On Todd Bentley and How Forgiveness Is Conducted Among the Church

I have a few things to say on this, because this issue just will not die, even though it should be laid to rest and the biblical and spiritual solution is pretty obvious.

Todd Bentley has again been found to engage in foolish behavior sexually and morally, and unfortunately, in some cases, this has only come to light YEARS after the fact.

Why are we just finding out, as a church? Attitudes that didn’t just repeat themselves years after Todd stopped with the revival in Lakeland, but years ago, and continued up until recently.

Granted, charges that are years old, if they are repented of, can be made right, and restoration and reconciliation should be made when at all possible.

The issue, however, is that, instead of repenting in accordance with the level of his influence, the majority of the charges have been denied by Todd and others, and the rest has been swept under the rug by many people that should be holding him accountable by coming clean with the scores of us that they have led, and bringing him to the place where he can seek reconciliation with those people whom he has betrayed.

And if the person is penitent when they repent, then they really need a protracted season off. In Todd’s case, I agree with Loren Sandford that that season should be permanent.

Rick Joyner and others, instead of apologizing for the way in which the matter was handled, defended the method and the majority corporate response of both Fresh Fire and MorningStar. And repeatedly, some of those people, instead of repenting to the victims and handing out olive branches, have engaged in behavior that borders on gaslighting those affirming the charges, and minimized Todd and Jessa’s sin.

The reason people don’t take the church seriously in the midst of these behaviors has little to do with how easily and readily we hand grace to the unrepentant, but rather how quickly we defend those who engage in serial predatory behavior.

Rick, Todd, and others, instead of walking in humility and repentance since 2008, and instead of leading Todd rightly to reconcile with his first wife, chose to just gloss over this nonsense, and allow Todd to run away to marry the woman with whom he cheated.

And, I hate to say this, but Rick has shirked his responsibility to embrace the fullness of the Principle of Responsibility. Todd was his responsibility. This is not about, “oh I didn’t want it and I took it because Peter Wagner implored me to do so.”

Huh-uh. Rick was responsible to father this man, and he refused that responsibility.

My ex-wife who committed adultery a number of years back, had she been in Todd’s shoes, would have likely been treated with the same cavalier attitude toward her sin and restored to ministry and credibility.

Adulterers who continue in an unrepentant and chronic pattern of behavior that is covered up in the church will fall, and the church’s insistence on covering up instead of dealing with the sin, will DRIVE PEOPLE WHO ARE LOST AWAY FROM WHAT SHOULD BE THE LIGHT IN THE COMMUNITY.

THE ISSUE is not whether or not Todd should be restored, but where should he be restored.

The answer is that Todd should be restored to G-d and his family. But not to full-time ministry.

Todd has proven that he cannot handle the responsibility of leading a ministry without chronic dalliances.

There is a difference between a person for whom sin is the exception to the rule, as it should be for Christians who move from glory to glory, and a person who accepts a low-grade chronic fever of iniquity as “just the way he was made and flawed”. The church is not looking for people with presentation and power and presence.

Rather the church is looking for people who pursue the fullness of Christ in not just His miracles, but also his command that we walk in holiness in five levels: time, land, community, birthright, and offices.

Todd’s defilement of both his community, and his offices of husband, father, and evangelist are becoming mounting proof that he is not fit to be released back into ministry UNTIL HE COMPLETELY FIXES the fullness of the mess that he has made and sits with leadership that keeps his feet to the fire.

Holiness, without which no man will see G-d.

The church is supposed to judge (meaning decide) concerning cases of its own who predate young men and women. The substantiated charges of predation are charges up with which we will not put.

My generation is flat-out freaking sick with Hophni and Phineas preaching behind the pulpit and screwing at the door of the tent of the L-rd, making a mockery of the grace that is handed to us by embracing the hypocrisy against which the Son of G-d railed.

The issue with the Pharisees was not their legalism as much as it was their hypocrisy.

This is not about slamming the kingdom in Todd’s face.

Rather it is about dealing with the crutch of false legitimacy that Todd has constructed for himself. That legitimacy crutch is his own ministry and following that legitimizes him.

He is not legitimate because people want to be near him and follow him.

As a card-carrying Exhorter, Todd has got to learn and embrace the Reality of the Principle for the Exhorter instead of embracing the stronghold of denial that is causing him to self-destruct.

Pain and Suffering.

Sowing and Reaping.

Reality.

The other crutch that Todd plainly carries is a crutch that forces him to walk with an ungodly limp: an uncrucified sexuality.

EUNUCHS THAT DAMAGE THE BODY OF CHRIST

On a eeriely-related note, there was a prophetic word release in MorningStar that the ministry that occupied the old PTL property would be a spiritual eunuch that was incapable of bringing harm to the Bride of Christ.

I am sorry, but that word is crap.

Eunuchs (royal servants that are castrated) can still do harm to women…

If they use implements other than their removed manhood.

And further, we have an issue with the fact that leaders in the Charismatic Movement restored this man to a position of leadership in the Church without seeing him first restored to his family (including his first wife) with a crucified sexuality and robust contrition, the way King David repented.

That the man fornicated and ran away with his mistress and married her, and was subsequently restored to ministry responsibility without so much as a public dismissal because of that sin added on top of his other sins, demonstrates a lack of sound judgment on the part of a number of men.

My friend, Loren Sandford writes:

This video I made has caused quite a stir. The overwhelming majority have responded positively while some few have accused me of rushing to judgment or being accusatory, as if the facts were somehow in question. I will say simply that I am now privy to firsthand information via someone who was in our church youth group a number of years ago. This person was an intern with Todd Bentley’s ministry and saw the inappropriate sexually charged texts sent by Todd to at least one female intern. That female intern left Todd’s organization over these advances, as did the one who saw the texts. From other research I’ve done, it seems clear that a culture of compromise and immorality surrounds Todd. So I’m reposting this video. Leaders are called to a higher standard, to be above reproach.
I Timothy 3:2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
3:3 not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.
Some have complained about making all this public, airing our dirty laundry openly. So here’s another applicable passage of Scripture: I Timothy 5:19 Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses.
5:20 Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.
I rest my case…. Holiness matters, especially in leadership.
https://youtu.be/b2ZCv6ofZAE

Our responsibility, tribe, is to define restoration specifically in terms of our relationship to G-d and fellow man.

Not to the sacred cow of ministry.

It is time to call these ministries that will not hold our ministers accountable to a place of moral responsibility.

THE LAND SPEAKS

When I was in the process of picking up a friend and found out about this debacle, I was on the land, and could not explain why, but the land on which Fresh Fire Ministries is located was writhing in both pain and revulsion. That land has, as long as I have known it, has always been discomforting to be on.

Now I understand.

This is a situation where the land is independently giving us a clue that deep land work has not been done. The land vomited Jim Bakker out of it. And I am willing to bet money that no one did thorough work in order to address the pain that the land has been in for years.

Our job, gang, is to deal with the iniquity, not just from a corporate standpoint, but also from the standpoint of what the L-rd wants to do in bringing deep life and healing to the land.

2 Chronicles 7:14 is clear. The LAND is what will get healed when we turn from wickedness.

And wickedness is not the predisposition of a believer.

Wickedness is a choice.

And the Fourth Principle applies here.

Be not deceived…..

G-d is not mocked….

Whatsoever a man sows, that also shall he reap.

And harvest time is drawing near.

It is time to walk more cleanly and way more above board with those whom we lead.

And it is time to embrace the fullness of what repentance and the Fear of the L-rd means.

Jim Bakker had this rightly when he repented and was restored, a process that Rick Joyner had a hand in.

Jim said that he never stopped loving G-d, but he did stop fearing Him.

There is the issue of us embracing more of the reverential fear of the L-rd that keeps us in a place of safety.

Our job is twofold.

To love Him and to fear him.

The Love of G-d may be the end of wisdom….

But the Fear of the L-rd is the beginning of that same wisdom…

Our job is to embrace both….

And predators are responsible first to G-d, second to their families and their victims….

And honestly, ministry is no guarantee.

It is possible for one to lose their birthright.

And we should be fearful for Todd.

Narrow is the gate.

And it is time for us to judge rightly. And we are called to judge (to decide).

And the church needs to get on its hands and knees and repent for protecting sexual and ritualistic predators.

Enough with the ritualistic abuse from both the satanic community and the Christian community.

Purity. Reality. Responsibility.

And an actual Culture of Honor (looking at you, Redding and Fort Mill, who released this man back into ministry and called him safe) that HONORS the victims and rushes towards them.

That is the end of my rant, gang.

Thoughts to consider.

May your dreams be sweet.