Jennifer Smith wrote:one love wrote:With that said I will pray for him and his marriage and I dont want to assume and I did not read that article but is this saying that he was having a affair with this woman while doing these revivals?
The letter from his ministry stated he was in a relationship "on an emotional level"- so, perhaps no actual affair has taken place.
He is undergoing steps to receive restoration; another prominent ministry couple divorced last year without missing a beat in their ministr(ies) or acknowledging any problem with that... this happens so often, and it is sad; this is another family we need to pray for.
Right you are Jennifer -- it said emotional relationship and nothing about anything sexual. However, the way I see it, when you have a wife already and you're getting emotionally involved with someone else it's just about as bad as getting a little frisky physically.
Remember that this all happened DURING his "revival." I don't want to crucify the man and in some odd way I feel for him, but remember this happened while he was in a time of ministry. A lot of people are going to be betrayed and hurt.
Forget about the fact that "the Army of God is the only Army that shoots their wounded" -- with media jumping all over this and a lot of people who were not genuinely healed at the Lakeland revival more apt to speak out against Bentley and his actions, this could be a big black eye for all of Christianity.
I wasn't a fan of the Florida "Outpouring" in the first place, and like One Love, I had a lot of personal red flags go up about the entire movement. Stuff like kicking a man who had cancer of the stomach, in the stomach. (Tell me anywhere in the NT when Jesus healed someone, he caused physical pain to them.)
I am simply amazed that Christianity as a whole seems to not really "get it" -- after all the televangelism crockery we've seen on TV and the exposition of Brownsville, the Toronto Blessing and others -- we're all still ready to run after the "next big thing" -- and I can't help but wonder if Christianity doesn't deserve to be made fun of after something like this.
As for Bentley, I don't see how he could have a credible ministry in the Body of Christ anytime soon. The man has fallen, and fallen hard. It is our duty to pray for him because maybe God can use this to change his perception of the Lord and His ways, and to remember to keep our eyes on Christ and Christ alone.