{Posted at Bene Diction Blogs On July 7, 2014)
It takes some doing for Todd Bentley or a friend/supporter of his to leave me a bit gobsmacked by something they say.
Let's turn a last time to Todd Bentley's appearance on the History TV Canada program Miracles Decoded June 1, 2 and 4
A couple of soundbites contained in the Todd Bentley segment of that episode of Miracles Decoded are a bit unnerving, to say the least. I'll try to save the relevant clips on YouTube, but in case they disappear, I'll type them out.
Todd Bentley says something unnerving at 35:15 of the show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_NG4cbhS4I">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_NG4cbhS4I
He says this:
"I can't expect people just to accept that what I say and do is real. People need to have evidence and they need to have science. They need to have verification and we're good with that."
Frankly Todd, you don't act like it. I'll explain...
1. Thanks to the YouTube poster who saved and annotated this clip from the ABC Nightline profile of Todd Bentley during the Lakeland Revival.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMAVPXPx6H8
Todd lies about praying for a little boy with Spina Bifida Todd lies about whether he said onstage, and on God TV, that the boy was healed. Moreover, Todd tries to argue that he boy had faith for healing. He had nothing really to do with it if you're holding him accountable for it. Shortly after the boy was healed, he still had spina Bifida according to his Mom.
If Todd is "good with" verification, why did he lave it for ABC News to do?
Did he explain what happened to the boy on the Lakeland stage? I'd bet dollars for doughnuts he didn't.
2. And then there is the noted World magazine article which noted that people that Todd Bentley's ministry proclaimed were healed died shortly after Lakeland of what they had been healed of.
http://www.worldmag.com/2009/05/heal_or_heel
If you're "good with" verification, why did World magazine do this and not you, Todd Bentley?
Accountability for what you do doesn't end once the person leaves your stage.
3. Todd Bentley addressed the question of whether he brought people back from the dead in a May 2010 video distributed by his mentor Rick Joyner.
Unfortunately the video is now behind a subscriber wall, but fortunately I quoted it at some length in this post.
http://ricksmiscellany.blogspot.ca/2010/07/todd-bentley-repents-of-hype-only-to.html
Bentley appears to be quoting some kind of report about the 22 people who came back from the dead as of 2010--down from 31, I note at Lakeland.
We still don't know who did the report. No names so we can ask this or these doctor(s) directly.
Bentley, as far as I know, has never released this report. He has just quoted it once in this video. Allegedly.
I noted that the only thing the report's experts were willing to do was commit to possible resuscitations, not resurrections.
As I noted back then:
Todd Bentley is hoping that you don’t listen carefully, as resuscitation doesn’t mean resurrection. A Princeton University online dictionary offers a very interesting definition for our purpose: (n) resuscitation (the act of reviving a person and returning them to consciousness) "although he was apparently drowned, resuscitation was accomplished by artificial respiration" I’ll bet that these two doctors and their report, commissioned by Todd Bentley and his friends, will never see the light of day. Doctors X and Y are playing it very safe. I’ll bet dollars for doughnuts that they don’t use the exact phrase “miraculous resuscitations”. I’ll bet it is “resuscitations”. It could refer to a miracle, but the doctors are playing it safe. “This person was apparently unconscious and is now conscious. We do not know why,” is probably a layman’s explanation of what they are trying to say. And Todd Bentley takes it and runs with it, swaddling what the doctors were willing to say in “back from the dead” verbiage.
Todd Bentley says he is "good with" verification so that you will think that he is. He says it, must be true. But there is evidence he is not.
Release the doctor's report, Bentley. Unedited, with the names and contact information for the doctors.
The second one is where Summer M. Cottam comments on her Mom's "healing" with a presumed assist by Todd Bentley.
At the 57:00 mark of the show, she says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENo8_qf6o98">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENo8_qf6o98
"I mean, it doesn't matter if it is true or not that she was healed by God. No matter what she was healed...however it came about. It can't be wrong or right."
Now, back in the days of the Apostles, healings--as part of signs and wonders--were intended to back up the preaching of the Gospel.
If we presume that this is a true healing, Summer has missed the central point of what has happened. And it is completely Todd Bentley's fault. A glaring fault of how he does ministry.
Anyone presumably healed should absolutely walk away from that with several facts. Onlookers too.
1. Jesus (or "God") must get credit for what happens, especially if it is good. Summer should know that "God" is to be praised. She should know that it is credited to Him, and that it was Him who is responsible.
Bentley does not talk enough about Jesus in his meetings,if those who are blessed in this way can be unclear.
Jesus being presumably responsible for the healing should have been drilled into Summer`s head again and again and again. She could have tried to figure out what happened, as she does here, but she should be able to recite why and how this happened as shared and taught from the front, even if she disagrees with it.
3. A healing being either "wrong or right" addresses what the will of God in this case. Summer should not be led to think of this big question, when Todd Bentley as a non-cessationist charismatic, should properly believe that a healing leads to the preaching of the Gospel.
But when you have a bit of a show on your hands, some things have to be cut for time. Unfortunately.