Benny (Benedikt) Hinn was born on Dec.
3rd, 1952 in Jaffa, the son of Palestinian Arab
parents who grew up in Palestine. They were members
of the Greek Orthodox Church. Benny's claim that
his father was mayor of Jaffa has been proven
to be untrue. Hinn is the pastor of the Orlando
Christian Center in Florida. He founded this church
in March of 1983, which today is supposed to have
a weekly attendance of over 10,000. In 1994 he
applied for membership with the Assemblies of
God, the largest Pentecostal denomination in America.
After some deliberation he was accepted. Then
he quietly withdrew from this fellowship on his
own accord in 1996 and is henceforth not responsible
to anyone.
He is considered to be the most popular TV healing
evangelist of today and has earned the nickname
„The Miracle Man.“ His life story
is chock full of supernatural experiences. Among
these experiences are related the following: At
age 11 a visitation of Jesus; dreams, visions
and angel appearances; a one-on-one conversation
with the Holy Spirit; out-of-body experiences
that ended in spiritual battles with angels.
He contradicts himself by giving three different
time frames of his supposed conversion. „In
the PTL Family Devotional he declared: ‚I
got saved in Israel in 1968,‘ but in a 1983
message in St. Louis in he said, ‚It was
in Canada that I was born again right after ’68.‘
Yet in Good Morning, Holy Spirit, he says he was
converted in 1972, during his senior year in high
school. But he dropped out before his senior year.
When was he saved?“
One can often see how fantasy and reality are
mixed together in his life. Three women, interestingly
all divorced, influenced him either directly or
indirectly in his spiritual development. First
of all there was Mary Woodworth-Etter (1844-1924),
who often went into a trance hours on end. She
was called „Trance-Evangelist“ or
„Voodoo-Priestess“, since she was
accused of tying to hypnotize her audience. She
had a decisive influence on the work of Aimee
McPherson. Kurt Hutten wrote the following about
Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944), the founder
of the fast growing International Church of the
Four Square Gospel: „No wonder that her
following grew rapidly and was blindly devoted
to her. Even different love affairs - a second
and then a third marriage which were quickly broken,
several passing affairs along with „family
feuds, court cases, purported kidnapping,“
etc - could not distract them from her. Aimee
herself described her love affairs and divine
leadings in a series of articles which appeared
in a high subscription daily newspaper.“
In a sermon on April 7th, 1991, Benny Hinn disclosed
that he visited now and then the grave of America’s
most famous Pentecostal female faith healer, Aimee
McPherson. There he received a special supply
of power. Quoting Hinn: „I felt an terrific
anointing...I was shaking all over... trembling
under the power of God. ‚Dear God,‘
I said, ‚I feel the anointing‘...I
believe the anointing has lingered over Aimee‘s
body.“
Yet he received his first supply of „power“
in 1973 during a healing service of Kathryn Kuhlman
(1907-1976), the woman who all her life denied
to have been married with the divorced Pentecostal
preacher Burroughs Waltrip. She has been the most
influential figure in his life and he considers
himself to be the administrator of her will. He
also visits her grave regularly. These three women
are key personages for the entrance of the so
called „resting or slain in the Spirit“
phenomenon in Christian churches, which became
esp. popular through the Toronto Blessing.
Hinn’s fascination with Kathryn Kuhlman
goes so far that he not long ago reported to have
met her together with Jesus in heaven during a
vision. „I had a vision of the night...
saw myself walk into a room and there stood Kathryn
Kuhlman...And she said, ‚Follow me‘.
That‘s all she said. And I followed her
into a second room. In that second room stood
the Lord... When I woke, when I got up, when I
came out of the vision, I was trembling and perspiring
from head to toes.“
Benny Hinn stands for the health-and-wealth doctrine
and for the „Word-of -Faith“ school.
This movement teaches that whatever one utters
in prayer will happen. He also claims that the
Holy Spirit can be transmitted by breathing on
people. He demonstrates his „anointing“
in that he breathes on the assembly, which then
„falls to the ground under the power.“
His showy stage appearances are a mixture of hypnosis,
mesmerism and fanaticism. Accordingly, as a pronounced
result of his appearances, people fall backwards,
tremble uncontrollably and experience convulsions.
Similarly bizarre are some of his doctrinal statements
and revelations. „Now ladies and gentlemen,
you are exactly on earth what Jesus was...As He
is, so am I, on earth...I am not, hear me, I am
not part of Him, I am Him! (sic). The Word has
become flesh in me!...When my hand touches someone,
it‘s the hand of Jesus touching somebody!“
In November 1993 Benny Hinn made an appearance
in Basel, Switzerland. He manipulated and deceived
the public so badly that the charismatic sponsor
apologized afterwards. Rene Lieberherr, co-organizer
in Basel, reports: „I was given the responsibility
to set the ventilation on the ‚highest‘
level. Hinn told the folks that they should raise
their hands. Then they would feel the moving of
the Holy Spirit. People then raised their hands
upwards and felt the movement of the ventilation
system...Yet no miracle happened with Hinn. Instead:
the healings turned out to be falsified. They
did not honour God; they were the work of man...One
case had to do with a man ill with cancer. Hinn
prophesied over him that he would have many years
of health ahead. This man died two days later...Those
are the ‚great miracles‘ that happened.“
Richard Mayhue, head of Master’s Seminary
in Los Angeles, also comes to similar results
in his book The Healing Promise. Especially impressive
is the section by Andre Kole, now a serious Christian
who for thirty years worked in the world of illusion
as a magician. His judgment on the faith healer,
although in polite tones, is very sobering. Such
„empowered Apostles“ may be able to
heal functional disorders, but not organic diseases.
He told Benny Hinn straightaway, after Hinn had
promised to send him proof texts documenting healings:
„Benny, I don‘t mean to be unkind,
but I think I should mention that for 35 years
every Christian faith healer I have contacted
has made the same promise you have, and I never
heard from them again.“ Benny swore to follow
through. Until this day Andre Kole is still waiting
for a reply.
Characteristic for these „mighty Apostles“
is their expensive lifestyle along with their
great interest in money. Liebherr, mentioned above,
reports concerning the collections in Basel: „On
the envelopes were two Bible verses about almsgiving...Now
thousands of envelopes piled up. Some were filled
with large offerings...They tore the envelopes
open and separated the coins from the bills. The
envelopes were thrown in the waste baskets, whether
or not prayer requests were written on them. Also
many personal notes included were thrown directly
in the garbage. I saw all this with my own eyes
and other eyewitnesses as well. The promises that
someone would pray over all these requests was
not kept for one second. Later I saw the container
standing outside into which all these requests
were dumped. The visitors were completely deceived
in this matter. What Wasmer (responsible for the
coordination of the Benny Hinn Europe meetings)
interested more was exclusively the money...“
Benny Hinn is, according to biblical judgment,
a classical example of a false prophet. „On
Dec. 31st, 1989 Benny said: ‚The Lord also
tells me...not later than 94 or 95, that God will
destroy the homosexual community of America...
by fire...Canada will be visited with a mighty
revival that will start on the west coast of British
Columbia...in the next three years.‘ It
only takes one false prophecy to make a false
prophet, and Hinn’s are legion.“
Hinn is not exactly sparing with his critics.
For example take his infamous statement: „He
wished that God would give him „a Holy Ghost
machine gun“ so he could blow off the heads
of his critics“ I concede he has reportedly
changed in some areas. Nevertheless these may
only be lip service to the truth. At a later occasion
this „anointed one“ said the following
about his opponents: „You have attacked
me, your children will pay for it.“
After Hinn’s appearance in Basel sponsor
Markus Blum was forced to state: „Since
then I have heard from more and more of the visitors
that they have fallen from this emotional high
into a depression and that some need psychiatric
help.“ Others even complain that nobody
warned them about Hinn. We do not want to be guilty
of this sin of omission.
Alexander Seibel
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