How Can I Be Godly AND Wrong?
// July 2nd, 2008 // Christian Living
Sorry about the “dead air” here lately… I’m not dead, just busy!
I just read this article from John Piper about why someone without much truth can act in a more Godly manner than someone with a lot of truth. This is something I have been pondering since the Todd Bentley “outpouring” began in Lakeland, Florida. I don’t believe he is an unGodly man. Meaning, I don’t see in him a desire to con people, get rich off people, or be a celebrity. However, there are some very valid concerns about his doctrine and use of scripture. He has recently made an attempt to answer the critics but didn’t seem to answer any of the real questions.
Off Topic - Here is a critique of Bentley’s letter. I don’t know anything about this blogger, but the review of Bentley’s letter is very thorough and I agree with much of it. It’s long, but if you are wrestling over what to think of all this it may help.
So, then, a valid question comes up: “Why would God use Bentley to do all these miracles if we can’t trust his teaching?”
Though he doesn’t address this specifically, I think Piper points us in the right direction. What do you think? How would you answer this question?
Technorati Tags: todd bentley, lakeland, outpouring, john piper, truth, godliness
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Being right and being righteous are two different states.
Godliness is a function of the conscience knowing it is cleansed, the heart then dwells peacefully in the Presence of Jesus’ Holy Spirit. We know then a state of righteousness from Him which guides our hearts.
Being right is about intellectually justifying a mental construct.
Sometimes these two states are in agreement; sometimes they are not.
I guess I didn’t really attempt to answer the more direct question of the post about Todd Bentley.
First, signs and wonders are either from God or the enemy. Though I am not at all convinced that Todd Bentley is moving in the Spirit of Jesus, I tend to think that TB is able to create a climate that releases the faith of some believers. God our Father is fully willing to meet that release of faith without regard for the messenger.
If that is not the case, I begin to ponder are the signs and wonders actually from the enemy designed to pull the elect away from faith in God? This is problematic, since the Bible tells us that speaking Jesus is Lord can only be done by the Holy Spirit.
(I Cor. 12:3)
Perhaps the question is, “Can the saints walk in faith, even if the teacher/preacher has selfish motives?” If yes, then could we not say believers are often godly despite the speaker being wrong?
Ben,
This is a very interesting question. My first thought is that God doesn’t need a perfect person or a someone’s perfect theology to use a person. Let’s think back to the woman at the well in John 3, after Jesus told her that she had five husbands. Immediately, after the testimony of Jesus revealing the woman’s heart, she went into town and told everyone about how Jesus knew the intimate details of her life. At the time, his disciples seeing him speaking to her was a revelation about who Jesus really was. In the case of Todd Bentley, or anyone, who has a perfect theology of who God is at any one moment in time? The Bible says that we see through a veil, 1 Corinthians 13:12, “Now we see only an indistinct image in a mirror, but then we will be face to face. Now what I know is incomplete, but then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known”. I’m not speaking about the Christian Orthodoxy, it is obvious that one is a true Christian would hold to the faith. What I am speaking about is that you are so hungry for God to move that you are available. Todd Bentley, made himself available as a person to be used of God, to have faith to lay hands on people and cry out to God and to ask that God move. Now, I believe that Jesus testifies to the Gospel (the truth) of himself through the miracles that we are seeing. The Bible says in Hebrews 2:3-4, “how will we escape if we neglect a salvation as great as this? It was first proclaimed by the Lord himself, and then it was confirmed to us by those who heard him while God added his testimony through signs, wonders, various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” In this, the Holy Spirit is testifying to the truth that the message of salvation through Jesus is real and is also demonstrating the truth through signs, wonders and miracles. It is my belief that God has decided to soverignly use a person who is available at this time in history to awake the Church to worship him in spirit and truth and to believe the message of the Gospel and in this generation. How many people would have thought it was a great idea to put mud on a man’s eyes to see a blind mind healed? I’m sure any eye doctor or eye specialist would have said, “No, that’s definitely not the way to do this Jesus.” But, God has a different approach everytime. This is where God’s thoughts are higher than the highest thoughts of man. I believe we need to allow God to move in our generation, and allow John 14:12, “Truly, I tell all of you with certainty, the one who believes in me will also do what I am doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” to be true if we will allow God to move and not hinder what He is doing. Yes, we should test the Spirit in everything as the Bible tells us to do, but at the same time do not discount what God would do because a person does or does not have a perfect theology. If we wait to serve God until we all have a perfect theology, then Paul wouldn’t have written, Eph 4:12-13, “to equip the saints, to do the work of ministry, and to build up the body of the Messiah until all of us are united in the faith and in the full knowledge of God’s Son, and until we attain mature adulthood and the full standard of development in the Messiah.”(NIV).
Just a thought.