By Rick Hiebert. All Rights Reserved. Used By Permission.
Another feature of the video released this morning by evangelists Rick Joyner and Todd Bentley is that Mr. Bentley is now professing to mend his relationships with friends of his in ministry.
Bentley began by citing a recent meeting with members of the Revival Alliance, who came down to formally ordain him into their group before the implosion of the “Lakeland revival” last year. Although it’s been pretty conclusively shown that Bentley lied about his past formal relationship with the group, he completely ducked that side of the issue. How he chose to phrase it was that these were friends that he let down.
Rick Joyner added that Bentley would meet with other “Christian leaders’ to try and make amends for what he had done. “We are not saying that they are endorsing anything,” Joyner said. But if people fail to catch this distinction, so much the better for Mr. Bentley, perhaps.
“I want to repent to some leaders that I have had relationship with that took hits, that have taken bullets for me. So some of this we’re going out to clear the air and I’m saying these relationships, whether I ever preach again for them again or not, whether they ever endorse my process or not…” Bentley said, “Some of these leaders, I want to go and say that I am sorry for the mess that I created…”
“…but how can we help the body of Christ recover from, again, another leader that tripped up? That’s my focus,” Bentley said. (His critics may respond to this: “How about trying another line of work?”)
At the beginning of the video, Joyner had commented that Bentley’s rediscovered mentors in the Revival Alliance were sure to be strict. “These are people that have a sincere heart. They love Todd and they love his ministry, but they also want to see things done right,”Joyner said. “They are going to be hard and they need to be.”
If Bentley is hoping to be repentant and mend his fences, that certainly would be a fine thing. But we need to remember that this contrite spirit is in the public eye.
When it comes to something that might be a little more private and a little less obvious, a different spirit on Mr. Bentley’s part might be apparent.
Have a look at what recently happened on his iamtoddbentley Twitter feed:
Yesterday, a Twitterer calling themselves LawGrace started to address some pointed questions and at Bentley. I am not LawGrace (who is apparently a Marcus Pittman) and I don’t necessarily agree with what he “tweeted”, but the exchange deserves to be saved due to its behind-the-scenes revelation:
You’ll need to read it in reverse, from the bottom up, as that is how Twitter works:
LawGrace: was blocked by @IamToddBentley 1 day ago from web
LawGrace: @IamToddBentley in light of God's word. People did not get kicked in the stomach in the Bible. Repent. People are praying u get saved 1 day ago from web
What happened is that Matt peppered the evangelist with some pointed questions and Bentley “blocked” him, which is Twitterese for refusing to listen to anything more that LawGrace types at him.
Why is that? Hasn’t Bentley been just about to release his statement on his theology of divorce and remarriage for weeks now? As of a couple of weeks ago, Rick Joyner was saying that the only thing preventing its release was Joyner himself lacking the time to look at it.
We have two Bentleys here. One meets with the Revival Alliance with humility and a contrite spirit. That is great, but we also need to be realistic to remember that Bentley, in a way, needs their help to be re-established in ministry. Without their help, the big collections will no longer be his. In a way, he must bow and scrape.
Then we have “LawGrace”, who gets the back of Bentley’s hand. A Twitter “get lost”. Bentley doesn’t need to be polite here, or give any answers to this fellow in the same way that he would need to answer a John Arnott, say. But, I wonder, is this the way that Bentley would like to respond more often to critiques, if he felt that he could get away with it?
Does a ”real Bentley” still pop out in more private venues, just as it did in Lakeland?
One thing I do know, he wouldn’t have “blocked” a Che Ahn or a Peter Wagner “tweeting” in a critical way. And isn’t that the problem?
Thanks as always to BD. I felt that Bentley’s refusal to listen to a Twitter critic needed to be saved and pointed out.
Had LawGrace pastored a church where Bentley had fomerly raked in thousands in donations, am I wrong in wondering if Todd would have responded differently?
Here is Pittman’s site, he is a street preacher in Virginia Beach, has a podcast and a website.
http://transplantministries.com/blog/
He took a road trip to Lakeland and has blogged about Bentley and Lakeland.
http://transplantministries.com/blog/?s=Todd Bentley&x=0&y=0
What can we expect? Mr. Bentley has been living in La La Land for quite some time. It seems to me that Mr. Joyner enjoys La La Land too. I think they want to create this imaginary and wonderful place, but how can they do it? Maybe if one or both get off that big white horse, and take a rest from the saddle, they would be humbled a bit.
Ta Ta
Thanks for the extra info on Pittman, BD.
Pittman wrote that he has worked in TV, so I found his post about how he visited Lakeland and found that viewers were being given a falser impression of what was actually happening at the revival particularly interesting.
It’s very interesting how you can put cameras here and make disabled people sit there and give a misleading impression on TV.
His post is at:
http://transplantministries.com/blog/?p=140
In an April 2009 article, I wrote that “In 2008, Todd Bentley left the Lakeland revival in controversy, disgrace, and sin. Since then, Christian Research Service has maintained that he needs to repent and be born again, and surround himself with solid, Bible-based Christians for council.”
Further, I wrote that “CRS has also maintained that if Bentley is groomed, mentored, and ‘restored’ by those who groomed and mentored him in the first place, he will end up in worst shape than ever before.”
Source: http://www.christianresearchservice.com/ToddBentley12.htm
It is obvious that Todd Bentley has not repented or surrounded himself with solid, Bible-based Christians. Instead, he chose to be re-groomed, re-mentored, and re-restored by those who are just as spiritually blind as he is.
“He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 17:15).
Todd Bentley made choices, and his choices will return to haunt him, his mentors, and his followers.
Bud Press
I don’t think there is anything wrong with blocking someone on Twitter who repeatedly ask pointed questions when it’s obvious the asker wasn’t seeking an answer but just to embarrass him.
Todd only has one speed and it does not involved digging deep into his thoughts and therefore the answers to anyone elses.
Dear Ain’t,
Normally, I would agree with your point about Twitter. However, someone who desires to be seen as representing God in ministry should be responsible enough to answer those questions.
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