"Revival," Deception, and a Great Fall (2 of 2)

In the previous post, I began to write about the Lakeland revivals and recent news about Todd Bentley's ministry and marriage. So far, this may seem pretty outlandish stuff to many non-Pentecostal evangelicals. And Bentley's ministry is a far cry from my own -- our hairline is about the only thing we have in common. So how is this a warning to us?

Let me suggest that it is easier to deceive American evangelicals than we might think. It does not need to be outrageous claims of healing and overwrought big-tent-revival-blaring-music experiences to be alluring. For the typical middle-class evangelical that I know, what entices and allures is more likely to be an economic system or political party. That statement is not meant to focus on the Right or the Left; the division in evangelicalism politically has been well-documented at this point and has been brought to the surface by the current presidential campaign (as shown by the blog response to Rick Warren's Civil Forum).

Or it could be a church health strategy. Witness the reality that after the Reveal study, Willow Creek decided to focus more on discipleship and teaching not because of searching the Scriptures, but because of a social science survey. Or it could be the country club mentality to church that poisons the life of so many congregations and paralyzes them in matters of outreach, compassion ministry, and missions.

As I survey the evangelical landscape, it seems to me that we are an easy people to snooker. We need to develop discernment. According to Hebrews 5:14, discernment is a sign of maturity. Putting it all together, that means that we American evangelicals on the whole are not a very mature people. We need to grow up. We need to ingest a steady diet of the Word of God, seasoned with a daily discipline of prayer, supplemented by sitting under the preaching of the Word, accompanied by the presence and power of the Spirit of God as He accompanies the Word that He breathed out.

And as a minister of the Word of God, I need to be on my guard against building personal kingdoms rather than the kingdom of God. That is the sure road to pride, and as James 4:6 reminds us, God opposes the proud. Proverbs 16:18 warns that pride is all too frequently followed by moral failure. I will not pretend to know Todd Bentley's heart. But I know the claims that he made, I see the failure of his marriage, and whether he succumbed to pride or not, the Scriptures put me on my guard.

That is how Todd Bentley's fraudulent ministry and personal failure serve to warn us. May God bring healing and reconciliation to Bentley's marriage, may He preserve us from such a fall, and may He grant us all discernment and repentance.