by Joseph Chambers
The Charismatic world has been full of the false from its inception. Being a Classical Pentecostal for fifty-six years has given me the privilege and heartache of watching this development. While no great movement of God goes without attacks from within and without, the Pentecostal revival that started in 1906 has touched tens of millions around the world. The Charismatic deception was planned by the enemy, Lucifer, to infiltrate and destroy the Pentecostal churches. It has almost totally accomplished that for which it was intended. It is an unquestionable fact that good, undiscerning, born-again believers have been unwittingly involved.
Three things that were a part of its inception were based on utterly false premises. Doctrines, the established heart of fundamental truth, were ignored and even belittled. It didn’t matter if you were Roman Catholic in doctrine, even Jesus Only, Mormon, or held any other theological position. Every doctrinal idea was accepted as being equal. Bible doctrine was out, but the gifts of a spirit were central. Kathryn Kuhlman1 and Aimee Semple MacPherson2 were stars to them and embodied the heart of the movement. When the whole Word of God is not supreme, the true Holy Spirit is not welcome.
Speaking in an ecstatic tongue or utterance was centre stage. This presumed gift was at the heart of the movement and quickly became the door that everyone had to enter. The very idea of ecstatic speech was reduced to a gibberish trick. People were helped along the way by being told to just start forming sounds and they would turn into the gift. “Repeat after me” was a totally acceptable teaching tool. The utterance quickly developed into chants that the crowds did in concert. I actually walked out of such events with an eerie feeling of evil in the air. Please understand that I believe in the real nine gifts or manifestations of the Holy Spirit, but I do not tolerate the false.
The third false foundation of this movement was an utter rejection of a separated life. Many of the main movers and shakers hated the holiness heart of the Pentecostal churches. The great truth of sanctification and godly separation from the worldly life has been the rock solid roots of the Pentecostal world. The Holy Spirit will not dwell or manifest His glory in an unclean temple. All of this purity and devotion to biblical standards was purposely rejected, downplayed, or downright attacked as the situation allowed. Today, the most absurd and godless lifestyle is championed and acceptable throughout the Charismatic world. Look at Todd Bentley, the present star (northern hemisphere, Spring 2008), with his tattoos and the rings in his face, along with an entire abuse of decency to see how far the purity of life has been denigrated.3
Those three main characteristics have been allowed and promoted until we now have this ultimate trickster, who claims himself a prophet of God. Todd Bentley is so absurd that the only way he could be accepted is by the thirty plus years of conditioning. He is grotesque and diabolical. His departure from even basic truth and cultural norms leaves the wise despairing at such insanity.
Can you imagine a prophet of the true Jehovah God who is almost totally covered in tattoos which his “god” told him to get? He has rings in his ears and on his chin. As he prays for people, his main words are, “Bam, Bam, Bam.” The results are ecstatic, bodily motions that range from sexual gyrating to insane stupors. This spirit does not make you wise; it makes you unwise.
There is only one thing that ties this false prophet to the kingdom of God. He represents every false doctrine, emotion, and action that I and others have elsewhere documented in the false invasion of the Charismatic world. Some of his actions go back before the Charismatic period when it was all called Pentecostal. (Please do not confuse this with Classical Pentecostals.) Mr Bentley is a kind of culmination of every false doctrine or idea that has plagued the Pentecostal people and their churches.
When Pentecostal churches—Church of God, Pentecostal Holiness, and the Assemblies of God, etc—were solidly rooted in Holy Scripture, and men such as Todd Bentley and the persons he is emanating from came along, they were almost totally immediately rejected and exposed. They were usually reduced to a small crowd or totally removed from the organization. That day has changed as the Charismatic world has influenced the formerly great Pentecostal organizations.
We will try to look at key persons and the doctrines they reflected that are now manifest in Todd Bentley. I will not go all the way back to Azusa Street in 1906 because I am not a historian and would need hours of research to do justice to this argument. Let’s start with William Branham, one of the biggest names connected with deception and error. His meetings were attended with great signs and wonders, which he attributed to his angel who gave him his power. He was a Jesus Only proponent that called the Trinitarian truth a doctrine of the devil. Todd Bentley is apparently claiming that the same angel, who accompanied William Branham, helps him and performs miracles with him.
The name Todd has given this female angel is Emma. First, there are no female angels in Holy Scripture. Angels were created before men and women, and the female gender has no place in the angelic world. The fact that women are helpmates for man is plainly stated in the Holy Bible. The name Emma is associated with many dark occultic movements and presents its own false realm. A little research will take you into a world of much confusion connected to her name. She certainly has no kinship to the work of Christ and His kingdom. Emma, if she even exists, is a fallen angel or a nephilim spirit.
Evangelist A.A. Allen (1911–1970) also has a place in Todd’s theology. I watched a short segment of Mr Bentley, where a woman was standing before him showing him the oil in the palms of her hands. He clearly accepted this manifestation as coming from the presence of the anointing in the meeting. A.A. Allen was fairly big during the forties and fifties, but slowly fell into disrepute. He was the first false prophet that I remember hearing about when I was converted to Christ as a young teenager.While the acceptance of A.A. Allen was very marginal, I do remember some sincere saints in my home church that became quite upset when I plainly stood out against the false signs he represented. I was too young to even open my mouth, but I confess that I had not learned the same. To see Todd Bentley embracing this heresy is prophetic of the coming judgment of such departure from Scripture. Satan never gets a free hand from the Creator of this universe and His infallible Word. Truth will triumph.
Paul and Jan Crouch are the two most effective of all false prophets and false prophetesses of this generation. They are not far ahead of Pat Robertson, Jim Bakker, and Benny Hinn; but win the prize by the extent of their influence. Gold dust that is claimed by Paul & Jan Crouch is also claimed by Todd Bentley. I personally watched and listened to a video in which Paul explained to Benny Hinn the source of the gold falling on his garments and that of Benny Hinn. Paul claimed that the doorway into the Golden City of New Jerusalem or some part of Heaven had been left ajar. The dust had fallen out of the door and floated down on these two men. Until my Father removes the second heavens between heaven and earth, that’s a long way for gold dust to fall (a few million light years).
Benny Hinn is going to need to upgrade his techniques because Todd Bentley is stealing them. The demonstrations of Mr Bentley are very similar to Benny Hinn. They both are ready to send fire on people, which they claim is an anointing of God.Above all of the false prophets, there is none that has gone so far from truth as Rick Joyner. He claims that he goes to Heaven and talks with Paul the apostle. He is best described as a strange astronomical traveller. When Rick met Paul on his alleged first trip, he told the apostle what a delight it was to meet him. The great apostle supposedly rebuked Rick Joyner saying it was his pleasure, not Rick Joyner’s.
Todd Bentley cannot allow any one of the past greats in the false realm to be more famous than him. Read carefully as he really tells a fantasy tale about one of his trips into the same heavenly realm,
…. I actually saw the Apostle Paul come walking toward me onto the bridge. … He was short, not more than 5’1” or 5’2”. He was bald except for a little crown of hair that came around his head. Looking very Jewish with a short, trimmed, white beard, my first thought was of a monk in a monastery! He actually had jolly cheeks and I thought: Paul you’ve got a little weight on you! I mean he wasn’t fat but he looked a little pudgy! He sat next to me and he took his hand and placed it across my chest not saying anything. But I felt like I was receiving an apostolic blessing from a father. While he touched my chest, Abraham and David appeared out of the cloud of witnesses. Although they were very close (and yet somehow at a distance), they weren’t the main focus. They were simply there as witnesses to an encounter. Next, Paul spoke to me without words spirit to spirit. I never heard one word but I had instant knowledge of what he was saying. He said that David and Abraham are true fathers— ‘These are the apostolic fathers’—and I thought to myself: Why Abraham and David? He answered me by saying that there would be no gospel without Abraham. As I just stated, Paul told me that essentially there would be no gospel and there would be no Israel without Abraham. He said too, that there would be no gospel without David because there would be no divine Son of David in order for the kingdom and His throne to be built upon the throne of David.
Next, I was at Paul’s house and he said to eat the Book of Titus! What’s more, several days later I was taken back into heaven to Paul’s house! But this time I didn’t go inside. I stayed outside where I saw a lad¬der in his back yard like the one described in Genesis 28, Jacob’s ladder. [I’ve come to understand that there are ladders like that in heaven in order to ascend and descend into different realms because heaven has places, geographical places. For example, the first heaven is where we live on the earth; the second heaven is the invisible realm of Ephesians 6:12; and the third heaven where I was with Paul, is the Para¬dise of God.] So I jumped onto the ladder and began to climb up into another realm. I saw around me that it was all clouds so I began to pull those clouds back. As I did, a hole opened up in the heavens. Immedi¬ately then, out of heaven, flowed the colour green, not just a light; it was like a green liquid and it was pouring onto my eyes! When I asked God about this, He said, ‘You are coming into the throne room; you are beneath the sea of glass; there is a rainbow around the throne. It’s not just above the throne; it’s a circle around the throne, a rainbow, emerald, green in colour.’” An excerpt from www.patholliday.com website
If this does not show the insanity of this man, I am helpless to teach you the truth.
We could continue to show a connection to the Kansas City Prophets, Bob Jones, Mike Bickle, Paul Cain, or Ruth Heflin.Todd Bentley is a culmination of an endless list of false teachers and prophets/prophetesses. Kathryn Kuhlman started an ecumenical movement, but at least stayed in the broad context of the Judeo-Christian faith. The final end of all of this abuse of truth and the Pentecostal people is to add the occult realm to the mix. Todd Bentley is mixing the entire realm of the underworld with his version of revival.
I personally believe that the end of what we call the Charismatic movement is at hand. There certainly will follow echoes of all that is happening, but the Father has never allowed the devil to have the last word. The devil and his servants will be put in their proper place. At every point of history from Genesis to Revelation, our Heavenly Father has appeared to put it all in perspective. In the Book of Revelation the great God saw this day coming and announced His plan:
Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. Because you have kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth (Revelation 3:9-10).
Please notice that this appears to happen right before the Rapture. The religious facade will be accountable to truth. The remnant saints, who refuse to bow or bend, will be acknowledged by this unholy mixture. No one that I have ever met can hate you quite like this Charismatic crowd. Their love is giddy sweet when they woo you and as bitter as hell when you reject them. A large number of good saints have testified of the hate and rejection they received when they refused to submit to this error. This is why the Bible-believing saints will be the great company that error will be required to face and to whom they will be required to confess their departure from truth.
The Latter Rain Will Fall
The Book of Joel and the Book of Acts give us the absolute promise that the false revival and noise of the current closing moments of the Charismatic deception is not the end. Here are Peter’s anointed words of what is yet to occur:
And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke (Acts 2:17-19).
My friends rebuild your altar. Get ready for the Holy Spirit to give the final answer to the foolishness of men. His visitation will be sweet but powerful. It will be mighty but orderly. It will be full of emotion but divine. Best of all, He will come for His saints in the midst of His visitation.
