Todd Bentley Says He’s Been Given The Authority to ‘Cancel Death’ + Heal Terminal Illnesses
Todd Bentley, the famous false teacher and wolf extraordinaire (see endnotes), has unveiled his latest scheme to capitalize on his recent emergency hospital stay, claiming that his experiences gave him the power and authority to “cancel death” and cure terminal illnesses.
Six weeks ago, Bentley was taken to the hospital by ambulance after experiencing unexpected seizures. Within a day he’d recover, claiming he’d been miraculously healed. Apart from using this event as a fundraiser, we wondered how he would spin this to take advantage of the goodwill.
And now we know.
Bentley was invited to be a conference speaker at MorningStar Ministries by Rick Joyner, a charismatic leader who restored Bentley to ministry on two separate occasions after he was found guilty of sexual impropriety. By every definition, MorningStar is emblematic of the worst excesses of the New Apostolic Reformation and Pentecostal movement, even as they’ve been embroiled in their own scandals.
At the Open Heavens Vision Conference, Bentley regaled the audience with the story of his experience, claiming that Jesus took him to the Gates of Hades. Here, he insists that he was given the keys of Peter to have authority and power over death, along with a mandate by the Lord to heal terminal illnesses, much to the awe of Joyner and ther crowd, who later had him pray for people who had terminal diagnoses.
We have written extensively about Bentley, chronicling his malfeasance from lauded anointed revivalist and miracle worker to drunkard, adulterer, liar, and sheep-fleecer extraordinaire, all the while being lifted up by a cadre of ne’er-do-wells like Rick Joyner as a great and supernaturally gifted man of God.
Recall that in the summer of 2008, Todd was flying high, filling stadiums with a world-renown revival in Lakeland, where he claimed to have raised multiple people from the dead. He was getting so much attention that 17 high-profile charismatic “apostles,” including Bill Johnson, Jon Arnott, Rick Joyner, Che Ahn, and C. Peter Wagner, came together in a ceremony of “apostolic alignment” over 32-year-old Todd Bentley, commissioning him to lead the Lakeland Revival and recognizing him as an evangelist doing the work of the Lord led by the Holy Spirit. We call this the Charismatic Day of Infamy.
Within a month of his alignment and commissioning ceremony, Bentley would announce that he was leaving Lakeland and stepping down. A few days later, he told the world he was divorcing his wife and it was revealed that during his time as leader of the revival, as he was getting aligned by the apostles, he had been engaging in “an unhealthy relationship on an emotional level with a female member of his staff,” whom he later married. He was also getting drunk all the time, spiraling into depression and anxiety, and babbling on stage in a series of pseudo-spiritual slurs.
The vaunted Lakeland Revival crashed into a smoldering heap of disillusionment immediately afterward, the populace burned by a charlatan who was able to garner the endorsement of 17 charismatic “apostles,” all the while acting like a devil.
Bentley sought out Rick Joyner, who quickly restored Todd back to ministry where he toiled in relative obscurity until 2019, when he was newly accused of drug use, adultery, and sexting, some of which he admitted.
A “New Apostolic Reformation” (NAR) tribunal report was launched. They found him “guilty”—a pointless summation, as Bentley had already checked out and declared the whole thing a scam and witch hunt anyway- a claim that Joyner also used when he called for Bentley to be restored back to ministry a second time.
Despite these findings, Bentley has maintained a high level of ministry support, with the revelation of decades of grossly immoral behavior being viewed as “just a scratch” to his reputation. This should surprise no one, however, as charismatics and NAR adherents historically have enjoyed infinitesimally low levels of discernment when it comes to the sinful behavior of their leaders, and this case has sadly proved to be no different.
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That this desperately wicked man has a place in any Christ-honoring church is beyond belief.