I thought it was comedy at first then I checked wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Bentley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Bentley
Pastor on Christian TV claims God has told him to beat up disabled people!
- Thread starter Vegetarian
- Start date
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 3,418
- Location
- North
He belongs to ultra charismatics such as Pentecostal and AOG that believe if you have a dissability or illness you are not living a good life and this is the sign! This total rubbish... anyone that reads their bibles knows this.
He wouldn't be the first one - God previously said to Moses (the one of 10 commandments fame) I quote after Leviticus 21:16:
And the LORD said to Moses:
(..) No man from your descendants throughout their generations who has a physical flaw is to approach to present the food of his God.
No man who has a physical flaw is to approach: a blind man, or one who is lame, or one with a slit nose, or a limb too long, or a man who has had a broken leg or arm, or a hunchback, or a midget, or one with a spot in his eye, or a festering eruption, or a feverish rash, or a crushed testicle.
(...) such man must not go into the veil-canopy or step forward to the altar because he has physical flaw. Thus he must not profane my holy places, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them."
"For shizzle, respect and amen for now" He said. To Moses apparently. Clearly The Chief no likey disabled people for long time now then?
And the LORD said to Moses:
(..) No man from your descendants throughout their generations who has a physical flaw is to approach to present the food of his God.
No man who has a physical flaw is to approach: a blind man, or one who is lame, or one with a slit nose, or a limb too long, or a man who has had a broken leg or arm, or a hunchback, or a midget, or one with a spot in his eye, or a festering eruption, or a feverish rash, or a crushed testicle.
(...) such man must not go into the veil-canopy or step forward to the altar because he has physical flaw. Thus he must not profane my holy places, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them."
"For shizzle, respect and amen for now" He said. To Moses apparently. Clearly The Chief no likey disabled people for long time now then?
Last edited:
If there's one thing I learned growing up a Christian and, unlike most Christians I know, actually reading the bible, it's that God is a wrathful ******* and really doesn't care about anybody.
I don't even know why he bothered with this divine plan if all he wanted to do was kill, maim and smite everyone into back-stiffening fear. It's only when you get to the New Testament that all that BS ends and you get your typical hate-speech apostles ranting on and on in His name instead.
Might as well read Mein Kampf.
No, the people who wrote the Bible didn't.
Good point, sir. Well played.
Disclaimer: This post is not a troll, nor is it intended to offend anybody. It's just my honest point of view.
Last edited:
I've heard a lot about this Todd Bentley guy over the past few months but never watched any of the videos until today. I'm a Christian that believes in healing miracles but I generally don't like the style of these American (he's actually Canadian) revivalists. He's a controversial figure amoung Christians I know, with some utterly convinced by him and others very worried about him.
Having watched the video now, I recognise him. A lady I know went on a trip to Mozambique and met Bentley a there few years ago. She came back enthused that blind and deaf people had been healed. She showed us a video and I was skeptical, and rather uncomfortable watching it. It looked to me that people were being put under pressure on stage and Bentley was claiming that they'd been healed with not a lot of input from them. One thing that caught my interest though was a blind lady. She looked blind - that kind of absent look in the whites of the eyes that you sometimes get. Bentley asked her how many fingers she was holding up and she gave the number correctly. Easy to fake on video but the lady who went along was able to tell us about the amazement of the people who knew her. She still 'looked' as if she was blind but apparrently could see.
This healing involving striking a blow isn't unheard of. Smith Wigglesworth, a yorkshireman operating in the early 20th century was known for a healing ministy. He famously punched a woman in the stomach to bring about healing from some complaint.
I did a bit of searching on this and was surprised to turn up the following: someone claiming to be the guy that was kicked (or kneed as he claims) in the video). There's a picture and it looks a lot like the guy. I can't present this for anthing more than it is: unverified internet info - but it's worth a look. He's claiming a significant reduction in the size of the tumour and related readings.
http://www.benedictionblogson.com/2...todd-bentley-questions-by-australia-ministry/
Having watched the video now, I recognise him. A lady I know went on a trip to Mozambique and met Bentley a there few years ago. She came back enthused that blind and deaf people had been healed. She showed us a video and I was skeptical, and rather uncomfortable watching it. It looked to me that people were being put under pressure on stage and Bentley was claiming that they'd been healed with not a lot of input from them. One thing that caught my interest though was a blind lady. She looked blind - that kind of absent look in the whites of the eyes that you sometimes get. Bentley asked her how many fingers she was holding up and she gave the number correctly. Easy to fake on video but the lady who went along was able to tell us about the amazement of the people who knew her. She still 'looked' as if she was blind but apparrently could see.
This healing involving striking a blow isn't unheard of. Smith Wigglesworth, a yorkshireman operating in the early 20th century was known for a healing ministy. He famously punched a woman in the stomach to bring about healing from some complaint.
I did a bit of searching on this and was surprised to turn up the following: someone claiming to be the guy that was kicked (or kneed as he claims) in the video). There's a picture and it looks a lot like the guy. I can't present this for anthing more than it is: unverified internet info - but it's worth a look. He's claiming a significant reduction in the size of the tumour and related readings.
http://www.benedictionblogson.com/2...todd-bentley-questions-by-australia-ministry/
Last edited:
Associate
- Joined
- 23 Jun 2007
- Posts
- 655
WOW he banged right there and then
Man of Honour
- Joined
- 27 Sep 2004
- Posts
- 25,821
- Location
- Glasgow
Just to be devils advocate - if the tumour hadn't reduced would it be that it wasn't God's will to cure him? The human body is a remarkable thing and possibly would have started to heal itself with or without the intervention of Todd Bentley. I don't know either way but it could simply be a coincidence or even some kind of placebo effect where people expect to get better after being hit or perhaps there is some scientific explanation to do with tissue regeneration after injury and being hit would stimulate this growth.
As I say I don't know what could cause this but I'm not entirely happy that someone gets to go around thumping people and claiming it is God's will - the people may be willing which would normally mean my objections are nullified but illness can cause people to do desperate things.
He's just doing exactly what people in his position have done for a millennia -- using religion as an excuse to be a sociopath.
The guy is clearly delusional. No where else do you find so many people congregating around muppets such as this as you do in organised religion.
The guy is clearly delusional. No where else do you find so many people congregating around muppets such as this as you do in organised religion.
Soldato
- Joined
- 4 Feb 2008
- Posts
- 3,410
- Location
- Brighton
"As my boot met her nose, she fell under the power of god"
No you **** she fell unconscious. Just goes further to back up my personal belief that all religion is evil.
No you **** she fell unconscious. Just goes further to back up my personal belief that all religion is evil.
Entirely possible. Let's not forget that, at this stage, the guy doesn't appear to have been fully healed either. He claims his readings are down and the tumour is smaller but not gone at the time of writing. The blog I referenced seems to be quite anti Todd Bentley in general. Superficially I'm not keen on the guy but it strikes me as rather odd that so many Christians are quick to condemn him. Compared to some biblical figures the guy's relatively normal.
As I said I believe in healing miracles (seen close family member get better extaordinarliy quickly from long standing injury after prayer, and many less dramatic results) but I wouldn't necessarily take the line that there is no scientific explanation for it. I firmly believe that if 'miracles' could be observerd in laboratory conditions we would find some way to describe the process and many would be confident that they understand it with no regard to any kind of 'supernatural' activity. There would still be a requirement for faith, if people were to believe that God had anything to do with it.
The generally accepted 'theology' on why God doesn't just heal everyone is 'grace' - i.e. God sometimes gives us what we don't deserve. Humans through collective (and not necessarily individual) responsibiliy for sin, all deserve to die. Unpleasant but fairly orthodox Christian doctrine - see 'Original Sin' (an Augustinian concept rather than directly Biblical, but widely accepted). Lets not forget - healing is a temporary thing - a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven. We all die eventually. Lazarus isn't walking around in New York, unless you take Nick Cave literally.
Christianity is based on a bunch of people that thought God was talking to them and went around doing weird and sometimes downright dangerous stuff because of it. Jesus mixed mud and spit together and rubbed it in a blind man's eyes. St Peter made people with crippling disabilities get up and walk. The Old Testament is full of people doing things in the name of God that, by our standards, are downright dangerous and unpleasant.
If Christians can accept these things, why so quick to condemn Todd Bentley? He may be a nutter, or a sheister or worse but, in the context of Christian history, he's not doing anything particularly unusual.
Most Christians follow an extremely sanitised version of the religion, conveniently not giving some of the horrible stuff much thought. Noah's flood - horrific. Parting (and closing) of the Red Sea - horrific. Taking of the Promised Land - horrific. Virgin Birth - very risky - the punishment for adultery was stoning to death. What if an unmarried woman turns up pregnant? Magi visiting the baby Jesus? You think God didn't know that all the two year olds and under in Bethlehem were going to be killed because of that? Jesus kicking over the seller's tables in the Temple courts -very un-PC might upset someone. Why were Jesus' disciples armed and ready to start lopping off ears in Gethsemane? Crucifiction - horrific. Most of Jesus disciples annoyed the authorities enough to be crucified too after he was gone.
If you believe the Bible, there's a war going on. Rather worryingly for most Christians - it started in Heaven. The short version - is because of the freedom God has given to people and various other beings he doesn't get stuff his way all the time. I think he could but he wants to give us a chance, and sort us out if we're willing.
So - having considered all that - what's Christianity? Gathering to sing songs and pray in medieval buildings? Drinking tea with the Vicar? I'm not sure it's what Todd Bentley's doing either but hearing voices and (supposedly) healing people looks remarkably similar to an early version of it.
In other news, I believe that Mr Bentley is taking some 'time off' after the media started delving into his criminal past. He's been fairly open about his drug dealing etc but something about him 'abusing' a younger boy when he was 14 has come up and worried a few people. Still - Moses was a murderer...
By the way - Devil's advocate is one of my usual positions too