Leaving Lakeland
Cary McMullen
The Ledger of Lakeland
posted 8/12/2008 10:13AM
Canadian evangelist Todd Bentley has announced that he will leave the Florida Outpouring revival meetings in Lakeland on August 23 to conduct revivals overseas. But some local Pentecostal leaders, as well as some national ones, won’t be sad to see him go, and have been wary of giving approval to the meetings since they began in April.
Bentley shrugged off the criticisms.
“We’re preaching and teaching the gospel and praying and healing the sick,” he said. “Jesus said a tree is known by its fruit. What’s the fruit we’ve produced? Thousands are coming to praise God.”
The Pentecostal revival has drawn an average of 30,000 or more people each week, according to its leaders, with about half of those from outside Florida. Almost a third come from outside the United States, leaders estimate. Observers say the Internet, over which the services are streamed live twice a day, has also fueled attendance.
Bentley, 32, runs Fresh Fire Ministries, an independent organization based in Abbotsford, British Columbia. He is an unusual sight with his many tattoos and jeweled lip studs. A self-professed fan of professional wrestling, he is prone to giving gentle shoves or kicks and shouting “Bam!” as he touches people to “impart” the Holy Spirit to them. His antics have alarmed some, such as Charisma editor J. Lee Grady, who editorialized against those methods in the magazine. But the crowds beg to differ.
Bob and Hilkka Mounder traveled from Sheffield, England, to attend the revival. “Todd is rather special to us. We’ve really experienced God’s presence at his meetings,” Bob Mounder said. “I’m 20 years older, I know lots more about the Bible than he does, yet there’s something about him. He’s got something I haven’t got.”
While faith healing is a part of the Pentecostal tradition, leaders’ claims that at least 25 people have been raised from the dead have especially raised eyebrows. No dead bodies have been brought into the revival. Rather, reports of the recent death of a loved one””in some cases located long distances away””are relayed to the stage by e-mail or cell phone, and Bentley has led prayers for the person to be revived.
“We do our best to find out the situation. In one case, a boy drowned in a pool. He had no pulse, wasn’t breathing, and was clinically brain-dead,” he said.
Recent news reports have been unable to verify any of the claims of healing, although revival officials say they have been barred from releasing complete information about the identities and conditions of people claiming to be healed due to privacy concerns and laws forbidding the release of medical records.
Plese click http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/september/4.18.html?start=2 for complete story.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
