A guy comes along with a foreign accent and tells us that he was taken up in the clouds and God showed him the whole Earth. Hmmmmm. And then Jesus told him personally that he should consider becoming a preacher. Hmmmmm.

So Benny decides he'll get people revved up so far and in such a frenzy that they would believe anything.

Then he decides to make people fall over - and he'll invent a new thing - being slain in the spirit. Because it's so graphic, no one will think to look to see if it's spoken of in the Bible. After all, something so amazing must be real. And since Benny's a preacher it must be from God.

But if it's from God, why isn't it in the Bible?

And what about the healing? If the healing is real why do people still limp? Don't get me wrong. God heals. God heals all the time. Miraculously. In ways we couldn't even imagine. But God doesn't need Benny's help, and I don't think Jesus would attend a Benny camp meeting, or give any sort of endorsement that Benny could add to his web site. . .

Nor would Jesus put on a purple wig and appear on TBN. He instead would blast through the TBN studios and Benny's organization, ripping things out, turning over the tables with the holy key chains and prayer shawls, and telling these people to sell everything they own and give it to the poor. But that's another story.

Benny is the 'Oral Roberts' of the 90's. I was 10 years old when my mom and I watched Oral on our black and white Philco TV set - bringing these poor people up to the the stage inside the tent, making them throw their canes or crutches or wheelchairs away, and miraculously make a leg grow, or heal a bunion, or make a pain go away.

But sadly, just like Benny, no one followed up with these 'healed' people to see how long it lasted.

Aren't we supposed to test all things?

Question-if the healing that Oral and Benny and others do is real - wouldn't it be the coolest thing to invite NBC or ABC or FOX to do a feature news story on these 'healed' people. Go talk to them independently - do their own detective work. Let these secular news people see these God-given results first hand.

But Benny and Oral don't do that. Benny and Oral don't invite the 'secular' media to monitor what they're doing. They don't want the heat. Maybe one of the old ladies one night only got 'sort of' healed. (I'm sure she didn't have enough faith) :) Benny and Oral wouldn't want that to be spread around.

But if this healing really is from God - what is there to fear? Wouldn't we want to shout these proofs from the rooftops?

But Benny is after a different audience. Benny is after that part of the viewer's brain that says - He's-doing-God's-work-I-can-see-it-with-my-own-eyes-and-we-must-give-and-give-generously. Sure, we don't understand how he blows on people and they fall over. But we've seen it with our own eyes' so it must be of God. It certainly couldn't be of the devil or of human nature - could it?

When Benny closes his eyes and says a lady in New Jersey just got healed of a tumor, how do we know that for sure? Do we watch TV and think real hard - send mental messages to Benny so he'll know we're hurting and where it hurts. "Come on Benny - make me stop aging."

And here's a radical idea - how about doing all this quietly? Without the show. Without the circus.

Why not go quietly to the hospitals where little kids are dying of cancer and heal them?

Why not go rest-home-cruising and give some old folks a new mind or new heart or new liver or new knees?

Or how about healing these people spiritually rather than physically?

Maybe it's because it takes so much work to heal people - really.

I mean - if God were truly working miracles through these men, why is it so hard sometimes for these guys to heal people?

Do you suppose when Jesus healed the blind man it took a few tries and a few days for it to work? I don't think so. It was instant and complete.

Do you suppose when Jesus called Lazurus out of the tomb it took more than a split second for Lazurus to wake up from the dead? I don't think so.

Do you suppose when Jesus turned water into wine they had to wait a couple hours or even a couple of minutes for it to ferment and get tasty? I don't think so.

Do you suppose that when God turned the staff that Moses was carrying into a serpent that maybe Moses had to rap it against a rock a couple times to make it work? I don't think so.

So you 'guys-who-have-had-Jesus-in-your-bedroom-and-talked-to-him-personally-face-to-face' - if God's in this, why the delay? Why does it take so long?

Is God getting old and can't heal as fast as He used to? Why does the 85 year old woman who has a boil on her neck, still walk with a limp after Benny did his thing? Did God forget that she had a bad leg too? And how about her teeth, while He's at it. Maybe a couple new hips, gall bladder - shoot, let's go for the gold. A brand new ticker.

But that doesn't happen. Not that God couldn't make it happen - but Benny or Oral or Richard or the countless other 'healers' couldn't make it happen. Not if they tried for a million years.

Benny and Oral and the rest are mere men. Some would say they are men of God. I'm afraid the possibility lurks that they are only men of men. Men with a gift. Men with a gift of 'miraculous' mind marketing.

The mind is a pretty powerful thing. Let's turn our mind towards God...not men.

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