A Florida-based eve-of-Judgment Day religious revival drawing national attention is bringing its promises of miraculous healing to Hampton Roads this weekend.
Curing cancer and reviving the dead are among the claims coming out of the Lakeland Outpouring of Healings and Salvations. It starts its local visit on Friday night at the Chesapeake Conference Center.
The three-day event will be “a mighty, end-times movement of God,” says the Web site of Ignite Virginia (ignitevirginia.org), an ad hoc group of local churches sponsoring the local appearance.
“We’ve got a lot of people who are coming. They’ll be in wheelchairs; some are blind,” said Ray Boetcher, a local organizer who said the first-night audience was already fully reserved.
One person not coming is Todd Bentley, the tattoo-mottled Canadian preacher and driving personality behind the nightly revival in Lakeland, Fla.
“He is the most unlikely evangelist – he dresses like a hippy, he’s short, bald-headed, obese, not Billy-Graham suave and sophisticated,” said Vinson Synan, a church historian and expert on Pentecostalism at Regent University.
Mainstream media have chronicled and questioned the claims of dramatic cures surging out of the revival since Bentley began preaching in Lakeland in the spring.
Skeptics were particularly dubious about what Boetcher called “pretty believable” claims that Bentley’s ministry has raised at least 20 people from the dead.
Synan, himself a Pentecostalist, said the death-defying claims “stretch the bounds of credibility, absolutely.”
The Rev. Jerry Qualls, pastor of Glad Tidings Church in Norfolk, visited the Lakeland revival earlier this summer.
“It was reported there were healings that evening; I couldn’t vouch either way,” said Qualls, who is not a co-sponsor of the revival. He saw a loud, excited throng, an emphasis on miracles and speaking in tongues – considered evidence of God’s spirit and presence – and heard Bentley preach.
“About 95 percent of the message I heard was just right on,” Qualls, said, adding, “I didn’t have a lot of trouble with even the other 5 percent.”
The Rev. Miguel Dabul of Rock Church of Norfolk called the revival identical to the spirit-filled worship experience of the earliest Christians.
“This type of thing shouldn’t be the exception; sadly, it is,” said Dabul, a co-sponsor.
Supporters like Dabul expect that people blessed by God with power to heal will pass that “anointing” to others at the local revival. “What they’re sharing is transferable.”
The revival and anointings are a sign that the world is not far from Judgment Day, he said. “We are in the end times.”
According to the Web site of Bentley’s Fresh Fire Ministries, the Outpouring’s last day in Lakeland is Aug. 23. He will continue it in other locations.
Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com
Tags: Todd Bentley, revival, Christian, Lakeland, false prophets, Posted in A New Breed, Age of Aquarius, Anti-Christ Spirit, Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders, Bob Jones, Brownsville, Demonic, Dominion theology, Elijah List, False Doctrine, Gnosticism, Kansas City Prophets, Lakeland Revival, Latter Rain, Manifest Sons of God, Manifestations, New Age, New Apostolic Reformation, Prosperity Lie, Spiritualism, Toronto Blessing, Vineyard Fellowship, William Brenham, angels, third wave. Tags: 10 anointings, 3rd wave, Angel of the Lord, annointing, anointed men, anointing, antichrist, Apostacy, Carpenters church, Charismatic, christianity, Church, deception, delusion, dominionist, Domionion, Elija List, Emma, faith, false prophecy, False Prophet, false prophet Todd Bentley, False Prophets and Teachers, florida healing revival, Florida outpouring, Florida Revival, Fresh Fire, Fresh Fire Ministries, Fresh Fire Ministries (Todd Bentley), Gnostic, God TV, Greedy Shepherds, healing, Healing Revival, Healing rooms, heresy, Heritage Outpouring, Ignited Church, IHOP, Bobby Conner, Lakeland anointing, Lakeland Healing Revival, Lakeland Ignited Church, Lakeland lies, Lakeland meetings, Lakeland outpouring, International Coalition Apostles, ICA, New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), pentecostal, prophecy, prophet paul cain, prophet Todd Bentley, prosperity gospel, religion, religious, Stephen Strader, Steve Strader, Steven Strader, third wave, Todd Bentley Fresh Fire, Todd Bentley deception, Todd Bentley Elijah, Todd Bentley fraud, Todd Bentley lies, Todd Bentley video, Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, William Branham, winds of change, Winds of Change angel., Azusa Street, Joel’s Army, Todd Bentley’s angels
August 1, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Justin Peters visited Lakeland and this is his report:
http://www.adventuresinchristianity.com/?L=blogs.blog&article=3494
His web site is http://www.justinpeters.org and be sure to watch “demo.”
:)