BENNY HINN: THE MIRACLES, THE PROPHESIES, AND THE MONEY
Ask a group of evangelical Christians what they think of Billy Graham or Haik Hovsepian Mehr and there is universal respect. Do the same for Benny Hinn and the response is more varied. Some believe that Benny Hinn too deserves respect; others though have questions, about the miracles, the prophecies, and especially the money.
Deserves Respect: preaching and writing
Given what Benny Hinn has achieved over thirty five years of ministry there should definitely be respect for he is the world’s most famous Christian preacher and healer. In the US and Europe he attracts up to ten thousand and more to his meetings, while in Asia, in countries such as India and the Philippines, congregations have been in the millions. In 2004 the total number coming to his events was over twenty million. These meetings represent a massive amount of work undertaken by an army of volunteers – and his own organisation. It would be churlish not to rejoice over these gatherings.
There is the sheer number of people coming together in Jesus’ name; the experience of worshipping together with a vast crowd of believers, led by a choir of hundreds, sometimes thousands; the Bible teaching given by Benny Hinn followed by an invitation for salvation; and finally a time of healing and anointing when there is no doubt that some experience a touch of God in their lives that profoundly changes them. Anyone with any experience of leading large meetings would know how draining such events are, both physically and spiritually. Benny Hinn has taken this pressure every month for over three decades in scores of countries round the globe. And there is no sign of his schedule easing up. In 2010 he already has fourteen major events arranged up till October, including five healing mega services in South Africa in March. Most of Benny Hinn’s mission work involves these sorts of events, but his organisation also underwrites charity work, two orphanages in Mexico and the Philippines, and a hundred bed hospital in Calcutta, India.
Benny Hinn also deserves respect for his TV and book ministries. He first started appearing on TV in 1983, and then in 1990 launched a daily half hour programme based on his healing crusades which became ‘This Is Your Day’. It is watched by millions throughout the world. Whatever one’s TV taste, to have a lead part on a daily half hour broadcast for nearly twenty years represents hard work. The programme’s success should be recognised as an achievement. But there is more: people are touched through these programmes. This author knows of a lady with an impossible hip problem who would not normally watch Benny Hinn, but felt led to do so. On these programmes Benny Hinn asked people to touch the TV screen as a sign they are asking for healing. She did so – and was dramatically healed.
Benny Hinn has also authored ten best selling books. His most famous is ‘Good Morning, Holy Spirit’ which has sold over a million copies. He has other titles on the Holy Spirit and healing, one on the blood of Christ, and also a biography of Kathryn Kuhlman, a healing evangelist who impacted his own ministry[1]. His latest book published in August 2009 ‘Blood In The Sand’ is about the Middle East conflict. Again it is not necessary for Christians to agree with everything Benny Hinn writes, but his achievement should be respected. And again there is more. People have been touched by his books. One reviewer wirtes…’At the beginning of this book it says, "This book will change your life!" And oh how it did! I could not put it down…’
There is a final point as to why Benny Hinn should be respected: he paid a heavy price when he became a Christian. This comes out clearly in his book ‘Good Morning, Holy Spirit’. He was born in 1952 in Jaffa, Israel, into a Christian Orthodox family (his father was Greek, his mother Armenian). As such, his parents considered themselves to be virtually in line with the original Christians. In 1968 the family moved to Toronto, Canada, where Benny had a ‘born again’ experience. The very idea that the son of Orthodox Christians had to be ‘born again’ was deeply offensive to his parents. They fought hard against their son’s new faith: stopping him going to church, banning the name of Jesus in the house, and even sending him to see a psychiatrist to cure him of his evangelical zeal. As any Iranian will know, such alienation from one’s family is deeply painful. But this is what Benny Hinn endured for several years. Under these circumstances he not only grew as a Christian, attending church whenever he could, he also started a preaching career. His parents then became Christians after hearing him preach.
This story is moving –but what it underlines is that Benny Hinn’s conversion was completely genuine, as was his early enthusiastic commitment to Christian service. There is no way that the son of Orthodox parents would risk losing their family unless they had had a true experience of God.
The Miracles
There is no doubt Benny Hinn deserves our respect, but any observer of his ministry would have questions. One is typical for ministries which claim healings: is this not preying on the weak and vulnerable, giving them false hope? A fair answer is that Benny Hinn is not offering a ‘false’ hope. God does heal today. Critics will reply that most people who attend the meetings are not healed, and there are few, if any, healings that can be medically verified[2]. To this Benny Hinn can rightly ask whether it is wrong to encourage people to look to God for healing; whether healing happens or not is His business. The fact that some believe they are healed, and those who are not are still inspired in worship, still makes the meetings more than worthwhile. This too is perfectly fair.
However there is one element this that is not fair, and that is Benny Hinn’s insistence in both his teaching and preaching that it is God’s will to heal everyone. This both ignores the theme in the Bible, illustrated by Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’, that suffering is often a part of God’s plan for His people, and, worse, leaves the blame on the shoulders of the unhealed person. If it is God’s will for them to be healed and they are not, they have to conclude that either their faith is weak, or they are too sinful. This is regrettable.
Others question the way people fall down in the meetings. Benny Hinn will either call people up and then throw his arm at them, or his coat, or just point at them, and they will collapse. Sometimes he will ask his ushers to get them up again, only to receive the same treatment. On other occasions he will go into the crowd and, usually in quite a loud voice, shout something like ‘The fire is falling’ and quite a number of people will fall down. To the onlooker it is all rather odd, even unnerving. However people who have been in the midst of this believe that the power of God is genuinely present, and when they fell, the Holy Spirit deeply ministered to them. Critics of the practice say it is unbiblical, and that Benny Hinn is using hypnotic techniques of mass suggestion. Given that church history is replete with odd things happening in services from loud shouting to speaking in tongues, one should be wary of rejecting Benny Hinn’s ministry simply because people fall down at his meetings.
The Prophesies
A more serious question concerns Benny Hinn’s theology. He has gone on record as saying each person of the Trinity is made up of three persons, so making nine people in the Godhead; that Adam was a superman who could fly; and Eve was meant to deliver babies from her side. Many Christians challenged him, and in 1991 Benny Hinn said he was correcting his theology. There is probably a background and cultural issue here. Benny Hinn has no university or theological education, but comes from a dominantly oral culture, where thinking out loud is the norm. This is exactly what he was doing when he strayed into the realm of the Trinity and Adam. He was thinking out loud, and wrongly, but he was not maliciously trying to foist some poisonous heresy on the world, hence his willingness to back off when challenged. Again, it would not be wise to reject such a substantial ministry on the basis of him making some theological mistakes while talking on air.
More worrying are the string of false prophesies that Benny Hinn has given: Fidel Castro should have died in the 1990’s; the US homosexual community should have been wiped out, ‘around 94 or 95’; there was to be a peace treaty between the US and Syria; and Iran’s government should have changed. They are a cause for concern for two reasons: firstly, and most obviously, it is a very serious matter to claim to speak for God and get it wrong, but secondly, the prophecies are very much in line with what Benny Hinn’s supporters would want to hear, suggesting that perhaps sub-consciously, he is wanting his prophesies to make him popular in the eyes of man. It is possible to judge this issue too harshly. Some Christians believe that prophecy is a valid ministry, but inevitably prophets will sometimes get it wrong. It is better to keep on prophesying rather than give up because of the occasional mistake. Nevertheless, given that Benny Hinn has such a large audience common sense would suggest that it might be wiser, with such a track record, to refrain from risking the possibility of making a false prophecy. And common decency would ask for an apology for past errors.
The Money
Most worrying of all is the question of Benny Hinn and money. It has two aspects: How it is raised, and how it is spent. Considerable time is given in all his meetings to asking for funds. That is perfectly legitimate; hosting a meeting in a large modern venue is not cheap. And there are the costs of his staff and offices and travelling. What is questionable is the implication given that the more the person gives, the more chance there is of a miracle. So during a sermon at the Orlando Christian Centre in Florida, where Benny Hinn used to pastor, he said –
‘…there is a curse on human beings because they are not givers…you know what it means to be cursed? It means you can’t be healed, you can’t be delivered…’[3]
And during a broadcast, he made the link very clearly…
I believe God is healing people while they’re making a pledge tonight…there are people getting healed making a pledge…God is healing people while they’re making a pledge.’[4]
Many would question the integrity of the approach. With this emphasis desperate people are bound to want to give, even though there is no such emphasis in Scripture between giving and receiving healing[5], and while giving the appeal, Benny Hinn has no idea whether those who give will be healed. To this writer it would seem more honest to ask for funds to support the cost of the ministry, a perfectly fair request, and to completely leave out the idea that giving somehow increases the chances of the miraculous.
There is no doubt though that Benny Hinn’s fund raising methods work. Due to legislation in the US which allows religious charities to keep their accounts secret, nobody knows the exact annual income of his organisation, but it’s a lot. Estimates vary from 90 to 100 million US dollars a year. And nobody knows how much Benny Hinn takes personally for himself: estimates vary from half a million to a million dollars. What is certain though is that by most people’s standards, Benny Hinn enjoys a luxurious life-style. His seven bedroom Californian mansion with eight bathrooms overlooks the Pacific and is valued at around $10 million; he famously uses a private jet that costs over $100,000 a month, drives expensive cars and he stays in the elite suites of the world’s best hotels where the price tag is usually much more than $1,000 a night. There are also records of large payments being made to his family members from ministry funds[6].
Many would ask whether this sort of life-style is really suitable for a follower of the one who had nowhere to lay his head, let alone His full time servant. However one should pause before judging Benny Hinn’s life-style too severely. There is nothing overtly sinful in his life-style. Unlike some others who have sadly fallen into sexual affairs, Benny Hinn is a happily married family man. There is no hint of any addictions – drugs, alcohol, or pornography – in his living. Some might argue that the luxurious life-style, based on donations from desperately sick people, is in itself sinful. This view though needs to show caution. The general emphasis of the Bible is for Christians is to have a simple life-style, but one should be careful about judging others. There are at least three reasons for being careful in Benny Hinn’s case. Questioned about his private jet, Benny Hinn said that if he did not use it, he would suffer ‘burn out’. It would be less than gracious not to acknowledge that Benny Hinn’s working schedule is pressurised. It is not for others to decide what he needs to maintain himself for his ministry, as long as all the funds are raised legitimately. Another reason for caution is that Benny Hinn is not the only Christian leader living in seeming luxury. The home of most pastors living in the U.S would be like mansions compared to their colleagues living in India. And what about the bishops of the Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican churches? They do not live in mansions – they live in palaces. And their ecclesiastical robes are probably just as expensive as Benny Hinn’s white round necked suits. Whether right or wrong the life style of many Christian leaders over the last two thousand years has been different from their congregations, so it is unfair just to pick on Benny Hinn. A final reason for caution is to accept Benny Hinn’s cultural background. He is half Greek and half Armenian, and in both cultures it is definitely not a sin to have an ambition to be rich. These cultures are not dominated by a respect for radical asceticism, as say exists in India. Rather there is a healthy respect for wealth. And then as a teenager he came to North America where the deal is – work hard, and you can enjoy what you earn. Benny Hinn works hard – and he enjoys what he has earned. One does not have to agree with the emphases in these cultures, but we should accept that all Christians are to a certain extent conditioned by their upbringing. We should be gracious enough to accept other people’s cultural background when considering their life-style.
However while fellow Christians should be wary about judging how Benny Hinn spends his money, there is no doubt that in terms of the church’s witness to a sceptical world, always keen to judge, it would be so much better if he took more care both in ensuring the integrity of his fund raising methods, and in stopping eye brows being raised regarding his expenses. The Bible says that a minister must be ‘above reproach’, that means live in such a way that others cannot easily criticise. Sadly both fellow Christians, as well as the secular media, have found much to criticise in Benny Hinn’s ministry, especially over this question of money. Sadly too the US Senate, a very serious body, has decided that Benny Hinn, and other healing ministries, have a case to answer regarding their finances and in December 2007, Senator Grassley began an investigation. The Senator reports that Benny Hinn has fully complied, but for Christians it is not pleasant that a senior government official has to investigate a minister at all. It would suggest that Benny Hinn has not been taking care to ensure his ministry was ‘beyond reproach’.
Respect, but…
There is much to respect and admire about Benny Hinn. His courage when he first became a Christian; his zeal as he took up ministry, despite the opposition from his family; his determination in launching out with healing crusades, followed by TV, and books, which have impacted millions; and his perseverance. It would be so pleasant to end this article here. But there are questions – about the miracles, the prophesies and the money. As seen above, none of these should lead one to rejecting Benny Hinn’s ministry outright. There needs to be graciousness, a hesitancy not to judge too harshly. But how much sweeter it would have been for all Christians if Benny Hinn’s ministry had stayed ‘beyond reproach’.
Tom Hawksley
December 3rd, 2009
[1] Kalameh featured an article on Kathryn Kuhlman in issue. To order a copy contact…..
[2] Film maker Antony Thomas covered Benny Hinn’s meetings in Portland, Oregon 1999 where 76 testified to being healed. Thomas asked Hinn’s office for the names of those who claimed to be healed. After thirteen weeks, five names were given. All these were investigated. Of these four did not get better, indeed one lady died of the cancer she thought she had been healed of, and the doctor of a lady who said he had been cured of deafness, said she had not been deaf.
[3] Justin Peters thesis on Benny Hinn, found at http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/main_miracles.html accessed 2nd December, 2009.
[4] See footnote 2
[5] There is no record of Jesus ever mentioning money when healing people. He does mention faith, and so Benny Hinn says that the money is a sign of faith, but that is confusing. The connection between faith and money is not made in Scripture. Regarding money, there is a very severe warning in Scripture against trying to buy ‘God’. See Acts 8: 18-24
[6] See http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=b78a8dc09d6e524c1322 for a TV report on Benny Hinn’s life-style.
Ask a group of evangelical Christians what they think of Billy Graham or Haik Hovsepian Mehr and there is universal respect. Do the same for Benny Hinn and the response is more varied. Some believe that Benny Hinn too deserves respect; others though have questions, about the miracles, the prophecies, and especially the money.
Deserves Respect: preaching and writing
Given what Benny Hinn has achieved over thirty five years of ministry there should definitely be respect for he is the world’s most famous Christian preacher and healer. In the US and Europe he attracts up to ten thousand and more to his meetings, while in Asia, in countries such as India and the Philippines, congregations have been in the millions. In 2004 the total number coming to his events was over twenty million. These meetings represent a massive amount of work undertaken by an army of volunteers – and his own organisation. It would be churlish not to rejoice over these gatherings.
There is the sheer number of people coming together in Jesus’ name; the experience of worshipping together with a vast crowd of believers, led by a choir of hundreds, sometimes thousands; the Bible teaching given by Benny Hinn followed by an invitation for salvation; and finally a time of healing and anointing when there is no doubt that some experience a touch of God in their lives that profoundly changes them. Anyone with any experience of leading large meetings would know how draining such events are, both physically and spiritually. Benny Hinn has taken this pressure every month for over three decades in scores of countries round the globe. And there is no sign of his schedule easing up. In 2010 he already has fourteen major events arranged up till October, including five healing mega services in South Africa in March. Most of Benny Hinn’s mission work involves these sorts of events, but his organisation also underwrites charity work, two orphanages in Mexico and the Philippines, and a hundred bed hospital in Calcutta, India.
Benny Hinn also deserves respect for his TV and book ministries. He first started appearing on TV in 1983, and then in 1990 launched a daily half hour programme based on his healing crusades which became ‘This Is Your Day’. It is watched by millions throughout the world. Whatever one’s TV taste, to have a lead part on a daily half hour broadcast for nearly twenty years represents hard work. The programme’s success should be recognised as an achievement. But there is more: people are touched through these programmes. This author knows of a lady with an impossible hip problem who would not normally watch Benny Hinn, but felt led to do so. On these programmes Benny Hinn asked people to touch the TV screen as a sign they are asking for healing. She did so – and was dramatically healed.
Benny Hinn has also authored ten best selling books. His most famous is ‘Good Morning, Holy Spirit’ which has sold over a million copies. He has other titles on the Holy Spirit and healing, one on the blood of Christ, and also a biography of Kathryn Kuhlman, a healing evangelist who impacted his own ministry[1]. His latest book published in August 2009 ‘Blood In The Sand’ is about the Middle East conflict. Again it is not necessary for Christians to agree with everything Benny Hinn writes, but his achievement should be respected. And again there is more. People have been touched by his books. One reviewer wirtes…’At the beginning of this book it says, "This book will change your life!" And oh how it did! I could not put it down…’
There is a final point as to why Benny Hinn should be respected: he paid a heavy price when he became a Christian. This comes out clearly in his book ‘Good Morning, Holy Spirit’. He was born in 1952 in Jaffa, Israel, into a Christian Orthodox family (his father was Greek, his mother Armenian). As such, his parents considered themselves to be virtually in line with the original Christians. In 1968 the family moved to Toronto, Canada, where Benny had a ‘born again’ experience. The very idea that the son of Orthodox Christians had to be ‘born again’ was deeply offensive to his parents. They fought hard against their son’s new faith: stopping him going to church, banning the name of Jesus in the house, and even sending him to see a psychiatrist to cure him of his evangelical zeal. As any Iranian will know, such alienation from one’s family is deeply painful. But this is what Benny Hinn endured for several years. Under these circumstances he not only grew as a Christian, attending church whenever he could, he also started a preaching career. His parents then became Christians after hearing him preach.
This story is moving –but what it underlines is that Benny Hinn’s conversion was completely genuine, as was his early enthusiastic commitment to Christian service. There is no way that the son of Orthodox parents would risk losing their family unless they had had a true experience of God.
The Miracles
There is no doubt Benny Hinn deserves our respect, but any observer of his ministry would have questions. One is typical for ministries which claim healings: is this not preying on the weak and vulnerable, giving them false hope? A fair answer is that Benny Hinn is not offering a ‘false’ hope. God does heal today. Critics will reply that most people who attend the meetings are not healed, and there are few, if any, healings that can be medically verified[2]. To this Benny Hinn can rightly ask whether it is wrong to encourage people to look to God for healing; whether healing happens or not is His business. The fact that some believe they are healed, and those who are not are still inspired in worship, still makes the meetings more than worthwhile. This too is perfectly fair.
However there is one element this that is not fair, and that is Benny Hinn’s insistence in both his teaching and preaching that it is God’s will to heal everyone. This both ignores the theme in the Bible, illustrated by Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’, that suffering is often a part of God’s plan for His people, and, worse, leaves the blame on the shoulders of the unhealed person. If it is God’s will for them to be healed and they are not, they have to conclude that either their faith is weak, or they are too sinful. This is regrettable.
Others question the way people fall down in the meetings. Benny Hinn will either call people up and then throw his arm at them, or his coat, or just point at them, and they will collapse. Sometimes he will ask his ushers to get them up again, only to receive the same treatment. On other occasions he will go into the crowd and, usually in quite a loud voice, shout something like ‘The fire is falling’ and quite a number of people will fall down. To the onlooker it is all rather odd, even unnerving. However people who have been in the midst of this believe that the power of God is genuinely present, and when they fell, the Holy Spirit deeply ministered to them. Critics of the practice say it is unbiblical, and that Benny Hinn is using hypnotic techniques of mass suggestion. Given that church history is replete with odd things happening in services from loud shouting to speaking in tongues, one should be wary of rejecting Benny Hinn’s ministry simply because people fall down at his meetings.
The Prophesies
A more serious question concerns Benny Hinn’s theology. He has gone on record as saying each person of the Trinity is made up of three persons, so making nine people in the Godhead; that Adam was a superman who could fly; and Eve was meant to deliver babies from her side. Many Christians challenged him, and in 1991 Benny Hinn said he was correcting his theology. There is probably a background and cultural issue here. Benny Hinn has no university or theological education, but comes from a dominantly oral culture, where thinking out loud is the norm. This is exactly what he was doing when he strayed into the realm of the Trinity and Adam. He was thinking out loud, and wrongly, but he was not maliciously trying to foist some poisonous heresy on the world, hence his willingness to back off when challenged. Again, it would not be wise to reject such a substantial ministry on the basis of him making some theological mistakes while talking on air.
More worrying are the string of false prophesies that Benny Hinn has given: Fidel Castro should have died in the 1990’s; the US homosexual community should have been wiped out, ‘around 94 or 95’; there was to be a peace treaty between the US and Syria; and Iran’s government should have changed. They are a cause for concern for two reasons: firstly, and most obviously, it is a very serious matter to claim to speak for God and get it wrong, but secondly, the prophecies are very much in line with what Benny Hinn’s supporters would want to hear, suggesting that perhaps sub-consciously, he is wanting his prophesies to make him popular in the eyes of man. It is possible to judge this issue too harshly. Some Christians believe that prophecy is a valid ministry, but inevitably prophets will sometimes get it wrong. It is better to keep on prophesying rather than give up because of the occasional mistake. Nevertheless, given that Benny Hinn has such a large audience common sense would suggest that it might be wiser, with such a track record, to refrain from risking the possibility of making a false prophecy. And common decency would ask for an apology for past errors.
The Money
Most worrying of all is the question of Benny Hinn and money. It has two aspects: How it is raised, and how it is spent. Considerable time is given in all his meetings to asking for funds. That is perfectly legitimate; hosting a meeting in a large modern venue is not cheap. And there are the costs of his staff and offices and travelling. What is questionable is the implication given that the more the person gives, the more chance there is of a miracle. So during a sermon at the Orlando Christian Centre in Florida, where Benny Hinn used to pastor, he said –
‘…there is a curse on human beings because they are not givers…you know what it means to be cursed? It means you can’t be healed, you can’t be delivered…’[3]
And during a broadcast, he made the link very clearly…
I believe God is healing people while they’re making a pledge tonight…there are people getting healed making a pledge…God is healing people while they’re making a pledge.’[4]
Many would question the integrity of the approach. With this emphasis desperate people are bound to want to give, even though there is no such emphasis in Scripture between giving and receiving healing[5], and while giving the appeal, Benny Hinn has no idea whether those who give will be healed. To this writer it would seem more honest to ask for funds to support the cost of the ministry, a perfectly fair request, and to completely leave out the idea that giving somehow increases the chances of the miraculous.
There is no doubt though that Benny Hinn’s fund raising methods work. Due to legislation in the US which allows religious charities to keep their accounts secret, nobody knows the exact annual income of his organisation, but it’s a lot. Estimates vary from 90 to 100 million US dollars a year. And nobody knows how much Benny Hinn takes personally for himself: estimates vary from half a million to a million dollars. What is certain though is that by most people’s standards, Benny Hinn enjoys a luxurious life-style. His seven bedroom Californian mansion with eight bathrooms overlooks the Pacific and is valued at around $10 million; he famously uses a private jet that costs over $100,000 a month, drives expensive cars and he stays in the elite suites of the world’s best hotels where the price tag is usually much more than $1,000 a night. There are also records of large payments being made to his family members from ministry funds[6].
Many would ask whether this sort of life-style is really suitable for a follower of the one who had nowhere to lay his head, let alone His full time servant. However one should pause before judging Benny Hinn’s life-style too severely. There is nothing overtly sinful in his life-style. Unlike some others who have sadly fallen into sexual affairs, Benny Hinn is a happily married family man. There is no hint of any addictions – drugs, alcohol, or pornography – in his living. Some might argue that the luxurious life-style, based on donations from desperately sick people, is in itself sinful. This view though needs to show caution. The general emphasis of the Bible is for Christians is to have a simple life-style, but one should be careful about judging others. There are at least three reasons for being careful in Benny Hinn’s case. Questioned about his private jet, Benny Hinn said that if he did not use it, he would suffer ‘burn out’. It would be less than gracious not to acknowledge that Benny Hinn’s working schedule is pressurised. It is not for others to decide what he needs to maintain himself for his ministry, as long as all the funds are raised legitimately. Another reason for caution is that Benny Hinn is not the only Christian leader living in seeming luxury. The home of most pastors living in the U.S would be like mansions compared to their colleagues living in India. And what about the bishops of the Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican churches? They do not live in mansions – they live in palaces. And their ecclesiastical robes are probably just as expensive as Benny Hinn’s white round necked suits. Whether right or wrong the life style of many Christian leaders over the last two thousand years has been different from their congregations, so it is unfair just to pick on Benny Hinn. A final reason for caution is to accept Benny Hinn’s cultural background. He is half Greek and half Armenian, and in both cultures it is definitely not a sin to have an ambition to be rich. These cultures are not dominated by a respect for radical asceticism, as say exists in India. Rather there is a healthy respect for wealth. And then as a teenager he came to North America where the deal is – work hard, and you can enjoy what you earn. Benny Hinn works hard – and he enjoys what he has earned. One does not have to agree with the emphases in these cultures, but we should accept that all Christians are to a certain extent conditioned by their upbringing. We should be gracious enough to accept other people’s cultural background when considering their life-style.
However while fellow Christians should be wary about judging how Benny Hinn spends his money, there is no doubt that in terms of the church’s witness to a sceptical world, always keen to judge, it would be so much better if he took more care both in ensuring the integrity of his fund raising methods, and in stopping eye brows being raised regarding his expenses. The Bible says that a minister must be ‘above reproach’, that means live in such a way that others cannot easily criticise. Sadly both fellow Christians, as well as the secular media, have found much to criticise in Benny Hinn’s ministry, especially over this question of money. Sadly too the US Senate, a very serious body, has decided that Benny Hinn, and other healing ministries, have a case to answer regarding their finances and in December 2007, Senator Grassley began an investigation. The Senator reports that Benny Hinn has fully complied, but for Christians it is not pleasant that a senior government official has to investigate a minister at all. It would suggest that Benny Hinn has not been taking care to ensure his ministry was ‘beyond reproach’.
Respect, but…
There is much to respect and admire about Benny Hinn. His courage when he first became a Christian; his zeal as he took up ministry, despite the opposition from his family; his determination in launching out with healing crusades, followed by TV, and books, which have impacted millions; and his perseverance. It would be so pleasant to end this article here. But there are questions – about the miracles, the prophesies and the money. As seen above, none of these should lead one to rejecting Benny Hinn’s ministry outright. There needs to be graciousness, a hesitancy not to judge too harshly. But how much sweeter it would have been for all Christians if Benny Hinn’s ministry had stayed ‘beyond reproach’.
Tom Hawksley
December 3rd, 2009
[1] Kalameh featured an article on Kathryn Kuhlman in issue. To order a copy contact…..
[2] Film maker Antony Thomas covered Benny Hinn’s meetings in Portland, Oregon 1999 where 76 testified to being healed. Thomas asked Hinn’s office for the names of those who claimed to be healed. After thirteen weeks, five names were given. All these were investigated. Of these four did not get better, indeed one lady died of the cancer she thought she had been healed of, and the doctor of a lady who said he had been cured of deafness, said she had not been deaf.
[3] Justin Peters thesis on Benny Hinn, found at http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/main_miracles.html accessed 2nd December, 2009.
[4] See footnote 2
[5] There is no record of Jesus ever mentioning money when healing people. He does mention faith, and so Benny Hinn says that the money is a sign of faith, but that is confusing. The connection between faith and money is not made in Scripture. Regarding money, there is a very severe warning in Scripture against trying to buy ‘God’. See Acts 8: 18-24
[6] See http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=b78a8dc09d6e524c1322 for a TV report on Benny Hinn’s life-style.
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