By Daniel Olabiyi
Toufik Benedictus, popularly known as Benny Hinn, has said that God was not happy with his prosperity sermons.
Hinn, known for his regular miracle crusades and faith healing summits said: “I think it’s an offense to the Holy Spirit to place a price on the Gospel. I’m done with it. I will never again ask you to give $1,000 or whatever amount, because I think the Holy Ghost is just fed up with it.
The Israeli-born preacher declared: “God not for sale! Did you hear me?,” Benny asked as his audience, who then replied positively in high spirit.
He said prosperity preaching hurts the Gospel: “So I’m making this statement for the first time in my life and frankly, I don’t care what people think about me anymore.
“When they invite me to telethons, I think they will not like me anymore. Because when you look at the word of God … if I hear one more time ‘break the back of debt with $1,000’ I’m gonna rebuke you,” he said.
“I think that’s buying the Gospel. That’s buying the blessing. That’s grieving the Holy Spirit. … If you are not giving because you love Jesus, don’t bother giving.” Benny added: “I think giving has become such a gimmick; it’s making me sick to my stomach.”
Benny’s outright rejection of the prosperity gospel comes just two months after his nephew, Costi Hinn, exposed in his new book, God, Greed, and the Gospel.
He reveals in it how his family earns millions around the world with the prosperity gospel and often traded so-called miracles for money.
“Giving to God was the secret to unlocking your dreams. It was the secret to job promotions. It was access to our divine bank account. My uncle often told the story of how he got out of debt using this system of belief. His father-in-law had told him that to be debt free, he needed to pay God. Benny explained that once he started emptying his bank account and giving money away to ministry, money started showing up from everywhere!”
In 2018, Benny confessed that as he has grown older and come to understand the Bible more, he realised that some of the things he learned from ministers when he was growing up aren’t theological, including the prosperity gospel.
“The more you know the Bible the more you become biblically based and more balanced in your opinions, because we are influenced,” Benny said.
“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,” Benny said.
He then explained on how he believes “no lack” should be interpreted.
“Did Elijah the prophet have a car? He 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,” Hinn said.
“Today, the idea is abundance and palatial homes and cars and bank accounts. The focus is wrong … It’s so wrong.”
He said even though he has been accused of living extravagantly and flying private jets in the past, that is not how he currently lives. “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. I have not flown private jet. I fly commercial just like anyone else,” he said.