Obviously you lack an understanding of that which constitutes a cult and you clearly know nothing about Masonry or the Shriners.
Obviously you lack an understanding of that which constitutes a cult and you clearly know nothing about Masonry or the Shriners.
I'll take Hinn for all his possible faults over a cultist any day of the week.
As someone with a close family member wrapped up in the Benny Hinn cult, I think you have things backwards.
I've been to more of those Benny Hinn Miracle Circuses that I care to admit. If you want to see the true face of Benny Hinn Ministries, try this some time: go stand outside a venue where Hinn is holding his dog and pony show and carry a sign that reads "False Prohpet." You will see classic cultist behavior. Some people will yell at you. Some people will cuss you. Others will spit on you. Some will writhe on the ground in front of you and others will holler oogah-boogah at you in an attempt to drive the demons from you. When that fails, the Benny Hinn Bouncers will come out to intimidate you from exercising your first amendment rights on a public sidewalk. They will claim you need a permit. They will threaten to call the police. When that doesn't work then they will station some of the "faithful" around you to run interference and keep you from talking with passers-by. They will use intimidation tactics on people who are trying to talk to you. They will yell at them, too. They will call you crazy and dangerous. They will call you of the devil. They will try to prevent you from holding a conversation by yelling in your ear interrupting everything you say. And this is nothing compared to the madness that ensues inside.
The Benny Hinn Circus is a carefully orchestrated excercsise in mass hypnosis. I ask you what kind of "church" subjects its congregation to two to three hours of chanting? The music and choir start of low and soft, "hallelujah" the refrain goes. Imperceptibly slowly, the volume grows over the next couple of hours, punctuated by commands by Hinn to "keep your hands up in the air" and "keep standing." A few hours of this later, the volume is so loud it makes my ears hurt. By this time the crowd is worked into a complete frenzy. People are rolling and shaking all over. When Hinn jumps to the front of the stage to begin "preaching" there is a deafening cheer from the audience, partly out of excitement partly from relief. Hinn opens his bible and throws out a few verses seemingly at random. There's no time to look them up and read along before he throws out the next one. His sermon, if you can call it that, lasts about five minutes. That's right, five minutes of preaching after three hours of chanting, and then he moves on to next segment of the show in which he begins tossing out the names of various maladies and diseases that are spontaneously being healed at that very moment. This goes on for an hour. Cancer is being healed, eyesight is being restored. Some sort of liver ailment has been cured. Hallelujah! The crowd goes wild. Now the staff begins handing out plastic buckets for donations. Hinn begins his pitch at this point, claiming if you want to receive, you must give. Money flows like water. Full buckets are exchanged with empty ones. This goes on for some time until stage hands begin tossing wheelchairs up on to the podium. No one has actually gotten up out of a wheelchair. People who came in using a wheelchair leave by them. The chairs were brought in from an off-stage entrance. Again the crowd goes wild. This is when Benny Hinn asks for volunteers to go up on stage to received his special anointing. Instantly the aisles are floode with people desparate to go up on stage, desparate to "feel" something. That's why people go on stage: to have a supernatural experience. Long before anyone gets to the stage, I can see audience members being vetted by stage handlers. Each one is asked a few questions and sometimes the staff member writes something down on a little piece of paper. Only selected people get to go up on stage. There are plenty of Benny Hinn Bouncers and they only let in few people at a time or the stage would be swamped.
It's usually late on the third day of one of his three day "crusades" when Hinn does his prophesying. He's cleaned up his act for television audiences, but he feels comfortable enough at these events to let his true message come out. Hinn preaches a message of prosperity and health. To received a miraculous healing is as easy as being saved. That's it. As easy as is it to ask Jesus into your heart, it is that easy to be cured of any disease, that easy for any money problem to solved. Truly, Hinn preaches "ask and you shall receive" to its fullest extent. But there's a catch. If you lose your faith, you lose your healing. If you don't receive a miracle healing, come back on the next night. Make another love offering. If it doesn't happen, maybe it is because you have not truly let the Lord into your heart. Miraculous healing is as easy as becoming a Christian, Hinn stresses. The implication is that if you do not receive a healing, then maybe you are not really saved after all. Your salvation may be in doubt. This is the essence of Hinn's teachings: if misfortune befalls you it is because of your lack of faith in the Almighty. Good things happen to believers. Bad things happen to unbelievers. Hinn preaches nothing resembling Judeo-Christanity. Hinn preaches prosperity. Finally, Hinn begins telling of his prophetic visions. A hush falls over the audience, people wait expectantly for news of the future. On tap for 2002 - 2004 was this: Oral Roberts and Jimmy Swaggart were to pass away within close proximity in time of each other. After this was to have happened, a second September 11th was to have occured in the United States; a terrorist attack that would make 911 look like peanuts. After this great calamity was to befall our nation, a new revival was to have taken place. People, Hinn claimed -- no prophsied -- that people would spontaneously be saved and start performing miraculous healings on the street. Just like that.
I ask you, have any of these wild fantasies come to pass? No. Benny Hinn is not just misguided. Not just unorthodox. Hinn is evil. Hinn leads people away from the Lord. If Hinn leads people to the Lord, it is only through rejection of Hinn's teachings. That he calls on Jesus' name every other breath does not make him holy. That he continuously calls on the name of the Lord is no matter. That he makes prophecy in the name of the Lord does not matter. If any of his prophecies are false, Hinn is a false prophet. Any Jew or Christian should understand that. QED.