then tell them not to tell anyone (Matthew 8:4, Mark 1:44, Luke 5:14). His main ministry included miracles, and He had compassion on the people, but His main focus was that He was sent to preach the Gospel (Luke 4:18). His healing ministry backed up His ministering of the Gospel. As wonderful as miracles were, His main 'thing' was to find the lost sheep (Luke 19:10, John 10:14) by the salvation offered to them in the Gospel message. This was also the main objective of the Apostles (2 Cor 2:12, 1 Cor 9:18, Acts 16:10, Romans 1:15). When Paul was confronted with division in the Church in 1 Cor. 1:17, he told them that he didn't come to baptize, but to preach the Gospel. His main ministry was preaching the Gospel, just like Jesus. In the same passage, in verse 18, Paul says about the preaching of the cross "...to us which are saved it is the power of God."

 

The power to save wasn't in the miracles, but the preaching of the cross! This is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead (Eph 1:19-20; 1 Pet 1:21). Miracles alone were not Jesus's main objective. For many in Israel who saw the miracles, they weren't enough to believe on Jesus (Jesus 6:2,26; John 7:31). It has always been hearing the message preached, affirmed by miracles, whereas someone receives the Spirit of God and believes on Jesus. Galatians 3:5 says, "He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Miracles are works. The movements' emphasis on miracles, though seemingly benign in harm and beneficial, seem really to distract people from the main objective - the preaching of the cross.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwEW8gtxVS0

Here in this video, Todd Bentley says the exact opposite, putting the emphasis on being healed rather than the salvation of the hearers. Jesus didn't just come to deliver a message, He came to find lost sheep - that the hearers would receive life. This is much different from 'hear the Word and be healed.' He has no scripture to back up his position. It's also worthy to note that we haven't yet looked at the validity of any of the miracles, we've only talked about the emphasis of preaching the Gospel over healing. Jesus also fed the crowds bread (John 6:26). Those same crowds in the same passage of John then abandoned Jesus (John 6:66). Whether healing or bread, these things were done by God to authenticate Jesus and the message of the Gospel being preached. The biblical emphasis is salvation, not health and wealth. A commonly perverted scripture is Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53:5b says 'by His stripes we are healed.' But, this passage, from the context of the surrounding verses, is talking about Jesus's physical afflictions for healing us from sin, pertaining to salvation. It isn't referring to our physical healing. There's power in Jesus to physically heal us, certainly, but this passage singularly refers to healing from our transgressions and gaining peace with God through His wounds.

 

2Co 12:12 - "Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds."

 

The signs that were in the apostles' day were done to authenticate the message that they preached. It was to let the people who would receive the message know that it was from God. But, in these false revivals the emphasis is off of the message and on the miracles themselves. It isn't on the Gospel of Jesus dying to have our sins forgiven, but on the spiritual experiences you can receive. What authenticates the message isn't great multitudes of approving people, like Todd Bentley says authenticates his behavior in this video. In fact, Jesus said that's more fruit-evidence of a false prophet (Luke 6:26) which is exactly the opposite.

 

Mark 16:17 - "And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;" Genuine signs are done by people who are genuinely in the faith, who believe... And it's to authenticate the Gospel they preach.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5R5qC4CTAE

This is a helpful video of Todd Friel of Way of the Master radio dissecting some of Todd Bentley's preaching. This is well worth listening to. The very beginning of the video is Todd Bentley on-stage participating in Holy Laughter. You may want to watch some of the following videos to get familiar with it, but this video is here to show Todd Bentley himself doing it in the Lakeland, FL revival.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNGPjFYdgJw

This video is interesting. There are these little messages around the clips. I don't know who wrote them, but they did a sloppy job! They're awfully misspelled. But, the clips themselves show what Todd Bentley is teaching. Someone gives a 'prophetic word' to Bentley through the Internet and he reads it. "The 8th of June, the anointing of the King of Glory falls. Jesus said, 'I am coming in person.' The King is coming in person. I sense so strongly that there will be a personal, divine visitation of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, at the revival tomorrow night." He seems to make very clear that this letter is talking about a personal visitation of Jesus when he reads it, not just some allusion to a sort of very big presence from God during worship... It even said, "For tomorrow, the King of Glory sets foot upon the stage in divine, personal, one-to-one visitation..." How much clearer a prophecy being made can this letter be? It even gives a date for the occurrence. Then, he clarifies the letter and says he isn't suggesting a physical, flesh Jesus Christ, but an 'impartation' during worship, a spiritual experience, not in the flesh. He also says he has “seen the Lord.” That reinterpretation isn't what the sheet he read from originally said. The letter said a personal visitation. It sounds like he very well read off a false prophecy -- and this is exactly what he did. The original letter didn't have his “footnote” when he read it. False prophecies come out of the mouths of false prophets. Jeremiah 23:32 says, "Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD." They're false because God hasn't sent them.

 

Some cursory reading and searching different articles through Google of Todd Bentley on different sites will inform you that he talks about his experience with an angel named Emma, a little girl. Well, on the second-half of the same clip, in the middle of worship, he starts calling down angels and inciting the crowd to do it, too. "Open up the heavens and let the angels come down with fire!" He then proceeds to say the following in the manner of worship, "Hey angels, hey angels!" Over and over. He makes the crowd repeat this. He makes them ask God to send them. This is very clearly against Colossians 2:18, "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind," On Todd Bentley's part, this is a direct contradiction of this verse. Not only does he talk about what he's seen, the experience he had with an angel, but he preaches it as doctrine and gets them to call angels down in the middle of praise. Even if Mr. Bentley saw an angel at one point, it is an experience to be interpreted by what the Holy Spirit's written in the Word, which should always be the central focus in interpreting spiritual experiences.

 

If not by scripture then how will we know the Holy Spirit of God from the spirits of the world (see 1 John 4)? Was the angel he saw an angel of God, or was it a demonic presence? Even Satan can appear as an angel of light, as in 2 Cor 11:13 which says, "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." Colossians 2:18 says “let no man beguile you...by worshiping of angels.” If anyone is telling you to call down the angels in the middle of worship, know that this is a direct contradiction of scripture - whether it's Todd Bentley or any other well-known preacher!

Raisings from the dead:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uFz33_ahdU

In this video it is plain to see that Todd Bentley didn't personally raise anyone from the dead such as Lazarus or Paul or Peter did very clearly in the New Testament – Todd Bentley just took someone's testimony for it happening. In fact, none of his confirmed 30+ “raisings from the dead” did he appear to do personally. They were testimonies that were 'verified' in some way by their church and attributed to the revival and then associate with Todd Bentley through the revival. The Bible says in 1 John 4:1, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." We're called to test each of these testimonies by scripture to see if they're from God. There's no indication in scripture where we should believe a girl who has an attack from a seven headed voodoo vampire demon who was killed and then raised from the dead -- or that Todd Bentley and his revival raised them from the dead. And there was no talk of salvation or if the woman was saved. There was a demon-possessed girl in scripture that spoke Gospel-truth - but, it wasn't from God (Acts 16:17). These 'ministers' also offered no scriptural support or anything to evidence or verify that it could in fact be a genuine spiritual experience. That's not me being skeptical, that's me being faithful to 1 John 4:1 and testing the spirits as the Apostles taught. Let's be like the Bereans that searched scripture to back up even the very words of Paul (Acts 17:10-11).

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU6YOVnJkJ4

Their pastor has to 'verify' the resurrections. Again, it's important to note that Todd Bentley doesn't actually raise anyone. I thought he'd be raising people from the dead on-stage when I first heard of Bentley raising people from the dead, but this is not the case And, they actually don't seem to attribute him personally for raising anyone, but the revival. They find testimonies that they try to present as credible and 'verify' them. Verifying isn't the same as 'documenting.' He has not one documented resurrection from the dead. There's no evidence of any of his resurrections OR miracles.

 

Here are some supporting "miracles" for this:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJt71ebwh-w - 21 'testimonies' of resurrection...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuNMrXhbNJ4

He didn't raise any baby from the dead, they just gave the testimony on-stage and accredited it to Bentley's revival. Look how Bentley begins hyping up the crowd with barely any details given.

You can confirm that none of these miracles were done by God. When Jesus raised someone from the dead, they all witnessed not only the dead Lazarus and the tomb, but Lazarus arising from the grave, and the stink of the dead body from the tomb that they could smell. It is important to note that when Jesus healed, His enemies and opposition could never discredit that Jesus was able to perform the miracles or that the miracles happened. The only thing that they could pick on was the source of Jesus's power, as in Matthew 12:24, accusing Him of receiving power from Beelzebub to perform his miracles. They disbelieved that Jesus was the Son of God and this was the only source of discrepency - Jesus did His miracles out in the open (Acts 2:22) and even His enemies could plainly see shriveled hands stretched out with their own eyes (Mark 3:5). Paul, the Barnabas, Stephen, Peter, and many others did miracles the same way (Acts 15:12, 19:11, Acts 6:8) and they always attributed them to God. There would have been plenty of verifiable documentation for miracles in those days.

 

Holy Laughter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN9Ay4QAtW8

The beginning of this video shows Todd Bentley participating in the Holy Laughter experience. This video is interesting. Todd Friel plays a clip of Todd Bentley describing a healing where he kicks a woman to heal her. Well, this is nothing new. This is the same practice of Christian Harfouche, pastor of International Miracles Institute, a big big Word-of-faith movement teacher. He's a black-belt and teaches martial arts, and is pretty big at punching in the stomach and other practices. Jesus healed in many ways, but is this a viable modality of healing or is this the sign of a false healer? Also noteworthy, Todd Bentley curses in one of the clips saying, “We're out of our f-ing minds...” - right in the middle of worship! He even used the Lord's name in vain later on into the video. Could this be a 'fire' from God? This video really captures the strangeness of this movement. Does the voice of God talking to Todd Bentley telling him to kick women in the face with his biker-boot to heal them sound like the same loving voice of Jesus in the scriptures? Would the Spirit of God tell Paul or Peter to “leg-drop the pastor” like Todd Bentley claims He told him? If not, then of course there's obviously something wrong with this man and his preaching.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtVGxJU-j2I

This is a video that compares some of the spiritual experiences of these false revivals and false movements to 'spirit'-ual experiences experienced by people in false religions and paganisms. Included in this video is Todd Bentley and his preaching. The images in this video may be disturbing and freightful at first, but it illustrates its important point well.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFCMIvU4SwU

This video illustrates their worship -- influenced by the Holy Laughter movement. "Intoxicate us, Lord. Inebriate us tonight..." Those aren't biblical words. The entire Holy Laughter movement was built on (misinterpreting) one verse - Eph 5:18, "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;" What's seen in these videos aren't the fulfillment of this verse. The passage that follows in its context speaks about singing psalms and giving thanks and what proceeds it speaks of walking wisely and circumspectly – these fruits accompany being 'filled with the Spirit.' Being 'in excess' or otherwise translated in dissipation, depicts someone being out of control, which happens when someone is out of 'control.' So, the verse is comparing the wine as a means of dissipation or lack of control to the filling of the Spirit – being controlled by the Spirit. The verse in its proper context and properly interpreted negates these movements and reveals them to work against how God's Spirit really does move people.

 

Todd Bentley's pianist forgets how to play in the middle of the song. Is this from the Spirit? The Spirit authored scripture -- why would He go against what He's written and cause a spiritual experience that operates in this way? Shouldn't the results of these miracles be a people that are admiring God's majesty and holiness? It isn't from the Holy Spirit, who we know through scripture and love... It's another spirit... Ephesians 5:19 speaks of singing melody in our hearts towards God. Paul and Silas did just this when they were imprisoned in the Book of Acts. Acts 16:25, "And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them." It doesn't say they were laughing uncontrollably or exhibiting any drunk behavior. Let's further examine what was spoken about in Ephesians 5:18 by examining another passage that mentions wine. On the day of Pentecost, they mocked the disciples and said they were filled with wine. This is an accusation of drunkenness. Peter, being in his right mind, corrected them, saying in Acts 2:15, "For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day." They only mocked because they spoke at once in different languages, not because they were displaying any behavior resembling anything you see in these videos. He then goes on from Acts 2:22 to say how God used signs and miracles through Jesus to authenticate Jesus's coming in order to prove the genuineness of the gospel message which he begins to preach another verse later at verse 23, and delivers this sermon on the meaning of the cross. Pentecost's miracle was all about the message that would save the hearers! It was not used the way these movements use their spirituality today. It isn't valid to counter this argument by saying that these are worship services for Christians and excluding the Gospel message – the Gospel message should be the very heart of the reasons why we give our worship to God and should be the central focus of all our offerings. And what was the lasting fruit of Pentecost? Verse 42, “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” It lasted in a visible devotion to God in profitable spiritual activity.

 

When giving attention to spiritual gifts in 1 Cor 14, Paul calls for 'decency' and 'order' in 1 Cor. 14:40, to do in an orderly way what we do in worship when we're beside ourselves. He says in Galatians 5:22-23 that one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is self-control or temperance. Watching the Holy Laughter movement's videos, you won't see decency, you won't see order, and there's no sign of the fruit of self-control. James 3:17 says, "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." Test it. Is the Holy Laughter movement pure, peace, willing to yield? Is it gentle? Is it easy to intreat?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5R5qC4CTAE

This video I'd stumbled upon compares the preaching of Todd Bentley, a preacher out of a dangerous movement, and Paul Washer, sometimes called one of the greatest preachers of the Gospel you can hear alive today. This is preaching as opposed to just teaching - they're both preaching what they think is the Gospel, so its an even playing-field to see the difference between sound preaching (2 Timothy 4:8) and preaching influenced by a wind-of-doctrine (Ephesians 4:8). Now, of course Bentley says some true things, but that's because they're based off of scripture-verses. However, listen to the essence of what he's preaching and compare it to the solid preaching presented by Paul Washer.

What's scary is that Bentley looks, sounds, and quotes scripture like a sound preacher might, and even gets 'passionate', but behind the disguise there's something seriously wrong with the message that he preaches.

 

Again, let's not have personal feelings against Bentley as a person -- let's just not call his preaching Gospel and know that there's a difference between this brand of preaching and sound preaching and that he preaches doctrine out of a false movement. As with any other false teacher or cult-member, the Bible wants us to pray that they can find the truth and for their repentance from false teaching (2 Timothy 2:25). We can judge his actions and words (1 Cor 5), and his words alone are enough to say he's false. If the message isn't Christ-centered and God-honoring, then what is it? If it isn't really the Gospel, then what is it?

 

·         Rod Parsley - False preaching - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YItyiDlNTOY

·         Todd Bentley - False motives for healing - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwEW8gtxVS0

·         Todd Bentley - Dissection of preaching by Todd Friel - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5R5qC4CTAE

·         Todd Bentley - False Prophecy and Angel Worship - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNGPjFYdgJw

·         Todd Bentley - Undocumented testimonies of resurrections - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uFz33_ahdU

·         Todd Bentley - 'Verification' of Resurrection 'Testimonies' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU6YOVnJkJ4

·         Supporting Video #1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJt71ebwh-w

·         Supporting Video #2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuNMrXhbNJ4

·         Todd Bentley - Bentley healing by kicking - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN9Ay4QAtW8

·         Todd Bentley - False revivals/movements compared with pagan worshippings - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtVGxJU-j2I

·         Todd Bentley - Holy laughter in worship - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFCMIvU4SwU

May God fill you with His Holy Spirit who is truth (John 15:26, John 16:13), guide you into TRUE spiritual experience, to know the beauty and joy of worshiping God in truth and in spirit, as well as guide and deliver you from fallacy and the spirit of error. May God equip you with discernment to no longer be 'children tossed to and fro.' And, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with whoever reads.

 

With Love,

Isaac D.

 

Yours in Christ for your progress and joy of faith (Philippians 1:25).