I don’t want to start a new thread, { Perhaps Luke could rename this thread as “False teachers” or similar } so - as Benny Hinn has already been mentioned - I am linking here to an astounding article from “The Wittenburg Door” written in May 2008. It makes frightening reading - but here goes :
http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/why-benny-hinn-became-our-wacky-neighbor
Why Benny Hinn Became Our Wacky Neighbor By John Bloom 20/5/2008
................. “All we want is for Benny Hinn to make good on promises he made to me in 1993,” says Ole Anthony, president of the Christian watchdog organization. “He promised he would stop airing fake healings, that he would medically verify all healings, that he would wait six months after the healing before putting it on TV, to make sure it was authentic. He said he would do all these things, and he’s done none of them. It would also be nice if he would submit himself to a real theologian for examination. Some of his teachings are off the scale, even bordering on necromancy.”
What the heck is Benny Hinn doing in Dallas?
It’s weird. It was weird when he announced he was moving to Dallas in 1999, pretty much abandoning his church congregation in Florida. It was weirder still when he announced that God had ordered him to build a $30 million World Healing Center in Irving, making it sound like a combination theme park and New Age miracle spa. The way he laid it out, it would be a sort of shrine to famous faith healers of the past, complete with “stereophonic statue gardens,” as well as a Holy Ghost Mayo Clinic for the halt, the lame and the afflicted. I had visions of wheelchair-bound hordes being lifted off jumbo jets at DFW Airport and convoying their way over to Las Colinas, like pilgrims pouring into a Disneyworld version of Lourdes. Isn’t this the kind of thing that belongs in Tulsa?
Fortunately, God changed his mind in the summer of 2002 and told Hinn not to build the healing center after all, even though he had spent two years collecting donations for it. (God was apparently vague about what Hinn should do with the money. The county tax assessor was less vague, telling Hinn it was unlikely that his tax exemption would survive theme-park ownership.) Hinn said it was just a timing matter. God wants the healing center, but he didn’t want it right then. (Since the only other building the Almighty is known to have ordered is the Temple at Jerusalem, maybe He’s just unimpressed with Irving.) Hinn finally said he would keep his headquarters in Dallas because the central location saves him money…......
And then there’s this incredible claim :
.....But there’s an even darker side to Hinn and his organization. In 1998 two members of his inner circle died of heroin overdoses. In 1999, after one of his many vows of reform, he fired several board members and hired an ex-cop named Mario C. Licciardello to do an internal investigation of his ministry. Licciardello was the brother of Carman, who is sort of the Engelbert Humperdinck of Christian singers, so many think Hinn considered him “safe.” But Licciardello did such a good job—taking hundreds of depositions and getting to the bottom of the heroin use—that Hinn then sued him. While Licciardello was still his head of security, Hinn’s organization filed a lawsuit demanding that all his files be turned over and sealed, because their public release could result in the end of the ministry. Licciardello was a police investigator with 25 years of experience, and he felt like his whole career was being smeared, so he fought back with his own lawyers. His counsel continually tried to take Hinn’s deposition, but Hinn fought him at every step. The judge, however, ruled against him and said that, if Hinn intended to enjoin Licciardello, he would have to make himself available for questioning.
On the very day that Hinn was supposed to give his deposition in the case, Licciardello had a mysterious heart attack and died. The Hinn organization made an out-of-court settlement with Licciardello’s widow, which included sealing the court papers.
The U.S. Attorney in Orlando had seated a secret Grand Jury to investigate Hinn; but Licciardello was the chief witness. After his death, Hinn was no-billed…..
Here’s more eye boggling stuff :
..... Hinn runs the largest evangelistic organization in the world that is not a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. That means his finances are private, his salary is secret, and his income is anybody’s guess. Royalties from his books alone are estimated at $500,000 per year, but he essentially has carte blanche to take anything out of the till he wants. “He lives the lifestyle of a billionaire,” says Ole Anthony, “all on the backs of false promises and selling false hope.”
As Hinn put it himself, in a moment of rare revelatory candor, “I don’t need gold in heaven, I gotta have it now.”
During 1993, his one year of “reform,” he talked about being stung by being portrayed as a millionaire and how he wanted to be “more Christ-like.” His solution: “The Lord said sell the Benz and the watch.”
He got rid of his Rolex and his Mercedes. Notice he didn’t give them away. He sold them—and then replaced the Mercedes with a $65,000 BMW. This is what God told him to do. And who better to know what God wants, because Hinn, after all, is only the third person in the history of the universe to have actually seen God and lived to tell about it. God, he says, is 6-2 or 6-3, with long hair of a light brown color, and eyes that can look right through you…..
Interestingly I see that Koorong still lists a lot of his books and CDs - including ( a total of ) over 300 copies of his latest title being available among all their stores.
However, you can also ask them to order in the only listed title critical of Hinn ( that I could see ) - “The Confusing World Of Benny Hinn” - which might take 11 to 13 weeks to special order. [ However, you can receive it in about a week from Amazon for just $US7 + postage. ] The forward to this book includes :
“All over the world, record-breaking crowds of up to a million eager seekers after the miraculous gather expectantly to witness the open display of supernatural power which Benny Hinn pretends to have at his command. ... His devastating effect upon gullible believers who are easily led astray, is more than sufficient reason for the authors of this book to present us with the terrible truth about Benny Hinn,” writes Dave Hunt in the forward of Personal Freedom Outreach’s revised, expanded and updated volume on faith healer Benny Hinn.
Whatever happened to “discernment” by “Christian” booksellers - and ‘everyday’ Christians too for that matter ?
RSS Feed