"We love Todd and believe that he has been supernaturally gifted by God, and our highest joy would be to see Todd coming before God and the community of believers in humility and repentance, openly desiring help to get his life fully healed and surrendered to Jesus. Sadly, we see no signs of true, lasting repentance. Instead, we see a steady pattern of compromised behavior, including credible accusations of adultery, sexting (including the exchanging of nude pictures or videos), vulgar language, and substance abuse. And, to repeat, these charges have been brought by numerous witnesses over a period of roughly 15 years, right until 2019. Even more importantly, many of these activities have involved people for whom Todd was spiritually responsible (interns, staff, team members, individuals he was ministering to), making these violations all the more serious." -- Dr. Michael Brown
What are you talking about??? This is so infuriating. So is Dr. Michael Brown now saying that Lakeland was legitimate? That the Holy Spirit really did direct Bentley to punch people in the stomach and kick people in the face? When exactly was Todd Bentley supernaturally gifted by God? The obvious answer has to be 2008 when Lakeland was at its height. Except one little problem Doc. Your investigation uncovered first hand reports as far back as 2004 so why would God supernaturally gift someone sexually immoral and commission them to beat people up in His name? What bible do you read? Your own investigation here says 15 years of adultery, sexting, exchanging nude pictures or videos (and you conveniently left out here that these were also of his wife), vulgar language, and substance abuse. That means from 2004-2019. So when along this timeline of debauchery do you see God supernaturally gifting him? You correctly state that these allegations have also come from people who he was spiritualty responsible for making it even more serious and then in the same breath you say your highest joy would be for Bentley to repent. Do you have any care or concern for his victims? Do you care at all about the sheep? There was nothing supernatural about Lakeland. Just a crazy ex-biker from Canada got the entire NAR to bow down to him just before God revealed him for the fraud he was. Now the same NAR is trying again to sweep his abuse and sexual antics under the rug but Todd wasn't playing anymore. Now, I know why Dr. Brown is forced to pay lip service to the victims and pretend Bentley was gifted by God. If he does not the logical questions would arise against Bill Johnson and Rick Joyner and we can't have that.
"In our view, this disqualifies Todd from public ministry until such time that he has demonstrated true, lasting fruits of repentance, which would include: the breaking of these long-term, sinful habits; public acknowledgment of his sin, without equivocation, including asking forgiveness of those he sinned against; and submission to local church leadership until trust had been rebuilt. This would likely take a period of years. We also recognize that formal ordination into the ministry amounts to a recognition by other leaders of a candidate's qualifications to serve as a leader in the Church. We therefore recommend that Todd's current ordination be rescinded until the process of repentance and restoration, described above, has taken place. It is also our opinion that, while it is possible for Todd to do public ministry again in the future, at no point should he lead his own ministry. Instead, if he was truly restored to God and in submission to godly authority, he could serve in another leader's ministry. But we believe it would be unwise and even potentially dangerous for him to lead his own ministry again." -- Dr. Michael Brown
It is always about such a time when the wolf can be allowed back in the pulpit. That was not what restoration was supposed to be. People need to be resorted in their walk first, assuming they were saved at all. These are pretty strong recommendations but remember they have no control to enforce any of them. How can they not see the logical disconnect though? So you have established proof going back 15 years of continued perverse and abusive behavior. You state that restoration should take years. You find that he would have to submit to local church leadership and lose his ordination. If he was to ever return to ministry it should not be with himself as the lead. You conclude it would be dangerous for him to ever lead ministry again. Yet in the same breath you state that God supernaturally gifted him and that you wished he would just comply so you can get him back in the pulpit again. Bentley is not the only one compromised here beloved.
