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Israeli televangelist, Benny Hinn, has faulted pastors, whose sermons only
focus on prosperity and living ostentatiously.
Benny Hinn, while reflecting on
Billy Graham’s death in a Facebook Live broadcast, called on preachers of the
gospel to stop living extravagant lives and start living according to God’s
instruction.
According to him, everything should
be about Jesus not other extravagant things, adding that he has never flown a
private jet in his life.
“We get attacked for preaching
prosperity, well it’s in the Bible, but I think some have gone to the extreme
with it sadly, and it’s not God’s word what is taught and I think I’m as guilty
as others. Sometimes you go a little farther than you really need to go and
then God brings you back to normality and reality,” Hinn, 65, said
He admitted that as he has grown
older and come to understand the Bible more, he now realizes that some of the
things he learned from preachers when he was growing up weren’t biblical and
the popular interpretation of the prosperity gospel — the teaching that
believers have a right to the blessings of health and wealth and that they can
obtain these blessings through positive confessions of faith and the “sowing of
seeds” through the faithful payments of tithes and offerings is one of those
things.
“The more you know the Bible the
more you become biblically based and more balanced in your opinions and your
thoughts because we are influenced. When I was younger I was influenced by the
preachers who taught whatever they taught. But as I’ve lived longer I’m
thinking wait a minute, you know this doesn’t fit totally with the Bible and it
doesn’t fit with the reality. So what is prosperity? No lack. I’ve said this
before.
“Did Elijah the prophet have a car?
No. Did not even have a bicycle. He had no lack … Did Jesus drive a car or live
in a mansion? No. He had no lack. How about the apostles? None lacked among
them.
“Today, the idea is abundance and
palatial homes and cars and bank accounts. The focus is wrong … It’s so wrong.”
“I mean forgive me. People have
accused me of things that aren’t even real. One guy wrote a comment ‘Oh he’s
worth 40 million.’ Oh how I wish. I would give it all to the Kingdom before God
Almighty.
“‘Well he flies private jets,'” he
continued mimicking criticism. “No, I don’t. I have not flown private in dear
God years. I fly commercial just like anyone else.
“We all sadly make the mistake of thinking
that this is what God wants and God says ‘No, that’s not what I want.’ It’s
time to live biblically. You know it all comes down to one thing. Do we love
Jesus, yes or no? If we love Jesus then it’s all about Jesus. If we don’t love
Jesus then it’s about other things.
Hinn was one of six televangelists,
who were part of a 2007 Senate inquiry that raised questions about the personal
use of church-owned airplanes, luxury homes and credit cards by pastors and
their families, and expressed concerns about the lack of oversight of finances
by boards often packed with the televangelists’ relatives and friends. No
definitive findings of wrongdoing were made.
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