Todd Bentley False Prophet

Todd Bentley was born in 1976 in Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada

This was written by me back in 2008 and I am republishing because the false prophet is back and being promoted by some churches and well-known ministers.

Todd's upbringing was predominantly situated in Gibsons, British Columbia. At age 6, his parents divorced. He continued residing with his mother, who lost her hearing years before the divorce. Despite the divorce and his father moving away, Todd visited his father regularly. At age 11, Todd began undertaking illicit alcohol consumption under his father's supervision. Later, at age 15, Todd was sentenced as a juvenile delinquent after perpetrating sexual assault on a minor.

Following his release from jail, Todd continued struggling through adolescence, transferring between several foster homes in the vicinity of Lower Mainland, B.C. before finally rejoining his father.

At age 17, Todd was unconsciously hospitalized after swallowing a bag full of illicit amphetamines and hallucinogenic pills. His stomach pumped of the drugs, the doctors posited him to be irrecoverably approaching certain death. Albeit notably bleak, his health gradually ameliorated. Afterwards, Todd dedicated his life to God, pursuing a life as a "revivalist" missionary. Todd credits God for his healthy recuperation and life transformation.

Criminal history

According to The Report Newsmagazine, a social conservative publication that is now uncirculated , Bentley was jailed for 18 months when he was fifteen years old for crimes of a sexual nature against a 7-year-old boy.

As a juvenile offender, Bentley's record should have been protected from public disclosure. The article in The Report acknowledged the Canadian law, but stated that Bentley freely provided details of the offence. Two years later Bentley said he had no idea the reporter interviewing him would publish his acknowledgment of the molestation. "[The reporter] did not tell me he was doing a follow-up story," Bentley told Charisma. "He was just friendly and told me what the mother had said, and I admitted to him in what I thought were off-the-record comments that it was true, but that it happened years ago and I had since been changed by the gospel."

A few months after the article in The Report was published, the mother of the victim contacted the media in Kewlona, B.C. where Bentley was holding a crusade. In response, "Bentley decided to address the local outcry by going on the 6 p.m. local TV-news broadcast. He admitted the crime on-air, asked for forgiveness, told viewers how ashamed he was, and how he was transformed five years after the incident by the gospel's power."

Bentley willingly admits his past: "I turned around and did what had happened to me. I was assaulted too." He states in his book "Today I want to be sure that in the future no one can say I hid things or mislead people about my past" . (Journey Into The Miraculous, p.24, used by permission)

Ministries and activities

Todd Bentley has travelled internationally holding church services and crusades in over 55 nations including South Africa, Malaysia, Peru, Ethopia, and Uganda where he has a children's home for orphans called the "Uganda Jesus Village." In addition to these activities, "Freshfire Ministries," which Todd serves as CEO since 1998, oversees a Supernatural Training Centre in conjunction with a group in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Efforts to train native pastors to help set up a Supernatural Training Centre in Kampala, Uganda were undertaken in January 2008. Todd's claim is to raise up sons and daughters for his kind of ministry. His home church is Global Harvest Centre.

Florida Healing Outpouring

Main article: Florida Healing Outpouring

In April 2008, Todd Bentley was invited to Ignited Church in Lakeland, Florida for a several-day conference. Meetings moved from the church building to local auditoriums and stadiums, continuing daily and broadcasted live via God Tv satellite channels and online streaming.

Personal life

Todd currently resides in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada. Bentley is married to Shonnah, and has three children —Elijah, Lauralee, and Esther. His father lives on Vancouver Island.

Bentley lives in an Abbotsford home when not in revival, and he owns a 2007 GMC Sierra and a 2003 Harley Davidson motorcycle, as well as a 2008 f150 35-foot travel trailer (The Province Newspaper) .

Todd Bentley's current interests as expressed on his MySpace page are: Family, Sushi, Harley Davidson's, Music, Starbucks, Movies, and hanging out with friends.

His heroes are listed as: Jesus!, Paul the Apostle, true Spiritual Fathers (anyone who can be a true father), David and The Mighty Men, Overcomers, and those who take up the cause of the widow and the orphan.

Todd has a number of impressive tattoos and piercings which, he claims, God told him to get.

Views and beliefs

Todd is associated with the controversial "Kansas City Prophets", and has had various prophets speak in support of his ministry and the event in Lakeland, Florida.

Here are a couple of extracts from Todd's 2003 article 'Angelic Hosts':

So when I need a financial breakthrough I don't just pray and ask God for my financial breakthrough. I go into intercession and become a partner with the angels by petitioning the Father for the angels that are assigned to getting me money: "Father, give me the angels in heaven right now that are assigned to get me money and wealth. And let those angels be released on my behalf. Let them go into the four corners of the earth and gather me money.

Todd continues...

Jane, ANGEL of The PROPHETIC

Now let me talk about an angelic experience with Emma. Twice Bob Jones asked me about this angel that was in Kansas City in 1980: "Todd, have you ever seen the angel by the name of Emma?" He asked me as if he expected that this angel was appearing to me. Surprised, I said, "Bob, who is Emma?" He told me that Emma was the angel that helped birth and start the whole prophetic movement in Kansas City in the 1980s. She was a mothering-type angel that helped nurture the prophetic as it broke out. Within a few weeks of Bob asking me about Emma, I was in a service in Beulah, North Dakota.

In the middle of the service I was in conversation with Ivan and another person when in walks Emma. As I stared at the angel with open eyes, the Lord said, "Here's Emma." I'm not kidding. She floated a couple of inches off the floor. It was almost like Kathryn Kuhlman in those old videos when she wore a white dress and looked like she was gliding across the platform. Emma appeared beautiful and young - about 22 years old - but she was old at the same time. She seemed to carry the wisdom, virtue and grace of Proverbs 31 on her life. She glided into the room, emitting brilliant light and colors. Emma carried these bags and began pulling gold out of them. Then, as she walked up and down the aisles of the church, she began putting gold dust on people... Within three weeks of that visitation, the church had given me the biggest offering I had ever received to that point in my ministry. Thousands of dollars! Thousands!... During this visitation the pastor's wife (it was an AOG church) got totally whacked by the Holy Ghost - she began running around barking like a dog or squawking like a chicken as a powerful prophetic spirit came on her. Also, as this prophetic anointing came on her, she started getting phone numbers of complete strangers and calling them up on the telephone and prophesying over them... Then angels started showing up in the church.

More recently, Todd stated that in one of his "Third Heaven" trips he literally visited the small cabin where the apostle Paul lives in Heaven. Paul told him that he wrote the book of Hebrews with the personal help of Abraham the Patriarch: "The authorship isn't clear because it was Abraham and I; Abraham shared the content with me." Todd's 'Third Heaven' tales are full of such astonishing claims.

In this YouTube video, Todd speaks of the angel that is going to "visit the children" and then he begins to jerk and laugh uncontrollably. He prays that a 'drunken glory' will move across the whole place, with evidence within the audience. Both Todd and Bob Jones credit an angel that carries the "Winds of Change" for the current healing revival — an angel that they say is still driving it.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Bentley"

First of all, barking like dogs and clucking like chickens is unscriptural. I challenge anyone to find me scripture to back this up. It strikes me that saying that howling and roaring and making animal noises "in the Spirit" is an unusual claim. If you are claiming that God is involved with that then it seems to me that it's up to you to prove it. I'm a bit uncomfortable talking about this because even discussing it like this lends some legitimacy to it. It's kind of like saying, well, let's reflect on this for a moment and see whether this might be okay.

Ladies and gentlemen, why would anybody even be tempted to say that people thrashing about making animal noises is an evidence of the movement of God? What has the Body of Christ come to that we look at this kind of behavior and we call it the Holy Spirit? Just on the face of it, doesn't it seem--think, please think--doesn't it seem that if anyone was going to turn people into animals it would not be God? It would be Satan. I mean if I had a choice. Remember the Gad Rene demoniac? Thrashing about in the tombs, demon possessed, cutting his body, living like pardon me, an animal? That was demons, not God.

The only time I can think of God making someone like an animal was Nebuchadnezzar--and that was a judgment of God. If you recall, it was when Nebuchadnezzar came to his senses that he was released from his crazy behavior. Read the book of Daniel. He was taking all the glory to himself, not giving praise to God, so God made him into a cow. I mean, he was still Nebuchadnezzar, but he lived like a cow. He went out in the field for seven years (Daniel 4), I believe, and ate grass. His nails grew long. He was an animal. He bellowed, and mooed, I imagine. And then he came to his senses, gave God the glory and was restored to his position of authority.

I have been in church services where people were barking like dogs and clucking like chickens and laughing like hyenas. I also saw people get up and walk out and say they wouldn't come back anymore either.

I am reminded of what Apostle Paul said, 1 Corinthians 14:40 "But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner." Also in 1 Corinthians 14:33 "God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints."

Suppose someone was considering giving their life to Christ that did not go to church? Do you think carrying on like this would make them come to Jesus? What if someone was suicidal? Would this type of carrying on draw them to Jesus? If you took a successful business person or maybe your boss at work to a church service like this, would they be impressed?

Punching people in the mouth, choking them, and knocking out their teeth as well as kicking old ladies in the face, well, I can't find where that is proper and in order. If someone can show it to me in the word then I stand to be corrected.

On the "Gold Dust" question, the God that I serve owns all the gold and all the silver (Hag 2:8) and since He owns it all, why would he just sprinkle a little dust on the crowd? Why not give the crowd a huge abundance to pay bills with since he owns it all? Why was Todd Bentley the only one who got thousands and thousands of dollars and not those attending the meeting? My God's name is El Shaddai not El Cheapo! I do not believe in this gold dust junk when the God I serve would pour out a much larger abundance than dust!

Speaking to an angel called Emma that comes from Kansas City? Where is that in the word? Show it to me because somehow in the studies I have done in the word I have missed it. I will tell you what I didn't miss though, and that is Gal. 1:8 "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed."

Now if you do a search on Angel Emma you will find 1. EMMA-O: King of Hell. He lives the good life in a large castle covered in gold, silver, pearls and jewels. Now I know Bentley says Emma is a female but demons can appear as a male or female angel, which ever they choose. Satan is known as the deceiver. EMMA-0, The Lying demon that calls itself the angel that (it is claimed) ministered with Rev. William Branham, the famous faith healer who fell into much error before he died. He believed that he was god.

Let me say, that real revivals do not move on the power of angels. True revivals come by the Power of the Holy Spirit. God with sovereignty move, bringing people face to face with the state of their soul. He will convict them of sin and then reveal to them God's divine love and compassion that He sent His Dear Son, to suffer death in their place. Revival will sweep millions into the Kingdom of God. A demonic angel called Emma has absolutely nothing to do with salvation or miracles by the hand of God. The Holy Ghost will never lift an individual's personality up because The Spirit's job is to draw people to Jesus Christ, to convict and bring them to God.

Now I realize that some will attack me and try to say I am jealous of Todd Bentley and wish that my ministry was huge like his. Well I will stop that thought right now, because I am a high profile public figure and speak in some of the world's largest churches. I not only speak to huge crowds but I hold records in Australia and New Zealand for souls saved, and I did it by focusing on Jesus Christ and NOT an angel or barking like a dog!

I never kicked an old woman in the face either. I do not wish to attack any other person including Todd Bentley but when a fake comes along that is deceiving people that I have ministered to as well as friends of mine, then I know I have a duty to expose him as a heretic. I am in hopes he will repent of this nonsense but until he does, I am others will continue to expose him. I am not some Johnny-come-lately who has no one listening to him, so Todd Bentley should keep that in mind as he continues to fleece the flock.

Todd claims that Jesus literally stepped out of heaven and came down to visit him. http://www.christianresearchservice.com/ToddBentley1.htm

Todd claims he went to Paul's cabin in heaven and had a rap session with him as to the authorship of the Book of Hebrews. He claims that Paul told him Abraham helped him write it. Never mind the fact that Abraham had already been dead for many years before Paul wrote the book. I guess we are supposed to believe Abraham was allowed to return to life and help Paul write Hebrews even though Paul never mentions this. Don't you think something as important as this would be mentioned in the Bible? Are we supposed to believe that Todd Bentley is the ONLY one on Earth God chose to reveal this to? Well isn't that special? Oh my! Thank you for enlightening us Oh holy one!

The bottom line is this Todd Bentley is making all kinds of claims that does not line up with God's word. If we are to believe that God chose to reveal things like this to Todd Bentley so he can educate the rest of the world, even though they do not line up with God's word, then why not believe Bishop Carlton Pearson when he says things that do not line up with God's word in his new religion called "Gospel of Inclusionism" instead of labeling him a heretic? Why not believe Oprah and her new religion when she says there are other ways to get to heaven instead of just through Jesus?

Before anyone accuses me of being anti-Charismatic let me say I was mentored not only by Rev. Wade Watts but by Ps. Billy Joe Daugherty of Victory Christian Center who pastors one of the largest Pentecostal churches in the world with over 25,000 members back when I used to live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ps. Daugherty always taught that anything that is preached must line up with God's word and if it does not then it is not of God. I am thankful that Ps. Daugherty taught me this many years ago. I have carried these teaching in my world wide ministry and I always preach what I was taught.

Some people want a touch from the supernatural so bad they are willing to flock to these false revivals and believe anything as long as they can "feel good" and get a supernatural high. People need to stop acting like flakes and stop this insanity! If it does not line up with God's word then it is NOT of God, period!

Psalm 12:6-7 says, "The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." Then we read in Psalm 100:5 that ". . . . his truth endureth to all generations," and Jesus said in John 17:17 that God's WORD is truth.

2 John 9 - Whoever fails to abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God.

But following human standards - whether by failing to practice what Jesus teaches, or by practicing things He never authorized - is a failure to abide in the teachings of Jesus.

So I shall conclude with a word for Todd Bentley:

Revelation 22:18,19 - Whoever adds to Jesus' words, God will add to him the plagues in the book. Whoever takes from God's words, his part will be removed from the holy city.

Again, the basic error of human standards is that they show a lack of respect for the teachings of Jesus. All human standards are written on the presumption that weak, imperfect human beings can write a better standard than what was written by the all-wise, infallible God. This is why God refuses to allow His people to follow any other standard but the Bible.

TODD BENTLEY DIVORCES WIFE AND MARRIES HIS MISTRESS!

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23332/todd-bentley-9

Todd] Bentley has married the former Jessa Hasbrook, a former intern for his ministry. Last summer, his internationally famous revival campaign in Lakeland, Florida collapsed when it was revelead that he and Jessa had begun an “emotional affair”. Charismatic leaders C. Peter Wagner and Robert Ricciardelli, however, have reported that the affair was apparently sexual. Mr. Ricciardelli, furthermore, has indicated that this affair, whatever type it was, began in January of last year, which would place it well before Mr. Bentley announced that he was separating from his wife Shonnah. This is also well before Mr. Bentley brought Shonnah Bentley and his kids to Lakeland to show them to an international T.V. audience. Shonnah Bentley even preached in a local church to promote her husband’s revival.

WE THE SHEEPLE

By Pastor Johnny Lee Clary

It should come as no surprise that spiritual deception is not anything that is brand new breaking news, as it has been around since Adam and Eve had the garden show and allowed Satan to be their guest. Today there are many false teachers, fake preachers, and phony pastors out there who are deceiving the flock with their damnable doctrines of everything from seeker friendly to blatant outright condemnation of Israel. That alone will buy them a ticket on the hellbound train,(Genesis 12:3) but these charlatan wolves in sheep’s clothing keep preaching their hellish distortions of God’s word along with a mixture of new age philosophy, and the sheep are following them right into the wolves’ dens.

Jesus warned us about false prophets. A false prophet is someone who claims to teach God's Word, but who teaches something wrong or less than the whole truth. In Matt 7:15-23, Jesus said 15 "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (NIV)

Some people are like wolves that pretend to be sheep. They act and dress like the sheep, only to destroy the lambs once they are among them. Look at the Rev. Jim Jones of the People’s Temple. He started out with a good message, helped the poor, fed the hungry, and led countless numbers to Christ. His crusades were huge all over America and he had a large mega church with thousands of members. Jim Jones stood up for homosexuals and put down preachers who preached that homosexuality is a sin. Although Jones was married, he was a closeted bisexual who was having sex with several men in his church. He also fathered children with several women in his church, including the married ones. When the media began investigating him, he claimed that the right-wing racist government of the USA was trying to destroy his church and assassinate him, so he asked everyone to follow him to Guyana and live in their own community that he was building called Jonestown. The people believed in him so much that they sold their worldly possessions, and gave it to Jim Jones’s church and followed him blindly right into the hellish pits of Jonestown, Guyana, where they were beaten, raped, tortured, sodomized and killed when he forced them all to drink Kool-Aid laced with cyanide, in a mass murder-suicide that left nearly 1000 dead. So how do we know who the real preachers of Christ are and which ones are not?

Jesus told us how to distinguish the sheep from the wolves. He said we'll know, because even if a wolf is dressed like a sheep, it acts like a wolf. A wolf can't baaa like a sheep, it can't chew cud like a sheep, it can't eat grass, or even smell like a sheep. Jesus said that a wolf can try to look like a sheep, but you can tell it apart by its actions.

Jesus said our actions are to be looked at with a fine toothed comb. If a man lies, he is a liar, no matter how often he says he isn't. A man can say he is a Christian, but if he doesn't act like a Christian, then you know he is a fake Christian. For instance, be very careful when a church leader or preacher starts saying that something is OK or not OK because Jesus didn’t or did address it in the gospel. One preacher said homosexuality is not a sin because Jesus never addressed it. The word of God however, says ALL scripture is given by God. (2 Timothy 3:16) Therefore all scripture condemning the act of homosexuality comes straight from God. God’s position is that it is a sin. (Romans 1:20-29; Leviticus 18:22; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10) I have more if you need them.

Those who have been gifted with the office of pastor, evangelist, teacher, apostle or prophet are held to a greater accountability to preach the truth of God’s word. Their punishment will be greater if they don’t. Jesus said there would be people on judgment day that would claim that they had done great things for Jesus, and He would say: "I never knew you, depart from me, you who do evil." In other words, not only had they not done what Jesus wanted, they had done evil instead. These people may have thought they were pleasing God, but in fact they weren't. How do we find out what will please God? The answer is: by reading the Bible! If you do not read your bible you won’t be able to distinguish the wolves from the sheep. The problem is the wolves that are masquerading as church leaders are distorting God’s Word by putting their own left wing liberal interpretations behind the scriptures. They are keeping the sheeple dumb. If people do not know God’s Word they will end up in the wolves’ lairs. That is what happened to me when I was a kid. I was saved and baptized when I was 9 years old, but stopped reading the bible after my daddy died when I was 11 years old. I was sent away to go live with my sister in the ghettos of East L.A., California, where I didn’t have friends, was bullied, harassed, beaten, and even ridiculed from my teachers. I was a kid looking for acceptance when I met the Ku Klux Klan. They told me they were Christians and convinced me that God was on their side. The quoted a few scriptures and because I didn’t know the Word of God, I fell for their B.S., hook, line, and sinker. You must not only know the Word of God, but you must live by it in order to keep the wolves from tearing you apart.

False teachers and phony pastors try to control people and they also use people to their full advantage. They control their flock’s personal lives from the pulpit and through church policy that they have probably written themselves. Some tell single people who they can date and who they can’t date. I remember when I was dating my ex-girlfriend Barbara several years ago, we had dated a couple of years prior to breaking up and then we ran into each other and decided to start dating again, until she dropped the bombshell a couple of weeks later and informed me that her pastor was demanding to see me. He had told her that we needed his permission to date since she was in his flock and he was responsible for her ‘spiritual well being.” He further stated to her that if he gave his permission for our relationship to continue, then I must come to his church so I could be watched. It didn’t matter to him that I was already part of a large church in town and that I had a world wide ministry, as he was determined to step in and stop the relationship unless I left my church and came submitted to him to be my ‘covering.’ He also had sent a message with Barbara since she told him that I listened to and sang country music that I needed to repent, burn all of my secular CD’s and fall down on my knees and beg for forgiveness! At this point, I won’t tell you what my reply was to him, because I don’t want anyone to lose respect for me as a man of God, but let’s just say it wasn’t a nice one and leave it at that!

Some even tell people where they are allowed to work and where they are not allowed to work. Some break up homes by telling people they are not in a good environment and convince them to even break up marriages and families in order to get them to be under their wing so they can control them. Watch out also when it comes to finances. A person should give out of their heart and obedience to God, not obedience to the pastor. Each of you should give whatever you have decided. You shouldn't be sorry that you gave or feel forced to give, since God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7) Some pastors I know of have passed the plate around 3 or 4 times in a service, and put a guilt trip on people that didn’t have it to give. That is just wrong. I have even heard some of them say “If you want to be blessed of God tonight, then you need to give $40.00 or more in the offering.” What that is implying is that if someone does not have $40.00 then they won’t get blessed. Bullchips!

Be very careful if you are approached by members of the pastoral staff encouraging you to deed your home over to the church. If that is something you want to do for your church on your own free will thinking then fine, but you should never be asked to do so. That is what the White Supremacist movement used to do, was send people letters with a form attached that read something like, “Upon my death, I bequeath to David Duke or Tom Metzger all of my worldly possessions, bank accounts, life savings and property.” This was supposed to be to advance the cause by financing the KKK or the Nazis long after you were gone. They would remind you that the government or relatives that do not believe in the White Power movement will get all of your things once you are gone if you didn’t leave a will.

Don’t you dare let them manipulate you either. There is a single pastor out in Delano, California who manipulates his congregation into buying him suits and nice cars. He has always been a manipulator. He made up a story accusing his pastor of having an affair in order to steal sheep from the church so he could start one of his own. He ‘hints’ how he would like a newer car, a vacation or a raise and the board members vote to give him a raise so he can buy those things. He will get up in front of the congregation and preach about how someone from another church bought their pastor a nice new suit, knowing fully well that someone in his church is going to take him to go buy him one. This is just plain wrong and he is taking advantage of the good people in his church.

People need to be people, not sheeple! They do not need to blindly follow a pastor because he has somehow convinced them that God speaks through him and not the Word. A good rule of thumb I have is if it does not line up with God’s Word, then it is not of God. Just because you can’t find something in the Word that does not mean it is permissible. The bible does not spell out specifically that going to certain internet sites are wrong, because the internet was not invented yet when the Word of God was written. However it does say not to put anything wicked before your eyes. (Psalm 101:3) Godly character is doing the right thing even when no one else is watching.

False teachers would rather you spend your time listening to them preach instead of spending a lot of time studying the Word of God. They make all kinds of claims and promises and if the sheeple have their focus on the false prophet instead of on the Word of God, then when the false prophecies and teachings do not come to pass, people start feeling empty and defeated and start to believe that their faith has failed them. (1 Timothy 1:4)

Look how many people were deceived by the false prophet Todd “Bam Bam” Bentley? I mean he had a huge series of revival meetings going on and people all over the world were flocking to it thinking it was the next Brownsville Revival; that is, most people except me! I identified him right away as a false prophet, because his actions did not line up with God’s Word, such as kicking old ladies in the face with his biker boot; body slamming 90 lb Japanese men knocking their teeth out; and hitting people with his fist and then laughing about it. I was appalled at this behavior! I said, “What’s next? Is he going to fart in people’s face and say that is the mighty wind of the Holy Ghost?” I saw so many people deceived by him that it wasn’t funny. Even a good friend of mine who pastors a church had met him and told me that Bam Bam had laid hands on him and passed on his ‘anointing’ to him, and then he offered to lay hands on me so I would receive that same anointing Bam Bam had given to him! I politely said, “No Thanks!” That pastor stopped speaking to me and accused me of “bagging out the prophet of God” even after Todd “Bam Bam” Bentley was exposed as a fraud and con man, who divorced his wife to marry a sweet young thing he met at his revival and then his ministry came to an end!

A good rule to follow in order to avoid being taken advantage of by the wolves is to grab hold to God’s Word as your faithful guide in life.(Titus 1:9) This will help you to withstand opposition and not compromise God’s Word. Don't let anything—magazines, television, sports, or even time with your family—come between you and scripture. If you don’t make time for the Bible, you will gradually lose hope, assurance, and your spiritual foundation. Even a new car needs maintenance and fuel such as gas, oil, and water to keep going. Without those things the car will come to a full stop and with no oil the engine burns out. You need God’s word as your fuel to keep on going so you don’t burn out too!

Believe the whole Word of God; each and everything that is written in the Word of God; and let your life line up with what is written in the Word of God! Compare all doctrines of false prophets with the Word of God. All that we believe, teach, preach and do must be based squarely on the scriptures. Don’t be a sheeple; be of God’s people! Hold those who you have chosen to teach you accountable to God’s Word.

When they preach nothing but the ‘love’ of God and do not want to mention Hell, justice or repentance, then they are false teachers. So many of them now say they are “seeker friendly” and they do not want to make the ‘unchurched’ feel uncomfortable with preaching about sin. They say making someone feel uncomfortable about their life is not the Jesus way. They use the excuse of “People already know they are doing wrong and they need God’s love and do not need to have it pointed out to them that they are in error in the way that they are living. They just need to learn about how to seek God so they can do right eventually.” Oh really? I beg to differ but no, people do not already know they are doing wrong or they wouldn’t be doing what they are doing in the first place! What about what it says in Ezekiel 3: 18 “Suppose I tell you that wicked people will surely die, but you don't warn them or speak out so that they can change their wicked ways in order to save their lives. Then these wicked people will die because of their sin, but I will hold you responsible for their deaths.” Jesus made a lot of folks uncomfortable and He talked about Hell a lot more then He did Heaven, because He wanted to keep people out of that place! Yet phony pastors are telling people that they don’t preach on Hell because the church has driven too many people away by making them feel uncomfortable so they will just preach “Sunshine Lollipops and Rainbows Everywhere” in order to get them to come stay in church.

This is just a lame excuse to get numbers in and build a huge mega church. After all, the more people they can get to join their church the more powerful they will become in the Christian world as well as their community and nation. These false teachers say you shouldn’t be controversial and avoid rocking the boat. Well Jesus and John the Baptist was certainly controversial and rocked plenty of boats in their day! They didn’t care what the status quo said or what the leaders thought either, as they were concerned about winning souls into heaven and getting them off of that Hellbound train more than anything else. If modern day church leaders were truly concerned about souls, they would preach the truth of God’s Word and call sin for what it is, SIN, and they would not be concerned more about how large can I grow my church over how many people can I rescue from Hell today?

As my friend Tracey Lord Smith from Melbourne, Australia puts it, “I would rather kick them into Heaven than pat them into Hell!”

Amen!

“Ah yes, truth. Funny how everyone is always asking for it but when they get it they don’t believe it because it’s not the truth they want to hear.” ~Helena Cassadine

©Johnny Lee Clary International