Televangelist Benny Hinn, who became a millionaire by making worshipers donate to him, said that his prosperity gospel “It’s an offense to the Lord,” and vows he will never ask for money again
By
Julio
Severo
Televangelist Benny
Hinn, who became a millionaire by preaching the prosperity gospel, has now made
a stunning rejecting of the practice and declared that “it’s an offense to the
Lord.”
Hinn,
who has an estimated fortune of $60 million, now says the “Holy Ghost is just
fed up” with the prosperity gospel and vowed never again to ask for money.
“I’m
sorry to say that prosperity has gone a little crazy and I’m correcting my own
theology and you need to all know it. Because when I read the Bible now, I
don’t see the Bible in the same eyes I saw 20 years ago,” Hinn said.
“I
think it’s an offense to the Lord, it’s an offense to say give $1,000. I think
it’s an offense to the Holy Spirit to place a price on the Gospel. I’m
done with it. I will never again ask you to give $1,000 or whatever amount
because I think the Holy Ghost is just fed up with it. I think it hurts the
Gospel, so I’m making this statement for the first time in my life and frankly,
I don't care what people think about me anymore. When you look at the word of
God… if I hear one more time, break the back of debt with $1,000, I’m gonna
rebuke them,” he said.
“I
think that’s buying the Gospel. That’s buying the blessing. That’s grieving the
Holy Spirit… If you are not giving because you love Jesus, don’t bother
giving. I think giving has become such a gimmick… it’s making me sick to
my stomach,” he added.
Daily
Mail reported that Hinn’s ministry collected roughly $100 million in annual
donations.
Hinn
is known for his faith healing summits that are often held in huge stadiums
across the country.
The
faith healing services often show believers being knocked over by the Holy
Spirit. They also claim to have been cured of illnesses through Hinn's
services.
Hinn
had his Texas offices raided by the IRS back in 2017 and he was one of six
television evangelists investigated by the Senate Finance Committee in 2007.
The prosperity
gospel is the teaching and belief among Pentecostals and charismatics that
Christians can obtain wealth and health by exercising their faith.
There
are varying degrees in teaching and practice of the prosperity gospel. Some
prosperity gospel televangelists insist that you can receive blessings only by
giving money in the church. This was Hinn’s case.
Other
prosperity gospel televangelists insist that miracles happen only by faith,
regardless donations. This was the case of the late televangelist Rex Humbard.
The
prosperity gospel, which was born in the United States, the most capitalist and
Protestant nation in the world, is a distinctly capitalist form of the U.S.
evangelicalism that was exported to several nations around the world. In
Brazil, prosperity gospel televangelists have been in the forefront of the
cultural war and, interestingly, Brazilian socialists have said that the number
1 enemy of socialism in Brazil is the prosperity gospel.
In
fact, socialist Fernando Haddad, who lost the
Brazilian presidential election to Jair Bolsonaro in 2018, blamed his defeat to
charismatics and the prosperity gospel.
The
prosperity gospel threatens socialism in Brazil because while socialists teach
the poor to support socialist politicians to get health, education and a better
life, prosperity gospel televangelists teach the poor to seek intensely God for
health, education and a better life.
Socialism
entered Latin America enticing the poor that they could get better lives by
taking from others and helping Marxists into power.
The
prosperity gospel, in its several forms, came directly from America and entered
Latin America by encouraging and motivating the poor to work hard and pursue a
professional objective by seeking God intensely. The prosperity gospel teaches
its adherents in Latin America to hate abortion, homosexuality and similar
ideologies. So it is no wonder that the left hates it. The only surprise is why
Calvinists are so united with Marxists, socialists, progressives and even
sorcerers who fight this capitalist theology.
I
welcome Hinn’s decision to leave his radical form of the prosperity gospel that
made people donate millions to him. But other forms of the prosperity gospel
should be encouraged, not only because they produce a capitalist spirit in poor
Christians, but also because they threaten socialism.
The
biggest enemies of the prosperity gospel in Brazil are socialists, including
secular, Catholic and Protestant socialists. This speaks volumes.
The
degrees of difference in the prosperity gospel are vast. For example, the
Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) is a neo-Pentecostal denomination
that owns TV Record, the second largest TV channel in Brazil. UCKG preaches the
prosperity gospel and uses Hinn’s radical form of teaching that people can be
blessed only by giving more and more money to the church, but UCKG is very
hostile to all the other prosperity gospel churches in Brazil. UCKG is the only
neo-Pentecostal church in Brazil defending abortion, a stance that is
compatible with the Presbyterian Church USA, the largest Calvinist denomination
in the U.S. And UCKG defends cessationism, teaching that prophecy, revelation
and other gifts of the Holy Spirit today are demonic. UCKG teaches that only
the Bible is necessary and that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit
ceased 2,000 years ago, a stance that is compatible with cessationist
Calvinists.
Cessationist
Calvinists are celebrating Hinn’s decision. Many of them have a socialist
background or are friendly to Calvinist socialists. Even though they are not
hesitant to call any form of the prosperity gospel heresy, they are very
hesitant to call any form of socialism among Calvinists heresy.
The
prosperity gospel in its several forms is not present among Calvinists. But
socialism in its several forms, including the old Social Gospel and the gay
theology, is present among Calvinists. So it would be very wise for Calvinists
to focus on their massive domestic socialist problem, not on the prosperity
gospel, which has been the most effective form of evangelical capitalism to
fight socialism.
Often
cessationist Calvinists attack the prosperity gospel, making no distinction in
its several degrees, because they oppose everything Pentecostal and
charismatic, especially spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit. They believe that
these gifts ceased 2,000 years ago and that Christians who say today that they
have such gifts are heretical or under heretic and demonic delusion.
This
is the case of Calvinist theologian John MacArthur. In his book “Strange Fire:
The Danger of Offending the Holy Spirit with Counterfeit Worship,” he mentions
negatively Benny Hinn 199 times, even though Hinn was not invited to preach in
Calvinist churches. “Strange Fire,” which makes no negative mention of PCUSA
and the homosexualist Calvinism of the Gospel Coalition, uses the prosperity
gospel to attack all charismatics, Pentecostals and neo-Pentecostals.
In
“Strange Fire,” MacArthur said,
“By
elevating the authority of experience over the authority of Scripture, the Charismatic
Movement has destroyed the church’s immune system—uncritically granting free
access to every imaginable form of heretical teaching and practice. Put
bluntly, charismatic theology has made no contribution to true biblical
theology or interpretation; rather, it represents a deviant mutation of the
truth. Like a deadly virus, it gains access into the church by maintaining a
superficial connection to certain characteristics of biblical Christianity, but
in the end it always corrupts and distorts sound teaching. The resulting
degradation, like a doctrinal version of Frankenstein’s monster, is a hideous
hybrid of heresy, ecstasy, and blasphemy awkwardly dressed in the tattered
remnants of evangelical language.”
MacArthur
repeatedly calls the Pentecostal, neo-Pentecostal, and charismatic movement
“heretical.” One of the many excuses he uses to apply this extremist label to
Pentecostals is in his book, which says: “Pentecostals and charismatics elevate
religious experience over biblical truth. Though many of them pay lip service
to the authority of God’s Word, in practice they deny it.”
The
opposite is true. I give an example of MacArthur’s own Calvinist backyard. The
Gospel Coalition, a group formed exclusively by Calvinists, has been advocating
the idea that an evangelical can be
homosexual and minister as long as he limits his homosexuality to thoughts and
desires without practicing them. In fact, the Gospel Coalition has
several members who are supposedly non-practicing homosexual ministers.
MacArthur
is also a member of the Gospel Coalition. This is the perfect case of putting
the personal experience of sin, whether in thoughts, desires, or actions, of
homosexual Calvinist ministers above God’s Word. In fact, it is not the
Pentecostal churches that are leading the apostasy of ordaining homosexual
ministers. It is Calvinist churches. Pharisaism reigns in cessationist
Calvinism.
Benny
Hinn has done the right thing by renouncing an extremist prosperity theology
that demands money in exchange for blessings. But the other less radical capitalist
forms of the prosperity theology that confront socialism and encourage and
motivate poor Christians to seek health, employment, and a better life in God,
not in socialism, should be strengthened.
As
for John MacArthur, who demonizes Pentecostals, Charismatics, and
neo-Pentecostals, and all capitalist forms of the prosperity theology, he
should focus on the Gospel Coalition that accepts homosexual Calvinist
ministers who place their homosexual experience and feelings above the Word of
God.
Another harmful feeling is envy.
MacArthur and other envious Calvinists should not use the hardcore form of the
prosperity gospel formerly preached by Hinn as an excuse to attack all forms of
this gospel and, worst of all, attack all charismatic, Pentecostal and
neo-Pentecostal movements, which is exactly what he does. Such feeling is a
hardcore envy, especially because the prosperity gospel, with its distinct
American capitalist evangelicalism, has had a prominent benevolent role to
encourage and motivate the Third World poor and threaten socialism. MacArthur
and other Calvinists should praise God, not dedicate their lives to a hardcore
envy against charismatics, Pentecostals and neo-Pentecostals.
If all forms of the prosperity gospel
are destroyed, as cessationist Calvinists want, who will be left to encourage and
motivate the poor to pursue a better life through a biblical capitalism? Who
will be left to fight socialism so prevalent among Catholics and even
Calvinists in Latin America?
Portuguese
version of this article: Televangelista Benny Hinn, que se tornou milionário
fazendo adoradores darem contribuições para ele, disse que sua teologia da
prosperidade “é uma ofensa ao Senhor” e promete que nunca mais pedirá dinheiro
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