Enough of the crocodile tears from Hinn and his enablers at Charisma News...

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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)

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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.

'With so many saying things about who Benny is and what his ministry represents, he felt that he should throw his hat into the ring and try to balance the scales when it comes to the legacy he will leave behind. Reaching out to Stephen Strang, Founder and CEO of Charisma Media, Hinn requested an interview in which he could tell his story, in his own words. "The real Benny Hinn wants to know the Bible better than I've ever known it," Hinn shared in an exclusive interview with The Strang Report. "When I talk to the Lord, my real cry is, 'Lord, I want to be accepted on that day.' That is all that really matters to me."' - Charisma News

So, the wolf wants his side of the story to be out there also? The devil knows the bible better than most Christians, so that point is irrelevant. If Hinn was saved, the conviction of the Holy Spirit for all of his spiritual abuse would be overwhelming. It also seems pretty obvious what is going on. Besides the Winger criticisms, Hinn has recently tried to pretend that he has now evolved. A short while back he claimed to have repented of the prosperity gospel but soon after he was back fleecing the flock as usual. Despite that, Hinn is now 71 years old. When you start to realize that your hourglass is running out, it is not surprising that perhaps he is now actually concerned about God. It is also easy however to pretend to repent of prosperity after you have built a 50-million-dollar empire. It is not our place to judge the eternal fate of anyone, but on that day? Benny Hinn will have quite a lot to answer for that he will not be able to filter through Steven Strang.

"Hinn is well aware of the criticisms levelled at him, one would have to be living in an unprecedented world of denial not to, and he just doesn't feel like people know the real him, who he is and what he truly believes. "They see the clips from the crusades. They see the clips from TV programs, and they see the old clips from 'This is Your Day,' and on and on, and they make up their own conclusion," Hinn says. However, when it comes to the past mistakes Hinn acknowledges during the interview with Strang, he admitted to carrying regrets from various times throughout his ministry. "I'm a human being. I've made mistakes. I remember Oral [Roberts] telling me he made mistakes by the truckloads. We all make mistakes. The two things I regret most in ministry, I was not too wise a number of times with prophecy"and then the other one is prosperity. And that's been a very difficult one for me," Hinn reveals. "For that"I ask people to forgive me, I'm just human, and [I] made mistakes," Hinn says. As man who is entering the twilight years of his ministry, for all the good and bad that came with it, Hinn is simply not willing to live in the past with his mistakes, but is instead focused on what is to come." - Charisma News

When Hinn stands before Christ, he will not be able to make the argument that Jesus is just living in the past. The real problem here is how Hinn frames this reveals that he is beyond insincere. Waving your suit coat to pretend God is healing people is not a "mistake." Lying to people that you have heard from God is not a "mistake." Manipulating scripture to manipulate people to give you their money by lying abut God is not a "mistake." Perhaps if he had a Zacchaeus moment as seen in the key verses, I might feel a bit differently but saying sorry after you have spent five decades lying and deceiving people who you make no effort to make amends to is very disingenuous. If Benny truly seeks forgiveness, he has to first repent. There is nothing here about repenting. He is simply asking for airtime to combat a recent documentary that was honest and damaging to what is left of his image. Now, let us turn to the second article found on Charisma today:

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"In an exclusive interview with Stephen Strang, Benny Hinn addressed his two major regrets in regards to prosperity gospel and prophecy. "I'm a human being. I've made mistakes," Hinn says.

When it comes to ministry, Hinn says his first regret is about mishearing God when giving others prophetic words. "I was not too wise a number of times with prophecy," Hinn says. Hinn admits he brought harm to others' lives and to his own reputation by giving inaccurate prophecies. "Their prophecies were not really a prophecy. They went outside the borders of redemption," Hinn says. "There were times when I thought God had showed me something that He wasn't showing me. And I spoke it out." "Sadly, and I wish I could go back and fix it, but sadly there was some promises I gave that were not accurate or from the Lord. But who's perfect? And for that, of course, I asked people to forgive me. I'm just human and made mistakes like that," Hinn says." - Charisma News

In 1990, Benny prophesied that Fidel Castro would die sometime in the new decade. He gave himself a ten-year window to be considered "accurate." It was a good gamble as Castro's health was always reported as being poor. Despite the ten-year window, Hinn missed by another 16 years. This is not a "miss" or a "mishear." This is what is known as a lie. Once Hinn was exposed as false here, that should have ended his prophetic career, but he would continue for the next 20 plus years to pretend he was hearing from God. Again, the narrative that he was just a flawed human making mistakes is ridiculous. He built his false ministry upon these false prophecies to the tune of 50 million dollars. The crass glossing over of lying to people about what God was promising for them is staggering. Sure, I lied to people about what God was going to do for them but hey, who is perfect? In what world is this an acceptable defense? Of course, the fake journalist Strang did not bother to point any of this out.

"Hinn says his imperfections are bound to catch up to him again, and for him and for all of us, it will not be until we are with Jesus that we will know what it is to be perfect. "It's sad when people focus on the times you missed it," Hinn says. Hinn's second biggest regret involves preaching prosperity gospel. He says when he first started off, he was pressured down a direction he never should have ventured toward. "When I started in ministry, it was simple. And then the ministry grew. I was invited to go to what they call praise-a-thons. And I think that's when my troubles began," Hinn says. Hinn recounts that in 2019 he no longer wanted to be part of the "gimmick" of prosperity-based circles. "Sadly, I let pressure get to me. And because of that pressure, I said things and did things I should not have done. And for that, really, I am sorry," Hinn says." - Charisma News

Again, the downplaying of the scope of Hinn's falseness is the point here. It is sad when people focus on what you missed? You missed EVERYTHING Benny. Even this blaming of praise-a-thons on other people is so wildly unbelievable. If all Hinn did was appear on some of these in the 90s that would be one thing, but this became the core feature of his own ministry, under pressure from no one. Even after the 2019 fake repentance, Hinn would continue to use his flock fleecing techniques. He never repented of it. I also do not want to lose sight of the over-arching point, which is that it is real easy to decide to feel bad after you have robbed people of 50 million dollars. Hinn seems much more contrite for how his legacy has worked out than what he has actually done. Everything is ether someone else's false or just a mistake that he now humbly asks for forgiveness for. C'mon.

"Hinn claims that he is trying his absolute best to stay as centered on the gospel as he can even when it comes to raising funds for ministry. "Right now, my focus is the Lord, and only the Lord. And if of course there will be the time when I may have to raise funds for our ministry, I will do it as biblically as I know how, and balanced," Hinn says. "The heart of prosperity has to be the gospel through biblical prosperity. And that is what I will do and strive to do for the rest of my life," Hinn says." - Charisma News

Aww, paint me skeptical but this rings quite hollow. In one interview Hinn tried to dismiss forty years of absolute reprehensible spiritual manipulation. Even in the midst of the crocodile tears about how much he just wants to be accepted by Christ, he again says that of course he will have to continue to raise funds for his fake ministry efforts. Whatever. So, in an attempt to rehabilitate his far gone image, Hinn admits he has been a false prophet, admits he has been unscrupulous in raising money yet still thinks it is ok to just raise the money differently and solider on. No beloved. Do not by the snake oil this salesman and Strang are trying to fleece you with. Benny Hinn is and always has been a wolf. Maybe if he made efforts to give half his wealth to the poor and pay back those he defrauded fourfold, we might have a starting point to discuss contrition and repentance. Short of that we just have a man seeing the end is near and trying to pretend the last forty years were not as bad as the public record says and that he is really sorry as he continues to do the same ministry efforts. Mark and avoid beloved. Mark and avoid.

Reverend Anthony Wade - May 8, 2024

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.