A dear FREEPER soul tried earnestly to exhort me against supporting the likes of Benny, Rick Warren . . .
My reply was as follows:
Rick Warren's stuff is quite Biblical and I've used it to great effect for The Kingdom.
I'm less charitable toward Benny but I don't believe he's the deliberate charlatan many folks make him out to be.
I believe God has used him and does use him and has disciplined him quite sternly on occasion.
I'm not about to tell God who he cannot use.
God is bigger than all our tidy little boxes.
People are led astray by pastors of every stripe in pulpits all across the the planet every Sunday. The stranger and more dramatic, the easier to point fingers. I think the less dramatic and more conventional ['pastoral' distortions, leading astray, hero worship, private interpretations, 'corners on righteousness and truth' etc.]
do MUCH MORE damage numerically, by far.
I think the Scriptures about the foolishness of God confounding the wisdom of men are likely the pertinent ones when it comes to folks like Benny.
What Benny says is quite Biblical most of the time. What he writes and is flip about can be off the wall . . . but when he's remotely flowing in Holy Spirit--he's pretty orthodox. He points people to Jesus and encourages folks to focus on God and the Giver vs the gifts etc.
Personally, on occasion, there can be too many bones to spit out for my taste. And, his style is not at all my taste. But I'm not his boss. And I really, really, really do not want to presume to tell God who HE canNOT use.
I just want to make myself as available, God focused, humble and useable by God as I can manage.
I too do not wish to be a party to judging anyone else. My prayer is for God's Name to be hallowed, His will to be done, His kingdom to come. The details are up to Him.
So, if someone claims to be a man of God, he IS a man of God. If someone claims to be a healer, he IS a healer. There is no such thing as a charlatan.
Do I have that right?
I agree. None of us knows their hearts but man, the judgement that goes on in this place sometimes hurts God more and probably ticks Him off more than Hinn, Warren or anyone else who is at least trying to do God's work. They weren't too crazy about Jesus back then either. Called him a bastard, said He was of the devil... sound familiar? I don't try to judge these people. They are God's anointed. We can get in big doo doo when we doo!