Todd Bentley is Out of the Ministry

He didn’t just leave Lakelandianity- he’s out. Hopefully for good. Now who will Peter Kirk have to defend? Perhaps the Aussie Bentley. You know, the guy on the oxygen tube who faked his own illness and sang lame and false songs like ‘Hug Me Jesus, But Don’t Step on My Oxygen Tube’ and “I’ll Worship You With Lying Tongue And Wicked Heart” and other such sorts of ‘Praise Songs’.

By the way, I love the source of the story I’ve linked to for this. It’s ‘Oil week’- ‘Canada’s gas and oil authority’. No one knows gas like the gasbag Bentley!

Todd Bentley, the Canadian revivalist whose tactics drew protest from some fellow Pentecostals, has resigned from public ministry after acknowledging an “unhealthy relationship on an emotional level” with a female staff member. … He claims to have performed mass healings. … Critics say Bentley rarely opens a Bible or sermonizes about Jesus Christ. They worry he is too little about conversion, too heavy on his own hype and too focused on self-proclaimed miracles. The board of Fresh Fires Ministries, based in Abbotsford, said its work would continue without Bentley.

Bentley didn’t need the Bible- he had the ’spirit’ and like all ’spiritualists’ (read Schwärm- und Rottengeister) since the Reformation, he exalted his own experience above the truth. I’m glad he’s out of the ministry. I certainly hope he stays out. For the sake of the Church.

Ada Yardeni on the ‘Messiah Stone / Gabriel’s Vision’ Thing

Antonio notes a brief letter by Yardeni to the editor of the Biblical Archaeology Review which just appeared in which Yardeni writes

Dear Hershel,
Since there was confusion in the media reports with regard to my view of Israel Knohl’s reading of the critical line of Hazon Gabriel (the Gabriel Revelation), I would like to make the following statement: After reviewing the document, I came to the conclusion that the reading suggested by Professor Knohl for the third word of line 80—HAYE “live”—seems to be the only plausible reading of that word. Thus, the first five words of this line should be translated as: “In three day live, I Gabriel.”

And so the fun continues… Oh that Pfann and Garbini would sally forth to do battle with Knohl. That would be even more fun.

Where Has Doug Chaplin Been?

Taking a shower with his cat! That’s just weird, Doug. Weird. That cat clearly will now seek to destroy you in payment for your ‘act of beastiality kindness’.

Insert Raised Eyebrow Here…

Religion News Service reports

“I think hell is being in the absence of purpose,” says Long, 64, who was addicted to crack cocaine before coming to Guiding Light two years ago. “When I had no purpose, no direction, I actually felt like I was living in hell.” For Long, hell is all too real — a temporary torment in this life, an endless agony in the next. But for more and more Americans, hell is a myth. In a survey released this summer by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, just 59 percent of 35,000 respondents said they believe in a hell “where people who have led bad lives, and die without being sorry, are eternally punished.” That’s down from the 71 percent who said they believed in hell in a 2001 Gallup survey. And it is lower than the 74 percent who said they believe in heaven in the recent Pew poll. Skepticism about hell is growing even in evangelical churches and seminaries, says one theologian here, a bastion of conservative evangelicalism. “In a pluralistic, post-modern world, students are having a more difficult time with (the idea of) people going to hell forever because they didn’t believe the right thing,” says Mike Wittmer, professor of systematic theology at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary.

Now there’s an idea for a book along the lines of the Bird / Crossley smackdown! And here’s a recommended title: Hell- The Debate Fires Rage. Potential contributors and their contributions:

Jim West- Oh Yes There Is And Most Likely You’ll Be There Soon Enough, You Depraved Wretch!

Chris Tilling- Well I Hope There Isn’t But I’m Pretty Sure There Is, Because I’ve Heard Recordings of It.

Mike Bird- Yes There is, But No One Will Be There Except Satan and James Crossley.

James Crossley- No There Isn’t But If There Is, I Hope Mike Bird Isn’t There!

Mark Goodacre- The Concept of Hell in Q.

Chris Brady- There’s No Mention of Hell In Lamentations.

Douglas Mangum- Nor Is There Mention of Hell in The Hebrew Bible. Nor Is There Mention of Hell in The Hebrew Bible . . . But That Doesn’t Mean You Aren’t Headed There (rev.).

John Hobbins- 500 Pages of Materials in Which I Comment On Every Aspect of Hell: From the Bible Through the Waldensians and Hussites- With Thousands of Illustrations.

Roland Boer- Hell? That’s An Australian Pub: Or The Post-Post Modern Drunken Aussie and His Torment.

Scott Bailey- Hell On A Hockey Puck.

Available from EJ Brill for the rock bottom price of $4,908 (22pp. + Hobbins numerous hand drawn illuminations). ISBN- X-66-6666-66-616

What The…

Imagine my surprise whilst hopping over to biblioblogs.com to discover that it’s, well, gone! Gasp!!!!  [Originally posted August 19].

UPDATE:  It’s back.  Whew.  Thanks Brandon.

Lest We Forget…

It was on this day in 1884 that Rudolf Karl Bultmann was born.  Bultmann was, without question, the greatest New Testament exegete of the 20th century.  His commentaries on 2 Corinthians and John set the bar extraordinarily high; his essays on New Testament and theological themes are still pearls of great price; and his lectures and sermons as moving now as ever they were.  Indeed, if one were to begin any investigation of Bultmann’s thoughts, one should begin with his sermons and lectures and then – and only then – move on to his more academically oriented tomes.

A couple of facts that may surprise some are, first, the personal piety of Bultmann.  He was a regular church-goer, even when he wasn’t preaching.  And second, he was never ordained!   He loved his wife and daughter and wrote them both poems and short stories.  He opposed war and was a foe of Nazi-ism.  He was, in short, a devoted Christian who lived his faith in every aspect of life. He wasn’t the demonic destroyer of faith his feckless fundamentalist foes have painted him as; and so what he wrote abides to the present as the sort of thing that every New Testament scholar must wrestle with and come to terms with.

Happy Bultmann’s Birthday!  Read a sermon- be stirred in soul.

Jerome Emser Was A Goat…

And grossly misinformed concerning the meaning of the Lord’s Supper and the notion of ‘purgatory’- so on the 20th of August, 1524, Huldrych Zwingli set out to help the goat out, by publishing his Adversus Hieronymum Emserum antibolon.  It wasn’t the first shot though- that honor belongs to Emser, who had written a nasty little piece against Zwingli’s earlier ‘Epichiresis‘.  The substance of Emser’s ideas can be summarized thusly: ‘If the Church has taught it and teaches it, that’s good enough for me, and should be good enough for you too!’  Zwingli found this approach unsatisfactory and countered that the teaching of the Church is quite secondary to the teaching of Scripture.  Emser was a fairly good scholar, but he wasn’t a great scholar.  And his weaknesses are pointed out in meticulous detail in the Adversus…  Take that, goat boy!

Solicitating Facebook Suggestions

I’ve added a new section to the Resources page titled ‘Biblical Studies Facebook Groups‘.  Might I ask readers who use Facebook to suggest potential additions to that page?  I’m not at all familiar with many such ‘groups’ and certainly don’t want to overlook any that may be useful to others.  Drop me a comment or send me an email at ‘jwest at highland dot net’ if you would be so kind should you have a suggestion.

Still Like Wiki and Think It Useful?

Maybe this will dissuade you.  Here’s a closeup for those who are visually challenged.  Via Carl Sweatman

Australia’s Todd Bentley

Just when you thought the world could only be plagued by one Todd Bentley, Australia comes up with their own.

A FORMER Adelaide pastor who inspired hundreds of thousands of young Christians with his with his terminal cancer “battle” has been exposed as a fraud. Michael Guglielmucci, whose parents established Edge Church International, an Assemblies of God church at O’Halloran Hill, is now seeking professional help. Earlier this year, Mr Guglielmucci released a hit song The Healer which was featured on Sydney church Hillsong’s latest album. It debuted at No. 2 on the ARIA charts. The song has become an anthem of faith for believers, many of whom are suffering their own illness and were praying for a miracle for Mr Guglielmucci, who has claimed for two years to be terminally ill. In one church performance that has attracted 300,000 hits on YouTube, he performs his hit song with an oxygen tube in his nose.

There ya have it. Deception in the name of faith- all for the sake of fame. Todd Bentley-ism-anity at its best. We’ll be praying for you, Australia, that your powers of discernment increase and your youth be freed from the idiocy of false teachers and the nonsense called ‘christian rock’. Via Mark Stevens.