Peter SmytheDecidedly Unprofessional

Since the passing of Kenneth Hagin, it’s been interesting to note just how his legacy has filtered (and not filtered) through the Body of Christ.

And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. (John 16.23, KJV)

For the past several weeks, my wife and I have visited a local Full Gospel church, checking it out to see if it might be a good fit for us. The church is large (I’d say over 1,000) and has a number of pastors of this and that. During the past few services, several of the pastors have led the congregation in prayer. Interestingly, each one has started out addressing the Father, but ended up turning the prayer into one to Jesus.

Based on John 16.23, Hagin taught (rightly so) that New Testament prayers should be addressed to the Father, not to Jesus. Though this Full Gospel church heartily believes in the gifts of the Spirit, including healing, and our righteous standing before God, it doesn’t follow Hagin’s teaching on prayer at all. (The congregation also applauds the Lord which is another funk.)

Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. (Acts 2.14-16, KJV)

Yesterday I was doing all I could to avoid working on some legal documents and I came across a YouTube video of Kenneth Hagin and others in a Gospel meeting sometime in 1999. Apparently there are multiple copies of this video because there are all kinds of warnings about “false prophets,” “tongues of devils,” etc. on different versions. (Here is a link to one.)

What’s interesting to me is that none of the video critics, at least of what I saw, ever refer back to these verses in Acts. Though I’m not in the “Pentecostal Bedlam” video, I’ve been in meetings, including some with Hagin, where the Spirit of God fell with such a punch that we did act like drunken college kids for a few hours. I’ve even had it happen in Denny’s with just a couple friends present. Hagin is characterized as “looney,” when instead he ought to be seen as an example of how to enter into such experiences.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1.8, KJV)

In addition to watching the “Pentecostal Bedlam” video, I read up on the goings-on down in Florida. In another YouTube video, Todd Bentley, the revival’s evangelist, referred to Hagin’s “I Believe in Visions” book while on the platform. Apparently he has reported numerous visions of angels and the like during the revival and he invoked Hagin’s book to validate his experiences.

As a guy who sat under Hagin in school for a couple of years and who is familiar with “I Believe in Visions” and his own testimony about such visions, I don’t see any relation between them and Bentley’s angelic visions at all (at least the four Bentley videos that I have watched). If you consider Hagin’s visions carefully, all of them (save the ones about his personal life) deal with some kind of teaching of scripture. In fact, some of them you might even consider low-key. Usually after reporting on a vision, Hagin would instruct his hearers to examine the Word for themselves to see whether it could withstand scrutiny.

Bentley’s visions, on the other hand, are confabulous events that appear to go well beyond scripture. In one vision, he reports that angels slammed him down on an operating table and tore his intestines out. His experiences remind me of William Branham’s visions in the latter part of his life where his doctrine erred from the truth.

It’s ironic that a man who based his entire ministry on following the Word is derided as “looney” for scripturally-consistent experiences, but is exalted by those who have left the Word for the sake of visions.

Ron - Down and Out in Texas

and I say to you, Make to yourselves friends out of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye may fail, they may receive you to the age-during tabernacles. (Luke 16.9, Young’s Literal Translation)

Some time ago, my wife and I had a fundraising idea (I secretly dubbed it Mission Superhero) for a ministry that feeds the homeless in town. I called the ministry and explained the idea in broad terms. Frankly, they weren’t too thrilled about it. In fact, the ministry leader quickly brushed aside the idea and hinted that they would like to use our services (for free) on a wholly unrelated matter.

Despite this ministry’s brush-off (not a criticism, just an observation), we decided that we’d go ahead and do the project on our own and find a ministry to lend it to later on. About half way through our “Down and Out” project, another minister contacted us out of the blue and asked us if we’d consider doing the very thing we had called the other ministry about. We plan to have that project done by the end of the year.

Yesterday we received word from a foreign ministry that they’d like us to do our idea with them. We’re thrilled with the opportunity and have begun making travel plans to go this fall. Once we nail down all the details, we’ll tell you what the project is all about and give you the opportunity to help lend a hand with some of our out-of-pocket expenses (we want to do this cost-free to the ministry and also have all the profits go to the ministry).