I claim a special revelation. God came to me and assured me Bentley was not from him. But somehow these people don't believe me.
I had never heard of Bentley before but I compared some of the claims being made with scripture and with something my gut was telling me. In the end we have to be like the Bereans...to search scripture to see “if these things be true” to scripture. Even when “spirits” come to us to tell us things we have to apply the test given us in 1John 4
(and Jude has a few things to say as well).
I wasn’t sure if you were being serious or facetious in your posting, but it does seem like a lot of unorthodox error is being promulgated by these folks. It’s hard to see Christ for all the hocus pokus. I don’t want to deny any genuine miracles of God; that might put me in danger of “speaking a word against” the Holy Ghost.
God did state he would “pour out his spirit” on all flesh in the latter days though I don’t know that it was meant that all would be saved thru this. Judging from our increase in knowledge, I wonder if it it meant that all men would be raised to a certain level of awareness so that they would be without excuse should they deny Christ!
Certainly the Pentecost was not meant just for the 1st century and missionaries report miracles, even raisings of the dead from time to time. Missionaries are on the front lines where the spirit of God is most powerful.
Some tongue speakings seem to be gibberish, some can be translated and are found to be in known languages( though Paul mentions “tongues” of angels as well). When the tongues first fell upon the apostles they were known to be speaking of the glorious things of God to the various foriegners who observed them, who each heard in their own native languages.
Satan may be moving to smother a genuine move of God. Look at the lives of the quieter less flamboyant who seem to be on the fringes of these movements...the little old pious praying lady in the corner, the cheerful giver, the visitor to the imprisoned and the sick. Look for the weird odd sort of fellow who seems to have a correct answer for everything, whose solutions always seem to work but is otherwise generally ignored until he is needed...then he goes back to being ignored again(and he doesn’t mind it because he’s got his own groove going with Christ and doesn’t mind being the unsung hero). Look for the unflashy folks who have no great speaking ability or can’t strum a guitar with the Praise team, do they exhibit a strong sense of rationality and spiritual quietness, a maturity of character?
The Biblical pattern generally indicates that when God starts to move, it may start in a less than flashy way. Gideon the farm boy was threshing the wheat. David was the least of 7 brothers and a shepherd but he got the anointing. Jesus was born in a stable, but was literally God in Flesh! Watch for a quickening of the less flashy folks, like dry bones being given sinew, then flesh, then spiritual life and power to boldy proclaim the pure orthodoxy of the Christian faith! Not just signs and wonders, but the power of the Word proclaimed, even through the mouths of babes!
In our nation, there were several revival periods followed by times of great stress. The 1760’s came before the Revolution. The 1850’s were a time of great revival then came the Civil War. The Azuza street revivals and subsequent after events preceded the 1st world war. Perhaps the events aren’t all directly connected but what you see is a preparation of a people so that they can deal with the coming stressors. Joseph was spiritually equipped so that Egypt and the budding nation of Hebrews could be saved from the most devestating famine that would hit the whole world.
If God is going to move on his people to prep them as his most perfect bride, it’s to prep them as well for persecutions and for dealing with the various calamities about to befall mankind. Until the great “catching away” and the coming of Christ in great glory, we should pray to be given the ability to “stand, and above all to stand”!