What do you think of Benny Hinn,Joyce Meyer, and Joel Osteen Ministries? (page 5)

The only one of them I ever watched was Benny Hill. Of course, he has gone to the great burlesque show in the sky, but he was definitely inspired. I can still hear that music with the sped up chases of half naked girls. Praise be! Glory, Glory!

Sasha

I agree with Brother Apostate...The trouble lies with ORGANIZED RELIGION!

reneeisorym

Story of someone who started studying with a Jehovah's Witness and they both ended up leaving what they thought was "the truth."

When I was 12 years old my parents took me to a church function, where a then twenty something year old Benny Hinn spoke to a crowd of about 1200 in a very enthusiastic way. It was touted as a healing service weeks before we got there. My father was the one whose beliefs had a bent towards believing this. My mother was a skeptic. There was excitement in the air as we arrived; the tone was set for something big. Benny Hinn claimed to be able to hear God's voice, and those voices told him what sicknesses people had and were being healed of in the audience.
He called out diseases one by one saying; "someone in the room has just been healed of cancer." and another "the Lord just told me someone is healed of Asthma" and on and on. But on this night, when he said someone was being healed of Asthma, he also said that this person is "feeling a warmth all over your body."
My mother, who had asthma for many years and had been on her deathbed with Asthma only 6 months prior to this, told my father she felt the warmth. Benny Hinn then said that anyone who felt the warmth should come up to the stage quickly. My mother had no intention of going up, but my father being a believer encouraged her to go up to the stage. She finally did. All of the people in front of her in the long line were going up to Benny Hinn and falling to the ground when he would touch them. They were essentially fainting.
My mother wanted no part of it and wanted to go back to her seat. But she stayed in her position by the stage out of peer pressure. She was saying to herself, there is no way I am going to fall when this man touches me. She claims she did not believe it for a second. Much to her surprise, she approached him and as he waved his hand at her, she fell to the floor, out cold. Benny Hinn had his helpers pick her up, and repeated this process as she fell twice more. This went on for about 7-8 minutes, as I recall.
A significant aspect to this event is that she never again had Asthma.
To go from a person in and out of the hospital twice a year, to a person who never again got sick was all the proof I needed that this was in truth, and harmony with Gods word.
Also, at this meeting in no uncertain terms, Benny Hinn said that he felt, through the Holy Spirit that the end would come within 2 years of that date.
Fast forward to 21 years of age: It was not that I didn’t read the bible, I did. I merely never questioned any of what I had seen in a critical light using Gods word. I thought; it is obvious that God is using this man in this way to heal people. Why would I even consider challenging such a person, and who am I to question since I can heal no one.
I attended this same church off and on for many years (1980-1991) with large gaps of time where I did not attend. By the time I was 21; I had tried my hand at living in the world and had seen how cruel it could be. I had as many friends as I could want and more than enough girlfriends. Still, I was lonely inside myself and knew something was missing. I decided at the age of 21 after contemplating suicide that I would just give up my self-centered-life, and live it for the God of the bible. I knew I had to forsake the world and put all my worldly friends and influences aside. I did all this.
I began by attending a Baptist church around the corner from my house, as I knew the pastor. He was a neighbor of my mother and father, and he was a very kind person who treated his children very well. I would see him devoting his time to them in his front yard, playing games and the like. I was not there 6 months when I felt I should go back to the church I was raised in.
I’m sure there were human reasons for my return to the church of my youth; friends, familiarity, etc However, the reason I thought I was going back is because they had the teachings that were the closest to the bible. How did I know they did? They in so many words told me they did, and many in this group looked down on the likes of Baptists for not being spiritual enough. The major difference being that the Pentecostal church I attended believed in tongues and the gift of prophesy for our modern day, etc
Many of the people of the Pentecostal church were the best that mankind has to offer.
One woman I knew would give the shirt off her back at all times to anyone she could.
She spent many, many hours in prayer with us, both she and her husband. There was constant discussion of seeing angels and demons while at their house, and how we are in a spiritual fight, not one of flesh and blood. (Eph. 6:12 was used to validate all this)
After attending bible study/prayer sessions at her house, I started to realize that the church I had grown up in was just not spiritual enough. None of the sermons were on battling these spiritual forces, at least not in a tangible and user-friendly way. I felt I had to press on to find this higher spiritual awareness in another church, as it was apparent that the bible taught these things. And seeing that the times were just getting more evil, we believed the end was very near and we needed to shelter ourselves with the spiritual armor found in Eph. 6.
When I was at home, I would not watch programming of the world on the television. There were few options, so I watched The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). Every day I could, I would watch Benny Hinn on this station. The miracles I saw him perform, like that of my mothers those years ago were still happening, and now it was for the world to see on TV.
Being that Benny Hinn’s church was in Orlando FL, I decided to start attending his church. It offered all the spiritual discussion from the bible I was looking for. Plus, every Sunday night was a healing service. My brother and I would make the trek every other week, although sometimes we did drive up twice weekly from Palm Beach (2 hour drive each way).
Certainly this was the place we could be closest to God and his blessings. We were told that Jesus himself showed his face on the inside wall of the sanctuary at Benny Hinn’s church and that he had it on video.
Looking back now I wish I had asked for a copy. Only I trusted blindly that it was so, so there was no need for confirmation at that time. This did nothing but increase my faith that I was in the right organization. On one New Years Eve we decided to go to his special annual church service as this was the day that Gods Holy Spirit would rest upon Benny Hinn with the gift of prophesy.
He sat down in a big chair, as I recall. He acted as if the Holy Spirit was physically entering his body as he sat there in silence. He wiggled from side to side in the chair and moved his head around with his eyes closed. This all done in complete silence except for the sound of him exhaling in a demonstrative way. He wiped the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief. All this was done to presumably show that the Holy Spirit was in him in such a way that was visible. No doubt with the good intention of increasing the faith of all who were in the room, probably about 3,500-4,000 people.
In this special service Benny Hinn proceeded to tell us through prophecy, by the power
of the Holy Spirit that he saw a vision of Fidel Castro dying within the year, and the Soviet Union (which had only just fallen apart) closing its doors again to all missionary work within 2 years. Don’t forget that this was God speaking through him, and it was not to be questioned. He was no doubt acting as a channel for God at this time (so we thought).
I bought all of his various teachings on audiocassette. I used to listen to these tapes every single day while at work. This was an all day, every day practice for some time. I decided to thoroughly indoctrinate myself with all things Benny Hinn, as he was the closest person to God I had ever known of. How did I know this? He told us. He constantly made reference to the fact that he spent up to 12 hours per day in prayer for years, and that this is why he had been given these gifts. Who were we to question?
He had no use for scholars. He called the Seminary "Cemetery". There was not an orthodox bone in his body. Whatever he claimed the bible said, stood in his own mind as fact, because God had not raised up his equal in the world of healers (presumably).
Now one would think that having found all this truth about God and his servants would cause me to stay loyal to my faith in God, and his obvious true church. It did not. I mean here was a group that was in unity, we all could see clearly in the bible that healing was on its pages. They even fell in the story of the bible where Jesus was approached in the garden to be taken away. (Read this account, it happened). This was proof that people should fall down. See, there it is right there in the bible.
As I stated, having all this did not keep me close to God. I soon fell into sin with a woman and fell away from the church and God. I had resolved many years before this that I would only attend church at times in my life when I was following it. I remember having conversations with my father at the age of 14-15 about the hypocrisy that was so evident amongst the churches. Not that all were hypocrites, but that there were some none-the-less.
So I left the church in sin, knowing I had the truth, but knowing I could not worship God in his house while I was in sin. I would argue with people on doctrine from time to time over the next few years, as I knew the truth, but didn’t live by it (felt I couldn’t). I felt sorry for these people who were giving it an honest go, but had so very little accurate knowledge. I had to give them truth and so I did. All the while telling them upfront that I was in sin and this was only head knowledge for me at the present time.
Nearly 5 years later I was living in Charlotte, NC. I started studying the bible with a friend. She and I decided we would use the bible only. She came with her doctrinal baggage, as did I. Not knowing this, I was determined to prove to her from the bible all I knew, and she was just as determined to prove to me her beliefs. Previous to this study I had spent nearly 4 years away from religious or spiritual talk, my head was no longer as clear as to what the bible said, having been away from the constant indoctrination.
A short time after we started our study, while driving my car, I decided to turn the radio to a Christian station. There was a program called The Bible Answer Man. On that program is a Christian Apologist (Hank Hanagraaf), a man who I found is not afraid to topple any group or belief not in line with Gods word.
I listened to him quit a lot and found myself agreeing with him virtually across the board.
That is until a couple of months after listening to him, he brought up Benny Hinn. I listened, as I knew he had been correct about so many things. As I heard him speak about Hinn, I became so furious I turned the radio off and told my friend I would no longer be able to listen to this Hank Hanagraaf. I said, "For all the knowledge he has, he is wrong about Benny Hinn". I know it because I was there (Benny Hinn’s Church).
I saw the miracles. I knew the people who were there for all the right reasons, those thousands who had dedicated their lives to doing Gods work and knowing him better than any outside this church. I saw the purity of the purpose. I'd seen how many came to the church and became believers, even atheists. How could this not be of God? Surely Hank had made a mistake or a misjudgment.
After a few months of not listening, curiosity got the better of me, and I turned the program on again. I believed he had likely moved on to another topic, and I was right. Except for the occasional 5-minute call from a listener, who would bring up Hinn. I must say that I was disillusioned for a while. These things, which I had come to believe so absolutely, were being torn out from under me. I was equally disgusted by the fact that, I recalled someone years before had pointed out to me that Benny Hinn was not legitimate.
They made fun of him as we watched him on the TV together. At that time, I of course stood up for him and counted this person as unspiritual. So I now found myself realizing that the unspiritual person had clearer sight into the truth of this matter than I did. I thought I was a person who was completely dedicated to knowing the truth, and being close to God. There was not a little bit of anger over this realization for me.
How could I be tricked? God Almighty certainly wouldn't let this happen. I thought for sure if I really, really wanted the truth and prayed about it, whatever I found to be of a spiritual nature shortly after my prayer would be the truth; if I could validate it in Gods word.
I thought God had given me discernment as a special gift. Not only to me, I believed he would give it to any one who asked during their search for truth. Now, I was at a place where this no longer seemed to be plausible. I could see it was going to be a long climb out of this, as I still knew the bible was Gods word, no matter how men had twisted it. My goal was to untwist it.
At some point in the course of that year, I decided I could no longer trust any man with the truth. I decided I couldn’t trust Hank Hanagraaf who had shown me that Hinn was wrong. The fact he could prove Hinn wrong didn’t make him right. So I took a big step. I stepped out of the box I had been in since I was 12, and decided without man at all, I would pursue biblical truth from the only place I knew I could trust, that being the original languages of the bible.
I knew very little Greek at this time and basically knew no Hebrew. I knew this would be a monumental task. I went out to the bookstores and bought books on ancient Greek. I read the bible and any time there was a question about doctrine, I deferred to the Greek and the historical aspects of the time in which the text was written.
Many people I spoke to after this tried to persuade me to see things that weren’t plainly written in front of my eyes. Not realizing that they had only heard their current belief from another man who believed it himself and taught it accordingly. And thus the vicious cycle of bad doctrine is born. I only knew I had to break the cycle for myself.
The blessings that were born out of this time of study have been many, and I continue at all times to study Gods word. Forsaking mans teachings, looking to what the bible plainly and clearly teaches, not to what we can make it say. I am firmly convinced that we can make the bible say anything we want it to. We can make it say God wants us to be rich; we can make it say he wants us to be poor. We can make it say all must speak in tongues to be spiritual.
Some can justify it to say that God wants us to fall down when one of the anointed blows on us, or that a handkerchief in the mail that has been prayed over has healing power. All these beliefs and more are reached and justified in the Holy Scriptures by some groups, no matter how foreign it sounds to the rest of us (unfortunately).
Benny Hinn has been proven false to me. However, it is interesting that I can still tune into him on the TV, and pray that God will show me if he indeed has the truth. And this, after so much time has passed. I have exhausted myself with proving from the scriptures it is not the truth that Benny Hinn teaches, but still these old memories come back from time to time.
What I now believe Gods word teaches:
At the end of this system, we will all stand before God alone, with no one by our side. Benny Hinn and everyone else will account for themselves. God will judge us not by the standard of the group we were in, but by the life we led according to his word as an individual. We are responsible for finding out the truth of the bible on our own, never believing something because a group has come to believe it.
There are so many groups out there, and they all have one thing in common. In this they are ALL unified. Each and every one of them believes in their heart of hearts they have the truth.
I pray that anyone reading this will test the truth they themselves claim to have. Truth always proves itself in the face of testing. Truth doesn’t run from light, it seeks it out. Truth hides from nothing. Truth is that part left standing after everything else has fallen by the wayside.
Any belief is only as strong as the foundation on which it was built. We must test not only what we believe, but also the foundation on which it stands. If that foundation is built on the rock, it will stand. If sandy ground, it will not.
When facing those who were thought to be the only real truth and Channel of God in his day, knowing that he may lose his life, Martin Luther said before the highest leaders:
I must be convinced either by the testimony of Scripture or by clear arguments. I cannot trust the pope or councils by themselves, since it is as clear as daylight that they have not only erred but contradicted themselves. I am bound by the Scriptures which I have quoted; my conscience is bound to the Word of God. I may not and will not recant, because to act against conscience is neither honest nor safe.
After a pause, he added,
I can do nothing else; here I stand; so help me God! Amen.
When Peter and John were before the only Group that God had ever approved of up until their generation, the religion they had been brought up in, and the one that their master (Jesus) was born into, they said:
"Judge for yourselves whether it is right in Gods sight to obey you (men) rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."
In summation, I believe that Gods word alone is inspired. No men or their writings today
are. If it is even possible a teaching you have is not clearly stated in the bible, put it to a massive test. Because I am, and many like me are living proof that good people can be fooled with religion and doctrine. And I’ve never met a single person who was deceived and knew it. Deception is in fact when we believe something, no matter how strongly, that is not true.

BlackSwan of Memphis

hm

Joel Osteen is cute.

Benny Hinn seems shady.

Joyce Meyer is spppoookkky.

Quandry

I have never seen Joyce, I have watched Joel Osteen and seen his huge "Joel Osteen Ministries" arena. It used to be a basketball arena in Houston. My, he seems nice. But each time you watch, he just keeps saying the same things. Be positive, etc. Stays away from anything controversial. So I don't know his stance on many things.

I lived in Florida for several years. While there, there was an interesting newspaper article by a reporter who researched the Hinn ministries for quite a while. He said that, at the "service" for healing, yes, Benny was making people swoon left and right. But the interesting thing was, a woman had brought her child to be healed. This child was in a special chair, and on a respirator.

This woman unhooked the respirator and ran to the stage for the child to be healed, but was turned back by the attendants as Benny "healed" people of asthma or one leg being shorter, etc. This man is really disgusting. He rakes in millions, but if he really can heal, why not go to a hospital and do his stuff-wouldn't that be helpful?

Sad emo

No time for Benny Hinn

Not sure about Joel Osteen - I dunno, he seems too *nice*

Never heard Joyce Meyer preaching the gospel but she does give good advice which you'd probably get if you were in therapy - eg about approval addiction, and not allowing negative thinking to rule your life etc - and the advice she gives is from personal experience which counts for a lot. Her books are quite pricey though lol!

Sunspot

Isn't the bottom line what they say......and how it helps US to relate to Christ?

I have my own opinions on Osteenm Hinn and Meyers, as well as Popov, Parsley, Hagin, Jakes and Schuller.....all seen on TV. There is only ONE that I will watch more than five minutes....the others ALL give me the creeps.

I have come to appreciate that when you hear a speaker and he or she motivates YOU to want to find a better way to serve Jesus Christ in how oyu feel he wants us to....then the purpose has been accomplished. The Pastor at the church I now attend, had heard I was in the ICU from the strokes I suffered in 2003, and because my grandson had occasionally attended his church and was very upset at what was happening with me....this lovely man took it upon himself to come to my hospital room and ask to pray with me. I could tell he was nervous, and I gave him credit for the heart he had in doing this.

I was so blown away by this.....mostly because having been a JW for 30 years....I was not USED to this kind of love being shown to a complete stranger! Can YOU imagine a JW elder visiting a nonJW he did not even KNOW....to ask if he could PRAY with him? It is unheard of. There was no "pushing" to come to church, or anything of the sort...just some kind words that made me feel very good.

I had often thought that when I was strong enough emotionally and physically and felt the desire to go into a church again---HIS church would be the first place I would head to....just by the loving and compassionate example he showed to ME that morning. Since then, he has had the congregation pray for me (when he heard of my near-fatal operation last year) and on another occasion. He has taught the members of HIS church how to be giving and kind to others...and has led by example. THIS is how I see a "true" Christian as being.

This church is very tiny and very poor, and has the membership of a bookstudy group.....and very laid back (but respectfully so) in his approach to worship. I see NOW why my teen-age grandson was so crazy about the people AND the Pastor.....something that MOST teen-age boys show little or no interest in at all! What a stark conrast to the upbrining I raised him with at the Kingdom Hall!

I was unsure of doing something one Sunday and I asked someone there about the proper protocol on this---and I got THE warmest smile and hug....while being told there IS no protocol to BE followed. Other than during a sermon...one can stand up and offer praise, or ask a prayer be said for someone...even asking for prayer for the one standing up if need be, etc. It is SO upbuilding and uplifting! You can FEEL the evidence of Christ's love there!

So this is what I base my assumptions on now....and I have a newfound appreciation for the small-town pastors that are probably scattered everywhere in the world....the ones that are truly reaching the hearts of those they speak to....without the rules, regulations, policies and laws that we were so accustomed to accepting without question for so long.

Here I am....out here in the boondocks in a small village in upstate NY....and I honestly feel I struck the jackpot with this one!

hugs,

Annie

What do you think of Benny Hinn,Joyce Meyer, and Joel Osteen Ministries?

free2beme

Gregor