Benny Hinn: Visiting the Facebook Pages of Prosperity Preachers, part 3

Quotes from John Piper, J.C. Ryle, and The Valley of Vision. These are what I usually see in my Facebook news feed. The insights they offer are truly edifying; truly soul-nourishing.

I wonder what if the Lord has not enlightened me on the evils of the Word-of-Faith Movement? What if I was left in darkness listening and reading these dangerous teachers? What would appear on my news feed if the Lord has not kept me away from their clutches?

On March 30, 2012, I decided to visit the Facebook Walls/Timelines of some of the big names in the movement.Their Facebook posts appears in red in this series.

If you desire to explore the depth of God's word using the same bible that Pastor Benny Hinn studies with, visit http://tiny.cc/QPYe2b This Is our Day-The Dake Bible or call 800-433-1900 to order your copy of the Dake's Annotated Reference #Bible. #TIYD

When I posted part 1 of this series, I thought Benny Hinn's prophetic utterance on each person of the Trinity as "a triune being by Himself" and that "there's nine of them" was original to him. Now I learned that it could have been due to the influence of his favorite study bible. The Dake Annotated Reference Bible teaches:

“What we mean by Divine Trinity is that there are three separate and distinct persons in the Godhead, each one having His own personal spirit body, personal soul, and personal spirit in the sense that each human being, angel, or any other being has his own body, soul and spirit.”

You can see the influence of  Finis Jennings Dake in Hinn's view of God. Contrary to the biblical and historic Christian view that God as a spirit is without body or parts (Deuteronomy 4:15; John 4:24; Luke 24:39), Hinn believes that each person of the Trinity "possesses His own spirit-body." He made such assertion two years after he retracted his infamous "there's nine of them revelation". In Dake's writings, “God has a spirit body with bodily parts like man.” This God with bodily parts lives in "a material planet called Heaven" and the only reason why we can't see him is "because He is so far away". Think about that! The only reason why we can't see God is because the Hubble Space Telescope lacks power to reach God. If we could only make sufficient improvements in our technology, we can see God and Planet Heaven!

Dake could have had also influenced Hinn on his view of man. Hinn's teaching "When you say I am a Christian, you are saying ‘I am a messiah’ in Hebrew. I am a little messiah walking on earth" is not so far away from Dake's "humans are miniatures of God in attributes and power".

In John R. Kohlenberger's review of study bibles, he wrote:

This work contains a great deal that is speculative and unorthodox, such as Dake’s belief in God’s "spirit body" with "bodily parts" that "goes from place to place" (pp. 96-97 [NT]), his strong teaching on racial segregation (e.g., pp. 148 [OT] and 159 [NT]), and his dogmatism on just about every subject he addresses. The Dake’s study Bible cannot be recommended to journal readers, charismatic or not. 

 There are excellent study bibles in the market like The Macarthur Study Bible and the ESV Study Bible. Don't waste your money on Dake's.

Jesse Duplantis: Visiting the Facebook Pages of Prosperity Preachers, part 1

Quotes from John Piper, J.C. Ryle, and The Valley of Vision. These are what I usually see in my Facebook news feed. The insights they offer are truly edifying; truly soul-nourishing.

I wonder what if the Lord has not enlightened me on the evils of the Word-of-Faith Movement? What if I was left in darkness listening and reading these dangerous teachers? What would appear on my news feed if the Lord has not kept me away from their clutches? 

On March 30, 2012, I decided to visit the Facebook Walls/Timelines of some of the big names in the movement.

Their Facebook posts appears in red in this series.

 "Get out of theology! Get out of religion! Start walking in the light of the glory of God."

A person's belief system regarding the nature of God and religious questions is that person's theology. Any God-related statement therefore is a theological statement. Duplantis' Facebook post is a theological statement because in it he expresses his view about God and spiritual things. It is therefore self-contradictory for him to say "Get out of theology..." when he himself is into theology.

Notice also that he views "theology" and "walking in the light of the glory of God" as mutually exclusive as if you cannot walk in the glory of God and be into theology at the same time. Duplantis' aversion to theology is not new. His contemporaries have expressed the same hatred for historic Christian theology.

Kenneth Copeland once said, "I don't preach doctrine, I preach faith."

Also, though Benny Hinn quickly retracted his "Spirit-revealed" teaching that each person of the Trinity is "a triune being by Himself" and that "there's nine of them", his justification for such never-been-heard-before teaching that day was:

"You say, Huh, I never heard that. Well you think you're in this church to hear things you've heard for the last 50 years? You can't argue with the Word, can you? It's all in the Word."

See where a disrespect toward the historically established theology of the church can lead you?

Joseph Prince and Benny Hinn AGAINST the Inspired Narrator

"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
    and naked I will depart.
  The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
    may the name of the LORD be praised."
(Job 1:21)

Joseph Prince's Commentary:

"Thinking that God was the source of his problems and not knowing that it was actually Satan who had come against him, he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Such a statement seems to honor God, but in reality, it reveals an erroneous view of our heavenly Father." (source)

Benny Hinn's Commentary:

"You know what? We've said it this a million times and it's not even scriptural-- all because of Job: 'The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." I have news for you: that is not Bible, that's not Bible. The Lord giveth and never taketh away. And just because he said, 'Blessed be the name,' he was just being religious and being religious don't mean you're right." (TBN, Nov. 3, 1990)

The Inspired Narrator's Commentary:

"In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing." (Job 1:21)




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 Related post:

Benny Hinn: Visiting the Facebook Pages of Prosperity Preachers, part 3