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Benny Hinn’s Ministry Out of Step


Benny Hinn’s ministry – despite the miraculous things God does, because it is a frontline evangelistic ministry – is seriously out of step with God’s Word! They need to listen to the input of prophets moved by God, to move back into harmony with His plan.

Meanwhile, apostate teaching misleads people, sending them a wrong message. If you are a Benny Hinn ‘fan’, you will not accept these words. But the devil deceives with subtlety. It’s not that the whole teaching is in error, but it’s emphasis is misleading.

Here are some of the latest errors of emphasis propounded by Benny Hinn’s ministry.


Asking People For Money

Below are extracts from some of Benny Hinn’s partner letters, illustrating deep-seated problems. [My comments added at appropriate places.]

4th April 2009

Help Me Avoid Cancelling Upcoming Crusades...

...The impact of these crusades continues to spread throughout each region of the globe, and we are hearing powerful testimonies from pastors and leaders who are amazed at what is happening because of the great outpouring in these services.

To God belongs all the glory and honor for all He has done!

But while we are seeing these unprecedented spiritual victories, we face critical decisions concerning whether or not we should cancel several upcoming crusades.

I have always tried to be open with our partners and ministry friends when we have faced challenges in the past. We cannot continue going through all the open doors without your help today. That is why I am sending this urgent word and personal request...
[End of excerpt.]

It is not right to request funds from people. If you have need, you make your request to God, and God answers according to His will (Matt 6:33). The whole book of James highlights spiritual requirements that underlie God’s positive response to you.

This basic principle of trusting in God and not in man is explained in several MM publications. These are merely some of them:

Giving and Receiving, The Bible Speaks (5 vols), Guidelines For Evangelists, Witnessing For Christ, Is The Lord’s Arm Too Short? and Lessons in Faith.

The Bible is full of examples about the conflict between trusting in God and trusting in man. God exhorts us to look to Him, to trust in Him, to rely upon Him, not upon the arm of flesh. Benny Hinn trusts God for the miracles of healing, etc., so why doesn’t he trust Him for finance as He did at the beginning of his ministry?

The answer is given in MM’s book God’s Church – Whose Authority? Apostasy creeps up on you insidiously, unnoticed.


Reminding People About Money

25th April 2009

Thank you for being my partner and for all you have done (and continue to do) for this ministry. As we move toward the midpoint of 2009, you have never been more important or more appreciated for everything we do together to take the Gospel to the nations through broadcasts, crusades, and mission outreaches!

I am writing to you today to let you know that God has led us to designate May 25 a special Debt Cancellation Day of Prayer. We know that amazing things happen when God's people move into His principles of sowing and reaping, and the time of financial freedom has never been more needed.
[
End of excerpt.]

This is another reminder that he needs your money. What about teaching people about tithing, and then leaving things in the hands of God, instead of badgering people with constant reminders? ‘Partners’ complain about being bombarded with request after request, asking for money! That is not right!


Another Wrong Emphasis

2nd May 2009

We are thrilled beyond measure to announce the dedication of our new Benny Hinn Ministries Miracle Prayer Center in Jerusalem! [It’s a pity God is not thrilled!]

In this prophetic hour God is calling this ministry to a new dimension of prayer. [Oh yeah?!] The importance of intercessory prayer grows by the day [true, but God moves people to intercede]. And in response to this deeper calling we've created our Miracle Prayer Center in the Holy City.

That’s right — you’ve created it; not God!

God doesn’t need a building. He doesn’t need a place. He doesn’t need it to be in Jerusalem, or anywhere else. He just needs hearts that are in tune with Him, submissive to Him, who allow the Spirit to guide them.

My wife is an intercessor. The Spirit MOVES her. She links up to the Spirit. She doesn’t need Benny Hinn or any other person telling her when to intercede, or what to pray for – as so many ministries have a custom of doing.

When Benny Hinn, Morris Cerullo, or any other ministry draws attention to ITSELF, under the guise of praying to God by having a Prayer Centre, all they are doing is no better than the Pharisees who drew attention to themselves by their prayer practices (Matt 23:5,14).

There was a little old lady in North Korea who wore out the floorboards in her cupboard (the only place she could intercede) as she rocked back and forth praying in the Spirit. Few knew about her. There was no big fanfare. She had never heard of Benny Hinn or any other big-time evangelist. All she ‘heard’ was the prompt of the Spirit, and she responded.

THAT’S the sort of intercession that is needed! NOT the fake substitutionary counterfeit organised by man and not by the Spirit, and that requires a building in some unholy city!

It’s a pity Benny doesn’t understand how his organisation should believe and apply Jesus’ words in John 4:21-24. God’s emphasis is away from buildings, away from places, and away from everything that man relies upon in his misguided religious activity!


Should You seek God like This?

Now we come to another fallacy, based on half truth. You know, half truths can be more damaging than blatant error. They deceive so effortlessly! Most simple people can’t see through them. (And God’s people are, invariably, simple and not sapient. That’s not to demean them, because Paul reminds us that God calls the weak of this world. See 1 Cor 1:27.)

Benny Hinn is claiming that God told him to set aside a day for the cancellation of debt. He implies that if you send him some money, truly believe that God will do a miracle for you, that He will cancel your debts by your involvement on this day.

There is a common thread here with the Catholic tradition which established a day in honour of a saint. They diverted people’s attention away from God and His truth and onto the saint who ended up receiving worship and selfish prayers.

In this latest twist of truth, people’s attention is drawn away onto money / wealth – albeit very subtly. God’s truth on the subject of money is distorted by a wrong emphasis, and simplistic exaggeration. See what I mean:

9th May 2009

Dear Partner:

The time is nearing for our May 25 Debt Cancellation Day of Prayer, and it is exciting to continue to receive the many praise reports of God's move in the lives of those who decided to trust God's supernatural economy instead of the world's precarious financial situations.
[End of excerpt.]


It Sounds Good

Here is Benny Hinn’s article on this subject. It contains some good points, but equally some bad ones. It is a mixture of truth and error. It contains half truths – the mix of truth and error giving a misleading impression and wrong emphasis, just like Satan achieved when he talked to Eve in the Garden.

OK? Ready? Here is Benny’s article [my comments added at appropriate places]:

God’s Supernatural Economy

“It is amazing what God has done! I knew seed-faith giving worked, but something truly remarkable has happened recently!” (M. Brown, Corinth, Mississippi)

[Comment: You don’t hear the whole story, just enough to give the impression that what Benny is teaching is truth because ‘it works’. But our interaction with God is not according to a magic formula, but according to relationship. There are times when God’s people are meant to suffer in poverty, exemplified by the church at Smyrna which was physically impoverished; see Revelation 2:9.]

“I planted a sacrificial gift recently. What has taken place in my life is beyond anything I could have imagined!” (T. Graham, Sydney, Australia)

[Comment: I don’t discount the miraculous. God does work miracles of all kinds, including miracles of finance. We have received them ourselves. But He doesn’t do such things in every situation according to such a simplistic rule: just sow a seed of money, and reap a harvest of cash!]

“We were frankly overwhelmed... lost employment... challenges! It looked impossible to release our faith as we planted our seed toward debt cancellation, but we did it anyway. Since then, God has truly worked a series of miracles.” (B. Briscoe, Johannesburg, South Africa)

I wish I had more time and space in this e-mail to share the amazing miracle reports that continue to pour in, especially in terms of financial freedom, as we prepare for the upcoming May 25 Debt Cancellation Day of Prayer!

Lessons in God’s Supernatural Economy

The Bible has many illustrations of His financial outpouring, including the widow whose late husband had been in ministry with Elijah and Elisha. She was caught in a terrible situation of debt and lack:

Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest. (2 Kings 4:1-7, KJV.)

Elisha had replaced Elijah as the head of the school of prophets, so it was not unusual that the widow of one of the prophets-in-training would come to Elisha for help after her husband’s death. She had been left penniless. The creditors were demanding payment and were determined to take her two sons as bondsmen if she could not pay. (Mosaic Law gave creditors the right to claim children of the debtor who could not pay, and they were then forced to serve the creditors until the next year of Jubilee.)

A major financial crisis loomed for the family, and God heard the cry of the widow’s heart. Elisha never asked her for anything, nor did he receive anything from her. He was simply sent to give her a word that would change her life forever, for God saw beyond the woman’s circumstances, beyond the actual and factual.

Elisha did not focus on the widow’s bleak situation and what she did not have. Instead, he asked what she did have. God already knew what she had — a pot of oil!

Impossible circumstances call for unusual actions!

Elisha told the widow to do something that made absolutely no sense in the natural. She had only one vessel of oil, but he told her to go and borrow every container she and her sons could lay their hands on.

Imagine what the neighbors thought!

Still, she obeyed.

She was willing to do the unusual.

She had nothing to lose.

She faced an impossible situation.

And look what God did. Imagine as she poured oil into container after container until all the vessels were running over with oil! Think how her sons reacted, for those containers of oil meant that they no longer had to face a lifetime as bondsmen!

Within moments, the widow went from being penniless and facing the loss of her sons to suddenly realizing that everything had changed. She was told by Elisha to sell the oil, pay off the debts, and live on the profits! Needless to say, she wasted no time following the prophet’s instructions.

Just a pot of oil and a word from God spoken through His prophet Elisha changed everything. Her debt was canceled. She had enough and plenty left over.

Impossible Situations

What about you?

You may face dire circumstances, but what do you have in your hands that God can use to turn everything around?

That pot of oil — the only resource she had available — became her secret to success and financial breakthrough. [Do you see how the attention is subtly being diverted away from God and onto the physical?] It would have been reasonable and understandable for the widow to say, “Wait a minute! I’m certainly not going to let go of the last ounce of oil I have for a prophet when I need that oil! [That’s twisting the account. She was not asked to give Elisha any of it. Elisha didn’t ask for anything, not for one drop! But the account has been distorted to support what Benny wants.]

Even after the multiplication of oil began, she could have whined, “That’s all the vessels that I have in my house, and I’m certainly not going to embarrass myself by going around to all my neighbors to borrow pots and jars from them!”

Can you imagine if she had refused to act in faith? Instead, the woman used her vessel of oil and did the unusual to move into the unthinkable. Her faith and obedience made all the difference in the world.

That pot of oil represented her faith, [no, the pot represents her life, and the oil represents the Spirit; God’s Holy Spirit manifests in many other ways besides faith] and her act of sacrifice was the very act that shattered the grip of want and poverty forever. [No, it didn’t. There was NO act of sacrifice in this instance. Her sacrifice was prior to this – in the loss of her husband.] What she did with it changed her family, her fortune, and her future.

What do you have in your house? What do you have in your hands? If you will pour out your faith, God will use what you have. [Benny means pour out your money to him!]

The pot is not a gift, talent, or money — it is your faith. What are you doing with that faith? [No, it’s not your faith; it’s your life. What are you doing with it?!!]

Up to the point when she talked to Elisha, this widow had apparently ignored the pot of oil in her house as a life-changing resource. She was worried about the bill collectors who were going to grab her sons and place them into slavery. That is understandable as she became more frantic, but in doing so, she was ignoring the power of the Lord to perform a mighty miracle.

What about you? Are you using your faith? [This is a wrong emphasis. Faith comes from God as a gift. Does it come automatically from God to you when you give money? Not necessarily. He’s implying that if you aren’t giving Benny Hinn money, then you are not using your faith. Do you see this subtle and despicable implication?!] Releasing it? Or are you leaving it on the shelf? [Jargon such as “releasing it” is misleading. It implies that you have faith already, and so you have to give him money if you are to see that faith appear. Naturally, you want faith. All believers want faith! So, the use of such slogans manipulates you further into giving money. Would you feel guilty if you didn’t? Some gullible ‘sheep’ would, and that’s very wrong!]

What is in your house, your heart, and your hands that God can use mightily?

By expressing your faith, God will begin to multiply, for faith always fills the situation when you begin to give it away. And if you don’t use your faith, it will wither away. [This is true, but it’s twisting truth in order to give a wrong emphasis, one that releases money to him. When Peter and John gave God’s healing to the lame man (Acts 3), they didn’t ask him for one cent! That’s giving faith away! Why doesn’t Benny Hinn do that? Why doesn’t he get on his faith vehicle, stand on his faith platform, hold his faith crusade, and by faith let God’s healing go free – I’ll grant him, he does that bit – and then trust in God by faith to provide what he needs to operate?! Because he doesn’t have that sort of faith! Otherwise he wouldn’t be asking you for money. He can’t ‘release’ that faith, because he doesn’t have it. So why should he suggest that you release faith you don’t have either?! The money motive distorts everything!]

God doesn’t look at your circumstances. He doesn’t look at your talents. He doesn’t look at your gifts and natural abilities. He looks at your faith. Your faith is what pleases God. [He looks at more besides. Faith is one aspect of your spiritual character that He is interested in. He is also interested in what is in your heart; whether you are self-centred or God-centred; whether you obey Him above all else, like Abraham did. There is much Benny Hinn does NOT teach! You’ll know what I mean when you read all MM publications.]

[He implies that faith is the substance that creates miracles. It’s not; God is — notice the very subtle transition! God performs miracles, 1) according to His will; 2) in accordance with your need in relation to His will in your life. Some of Benny Hinn’s practice and teaching is OUT OF THE WILL OF GOD! To understand what I mean you will need to read other MM articles written about Benny Hinn and related matters, listed at the end.]

In fact we are told, “Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). Faith pleases God! [Indeed! That’s what Benny Hinn and his entourage need more than the money out of your pocket. But they don’t realise that.]

God’s Miracle-working Power in Your Life

Faith also moves the hand of God. [This half truth gives a very misleading emphasis.] Jesus clearly taught this: “Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matthew 17:20). [But he doesn’t explain what the mountain is in that analogy. It is an obstacle to God’s will in your life.]

Do you want to see God’s miraculous hand in your life? It is time to pour out what you have – your faith! [Further wrong emphasis. You cannot induce God to perform a miracle according to your whim. You can’t just decide YOU want to see a miracle, and think that YOU can effect it by somehow ‘exercising your faith’. Either faith is there for the miracle to occur – because God has put it in you – or it’s not.]

Today is a difficult, chaotic season as the world’s financial institutions continue to crumble, yet God desires for you to step into His supernatural economy.

As with the widow, we are being called to pour out our faith, not hide it. God wants you to put your faith into action, regardless of the uncertain circumstances surrounding you. As you act in faith, you will see results as Isaac did – from planting seed during a horrible famine to receiving a supernatural abundance – and as the widow and her sons did – pouring out the oil and watching it multiply again and again!

We keep hearing wonderful praise reports from partners and ministry friends who release their faith [by giving money to Benny Hinn Ministries] and are now seeing debts reduced and completely canceled! And I want you, too, to step into God’s supernatural economy!

Now is your time. Disregard reports of famine, destruction, lack, and hopelessness. Your situation is probably not nearly as bad as Isaac’s or the widow’s were, yet they stepped out. [Yes, but not in the way you suggest.]

Step out in faith! God cares for you so much. He hears the cry of your heart. This account of the widow and her sons shows God’s heart. He loves you so much. It is His will that you reach out in faith for all He has for you. It is His will for you to have abundance. [Why was it not God’s will, then, for Smyrna to have abundance? They weren’t out of His will! No, sorry, Benny, you are teaching heresies. Half truths can be heresies, too! If you motivate people in a wrong way, encouraging them, however subtly, to be selfish, materialistic, greedy, ambitious, covetous, or prideful, then you are misleading them and leading them into the devil’s open arms! He will steal away their spirituality.] The Lord Jesus said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

Step out with your act of faith. What is in your hands? Get the “pot of oil” out, express your faith, and then watch what God will do! [Wrong emphasis and inference. What does he mean “get the pot of oil out”? Doesn’t that sound like “get your wallet out”? Earlier he said that the pot of oil represents your faith. If that were what it is, then what if God puts faith in you to go to Zimbabwe and preach to the down-and-outs? Then you would be out of the will of God to give Benny Hinn money which you should use to fulfil God’s purpose for your ministry in Zimbabwe.]

God’s outpouring and harvest are ready to be unleashed in your life. You may feel as if you have only a little, as did the widow, but what God can do with something that is precious to you will transform your life forever!

I know that God has specifically told me to share with His people that He wants to deliver them from debt. That is why we have dedicated May 25 as a special Debt Cancellation Day of Prayer. That is why we have been offering the best financial freedom teaching [giving carnal people what they want to hear] we can provide on This Is Your Day! And that is why I am writing this e-mail to you. I want to make sure that you are a part of this upcoming day of prayer.

My debt is canceled!”

It is time we step out in faith. It’s time we start saying, “My debt is canceled!” In fact, I want you to write those words on a card or paper where you can keep them in view during the coming days. Write it in big, bold letters! Put a copy on your bathroom mirror, your office, the refrigerator, and your wallet! [That is so simplistic as to be heretical. Has he not read that Paul became poor by stepping out in faith to do God’s will in his life? All because the Corinthians did not respond as God desired. Was his problem that he didn’t write his declaration down on a piece of paper and declare it day after day? Of course not! Come now, Benny, don’t be so dishonest with the Word of God!!! Or do you have despicable ghost writers?!]

Then sow bountifully as an act of faith, knowing that God will give a bountiful harvest. Be bold. Be strong. Be courageous. Be determined.

Don’t let debt continue to be your master. Follow God’s principles for giving toward the kingdom, giving out of your need, and targeting your seed toward your debts.

Send your seed and prayer requests today. I will come into agreement [NO YOU WON’T! I explain why below] with you on May 25, agreeing that your seed will trigger the harvest for debt cancellation. And I can’t wait to hear your testimony of what God will do in the coming days!

We know it is “not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6)...

[If you truly believed that it’s not by human might or money, not by fiscal power and influence, but by God’s Spirit, you would not write such a letter or endorse it!]


Further Cajoling!

Another missive to remind you:

19th May 2009

As the hours tick away toward our May 25 Debt Cancellation Day of Prayer, I urge you to be part of this historic season!

God wants to bless believers so we can take the Gospel to the nations during these prophetic days. [Isn’t there a very subtle implication in this, that God can’t bless you unless you do as he asks? That’s manipulation.]

More than ever before, it is time to stop thinking lack and poverty. [Another manipulative suggestion – you are to blame for your poverty because you thought it. So, stop calling a spade a spade; start to talk differently and things will change for the better, just because you imagined they would. This sort of teaching will take many naive believers into deeper pits of despair, when their poverty doesn’t evaporate and their debts don’t dissipate as desired.]

The Lord Jesus promises, "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again" (Luke 6:38). [Yes, but Jesus doesn’t say it’s measured in monetary terms. God is in the business of things of the Spirit, not things of the flesh. That’s the primary emphasis, NOT material or fiscal matters, even though God does deal with those in turn (Matt 6:33).]

It's time to start thinking as God thinks. [It’s a shame you don’t think as God thinks.] God's promises are true!

Protection, abundance [spiritual abundance, NOT always physical abundance], and blessing are yours because of obedience.

It's time to break free!

There are special seasons of anointing for debt cancellation. [Again, he shouldn’t generalise the specific ways God deals with each of His children. That leads to error.] This is one of them. If you want to be part of this extraordinary season, trigger the process by releasing your faith through sowing a sacrificial seed toward the Gospel.

Release your faith as you sow a sacrificial seed! I am asking you to send that debt cancellation seed with your prayer requests in time for your seed and needs to be included in the special May 25 Debt Cancellation Day of Prayer. [And if it arrives too late? Does that mean you can’t receive God’s blessing at that time? By such an implied suggestion, Benny Hinn is playing God, Who has the times and seasons in HIS hands, not Benny Hinn’s!]

Prayer warriors around the world are joining with me to agree with you for a mighty outpouring of miracles on that day! [Oh yeah? So you think you can twist God’s arm?! This is presumptuous and blasphemous in its insinuations.]

It's time to break free from the bondage you have been under. But it will take a sacrificial gift to trigger your debt cancellation harvest. Pray and give what God is directing you to give sacrificially.

Declare "My debt is canceled!"

Click below to send your seed and prayer requests today. I will come into agreement with you on May 25 that your seed will trigger the harvest for debt cancellation. And I look forward to hearing your testimony of what God does in the coming days!

We know it is "not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts" (Zechariah 4:6)... [End.]

Benny Hinn is clearly deceived by this teaching. He doesn’t deceive others deliberately. He has been misled by false teachers who believe these half truths. The charismatic church is full of charlatans who have merchandised God’s Word!


Truth On Prayer of Agreement

One of Jesus' most commonly misused promises is this: If two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven (Matt 18:19).

Charismatic ministries customarily send out letters encouraging their supporters to donate finance, and at the same time, to send in written prayer requests on reply coupons. The evangelist later prays over them (often in a public ceremony on TV), ostensibly 'agreeing' with every request. The outcome is, supposedly, that God answers the requests.

This is all a farce! How can the evangelist possibly agree with thousands of prayer requests he has not had time to read? And, if he hasn't read them – and therefore can't know whether he agrees with them – his 'prayer' is merely for show, a vain performance! What if some requests are blatantly unbiblical? Should he be saying 'Amen' to what he should never sanction or agree with? Would he be held accountable in the Day of Judgement for these words if they are not righteous?

To anyone with any sense, this practice of praying over a mountain of thousands of written prayer requests is dishonest as well as farcical.

More seriously, what if the prayer request offer is a clever ruse to persuade the respondent to part with money? Like the Catholic Church did regarding 'indulgences'? (Popes would claim that they could rescind penalties for sin upon payment. They had a 'price list' for various sins. The worse the sin was considered to be, the greater the price of the indulgence. The practice was outrageously blasphemous.)

Even if the TV evangelist has no deliberate ploy to extract money from people, is there still a hidden agenda, subtly implied? One which links the giving of money to the promise of answering people's prayers?

I would suggest to any TV evangelist, who follows this tradition, to cease this practice immediately. Apart from the above considerations, Jesus never meant His words to be abused so.

Jesus was talking, in context, about internal disciplinary matters in the congregation, to restore harmony in order to be sanctified. Where two had previously fallen out after one had sinned against another, unity could be restored by following the procedure Jesus advised, and if necessary by presenting the facts before the whole church (Matt 18:15-17). In such a situation, where people can be reconciled and forgiveness shared, the prayer of agreement in the church finalises the reconciliation, which Jesus assures He will honour in heaven, even if only two people pray. Thus, the whole assembly is protected from satanic attack that can enter through disharmony.

Remember Jesus' words:

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained (Jn 20:23).

The prayer of agreement concerns spiritual discipline, not getting what you want from God.

(From The Bible Speaks, Vol 1.)  Malcolm B Heap
 

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