The Battle of the Hinnites
by Deception In The Church, 3/98


Running a major web site that features apologetics on the Third Wave movement has its advantages and disadvantages.

Among the advantages are the blessings of providing a service to others while having access to all the latest material out there on this subject myself, as well as being kept informed by users of the latest heretical stuff going on in the counterfeit revivals.

The disadvantage is the amount of e-mail I have to answer. But really, if taken in perspective, that is part of the ministry of this web site and I take that responsibility seriously.

I have noticed some e-mail trends. When I started this site in 1997, the e-mail I received was about 25% pro-Third Wave and 70% anti-Third Wave with the usual 5% or so non-commitals. I continue to receive many letters with heartrending testimonies thanking me for my collection of articles, books, publications, video and audio. Recently though, I have noticed that the pro-Third Wave e-mails have increased. I am now receiving about a 35% to 60% ratio. This can only mean one thing to those of us who are taking our stand on Scripture and remaining in the "faith once delivered" ... it means we are losing ground.

Another trend I have noticed is that much of the pro-Third Wave e-mail comes from what I can only term "Benny Hinnites". This is because they are very incensed to read anything negative about their hero. They make very disparaging remarks about things like "dead denominations" and "those who don't have the "spirit". They cite Hinn's "miracles" as proof that he is a true man of God.

I have to continually remind them that purported "miracles" are a poor way to judge if someone is in Christ. Not that true miracles aren't still happening today. The Bible does say that "signs and wonders" will "follow" Christian witness. "FOLLOW" is the operative word here ... they are not the main point ... never have, never will be. I point out that "miracles" are now occurring around the world in every religion, some of which make Hinn's miracles look like a third grader shell game. "What about Hindu fakirs that can make a seed appear and then grow a tree which produces fruit from which the audience can pick and eat before their very eyes?" I ask them. "What about accounts of this Maitreya who has appeared out of thin air and disappeared many times in many gatherings?" I ask again. "What about unsubstatiated reports of people being raised from the dead by leaders of other religions?" I add. I site example after example but get no reply.

Apparently the fact that Hinn has not done ONE documentable miracle does not bother these folks. I guess when Hinn is asked for objective proof of the "miracles" he claims and he never is able to produce real proof of them does not make his "absorbees" falter one step from their leader's path. Being proven to be a false miracle worker over and over again does not impress these people. Apparently they just WANT to believe in Benny.

I must tell you that the recent CNN documentary on Hinn was a real eye opener. Did anyone else notice that a 9000 voice choir was singing the Billy Graham favorite "How Great Thou Art"? Did anyone observe that on the last stanza, at the end, when the music is coming to a great crescendo, Hinn walked out on stage dressed in an all-white Kathryn Kuhlmanesque suit, arms raised in bravado, drawing all eyes to himself? Can you imagine Billy Graham doing that? What an immense ego it takes to try to upstage God!

Did anyone buy the story that he really wanted to join the ECFA but his lawyers advised him that "maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea after all"? Does anyone have any idea how much money this charlatan is raking in? Shades of 2 Timothy 3:1-5 come to mind:

"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-- having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them."

Remind you of anybody?

The "power unto salvation for those that believe" is in the gospel message, not in the hands of Benny Hinn. You can get zapped all you want and still wake up in Hell. If people like Benny Hinn are not a clarion call for the rest of us to return to preaching the gospel, I am living on a different planet.

I keep reminding my Hinnite e-mailers that judging a man by his "miracles" is a poor way to know if he is truly "born again". After all, the false prophet with a big "F" will most assuredly claim to be a Christian and to have a mega-ultra-super portion of the "anointing". He will waltz into these meetings and do "miracles" the likes of which Benny Hinn has only fantasized about. You watch. Half of Christendom, or what used to be Christendom, will come running to jump in THAT river!

The man of iniquity is about to be revealed. False teachers like Benny Hinn are merely setting the stage for the final apostasy that is coming. All the world's religions will join together in the "anointing" that is not of the Holy Spirit, and have one big millennium party. The sad thing is that, over the shoulder of the Third Wave, even while they are fiddling their lives away, the rest of the world will be crashing and burning in sin and doomed to ultimate damnation.

I hope this is a wake up alarm to the true body of Christ everywhere. These false prophets who are teaching false doctrine, preaching a false gospel and spreading a false anointing are dividing the body ... and the sheep are being seperated from the goats. It is our job to stand in the gap for those who have not been absorbed yet -- inoculated against EVER being able to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ by people like Benny Hinn.