Wednesday, February 28, 2007

The Devil's Disciples

In one of the greatest deceptions in this modern, technological age, evangelical ministries, via the medium of television, have destroyed Christianity in America. Does this sound startling to you? Then you need to consider this. Television ministries such as The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) claim they are doing the work of God and are “saving” thousands of souls. But the truth is for every soul that is supposedly saved, there are a least twenty that watch TBN and then think to themselves, "this is ridiculous". They change channels and walk away from Christianity for the rest of their lives.

This sounds harsh, but consider. In the 1950's and earlier, most American families woke up on Sunday morning and readied themselves to attend their local church services. Typically, these were Lutheran, Methodist, Catholic, Episcopalian, Baptist, etc. This was considered a normal part of life and was accepted by the majority as the means to obtain spiritual fulfillment. This was before the days of the televised ministries. Does it seem that things may have been a bit better back then? Most people today are struggling with many more challenges when it comes to raising a family. It is interesting to note, that at the same time the television ministries were becoming prominent features on our television screens that a revolution in immorality was taking place. Today, the United States leads the world in producing pornography that is widely available on the Internet. Hollywood produces, vile and violent movies, that are not fit for anyone to watch, let alone children. Television comedies are rife with themes are about sex, bed-hopping, and stupid, inane humor. The increase in perverse entertainment in the media has tracked almost equally with the rise in television evangelism and these ministries have done nothing to prevent the moral erosion that has taken place in America.

Why do most people turn their backs on television ministries? Let's look at TBN, for example. Almost nightly we see examples of what is call the gift of healing. A very prominent practitioner of this is Benny Hinn. People by the thousands attend his meetings thinking that they will be witness to a miracle of healing. And they do see people supposedly healed of heart disease, cancer, deafness, headaches, backaches and so forth, as claimed by Benny Hinn. It does not seem to matter that there is never a supernatural, visible, change to the person being healed. These so-called miracles are based solely on the verbal claims of Benny Hinn and the person he has healed.

The odd thing about the miracles of Benny Hinn, is that according to the Bible, Jesus Christ plainly stated that his followers would be able to do greater miracles than his own. This is not the case with Benny Hinn. You might say his miracles are somewhat less and weaker than those performed by Jesus Christ. With Jesus there were startling, visual, supernatural events that could not be denied. Jesus filled empty baskets with fish and bread from out of nowhere. He healed blind people. I have yet to see Benny Hinn heal a blind person. Oh, plenty of hard of hearing people have suddenly found they could hear someone shouting in their bad ear after a Benny Hinn healing. But they still seem to have some difficulty understanding what is said so they apparently are only partially healed.

You know what would be a great miracle for Benny Hinn to perform? It would be a healing of a veteran, returned from Iraq with both legs missing. To see two new legs suddenly appear is certainly something that God could do. Benny Hinn was asked why he does not go to children's hospitals and heal the children who lay sick and dying of cancer and leukemia. His answer was that God wants to perform his miracles in front of the largest amount of people so many more can witness the great works of God.

So why have television ministries, such as TBN, with their focus on healing, caused so many to walk away from Christianity never to return. It really is simple. Most of us can see through the utter fraud perpetrated by the likes of Benny Hinn. He has given people false hope by deception. He cannot, and God will not heal anyone through such a con-artist.

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2 comments:

DBell said...

If you can understand Matt 11:16-19 you will understand why your argument against TBN is wrong.

Let me explain it to you... Jesus said people reject the message in every form that God sends it... you are just rejecting one form of presentation.

Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds... both types of ministry Jesus was talking about were drawing people to God... John and Jesus...and yet amazingly both types of ministry were being rejected by people too.

By the way... I am not particulary fond of TV ministries... but I got cured of condemning them when one of the most successful and outgoing personal evangelists I ever met got his main "feeding" from TV ministries because he came from an extremely poor background and never learned to read or write... but the man could preach the Gospel and win souls to Jesus.... in fact some of his main feeding came from TBN.

Here is another news flash... God chooses to use very imperfect people... King David committed murder and adultery and God chose to keep his writings as part of the Old Testament and there are men and women in Bible schools that get Ph.D.'s studying what he wrote and you probably sing songs based on his writings today.

Here is another flash... I don't like watching Benny Hinn... I tire of seeing him try to push people down and yet I don't have the audacity to say that God will not use the man or is not using the man... that would be foolishness in the light of the above examples and many others... You sir would have certainly written Samson off in his day and yet God used him for the nation of Israel and listened to and honored his prayer after he had made a mess of his life.

Take a tip from Paul in Philippians 1:18 and rejoice.

Finally... yes I have been a bit hard on you... but the tone in your blog deserved it....

Don't worry though... from what I hear God has a great sense of humor and is very forgiving.... For you Mr. Polk, God will do a special work... concerning 1 Corinthians 15:52... You will hear it as a Tuba blast... and you won't care that it did not sound like you wanted... you will just rejoice to hear it.

Mr. Polk said...

Thanks for the well thought out comments. I must admit I rambled on, somewhat, which threw the focus off the main point I was trying to make.

Of course, God uses imperfect men to send his message to the world. There are plenty of examples in the Bible, and you pointed out several in your post. God did marvelous works through imperfect men.

To clarify, I think it is reasonable to say that when God does not do what he has promised then it is resonable to challenge him....Like, hey God, where's the beef? This is exactly why many turn there backs on God. That is, the so-called miracles seen during a Benny Hinn crusade, while converting a few, leave the vast majority feeling empty or even angry. Yes, I know, "a wicked generation looks for a sign", but God also gave us a mind to probe and ask questions.

In John 14:12 Jesus says that his believers would do greater works than the ones he did. Well, lets see then, Benny Hinn....we are waiting. In the meantime, using the power of reason, a wonderful "gift" from God, to each of us, we plainly see that Benny Hinn, and TBN by extension, are not "empowered" supernaturally by a supreme God, and as a result, are causing many to turn away from a Christian life. The "God" Benny Hinn worships can barely heal an ear ache.