And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." - Luke 19:8-10 (ESV)
Charisma News is continuing to try and rehabilitate false teacher-prophet extraordinaire, Benny Hinn. This week, Hinn was featured in an interview by the ethically challenged false dominionist Steven Strang, who has spent the past six months lying about Mike Bickle and smearing his victims. This is a microcosm of what is so wrong with Charismania. This is why they are rapidly losing any shred of credibility they may be clinging to. This what gatekeepers like Dr. Michael Brown fail to understand. When he appeared on Hinn's television program years ago to hock his books, Brown furthered the damage that continues to this day. Benny Hinn should be low hanging fruit. While the bible says that false teachers will continue deceiving and being deceived themselves, Hinn definitely falls in both categories. Benny Hinn knows full well what he has done for the past five decades. He knows he is a liar. He knows he has no relationship with God. To continue to pretend that he somehow was just in error does such a disservice to the memory of his victims. There will be people unsaved directly because of Hinn and his lies. People's lives were destroyed by Hinn. Their faith was shipwrecked by Hinn. These people matter to God far more than the wolf who devoured them. After this Strang interview, Charisma has run two new articles to muddy the waters, and they will be linked in this devotional. Let us start with the link above as we reason once more together.
"Pastor. Preacher. Author. Charlatan. Evangelist Benny Hinn has been called a lot of things and held many titles over the years, and whether people love him or hate him, they still cannot stop talking about him and his recognizable crusades. As the information era continues moving forward, Hinn's reach has only grown, and critics are able to make a career out of reacting to decades-old videos of Hinn from as far back as the 1980s and 90s." - Charisma News
False pastor. Fake preacher. Flock fleecing author. Absolute charlatan. Personally, I could stand to stop talking about Benny Hinn and I would, if so many people like Strang were not constantly propping him up. You can tell from the disdain in this opening paragraph that Charisma has no intention of "reporting" here. This is pure propaganda. No one is making a career out of pointing out the falseness of Hinn. He, however, has made a career and large fortune, on the back of his absurdly false ministry. Notice the absolutely vacuous argument Charisma is making here by pretending the first half of Hinn's ministry is somehow now irrelevant. He built his fame and fortune during the years in question. By the way, if the only problem Hinn had was in the 1990's, then I am sure that most would not be looking at it much anymore. It is the body of false work, spanning across the decades that requires a full look.
"Some videos end up going viral, such as Mike Winger's four-hour long deep dive into past videos of Hinn which he dedicated to all of those he perceives as victims of Hinn's ministry. And Winger points several severe errors within the ministry of Hinn over the years, such as prophecy, healing and prosperity gospel. While Winger's work is thorough, does it give the full picture of who Hinn is?" - Charisma News
Full disclosure, I have not watched Winger's documentary, which has been reported as being very thorough and accurate. The victims by the way are not mere "perceptions." This is the reality of false teaching that is usually ignored or minimized. There are real victims from any false teaching, any. People who were promised healing by a fake healer such as Hinn may permanently blame God or themselves as a result. People who gave and gave and gave under the lies of the prosperity gospel only to discover none of the promises came to pass likewise may not have had their faith or even their lives survive. I remember a report being done about a cancer victim who refused treatment and instead just doubled her giving to Kenneth Copeland right up until she died. These are people's lives beloved, and they matter to God. The problems with Dr. Brown, Strang and the Charismaniacs is that they seemingly are only concerned about the wolves. False prophecy, fake healing and heretical prosperity gospel is the ENTIRE scope of Benny Hinn's ministry. Whatever ancillary things Charisma thinks they can point to always must come back to these three prongs which Hinn leveraged over and over again for forty years to fleece the flock of God and enrich himself. Period.
