Monthly Archives: August 2008

Florida Revival’s leading man leaves his wife

As reported by ‘Charisma’ magazine:

Todd Bentley’s announcement that his marriage is ending has thrown our movement into a tailspin—and questions need to be answered.

It was not supposed to end like this.

Evangelist Todd Bentley had heralded the Lakeland revival as the greatest Pentecostal outpouring since Azusa Street. From his stage in a gigantic tent in Florida, Bentley preached to thousands, bringing many of them to the stage for prayer. Many claimed to be healed of deafness, blindness, heart problems, depression and dozens of other conditions in the Lakeland services, which ran for more than 100 consecutive nights. Bentley announced confidently that dozens of people had been raised from the dead during the revival.

But this week, a few days after the Canadian preacher announced the end of his visits to Lakeland, he told his staff that his marriage is ending. Without blaming the pace of the revival for Bentley’s personal problems, his board released a public statement saying that he and his wife, Shonnah, are separating. The news shocked Bentley’s adoring fans and saddened those who have questioned his credibility since the Lakeland movement erupted in early April.

John Piper has some comments:

Discernment is not created in God’s people by brokenness, humility, reverence, and repentance. It is created by biblical truth and the application of truth by the power of the Holy Spirit to our hearts and minds. When that happens, then the brokenness, humility, reverence, and repentance will have the strong fiber of the full counsel of God in them. They will be profoundly Christian and not merely religious and emotional and psychological.

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an atheist conversation

[Hmmm – a month without blogging – been on holidays and living life.]

Had a fascinating conversation today. After church this morning, I met man. He told me his name, and the first sentence that followed was, ‘Of course, I am an atheist.’

I said, ‘Of course?’

‘Oh, I don’t mean ‘of course I am an atheist’ – just, ‘I am an atheist”

He then told me that he had been brought up as a Christian, but recently, events had lead him to a particularly fateful day. He had driven out to a field, where he stood in the middle, and yelled to the four points of hte compass, as well as straight up and straight down: ‘I DON’T BELIEVE IN THE DEVIL, I DON’T BELIEVE IN THE DEVIL.’

He said he had uttered these words in great trepidation. But as he stood there, you know what happened? Absolutely nothing. And from that moment on, he said, he felt tremendous relief, and had ‘converted’ to atheism.

I said to him that I had found relief not in the denial of the spiritual underworld, but through the trusting in the promises that Christ had give nin his word, that his death and resurrection were the acts that landed that fatal blows on the devil, and so uniting my life to his meant there was ultimately nothing to fear.

He listened courteously, and then refused my offer of a free copy of ‘Living With the Underworld’ by Peter Bolt, and left.

So, what do you reckon is going on there?

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