I have just finished reading this important book, if you ever visit a Christian book store or if you have ever been part of the Charismatic movement the name Hinn will be well known to you, Costi Hinn the nephew of Benny Hinn is one of the authors. In 2012 God plucked Costi out of the Word Faith movement and saved him. Anthony Wood also spent time as part of TBN mixing with Word Faith Movement Leaders. Their concern in this book is both evangelistic and apologetic to winsomely point out the historical errors of this movement and how it is becoming mainstream via Bethany House. They chart how Bethany House is full of the same errors that the Word Faith movement is. Firstly in this book they trace the catalogue of errors through 'God's generals' the early proponents of Word Faith Theology, this has been done elsewhere especially in depth in Christianity in Crisis. The books strength lies elsewhere, in the raw passion and compassion found in it, you can feel that they have been part of it and love those in it. This came out very clearly when Costi was talking about his uncle Benny and the Hinn family still very much part of the Word Faith movement. It was also balanced as they disagreed very much with John Wimber's theology but go to great lengths to point out how his theology departed from fourth wave Charismatic theology in good ways, and how he travelled to Airport Vineyard church to remove them from Vineyard because of their strange practises.
A couple of downsides to this book are, 1) It could have done with proof reading better, for example 'which came first the chicken and the egg' and more importantly 2) it's too short, I would like to see an expanded version, in that version I would like them to examine the theology of Joyce Meyer who in the UK at least is even more mainstream than Bethany House, though she is a Word of Faith teacher.
I was in a Charismatic church for three years back in my youth, I wasn't much into but I wanted to experience Acts for today, I went to hear/see Benny Hinn do his thing and his theological errors were more they I could bare, this was a lonely 18 months as I found no-one of the same mind. I was eventually helped by Christianity in Crisis- I remember trying to give out the tapes to people around the tape ministry in the church, the tape ministry was full of faith teachers messages. It was the end of being a Charismatic for me, it took a long time to settle after but I am thankful for people then who wrote about these errors. I hope this book is greatly used to help people move away from these errors. I was moved by the testimonies at the end of the book of people who were victims of Word Faith theology but have now come to know the real Jesus and see how precious His Gospel is.
My prayer is that God would use this book to deliver people from Deception to find the truth as it is in Jesus.
God Bless
Stephen <><
3 comments:
Actually, Joyce Meyer has become--in a subtle and deceptive way--pretty "mainstream" in the USA as well. She is followed by a lot of well-known women who ought to know better, such as: Beth Moore, Jen Hatmaker, Christine Caine, Jennie Allen (from "IF"), and others whom "mainstream" evangelical women in our MidWest USA churches follow without getting behind the rhetoric to the theology, and behind their theology is the specter of Joyce Meyer.
- The Thief.
brother, I know she is big in the US, saw a children's Bible by her last time I was there (yikes0. I've not heard of most of those women but isn't Jen Hatmaker very much a post-evangelical (liberal) these days?
You are dead right about Jen Hatmaker. She is, according to one Gospel Coalition article, now telling a "deconversion story." In other words she is villainizing her evangelical past, claiming various kinds of abuse, and now "preaching" an EXTREME emergent church message on the edge of liberalism. But she claims the Bible supports her views. ***BUT, she was part of a group of women that Joyce Meyer was discipling for quite a while. Bad theology leads to wore theology. - The Thief
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