Benny Hinn's Romance with Necromancy

 

       From the beginning the Church needed to give answers to those outside its walls, the unsaved, those who didn’t believe they were sinners. So they were in need of the Gospel. The church was to fulfill the great commission. this is called apologetics

But there were also challenges from within that needed to be addressed and weeded out this is called polemics . The modalists and the Gnostics came first inside the church. The word Gnostic is derived from the Greek, word "gnostikos.' or "gnosis a inner mystic knowledge revealed to the adherent. The Gnostics believe that 'gnosis', is a subjective knowledge of the divine.

One of the fundamental tenets ' of gnosticism declares that God is unknowable by man and can only communicate to him indirectly, through ' intermediaries. Today we can find examples of this in the evangelical Church through men who claim greater revelations as they are specially 'anointed' having a deeper ,a greater measure of the Spirit and understanding of the Bible. The Gnostics also placed a high value on Personal experiences as they were  mystically inclined.

Today's gnosticism is expressed by being 'connected' by 'feelings' or sensing the Presence of God. If the feeling of God is not sensed or felt than God was absent.  I’m not saying that we don’t have feelings from time to time but when this is the judgment call for knowing whether he is present, then it is false.

Over and over Paul writes about adhering to doctrine and faith in Christ with no mention of signs and wonders. Even in his epistle to Timothy he tells him to stir up the gift within but he does not say anything about miracles but do the work of an evangelist. Today experience is equal to knowledge . This is how one gets their input, by a feeling a sign and a miracle they have experienced. True faith is trusting what you cannot see, waiting patiently for God to bring the results in his time. If one is going to gatherings thinking this person will bring the answer to their faith they have a wrong concept of what faith is.

Benny Hinn who has become the leading promoter of today's Charismatism seems to have had more supernatural experiences than the apostle Paul.

These are only a few of the instances mentioned there are many more...

B. Hinn "I’m telling you the truth you could literally sit there in total shock .... angels would appear in my bedroom at night and just stand and look at me I would wake up to see angels in my bedroom , all sizes, call me crazy but I would even see little boys in my bedroom with beautiful white robes they almost looked like girls but they were males ." (Benny Hinn Orlando Christian center, personal testimony).

Notice he said the angel just stood there and looked at him, well this defies the very reason angels are sent, they are messengers not starers.  At other times they have brought him numerous messages one which is telling him "poverty is a demon" and other such nonsense. (Benny Hinn, TBN, Praise a thon 1990)

"I've walked in the supernatural world. I've seen things you would never be able to understand...I've had individuals appear to me in my room. Not only angels." (HONOLULU CRUSADE Feb. 28, 1997)

Hinn still operates his ministry from this basis, "Please, please, please, don't think [we're] here to repeat something you've heard for the last 50 years. ...If we quit giving you new revelations, we're dead" (TBN, December 9th 1990). Actually the stories get more bizarre along with the anointing getting more violent.

Several years before Benny Hinn said, "I could almost visibly see the Lord, and I could tell you what He was wearing." This has now escalated where he can see him

When I talk to the Lord, He comes, … most times, I see Him wearing a blue, beautiful, almost like a - like a silkish looking garment. And under it would be a white garment. Sometimes I'd see Him wear white and a scarlet garment… You say, "Where do you see Him?" I don't know. I just see Him." "I've had individuals appear to me in my room. Not only angels."

Where does the bible ever say anyone saw the Lord when they pray except for special events such as Stevens stoning. Hinn describes God as if he has a changing wardrobe.

"I was in prayer one day and a man appeared in front of me. It happened for two days in a row. ..He was about six feet two. Old man. Had a ….Glistening white beard. …Eyes - crystal blue. He had on a white garment,…. On his head was a like a shawl - like a - like a like a covering… every part of him glistened like crystal. …Now, I know you may think I've lost my mind, but the Lord said, "Elijah, the prophet." … You know, when that happened? That happened days before the anointing on my life doubled." (HONOLULU CRUSADE Feb. 28, 1997)

Obviously this is in reference to Elisha’s double portion. Hinn connects someone the bible classifies as dead with a fresh double dose. Does Elijah dispense an anointing by appearing in someone’s room from heaven today after thousands of years of being in heaven? When Elisha asked Elijah for his mantle he told his protégé it is not mine to give. He was told to wait and see if the Lord would place it on him ( 2 Kings 2: 10) If he saw him taken to heaven he would receive the blessing. Yet he had to leave first for it to be placed on him he could not give it. 2 Kings 13:21

"I've seen the presence of God in Kathryn Kuhlman's meetings many times." If this is so he was probably the only one.

In 1989 the Lord told Hinn to ask for a healing ministry that would fill stadiums in America. "I can’t do it until you ask me. I said Lord if its in your plan why don’t you do it without me asking." Gods answer "Because my law is I can’t give till you ask, he bound himself to his word and promises." When he asks 7 months later the glory of God came. Besides the wrong theology in this conversation with God there is something we need to bring our attention to. He has at least two different stories about his launching of his healing ministry. Hinn seems to have duplicate and triplicate stories for just about everything in his life. And like the many other stories there are numerous contradictions.

Hinn's other testimony of the Lord giving him a vision of Kathryn Kuhlman in heaven, sitting with a group of people. The timing is completely different as well   as the characters (Mrs. Kuhlman died in 1976)..."Seven and a half years ago, just before the ministry started, before these crusades began, I was in prayer when suddenly in front of me I saw a group of people. I couldn't even tell you who they were. I recognized only one of them. It was Miss Kuhlman... (At least fifty to seventy of them were sitting in a group), and they were saying to me, "Pray! Ask God to give you a healing ministry that will touch the world!" And suddenly, I heard Kathryn's voice, ... suddenly there - there she was, it's crystal clear. And she in her beautiful smile, the way she said, "Ask! We're waiting for you to ask! We're praying with you to ask "And the vision disappeared. And suddenly I said, "Lord!" and I asked. A week later the anointing hit my life. (Honolulu Crusade, February 28, 1997). Her mantle has by all appearances, fallen upon Him. Notice he sees them and she talks with him. This is Necromancy which God states in Deut.18 is an abomination to him.  If you wonder if his ministry is of God here is the proof, God says this is an abomination.

He goes on to prove all this is true by saying," Jesus saw Moses and Elijah who came to talk to Him about His passion on the cross! Ladies and gentlemen, there's way more than you know about God! And the reason I'm telling you all this? The Lord said to me only a few days ago, He said, "You're - you're about to come into a new level. Get ready!" And I'm already feeling the rumblings in the heavenlies. Somebody is about to talk to me again." (Benny Hinn, Honolulu Crusade, February 28, 1997). So we can see Hinn depends on contact from the spiritual realm which is God forbids to be trafficked in.  To justify this by taking Jesus the Son of Gods encounter with the prophets on the mount of transfiguration is ludicrous. For it was Jesus along with the Father who had them appear to approve of his ministry and reveal who he was to his closest disciples. there really is no comparison.

At the age of eleven for instance Hinn claims to of had a visitation from Jesus himself before he was saved (Good Morning Holy Spirit pg.221 ) Hinn claims to have had two visions of Jesus as well. (Mike Thomas, The Power and the Glory. Florida Magazine, Nov. 24, 91 quoted in the Confusing world of Benny Hinn)

 When I was a little boy, I saw the Lord in this dream. It was really so real, it was really a vision because when - when He appeared to me my body became electric just like electricity went through me and when I awoke that electricity was still on my body." (Benny Hinn, This Is Your Day, June 11, 1997)

Here Hinn shows the origin of his electric anointing from his visitations of this certain Jesus that he has seen before he was a Christian. I'm sorry but something is not kosher here!

Biblically visions had a purpose to give revelation that would be written in scripture, not to transfer power.

The word "vision" appears mostly in OT passages and  few in comparison in the New Testament.  The majority of these have to do with God giving direct revelation of Himself, of His plans and  prophecy. These visions were rare . These were written down for us in the Bible. A genuine vision from God is never associated with the occult or the dead.  A vision is not a message from the realm of the dead. Our God who is the Living God sends messages from heaven.  Hinn is again using a Biblical activity to prove the genius of its content. He is trying to influence his followers that his extra-biblical revelation is from God and they can experience this as well. This is too similar to Joseph Smith (who started the Mormons) and his Angel of light experiences and should make anyone who has the Holy Spirit and knows the word very uncomfortable.

Hinn relates another vision he had "I saw myself walk into a room and there stood Kathryn Kuhlman. And I've not seen Kathryn in a dream or a vision [in] years. I knew she had died and it was on the news that same morning. … And there she was standing in this room… And she said, 'Follow me.' … And I followed her to a second room. In that second room stood the lord. When the lord, uh-when-when I saw the lord, Kathryn disappeared. She was just gone ... And now the lord looked at me and said, 'Follow me.' And I followed him to a third room." (Ibid.)

Hinn is so infatuated with this woman of who he models his preaching and mannerisms after that he is seeing her along with Jesus. He conducts his meetings almost exactly like hers. Why change such an effective model if it works.

Hinn is practicing and promoting spiritism at best and at worst necromancy, secret knowledge communicated by someone who has died.  Direction is sought from the other side. However, the Bible reveals that the real source of the information can be demonic entities or evil spirits who impersonate the dead, not the dead themselves. Why? Because the dead are not allowed nor able to communicate with us.  It doesn't matter whether we are believers or not their is no advantage.

Jeremiah had the very same issues going on in his time 14:14 and 23:16: "And the lord said to me, the prophets prophesy lies in my name. 1 have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their own heart."

"Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; They speak a vision of their own heart, not from the mouth of the lord."

Aimee S. Mcpherson and Kathryn Kuhlmans bodies are dead and buried but they have reserved power, at least according to Hinn. He even frequents their graves. This is a Grave Deception.

He said, "One of the strangest experiences I had a few years ago [was] visiting Aimee's tomb in California... Friday I am gonna go and visit Kathryn Kuhlman's tomb. It's close by Aimee's ... I've been there once already and every so often 1 like to go and pay my respects 'cause this great woman of God has touched my life. And that grave, uh, where she's buried is closed, they built walls around it. You can't get in without a key and I'm one of the very few people who can get in. But I'll never forget when 1 saw Aimee's tomb. It's incredibly dramatic. She was such a lady that her tomb has seven-foot angels bowing on each side of her tomb … I felt a terrific anointing when 1 was there. 1 actually, hear this,' I trembled when I visited Aimee's tomb. I was shaking all over. God's power came all over me. ... I believe the anointing has lingered over Aimee's body.

Someone asked me how is it you can feel the anointing around a tomb? I have no idea man, but I sure felt it. Your gonna feel the anointing...I’ve heard of people healed when they visited their tomb... (  Double Portion Anointing, Part #3, Orlando Christian Center, April 7, 1991. From the series, Holy Ghost Invasion. TV# 309,)

Again Hinn's fascination with the dead influences his imagination. This is in reference to Elishas bones and a double portion .But scripture mentions nothing in  2 Kings 13 about some lingering power that can be touched "anointing." The real difference is the biblical story is about the resurrection from the dead  not some subjective feeling "anointing" that was transferred to someone.  Hinn has not raised the dead and neither are the corpses of Kuhlman or McPherson . Hinn knows enough to go to scripture to try and validate his wild imagination but it all fails when looked at carefully.

Do we get the anointing and healing from dead people? Let me ask you, who goes to cemeteries? If what he is saying is true, maybe we should all move to their cemetery and have church! The problem is, this is not an anointing from Jesus. Friend, you can’t even get the anointing from another person when they are alive, so how in the world would you receive it from them when they are dead? This is necromancy plain and simple.

The prophet Isaiah talked about the abomination of seeking an "anointing," and contact with the 'other world at a grave and called it "rebellious" and ', a way that is not good" (65:2), He incriminates those: "Who sit among the graves, and spend the night in the tombs" (vs. 4). The worst of judgments are pronounced on these false practices (vs. 13-15). God hates his people to be mislead into false spiritual practices this is why he judged Israel so harshly, they knew better, they knew him and abandoned God at times for the practices of pagans.

Only those who are opposed to God and his word can promote their followers to spiritism and spiritualistic practices. Hinn has entered into a dangerous practice called necromancy which is divination  one divines by  consulting the dead. Lev. 19:31 'Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.

Deut 18:11 " one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead."  He calls all of these an abomination. Mediums, spiritists, necromancers are those who receive messages from the dead from visiting their graves touching dead bodies by either visions, signs or by any communication.

When one reads Isaiah 8 He speaks of a mediums contacted a by a demon spirit. Isaiah's question addressed to the people of God vs.19  "And when they say to you seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter, should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?" The answer is obvious God's people should never seek the dead for any information, much less a spiritual one. We have a living God. So why is Hinn doing this ? Here's the answer.

Vs.20 to the law (scripture, Moses) and to the testimony (the prophets) If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no light in them." (the word). When someone is not satisfied with what God has already said, when they are blatantly disobedient to him they will always seek another recourse.

When King Saul's anointing was taken away he became desperate to hear from God, he received the death penalty from God for the practice of seeking information from a witch who called up the dead. Those who do not hear from God will always seek the occult as a ways to do so.  Those who are not word based will always seek the supernatural and most often mix it with occult techniques believing it is from God. those who follow after others who mislead them into spiritism will share in their punishment.

Stories like theses were not only uncommon among the early Christians but they clearly knew the pagan society the lived in.  How to perform miracles or obtain stronger, fresh anointings are not taught in Scripture, nor throughout Church history. Only recently is this being taught by those who promote power crusades. Do you want an anointing that he got from a dead persons grave. This should give one the creeps!

The "miracles" we can expect to see in greater numbers today from those whose ministries are devoted this are found as a warning in: 2 Thess. 2:9-10 "Even him who is coming after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved." The word is the truth, but unless you read it and understand it correctly, your not in the truth and you will be deceived by such dreamers as Hinn. There are numerous warnings in scripture about the climate in the last times.  I believe in the miraculous and the gifts of the Spirit, we shouldn’t throw out the baby with the bath water but neither do we drink the dirty bath water.

Hinns miracles are grandiose claims. The frequency and quality of these healing miracles are greater than any apostle. Is his ministry apostolic as he represents it? Does he preach the whole counsel of God, does he correct error.  So what makes one think he does apostolic miracles that were unique to only the chosen apostles of the early Church. Jesus said that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God." Those who promote miracles as common occurrences feed on the peoples ignorance of obedience to the word, they explain away suffering, they don’t tell people not to lay up treasure on earth or forsake all one has to follow Jesus and be his disciple.

While Hinn was here in January of 99 the ad said in the paper the main focus was salvation, that's totally false. I went Thursday night the 2nd night and there was absolutely no gospel message given in the 31/2 hours of my laboring to stay there, It was all far out prophecy. There was no preaching on sin, holiness contending for the faith it was all sugared oatmeal with a little milk. The spirit that spoke through Hinn gave new meanings to things we understood plainly for over 2,000 years.

As long as Hinn has a willing and captive audience to play to these spiritual fabrications will go on. The question comes down to loyalty, WHO DO YOU LOVE? God, his word of truth, or are you trusting in A MAN for your healing and anointing. If not then why are you looking forward to going? The same faith you have at the meeting can be accomplished at home. Its not what you see or feel but what God has said. If you habitually eat the truth, you won’t have an appetite for the lie.

For more on Hinn go to- B. Hinn directory