Lakeland and Matthew

You've heard this before:

Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?" And then will I declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness" (Matt. 7:21-23).

It is a scary passage because of the word "many" there and the concept that "many" will believe themselves to be thoroughly involved in the Lord's work, only to find out that they didn't even have a relationship with Him. I'm not addressing that factor today. What I'm wondering about is the fact that these people did "many mighty works."

There are a variety of views on this question. One view is that these are genuine believers who did genuine miracles by God's power, but ended up losing their salvation. This is seriously problematic for me because Jesus says, "I never knew you." The suggestion, then, would be that Jesus is a doddering old man who did know them but, apparently, forgot ... or something equally foolish. It's not reasonable. He says "never" which means "not ever" which means they couldn't have been, at one time, true believers doing mighty works by God's power. If they were, it makes Jesus either forgetful or a liar.

What other possibilities can we find? One is that they were doing mighty works alright, but the works were by the power of Satan, not God, and they were deceived. I have no problem with Satan doing "mighty works" and no problem with them being deceived, but I have a problem with them casting out demons in His name. When Jesus cast out demons, He was accused of doing it by the power of Beelzebul (Satan). His reply is the now famous, "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand" (Matt. 12:27). "And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?" (Matt. 12:26). It would seem that Jesus believed that it was not possible for someone to cast out demons by Satan's power. Far be it from me to contradict Jesus.

That leaves me with one last possibility. Given that these cannot be genuine miracles done by genuine believers through God's power and they cannot be genuine miracles done by false believers through Satan's power, it can only be that these are false miracles. This would assume, then, that these people were not actually doing mighty works, but that they were doing what they believed to be mighty works. They were deceived both in the works they thought they were doing and in the faith they thought they had. Nothing in any of that violates Scripture or logic. Works for me.

Why bring this up at all? Perhaps you've heard about the "Lakeland Revivals" going on in Florida. Todd Bentley is getting a name for himself as the latest and greatest revival. Literally millions of people are seeing this stuff, both in person and online. People claim healings. People are even claiming healings by simply watching on the Internet. The revival is being called "the most contagious transferable anointing's (sic) in history." The thing is catching the attention of the national media. So ... what's my point? Well, there are a whole set of other disturbing items coming out of this thing. Todd, for instance, makes no bones about his connection to angels. Yeah ... no quotes or anything. He doesn't use them. He actually says that he's connected to angels. He has angels who provide finances. He has an angel named Emma who started the Prophetic Movement in Kansas City in 1980 with Bob Jones (the prophet).

There are other things that, oddly, I can't confirm. (I can't confirm them because, apparently, although they were once available on his website, they've been removed. There are a bunch of dead links to his writings.) He claims to travel to "the third heaven", apparently at will. He has talked to Paul who lives in a cabin and confirmed that Paul and Abraham (yes, that Abraham) wrote the book of Hebrews together. (You see, that's why it's "pauline", but different.) There is more. One website has written several things about the revival that are more than disturbing. This one gives accounts of really bizarre stuff you won't hear from Todd Bentley. One pastor in the UK has been tracking results there. He says, "I have kept records as far as I can, concerning this particular church. Over a relatively short period, there has been a dramatic increase in premature deaths, cancers, marriage break-ups, sickness and disease amongst the congregation where the leadership have allowed this type of ministry into their church." He tells of "one instance where a pastor's wife with cancer was prayed for by Todd. Soon afterwards she heard voices in her head telling her to 'drown herself just like her father did'. The poor woman ended up in a mental hospital, I believe she still has the cancer." Another woman was attempting what Bentley's ministry terms "'third' heaven guided visualizations." Yes, just buy their teaching guide and try it at home. She said, "I was in my living room laying on the floor listening to the teaching on how to visualize the third heaven and what to say and was getting caught up into his teaching and all of a sudden I began to shake uncontrollably and jerk and groan, and no sooner had this taken place I became frozen stiff - I could not move any part of my body and I knew this was a demon trying to take hold of me, and so with all the effort I could muster I cried out, 'God save me - Jesus help me' - and as soon as I cried out to the Lord my body went limp. God spared me that night and I will be forever grateful."

Now, I haven't gone to this revival. I haven't listened to the podcasts or watched the videos. I have no way of confirming the stories, either his or his opponents'. It just strikes me that this is really strange stuff (just going on Todd Bentley's own writings) with a serious leaning toward demonic delusion. We're told that many will be deluded into thinking they're doing God's work when they're not. So when someone comes preaching a different gospel (angels and "third heaven" guided tours versus "repent and believe") and suggests that it's real because they're going mighty works in the name of Jesus, I think there is reason for believers to be skeptical ... and pray.