An investigatory committee led by Dr. Michael Brown into Todd Bentley’s alleged sexual perversions, addictions, and abuse issued its findings today. Michael Brown announced that Todd Bentley, even though he was “supernaturally gifted by God,” was disqualified from ministry. The panel has no official oversight over Bentley, who has accused the panel of being unfair and biased.
The investigatory committee was to determine whether or not Bentley’s misbehavior was sufficiently substantiated and if it rose to the level of disqualification. Bentley’s gross sins were reported on at Pulpit & Pen in the August article, Todd Bentley’s Alleged Homosexuality and Abuse Exposed. Rick Joyner – a major figure in the charismatic cult group known as the New Apostolic Reformation – admitted knowing about Bentley’s misdeeds and said that Bentley should be restored again to ministry. He also accused Bentley’s whistleblowers of witchcraft.
Pulpit & Pen predicted in the September article, New Apostolic Reformation Chooses Michael Brown to Lead Bentley Investigation, that Brown would find Bentley disqualified from ministry, but would not say anything negative of Rick Joyner and other New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) Apostles who knew of Bentley’s misdeeds and helped cover up his abuse for years.
We wrote…
Our prediction is that Brown will eventually issue a statement that Bentley is disqualified from ministry, but will absolve Rick Joyner and all other New Apostolic Reformation apostles who knew about his sins and chose not to act.
Real discernment trumps fake prophecy every time. That’s exactly what happened.
Michael Brown’s statement on behalf of the investigatory panel was released via Brown’s Facebook page. In the statement, Brown claims that Bentley was unqualified for ministry (something anyone with a modicum of discernment would have already known). However, Brown also claimed that Bentley was “supernaturally gifted by God.”
We love Todd and believe that he has been supernaturally gifted by God, and our highest joy would be to see Todd coming before God and the community of believers in humility and repentance, openly desiring help to get his life fully healed and surrendered to Jesus.
The panel’s statement said that Bentley could be restored to ministry after a “period of years,” but never again lead his own ministry.
It is also our opinion that, while it is possible for Todd to do public ministry again in the future, at no point should he lead his own ministry. Instead, if he was truly restored to God and in submission to godly authority, he could serve in another leader’s ministry.
To what does the NAR investigatory panel refer when they say that Bentley has been “supernaturally gifted by God”? They refer to his antics and charismatic parlor tricks which they all stood on stage and endorsed in 2008 by the “laying on of hands.” They refer to speaking nonsense utterance gobbledegook “tongues,” his “healings” of psychosomatic illnesses using parlor trickery and mentalism, and even his alleged “resurrections” (it appears that Bentley drugs children and slaps them awake when in Third World countries).
These charismatic leaders cannot admit that Bentley has been engaging in Strange Fire hocus pocus trickery, because his stunts are measurably more impressive than their own. Rather, they have to claim that he’s legitimately supernaturally gifted; they cannot concede the point lest it shows the fraudulent nature of charismaticism. The question must be why did God supernaturally gift someone as horrible as Todd Bentley?
The investigatory panel said nothing of Rick Joyner and the other NAR leaders who have helped to cover-up his sins, as predicted.
