Benny Hinn Explains Why He Is Changing His Beliefs On the Prosperity Gospel

0:00 This is Stephen Strang. There's been a lot said about the prosperity gospel and one of the people who is most known for that term is my guest today. He's a longtime friend. His name is evangelist Benny Hinn. And you're going to want to hear what he says about the prosperity gospel today. I think it will surprise you. Welcome to the Strang Report with Steve Strang on the Charisma Podcast Network. This episode was produced to discuss and address issues within our nation and around the world from a Christian worldview. Hello everyone and thank you for tuning in to my podcast. I am so pleased to have Benny Hinn. I don't think he's ever been on my podcast before.

0:45 I was on his television program a couple of times over the years and I've known Benny going back. You won't believe this back to the 1970s before he was married. So we go way, way back and thank you Benny for being on my podcast, especially this week when there's so much going around social media about what you had to say about prosperity gospel. Well, thank you Steve and I'm very happy to be your friend. Well, you're very nice. You and I have had discussions about the prosperity gospel before and we even did an article in Charisma Magazine a year ago. It quoted a number of leaders, but you were kind of the primary one trying to kind of set the record straight. And you know, there are some people either in the secular world or even in the Christian world who just say prosperity gospel is wrong.

1:31 But actually there is a biblical basis for prosperity gospel. So why don't we start there? Oral Roberts would have taught this, but then unfortunately there have been a lot of abuses. So we'll talk about that next. Well, let me first start by saying that the change in my own heart and life to do with that has really nothing to do with anything that my critics have said about me. It has to do with my own heart before the Lord. The last two years, Steve, I've become very close to the Lord for one reason because I want to please him more than ever in my life to be honest with you.

2:11 I want to end well when I go to glory. I want him to smile and I have told him so many times. I told him, Dear Jesus, I have grieved you enough. I have disappointed you enough in my past life. I do not want that for me today or tomorrow. So the prosperity issue is not really the main thing on my list. It's on the list, but it's not the main one. I just simply want to obey the Lord in everything He says, not just that. And so as I have been in my Bible way more than most people realize, I mean truly I've almost shut the world out and I'm in the word day and night and I mean day and night, including now reading my Hebrew Bible in Hebrew because I want to know the Lord's mind.

2:58 The prosperity message began to bother me probably about two years ago. I just wasn't free to talk about it. I wasn't free because I did not want to hurt my friends or people. And what began to bother me is where is Jesus in the message? Where is the Lord in all this? Where is the Gospel in all this? And I began to notice that most of the people that ministered the message were not focusing on the Gospel. They were not focusing on loving the Lord Jesus. This is why we preach. This is why we minister. It's our love for the Lord that comes across with whatever we say.

3:39 And Steve, you've known me a long time. When I began, I began for one reason, because I adored my master. Then for a period in my life when the minister was growing, I became distracted. Quite simple. My love never changed. I just became distracted. And I don't want to get into that. Today I'm 67 years old. I'm thinking about how am I going to finish? And what will I leave behind for the next generation? How will they view me? I want them to view me as one who preaches the cross. I do not want to be known for prosperity. I want to be known for someone who preached the cross of Jesus, salvation, one who teaches on the Holy Spirit, one who teaches on the anointing and the part of God, one who focuses on that, not on money, not on prosperity.

4:37 That's not my call. It's never been my call. I'll say people have used me to raise money for their ministries. I was a pastor for many years and evangelists for longer than that. But now my heart is changing. In fact, not only is it changing, it has changed totally in many ways, about many things. So number one, I don't want anyone to think or believe that I am changing because of my critics. It has nothing to do with anyone, period, including my nephew, including anyone else out there who may think that they brought the change in me.

5:17 No, no, no, no, that's not true. It's my relationship to the Lord and only that, nothing more, nothing less. Number two, it's about the Lord. We must bring the message back, bring the balance back. So in my meetings, when I would watch people, and I usually had other people raise the funds in the morning, this has happened in the past. I'm not talking about recent, recent. I haven't even allowed it. But in the past, when they would ask people to give a thousand or whatever amounts, Steve, 80% of the people who came down, they did not even give it. They just came down. I don't know why they came down, but they came down. And what they were saying to them was not biblical.

6:02 I did not have at that time the boldness and the courage to say, look, stop that. Today, I'm sorry, I cannot allow that, nor will I ever allow that. Or will I myself do it, period, even though I did in the past, because it's manipulation. It's gimmickery to tell someone you give a thousand, you've got to get a hundredfold. What if they don't get a hundredfold? And most do not. What happens to the walk with the Lord and their faith? Think about that. The damage, the questions. I do not want to be accused of what Benny told me to give a thousand that didn't happen.

6:44 No, never, never again. Well, Benny, I think you're putting your finger on the problem. There have been excesses and there have been people that have used it because they found it's worked, which puts a responsibility on individual Christians too, that they would respond to that thing. I'll tell you, my personal opinion is that often we release our faith when we do something. But when you give a thousand dollars, the only person to prosper is one taking up the offering. And if it's so true, why doesn't the person taking the offering give money the other way? But, Steve, I'd like to say one thing that needs to be said clearly. I believe the Bible from beginning to end.

7:27 I cannot take the fact that God wants to bless his people. It's in the Bible, Old and New Testament. But the Lord we love has made it very clear to us that he will meet our needs wherever we live. He'll take care of us. None lacked among them in the book of Acts, but later we see famine coming and an offering being raised for the church in Jerusalem that Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. But today, the thing that I have to make clear is number one, I believe the Bible. I believe God wants to bless his people. I believe that he wants us to succeed in life. Absolutely.

8:08 But the focus must be him, the Gospel, not our greed, not what we want back for it. Not I'm giving so I can get it back 100-fold, all that stuff. And the Lord's going to prosper believers regardless if they tune into that TV show where they're asking for the gift or if they go to the conference. Exactly. And never hear the appeal. It's not like, well, I'm not going to prosper you because you didn't give that thousand bucks. So I'm glad that you're speaking out because you're very influential and of course people pay attention. So of course this is not brand new as I mentioned earlier, the article in Charisma.

8:50 But a few days ago, you were teaching out in California and I guess your ministry must put it on Facebook live or something like that. That's correct. And thousands of people saw it and then started everybody started sending links. I had three people send it to me, which is pretty unusual. I don't have people send me links that much. And of course I had already talked to you privately about some of these issues. So why don't you just tell me real briefly what it was that you shared specifically on Monday of this week. And when I write about this, we'll put a link for people if they want to see it. It's only a couple of minutes long. And then I'd be interested in the response that you've gotten as well. Well, what I said Monday was the fact that we need to turn our attention back on loving the Lord.

9:37 Do we give because we love Him? Do we give because we love His gospel? Do we give because He has changed our lives through His Word and we want to see other lives transformed? But like I said, this has been going on for a long time in my own heart. And I felt Monday was the time to make it public, plain and simple. In addition, Steve, in addition, a lot of young leaders are looking up to me now as a spiritual father. Many of them show up on Monday nights. Many very powerful ministers of the gospel. These are younger, you know, the next generation of leaders. Many I've met with some in my own home, some privately in other locations.

10:20 And the subject came up. You know, we thank you for what you wrote and good morning Holy Spirit. We've been blessed by your ministry, such and such. But they all had a question to me. What is it you believe about prosperity? And when I told them one on one, they were shocked. They said, well, why don't you ever make this public? Well, I didn't feel it was time. But I don't want the next generation to believe something that I myself no longer believe. And frankly, this morning, Michael, my son-in-law, called me and he's had a number of calls from different people. And we talked about this.

11:02 So I've had the chance to minister and stand with many young leaders, as of late, even in the sand Jesus image. And my son-in-law, many of his people that he's with, we've talked about that. And they all feel the same because for the sake of the next generation and the legacy of the gospel, I'm glad to be making these statements. I have to because I want to make sure that the future generations hear the heart of this message that has been, I think, taken to the extreme by some people. It's Jesus, it's loving Jesus, it's the gospel, it's loving the lost.

11:42 That's why we give. And he will bless us back way more than we can ever imagine. I will tell you one thing that happened months and months ago that that's when things began to really, when I said, okay, I've got to do something about this. A guest speaker was there. He asked people to come down to give a thousand, one man was a businessman, I don't know his name. He gave a large check and he looks him in my face. He says, I will see if this will work. If it doesn't work, then I know this is all, and he can have used the word I don't want to repeat. Right to my face he said that in a meeting.

12:22 And I'm thinking, this is what people are thinking out there. We have to bring it back to the Bible. And the Bible I read today with new eyes. I see believers in the Scriptures, like the church in Macedonia, who were deep in poverty. Paul says so. And yet gave out of their love for the Lord. But I see the church in Corinth, who were more prosperous or more blessed because of the location. They lived in I suppose, or what was going on in their own country. But Paul encouraged them all to give, the Macedonians and those in Corinth. And so the Word of God is very clear.

13:04 And in 2 Corinthians 9.13 he hits the heart of it. He says, this demonstrates your submission to the Gospel. That's it. Simple. It's about the work of God and it's about the Lord himself. And that's about it really. You mentioned in the video the name of a man that I wasn't that familiar with. I think his name is Willis. And you rebuked him publicly, which was a little bit of a surprise. Although there's nothing wrong with that if there's a reason for the rebuk. So why did you do it? I really did not rebuking publicly. I was repeating a conversation I had with him in London a few days before.

13:46 We were sitting on a trailer about to go on the platform and minister to 10,000 pastors. And he was one of them. He was not ministering. I was ministering. And he was Pastor Chris Oya, Kilomis Conference in London. And the subject came up somehow. I don't even remember how it came up, but it came up. Because he shares a testimony, how he gave a thousand and the Lord did something for his son. And I had to tell him, I don't want to hear it. And I told him how I felt. And he received it. He received it when I told him. And the only reason I mentioned his name, I should have said that he received the correction.

14:29 Or what I said to him, he didn't reject it at all. And I really was not correcting him. I simply was saying to him, you know, I don't believe that anymore. I told him that in the back. I've spoken to him since twice and he's fine. He understands why I did that. My children said, now, Dad, you should not have mentioned his name and such, such, such. But the fact is, well, but it happened. I did talk to him. And the only thing I kept out of the Monday night, because, you know, I just wasn't thinking about all the details, is the man received it. And my hope and prayer is others will receive it, who are teaching that.

15:13 That they go back to what the Bible teaches. Let's focus back on Jesus. Let's focus back on loving Jesus. Let's focus back on the Gospel. Let's focus back on people's lives and needs. And let's also protect them from damage. Because when that thing doesn't happen, when someone gives and it doesn't come back, there's hurt, there's damage. It hurts the Gospel. It hurts the message. It hurts the kingdom. And Steve, I want no part of that. I want to strengthen. Look, I told the Lord, I have two requests from him before I'm gone. Number one, I want to strengthen the believers.

15:56 And I want to preach the Gospel and bring people to the cross. Simple. These are my two desires and requests that people are saved, that I preach the Gospel and say I'm saved. And two, that the believers be strengthened. Well, how am I going to strengthen believers if I'm teaching something that's damaging people? And now I've said, hey, no more for me. I'm hoping that the others who listen to me or want to listen to me will do the same to say, okay, no more. We're going to bring them back to the Bible and the Lord and loving the Lord and serving the Lord and following the Lord and pleasing the Lord.

16:36 Jesus, Jesus and only Jesus. Simple. And how about the next generation? What will they think about us? How is this going to affect our children and grandchildren in the future? And those who are in ministry that are looking up to us now, how are we affecting them? The majority of young people in ministry that have gotten hold of me so far are elated, thrilled beyond words. I have so many text messages. Thank you. I mean, I'll read them to you, but it says so many of them are thanking me for saying what I said.

17:16 They're encouraged. Well, I pray the Lord will use it. That's all. Well, I want to just tell you how much I appreciate what you've had to share and how much I admire your willingness to step up and to endure the criticism. When I watched the video, one of the things that you made clear was that you were not doing this because of your critics. No. But because of something that the Lord has kind of opened your eyes to almost like a... You've always been very deep and always been a great teacher in my opinion, but it's almost like there's a new depth as you spend time in the Word. And that is a message for all of us. Every believer and certainly everyone who's in Christian leadership needs to be spending more and more time in the Word, especially with what's going on in the world and the demands.

18:04 Thank you. Listen, I read my Bible now three times a year. I used to read it one time a year. I'm now reading it three times a year and I began about two years ago. I literally read my English Bible three times a year and I'm reading my Hebrew Bible at night about the same. Wow. So I'm reading God's Word daily. That's all I do. If you ask my children, you ask my Tasha, anyone, my TV doesn't even come on, hardly in my house. Sometimes I'll watch an old classic when I'm eating, so I don't have to look at the wall, you know? But morning, evening, that's all I do. In fact, at 1 p.m., which is in half an hour of my time, I'm going to be back in the Word. I will be reading my precious Bible from one to about 2.30 today. I do it almost every day.

18:49 At night, around 9.30, I go to about 11. But I do the Hebrew. And I talk to the Lord and I thank Him and I start crying and play the worship music and, you know, just to be... And that's what's affecting me. Nothing more, nothing less. I don't even know what my critics are saying. I don't even care what they say. Really, I don't. I'm being honest with you. I'm not trying to impress you. I don't even read what they say. I sometimes hear about it from Michael or Jessica mostly, or my kids, you know? And I say, oh, don't worry about it, you know, whatever. It's the Lord that's moving it. If I can say it like this, it's about my soul. It's not about what people think. It's my soul.

19:33 When I get to heaven, I'm saying it before God Almighty to you as my friend, when I get to heaven, I want the Lord to look at me and smile. That's all I care about. And believe me, I've injured Him enough in the past. I've grieved Him enough in the past. I've disappointed Him enough in the past. And I've said too many times lately, especially, Lord, I don't want to hurt you anymore. I do not want to grieve you anymore. I do not want to disappoint you anymore. I've done enough of that. And the prosperity message, sadly, I believe is grieving Him in the way it's being presented in some circles. And I want to emphasize some circles. I pray we'll hear my heart. That's all.

20:14 Maybe God will deal with them too. But we should not forsake the message. It's in the Bible. We need to preach it just like it is. Amen. And that's a good way to wrap up this podcast. And I'm going to ask you to do something that I don't ask very often, but I just feel it's right today. And that is, as we close, I'd like you to pray for my listeners and especially maybe for those who are a little bit confused about all this and kind of wondering exactly what it is, or maybe even people that have had unforgiveness in their hearts against ministries that have proposed this. So would you just, first of all, let me thank my listeners for tuning into the podcast. If you enjoyed this, share it with friends, put it on social media.

20:55 We want to get the word out. And Benny, if you would just wrap up in prayer, I'd appreciate it. I just got on my knees. I'm on my knees right now. I want to pray. So please, all of you, join me. Precious, wonderful Jesus, we come, Lord, and we love you with all our hearts. We're asking you today to give us a love we've never had for you before, Lord, that our love for you would increase greatly and intensify mightily. And wonderful Lord, I pray that your people will be blessed in their own hearts, in their own lives as the relationship with you increases as you become the center of our lives, the center of our hearts, the love of our lives.

21:47 And whatever we do, Lord, we do for your glory, we do for your gospel, we do for your cause that your name will be glorified in our life and through our life. And dear Jesus, I do pray for those who've been injured, whether by the prosperity message or other things they heard, that you will bring healing to their hearts, that you will move upon them to forgive individuals who brought damage into their life with whatever message is they heard in the past. Protect your people, strengthen your people in America and around the world.

22:31 And Lord, we pray for those under persecution today who need your protection and your love and your power in their life. Bless them and increase your people worldwide, glorifying your holy name. And Lord bless Steve and his work, the ministry you've given him in Jesus' name and his family for your glory. Amen. This is Stephen Strang. I want to introduce my listeners to Charisma Magazine if you don't already get it. Or if you do get it, you could respond to this special offer and we will continue your subscription into the future. The offer is to give you both of my books on Donald Trump, God of Donald Trump, and the new one, Trump Aftershock.

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23:57 And I hope that you'll take advantage of it because it's a good offer and it's my way to try to connect you with Charisma and also get more copies of my book out there. I'll repeat it, but the good thing about a podcast is you can back it up and listen to it again. This is trumpbooks.charismamag.com. Thank you for listening to the Strang Report with Steve Strang. To read more from Steve, visit his blog, The Strang Report, on CharismaMag.com. Again, it's The Strang Report on CharismaMag.com. This has been a production of the Charisma Podcast Network. Steve and Joy Strang are the founders and owners of CPM.

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