Border State Report

It looks like Nightline did a piece on Todd Bentley earlier this week; the article on their website was rather deferential, having a couple of women-on-the-street Lakeland skeptics and a local pastor skeptic but no false-prophet diatribes in the coverage. An AP piece that was out yesterday (USA Today carried it here) is a bit less friendly. Bentley has yet to authenticate any of his healings.

A note on the Nightline article noted that Bentley will be taking a break from the revival; he's been at it since early April and may well deserve a vacation.

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On the subject of Bentley, Charisma's J. Lee Grady was discussing the flamage that has resulted from Lakeland and hearkening back to a Rick Joyner vision

Other charismatic leaders have echoed this theme since Joyner’s book was published in 1996. They have predicted that our movement will be divided between “Blues” (those who constantly live in the supernatural realm of dreams, visions and miracles) and “Grays” (those who rely more on their intellect), and that the Blues will win and usher in true revival as champions of the Holy Spirit’s power.

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I’ll admit I was not paying too much attention to these Civil War predictions 10 years ago. But I was jolted into reality in May after I wrote an online column in which I raised honest questions about some of Bentley’s teachings and techniques. Even though I celebrated his passion and zeal, and praised God for the healings that were reported in Lakeland, I was immediately branded a revival critic and banished to the Gray camp.

 

I became the bad guy because, by asking questions, I was “relying on my intellect.” To those in the Blue camp, my skepticism made me an enemy of the Holy Spirit and all things supernatural—even though I believe that all the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit are for today!

In my current location in Kentucky, I'm sitting in a border state in the Civil War, one that was nominally with the Union but was a slave-holding state. In this spiritual divide, I've got some spiritual brothers and sisters on both sides of the trenches.

Having headed back to a Baptist church after a short stint in one of the local Vineyard churches, I'm in the spiritual equivalent of Canada in this fight. However, they can take a Bapticostal out of the Vineyard, but they can't quite get the Vineyard out of the Bapticostal. Thus, there is a warm spot to see the Spirit move, but not to see Bentley pull out some MMA moves while performing a healing.

Dan Edelin seems ready to be Stonewall Jackson-

If you’re a charismatic who believes that we need to test the marching orders and practices of the Blue army and are grieved by the blatant doctrinal fallacies and outright myths erupting like sores on some sectors of the charismatic movement, understand this: You are the new enemy. You are the Gray.

I doubt that it will come to actual violence, save the occasional fist-fight among hot-heads from the various factions. However, I've seen some damage in some of the churches I've been in. I recall that shortly after Eileen and I left one charismatic church, a Blue five-fold-ministry maven was run off by the pastor who was not that enamored of that viewpoint. Another charismatic church I attended had a Blue-tinged group of prayer warrior ladies who locked horns with a Baptist-trained Gray pastor.

Part of the problem with the Blues is that they take a number of forms. Some people are impressed with Toronto, others with Rick Joyner, others with John Paul Jackson. Many of the churches were somewhat like Tennessee in the Civil War, Grey but with a lot of Blue sympathizers. I'd guess that New Life Vineyard in Midland was about 10% Blue (Pastor Milton liked the Harp and Bowl service style from IHOP), Lakeland Vineyard was about 20% Blue (a few Rick Joyner and John Paul Jackson books were in the library and some Morningstar music was in the bookstore) and Father's Heart Ministries was about 30% Blue. In those cases, there was a blend of interested in seeing God move but also in being well grounded in the Word.

That grounding in the Word is what seems to be lacking in many charismatic circles; there often too willing to leave their intellect on hold and not check to see if the new things they are seeing are of God.

I'm not sure what the Bentley's Imagination-to-Holy-Spirit ratio is in Lakeland; my guess is well above zero approaching one. Some good things are coming out of Lakeland, but some kooky things are as well; sucker-punch healings isn't quite my idea of the Spirit moving. It's too out there for me to feel comfortable signing off on.

There will be heated debates over this. The debates might split a few charismatic churches into Blue and Gray camps. However, this "civil war" has been going on for as long as I've been a Christian, for in many cases, it is often a degree of Blueness that is the issue, or if I can use my Bapticostal rubric, how much Baptist and how much Pentecostal do you put into the Bapticostal.

So, let not quite write off the Yankee scum quite yet and have a civil disagreement rather than a civil war.

Comments

[TravisM]

Amen, there is far too much confusion, mis-information, and assumptions on both sides of the line. Both have truths, and both need a bit more flexibility, at least on the extreams. Good grounding in the word, and good trust in the Spirit.