Then Lamech said to his wives:
“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech!
For I have killed a man for wounding me,
Even a young man for hurting me.

If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,
Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”

Where my pastor was using this Scripture to make a point about the subject of vengeance as it relates to the overall scope of forgiveness, another thought immediately crossed into my mind that I wrote down on a scrap piece of paper to ponder later on (Because my pastor’s sermon was something I needed to hear):

Lamech comes across like most modern-day televangelists.

As I pondered this thought on the way home and after reading Genesis 4:23-24 again, I deeply felt and started to see more and more parallels between many of the cocky televangelists on television today and the cockiness displayed in Lamech’s words.

(1): Look at the number of wives: When you look further back in Genesis 4 at verse nineteen we see something of significance mentioned here.

Then Lamech took for himself two wives…..

In fact, this was the first ever mention of polygamy. Adam and his descendants to this point only had one wife and now we see Lamech having two at the same time. Look at many of the televangelists and research them and see how many spouses they have had. Even though they were not married to two spouses simultaneously, in most cases there was already ’something going on’ with the ‘other woman’ during marriage number one that caused divorce and the other woman became the new wife. It was two emotional, and some cases physical relationships going on simultaneously.

(2): Their bragging for seeing people die because they attacked them: In verse twenty-three, we see these statements made:

For I have killed a man for wounding me,
Even a young man for hurting me.

See how many televangelists brag about the people who have died physically and/spiritually for ‘disagreeing with them’, for ‘exposing them’, for coming against the ‘annoying’ and doing the ‘profit$’ harm. I used to hear it all the time in pentecostalism how many families that ‘God broke up’ all because these parents came against them.

Worse was the fact that it was propagated that if you one day reached ‘the next level’ (send them money, pray harder, etc…), you can one day earn the same right to have God do the same atrocities / vengeances / murders, etc. on your enemies because of what ‘your enemies’ did against you.

(3): Their bragging for seeing worse punishments done to their enemies than seen by the enemies of their predecessor preachers (aka: fathers of their faith): In verse twenty-three, we see these statements made:

If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,
Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.

The reference to Cain and ’sevenfold’ is found mentioned in verse fifteen of Chapter 4 after God cursed him and declaired Cain a ‘fugitive and a vagabond’ and that God would punish the man who would succeed in killing Cain sevenfold. Lamech’s words of “seventy-sevenfold” is in a spirit of bragging but implied that there would be a worse vengeance against anyone who attacked him.

Doesn’t this sound like the same concept of Lamech and the same spirit of vengeance / murder that spews out of many televangelists mouths when people come out and call them out?

There is a huge problem here. Where the televangelists justify this same spirit of vengeance / murder by using the oft-repeated ‘…touch not mine anointed and do not the prophets harm…’ as coming from God, the problem here is that the spirit of vengeance / murder propagated from the mouth of a televangelist comes from the root of a murderer that stemmed from a spirit of jealousy traceable back to Cain who murdered Abel for providing the acceptable sacrifice pleasing to God.

It comes from a televangelist who emotionally and spiritually murders a true worshipper, prophet, evangelist, apostle, etc. for proclaiming the real truth and bringing forth real correction, for seeking and saving the lost, for setting the captives free, and for manifesting the true signs that follow them (in my name they shall cast out devils….)

It comes from a brother killing their own brother….

It manifests when the ‘cursed of the ground’ is offered up to God as the sacrifice and the problem is that the wrong blood is being wrongly shed to try to ‘atone’ for someone else’s sin.

It comes from the small church very few people attend that looks for and publicizes the flaws in the church down the street that grew because of obedience to the Lord.

It manifests in a ‘third wave revivalist’ mindset as these self-appointed mega apostles resent the sacrifices brought forth by the church leaders of the past claiming that their ‘dead spirit of religion’ is ‘holding up’ God from moving on earth to reestablish God’s Government, end abortion, marketplace ministries, and seven mountain mentalities.

It manifests when the ones who are ‘attacking them’ are deemed as ‘resenters’ when in reality, the spirit of vengeance / murder is the driving force that causes them to ‘resent’ any true worshipper, prophet, evangelist, apostle, etc. for proclaiming the real truth and bringing forth real correction.

It manifests in a theo-political mindset that believes they are going to be able to ‘take dominion’ over the earth and re set back up the justice of God to where God can come back again and get rid of their perceived enemies and set up the official state religion.

In this environment, we do not see the Lion and the Lamb. We see instead lust, lasciviousness, and the mentality of Lamech. We do not see repentance nor do we see a contrite heart. We instead see an arrogance that really believes that these leaders are more anointed and more powerful than the men of the Bible to the point where they really believe that God will punish their detractors using worse methods because they see themselves as being more important to God and even worse, God can not do anything on Earth without them.

The Lakeland Revival tried to bring the mentality of Lamech forth via an covert and deceptive manner via the now famous Todd Bentley commissioning service. Lakeland in many ways was the re-enactment of the mentality of Cain (Bob Jones, Paul Cain, C. Peter Wagner, Kansas City Prophets, etc.) who despised the true Abel blood sacrifices passed down to the younger generation possessing the mentality of Lamech (Todd Bentley, Patricia King, Bill Johnson, Che Ahn, etc.) who despises everyone who gets in their way. What we saw during the now famous Todd Bentley commissioning service (along with ‘Stacey Shakems’ bobbing her head like Linda Blair in the Exorcist), was the ‘coming out’ of the new self-appointed leaders announcing to us to get out of their way, they were going to take control of the church, reestablish God’s government, and that they would be viewed as being the ‘real church’ of the ‘real God’.

The mentality of Lamech resents someone else being called ‘the true people of God’. The mentality of Lamech resents the toil that the martyrs died for to promote the Christianity as portrayed in the book of Acts because the martyrs are seen as the ‘fathers of old religion’ while they want to be seen as ‘the new thing, the new way, and ‘the new and improved’ way we do church.

The mentality of Lamech to this day still wants to offer up something that was built upon the foundations of the cursed and the ground instead of accepting the ultimate blood sacrifice that Jesus gave us via his death on Calvary. The mentality of Lamech believes ‘vengeance is theirs’ when the Lord states that ‘vengeance is mine’.

The mentality of Lamech wants to offer up their ‘tentmaking’, their livestock, their flutes and harps, and their craftsman / metalworking industries (Lamech’s children’s trades) calling it ‘marketplace ministries’ when God wants us to just obey and go out and fulfill the Great Commission and seek and save the lost bring them until salvation and repentance.

It is of interest to see that after Genesis 4:24, we see no further mention of Cain’s descendants and Lamech (the Lamech mentioned in Genesis 5:25-31 is not the same person). It is not really known if they died out at this point of if they multiplied (and never documented) and were ultimately destroyed in the great flood as told in Genesis 6-8. But we can clearly see the point here.

As Cain, Lamech, and the rest of Cain’s vengeful descendants eventually dies. God wants the jealousy, resentment, bragging, vengeance, taunting, and murder that may still exist inside of us dead and inoperative.

God wants us to be free from being the tracker of what happens to those who have wronged us. God wants us to be free from thinking that we must be the ‘Holy Hitman’ and get rid of God’s enemies for him. God wants us to be free, period and one of the many ways of obtaining the fullness of life in Christ is to let those hurts, wrongs, and desires for ‘God to get them’ loose to where you can go onward, forward, and toward a productive life. Instead of the wrath and vengeance manifested in Lamech. God wants us to act in love, freedom, and compassion towards those we may disagree with or who may have wronged us.

All we can do is be forgiving at last, and let it go….

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When Lamech Starts Bragging

update: 1-2-09 9:55 PM; It has been revealed via this page that Bentley also has a Facebook page

It appears that Todd Bentley has got a new MySpace page up (with Demon Hunter music in his playlist) and sales of his ’stuff’ now goes through a company named “Sound of Fire” which appears to be overseen by Bentley’s dad and step-mom.

However, Miriam has done an excellent job of research and link tracing to both capture a conversation on this blog (see comment # 106237 in particular) and linking it to one of Todd’s MySpace “friends” (who I admit is physically, a very attractive woman) named “*~*Jessa*~*” if indeed this is true that “*~*Jessa*~*” is ‘the other woman’.

I know that everyone who is criticizing Todd is dealing specifically with the issue of his adultery, future divorce, his poor theology, and other issues too numerous to mention here. I agree wholeheartedly with many of these people that are bringing up this issue.

However, I want to bring up an aspect of this story that no one in the Christian blogosphere is talking about right now via a rhetorical question.

Where is the other woman’s own sense of marital fidelity?

Even though Todd, as the man in a marriage and head of the household is ultimately responsible for what happened with his marriage to Shonnah, I feel that we need to call out the other woman for her part of this whole tragedy for her part in all this for she needs to also bear some responsibility in this tragedy.

Most people, when being taught their core Christian value systems about marriage and marital fidelity, are taught the basics (and how complex it is to maintain the basics) of “Once married, stay married; One spouse till death do us part; Remain faithful to your spouse and thou shalt not commit adultery.”, “Do not even pursue another relationship outside of your own marriage”, etc.

However, that is only half of the concept of marital fidelity…

What about the other half of the concept of fidelity. The other half that consists of a teaching of core Christian value systems about marriage and marital fidelity especially as it relates to single people of “If a person of the opposite sex is married, do not approach them about a relationship”, “If you approach a person of the opposite sex about a relationship (you truly not knowing they are either married, engaged, or in another relationship) and you find out that they are married, engaged, or in another relationship, you apologize to that person and move on and find someone else who is not married or in a relationship”, and “If a married person of the opposite sex approaches you desiring a relationship, do what you have to do to stand firm and say no. Run like Joseph or openly rebuke them.”, etc.

Somehow we have either failed to teach this other half or that we have become ‘pragmatic relationship opportunists’ and we do not believe the other half of the core values exist anymore.

If this other woman was approached by Todd knowing all along (the other woman was supposed to be the nanny for the kids) that Todd was married, she is equally guilty of adultery and should be called ‘adulteress’. She should be equally called out as adulteress like Todd has been called out as being. She should have had the core value system of relationships to where she should had stood her ground in the name, respect, and honor of someone else’s marriage and said

NO!

and told Todd’s wife and employer what happened.

It is like we develop a false and deceptive sense of hope that the other person will eventually get tired and bored and eventually want us instead of ‘the spouse’. It is like we treat the one we want like a mouse and we put out whatever mousetraps and cheese it takes to ensnare them in order to entrap them.

Why is it we treat spousal relations and finding a church much like a job interview? Why is it that we seem to not be able to honor a lifelong covenant in the eyes of God and believe it’s ok to dump our spouses and betray our families when ‘a better opportunity comes along’? Why is it that we believe that ‘the grass is greener on the other side’?

Let’s take this phrase ‘the grass is greener on the other side’ literally…

Let’s say that there is a fence separating your yard from your neighbor’s yard and you look over the fence and see that your neighbor has beautiful rye grass growing while you have dried up brown centipede grass. Do you decide to move out of your house and move in with the neighbors because the grass in their yard is greener?

Of course not!!

What do most people start doing? Most people start researching, learning, and eventually go out to the garden shop at Home Depot (consulting with the ‘expert’ in the orange apron) and spend some money on some fertilizer and/or grass patches and began a process of seeding/planting, fertilizing, watering, and manicuring the new grass in their yard to where it’s lively and green.

Where am I going with this analogy?

Plain and simple. Todd, the grassy life was never ‘greener’ with the ‘other woman’. Instead of pursuing a relationship with the ‘other woman’ that went too far via the adultery when you moved your emotions, affections, and sexuality to her, you should have prayed, researched, learned, and if needed, spend money on some counseling for resources that would have watered, fertilized, nurtured, and planted new seeds of growth within your own relationship with your own wife in your own backyard that would have reaped a beautiful harvest similar in ways to a beautiful grassy yard.

In other words Todd, if the woman approached you about a relationship and / or if you approached her first, the ‘approachee’ should have directed and shown the ‘approacher’ the

KEEP OFF THE GRASS

sign stating that the grass / yard / relationship was ‘off limits’ to everyone else.

But in reality, it should have never even gotten to this point. If true relationship core values were learned and followed, then the both of you would have had loyality and respect to God, your spouse, families, each other, and yourself and would have never allowed the temptation to take root and grow to begin with.

Like uprooting artichokes and dandelions that love to absorb the minerals that the grass needs to grow, the both of you should have treated that temptation like you treat artichokes and dandelions and got it uprooted as soon as possible.

But you didn’t and the grass became full of those artichokes and dandelions and you wanted to experience greener grass in a easier non-committed, less working way and you jumped the fence and the ‘other woman’ wanted you to jump the fence…..

Shame on both of you…

Fidelity is a two-sided coin where integrity of sexual purity before marriage is equally as important as integrity of sexual purity during marriage. Usually, how you conduct yourself in reference to integrity of sexual purity before marriage is a good indication of how you will act with integrity of sexual purity during marriage. It seems that we have lost the value of loyality and respect of fidelity to God first, and then to the person who we will one day call our spouse. We think that the other side is better when if we were to spend time nurturing what we already have, we would in the long run be more fulfilled, more satisfied, more in love, and more greatful for what we already have and desire nothing else.

Todd is wrong going outside of his marriage for an relationship with another woman and showing disrespect to God, his wife, and his family.

The other woman is wrong for pursuing a relationship with a known married man and showing disrespect to God, Todd’s wife, and Todd’s family.

Both need calling out. Both need a stern rebuke. Both need to sever their ties and go back where they came from.

It has been stated on other Christian blogs that Todd has no interest in restoring his marriage with Shonnah and that Todd would be going to a well known Charismatic hangout in Charlotte, NC in early 2009 to ‘get counseling, restoration, etc. I wonder since the new MySpace page showed up and that the new Ministry page is online if Todd will go and receive his ‘counseling’ or if he will go, ‘get a wristslap’ and go back out on the road because he is a third wave money draw, or if he will go back to business as usual looking for a new demographic audience unfamiliar with what happened to him (worked with Robert Tilton and Jim WhittingTONNNN) because he needs money for alimony and child support.

we are about to find out……

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The Other Half of Fidelity

According to this Westernstandard.blogs.com article and another article from the same blog written by Rick Hiebert, Todd’s wife has a medical disability of her own that would contradict his healing theology that the author of the article so correctly explains:

You see, Mr. Bentley’s theology has difficulties with people not being miraculously healed. Christians of all stripes can attest to times when prayer to God has helped people to recover from illness and times when it has not. Certainly, given the loving and merciful nature of God as reflected in Christian theology, and the several Biblical references to prayer for the sick, it can be an expression of kindness and mercy by the Christian to either pray for the sick or offer them medical care or comfort.

Mr. Bentley, however, has moved from a balanced and mature approach to the subject to one that, while boosting Mr. Bentley’s alleged expertise in these matters, implies to the sick and needy that there is something wrong with you or your faith if you are not healed….

Mr. Bentley must realize that if, he divorces his current wife in favor of a trophy wife, there will be speculation in the minds of some of his Internet and Christian media critics that one of the reasons that he is getting rid of Shonnah is because her disability embarrasses him—and moreover, that his theology does not work with a wife hobbling along at his side.

One hopes that he will do the right thing and stay with his wife. One can pray that he will–and that everyone disappointed by Mr. Bentley’s flawed revival will be ministered to…some day…

Amen Mr. Hiebert

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The Story That Never Ends

However, which song suits the revival more than the ‘la la la’ song Roy Fields used to sing everynight? The choice is yours:

Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye) – Steam – 1969

or

Ray Charles – Hit The Road Jack (actually Todd)

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Lakeland 2.0 Is Over

It was interesting to read his past story and how the pro-Lakeland people have behaved towards him:

….I have been harassed,” cursed” and called names you can not print on a family website—not to mention the accusations of Pharisee, legalist and being one of the religious “dead.”

Read very carefully the words of LocalPastor when he described what some of the ministries involved in the Lakeland Outpouring have tried to do in reference to hindering his “free speech commentary regarding their public ministry”

Thank you LocalPastor for all that you have done. Your videos really helped educate many people in regards to Lakeland and the bad doctrine that was brought forth from that circus freakshow.

May God richly bless you!

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The “LocalPastor” Talks

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Interesting Insight

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Enough of False Prophets

When Charismatic Christians are made angry, they ‘christian curse’ their disagreers, but when a Christian is angered by a Charismatic Christian and tries the ‘christian curse’ game, the Charismatic Christian claims that he is ‘curse proof’.

How can this double-standard be so blindly accepted as truth?

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Christian Thought 08-31-08

When a revival leader has moral failures, the other revival leaders claim that the moral failure of the revival leader does not invalidate the revival. However, when a revival critic is found to be in a moral failure, the revival leaders claim that the moral failure of the revival critic invalidates the criticisms brought forth.

How can this double-standard be so blindly accepted as truth?

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Christian Thought of The Day

An Update on Lakeland from Peter
August 25, 2008

I was in the San Francisco airport on my way to Singapore and Indonesia when the news of Todd Bentley’s separation from his wife became public on August 12. When I arrived back home last week, I found that Doris had received and replied to around 1,700 emails and the stack of correspondence on my desk was unbelievable. It took me the rest of the week to catch up!

funny how all the major players in the ‘revival alliance (the really rottens)” were scheduled for overseas trips at the exact same time at the end of a revival when it was prophecied that the revival would go on forever……..

During the week I was gone, a major watershed occurred regarding the Lakeland situation as most of you would know. We are now on a new playing field. Lakeland Outpouring I, in which Todd Bentley was the main figure, is now history. Lakeland Outpouring II, in which Stephen Strader of Ignited Church is the main figure, has begun.

Lakeland, the sequel…. now available nationwide….

The Present

It will sound surprising to some, but Lakeland II in Ignited Church, which you will remember was the original host church, is going very well. The big crowds and GOD TV, of course, are gone. Ignited Church seats around 700 in the main sanctuary and Stephen Strader reports that on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings they have to use their overflow room. It is comfortably filled on week nights. The morning training sessions continue with a couple hundred every day, and teams continue to move daily into the streets of Lakeland spreading the gospel. Percentage-wise the dramatic miracles and healings occur nightly with probably a higher percentage of salvations on a daily basis. Support from local pastors is improving considerably. The most interesting report is that every night some 30 percent are first-time attenders, meaning that people are still coming to Lakeland from the outside to experience Outpouring II.

will there be fully documented healings or will the documentation be promised but never received?

Speaking of the public figure going down the tubes, Todd Bentley now carries the label of a liar and a deceiver. I’m sorry to mention it, but I felt personally deceived in the same way when Ted Haggard’s sin was exposed and he was immediately removed from ministry. In the Lakeland I case, I am elated at the way things are turning out. The Revival Alliance with whom Todd was aligned on June 23 has kicked into action with a vengeance. Ché Ahn and Bill Johnson, like me, were overseas when things broke, but John Arnott stepped up to the plate and moved in apostolically. It has since become clear that Todd’s Fresh Fire Board could not have handled the situation, Stephen Strader and Ignited Church could not, nor could any of his other close friends. Only the Revival Alliance could. I am delighted that they are not buying into typical charismatic soft morality, also called “greasy grace” or “don’t touch God’s anointed” or “mercy must triumph over judgment,” phrases that have been used on other similar occasions as convenient religious cop-out excuses. They’re proceeding in love, but it is tough love..

The problem with this movement was that the ‘tough love’ was never administered at the very beginning when all the craziness and heretical ‘extra-biblical revelations’ were being spewed out. The ‘non charismatic soft morality is a double-standard because Todd embarrassed alot of people. If it was one of the major Revival Alliance people, we would have seen the soft morality, go back to ministry the next day, and a year later, introduce your new trophy wife. Todd’s ministry couldn’t handle it because he was the leader and also there was a systemic breakdown in sin from within the camp with another staff member. Stephen Strader refused to man/shepherd up even though the revival broke out on HIS watch at HIS church. The Assemblies of God are also at fault for not interviening in the situation and dealing with it. Then again, it appears that both Strader and the A.O.G. played the pragmatics game and went with it until it could no longer be justified. All Todd’s close friends are really overglorified ‘yes men’ known as “PROPhets”.

Since this is an update, I will share some of what I know about what is happening with Bentley, but not all because some things need more verification and it is up to discernment of Revival Alliance what and when this will be revealed. Suffice it to say that there is more than I am going to mention.

First of all, Todd has been removed from public ministry until further notice. He has resigned from the ministry he founded, Fresh Fire, so he is no longer a part of that board. It has become clear that he indulged in periodic drunkenness. He has no intention at the moment of reconciling with Shonna, nor does she with him. Their marriage has been torn for years by his emotional attachment with at least one other female whose physical contact went beyond hugging and kissing and holding hands. Enough said-maybe more details will be revealed later-but it was clearly immoral. All of this was skillfully concealed by lying and by swearing close associates who had observed his behavior to secrecy. Stephen Strader, for example, knew nothing of this before June 23. Apparently some of his board members did, but they did not have the ability to deal with it.

Duh!!! about being removed, That’s obvious. DUH! about marital reconciliation, that’s a gimme. Who Is Todd’s Other Woman? If she was a ministry associate, she needs to be disqualified from ministry like Todd should be. Why didn’t some of the board members come out? The money…..

The Past

I hope this is the last time I will have to address the past. It is now history. But as history is written, I feel that I have some responsibility of helping to have history be written accurately, especially since I have turned out to be a lightening rod for a number of severe criticisms.

No!!!! This is a divert tactic to not deal with the real issues here. There is more of the past that needs revealing in order for people to learn from the errors and not see them repeat in the future. Nice try, I and many other Christians are not buying this rationale

Most of you know this, but let me reiterate to keep it on record. Previous to around the middle of June, my interest in Lakeland was about a 2 on a scale of 1-10. Then I got a call from Stephen Strader, the host pastor who was a member of ICA, which I lead, with a passionate appeal for apostolic intervention because chaos and confusion had begin to invade the Outpouring I. Toward the end of the hour we were talking, I received one of my infrequent direct words from God: “Alignment!” Just one word, but I knew I had a divine command and responsibility.

Once again, Strader’s church, Strader’s watch. Why didn’t Strader handle it? He used you C. Peter to get the revival alliance to do the dirty work

Once I knew that God had assigned me to initiate some sort of apostolic intervention at Stephen’s side, I began praying and consulting with close colleagues. In less than two days I discovered that Todd Bentley had no formal, established apostolic alignment. I asked God how I should proceed, especially since I had no inclination to attempt an apostle-evangelist approach and expect that Bentley would submit to or even listen to what I had to say if I made an appointment with him in Lakeland. I felt that proper apostolic protocol would be for me to deal with one or more peer-level apostles to whom Todd had aligned apostolically. Since as yet he had no such alignment, I began asking God how such an alignment might come about. He directed me to my close friend, Ché Ahn, who himself is apostolically aligned with me and who also had been close to Bentley for years. Ché agreed that the best apostolic protocol would be for Todd to align with the Revival Alliance if he were willing. Ché called him and Bentley agreed to submit publicly to the Revival Alliance.

Was this ‘Align with us or we’ll expose you?

At this point some disagreements arose. I have already mentioned that I was consulting with several apostolic colleagues whom I trusted and whom I know trusted me. It is very necessary for us to understand exactly what the disagreement was about. It was about the most appropriate apostolic protocol for the occasion. After prayerfully listening to the different points of view with careful consideration of what was being said, the decision had to be mine. I believe that God’s word to me about “Alignment!” had to be directional. I concluded that the best protocol was to do the alignment first, then deal with the issues that had been raised. My other friends disagreed and urged me to deal with Todd’s problems first then do the alignment. I respected their point of view and I was very sorry that I had to follow God’s leading for me personally instead of taking their advice. It was not a comfortable decision.

Now let me address what was behind much of their disagreement with my apostolic protocol.

They were concerned that if I appeared on the platform with GOD TV, many viewers would interpret it as my personal endorsement of everything that was going on in Lakeland I, and since they were so closely associated with me, they would be implicated as well. This was a legitimate concern, and one I seriously wrestled with as I made my decision. If I went to Lakeland and presided over the alignment, some might well take it as an endorsement. It was a risk, I knew. Let me say personally that all my life I have been a risk-taker instead of a play-it-safe person, and I have taken many hits for it. As an example going to the jungles of Bolivia as a career field missionary when I was 25 with my wife and a one-year-old baby girl was a serious risk. Both that daughter and another who was born in the jungle without medical attention came close to losing their lives during those five years. And we were criticized for our decision to take the risk by many, including parents!

This was an endorsement. Why would one get involved with something if they did not have an interest, agenda (hidden or not), or a desire to be a part of that thing? This was the covert attempt by Bentley to legitimize the third wave prophets, Bob Jones, and Paul Cain. This was the revival alliances covert attempt to bring the NAR into power and attempt to legitimize the movement.

Closer to the Lakeland I situation, I have a private list of no fewer than 18 high-profile Christian leaders starting from the 1970s until Bentley for whom I took risks. For each one of them I took serious criticisms and in some cases personal hits even much more serious than I have received in this current case because I endorsed or partnered with or provided alignment for them. Some were typified as “crazy!” However, I can pretty much discern winners, although not always. My track record for the 18 is 72% emerged as real winners (you would know most of them), 17% ended up losers (including Bentley), and 11% indecisive. I’m sorry for the losers, but they prove I am not perfect. The point I am making is that I am no stranger to taking risks and living with the fallout.

One fallout from Lakeland I is that several have resigned from ICA and other organizations that I lead because they no longer want to be identified with me. Others are still upset.

Good for them. Hopefully Robert Ricciardelli has followed through with his desire to sever ties.

I want it understood that I did not go to Lakeland on June 23 for Todd Bentley. I had never met him personally. I had no knowledge of and little interest in his ministry. I went because I received an apostolic plea to help bring order to the confusion and chaos that was sweeping through the body of Christ worldwide because of the television. I went strictly for the body of Christ at the invitation of the host pastor of the Outpouring I.

You went to Lakeland to establish yourself as “Protestant Pope C. Peter I”. This was Strader’s mess to handle and deal with, Not Yours! If Strader was not capable of dealing with the mess, then the Assemblies of God headquarters should have interviened to the point of both ending the Revival and suspending Strader’s credentials because the church was affiliated with the A.O.G and not the N.A.R.

And guess what happened that night, the ‘Christian Civil War started. The N.A.R. / Revival Alliance fired the seceeding shot pulling away from orthodox Christianity.

The final question is: Was it successful? Looking back, I praise God for using me and others to help bring order to confusion, which is one of the chief biblical tasks of an apostle. Stephen Strader, who has been keeping records, affirms that the evil that the prince of the power of the air had been subtly introducing into the Outpouring I started to be exposed and unraveled the day after the alignment, June 24!

The answer is ‘NO”. Sin took apart this so called ‘revival’. The exposing of the ‘prince of the power of the air’ was being done as far back as early April when Christians on Internet forums and bloggers began to speak out and expose the darkness that prevailed because no leader was willing to do so instead choosing to ‘wait and see’ and be prepared to jump on the bandwagon if it was real.

Spiritually, this is very understandable. Just about every leader I knew had discerned that Lakeland I was a mixture of the godly and the ungodly. We were praying in one accord that the evil would be separated from the good. My take is that God had decided to answer these prayers and in order to facilitate His process, He assigned me and the Revival Alliance leaders and others who were with us to align Todd Bentley apostolically for the first time in his life. When we did this publicly, spiritual transactions took place in the invisible world that would not allow the enemy to maintain the veil of secrecy he had carefully placed over the Outpouring. The evil was exposed, Revival Alliance had the authority to deal with it, and the net result is that order is replacing chaos in the body of Christ.

A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Therefore, it was all bad to start with. See that is the crux of the problem. Because it started at Strader’s church on Strader’s watch, the real authority to have handled this should have been the Assembly of God and not the Revival alliance. Strader should have gone there instead of the Revival Alliance for help. Strader, by calling the Revival Alliance for ‘authority’, essentially usurped the authority of the Assemblies of God that his church is submitted to. Maybe the A.O.G. needs to come down hard on Strader for usurping their authority? In fact, I wonder if a minister of any denomination can legally within their own denomination become a member of the N.A.R. and act as a high-ranking board member with authority that may conflict with the interests of the denomination they are affiliated with?

Maybe the Florida Attorney General (if legally able to) needs to launch an investigation. Maybe Sen. Grassley (if legally able to) should add this ‘revival’ to the investigation he is currently doing with six other prominent ministries.

In my section above on “The Present” I gave you some details. Believe me, they are only the tip of the iceberg as I just learned from a new phone call even as I was writing this paper. The proper apostolic structure, happily, is in place at the time of crisis!

And you contradicted yourself about not wanting to talk about the past when you just revealed that there is more of the past that needs revealing.

The Future

It is now important to recognize that from now on we have a different playing field. Two separate things are going on. (1) The Revival Alliance is dealing with Todd Bentley and the fallout from his sin that has been and continues to be exposed. (2) I have told you previously about a group of 11 apostles that I have formed into the Lakeland Outpouring Apostolic Team. We no longer need to deal with Lakeland I and Bentley as such. However, we have a list of 24 serious issues that have emerged from that unpleasant experience which need to be thoroughly discussed with the conclusions circulated in the body of Christ. If you have seen Dutch Sheets’ recent “A Statement and Appeal Regarding Lakeland” you will get a glimpse of some of the things that we agree need to become standard operational beliefs and practices, particularly in our charismatically-inclined evangelical segment of the church.

There is no future, the revival (I and II) is over. Don’t let this become like the Friday the 13th movies with sequel after sequel. You do need to still deal with Lakeland I because the causalities are still out there and will be for years to come in addition to the 24 issues.

It will take time, but our Apostolic Team will get to work on the 24 issues after some of this present dust settles, and we will be back to you!

Nice try, but no go. Instead of trying to become the Protestant Pope, have you ever thought about being a speech writer for a political candidate? I never seen so much spin and buck passing in my life. Man up and admit that this was wrong and not try to salvage the ‘legacy’ with part II.

I’ve read the book (Bible). I do not need to wait for the movie and it’s sequels.

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Lakeland, The Sequel

We are grieved that Todd Bentley is separating. However, this does not invalidate the Lakeland Revival. However, come next week to my mega conference where people will get…….

Two responses were of interest. First Dutch Sheets of the NAR fame released this .pdf file that gets it in some areas but completely misses it in many other areas. In fact, YouTube user LocalPastor summed it up in his video (as seen below):

You read all of these ‘official responses’ and it feels as if the same spiritual spin teams wrote all of these (or they all got together beforehand to review each others releases to where they did not contridict each other.

The second one comes from a Pastor by the name of Chris Elrod who wrote this sobering article repenting for not warning his community (Lakeland) but instead warning only those who attended his church.

However, the one place I am very surprised at for not yet posting their ‘official response’ is the place that helped boost Todd Bentley to prominence. The Elijah List (aka the ‘yellow journalism’ of the prophetic). They are too busy trying to tell us what is going to happen in 2009.

Let me help you out (SATIRE) and save you a lot of money…

Everything will be fine in 2009
We will come forth to align in 2009
Graft on the vine in 2009.
The master calleth, come and dine in 2009.
Drink the Holy wine in 2009
Conquer, don’t whine in 2009
Repine in 2009
God will bless the Rhine in 2009
The victory is mine in 2009

—–

We also learned about Todd’s ‘excessive drinking’. Todd is so big, a six-pack probably wouldn’t buzz him.

—–

Before I go further, Wolf Tracks, church warnings, The Lakeland Quotes Blog, Deception Bytes, The Revivalschool.com forums, Sola Dei Gloria, Living In The Way, Miriam, Herescope, The Grey Coats, whatsup?, and Theology Today still defend the faith.

—–

Charisma Magazine shut down their “General” forums. I guess the heat got too hot for Mr. Strader who called one of my frequent commenters a ‘Pharisee’ via e-mail. But I have some Good News. The Sheeple Blog now has set up a forumfor all those ex-Charisma Magazine and anti-Lakeland posters to comment on.

—–

I guess those bloggers who spoke out are now called the ‘revival police’. Get your revival police badge here. If Todd can have a revival decoder ring, then those who spoke out can get the revival police badge.

What will they call us next? Revival Nazi? (referencing the ’soup nazi’ episode of Seinfeld)

—–

I have heard many names being leveled out but here is one I want to leave with the NARbots:

PROPhet: Defined as someone who is a ‘glorified yes man with a positive prophecy’ towards the ministry and organizations that he supports and sustains no matter how much it is doomed to fall under the weight of it’s fallacies.

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Lakeland Revival Postings 08-23-08

What makes this story unique is that Elrod is the pastor of the Compass Point Church in Lakeland. If anyone saw the stuff that went on in Lakeland from April until the first of August, this pastor (along with Charisma forums poster “Hesed” who blogged from Lakeland and provided some excellent insights via blogs and appearances in Christian forums) is well qualified to speak.

From Elrod’s observation of:

When the first news began to break around here about Todd, healings and the revival…I went to see it for myself. In all I attended four separate “revival” meetings over a two month period. I also watched countless hours of the events on the Internet. I witnessed Todd hollering “BAM” a lot. I witnessed “verification teams” in the parking lot carefully choosing people deemed candidates for “healing” while turning many others down. I watched ushers push ill children away from the stage area because they had not been preapproved for “healing”. I heard stories about pixie-dust-spreading angels and conversations with the Apostles in some abstract heavenly cabin. I saw leg drops, high kicks, head punches and every other Wrestlemania cliche under the sun. I heard anonymous crazy stories about people being healed and others being raised from the dead. I heard and saw many strange things…but nothing that even remotely kept with sound doctrine. Every Biblical discerning bone in my body showed me that there was nothing going on at the “revival” that was in keeping with God’s Word.

to his realization after deciding not to talk about Lakeland publically after being advised against “…speaking against something that God is actually doing” and heeding that advice realizing later on that he”

… protected my flock from the three-ring circus and hoopla…but did nothing to protect the Body as a whole.

to the remorseful pondering of:

The question that I now have to ask myself…the question that will haunt me for quite a while is…did I sit on the sidelines while the playing field burned? Should have I blogged about it…spoken out about it publicly…done more to get the word out to the rest of the world that this whole thing was about Todd and not God? I took care of my own house…but should I have done more to take care of the entire neighborhood?

To Pastor Elrod, I say that I believe that your remorse and repentance is indeed genuine. I think you definitely realize that maybe you should have carried the apologetic defense beyond the walls of your church and gone against the run of the mill. I am greatful that you cared about your congregation to get the word out about Lakeland to your congregation. Many churches did not even do this and/or did the ‘wait and see’ approach thinking they could ‘jump on the bandwagon’ if Lakeland was proven to be a true revival beyond a shadow of a doubt.

But I am not here to condemn you. I am here to encourage you to ‘not beat yourself up’ over this into condemnation. This can be a great learning opportunity for you to learn that apologetics goes beyond just contending for and defending the faith. It can be a very effective form of evangelism that firmly establishes a correct doctrinal belief system. And from looking at your web page, evangelism (the “servant outreach’ section comes to mind) appears to be a biblical mandate your church is emphasizing and evangelism does involve apologetics to some degree.

Even though you have genuine remorse and repentance for not going beyond the four walls of your church, some of your fellow online brothers and sisters in Christ you have never met (but you will meet one day…..) did spread the word about Lakeland via blogs and forums and eventually saw the dark truths become revealed in the light. God still moved on behalf of His people in reference to his revival ending and I do not want you to beat yourself up any more. I want to invite you to rejoice with me and many others praising and thanking God for His sovereign and providential hand that revealed the sin and corruption for it to stop manifesting in preparation for a glorious church who is daily dying to the flesh and fulfilling the Great Commission.

It’s time to do what the blog title states….

Go Onward, Forward, Toward…

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A Sobering Look At Lakeland