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Benny Hinn should have known better

Dear editor,
The Lord bless you. My reactions to this magazine is about the Benny Hinn story.

I think it is a misconception to assume that inviting Benny Hinn to Nigeria would lead to the healing of the land as there is no where in the bible where such powers are arrogated to men especially strangers.

If that was the premise upon which that crusade was organised, it was bound to fail from inception. 11Chronicles 7:14 is clear on what God wants done when there is need for the healing of the land. It says “if my people who are called by name shall humble themselves and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will forgive their sins and heal their land.”

The modus employed by the organisers was wrong because it was not in conformity with biblical prescription. I was also stultified by the immature manner in which Pastor Benny Hinn handled the episode. Was he in Nigeria to seek for crowds or was he there to glorify the name of the Lord? He sounded to me like a spoilt brat who is attention crazy and expected to have certain expectations met regardless. The organisers could only publicise the event but they cannot in have any control over the people's attendance. The also Bible says angels rejoice in heaven over the coming to the Lord of one sinner, so even if all he spent on the crusade was $10 million and only one person came to the Lord, it would still have been worth all the effort, resources and time put into organizing the event, and I am sure quite a number of people gave their lives at the meetings.

He could have employed other ways especially the biblical way prescribed for conflict resolution to resolve all the issues as opposed to opening widely his mouth in public for both believers and unbelievers to hear what he had to say. That was vindictive and not in the spirit of love as prescribed by the Bible. Please note that I am not saying the organisers are right or wrong, what I am saying is that even if the organisers were wrong, he did more damage to the name of the Lord before the world than the damage the organisers did to the programme. Let us even assume that the organisers stole the money as alleged, what happened to forgiveness, forgiving our brothers 70 x 7? They have not been expelled from the kingdom of God by God Himself and they and Benny are still brothers together in the Lord, so what happened to the covenant of brotherhood through the blood of Christ Jesus?

It is such a shame that one who is supposed to know better like Benny threw a tantrum before the whole world and all eyes missed the many scriptural principles he flouted and concentrated only on one thing the organisers did which was to mismanage the funds given even though that is yet to be proved and even the Bible says a fact of accusation must be established by the testimony of more than one witness, all we have in this case is one person's testimony who happens to be Benny.

The miracles were reported to be few, the Spirit manifests as He wills not as conjured up as HE is Lord and not a demon that can be manipulated or summoned at human will or at the devils bidding. Even miracles are no evidence of God's presence in any gathering. It is high time everybody goes back to the rudiments of the word of God and apply those basic principles to our lives, if that was done in the first place, doing exactly as 2 Chronicles 7:14 prescribed, Benny should never have been invited to Nigeria, there is nothing special about his person apart from the grace of God upon his life and that does not make him better than anybody else who is a believer.

If what he has been endowed with was because of his own efforts and running, yes, he could have the right to complain about low miracles, bad planning etc, in the absence of that, he should just keep quite and go back to studying what the Bible prescribes in James about being slow to speak and wrath and being quick to listen.

A Kenneth Hagin, Copeland and a host of others would never have done what Benny did. He has a character issues that needs to be seriously looked into first, when he has succeeded in mastering his tongue, then he can complain about Nigerian pastors. He even had the temerity to refer to Nigeria as' Nigeria of all places', being the place where God spoke to him about something, this he did on cable television, that is pathetic. I can go and on about what biblical principles were flouted in the context of what happened at the crusade, the idea is not to put him down but to assess the event in the light of what the scriptures has to say and say to us all, if a Benny Hinn can goof that much, then let he that thinketh he stand, take heed lest he falls. I would like the issues raised and addressed here be made public and would like to welcome rejoinders to the issues I have raised in my own rejoinder.
The Lord bless you.
Adefunke