What if someone came to you and said that you don’t have to wait to go to heaven. That you can visit it any time you want. As a Christian you should know the word well enough to answer it’s not possible and I don’t need what your trying to sell me.

But this is exactly what is being spread to the youth and the church through freshfire ministries of Todd Bentley. Bentley teaches that he has gone to heaven and that heaven can come to us. That we can be contacted by angels and even have them do our will.

For the most part Bentley has borrowed the most successful parts of the past revivals and packaged it to the spiritual consumers who seek after signs and wonders. The “open heaven” concept was scarcely used in the past but he has adopted it, making it a constant experience for himself and the ‘extreme supernatural” theme for his ministry. Bentley teaches there are three heavens, but he believes the second heaven is the realm of the invisible. Todd Bentley says “Heaven is a place, an eternal realm where we can experience and encounter God on a daily basis.”

Yes heaven is real but one should not be confused by the heaven the Bible describes and the heaven that Bentley has astral projected himself into.

“I remember talking with Bob (Jones) in a restaurant about going into the heavens and what it was and we were talking about the “third heaven”, going into the immediate abode, into that place, the dwelling place of God. And I thought ‘That’s awesome!’. I was hungry for it too; I wanted more! ‘Cause, up until that point, sovereignly God was just visiting me. And I was just waiting in His presence and sovereignly God was visiting me. And Bob said to me, he said, ‘We can go right now!’ And I said ‘What do you mean, we can go right now?! We can make the decision right now and enter into that realm of the spirit?’And he said, “Sure we can! Don’t you have faith, boy?!’

  Bentley is claiming that God was already sovereignly visiting him but that was not enough, he coveted more of an experience, once he heard he could go to heaven by this false teacher it changed everything.

Bentley- “If believers would ask the Lord questions like these, many would begin to see living creatures, Cherubim and Seraphim or we would begin to experience thunder and lightening. These throne-room realities began to be revealed to me in the meeting in Iowa as I gave thanks to God for the angelic beings. I made a conscious effort to remember that angels are in the spirit realm. As soon as I did that, throughout the service people were caught up into prophetic experiences. People in the service either saw a vision, heard heaven or smelt, touched, felt or had some kind of supernatural experience.”

“Even unsaved people in the meeting who were into Transcendental Meditation began to see the lightning's of God manifest in the physical realm. They saw lightning bolts zip across the room for two and a half hours…Children coming into the service began to see angels. People began to scream out, “I'm in a trance and Jesus is coming to me or others, all at the same time, would shout, “We are in a garden.” Then I would see a lightening bolt and shout out, “Did you see it?” In response, many others would yell, “I saw it!” The lightning's of God were manifesting. The meeting became pandemonium for two and a half hours” (LIVING IN THE SUPERNATURAL By Todd Bentley Fresh Fire Ministries)

These same supernatural occurrences took place with Paul Cain, Bob Jones and Mike Bickle (*the Kansas city prophets), in one meeting There was a tremendous surge of electrical power that caused the circuits to be blown and the alarm system to go off. Bob Jones attributes his power to being “struck by lightning bolt” “where a ball of fire danced all over that basement, .. from that time forth my hands worked funny. … a lot of people have got healed by it, too. And miracles and everything else, and got anointed by it. Anytime God is going to start a fire, he starts it with lightning. And you can take a little of that fire and impart it wherever it is needed. And it will start a God's fire” (Bob Jones, Visions and Revelations, 1988.)

Bentley sees Bob Jones as a senior prophet and has the utmost respect for this man who has disgraced himself in numerous ways. The Elijah list and the new apostolic prophets all have thrown their mantle of approval on what Bentley is doing so they are united in this false revivals effort to influence the undiscerning.

Bentley main argument of an open heaven goes like this “If He's the same today, then why can't He visit me like He visited Abraham? If He's the same today, why can't He visit me like He visited Daniel? Why can't He visit me like He visited John? Why can't He visit me like He visited Isaiah? How about Ezekiel? Yes, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that makes what's available in “Bible days” available today. It's not just about healing and laying hands on the sick and seeing miracles, as great as these are, but it's also about supernatural encounters with God. Do you believe that? Do you believe that Jesus rose from the dead and over five hundred people saw Him for forty days in His resurrected body (1 Cor. 15:6)? Do you believe supernatural things can take place today? I'm asking this because we're okay with angels showing up and speaking to Mary and Joseph, but we're not okay with angels showing up and speaking to us. We're okay with Paul being taken into heaven, or what he called the third heaven - caught up into a place called paradise. We're okay with that. It's good for Paul, or it's good for Elijah. Yet both Paul and Elijah were men just like we are, and as you know, they're both in heaven today. So are Abraham and Isaiah. They aren't on earth anymore for God to interact with. But God, by His very nature, wants to interact with somebody supernaturally. My question is: Why not you? Why should anyone's experience in Christianity today be any different from what people experienced in Bible days?” (A Face To Face Encounter, Monday, November 19, 2007) http://acloserwalkwithgod.blogspot.com/2007/11/face-to-face-encounter.html)

The answer should be obvious to those who have an overview of the word in a correct manner. Many of these were one time events to a specific person, at a specific time, for a specific reason (please read the article angels we have heard and seen for more depth on this topic). It’s not a matter of how these men were like us, it is what God wanted to happen in these men’s lives. God took Elijah to heaven, Elijah did not ascend on his own power, and it was not repeated, and he did not come back. Paul and Isaiah died to be in heaven in spirit, they are not making travels from heaven to earth.

Can everything be duplicated as Bentley so flippantly states? No, many miraculous occurrences are one time events. Can the virgin birth be duplicated? Just because God did a certain thing to a certain person does not obligate him to do it to us. All this could be in the category of speculation except that Bentley says the Lord himself is teaching him this, giving him experiences and sending angels constantly to him. More than any other apostle or prophet that lived.

Jesus spoke about Heaven as His dwelling place but he gave little description. Jesus was God in human flesh so any correlation made of us to him fails.

John 30-40 years later described what was in heaven, and earth’s future was seen mostly in symbols as it related to the tribulation period on earth. He spoke more in depth about Heaven in Revelation and was told to write the things he saw. Paul on the other hand was not able to say what he saw 2 Corinthians 12:2. He was caught up into the Third Heaven but was forbidden to speak of the things he saw and heard.

Bentley has a desire for power and experience, which has become the ruin of many before him. If one takes Bentleys view as realistic and tries to make it normative for today, then maybe we should continue to write Scripture and add it to the Bible. Because that is exactly what Bentley is doing.

In one incident (his most famous tale) an angel like electricity swirling like a whirlwind is before him at a meeting, (2nd article) He asks what is this “and God says it’s a portal, an open heaven”. Then he saw “a pillar of fire just like God brought Israel out…God says get in. He apparently goes into this angel which is a “the Pillar of fire” goes up through the church roof transporting him to crash “on an operating table in heaven” and he calls this a prophetic experience. Four angels like men two on each side in white coats strap him down to the table to do a surgery on him.

God appears in a pillar, something he has not done from the time of Moses, tells him it’s a portal, something he never said to anyone recorded in all of Scripture, and then brings him onto an operating table!

Having Jesus visit on earth is not something new. In Al Dager's book “Vengeance is Ours” he writes on the prophetic movement and the Latter Rain and quotes Linda Bonnville. She teaches a second coming for individuals at different times, which is clearly Manifest Sons of God teaching that is foreign to the Scripture. “Now this is true. Only the Father knows when He'll send the Son of Man back to any individual person, And it's different for different people. I went through it in 1983; some people went through it in ‘84; some people went through it in '85; some went through it in '86; some are just now coming into it. All the Word has already happened. Its a matter of our faith-receiving for ourselves what's already been done as the Spirit of God reveals it to us . . . the whole Word of God has been done in and through people since 2,000 years ago-since His first coming. It's been made available. We just have to enter in at the time that the Father says it's your turn and sends the Son to you, or you hear the message and you say, I want the Second Coming of the Lord for me now.” (Linda Bonville video tape of small group meeting in hotel room Mar. 10, 1990, quoted in Vengeance is Ours by Al Dager p.147)

Bentley “So, do you know what the Lord is beginning to reveal and to say? Here's what I sense God saying, “I want you to pray: as it is in Heaven, so let it be done in the earth. I want you to begin to release and contend, and lay a hold of that in the spirit, because I want to bring into the earth, as it is in Heaven. You are waiting to get to Heaven, but I want to bring 'as it is in Heaven' to the earth. I want to bring 'as it is in Heaven' in the area of glory and angelic activity--no more sorrow, no more pain, no more sickness, into the earth.” Friends, this is what the Kingdom of God is” (THE ELIJAH LIST August 16, 2006: TODD BENTLEY: “THE GOSPEL RELEASES GOD'S CREATIVE POWER).

It’s obvious that Bentley does not understand the meaning of prayer. When the Lord says to pray thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven He does not mean we exercise our power our strength to make something happen. This is all about dominionism in the spiritual realm. His statement there is no more sorrow, no more pain, no more sickness is to take place in heaven because it is without sin, not Earth and certainly not now. We cannot remove sin from Earth, Bentley is changing the words and meaning, the place and the timing of the Bible. Revelation 21:1 explains it is when the new heavens and earth are made. V.3 tells us it is when the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them v.4 ‘there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Notice it says no death. Those that rearrange the Scripture by adding or subtracting should be aware of Revelation 22:18-19 says” For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book”

Bentley teaches in-WHAT IS THE OPEN HEAVEN? Definition: When the heavens are open we have free access to everything in heavenly realms, a free flowing of Gods abundant graces and ministry power. Ministering under an open heaven is like toiling the soil without labor or sweat on the brow. When heaven is open for you God will be near and heaven will be manifest in the natural “ as it is in heaven”.

Does the Bible promote revelation beyond God’s already completed and revealed Word? Because that is exactly what this is that Bentley is promoting.

Bentley speaking of Paul in 2 Cor.12 “I was taken into the spirit several times and quite I will feel my body be sucked up like a vacuum. I will immediately shake and feel myself hurled through space and time. I have even seen and felt myself leave the earth, travel through the stars and flash of bright light and I am somewhere. Did my physical body go? Never that I know but when I find myself aware of where I was before I went I know I was in another place. All my emotions are heighten and involved in a caught up experience and most times I feel my self go.”   http://www.etpv.org/2002/aohe.html An Open Heaven Todd Bentley  Ministering Under An Open Heaven Sep 23, 2002

Bentley claims he went to heaven as the apostle Paul did is ludicrous. But he is not alone in his travels. Not only does Jesus appear on earth for these false teachers he also takes them to heaven.

Morris Cerrullo claims at age 14, he was led out of their Jewish orphanage by two angelic beings; transported to heaven for a face-to-face meeting with God; and told he would be capable of revealing the future. (Cerullo, The Miracle Book, ix; and 7 Point Outreach, World Evangelism and You (pamphlet), “God's Faithful, Anointed Servant, Morris Cerullo”). Another time Morris Cerullo says, “As I lay there on the floor in this condition, my spirit was taken out of my body and the next thing I knew, I was in the heavens… the glory of God appeared. The Form that I saw was about the height of a man six feet tall, maybe a little taller, and twice as broad as a human body with no distinguishing features such as eyes, nose, or mouth.” (Morris Cerullo, The Miracle Book,  Cerullo Word Evangelism, Inc., 1984)

Others that have gone to heaven are Hagin, Eby, Choo, Duplantis, Baxter and now because of Bentley and Bill Johnson the list is ongoing as they teach others to travel to what they think is heaven…

This influence is being taught by ministries and schools of the supernatural (should be called the paranormal). Impartations, angel visitations and revelations and supernatural occurrences are promoted. In Hawaii a young man named Kainoa Iranon claims to have gone to heaven hundreds of times. On a Christian blogsite: “Kainoa also guided us into visiting heaven, something he had learned when he attended Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry” (I assume this is Bill Johnson of whom Bentley refers to in his pillar of fire story.) So this is being spread from many angles, angels and people.

Moanalua Gardens Missionary had hosted a conference at Hope Chapel Kapolei, Feb. 08, 08 “When the Spirit Comes with Power” where over 1400 people from 175 churches gathered  for a three day conference with Bill Johnson, Ian Andrews and Dean Fujishima. I wonder what was presented there?

In the interview by Patrician King, who promotes all this. Bob Jones: “A lot of people see a lot of different colors [when in the third heaven], but when I take the children up most of the time, they see the “white light”. And they see the white throne, and nearly everything they see up there is white! That’s what God IS, is white light! But you got all the colors in it. And up there they see one another as white light, for they ARE light.”

Make no mistake about it- this is the Latter Rain teaching targeting our children and youth. As Bentley states “I’m releasing it back to where it all started in 1948 I’m releasing it back” (then talks about preaching on angels not Jesus because the church already believes in Jesus and needs to believe in angels and the supernatural (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U2rHfRpvyU)

Mary Baxter describes in her book the Divine Revelation of Heaven how she is taken out of her body by Jesus and taken to heaven, which is a planet as large as the earth. “Then the angel showed me another planet which glowed like a great light before me. The light shone with the radiance of a million stars, and everything on the planet was beautiful and alive. . .I knew this was the new earth and that the city which lay in splendor before me was the New Jerusalem - the city of God come down to earth.”

Charles and Frances Hunter published a book called Angels On Assignment in 1979. Pastor Buck “suddenly, without any warning, I was taken right out of that room! I heard a voice say “Come with me into the Throne Room where the secrets of the universe are kept!” God tells Pastor Buck to relax and gives him “a glorious glimpse of the hidden secrets of the universe; of matter, energy, nature and space, all bearing the same beautiful trademark.”

Jesse Duplantis spoke to God “Now, God, You showed Yourself to me like Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses, Peter and Paul. Why won’t You show Yourself to me? In August 1988 Duplantis was preaching a revival in Magnolia Arkansas. He feels impressed to go back to his hotel room and pray about the service that evening. He notices the clock saying it was one minute before one o’clock. He gets down on his knees and gets ready to pray then

“Suddenly I felt a suction as if I was being pulled up out of the room. I heard a sound, Whoose! And I was pulled up out of the room. . .I didn’t know I had left the room and I was zooming along at a phenomenal rate of speed. . .in something like a cable car. . .Then I looked up. There stood another being. I realized that it was the blond-headed angel who had visited me. . .”You have an appointment with the Lord God Jehovah.”

Jesse experiences an out-of-body experience and finds himself in an angelic cable car. He is told he has an appointment with the Lord God Jehovah by the angel.

“As I stepped out of the chariot, everything I saw was so beautiful. I had always thought that when I went to heaven I would see only a city. But the first place I saw was Paradise; it hadn’t been destroyed. Paradise is a big place, completely surrounding the Holy City. It is like being on another planet.” While there, he sees little baby angels being birthed out of God wanting to come to earth to be born as human beings. His trip was quite profitable as Duplantis sells his book and DVD “Heaven, Close Encounters of the God Kind.”

Robin Harfouche on the Sid Roth program told of how she “walked through the streets of heaven with Jesus and the whole time I was there he held my hand and I saw the people waving from the buildings and he brought me to this place that looked like a gigantic worship assembly.” Of course Jesus gave her a new revelation on healing. See ( www.letusreaason.org/popteac5.htm)

D. G. S. Dhinakaran an Indian evangelist of “Jesus Calls ministry” travels into the spirit world regularly, and describes in his book, “Sometimes I have seen Jesus discussing the events that are happening in' this world with His apostles in heaven.” On Benny Hinn’s program he explained how he spoke to Paul, Peter and God the Father in heaven.

Todd Bentley is just one of the many chosen people that God appears to regularly, but his appearances are consistently unlike any apostle or individual on earth. “Yes, God wants open hearts and for all of us to access His promises! In fact, I believe that’s why I had a visitation from the Commander of the army of the Lord (in Singapore) recently. I was undone! It was the King of Kings, the Lord of Hosts, and I saw Him just as Joshua saw Him” “The Lord gave to Israel all the land in which he had sworn to give to their fathers! He gave them rest from their enemies and delivered their enemies into their hand! It was a great victory! Not a word failed of any good thing of which the Lord had promised! All came to pass!” (Accessing The Promise Of God - By Todd Bentley September 01, 2007).

The Lord never gave Israel the possession of all the land he gave them, but they will have it in the millennium. So Bentley is wrong (in fact he is more often wrong and rarely right.) the commander of the Lords army is who- an angel or the Lord?

Bentley states: The first time I met Bob was actually in Grants Pass, Oregon” (Video of Patricia King interviewing Todd Bentley and Bob Jones.) The ElijahList is located in Albany, Oregon, coincidence? I think not. In Bentley’s meeting with Bob Jones he recalls, up until that point, sovereignly God was just visiting me. And I was just waiting in His presence and sovereignly God was visiting me. And Bob said to me, he said, ‘We can go right now!’ And I said ‘What do you mean, we can go right now?! We can make the decision right now and enter into that realm of the spirit?’. And he said, “Sure we can! Don’t you have faith, boy?!’. Or something like that. (laughter) That what he said to me…”I remember Bob took my hand, and everyone else at the table, maybe 20-30 other people yakin at the table, it was quite noisy… And Bob just takes my hand like this and he says alright here we go close your eyes, and I remember closing my eyes and Bob saying there it is, can you feel it, alright here we go, were goin in, whoa were goin in and all of sudden I felt myself goin up, I felt my body being lifted up and it was moving really fast and then it was like “can you smell it, there it is… its the vanilla and right when he said vanilla I said I smell vanilla and then we started smelling all these other fragrances of the anointing and then he said okay lets bring it back with us now” Patricia king interrupts “do you smell the vanilla right now…” Bentley comments when they got back, everyone at the table smelled that anointing. (Video of Patricia King Xtreme Prophetic interview with Todd Bentley and Bob Jones-- video source: http://theconnexion.net/wp/?p=3655)

There are not only elements of auto- suggestion in this but it is accompanied with a deceiving spirit that is passed on by Bob Jones which makes it a powerful combination. This he calls a trip to heaven, or is it more of an outer body experience in the category of astral travel. What is described is straight out of the new age movement.

Todd Bentley’s stories about angels and the Lord visiting him and him visiting heaven are far too numerous to cover except in a book. You can put all the Holy prophets of Israel together and they do not measure up to the frequency and revelation he has received.

Bentley claims he started going to heaven sovereignly before meeting Bob Jones who was surprised when he suggested he can go to heaven anytime by faith.

“There is visitation; there is commissioning that comes from heaven. I had one in 1998. …after being saved for four years when I had an encounter; it was a holy visitation. It came right out of heaven. … I was in my apartment, hungry for God, just like you. I was consumed with a holy desperation for more of God—”Lord there must be more,” and I am sitting in the living room. I remember praying really being Pentecostal! Really going for it, making so much noise in prayer, pressing in, that I wouldn’t have even heard God if He had been speaking to me anyway! All of a sudden a rushing wind came into my apartment. I remember choking on the wind, and the wind went into my mouth down into my lungs and came out of my mouth. I couldn’t talk. The fear of God fell on me and I felt a presence like a concentrated cloud coming out from my kitchen. It was like an electric presence coming out of the kitchen, a cloud of glory or like a liquid honey cloud.” …I just fell right out of the chair onto the carpet and the cloud came over me, the presence, the glory of God, and it was like swimming in warm, liquid, honey. It was like oil. I could feel electricity vibrating from my head to my feet, from my feet to my head again and again. I was lying there basking in this liquid, honey, glory cloud. I couldn’t have talked even if I had wanted to. I don’t know how many hours I was on the floor but after God’s presence lifted I got up and thought, Wow! That was an encounter. … The next day, I went to pray and I was getting a glass of juice in the kitchen. As I opened up the fridge door, Jesus appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. I saw the literal feet of Jesus. I didn’t even close the fridge. …. I fell down. I was weeping, literally on the feet of Jesus. Then He took me into a vision. I went back to the cross. I saw the garden, I saw the cross, I saw the crucifixion, and I felt the emotion. I lived this experience. When I went to pray the next day I was thinking about how the Lord had visited me twice. As I went into the room to pray, I opened the door, stepped into the room, closed the door and God was waiting in the room. There was no getting into the presence, there was no breaking through. I opened the door, stepped in, shut the door and started weeping uncontrollability. Jesus stood in the room. Friends, this went on for three months; everyday when I went to pray, the presence of God would come so strong I would just lie on the floor for hours. Next, I started having angelic visitation and then heaven would open and I started going into heaven; the third –heaven. (2 Cor. 12:1–3). For three months the Lord would visit me like this and the presence of God was so strong that some days for up to 12 hours I couldn’t move. While this was happening I still didn’t think it had anything to do with my call. I still didn’t understand it had anything to do with the ministry that I have today. I just thought, Wow! God is showing up in glory, liquid, honey clouds. I am seeing angels (more to follow regarding one particular angel). I am lying on the floor for hours. In fact, people were coming over to my house asking if they could have a piece of the carpet just so they could be in that heavenly atmosphere.” -Underline mine- (DISCERNING THE CALL OF GOD by Revivalist Todd Bentley - Part 2)

Bentleys encountering a spirit that sounds more like what Joseph Smith was confronted with. Sounds like possession and plain fear more than anything else. No doubt he has convinced himself of it being God, as so many before him. Liquid honey is also how he described in heaven the rivers of honey, his glory cloud is honey too. Again, the electric presence is present, as it is throughout all the previous false revivals experiences. The “ electricity vibrating from my head to my feet, from my feet to my head again and again.” This is the common experience from Kundalini power and other occult manifestations to the open adept. Bentley also claims he went back in time (another experience he went to the future) just like a story of William Branham. We can go back by faith –by reading the word, but instead he is tickling the ears of people to experience this.

His desire for more, being unsatisfied (contentment is what the Bible describes) has opened himself up for counterfeit spirits that bring visions and experiences. To desire a supernatural experience is never taught nor encouraged in Scripture. In fact, it is the very thing Jesus warned of, as he called those “This is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet” (Luke 11:29). We believe the resurrection by faith in the word delivered by the apostles, we are not to seek signs or experiences of the supernatural Hebrews 13:5 “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Bentley seems to be flattered and tickled about those asking to cut his carpet in little pieces for people to have the same heavenly atmosphere (whatever that means), maybe he can call it magic carpet rides. This is idolatry to do this, which Bentley has nothing to say about.

I’m sorry but this is all Madness for a Mass delusion, it is the mother of all deceptions for the church to accept this as true. It may be real, it may be in his mind, it may actually be taking place but I’m convinced it is not the God of the Bible who is visiting this man.

Bentley has so many stories that he has need of a spirit secretary to accompany him on his journeys to document his excursions.

He says, “on three occasions over the past couple of years I’ve had a visitation from the Lord in which I’ve seen the angel of finance.”… I saw heaven open, and as I ascended a ladder into the heavens I saw full vibrant wings and feathers! These feathers were white and as real as they would be in the natural realm;… As the wings lifted I saw every precious gem you could think of under those wings; and then I saw the angel standing, having a body like a man with six wings. I knew it was the angel of finance.”

“Next, I saw a door called “treasure” and the door was open. Without thinking or considering what to do, I found myself in a treasure room in heaven. The only item in this room was gold coins, and I began stuffing those coins into my pockets until they were falling out. Then, after filling up another pocket, I opened my trousers and started filling my trousers with gold coins. After that, I stuffed them into my suit jacket. I even opened my shirt and started stuffing gold coins down my shirt!” “Still in the trance, I asked the Lord, “What am I doing?” “You’re getting the offering!” “God was saying this because the offering, the money, is in heaven. After I heard that answer, I made a conscious decision (in this experience) to get even more gold. Now I was collecting more, stuffing as much as possible anywhere I could fit it, even my ears!” (HEAVEN'S REALITIES by Revivalist Todd Bentley [as edited by Kathy Thorne] Part 1 of 2)

So Bentley is supposedly in heaven and he is stealing from the Lords warehouse? Of course this is to be his money (or reward) so he is only getting an advance. Did not Jesus say, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21). Apparently it meant gold coins in heaven? Maybe Bentley was thinking of a pirate movie in his off time of consciousness, for God does not have any coins or currency in heaven.

Matthew 19:21 “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Does he mean pure gold or something else? Bentley is raiding the icebox in heaven for as much as he can carry and God has no problem with this. How is Bentley preaching Christ with teachings like this is beyond me; it certainly is beyond the Bible.

The Scripture has this to say on these teachings: Psalms 119:162-163 “I rejoice at Your word As one who finds great treasure. I hate and abhor lying, But I love Your law.” Proverbs 10:14: “Wise people store up knowledge, But the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.” These stories are foolish talk.

In “ANGELIC STORIES” Bentley states: “we have a hard time believing that God allows people to have encounters with angels or to see angels or demons. When someone has a prophetic experience, visitation, trance or is translated in the spirit, taken into heaven or talks about hearing the audible voice of God. We relate these experiences to witchcraft, new age, astro-travel, physics and the occult because we are afraid of being deceived. Sometimes we believe in the devil’s ability to deceive us more than the ability of God to protect us. That is not to say that we are not to use wisdom, but that in every counterfeit that the devil has there is a genuine experience in God. All of the while, we are missing out on what is available to us if we just ask and trust that God will not let us be deceived when in right relationship with him and his word as a basis for all experience. God is supernatural and He has always communicated with His people supernaturally.”

Astral travel into the “Third Heaven” is not what the Bible teaches. To use the few who went in the Old Testament as examples is not adequate– there were only two that never came back. They were not visiting, they were taken by God, and are types of what will happen to the Church corporately on the day of the resurrection/ rapture. There were three in the New Testament, two who both came back to write Scripture and one who is coming back- Jesus. Paul only was brought to heaven once, he did not repeat this nor did he desire it again. Paul went to heaven and called it illegal, a crime (unlawful) to speak about the things he saw. He waited 14 years to even mention it (2 Cor.12:12), he only spoke of it because he had a purpose in doing so. Along come all these false teachers that speak freely. And what of the apostle John when he went to heaven? What did John do when he met Jesus in His GLORY. He knew Jesus on earth but this was different. He fell as dead before Him seeing him in a glorified state, he did not have Jesus hold his hand or walk with him giving a tour of heaven as so many others have. Jesus did not show him rooms of extra body parts to be claimed, or a room filled with gold coins for the offering. What a whole lot of nonsense. Yet people want to believe this over the Bible.

These are colossal stories that measure a 9 to10 on the counterfeit Richter scale. Bentley has gone even beyond Benny Hinn who stated once that when he had a vision of heaven God was NOT on his throne.

“Then the vision faded. Yet I was so overcome by the glory of God I just laid on the floor in the Green Room and as I was lying there, unexpectedly I was caught up instantly into the spirit. I was no longer aware that I was in a conference setting. All of a sudden I was standing on a grassy hill and I saw still waters. I saw a river flowing between its banks. It was like Psalm 23, green pastures, … as I looked I saw that it was a river of oil and honey. ….Everywhere I looked was the appearance of amber. … I looked up to my left and there was a bridge, and my first thought was: What a secret place. Still waters, I am in Paradise, this is Psalm 23. Look at that beautiful bridge! I just want to sit up on the bridge. That's what I was thinking. The butterflies were flying by and I felt the peace of God; I was overcome by the shalom. Wow. I thought: Look at that bridge. Now, when you think something in heaven, you are there, so although I don't actually remember moving, the next thing I knew I was actually sitting on the bridge. … sitting up on the bridge I saw someone walking toward me. I knew in my spirit it was Paul the apostle. He walked right onto the bridge and he sat down next to me. He had this blank scroll in his hand and he started writing with a pen (which was more like a feather with ink). When he started writing it looked like Hebrew and he would say, “Eat this.” He continued writing on the scroll, saying “Eat this” again and again. But when I realized I was eating, I noticed that I wasn't eating by my mouth, I was eating by my belly. He was stuffing his writings inside my spirit right past by head, putting some kind of divine revelation right into my spirit. Then Paul spoke to me about the message of the hour for the Church and much more. Yet, it would be best to hold his inspiring message and the other heavenly adventures in connection with Paul until Part Two next week. “http://www.freshfire.ca/” www.freshfire.ca

In another account he says that Paul said to him “two verses from the Book of Galatians: “But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:11, 12, emphasis mine). 

Bentley goes on to say that Paul told him “ I spent three years in Arabia in the desert by myself. During those three years I had a third heaven encounter (2 Cor. 12:1–4).

Bentleys point is to exalt himself in the most humble way, because of his third heaven trips, he appears greater than Paul, because Paul went there only once and said nothing, Bentley has gone there numerous times.

After his story he breaks into an advertisement for fresh fire ministries by posing a question “Is there a greater realm than just conferring with other apostles and disciples…Fresh Fire Ministries has a Supernatural Training Centre and I have an internship program. I believe in mentoring, discipling, releasing and raising men and woman up for ministry. But I believe that there are those that can be literally taken into heaven and in one moment in heaven God can give them more than anything they can learn by being with other apostles and disciples.” (Encounter With Heaven Todd Bentley http://www.etpv.org/2007/encwh.html).

Excerpts from his encounter,

reddish locks that hung to their shoulders. David's eyes were blue and he wore a purple royal robe but when he lifted his arm, inside his robe I saw the color blue; it was very kingly.

“Next, I was at Paul's house and he said to eat the Book of Titus! What's more, several days later I was taken back into heaven to Paul's house! But this time I didn't go inside. I stayed outside where I saw a ladder in his back yard like the one described in Genesis 28, Jacob's ladder. [I've come to understand that there are ladders like that in heaven in order to ascend and descend into different realms because heaven has places, geographical places. For example, the first heaven is where we live on the earth; the second heaven is the invisible realm of Ephesians 6: 12; and the third heaven where I was with Paul, it's the Paradise of God (Rev. 2:7).] So I jumped onto the ladder and began to climb up into another realm. I saw around me that it was all clouds so I began to pull those clouds back. As I did, a hole opened up in the heavens. Immediately then, out of heaven, flowed the color green, not just a light; it was like a green liquid and it was pouring onto my eyes! When I asked God about this, He said, “You are coming into the throne room; you are beneath the sea of glass; there is a rainbow around the throne. It's not just above the throne; it's a circle around the throne, a rainbow, emerald, green in color.” [“And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald” (Rev. 4:3).] I had just climbed into the fourth realm of heaven which is the throne room, (with more realms to follow). I went up from the throne room into the fifth realm which is the heavenly city. I saw streets that are golden and mansions and I noticed that it was very different from the Paradise of God (third heaven) where there are hills, still waters, and flowers. It wasn't as peaceful. Next came the sixth realm of heaven which is the place where the angels live. There is literally a realm reserved for Michael, Gabriel, all the arch angels and all the angels under the arch angels! This isn't the second heaven, the angel and demon realm, where they battle. It's just a realm where the angels dwell. Then the last heaven I saw, the seventh realm was other universes and the solar systems; undiscovered universes and planets that God has created.”

Compare his story to the Bible and it is quite different, in fact there is little resemblance. If you compare Bentleys description of people and things in heaven with others that have gone, then it becomes a even greater mass of confusion than standing by itself.

How are these witnesses in heaven able to witness to us? It’s on earth that we need the witnesses, we are never going to see them here. Paul calls Abraham and David apostolic fathers! You would think Paul would know what apostolic means. No, they are saints- patriarchs. They did not start a church nor see the resurrection or lay the foundation of Jesus Christ for the church. So who is this Paul that is telling Bentley this false information?

Very little of Hebrews is about Abraham, though he is mentioned 10 times, the majority is about his tithe to Melchizedik that is found in Genesis. There is no indication in the Bible to consider Abraham as a co-author except for Bentley claiming his trip to heaven says so. This means we had to wait for this “apostle-prophet-seer-and heaven’s traveler” Todd Bentley to reveal this to the church.

Is Hebrews man inspired? Was Hebrews was co - written by the spirit of Abraham and not the Holy Spirit? No book in the New Testament was written by consultation of a dead saint from the location of heaven- not even Johns “Book of Revelation.” This is called necromancy, to contact the dead. Bentley seems to copy Benny Hinn in many areas and this is just one of them.

Bentley actually wants us to believe there is a ladder behind Paul’s house that is Jacob’s ladder where the angels ascend and descend to earth on. In this case he used it to (ascend) climb up to different levels in heaven (guess there were no elevators) and he got into the throne room by dismantling the floor which happens to be made of clouds. And you thought the story of the moon being made of green cheese was ridiculous, not so much anymore. We also find that the heavenly city wasn’t peaceful. I guess every city has its hustle and bustle times.

Maybe Bentley landed on the Mormon planet Kolob and met the god of that planet and that heaven, because what he is saying has nothing to do with anything we read in the Bible. I’m flabbergasted and appalled.

People are chasing down an experience that is not bible based and will only lead them to self -destruct whatever shred of faith they may have left in the truth of the word.

Bentley is proving he has the spiritual DNA of Branham, Hinn.

I have never heard of this many miracles and supernatural occurrences so obviously wrong with any ministry. We can only recognize what is false by walking in the truth. If one cannot see the false then they probably are not walking in the truth. As long as the church accepts this activity as revival, we will never see a real revival.