Open Letter by Rick Joyner on Todd Bentley and the panel statement
I am writing this by request, but as one who has no direct authority or responsibility for Todd, or the panel that put out the statement of their findings concerning accusations about him. Todd is not a member of The MorningStar Fellowship of Churches and Ministries, and never has been, though he did submit himself to me and others for a time in 2008, and again in 2013, to help bring some correction and restoration in his life at those times.
Because my primary calling is not as a pastor, I thought that I was a poor choice to help Todd in both of these cases, and was still grieving about not being able to help Paul Cain better with the things that had surfaced in his life. Even so, The Lord confirmed to me that I was to help Todd, so I considered it an honor to do it.
That is by no means intended to imply that I did this perfectly, or maybe even as well others might have. As I try to do with every assignment from The Lord, I did the best I could and looked to Him to make up what I lacked. Most of what I provided was a place where The Holy Spirit could work, and He did. It was a very edifying experience that I am very thankful to have had. That still does not mean that I consider myself good at this type of restoration ministry, but it seems that very few want to do it at all.
Was Todd perfect after this? Of course not. When I first inquired of The Lord about whether I should take the assignment of helping Todd, I was given Proverbs 24:16, “a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again.” I was told to expect Todd to have some repeated failures in his life, but that his falls did not displease The Lord as much as him getting back up and fighting on pleased Him. So, I was not shocked when the issues rose in 2013, or that he may have done some of the things he is presently accused of.
Then why did I release him when I knew he would have repeated problems and falls going forward? I understand that question, and why others would think this was a mistake. I had my own debate with The Lord about it, but the clarity I was given to release Todd was such that I could not deny it.
Even my closest friend in The Lord at the time, Bob Jones, was furious with me about allowing Todd to speak in one of our meetings after just eighteen months from the time he stepped down from ministry. Bob had an angelic visitation about this, and apologized to both Todd and me about his stance, and then publicly defended it. However, for those who have not had such a visitation or revelation about this I can fully understand why they might still think it was a mistake. I likely would have, too.
I have also learned that it is not high on The Lord’s agenda to make me look good, or to justify me before others, even for what I might consider some of the costliest acts of obedience. I’m good with this because His teachings are clear, and His own example is clear, that obedience to The Lord will rarely get us favor with men, but there will be blessings for it.
I lost many friends and even offered to resign from MorningStar to take on Todd’s restoration in 2008 there was such angst in our team about it. I thought I was going to lose my best friend at the time, Bob Jones, because of my decision to release Todd into just some limited ministry at our church. I’m really thankful for the way The Lord intervened with Bob, but my point is that I had enough assurance in those cases that I was going to pay whatever price I had to in order to be obedient to The Lord.
The immediate favor and blessings from The Lord quickly far outweighed the price, but I was not expecting that. I would not even have to think about doing it again if I knew it was The Lord’s will. I’m here to do His will, and as He assured me when He called me into my ministry, I would always have people mad at me if I did His will. As the Apostle Paul said:
In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.
But to me it is a very small thing that I may be judged by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even judge myself.
For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord (I Corinthians 4:2-4).
So, I tend to get encouraged by opposition, especially from some, but neither do I take opposition as sure evidence that I’m right. I try not to let it affect me either way, but I do try to stay open to The Lord and those I trust in my life to be counselors.
This being said, I am not discouraged by the degree of passion about this matter being displayed on either side of the issue. To me it at least reveals how much people care about righteousness and justice. It would be nice if the discourse were more civil, especially as the way that we treat others who are The Lord’s He considers to be the way we have treated Him. Even so, the law of inertia states that we cannot steer anything that is not moving, and I think the amount of caring so many have on this matter presents an opportunity to address some very critical issues that virtually the entire body of Christ has need of.
As the Apostle Paul challenged the Corinthians, saying that it was to their shame that they were called to judge angels, but did not have judges that could even decide the temporal matters of this life, but instead had to go to the heathen for justice, this was and continues to be possibly the costliest failure of the church in our time. As we are called to be the light of the world, which implies that we should have answers for the world’s ultimate problems, the church should have such a system of justice that is so esteemed and trustworthy that the world would come to us for justice, instead of Christians having to go to secular courts for it as is the case now.
For this reason, I am very thankful for the panel that Dr. Michael Brown assembled to take on this extremely difficult matter. It took uncommon courage to do this. They had virtually nothing to gain and much to lose, but they did it. That is the kind of leadership that has become far too rare in our times. I think that what they have done is a start that has provided at least some inertia in this critical area of biblical justice.
Do I think the panel did its job perfectly? No. I never expected them to. In fact, I am not expecting us to get to that standard until The Lord returns. Do I agree with their conclusions? I agree with much more than I was expecting to.
Do I think the panel complied with the biblical principles of jurisprudence? I think there were some important one’s they did not comply with, but some of those were made impossible without Todd’s participation. Overall, still being very ignorant of the process, or Todd’s objections to it, my first impression is to be very impressed and thankful for what they did accomplish.
I’ve been studying biblical and civil jurisprudence for over thirty years now and only know of one other Christian leader or teacher who has studied it at all. There may be others, but I just don’t know them. The Lord’s throne, or authority, is established on righteousness and justice (see Psalm 89:14). A reason why there is so much unrighteousness in the church is because we have almost no justice, or even any place to go where there is a biblical due process.
Even though this issue with Todd may be far from being resolved, something has at least been started that could lead to resolving what I think is one of the most important issues facing the body of Christ now—a biblical ecclesia that includes biblical jurisprudence as it is supposed to, and did in the first century.
In the Old and New Testaments elders were judges. The biblical procedures given for jurisprudence are, as we should expect, beyond human wisdom or any present earthly system of justice. Our U.S. system of justice is based on it, and in my opinion the system the way it was originally designed was immediately far better than any other in the world at the time. However, it too has departed pretty far from the original model.
Even so, we can have the best system of justice, but still not have justice if we do not have good, competent people in it. But even with the best intended people it is really hard to have any degree of justice with a bad system, much less virtually none as is the case with the body of Christ at this time.
God’s standards of righteousness are under a continuous and seemingly unprecedented assault in our times. We should esteem those who are committed to seeing them upheld in any way, especially in the church. Leaders are required by Scripture to live by much higher standards, and we compromise these at our peril before God and men. So how do we turn this around?
This panel took a major and important first step. If they only did 10% right it was worth it, but they did much better than that. It could be just what was needed to begin building a truly biblical system of justice for the body of Christ. But getting even the best system will not work if we do not teach biblical justice and train all leaders who are required to be judges in it. Even that is not enough. The most comprehensive biblical system of justice still requires reliance on The Judge for true justice, just as the best, most comprehensive church government requires us to be connected to The Head, not just a system or apparatus.
The Apostle Paul wrote that novices should not be appointed as elders, and then during his missionary journeys he appoints Christians as elders who had not even been Christians for a year! When I inquired of The Lord about this seeming violation of his own teaching, I was told that immature leadership is better than no leadership, and even immature justice is better than no justice. That doesn’t mean that we stay there, or settle for that, but maturity takes time and experience. Now we have a start. Can we keep it going?
As painful as this whole controversy has been, a great victory can come from it. Even the people we may disagree with the most, we must keep in mind that if they are Christians, even if they are the least of The Lord’s people, the way we treat them He will consider it as the way we treat Him. We can be totally right in our assessment of the issues, but be in far worse jeopardy than those who are committing even the most grievous sin, as we are warned in Matthew 18.
In the first part of that chapter The Lord states that it would be better to not be born than to cause even one of His little one’s to stumble. Then He gives us instructions how to avoid this by going to those in sin personally. Only after that taking another, and only after that has failed should it ever be brought before the church. However, we can follow those instructions exactly but still be a stumbling block if we do this in the wrong spirit.
When we were in our sin, Jesus looked down on us and saw all that was wrong with us, His response was to come and lay down His life for us. That is His Spirit, and this should always be our response to those who sin or fail.
As for my personal position on Todd, even if he were proven guilty of everything he is accused of, I do not intend to give up on him. As I am given the grace to, I am committed to Galatians 6:1, “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.”
In my dealings with Todd I have been convicted by The Lord far more for not being gentle enough, and do not remember Him ever convicting me of overlooking anything. From the beginning I was intent on finding any transgression because I know that is the only thing that will help Todd get free—repenting of any sin.
At the same time, I was getting rebuked by The Lord for being too harsh; most people were demanding that I be much harder. From what I witnessed happening to those who were demanding more severity for Todd, I do not want to err at all, but admit that I will do my best to lean in the direction of gentleness, grace, and mercy.
I tremble even more for those who have become “fault-finders” as Jude described them. As Jude stated, the “deep darkness” is being reserved for the fault-finders. For some a terrible darkness has already come upon them, and we will witness it with others this year.
We do not need any more casualties in this. We need to pray earnestly for those who have fallen into the trap and taken on the nature of the accuser of the brethren, and for them to be delivered. As we are warned in Galatians 6:7: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” If we want to reap grace in our own life we must sow grace. If we want to reap mercy we must sow mercy.
For those who are prone to go to an extreme with grace, consider Galatians 5:19-21: “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Thankfully it does not say those who have done these things, but it does say those who “practice” them “will not inherit the kingdom of God.” We are told repeatedly in Scripture that those who live after the flesh, the carnal nature, will die, but those who live according to the Spirit will live. We may think we are getting away with sin, but we are putting nails in our own coffins if we are tolerating them and practicing them in our life.
If even one of The Lord’s little ones is slimed by our behavior and caused to stumble, then remember that The Lord Himself said it would be better not to be born than to do this to even one of His children. Is something we’re doing something we would tolerate being done to one of our own children?
I confess that when I learned what had been done to some of God’s people, especially those young in The Lord, I thought that torture was too easy for the those who had done this. I am thankful that The Lord had mercy on me and stopped me from going the way my heart was going. I can understand the anger, but we can’t go there—it can be an even more deadly trap than the sin we are so disgusted by.
With the exception of six chapters in The Bible, all of the others are devoted to restoring mankind from the consequences of the Fall, from sin. The atonement sacrifice of Jesus fully accomplished this. No sin, with the exception of blaspheming The Holy Spirit, is beyond the power of the cross to fully redeem and fully restore. For this reason, we must keep in mind that as deep as the evil one has gotten into a person’s life, that is how deep The Lord can fill them when they have been restored. He likes to show His strength in weakness.
Again, this does not mean overlooking sin, because that is not grace or mercy. When we must approach the sin and failures of others with a redemptive heart, seeking to help each other and not condemn, we can carry the power of the cross. Always consider the high price that The Lord paid for us even when we were still in sin.
The Lord had an astonishing mercy for sinners, but He did not have any for the self-righteous. It is far, far better to err on the side of mercy rather than judgment, but we don’t want to err on either side. As the sins of God’s people brings reproach to the name of The Lord, and the sins of highly visible leaders even more so, presently it is the Pharisaical self-righteousness that is most repelling to the world, especially when they see our tendency to condemn our own brothers and sisters that stumble. The Lord even declared to the self-righteous of Israel that Sodom would have it easier than they would in the judgment.
The desire to uphold God’s righteousness, and the standards He has set for His leaders, is desperately needed in these times. But it is a tactic of the devil that if he cannot stop us, he will get behind us and push us too far. The way some have tried to deal with Todd is much more terrifying than anything Todd may have done or is accused of doing. I don’t want to give up on them either, but that is a far greater concern to me at this time.
In James 3:17-18 we are told, “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” If we want to hear from above, we will listen to the wisdom that complies with this, otherwise what we may be listening to can sound wise and right, but not be from The Lord.
There is much more that I can say about this, and will in due time. I also know well that according to I Corinthians 13 the most any of us can see, or know, is part of this picture. The Lord has composed His body so that we need each other to have a complete picture on anything. Because He gives His grace to the humble, and there is nothing that we need more than His grace, and one of the main characteristics of humility is to be teachable, let us continue to seek understanding from this whole situation. It is a very necessary learning opportunity for the times we are in.
Rick Joyner