It was inevitable.  A false healing revival with overblown and unsubstatiated reports of healing can only lead to one thing for those who are desperate and looking for healing… death.

I grew up as a Charismatic.  I have seen people suffering with maladies and they were visibly in pain, but yet they would say, “I don’t accept that.  I don’t have _______.”  Even though they have been diagnosed by reputable doctors, they refuse to claim the disease or illness they have been diagnosed with.  To some charismatics, words have power, and if you speak a negative word, they will negatively effect you.  Therefore, only positive words must be spoken.

People with little to no Biblical knowledge have a heart that is a breeding ground for error.  It is these people that are susceptible to the hocus pocus of the Word of Faith/Charismatic doctrine.  One of the cruelest things a minister can do is to tell people unequivocally that they are healed.  Especially when these people are suffering from life-threatening illnesses.  Their misplaced faith can then turn deadly if they aren’t grounded in the Word of God.

I have an aunt who has a tumor in her hip.  It has caused great pain and suffering, and when she was diagnosed, the doctor informed her it had to come out immediately.  Even though the tumor is benign, it is causing damage to the surrounding tissues.  She refused to have surgery, saying God has said He would heal her.  Now it’s a few years later and the tumor has grown and caused so much damage that her left leg is inches shorter than the other and she has to wear a special boot to even out her gait, and the tumor has grown so large that doctors have said if they remove it now, the damage is done.  It will do no good.  (They still want to remove it, by the way, but her lack of action caused irreversible damage.)  I saw her before Christmas, hobbling around on a cane, and she told me that God is still telling her that He’s going to heal her.  I’m thinking, “Well, what’s the hold up?”  Had she had it removed when it was first diagnosed, she would have fully recovered.

Two people have died.  These people were attendees at the Lakeland Revival, and were looking for their miracle.  When lack of Biblical knowledge is joined with false doctrine and desperation, it can cause people to put their faith in vessels that are too full of holes to hold any truth.  When pressured by WORLD magazine to release a list of names that could verify the claims of healing at Lakeland, after much pressuring, the ministry released a list of 13 names.  The two people on that list who died were reported as having been healed of cancer, but when these people were called to seek verification, one had died as early as July of last year, and the other had died a few days before the names were released.

Do you see the damage false doctrine can cause?  Yes, these people would have died anyway, but that is not the point.  It is CRUEL to give these people false hope… it is barbaric.  Not only do people like Bentley prey upon those who are sick and desperate, but they prey upon those who are dying.  On the one hand, people like Bentley tell these people that if they will open their wallets and give to the Lord (remember the ATM machines at the revival?), that God will bless them.  So the sick, desperate, and dying are opening their wallets and giving what they have in hopes of a miracle.  Then you have Bentley telling people they are healed.  No questions asked.  No doctors consulted.  HEALED!  What happens is that they go home and die, and Charismatic ministers take their money to the bank and deposit it.

God’s Word doesn’t tell us to claim our miracle – it tells us to submit ourselves to God and seek His will.  But faith healers slingshot around that and speak their own false word over people.  By seeking God’s will, we become submissive to Him.  That cannot happen when we fail to humble ourselves before the Lord, and speak false words in His stead.

Here is a snippet from an article in World Magazine:

Christopher Fogle, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, loved to fish. It was a break from his fast-paced, 25-year career with the Perkins Restaurant chain.

But when Fogle got severe cancer, his relaxing fishing trips, which he sometimes took with his children, ended. It was a devastating blow for the active 45-year-old. But for Todd Bentley, television preacher and self-proclaimed healer, the cancer represented an opportunity to “proclaim the glory of God.”

Indeed, last year Bentley began his “Lakeland Outpouring,” a months-long series of “healing services” that Bentley and his Fresh Fire ministry started April 2 and ended under a cloud of controversy Aug. 11 (“Same old scam?,” June 28, 2008). In between, the meetings attracted hundreds of thousands of people to a huge tent in Lakeland, Fla.

At the height of what many called a revival, WORLD asked Bentley to talk about the healings, like Fogle’s, and asked for a list of people who had been healed at the services. His associates told me Bentley was out of the country and a list could not be produced. But six weeks and more than a dozen requests later, the ministry eventually sent a list of 13 names. Fogle was No. 12 on the list, along with this note: “Healed through the Outpouring and is back to fishing.”

That was on Aug. 8, 2008. There was just one problem. Two weeks earlier, on July 22, Christopher A. Fogle—according to his obituary in the Keokuk (Iowa) Daily Gate City, “left this life . . . after a courageous battle with cancer.”  (Online Source)

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Not Healed – A Doctor from Lakeland Speaks Out
• Lakeland Outpouring Attendance Now Passes 400,000
• The Fallout of Lakeland
• Tonex: Opening Up About Hysteria Over Homosexuality