What I Observed in the Services
(Dit
is het verslag van het bezoek aan drie samenkomsten in Lakeland met Todd
Bentley. Het verslag is gemaakt door Gary Osborne. Gary Osborne is verbonden
aan de Alliance of Biblical Pentecostals.)
The first night I
personally attended was Thursday, May 8th. Mr. Bentley and his crew were now holding
services in the
There was a lot of “cheerleading”
from the stage as microphone checks were being done. Another thing that really stood out were certain buzz words that were used repeatedly. The phrase “stir yourselves
up” was used repeatedly, as was the concept of a “transferable anointing.” A woman led in prayer for the service and
said, “sound waves carry your [God] presence and anointing” and then told the
people to “roar like a lion!” At that
request, people everywhere shouted at the top of their lungs and blew the
shofars. This same lady was jerking and
twitching in a similar way to what has happened in meetings in
The “MC” (that’s the
best word to describe him) for the meetings then came up and told the audience
to get ready because we were going live on God TV in just a couple of
minutes. He had a young man stand behind
him and gave the audience instructions to look at this man as he held up his
hands for a countdown. Everyone was to
make as much noise as possible when the services went live, and believe me they
did. It was very
orchestrated. There was also talk of
being “drunk in the Spirit” during this lead up time to going live on TV.
The service began
with loud, loud rock style music. By the
way, I am not an old fuddy-dud who doesn’t like up-tempo music. I’m a Pentecostal and don’t at all mind
exuberant worship. So my comments are
not coming from some prejudice in that vein.
I love to praise the Lord, and to do so with a full heart. I clap, shout, and have even been known to
jump up and down every now and then. But
what I saw and heard at the beginning of this service was unlike anything I had
ever witnessed in a Christian service before (and I’ve attended my fair share
of “off the wall” services in the past).
This was different. It had a
secular, rock concert feel to it. People
were swaying and dancing to the music constantly. The worship leader, if you could call him
that, sang a song whose lyrics include the following:
“I am Free to Run, I am Free to Run”
“I am Free to Dance, I am Free to
Dance”
And boy how the
people responded to that. There were
people dancing everywhere. And by
dancing I’m talking some of the same stuff you’d see at a secular concert. Even some men and women dancing together!
I realize that the
first portion of this article is dealing somewhat with my own subjective
thoughts on the meetings. I will get to
some objective points about what is taught in these meetings later in the
article, but please bear with me because it’s important for you, the reader, to
have an idea of what goes on at these meetings and what the general atmosphere
is like.
There was a very
sensual spirit in the meeting. Much inappropriate dress as well. And everyone was caught up in their own
euphoria. After nearly 45 minutes of
upbeat music, things finally slowed down.
People were still standing everywhere, but the music was now slower and
more hypnotic. The same songs were being
played over and over and over. People
seemed to be in a trance all around me.
If the worship leader said, “raise your hands” everyone did so
immediately. If he said, “drop to your
knees” they did so immediately. In my
humble opinion what I observed that night was nothing more than mass
hypnotism. The music had the people
mesmerized. Oh, and I didn’t know one
song they sang the entire night. Not
one!
At about 8:30 PM,
with music still being played and Todd Bentley still standing with the other
leaders on stage, the music leader says, “I’m feeling drunk.” He then tells the people to say to God,
“Intoxicate me, Lord” – “Inebriate me, Lord.”
I am disgusted at this point. We
will deal with the so-called “drunk in the Spirit” phenomenon later in the
article. The music continues and picks
up again. Now the people are getting
truly wild and the leader says, “Scream!!!” and the people let out a yell that
shakes the entire building. Finally the
worship leader falls to the floor himself, but the back up
singers continue. This continued
until nearly 9:00 PM and I had seen enough for my first night. I left amidst the shouts of thousands.
Talk of angels was
prevalent throughout the night as well.
This seems to be a key point with this particular “revival” and we will
discuss it more later in this article.
The Second Service
I came back the
following Thursday, May 15th, which was the 44th day of
the revival, determined to stay and hear Todd Bentley (if the music leader
would allow). This time I entered the
Two men, one looking
like the bearded guy from ZZ Top, give each other a high-five near the back of
the auditorium and both “fall under the power” immediately. The music is going fast and furious and the
same emotions and actions that were in the first meeting are in this one as
well. There also continues to be much
talk of angels in the songs.
After almost an hour
and a half of singing the MC comes back to the center of the stage and
declares, “I feel the ‘sauce’ tonight.”
He then introduces Todd Bentley who comes out wearing a t-shirt that
reads, “Jesus Gave Me My Tattoos.” He
tells everyone that he “felt like the Holy Spirit was massaging his body”
tonight. He then talks about the
transferable anointing that comes in like a mist. He claims that God told him he could “feel
the anointing just like Moses did” in the book of Exodus! Of course God never told Moses that he could
“feel” the anointing. God did say He
would “show” Moses His glory, but He never mentioned “feeling” the glory. Yet Bentley continues to emphasize
feelings. This is a huge part of his
entire teaching. He talks of not only
seeing a mist but says that in some of his previous meetings he has been able
to smell incense, concluding that this is the glory of God manifest. He then invites people to come to the altar
and screams, “Fire, Fire, Fire, Fire, Fire”, which is a trademark signature of
his.
There’s a real restlessness
in the arena. In fact, I’ve never seen
more people coming and going, moving from seat to seat to seat, than I have at
these meetings in
Suddenly, Bentley
says there is “great authority” in the building tonight and he says that people
can decree whatever they want, but to be careful what they ask for. It’s obvious that he’s heavily influenced by
“Word of Faith” teaching and believes that God has abdicated His throne and
given us authority to do anything we want, or better yet have anything we
pronounce. In fact, he himself says “I
speak creation. I speak new hearts, new
livers into existence tonight.” Speaking
to the audience in general he tells people to take off their oxygen and he
commands tumors to fall off bodies and for cripples to get out of wheelchairs. He continues to declare all types of
healings. I watch as several people
gather around one wheel-chair bound woman and pray for her. They exhort her to rise, but she cannot.
People now begin to
come forward to share their testimonies of healing. Everything is carried out just as it would be
in a Benny Hinn or Earnest Angley type service.
There are claims of everything from headaches cured to resurrections
from the dead, but everything is carefully shared on a first name only
basis. I imagine Todd and his crew could
claim this is done so that the media or other curious people would not harass
the individuals giving the testimonies.
But what this effectively does is keep anyone from verifying any of the
claims. One severely handicapped girl
(physically and mentally) was brought forward in a wheelchair and was lifted
out of the wheelchair by Todd and another man and dragged several feet before
Todd let her go so she could be “slain in the Spirit.” It was a travesty, in my opinion.
Bentley then claims
that this revival was prophesied in 1977 and again in 1989 by none other than
Paul Cain, of the
A Third Meeting
Many other events
could be documented, but space limits me from going into more detail concerning
the two nights I attended. However,
there was one other service that I caught on TV, and fortunately taped, that
must be mentioned here. On Saturday, May
17th, a service took place unlike any other I have seen yet. During the testimony time some extreme
manifestations took place. One young
eleven year old girl was brought up and Todd asked her if she would like to
feel the “manifest presence of Jesus” and she sheepishly said yes (clearly not
understanding what he was talking about).
He took her by the hand and blew on her.
Nothing happened. He then told
her to close her eyes and repeat after him.
“Jesus, fill me with your presence” he said. He placed his hand on her head and was
clearly exerting some pressure in an attempt to make her fall down. She still didn’t collapse so he focused his
attention on her cousin (who he wrongly called her mother – so much for his
prophet status) and blew on her. She
went straight down as the little girl watched.
He then blew on her one more time but she never went down so he turned
away.
As Todd went over to
the other side of the stage he began to laugh in a deep, scary way. There is no other word I can think of to
describe this laughter. After speaking
with that person, who was very hyped, he laid hands on
her and gave his trademark yell, “Bam!”
She went right down. From there he began to laugh more, and the audience
went right along with him. He talked
about drinking from the river. He
instructed everyone to put their head back and open their mouth and drink. More scary laughter occurs as he blows down
another 9-year-old girl. He then tells
the girl’s mother that he is “drunk in the Holy Ghost” and as his head is
shaking strangely he mentions that “it’s [meaning the anointing] leaking
out of my eyes.” More laughter and more
“bams” occur as he sweeps his hand over the audience and rows of people react.
Todd then shouts
“Fire” and tells the people to say, “Come Holy Ghost, get me.” This continues for several minutes. He tells Jesus to “get them all.” Others on stage are laughing uncontrollably
and staggering around, not even able to talk without slurring their words. The laughter from Todd is very much like
Rodney Howard-Browne. As he continues to
shake Todd asks the people to stand and make a barrel. So they clasp their hands together and act like
they are holding a huge rain barrel in their arms. Then he shouts for them to tip this imaginary
barrel up as their head is tipped back and “Drink!!!!” He shouts it again, “Drink!!!!” This is some of the most insane stuff I
personally have ever seen in my life. I
have been in many of these types of meetings, including meetings conducted by
Rodney Howard-Browne and John Kilpatrick.
Yet I’ve never seen anything as extreme as this.
The next man up to
be interviewed is
Todd then asks God
to fill everyone with that “drunken, drunken holy glory” that he supposedly is
experiencing. He tells people not to get
to close to the edge of the stage lest they fall off. More “bams” and laughter occur. Then Todd asks for a “release of the
wine.” I could go on and on about the
silliness that occurred that night.
People were staggering around, not able to speak correctly, and
basically acting like drunken sailors.
It was one of the saddest things I’ve ever witnessed.
Het
bovenstaande is een onderdeel van een groter artikel, voor het gehele artikel, klik hier.