Monthly Archives: June 2008

"Church people" and "God people"

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From a post by Jeremy Myers, which I had bookmarked to respond to and have just come back to:

When it comes to people who claim a connection with God, there are “church people” and “God people.” Church people focus on what they are doing for God, and God people focus on what God has done for them. Check out this quote from David Bosch’s book Transforming Mission:

Kingdom people seek first the Kingdom of God and its justice; church people often put church work above concerns of justice, mercy, and truth. Church people think about how to get more people into the church; Kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church; Kingdom people work to see the church change the world (p. 378. He is quoting Howard Snyder, Liberating the Church).

And here is what gets me the most: In my experience, there are not a lot of “God people” or “Kingdom people” in the typical Sunday gathering of the church. Most of the “God people” we’ve ran into recently don’t “attend church” at all. Why do you think this is?

I am glad to say that in my church there are “God people” and “Kingdom people”, as well as some “church people” but we are working on them. I don’t think I would continue to “attend church” if it was full of “church people”. But we are still struggling to get beyond the mindset that the best way of getting people into the kingdom is to get them through the church doors.

A theological defence of Todd Bentley's ministry

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In my previous post I mentioned a paper Biblical Reasons to Receive God’s Glory and Give it Away in Power Evangelism by Dr Gary S. Greig, PhD., a former Associate Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Regent University School of Divinity, and Senior Editor, Theology and Acquisitions for the Regal Publishing Group (free PDF download but donations requested). I have now skim read this paper. In it Dr Greig offers a defence from a generally careful theological standpoint of Todd Bentley‘s ministry and the outpouring in Lakeland, Florida.

Dr Greig deals with ten objections to Todd’s ministry. I will summarise them here:

Objection 1: “The healings aren’t really real” and “People are only working themselves into altered states of consciousness.”

On this point Dr Greig points objectors to the clear evidence that real healings are taking place. He also demonstrates that biblical evangelism included healing ministry. It is unfortunate that he likens the objectors to holocaust deniers, and emotional argument which does not fit well with the scholarly tone of the rest of the paper.

Some people have particular objections to reports of resurrections. Dr Greig mentions that three news channels reported on “an older woman being resurrected after rigor-mortis had set in”, but it is unfortunate that one of the three links is broken, and the other two are both to this news report which indeed reports a remarkable event but makes no mention of Todd or Lakeland.

This is perhaps the weakest part of the paper because it fails to provide any verifiable evidence that genuine lasting healings are taking place clearly linked to Todd and Lakeland. Perhaps Dr Greig is not the person to look for for such evidence. But it would help to answer this objection if someone close to Todd could provide this kind of evidence.

Objection 2: “Many healings are partial or gradual, and some people lose their healing after they claim to have been healed.” “Healings in the New Testament always happened immediately and could not be ‘lost’.”

Dr Greig answers this one by showing that biblical healings were sometimes gradual and arguing that healing could be lost.

Objection 3: “The manifestations, shaking, vibrating, laughing, talk of electricity, and weird behavior didn’t happen in the Bible and cannot be from God. Todd Bentley has an obsession with the paranormal.”

Dr Greig writes:

While I agree—and I have heard Todd Bentley and other leaders of the Lakeland revival agree—that our focus should not be on the miracles and the manifestations, but on Jesus alone, it is simply not true that Todd Bentley has “an obsession with the paranormal” or that the “weird” manifestations are not from God …

He also shows that many biblical miracles are just as “weird” as anything seen at Lakeland. In fact he finds biblical parallels for all the kinds of things which Todd does. He rightly insists that what matters, as a test of genuineness, is not the form of the manifestation but the fruit of it.

Objection 4: “There is no emphasis on repentance and holiness in the Lakeland meetings, as there always has been in classic revivals and awakenings …”

This charge against Todd Bentley and the leaders of the Lakeland outpouring is not true either. Anyone who is attentive and who has watched or visited the meetings in Lakeland can attest to the fact that purity of heart, holiness, and keeping our focus on Jesus, are themes that Todd Bentley and the other leaders have repeatedly emphasized.

Objection 5: “We should not be teaching people to interact with angels. Satan masquerades as an angel of light and people can be deceived by demonic angels…”

On this point Dr Greig makes a clear distinction between worship of and prayer to angels and interaction with them. The former is clearly forbidden, and Todd agrees. But the latter is normal in the Bible and should not be rejected, although any message received apparently from angels should be carefully tested.

Objection 6: “It’s wrong and misguided for us to describe angels in detail or to mention their names. This will get our focus off of Jesus.”

Dr Greig’s simple answer to this is that the biblical authors described angels and mentioned their names. Again he asks the question “What is the fruit of such descriptions?”, and shows that in Todd’s case it has been “to focus people on the Lord Jesus and His plans and power for His people.”

Objection 7: “There is no such thing as angels manifesting themselves as female angels in Scripture. Jesus taught that angels are genderless. So talk of female angels with female names is New Age deception.”

In response to this Dr Greig gives a long argument (which Todd accepts in his recent article) that although angels are genderless in their essential nature they can and do manifest themselves in both male and female forms, as well as in various inanimate ways.

Objection 8: “No Scripture supports the idea that the Holy Spirit bestows healing mantles through His angels. Only the Holy Spirit heals, not angels.”

Dr Greig starts his response with the following, which he proceeds to justify in detail:

These assertions are simply not true on several counts, when examined in the light of Scripture. There are three points that need to be made below: 1) The Holy Spirit manifesting God’s presence and glory is attended by angels throughout the Bible; 2) Healing mantles do exist, and they are just another name for healing and miraculous gifts of the Spirit; and 3) Angels are indeed associated with healing in Scripture.

Objection 9: “Todd Bentley teaching that believers can go up frequently in the Spirit to God’s throne in heaven, is unbiblical and borders on New Age visualization.”

“Once again,” Dr Greig writes, “nothing could be further from the truth in Scripture!”:

the New Testament couldn’t be clearer about a principle than this one that through Christ and His blood we have access now to God’s throne in heaven … We are already there seated in Christ in the heavenly realms

He also shows how this kind of experience is an established part of Christian spirituality.

Objection 10: “Todd Bentley is a false prophet, because he teaches things I cannot find in Scripture.”

Here Dr Greig looks back to his previous responses:

as has been demonstrated above, the fact that the so-called “Bible experts,” critics, and concerned leaders, cannot find in Scripture what Todd Bentley and the leaders of the Lakeland outpouring have been teaching and modeling, is more a testimony to the fact that the critics (as well as the rest of us) need to revisit the Scriptures and study the relevant passages more carefully, bind the enemy from interfering with our thinking (James 4:7-8; compare Peter’s thoughts being influenced by the enemy in Matt. 16:22-23), and consciously ask the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth according to Jesus’ promise in John 16:13-15. …

We, the Body of Christ, need to repent of our being functional atheists—acting as if the supernatural realm, that Scripture clearly portrays, is really not functionally real for us.

Dr Greig then brings his readers back to “Jesus’ criterion for discerning false prophets and false teachers”, which is simply “By their fruit you will recognize them”. He discusses this issue in greater depth, without explicitly applying it to Todd Bentley, and concludes as follows:

The end of the matter: Receive all God wants to give you, and give it away

My prayer is that you will not make the same mistakes I made. I wholeheartedly encourage you to support what God is obviously doing through the Lakeland outpouring. My prayer is that you will be used by the Holy Spirit to empower and equip as many leaders in the next generation as possible to receive the glory and Presence of the Lord and take it to the nations. We need to give ourselves to the Lord and His cause of preaching the gospel with power to all remaining unreached nations and people-groups, to hasten the Day of the Lord, when Jesus will return for His Bride, the worldwide Body of Christ!

Amen!

Todd Bentley lifts Jesus high

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Todd Bentley has written a new article (dated 8th June) called Lifting Jesus High! (Thanks to commenter Rick for drawing this to my attention.) This article is a response to the critics of his ministry and of the Lakeland outpouring. In it he responds to concerns about his visions, unusual miracles, angels, his encounter with the Apostle Paul etc.

Todd also mentions, in his PS, a message he received from Dr. Gary S. Greig, PhD., a former Associate Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Regent University School of Divinity. Dr Greig testified to how he had been healed through Todd’s ministry and offered a 55 page booklet Biblical Reasons to Receive God’s Glory and Give it Away in Power Evangelism, “written at a high level of scholarship for pastors, church leaders, and theologians yet is understandable to the layperson”, available as a PDF download (free but donations requested). I have not yet read this. UPDATE: Now I have read it, and have summarised and reviewed it in a new post.

I recommend you, my readers, to read Todd’s article in full. But for those of you who are too busy here are some extracts:

Someone once said that limiting revelation is like trying to fit an ocean into a cup. God is continually restoring truth and light to His Church. Therefore, we should place no limit on further revelation. To have a view that everything that happens in someone’s life because of God’s loving response to us as His children should be listed in the Bible or else it’s wrong or evil, is like saying that Jesus, who is the Word represents a list of do’s and don’ts. Jesus is a Person who, through intimacy and relationship, we perceive and understand by the Holy Spirit what is good and what is evil. If Jesus listed for us everything that we needed to know, then knowing Him would have become an option. It’s in knowing Him, who is The Word that we enter into what He has prepared for us.

The Bible is full of visions, encounters, signs, wonders, miracles, and manifestations that people have experienced, some of which may be downright hard for many to wrap their minds around, let alone believe it could happen today. Again, it’s all relative to each individual, their experiences, and backgrounds, and with what they have learned through intimacy with Christ Jesus, and what they have received as a love response from God.

Here is part of what he now writes about the angel called Emma:

In the case of the angel called “Emma,” who I described as having mother-like nurturing qualities, some have automatically assumed that my doctrine is that I believe in female angels. This has never been the case! For whatever reason God chose to show me this angel in a female persona, He did. This isn’t to say that the angel was female. Angels are spirit and appear in many forms. Perhaps that’s the form God chose this angel to take for the purpose of the revelation He gave me. They are spirit beings of light, created out of God’s glory, without gender, and appear in whatever form God chooses to send them to us.

More from the article:

In visions and encounters that I share, I emphasize that it boils down to Jesus Christ who is the essence of everything and is the All in All. It’s all about Him, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. An encounter with heaven is an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many people don’t see what’s happening in the spirit realm, viewing things only from the physical realm. This is one reason why there’s so much division right now. I have found that many are judging things by what they see or hear in the natural, by their natural senses, to feelings, or without having relevant supernatural experiences themselves.

He admits that not everything that happens is entirely of God, but that should not be used as a reason to reject everything:

People may see me or others sprawled out on the floor, or in heavenly laughter, or shaking because of the glory and presence of God, but try to look beyond and understand that something’s happening in the spirit, trusting that there’s that other realm that you may not see.

Revival is often messy because there’s a lot happening and sometimes it’s hard for people to take in everything they see in the natural. Many come and some do manifest fleshly things, but for the most part, everyone is sincere and of good intention at a revival. Trust it’s better to be full of life with a little untidiness than to be dead. Also, trust that God is big. He can handle it and can separate the tares from the wheat. …

If you cannot understand the supernatural things of God, or even if you disagree or choose to discount or discredit me in any way, then I urge you to look at the fruit. Every day we’re seeing salvations. Every day people are being healed, not only physically, but emotionally too! Every day, people who thought they knew Christ are discovering Him in a fresh and powerful new way. Every day, we’re teaching people how to use their gifts to evangelize. We’re equipping and sending hundreds into the streets and marketplaces to talk about Jesus.

This is surely the key to Todd’s exceptional ministry:

I understand that lofty places in this visible kingdom are no proof of anyone’s acceptance with God, and neither are the mighty works, even done in Jesus’ name. However, the condition of the heart is what truly allies us with Him. This I’ve stressed repeatedly in my ministry. The heart changes when someone spends much time with the Lord. This is the foundation of my ministry and my walk with Jesus. From the outset of my salvation, my ministry, and even today, I spend hours in the secret place of His presence. I seek Him and His will for every meeting. My team here at Lakeland knows that several hours of every afternoon; before every meeting, I’m not to be disturbed as I spend time with Jesus. Signs, wonders, miracles, dreams, and visions I believe are His loving response – the fruit of fellowship.

Spend time in His presence and you won’t be as resistant to change. You won’t be afraid to be a new wineskin, God’s present wineskin. You won’t even be the same wineskin as tomorrow, because with God wineskins are new and newer. New wineskins won’t limit God or what He can do.

And then from his final section:

God uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. For some reason, He’s chosen a bald-headed, red-bearded, tattooed, pierced, imperfect man as an agent for revival. I understand why I would come as a shock to the religious camp. Nevertheless, trust that if what I’m doing is of the flesh or of the devil, I will fail, but if what’s happening is from God, nothing and no one can quench this blazing revival fire unless God wills it. …

I’m thankful that people are being watchful in these last days, just as I am watchful. Questions are good when we’re uncertain of things. Trust too what a respected Pharisee advised in Acts 5:38, 39: “And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it – lest you even be found to fight against God.”

I understand that people have questions, and God understands too! I invite you to come to Lakeland to see what God has for you, and to see for yourself the mighty and wondrous things that God is doing here. Thanks again for hearing my heart. It is my heart that we can bring unity to the Body of Christ to see a great harvest.

I hope this article helps those of you who are still unsure about Todd’s ministry and the genuineness of the Lakeland outpouring.

The greatest obstacle to the advance of the kingdom of God?

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Despite what I wrote in my last post I have found something to blog about, courtesy of Eddie. Hamo the Backyard Missionary has written a provocative post The Problem is Christianity, about the Christian scene in his own Australia but also largely applicable here in England, and I dare say also, even all the more so, in North America. Eddie quotes Hamo’s own summary of his post, so for variety I will quote some different parts, with just an extract from the summary:

The greatest obstacle to the advance of the kingdom of God in most of the West is … a resurgent Christianity.

Here is part of his explanation:

The Church of England Newspaper May 26, 2008 says, “Islam is being institutionalised, incarnated, into national structures amazingly fast, at the same time as …. the ‘excarnation’ of Christianity… out of state policy and structures”. Whilst this may be sad for those who sentimentalise about the loss of the fides historica (inherited conventional religion), it is surely a sign of the judgement of God on the human construct of privilege and compromise called “Christianity” and a preparation for a return to radical Christ- centred faith that disappeared from Western society long ago.

I was especially struck by this point:

The people of God can only know their deepest inward identity as the Bride of Christ through an immediate and passionate awareness, in the Spirit, that Jesus is their Bridegroom (John 3:29; Rev 19:6 – 8). Where this is lacking, much of what transpires as Christian spirituality is simply “spiritual masturbation.” It may have the appearance of godliness, but is part of a religious culture that lacks the interpenetrative power of holiness (2 Tim 3:5).

I wish I dared to use “spiritual masturbation” as a post title, but I don’t want to seem too shocking. The verse referred to is this:

having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

2 Timothy 3:5 (TNIV)

Does Hamo really mean that we should have nothing to do with these practitioners of “Christian spirituality [which] is part of a religious culture”, the supporters of “the fides historica (inherited conventional religion)”? That is certainly a strong challenge. If Hamo is right, we who are looking for the kingdom of God (I hesitate to say “we Christians” because that makes us sound like supporters of the Christianity that Hamo criticises) should abandon any attempt to preserve the institutional Christian basis of our society and instead accept with joy the role of outsiders with a prophetic message.

If this is right, the latest Church of England report Moral, But no Compass is fundamentally flawed. This report calls for a reverse in the decline of the influence of the church within the government corridors of power, even for the appointment of a government “Minister for Religion”. I don’t suggest that the report has no value, for it has clearly identified some of the ways in which the British government is failing to take proper account of what Christian churches are doing, especially in the charity sector. But in so far as it is at least in part a call for the re-establishment of church influence over the state, and inevitably vice versa as a corollary, this report seems to be an attempt to restore “the human construct of privilege and compromise called “Christianity””, also described as “the greatest obstacle to the advance of the kingdom of God”.

So let us, as believers in Jesus, set aside both the spiritual adultery of looking to the state for support and affirmation and the spiritual masturbation of looking for it in our own religious culture. Let us instead seek our spiritual satisfaction only in God, in worshipping him in holiness.

Deadly sins and blog boredom

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I admit to committing, at various times on this blog, almost all of Lingamish’s seven deadly blog sins. But I don’t think I have ever posted a cute photo. Somehow I don’t do cute. When I am tempted to admire pictures of babies and kittens, I think of what the baby would be like to look after and what the kitten will grow into.

Today I could commit another deadly sin by boasting to you that my blog has just passed the 100,000 visitors milestone. Well, of course I am guilty by writing this even in a hypothetical sentence. As this figure is from WordPress blog stats it probably means counting only since last August. In fact visits have been averaging around 1,000 per day (more during the week, less at weekends) for the last three weeks, because of the revival that Todd Bentley, or discussion of him, has brought to Gentle Wisdom. Several hundred people each day have been finding this blog from searches for “Todd Bentley” and similar. I am glad that they are finding what I hope is some sense about him, and not just the ranting condemnations which are so widespread.

But somehow I have lost the heart to boast or even to post about anything significant. Am I getting bored with blogging? Perhaps. Am I getting bored with discussing and defending Todd Bentley? Certainly. While the Lakeland outpouring seems to be continuing, I haven’t heard anything new from there recently. And I haven’t even heard anything new from the critics of Todd, just more mindless rants that I have mostly stopped responding to. And since I don’t have anything new or interesting to say just at the moment, I will not try to dredge something up just to keep my regular readers happy.

But I will report one piece of good news, even though doing so is I’m sure committing another deadly sin: I’ve won a competition! I correctly guessed which was Matthew’s lie, and am expecting a small prize in recognition of it.

Blogroll update

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I have made some long overdue updates to my blogroll. I have taken off it some inactive blogs and also some which I have generally lost interest in. I have added some which I have discovered in the last few months and can recommend to my readers (without implying endorsement of all their content). I have not added blogs I would not otherwise recommend just because my blog has been added to their blogrolls – I accept no such obligation. I continue to read regularly a number of blogs which are not on my blogroll.

WordPress, somewhat inflexibly, sorts blogrolls in alphabetical order. But it seems to have got very confused by the two blogs with names partly in Greek letters, sorting them in the middle of the blogs with English names in a way which I can make no sense of.

I have also made some small changes to my blog to restore some items which were lost when I changed themes. Some of these may take time to get going again properly.

Impartation and Ordination

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Henry Neufeld asked the question, in this post at Threads from Henry’s Web, whether there is some kind of impartation, analogous to what Todd Bentley offers, in ordination to the priesthood or pastorate. The following is adapted and expanded from a comment I made on that post.

First I want to look at some biblical material which links impartation and what might be considered the biblical prototype of ordination.

We do have at least one mass impartation meeting in the Bible, in Acts 8:15-17, where Peter and John placed their hands on large numbers of people in Samaria and they each received the Holy Spirit. In verse 18 we read specifically that “the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands” (TNIV). These people were already baptised believers but had not experienced the Holy Spirit in their own lives. This sounds all very like Lakeland to me, although I am sure many of the people receiving an impartation from Todd Bentley have been filled with the Spirit before and are seeking a refilling (cf Acts 4:31, Ephesians 5:18) or greater power.

Within church tradition (at least Anglican and I think Roman Catholic) this event in Samaria is seen as the prototype of confirmation, rather than of ordination – a blessing imparted by the apostles and so now to be imparted only by bishops, but offered to all believers and not just those chosen for office in the church; also it is not transferable in that those confirmed do not acquire the power to confirm others. In fact not even Philip who evangelised Samaria seems to have the power to impart this blessing; he had been commissioned by the apostles with the laying on of hands (Acts 6:6) but for a different role as a prototype deacon, in what is understood in the tradition as the first ordination to the diaconate – not to the episcopate, so he could not confirm people. Note, however, that Philip had received the power to perform signs and wonders (Acts 8:6-7), something which is in principle available to all Spirit-filled believers, not just ordained clergy.

Now it is interesting to see what Simon the sorcerer made of this, in Acts 8:18-19. Presumably he received along with all the others the impartation which was not transferable, analogous to confirmation. But he wanted more, and made the serious mistake of offering money for it. What he wanted was the transferred power to impart the Holy Spirit to others, or in the terms of church tradition he wanted to be ordained or consecrated to the episcopate so that he could confirm others. Peter and John, as apostles, could presumably have performed this impartation, but for very good reasons refused to do so. So, whereas the non-transferable impartation was offered to freely to all who believed, the transferable impartation was carefully guarded.

It is not entirely clear how, if by any human means, the power to impart the Holy Spirit was passed outside the immediate circle of the apostles. We can surmise that when the apostles sent Barnabas to Antioch (Acts 11:22) he was given this power of transferable impartation; or, in traditional terms, he was consecrated bishop. When later (Acts 13:2-3) he and Saul/Paul were commissioned with laying on of hands for their missionary journeys, it may be that Saul was also given this power; certainly by the time he gets to Ephesus (Acts 19:6) Paul is able to pray for people to be filled with the Holy Spirit. However, Paul insists that he received his apostleship direct from the risen Christ, and not from the original apostles (Galatians 1:1). Paul seems to have passed his commissioning on to Timothy in some kind of ceremony of impartation (2 Timothy 1:6), and he and Titus (Titus 1:5) seem to have had the right to appoint elders and “bishops”.

This is, I suppose, the biblical basis for the (Roman and Anglo-) Catholic concept of the apostolic succession, that true bishops and priests must be ordained through an unbroken succession of laying on of hands from the apostles. Most Protestant Christians do not consider this necessary, and indeed do not have bishops. The ordination Henry Neufeld referred to was into the United Methodist Church which does have bishops, but they are not in the proper apostolic succession because the first American Methodist bishops were ordained by John Wesley, who was a priest, not a bishop. Interestingly, some charismatic and Pentecostal denominations, such as the one which consecrated Bishop Michael Reid, do consider it important to have bishops in a genuine apostolic succession.

Now while I would be surprised if Todd Bentley actually considers the apostolic succession to be important, his concept of transferable impartation seems to be in the same tradition. He believes in and practises laying hands, or cloths, on people so that they receive for themselves not only filling with the Holy Spirit but also the power to pass this impartation on to others.

Now an interesting corollary of the traditional apostolic succession teaching is that if one rogue bishop chose to ordain or consecrate everyone at mass meetings and taught them to do the same, a situation could quite quickly come about in which millions of believers worldwide became bishops and would have to be recognised as such by the Catholic churches. One might however argue that this rogue bishop would be doing the right thing, in fulfilment of Moses’ prayer in Numbers 11:29 and Joel’s prophecy quoted in Acts 2:17-21, which foresee a universal outpouring of the Holy Spirit not restricted by the limited number of apostles who could mediate it.

What Todd seems to be doing is what the rogue bishop might do. Now I don’t mean to suggest that Todd actually stands in any literal apostolic succession, although that is possible. But he seems to be offering a transferable impartation to all, and teaching all to pass it on to others. On the traditional understanding he is consecrating all and sundry as bishops. In this way the impartation will soon make its way to every Christian worldwide who is willing to receive it.

Of course this begs the question of whether the impartation, what is passed on by laying on of hands, is in any way real in the spiritual realm. On that issue all I can say is that this kind of impartation does seem to have been significant to the apostles – also that thousands of people including myself have experienced something real if subjective when given the Todd Bentley impartation either directly or indirectly.

One lesson we can learn from all this is that there are no neat rules or formulae for how this kind of impartation works. God is not bound the apostolic succession but can do a new thing. As he raised up Paul independently of the established apostles, so he can also raise up new leaders even from stones (compare Luke 3:8), people like John Wesley, who was never a bishop, and apparently Todd Bentley. And given the weakness and apostasy of so many bishops in what remains of the original apostolic succession, at least the Anglican branch of it, it would hardly be surprising if God raised up a new source of transferable impartation which he chooses to use to pour out his Spirit on a needy world.

Joel Edwards to join Tony Blair

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The Evangelical Alliance has announced, currently on its home page and in a press release, that Rev Joel Edwards who has been its General Director since 1997,

will bring his passion for justice for the poor to two new roles as he joins Tony Blair’s Faith Foundation and becomes the first International Director of Micah Challenge.

This is excellent news. I have been somewhat ambivalent about Tony Blair in past posts, although I never seriously called him the Antichrist! But, as I wrote before, his Faith Foundation has the potential to do real good. And that potential is all the more likely to be realised with people like Joel Edwards being brought on board.

I trust that this also means that the Faith Foundation will be supporting the aims of Micah Challenge, which is

a Christian campaign challenging governments around the world to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Such a challenge needs not only strong leadership from someone like Joel Edwards but also powerful friends like Tony Blair. I note also (this from the June edition of the Evangelical Alliance’s newsletter youMail, which I received by e-mail and will be available online from 6th June) that Blair’s successor Gordon Brown has endorsed and written a foreword (not a “forward”) to the new book by Edwards and others Micah’s Challenge: The Church’s Responsibility to the Global Poor. David Cameron and Nick Clegg have also endorsed the book. The backing of both past and present Prime Ministers, and of the party leaders hoping to be future Prime Ministers, gives a real chance that these development goals will be met.

But will this campaign get the backing of the new US president, which would probably guarantee success? Maybe that depends on whether American Christians actually think about the poor and needy when making their now clear choice in November.

Violence and the Kingdom – and Todd Bentley again

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Roger Mugs writes about How I long to be a violent man, based on Matthew 11:12:

This is such a great verse just because it’s so strange. But the more I read it, the clearer to me it becomes that I am called to be a violent man taking hold the kingdom of heaven.

If this really is THE battle for the kingdom, through powers and such that we cannot see, then how passive of a role am I playing? Every time I come across this verse I’m reminded just how weak my prayer life is, and how forceful it should be. I want to be a violent man, a forceful man, I want the Lord’s enemies to be freaked out when I enter into battle with them. …

Wake us up to our wimpyness. Lord make us violent fighters taking hold of your kingdom by force.

Indeed! At first this post seemed so strange that I wondered if Roger was being satirical, but on closer reading I realise that he is both sincere and correct.

Now I don’t think Roger had Todd Bentley in mind when he wrote this a few days ago. But I was immediately reminded of the criticism that has been levelled at Todd that he uses violent methods in healing. In this comment CharismaticSceptic was the first of several people to send me a link to this video in which Todd tells of occasions when he used forceful methods in healing. On this CharismaticSceptic comments:

I’m sorry, but I cannot accept that this is how a minister of the gospel should behave, and have to seriously question if the voice Todd is hearing is that of the Lord.

Well, at the time I didn’t think of quoting Matthew 11:12 in response, but because C.S. Lewis’ Prince Caspian was in the news (I haven’t seen the film yet) I offered this quote from the book (pp. 133-134 of my copy):

Aslan pounced. Have you ever seen a very young kitten being carried in the mother cat’s mouth? It was like that. The Dwarf, hunched up in a little, miserable ball, hung from Aslan’s mouth. The Lion gave him one shake and all his armour rattled like a tinker’s pack and then – hey-presto – the Dwarf flew up in the air. He was as safe as if he had been in bed, though he did not feel so. As he came down the huge velvety paws caught him as gently as a mother’s arms and set him (right way up, too) on the ground.

It seems that C.S. Lewis’ conception of God allowed him to do apparently violent things to demonstrate that he is real. And from Matthew 11:12, at least as interpreted by Roger (and I know that there are other interpretations), it seems that Jesus also endorsed the use of violence in advancing the kingdom of God.

Now the world in the 21st century insists on wrapping everyone in cotton wool and treating violence against anyone (unless there is some rumour totally without evidence that they might somehow be linked indirectly with someone who has contemplated something which just might be considered terrorism) as the ultimate moral evil. And it seems that the critics of Todd Bentley have bought into the world’s thinking on this. But these are not the values of the Kingdom of God.

Wisdom about Todd Bentley

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I have been meditating, at first while commenting here, on these verses:

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

James 3:13-18 (TNIV)

In some other translations verse 17 mentions gentle wisdom, the title of this blog. Note the contrast between this gentle wisdom from above and the other kind of “wisdom” from another place. Note also how to tell the difference: the latter is characterised by “bitter envy and selfish ambition” whereas the former is “first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

So what has this to do with Todd Bentley and the Lakeland outpouring? I have received hundreds of comments on my posts about this; all but a very few purely abusive ones I have allowed to stand. I have also read quite a lot of posts by others on this subject, some linking to my posts, some not. Some commenters have linked to pages of other material about Todd Bentley, only some of which I have read. Almost all of these posts, comments and linked pages have been written by people who profess to be Christians.

And, I am sad to say, a large proportion, probably a majority, of these comments, posts by others and linked material have been clearly negative about Todd Bentley and what is happening in Lakeland. Furthermore, they have typically, although with some honourable exceptions such as Lee’s comment (but much of the material quoted at his website is not an exception), been characterised by unreasonable negativity, judgmentalism and condemnation, often of a very personal kind, directed against Todd Bentley and his associates.

The relatively few good arguments that I have seen to bring Todd’s ministry into question, such as that he allegedly focuses too much on angels (or is it that his critics are focusing on just two or three occasions in a decade-long ministry when Todd has mentioned angels?), have been largely lost in the overlay of judgmentalism, of writing Todd off as a false teacher and an agent of the devil because of a supposed weakness in his theology – and in some case of vicious personal attacks on myself for daring to defend Todd. Agathos of Scotteriology seemed to be putting forward some serious arguments, but his aggressive reaction to my comments, attacking me for making explicit some obvious implications of what he wrote, betrays what kind of attitude is behind his reporting of this matter.

So, I’m sorry to say, the defining characteristic of these negative comments is bitterness and condemnation. In some cases I suppose that this springs from the “envy and selfish ambition” which James mentions. It would not be fair to suggest that it always does, but in very few of these condemnations of Todd’s ministry have I seen anything “first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

By contrast, the comments I have seen endorsing Todd’s ministry, and those expressing genuine uncertainty about it, have mostly fitted well into the model of wisdom which is “first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

So, I wonder, which kind of “wisdom” about Todd comes from heaven, and which from some other place?

John Hobbins writes, in a different context:

The old polemical premise of Bible thumperdom is that Scripture’s purpose is to prove that the views of an opponent are incompatible with biblical teaching. According to that template, the Bible is a bludgeon to hit someone over the head with.

The very people who complain about Todd’s apparent violence on stage seem to think nothing of using this kind of metaphorical violence in an attempt to knock out their opponents. Is that the wisdom which comes from heaven?

I’m afraid that the more I read intemperate and bitter negativity about Todd, the more favourably I think towards him. After all he clearly has the forces of evil going for him in a big way from the way that they have spurred people on to comments clearly characterised by evil attitudes like condemnation. Todd clearly has Satan worried! So, with enemies like these critics of Todd, who needs friends?

PS: One thing we do need to make clear about Todd is that he is primarily an evangelist. He is not a Bible teacher; that is a different ministry in Ephesians 4:11 and we should not expect him to do both. That is not an excuse for teaching what is wrong, but it is a good reason for Todd not attempting deep Bible teaching and for some of what he does teach being shallow. I take someone’s point that at Lakeland he is primarily preaching to the converted, to those who are at least nominally Christians, so is perhaps not operating as an evangelist. But then doubtless many of these people are nominal or backslidden if ever truly converted and so need the ministry of an evangelist. I am sure that Todd would also say that Lakeland is a special time for him for which he has been called and gifted in different ways. In fact there he is operating more in an apostolic ministry – although I would hesitate to call him an apostle because of the sometimes misleading connotations of authority in that word.

UPDATE: I just found Pastor Steve Hickey’s interesting series on the Florida outpouring. His first and second posts refer to the critics I have mentioned as the “seat of scoffers”, and also give clear positive stories of what he has witnessed at Lakeland. His third post is mostly a link to an hour long sermon on the subject (which I have not listened to), interestingly enough based on Matthew 11 which I have just referred to. His latest post is about the angel Emma, and concludes:

I’m thrilled to hear angels are visiting Todd Bentley. I hope angels visit you too.