Souls, Souls, Souls

Benny Hinn writes in his January 2007 partner letter: “As we begin a new year, I want to again remind you that the great cry of God’s heart is for SOULS, SOULS, SOULS!”

I want to again remind you that it isn’t! That’s a half-truth. As I wrote in Newsletter 35, June 2006:

“If God were interested in numbers, He’s doing a lousy job of saving the world! Most of the world is steeped in superstition, deception and false religion of all shades. And for those who think that Christians are excepted, that very supposition is evidence of their own blindness of which Jesus warned (Matt 24:4,5).

“The truth is that Jesus is not failing. He said that His Kingdom is NOT of this world (Jn 18:36). So, He is not desperate to save most people now. He is fully in control. It is part of His scheme of things to allow massive deception to engulf the majority. Paul revealed God’s mind on the matter:

“For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all (Rom 11:32).

“While Paul was referring to Israel – the people of God at that time – his words outline a major principle in God’s working with humanity.

“This principle is not understood by many preachers.” (MM Newsletter 35, p 1.)

Look at this revealing statement of God’s mind:

...And the Lord added [to the Church] daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:47).

If God were trying to save all – “SOULS, SOULS, SOULS!” – then surely He was failing!

No, He wasn’t failing. God doesn’t fail. It’s clear that HE    WASN’T TRYING TO CALL AND CONVERT ALL! Each person who was called was individually selected. That’s what Jesus said in John 6:44.

Selection – “ELECTION” as Paul wrote – is the method God employs in this age. In the Millennium it will be “SOULS, SOULS, SOULS!” But not now.

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians:

...knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God (1 Thes 1:4).

And to the Romans:

...that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him who calls (Rom 9:11).

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” (Rom 9:14,15.)

But the zealous mega-evangelist, only equipped with part truth and a compromised gospel, races off to reach everyone and anyone. If that’s all he can do, that’s fine. God foreknows what he will do, and He uses him accordingly. But ‘SOULS, SOULS, SOULS’ is a half-truth, and half-truths are lies – subtle errors, untruths. Look where this half-truth leads.

Leading To Money

To simplify the ‘cry’ of the evangelists’ letter, it is this: “God is desperate to reach all the people in the world before they die. Those we don’t reach are going to burn in agony in hell forever. So, we’ve got to get to them now! To do that I need money, and lots of it, to achieve the task. So send me your money.”

Apart from the ridiculous fallacy that people are going to burn in hell forever if they don’t hear the gospel (truth about hell is explained in Why Hell?), and the other lie that God is anxious to reach and call all people now, it leads to the next logical point of how are we going to do it (reach people)?

In Benny Hinn’s case, he has been given gifts to use in his outreach. He has followed on in the foot- steps of Kathryn Kuhlman, and in many ways has mimicked what she did by using stage performances as the means of contact. That’s his choice. Certainly he reaches millions by this method, coupled with TV. There are dangers in that.

Firstly, he is lifted up. He has become like a superstar. Secondly, it isolates him a great deal from the common man. There is insufficient interaction with ordinary people and lack of proper follow-up.

I have written a number of letters to his organisation over the years. There has never been an adequate response. He was given a dream of Jezebel in his ministry and the dangers this evil spirit poses to him. (Explained in Benny Hinn’s Dream of Jezebel.) I brought up this subject with him in writing, but my letter didn’t even reach him, because some Jezebel-infested person in his organisation made sure it didn’t get further than the shredder!

Thirdly, Benny is isolated and prevented from receiving necessary input from prophets. Prophets whom God is using – are not in his organisation, they are outside it. But he is blind to that. So, he is cut off from part of the knowledge and will of God.

Hence the problems we are mentioning.

To get back to the gist of his letter. Basically, it is asking for money. Money has become a central aspect. This becomes a dangerously false emphasis.

His letter states:

“Like Paul the apostle, we should cry, ‘That I might by all means save some’ (1 Cor 9:22). [That’s fine. Nothing wrong with that.]

“As you sow your most generous seed today to help fulfil our mission be sure to include your prayer requests. Amazing, supernatural things can happen when people come into agreement...” (See Prayer Of Agreement in The Bible Speaks, Vol 1, p 19.)

When Jesus delivered His parable of the sower sowing the seed, He was not talking about money (Matt 13). He was talking about the Word of God – God’s truth. THAT is the primary thing of greatest importance to God. THAT is what is protected by the people of God, and against which the devil and the world’s ‘sea’ come to try and destroy (Rev 12). So, to substitute God’s emphasis and give the ‘seed’ a human and carnal emphasis is almost blasphemy. If it’s deliberate, it IS blasphemy. Benny Hinn doesn’t do it deliberately. Some other evangelists do. Their motivation is to get money, for themselves, not just to spread what little they know of God’s Word.

Also strongly implied in his words above is the devilish suggestion that if you give money to Benny Hinn Ministries, you are thereby coming into agreement with them, and can expect God to perform a miracle for you. In crude terms, “Give us what we want (money), and there’s a better chance that God will give you what you want (deliverance, healing).” This is no better than the Catholic indulgences of the Dark Ages when superstition ruled big time. It’s subtle, mind you, not as blatant as the Catholic ruse – and which is how the Catholic Church became immensely wealthy, as it still is today. It has not renounced its dishonest wealth. It is still dishonest.

The ploy works, of course, otherwise these evangelists wouldn’t send out their letters with flyers asking for response, and making suggestions about monetary amounts (big amounts, they don’t want small sums that are derisory). But it’s looking to man and mammon, not to God and to Christ.

A ministry that is honestly faith-orientated does not ask for money. It asks God, and God, who holds all wealth in His hands, provides. He may not provide for big, flamboyant stage performances, but He gives you what you need to do His will.

The trouble is, all the charismatic evangelists and their organisational entourage are out of step with the will of God, and are defying Him in the way they operate. Their operations are not run on faith and truth, but humanly.

God foreknew that this compromise would take place, and He allows it because He does not remove a person’s free moral agency. He lets all the ‘big men of God’ make mistakes that He might humble them all. No one is going to enter God’s Kingdom as a high and mighty ‘evangelist’, if that term means you are lifted above others in human pride. You and I are only going to enter God’s Kingdom with the attitude and demeanour of a little child (Matt 18).

Elisha performed twice as many miracles as Elijah (he had a ‘double portion’ of God’s Spirit), and perhaps God had to let him die of sickness (2 Ki 13:14,20) for that reason – humbling (Ps 119:67, 71).

Benny Hinn’s partner letter (end of 2006) blatantly begs:

“...I have committed 2007 to be the year of ‘winning the lost at any cost’. And I am asking you more than ever to support the work of the Gospel so we might continue winning the lost at any cost around the world.”

He ends with this plea:

“Will you help me finish 2006 strong with your tax-deductible, year-end seed?”

Then he quotes Luke 6:38, which, although a highly relevant principle, should not be used as a manipulative lever to extract funds from gullible folk. Manipulation is the first ‘seed’ of the working of the evil spirit of Jezebel, about which Benny was warned in a dream. But no one who understands his dream has been able to reach him and warn him of what God means.

So he carries on performing an abomination – plying financial supporters with letters to subtly coerce them into parting with money to him. The cause might be laudable, but the method is not.

A Wrong Emphasis

Returning to what Paul said to the Romans:

...that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him who calls (Rom 9:11).

In context, Paul was addressing salvation for new believers who still had a strong works-oriented psychology – because that was the emphasis under the Old Covenant. It was what Judaism taught. He had to wean them off such an emphasis, so they realised the greater value of the Spirit. For, as Zechariah reminds us of God’s words: It is “not by [human] might nor by [financial] power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zech 4:6) that the work of God is accomplished.

However, evangelists like Benny Hinn – who relies upon God for the miracles on stage – also need to rely upon Him for their financial supply, not look to man. By asking his supporters, a reversion has taken place akin to what Paul condemned back then – a reliance upon human works.

Is that God’s fault? Let Paul answer.

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! ...“I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy” (Rom 9:14,15.)

Remember, God is NOT trying to call everyone now. If He were, Paul would never have written what he did in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29. Nor would he have said this in relation to whom He selectively calls:

Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens (Rom 9:18).

That’s not the theology that mega-evangelists promote! Theirs is SOULS, SOULS, SOULS! Do you believe the lie that if limitless funds were poured into their efforts, they could convert the whole world now? If so you are sorely deluded. God has other priorities.

There is another Work of God on earth today that is MORE important than the work of evangelism. It is Elijah’s (Mal 4:5-6) but most do not care for the work of Elijah, just as their predecessors didn’t.