Benny Hinn Recants–Again

Benny Hinn made news this week (here) renouncing the cornerstone teaching of the  Prosperity Gospel—the giving for blessing concept that faith preachers use to enrich themselves at the expense of greedy or desperate followers. Hinn has come under increasing pressure, especially from elements of evangelicalism willing to call the Prosperity Gospel heresy. One of Hinn’s most outspoken critics is his own nephew, Costi Hinn. Costi Hinn was quoted extensively in an exposing documentary, American Gospel: Christ Alone (reviewed here). Benny Hinn said that the Prosperity Gospel has gone too far and that the gospel and miracles are not for sale.

So, how should we respond? Should we rejoice that a lost sheep has come home? Or should we be skeptical?

It is not the first time.

Please, forgive me if I am a bit skeptical. We have heard this before. Hinn recanted the Prosperity Gospel in February of 2018 (here). It was also a discussion in 2014 (here). Christianity Today (here) reports that he repented of it in the 1980s and in the 1990s (and here) too. Benny Hinn says he is older now and he sees the Bible differently than he used to. If that is true, why did he repent many times over the course of thirty-plus years?

Like an alcoholic, Benny Hinn seems to repent and then fall off the wagon often. It is not surprising since selling blessings is such an easy way for unscrupulous purveyors of a false gospel to enrich themselves. It is like a drug that keeps calling them back into it.

Repenting of what?

Maybe Benny Hinn is really serious this time. We really do not know, but we should take a look at what he is actually saying.

Hinn is rejecting the idea of paying for blessings—that if you pay a preacher you obtain for yourself financial or other blessings from God. Such a practice makes merchandise of the name of God, abuses the poor and desperate, and should bring the swift judgment of God upon its peddlers. Hinn should reject this. What he is not rejecting is the other errant theology and practice that accompanies such teaching. He still believes in a Prosperity Gospel, he just does not believe preachers should sell it. He still believes in continuing revelation and the other accompanying errors of the charismatic and faith healing movements.

In the end, it is not my responsibility to determine the sincerity of Benny Hinn’s repentance. He has not sinned against me, but against God Himself. I cannot judge Hinn’s heart, but God sees it perfectly. My responsibility is to warn the flock for which I am responsible of the dangers he and others like him pose.

The Prosperity Gospel is a satanic lie.

Yes, I mean that. It turns people away from their genuine spiritual need for a savior, and onto their own greed. The New Testament warns of these false teachers often (Philippians 3:18-19, 2 Timothy 4:3-4, Acts 20:28-30, 2 Peter 2:1-22).

I believe such preaching has humanly speaking, sent many people to hell by distracting the lost from the true gospel or embittering them against true Christianity.

The Prosperity Gospel is a huge problem overseas. Rich American preachers go to poor desperate countries and tell people they can be just like the rich Americans (or healed from their diseases) if they sow seed gifts of faith. It is the rich preying on the poor and throughout scripture, God calls it an abomination in His sight. This thievery has prompted governments around the world to crack down on all American missionary efforts. The thieves walk away with their pockets full and the true missionaries struggle to get their visas renewed.

It also discourages true believers into thinking they suffer because of a lack of faith, rather than gaining the true spiritual benefit life’s trials are intended to bring (James 1:1-5). These people need comfort and encouragement. Instead, the Prosperity Gospel loads them with false guilt and false hope.

The Prosperity Gospel is not just error, it is evil. It is active opposition to the true gospel. Benny Hinn is right to fear judgment for his part in it. If you think I am speaking too harshly, consider what Peter says about it—and yes, it is an accurate application of this scripture (2 Peter 2).

By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; . . . .

But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”