Sometimes, you encounter an event that causes you to scratch your head and struggle to reconcile two things that you didn’t think could exist simultaneously. This happened to me recently (as I’m sure it happened to many others) when I heard that Benny Hinn had publicly made some statements that seemed to indicate he was turning away from the prosperity gospel he had promoted for pretty much his entire ministry. I have been critical of Hinn’s theology and antics ever since I was in high school and became aware of him (the area where I grew up has a very strong prosperity gospel presence) and he has served as an example of a false teacher in some of the sermons I’ve preached. However, whenever I have referenced him (or others such as Kenneth Copeland or Joyce Meyer) in this way, I have prayed silently that the Lord would lead them to repentance. I have heard Hinn make some statements in the past that gave me some hope that he might see the error of his ways (for instance, I heard him once excoriate Joel Osteen for refusing to say that Jesus was the only way to the Father and then proceed to present the true Gospel with stunning clarity).
So, when I heard him say “I’m correcting my own theology” in a recent program, my ears perked up. He went on to say, “Because when I read the Bible now, I don’t see the Bible in the same eyes I saw 20 years ago…I think it’s an offense to the Holy Spirit to place a price on the Gospel. I’m done with it…I think giving has become such a gimmick; it’s making me sick to my stomach.” To say that I was stunned would be an understatement. These are not the words of the same man who said that he wished God would give him a “Holy Ghost machine gun” in order to “blow away” his critics. As I listened to his statements, I thought they sounded like a confession from a man who was struggling himself to reconcile the core of what he had believed and taught for decades (and which, it should be noted, made him very comfortable) with what the Bible actually teaches.
Given Hinn’s track record, the responses to his statements were mixed from many evangelicals. There was a significant amount of cynicism regarding his comments, which were often tied to the recent release of Costi Hinn’s (Benny’s nephew) book, God, Greed, and the (Prosperity) Gospel (a book I highly recommend). Some saw his comments as an attempt at mitigating the damage from that book, but others of greater stature in the evangelical world have outlined the great dangers of the prosperity gospel and have not seemed to damage Hinn’s reputation within Charismatic and prosperity gospel circles. While my default setting can be cynicism also (and those were indeed my very initial thoughts), I recognize that such an attitude can be sinful. When we hear of repentance, our first reaction should not be, “He or she doesn’t really mean it.” I’m not saying that we should simply accept a statement of repentance; after all, that would be contrary to what Scripture says in regards to the fruit of repentance (cf. Matt. 3:8; Col. 1:6; Gal. 5:19-26; Rom. 6:15-19). No, what I suggest here is what might be best described as being cautiously optimistic: we hope that God has brought this change to Hinn’s heart and rejoice that God can reach even the seemingly most intransigent sinner. We continue to pray that God will produce the fruits that are in accordance with repentance in Hinn’s life.
The danger with a cynicism that outright dismisses potential repentance is twofold: it creates a corrosive spirit in us that refuses to see God working in the lives of sinners who we disapprove of (“God, I think you that I am not like other men…” Luke 18:11) and it demonstrates to the world that we don’t truly believe in the transformative power of the Gospel we proclaim. When we hear of events like this (or, for instance, that singer/rapper Kanye West has become a born-again Christian), let’s not allow our first reactions and comments to be, “Oh, that can’t be true,” but instead be, “Lord, please let it be true!” Just something to think about…
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