When I first heard about the revival, via an email from a friend, about 4 days or so into the revival, I decided to check it out.
This was the video that made me definitely check out Todd Bentley.
I am a student of revival, and there were obvious things to me that seemed waaaay off in this video.
First, Todd tries to create an apostolic/revivalist/angelic succession. The angel, William Branham, etc. At this point, I had no clue who William Branham was, but I've heard revivals/outpourings speak about the revivalists of old before. You should look into William Branham for yourself, to see what Todd is claiming is on him now.
Then he tries the fire on a Kentucky lady. Unfortunately, not being a veteran of being in the "spirit" she didn't do the courtesy drop or manifestation. I'm sure that changed over time.
At 5 min or so, the fun begins. You know, if you don't understand, well then.....
"I told the Lord why can't I just move in healing and forget talking about all that other stuff?"
"Because, Todd, you have to get the people to believe in the angel."
"I said, God, why do I want people to believe in the angel? "
"Isn't it about getting people to believe in Jesus?"
"He said, the people already believe in Jesus, but the church doesn't believe in the supernatural."
This sounds like another Jesus to me, even when I watched it over and over again, trying to justify what I heard.
That drove me to check out his website, freshfire.ca. It's changed in the last few weeks, as you'll see from the "cleaning out the barn" link above.
There I found out the "revelation" that Todd has encounters with dead people.(I'm sorry, for you "prophetic" and "anointing" seekers, yes, it was supposedly a vision, not speaking to dead people. But in my experience, the conscious conversational interactions in a vision usually are with God, not something you see.)
There I found out that Paul AND Abraham wrote the Book of Hebrews.
There I learned that Todd has no problem with encounters, for he NEVER, EVER, EVER, relates in his teachings, videos, books, or audio that he has EVER TESTED THE SPIRITS.
And one has to ask, if Todd is not listening to and doing what the Bible says, "testing the spirits," what "spirit," according to all we know about the Bible, WHAT did Todd embrace, and continues to embrace?
As I watched videos of Todd at Toronto (pre-tattoos) you hear stuff like this:
Notice, as you look for yourself, check out Freshfire.ca, and his statement of faith there.
You gotta keep that "further revelation" open, yet although claiming they're substantiated by Scripture, as you read, learn, watch, and listen to the encounters, you'll see these "further revelations," equivalent to Scripture in their eyes, are far extra Biblical. (again, see cleaning out the barn)
I ran across some other websites, as listed to the right. On one, I came across this:(start at 3 min IMO, to get the context)
Anyway, around 3.55 in this video - you can fast forward to it - a girl comes forward. After some ministry from Bentley, Todd says: Could we pick her up, I’m not done messin’ with her yet? which is a very odd thing to say, even in jest, and then there is something even odder he says about a minute later - it is like really mocking tongues or mocking ministry - Blablahblahblahblah be drunk! Blah blah blah blah blah blah - he says - what on earth is that about?
You see, I regularly get questioned as to my salvation, whether I believe in the supernatural, what religion am I, when I'm in the chatroom for the revival, and I dare post something that questions the "god" of Todd.
I've been there, done that, bought the tshirt and have the video to prove it as far as the supernatural, and experiencing true Biblical repentance.
I do and can embrace the genuine. There is a difference, and you find that by knowing the real McCoy, as you study your Bible.
I've seen the genuine. I've prayed for, seen people healed, and been healed myself.
In fact, from the beginning of this "The Great Adventure" since I repented of my sins, and put my faith in Jesus Christ, I've seen God's Hand move mightily and have been a "God Chaser" myself, spending many weeks in revivals where God supposedly was blessing with an outpouring, staying "under the spout, where the glory comes out" as one "move" called it.
I've been to Charismatic, Pentecostal, and Fundamentalist churches, and can easily feel at home in any of the above, for they all are right, anointed, and following after God, if in balance with what Scripture Says/Teaches.
I've seen the devil in action on the missions field, and I've seen the overwhelming deception here at home, and see some of the things, compromise, that has got us here, to this.
Todd started as a cheap charlatan, but because he's "christian" we let all kinds of things slide.
I keep hearing people say things like look at what God is doing, keep your eyes on man, not God, and take in the meat, spit out the bones.
There is a basic problem with this. If you read a box's/bottle's ingredients label and it contains things poisonous/harmful to you, do you take in the good stuff, and hopefully aren't affected by the bad, before you spit it out?
As a friend of mine says, how many drops of poison does it take in your glass of water for you to realize you shouldn't drink it?
As you can see in this video, below, his "prophetic/word of knowledge" gift isn't.
There is lots of legitimate, researchable items of concern to anyone who is wondering about this "outpouring of the spirits" in Lakeland.
All it takes for you or I to find the Truth about Todd, Freshfire, the Kansas City Prophets(I'm not going to go into that one), Emma -O, 6 or 7 heavenly realms, Bob Jones, Paul Cain, Patricia King(I'm not going into those three in this post either), etc, is to do the research which is as easy as using a search engine on the internet.
See what the man teaches, does, says, and writes, and compare that to Scripture.
Some of this stuff is ridiculous. Some of it will make you cry for your brothers and sisters involved with this deception.
As you can see here, violence is how Todd's god heals some.
BTW, in the accounts of thousands of claimed healings in the past two months, why isn't there even one medically verified healing/miracle?
We(people who dare question anything about the revival and stand on the evidence) are demonized and told to not "touch 'god's' anointed" or that we're being "critical" or possibly that we are blaspheming the Holy Spirit, when we share the facts.
But personally, if I know my brothers and sisters are having a nice walk down a path, leading over a cliff, I will warn them.
