Todd Bentley's Florida Revival

[UPDATE 6 Sep 08]

Things got burnt out for the Lakeland Revival and Todd Bentley. Read through Lee Grady's various responses.

[Original post, edited 21 May 08]

In the interests of "testing everything and holding on to the good" (1 The 5:21), I've written the following critique of the current Florida church gatherings, being called the Florida Outpouring or the Winds of Change Revival, run by Todd Bentley. I intend this as a weighing up rather than a criticism. In this post I'll consider the content of the gatherings, the way the gatherings are conducted and Todd Bentley's own role. I've left the signs-and-wonders aspect to the post below. I've tried to reflect purely on the gatherings as we see them online and I've tried not to speculate on Todd Bentley's own faith and motives. I think the most clear and gracious commentary on the Florida Revival is coming from those closest to it in the church: I highly recommend this article by the editor of Charisma Magazine and this article by two Australian ministers.

Although I refer to the gatherings in general, I've used the series of 4 videos beginning here as a sounding board. The following is my transcript of the first 15 minutes.

[The gathering has finished singing; Todd has taken the stage and begins] ...Because we're gonna worship until that glory comes down! It's here! Oh, it's all about Jesus! It's all about Jesus! [Backing space rock swells] It's all about Jesus! It's all about Jesus! It's all about Jesus! [Todd walks with his arms raised] Lord, may they feel in the overflow, every television, you're watching us on the webcast, you're outside in the parking lot, [Todd motions with his hand] glory, glory, glory. [Todd pauses, then shakes his head] Oh, there's something very angelic about tonight, and there's a realm of holy visitation. Because you can't have the glory without some things being opened in your spirit. Clear, clear, clear revelation. We've come for your glory, Lord. You can be seated. You know, these meetings, these revival meetings, they've been growing. Almost 2000 people here tonight on a Monday. We need you to pray with us for a venue as this begins to grow. People are coming from around the world. Think about Friday. And I said, I said to Bob, if we're in another building, is it gonna stop? He said, the ark is gonna move. He said, this is bigger than a building and it's bigger than a place. I said, because it's so precious. We welcome you, if this is your first night, those of you, just wave, hallelujah, just send some glory to the people, there's two overflows. But you know, when you're in revival, it doesn't matter. And outside, come on, I see -- may the power fall on you in the parking lot first! UH! May the greatest miracles... The fire marshals have come and we can no longer have people in the aisles, but God is in control. It's his outpouring. [Todd starts shaking, someone is cackling] Oh! And I do wanna drink the gloryyyyyyyyyyy! [Todd's head is shaking up and down] Oh! Ahohahohahohahohahohahoh! [Space rock swells] Do you know that Todd Bentley and the natural can never put together such favour? [Todd is shaking] And I told God, I said, God, whatever this is gonna cost me, it's worth it. Any price to live in this glory. And it's just gonna get stronger, and stronger... I tell ya, there are about 10 pastors that called and you said, should get on an airplane and come from England, we heard there's no seats. If you're a full-time leader, or you come internationally, there will be room for you. Don't stop. UH! God will fix the problem. Did you know that God knows what he's doing? [Todd starts doing squats] UH! UH! UH! UH! [Todd wipes his brow] The Lord told me there's gonna be a special anointing tonight. We're gonna lay hands on every person outside, in both overflows and in the sanctuary. We're gonna have an anointing service, because the Lord spoke to me about families. And he was gonna visit. I saw the angel today, who's gonna visit the children. I saw the angel, that only two times have I seen, that is going to visit the children. The great -- I tell you what, there's a glory movement into the room, just go ahead and OH! get under that! OH! [Todd shakes his head] OH! Lord, let it move across the whole place. A drunken glory. [Singing] Heavy heavy, wady wady wady glory, smoky glory, shekinah glory, and all the colours in the glory. I just wanna be in the cloud. Say, Lord, I just wanna be in the cloud. Under the cloud. Moses got to be under the cloud, I wanna be under the cloud! [Todd is shaking] Thick, thick, overwhelming, honey glory. I pray that it gets on every one of you tonight. [Todd starts laughing] WOAH! [Todd is kneeling and cackling] [Persistent note from the space rock guitar] [Todd crawls towards the stand] This is the first night this has happened to me! A little bit of that glory's coming on me! [Todd leans on the stand] And we have an international TV audience tonight... And I got that vibrating again! Lord, let everybody vibraaaaaaaaaaaaaah! I'm having my own glory party up here. How many first time visitors in the room? Stand up, stand up, first time, first time, look around! On a Monday night! First time! Wow! God bless you! My God! OH! Come get some! You know, the Lord told me that this anointing would be the most contagious anointing in my ministry. BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! The Lord Jesus told me, as great as the anointing's been, that this would be the year of the double portion? And that this would be the most contagious anointing, transferable, tangible anointing... And the Lord spoke to me in the beginning of this outpouring, that every service, and I have not been tired in 21 meetings, that every meeting, I was to pray for the leaders coming in from around the world, pastors, missionaries, evang- that were hungry for a fresh touch on their life. And he told me that this anointing, this same glory, would follow them everywhere they went, listen, I'm telling you, it's breaking out already! My church in Canada, my leaders, came down, we have 3 campuses, all the leadership came down, they said, Todd, the glory is falling in Canada, the same anointing we felt in Florida, is happening right now. ...

From here, Todd goes on to call up people to receive the anointing ("Bam! Shekah-boom-bah!").

SOME OBSERVATIONS

• Todd rarely refers to either the Holy Spirit or Jesus, or their work.
• Todd mostly refers to "the glory" (or "the anointing", "the fire", or "the impartation"), which he speaks of as a force. It is something that participants can "get", a cloud that participants can be enveloped in, an anointing that is "contagious" and "transferable", that follows people and "breaks out". In other meetings we see "glory bursts" being sent out to those watching on TV and online.
• Todd stresses that God is in control and that God knows what he is doing but, at the same time, there is a sense of abandonment to the "drunken" glory, as exemplified by Todd's own wife later on.
• Todd says that the Lord and at least one angel will (personally) visit during the evening.

CRITIQUE

CONTENT
God is present in and amongst his people today through his Spirit, not his glory. For example, it is only by the Spirit that people enter the kingdom (Jn 3:5), worship God (Jn 4:24) and have life (Jn 6:63; Rom 8). The Spirit himself is personal, not a force: it is in the Spirit that Christ himself dwells in us (Eph 3:16-18, 1 Cor 2:14-15). It is worth noting that because God is today perpetually present amongst his people, God does not specially visit Christians during church gatherings. That said, and while I don't subscribe to a second baptism, I do believe that the Spirit can specially fill or overflow in us at certain times in order to empower us for a particular Christ-honouring role or purpose in God's work (as we see occurring in the book of Acts, for example). I think this is something that Christians should be seeking after.

What about God's work? God has already made known the mystery of his will in Christ (Jn 15:15; Rom 16:25-27; Eph 1:9-10 3:4-5). We live in the time of God's amnesty (1 Pet 3:9) awaiting Jesus' return in glory. There is no additional revelation or knowledge that could be useful to us -- God has revealed everything we could possibly need to know on this side of heaven. In line with this, the Spirit's work is not primarily for "anointing" but rather to continue revealing Christ (Jn 15:26, Acts 1:8). God's work in the world continues not through the transmission of divine force but primarily through the proclamation and acceptance of Christ (Rom 10:8-15), resulting in lives of service. God has already poured out his Spirit so that his people can know him and live for him -- we have already received the gift of God living with us! Although Christians await even greater experiences when Jesus returns (1 Cor 13:8-12; Rev 21), we have no need to grasp after new impartations and anointings and visitations because God has already imparted his Spirit and the mystery of his will to his people. Rather, we need to keep in step with the Spirit by whom we first gained life (Gal 5:25). The evidence of the Spirit's presence and work is a changed life seen in the Spirit's fruit (Gal 5 etc).

In summary, then, God is at work by his Spirit to empower his people, sometimes in special, momentary ways, but this power is focused on revealing Christ.

CONDUCT
Todd Bentley designs the meetings to be events where people can surrender their self-control, perhaps through laughing hysterically or shaking as he himself does. This conflicts with a number of emphases throughout the New Testament: self-control (Gal 5:16-26; 1 The 5:6; Tit 1-2; 1 Pet 1:13 4:7 5:8), orderly gatherings (1 Cor 14) and discernment (Rom 12:2; Php 1:9-11; Col 2:1-5; 1 The 5:21; 1 Jn 4:1). For examples, Paul is clear that being "drunk" on the Holy Spirit, whereby we gain the self-control to serve God and others, is in stark contrast to being drunk on alcohol, whereby we lose control of ourselves. In 1 Corinthians 12-14, Paul is at pains to ensure that the gatherings of the Corinthian church are not chaotic and disorderly so that (a) the church can be edified and built up and (b) outsiders are not alienated.

TODD BENTLEY
The Florida gatherings are very much centred around Todd. His speech, peppered with the recounting of, "I said to God" and, "The Lord told me that", marks him out as the channel through which God is at work in the gatherings. Todd does not merely see or pray for the glory but acts as if he himself is directing it. In the scenes above, it is Todd who directs the glory to the parking lot and Todd who ushers the "glory movement" into the room. Later on, Todd says he is "getting the atmosphere ready" and people just need to be "hungry" to receive it. In a more recent gathering (5 May), Todd connects the progress of the glory even more explicitly with himself: wherever he goes, the glory will follow. This contradicts the idea of the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2). The worldwide body of Christian believers is made up of many parts, all of whom play an equal role in supporting and building the church (1 Cor 12). No special prophets or apostles or channels of God exist today. As above, God is present in all his people through his Spirit, the Spirit of Christ; all Christians have equal and direct access to God because he himself dwells with them. Christians do not need other figureheads to connect to God.

I find the following aspects of the Florida gatherings, then, to be problematic:

• The silence and confusion about the person and work of the Spirit and Christ, particularly the ideas of "the glory" and "the impartation"
• The frenzied antics
• Todd acting as a special channel of God

Todd has named the current Florida gathering a revival from the beginning. It would appear that at least in part, this gathering has been growing because it's been called a revival rather than the other way around. An authentic revival will involve "renewing the church, extending the faith to outsiders and reforming communities, as lives are changed by the Gospel ... the normal work of God, but happening with unusual intensity" (Colin Reed, 2007, Walking in the Light: reflections on the East African revival and its link to Australia, Acorn, 11). I have only considered a snapshot of the Florida gatherings themselves and it may be that widespread, genuine life-change and growth in Christ-likeness is accompanying them. However, in the context of these gatherings, I find it difficult to see exactly how Christian disciples are growing in holiness and understanding, and how people are repenting in response to the saving power of the cross. I find it unlikely that what's on view here is a revival.