Evangelicals Now
<< August 2008 >>

The gospel of Todd

Every so often someone appears who manages to embody all that is wrong with popular Christianity: mindless sloganeering, an unhelpful emphasis on unusual phenomena and flawed theology.

Sadly, that person is usually embraced by a large section of the Christian community. This is true of Todd Bentley, the 32-year-old leader of Fresh Fire Ministries. With his colourful preaching and larger than life personality He is currently taking the charismatic / Pentecostal scene by storm.

Bentley’s ministry claims to be accompanied by an unusual anointing of the Holy Spirit. There are reports of prophetic words, miraculous healings, exorcisms, and financial blessings. The stage on which he ministers is regularly littered with the twitching bodies of people who are ‘slain in the Spirit’.

His fame initially grew when, in April 2008, he was invited by the pastor of Ignited Church in Lakeland, Florida, to lead a week-long ‘revival meeting’. Soon this gathering attracted such vast crowds that the meetings were transferred to a 10,000 seat building at the local airport. Bentley’s profile has been further enlarged through intensive coverage by the Christian media. God TV in particular has committed itself to broadcasting the Lakeland meetings on a nightly basis.

A church near you

Already Bentley is gaining an influence in the UK. After visiting the Florida meetings, several church leaders have ‘brought the fire back home’. Since then St. Andrew’s, Chorleywood, has seen people queuing for an hour to enter its meetings. Likewise Revival Fires church in Dudley is allegedly seeing meetings draw up to 1,000 people per night. It was also announced in June that Premier Christian Radio intends to back a project to bring team members from Fresh Fire Ministries to London.

So what are we to make of Todd Bentley and his influence? Let me highlight three areas of particular concern.

Dubious authority

While Bentley does occasionally appeal to the Bible when teaching publicly, the appeal is always superficial. It isn’t long before the Word is pushed aside in favour of bragging about some personal ‘revelation’. Anecdotes involving heavenly visions and conversations with God and Jesus pepper his messages. The impression one gets from this is that it is the experience of the speaker, not the truth of Scripture, that is true authority on spiritual matters.

Unsurprisingly, such a loose hold on the Word has led to a disturbing flexibility over doctrinal distinctives. Christianity magazine reports him as saying: ‘America and the Western world is so hungry to have more of God — we don’t care what denomination we are from. Church of England priests and French Catholic monks come here, and every other denomination — to get the fire.’

Disturbing experiences

Bentley claims to have had several experiences which will surely unsettle the discerning listener. He speaks of a personal encounter with an angel called ‘Emma’. Her ministry to Bentley allegedly resulted in the blessing of financial stability.

On another occasion he says he was transported by God to a room in heaven in which he was operated on by a team of angels. They cut open his stomach, removing his innards and then proceeded to stuff him full of strange white boxes. Out of this disturbing event Bentley claims God gave him a message for the church: God desires truth in the inward parts. Soon he will fill his people with more of that truth than ever before. As a result the church will be more effective in bringing about revival. Some critics have pointed out how such experiences are reminiscent of the testimonies given by alien abductees and occultists.

Blasphemous methodology

Finally, the rhetoric that Bentley uses in his meetings is often more reminiscent of a comic book caper than that of a meeting touched by the presence of God. Expressions such as ‘bam’ and ‘kapow’ are tossed out as he ‘slays’ people in the Spirit. He has even spoken of God the Holy Spirit inspiring him to punch, kick and jolt people as a method of curing them from illness. We may be tempted to laugh at these things because they seem so ridiculous. But consider what is being said: Bentley is claiming that the same Spirit whose fruit is gentleness and self-control is now happy to minister via acts of incited violence (Galatians 5.22-23). Surely this is nothing short of blasphemous.

Whose gospel?

The above observations should cause us to be gravely concerned about the growing influence of Bentley and his ministry. In his messages he frequently stresses the need for the church to spread the gospel. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself, of course. It’s just that in his case the gospel of God seems to have been usurped by the gospel of Todd (Galatians 1.8-9).

Steve Ridgeway