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Pastor Benny Hinn, in Toronto this weekend for two days of miracle cures and old-time gospel, makes no apologies for all the money his far-flung ministries take in each year."The gospels are free, but the means of delivering the gospels is reallyexpensive,"Hinn,who got his start in Toronto 30 years ago,told the Star.Tonight and tomorrow,Hinn brings his Texas-based Miracle Crusade to the Air Canada Centre,attracting up to 20,000 to each of his three shows.The shows are free but, as at all his crusades,donations will be sought and many buckets will be passed as the audience sings rousing hymns along with a mass choir amid a light show worthy of a rock concert. While Hinn acknowledges people come mainly to see and take part in the healing miracles, that is left to the feverish end-they will first hear him preach,pray and sing in his trademark white suit.But Hinn arrives under a cloud after the CBC's The Fifth Estate this week challenged his claims of miracle cures and described a lavish lifestyle of fancy cars, a 7,000-square-foot ocean-side mansion and luxury travel to five-star hotels on a private jet.In the show,reporter Bob McKeown estimates Benny Hinn Ministries takes in as much as $250 million a year in donations and proceeds from sales of such items as autographed bibles.Hinn,who keeps his finances private,doubts the show will hurt turnout at the ACC."They will never stop people from coming to meetings such as ours."Followers donate money,he says,to ensure his work, including curing the sick,continues."They believe that God heals and they want to see something like this go on.They also understand it takes money to rent stadiums."Hinn's sessions have gained a reputation for sudden miracle cures for cancer,blindness,diabetes and even AIDS over the past 30 years since his humble beginnings in a church hall at Bloor and Yonge.People dramatically fall to the floor proclaiming their health after a touch from Hinn's hand.Hinn, however,professes to having nothing to do with making anybody healthy."The Lord has not called me to heal people,"he says."He heals the people."After the prayers,songs and preaching from the charismatic minister,Hinn tells the crowd he is getting a message from God that people in the audience are being cured,and he asks them to come to the stage.The Fifth Estate used hidden cameras to show staff screening audience members coming forward,ensuring none with obvious physical ailment get near Hinn."It's always somebody that has some kind of illness that can't be readily seen"that makes it to the stage,Justin Peters a Baptist minister in Mississippi who studied Hinn,tells the CBC.Hinn says the cures take place in the audience,not on stage,so no one still in a wheelchair is allowed on stage.God,he says,has obviously not cured these people."I won't let them up,because they haven't been healed,"he says.The CBC tracked down some of the people claimed to have been cured, only to find that they were either still sick, never had the condition they were supposedly cured of, or had died.Speaking to the Star,Hinn says he is forced to rely on the word of those coming to his crusades to tell him they are cured."It's not my job to claim that they are healed.I have never done that,"he says."I'm not a doctor."Hinn defends his use of luxury hotels and a private Gulfstream jet detailed by the CBC,saying they offer greater efficiency and security."People in my position will have threats,"he told the Star."If you ask for a secure (hotel) floor,you're going to pay more money."Hinn also criticized the CBC for using hidden cameras and old footage he says depicts his wife just before she had a nervous
breakdown.
http://www.thestar.com/living/Religion/article/247207
PS:I just want to apologize with you all my readers that may think I sound mean sometimes,especially with so called"christians".
I just finished reading the whole article and I decided to post it,because it's a sad sample of how "Hollywood-Super Star- Christianity"is getting so low and so far from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I always had a problem with a "minister of the Gospel'living in a mansion.
The Bible says the opposite,that the servant of God should be "sober",that it should have "contentment with rainment and food.And also says in Timothy that if somebody has riches,he should share them with those that have none.Finally the Word of God admonishes us against the perils of love of money(1Timothy 6:7-10)
There is NO NEED for him to have a private jet,He could use regular airlines like anybody else.There is NO NEED also for him to ask for money thru emails,to purchase his new LEAR JET...(sigh)
There is NO NEED for a 7000sq ft house,unless he has a NEED for it.He's got 4 children,2 of which are at College...
The last thing that really appalled me is what he said about "SAFETY".
The Bible says that those that live godly shall suffer PERSECUTION.And what if we are killed because of the Gospel???
I think about my best friend preaching in El Salvador,my friend Mario that was attacked and kidnapped -along with other three friends that were back to the city from some ministry time -by thugs in Honduras,who beat them and threatened to kill them with AK-47's last week....I think about my friend and his family in Nepal,that are going thru lots of perils,sometimes without even water for their baby,just to preach the Gospel...I think about the christians in North Korea,Iran,Middle East,all Asia,in Chiapas,Colombia,in Europe...and the list goes on...
I think of how a high price we all had to pay to take the gospel to a foreign land.I think about the time when I had to face the possibility of my own death and even make arrangements for that....
What Benny Hinn said about his own personal SAFETY is CHEAP and is sad...
The Bible says that those who find their life shall lose it and those who lose their lives shall find it....(Matthew 10:38-39)
The Gospel is a humble walk of daily obedience to the Word of God and relationship and fellowship with Jesus.What is wrong with being sober...????
He GAVE IT ALL for us,and then in return we are concerned about getting the safest "hotel" in town...???Come on....!!!!
There are many that are giving a bad name to the True Gospel of the Lord JesusChrist...
The Gospel IS NOT EXPENSIVE...I understand where he is coming from,but I think he is making it expensive....
May the Lord help us not to stumble in our own walk because of money or greed or glory of men....
Let us follow Jesus example in the Bible.Let's live our lives with daily joy and gratitude,content with what we have...We brought nothing to this world and will take nothing out of it when we go...He will take care of us and provide and even give us unexpected, unmerited gifts and will save our loved ones...I'm a testimony of that.
Jesus is Coming Soon...
As in the days of Noah...
