PS Even though this story is not related to business or IT, and one should not expect these kind of stories to be published in TigerPrises.com, it offers interesting reading. It’s kind of “history” too, because it was written in June. But I offer you, readers, this for appetizer.

The subject matter here is evangelist Todd Bentley who is being talked about a lot at the moment among Christians and who, allegedly, has woken 25 people from the dead. Quite a few religious people, however, fear he might be the devil’s tool instead.

Todd Bentley is undoubtedly the number one conversation subject in the Christian world. Since April, the man has held prayer meetings in Lakeland, Florida almost every night where the power of god has allegedly miraculously cured thousands of people. This sensational phenomenon is called the Florida Religious Revival. Many Christians, however, see this as a big Satanist mistake.

Bentley who 11 years ago founded the Fresh Fire Ministry missionary center in Canada says that just like Jesus came to earth to cure people of all sorts of ailments and free them of evil spirits, god now is healing people through him.

At his prayer gatherings, cancer and other serious illnesses are known to recede, people regrow their missing limbs, organs and even teeth, crutches and wheelchairs are left behind. The deaf regain their hearing, the blind their vision.

The stories go as far as to attest that Bentley was able to awake 25 people from the dead “by the power of god”! (By the beginning of June). Relatives of a man who had been about to be buried said a prayer meeting in Lakeland was shown on TV at the same time. The deceased coughed in his coffin and then sat up.   

Another man had been called back by god from as far as the gates of heaven when it was uttered: It is not your time. Many people have allegedly awaken from a long term coma.

Astounded Estonians

At each Lakeland meeting testimonies to miraculous healings can be heard to verify which Bentley calls the people involved to present letters from their doctors.

“The spirit of god moves and provides miraculous cure here. It’s true!” Sulev Lepik, a member of the Tallinn city center parish, insists. He is one of twelve Estonians to have witnessed Bentley’s healing meetings in Lakeland this week. “There’s proof in the hundreds here, the doctor’s are left speechless: they don’t know how but people just appear clear of cancer!”

Hubert Jakobs, a pastor at the Harta parish in Tallinn, attests to the same:  “Hands are laid on people, prayers are said, they experience a sort of warmth or electricity and “fall”. As if they had been struck by lightening! And they are fully cured: they’re overcome by supernatural peace. Pain and disease disappear!”

Jakobs claims he was also struck by this supernatural power when Bentley “anointed” him with an oily sponge. “It felt very powerful!”

The above described power is at work not only at the Lakeland meetings where people come from all over America and even Europe. The wondrous present reaches tens of millions of people around the world via God TV and Youtube. The sick are cured in front of their television sets and computer screens.

Hundreds of people in Estonia watch Bentley’s performance live via the Kuressaare Family Radio’s Picture Radio.

Rantipole instead of a pious pastor

The former juvenile offender Bentley has become a true “star”.  He started off in April in a church that seated 700 people and now holds his meetings at an airport in tents for more than 10 000 spectators. The events will continue as long as the Holy Sprit moves, says Fresh Fire media executive Lynne Breidenbach.   

People sing and praise god at the meetings. As soon as Bentley shows up, the entire atmosphere changes.

What we see is not a composed and pious pastor in a suit and tie but a half bald hell’s angel covered head to toe in demonic tattoos and piercing, clad in jeans and T-shirt as if he just stepped off his Harley Davidson. Bentley, resembling a stoned rocker and producing silly bursts of laughter, waves his arms around and rants on the stage. 

He calls forth the sick and the troubled, places his hands on them and shrieks like a madman: “Bang, bang, bang! Holy Spirit, come! God is here! More, more, more!”

It’s not an everyday happening to hear an evangelist claim on stage that god’s spirit told him to kick an elderly woman standing in front of the stage in the face. Or bang the legs of a disabled woman against the ground as if they were baseball bats. Or run and hit a Chinese viewer down with such a force that the spectator fell and lost a tooth. The objective of all these acts was to cure these people. Yet, Bentley does all of this, accompanied by tales of meetings with angels and god himself. 
 
Is Bentley God’s or Devil’s tool?

The Florida Revival which the unbelievers see as mass psychosis stirs up bad blood and opinions on both ends of the spectrum among the religious community. God works miracles, there’s no doubt there. No one also doubts that Bentley possesses a power as the healings are difficult to stage. But what kind of a power?
 
The Bible says that during the final days of the world which we are believed to be living now, god will spill his spirit over the world in abundance. Miracles will take place and people will be won to religion. A number of religious folks believe that the Lakeland meetings and the religious revivals in England, New Zealand and elsewhere inspired by the meetings attest namely to that.

Others see Bentley as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. A Satanic witch who, instead of healing, drives evil spirits into people and the following of whose services is outright life threatening. Because the Bible also says that during the final days the world will fall pray to great mistakes. So called false prophets will appear who will test a Christian’s true faith. Bentley apparently talks a lot about healing, yet far less about the most important – penitence and a sense of sin. No one can say whether he works for heaven or hell as the acts of god are beyond the human mind and the Bible says: if something is of god, men cannot destroy it and will only risk contradiction with the Creator. If something is of something other than god, it will come to naught anyway.
 
There’s a kind of a power in Florida

Vello Salo, a clergyman at Pirita monastery in Tallinn, says that some people have god’s healing power in them no matter what they look like. God will rather pick the weaker and the “stranger”. “If someone wants to make a lot of noise and call Hallelujah when healing, it’s doesn’t mean anything. What’s important is that people are healed,” he says. 

Pastor Allan Kroll who acted as an interpreter at evangelist Steve Hill’s meetings held last fall at Tallinn’s Linnahall (City Hall) concert hall, considers the happenings in Lakeland a definite revival as the healings are recorded. “I can’t see anything there that could be deemed un-Christian or anti-god. The entire history of the church is full of bizarre spiritual manifestations,” he claims. The Lakeland meetings have produced in people a very strong yearning for god. According to Kroll, it is difficult to imagine that something drawing from a misleading spirit could cause yearning for the right things. 
 
Kroll explains that different revivals have a different focal point which could be the reason why the Florida happening focuses on healing. “Jesus not only preached but also healed and exorcized evil spirits. Perhaps god’s objective here is to restore through the Florida Revival a power that’s been missing in parishes thus far,” he notes.

Estonians remember Bentley’s drunken father

The happening in Lakeland is compared to the great revival that took place in the 1970s – 1980s at Oleviste church in Tallinn where people from all over the USSR came to take part in various miracles.

Bentley visited Estonia in 2003, giving performances at the Oleviste parish for three days. He inspired contradicting emotions. Legend has it that the man had with him his eminent father, a man in a nice white suit, adorned with rings and other bling-bling. During the service the father was obviously drunk and frolicky and was sent to his hotel in a taxi cab.

There are no known cases of healing from Bentley’s services at Oleviste. Oleviste will not invite him again.