The following report has been covered extensively across the internet between the years 2001-2009. We are publishing this report from 2001 so we can refer to it in future articles and to ensure that it is not removed from the internet.
To this day, not one of the apostles in the report have apologised for their outrageous ‘apostolic and prophetic claims’ over Todd Bentley back in 2008. Specifically, two Apostles, Rick Joyner and Bill Johnson, defended Todd Bentley and attempted to restore him to ministry to save their reputations from Bentley’s godlessness.
THE 2008 RECAP
It is worth reminding people of some of the ministries that endorsed this paedophile back in 2008 at Bentley’s ‘Lakeland Apostolic Alignment Ceremony’. Such ministries included Morning Star Ministries (Joyner), Hillsong (Beacham), ICAL (Wagner), Revival Alliance (Campbell, Johnson, Ahn, Arnott, Banov) and Bethel (Johnson). These are the people who endorsed him, and refused to rebuke what others said about him on stage:
This from Bill Johnson: “We shape the course of history by partnering with you, giving honor where it’s due. You welcome the glory as well as anybody I’ve ever seen in my life. I long to learn from you in that. And I bless you and I pray with the rest of these, that the measure of glory would increase. That Moses would no longer be considered the high-water mark, where the glory shone from his face. But instead the revelation of the goodness of God would change the face of the church and that He would use your voice. He would use your grace. Your anointing to alter the face of the church before this world, that the goodness of the Lord will be seen once again.”
This from Sharon Stone: “Todd , the Spirit of God says, ‘Years from now people will look at this time. And they will recognize it as when their God showed up and created within the church a new heart,’ says the Lord…”
This from Stacey Campbell: “… the Spirit came on me and said, ‘Todd! Because you asked like very few men on the face of the earth ask to see My glory, I will begin a revival through you that will pass beyond gifts into the very heart that moves God to release gifts to His children. … Todd, I have chosen you because of your background; because of your background; because of your background, to release my nature when you release my gifts; to become a living epistle like the Word that became flesh, and people saw the glory of God.
And I will use you to father a movement that operates in such revival power, but it is coming out of the very nature and heart of God… And I feel like, Todd, that when you were twelve-years-old, and I just graduated from Baptist seminary, the Holy Spirit fell on me and He started to speak to me over and over and over again about a generation that would come on the earth that would do signs and wonders that would change society, and society would not change them. And you are a first fruits of that generation of nation-changers that will release the glory of God in all its fullness, in Jesus’ name.“
All the NAR Apostles at this event regarded Todd Bentley a New Breed, a ‘god’ in human flesh ushering in the final end-times revival. These ‘apostles’ were expecting divine manifestations through the person of Todd Bentley (and other New Breeds) to raise up ‘God’s Army’, to bring judgment and to usher in Christ’s return to judge humanity.
They understood Bentley’s Lakeland revival to be the global end-times revival. This is why Apostle Wendy Alec went so far as to say that because of this end-times revival was occurring, “Jesus said, “I am coming in person.” The King is coming in person… there will be a personal divine visitation of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ to the revival tomorrow night.” [Link]
We encourage our readers to contrast these ‘prophetic’ and ‘apostolic’ statements to the scandalous report below.
Does forgiving mean forgetting?
A faith healer comes clean on his young-offender conviction for child molestation
Todd Bentley has a confession to make. A faith healer who has attracted international attention over the past several months, Bentley presents himself as a reformed bad boy who was once jailed for 18 months for ” crimes of an assault nature” and breaking-and-entering in his hometown of Gibsons, B.C.
The truth is, his most serious crime was more heinous: the molestation of a seven-year-old boy. “They were sexual crimes,” Bentley admits. “I was involved in a sexual-assault ring. I turned around and did what had happened to me. I was assaulted too.”
“I don’t like to talk about it publicly because it would hurt [my ministry ].” he concedes. “I don’t whip it out in the newspapers or on TV because people will go ‘Whaaa?’ I’ll say ‘I was in prison, period. Let’s move on.’”
Bentley’s admission took place after he was confronted with information given to The Report following the magazine’s publication of a story (” Signs and wonders,” March 5) on his burgeoning ministry. Federal law protects young offenders by prohibiting the dissemination of any information that may identify a youth convicted of a crime, but Bentley, now 25, freely provided details of the offence. “I was 13 years old when I committed my crime,” he says. “I was jailed at 14.” (In fact, The Report has learned that Bentley molested the boy in October 1990, when Bentley was 14, and that he was sentenced in March 1991, when he was 15.)
Bentley, who is now married and is the father of three young children, stresses he has repented for his crime and has undergone three years of counselling. “There has not been and there won’t be other cases,” says the evangelical faith healer, who feels he needs no counselling to ensure he does not re-offend. “It’s something that’s dead and buried for me.”
But, in an age when the likes of Protestant televangelists and Catholic priests have been ensnared by sexual scandal, the issue is far from dead.
Denny Cline, pastor of the Albany, Oregon, Vineyard church where Bentley launched a healing revival last year, looks on him as a spiritual son and says Bentley always exhibits a godly character. Upon learning of Bentley’s molesting offence, Pastor Cline remarks, “I don’t think he told me that, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. It wouldn’t have mattered in regards to what he is doing now, and the person that he is now… If he’s paid his debt to society and God’s forgiven him of everything, then who am I to not forgive?”
On the other hand, Lieutenant Jeff Johnston, a Salvation Army pastor in Port Alberni, B.C., who used to work in Bentley’s hometown, is more skeptical. “There’s absolutely no way that I would allow my own kids to come within a million miles of anyone who had been involved in a youth sexual assault,” he says. Lieut. Johnston notes a church group tried to bring Bentley to Gibsons for a series of meetings in 1997, but the gatherings were called off after Lieut. Johnston and other pastors threatened not to allow their youth groups to attend. “It’s one thing to be forgiving, it’s another thing to be stupid,” Lieut. Johnston says. “If you, as a pastor, had someone in your church ministry who had been involved in these things and they ever re-offended, the fact that you knew and didn’t disclose it to parents, take every precaution, would be a huge liability issue.”
Forewarned is forearmed, says Canadian Alliance MP Randy White. Given the notorius recidivism of pedophile offenders, the federal government should pass the national sex-offenders registry bill he tabled April 4. Mr. White explains that police need to be able to keep track of sex offenders who enter fields such as itinerant evangelism. “It’s worse not to admit the offence from the start,” Mr. White observes. “If you hide it, ultimately someone will cross your path and expose you. It becomes twice as hard to deal with.”
Furthermore, Darrell Johnson, a professor of pastoral theology at Vancouver’s Regent College and a Presbyterian minister, says that although Bentley promises his past is “dead and buried,” his victim–and the victim’s family–are likely still suffering. The professor is also concerned that Bentley admits he has no team of pastors or counsellors to help him now. Says Prof. Johnson, “Openness, transparency and accountability would protect him, as well as the people he ministers to.”.
Source: Rick Hiebert, Does forgiving mean forgetting? A faith healer comes clean on his young-offender conviction for child molestation, Report Newsmagazine, Published April 30, 2001.
Categories: Bethel "Church", Harvest International Ministry, Hillsong, International Coalition of Apostles (ICAL), Morning Star Ministries, New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), Revival Alliance