And yes, Todd Bentley is itching to get back on stage.
He already is back.
He and Rick Joyner released the first of their ‘restoration’ programs today – small bites of course. They blamed media, they blamed people who are saying this is about a lot more than adultery. They blamed visa problems. I found myself watching Todd Bentley’s eyes to see if he was reading a teleprompter. He doesn’t read well, so my guess is no, he stuck to the few basic points of Rick Joyner’s script and made the right uh huh sympathetic noises when his ‘overseer’ was talking, staying on the agreed message.
Simple really, it’s all about Todd.
Final point of course: this is going to be bigger and better than Lakeland, just as biblically unsound, just as deceptive and the self-righteous refusing to obey and submit, better suck it up.
May people’s eyes stay open, may we guard our hearts. May God grant people wisdom to understand what is false cannot be restored, and ears to hear the lies and manipulation, discernment to see the bigger agenda NAR has laid out and run from these ‘apostles and their snares.
The Bentley/Joyner video is sick and slick.
Cary McMullen of The Lakeland Ledger reports some anger in the neo-charismatic camp (Steven Strader of Ignited – the guy who ‘hosted’ last years show, is reportedly angry at Charisma’s editor Lee Grady) I’m not buying it.
I think parts are being played out exactly as planned.
Strader doesn’t want attention drawn toward an Ignited church volunteer arrested and charged with lewd battery and lewd molestation of a 13 year old attendee. Grady makes a deflectionary scapegoat.
Other than Rick Hiebert and Cary McMullen the media just isn’t paying attention and for NAR leaders that won’t do, even negative media attention is a plus. McMullen is correct, the comments at Charisma are mostly negative, they haven’t sent over the Bentley fans as of yet. Update: Rick Hiebert hits more truth out of the park: Mr. Bentley enters his rehab. He uses the term rehab (not restoration) which I think is smartly reframing the language Joyner and NAR are feeding the public.
Just a matter of time, and timing.
Neat side-step, putting the ‘negative media’ message in Shonnah Bentley’s mouth eh?
Link fixed:
He brings up recent several errors and asks hard questions about past and present incongruent statements. Hiebert pays attention. His dry wit and proven coverage of Bentley’s career, his careful research of neo-charismatic players in a hyper, invasive, confusing and deceptive sub-culture puts Hiebert on my must read list.
sigh… im sooo tired. Its just a carousel that goes round n round..
Blessings
Frankie
I get the tired part…
I think of NAR in circus terms too.
Media owners take turns being ringmaster,
and they look for good side show barkers like Bentley.
Unfaithfulness, forsaken vows that tear delicate personal bonds apart, wounds not easily healed. Most tragic, I would say is the broken relationship with God.
God is perfect, and loves perfectly. Because of His great love He hates hypocrisy. Lives that are lived in denial, are so lonely, and they can’t even see how alone they really are.
Has Mr. Joyner’s and Mr. Bentley’s services for God become insensitive? Have they become casual with there attitudes? Can a man or woman who claim to be a christian, divorce a faithul spouse, and be so callous to marry the other person, who claims to be a christian? Is it an acceptable sacrifice to offer up lies at a healing revival?
If religious leaders are wrong, how will they lead God’s people?
Be encouraged! “The day of judgment is coming, burning like a furnace….But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.”