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An Examination
and Critique of "Good Morning, Holy Spirit," the number
one best-selling Christian book of 1991 by Benny Hinn has
now been in print for almost two years. Since its release,
over 500,000 copies have been printed. In the book Hinn
tells of the events that preceded his public ministry and
presents his teaching on the Person of the Holy Spirit.
The popularity of this book reflects the great amount of
confusion among modern Evangelicals concerning the fundamental
doctrines of the Christian faith and their relation to everyday
life. A number of Benny's statements concerning the central
doctrines of the Christian faith--the doctrine of the Trinity,
the Deity of Christ, and the Nature of God--are dangerously
approaching the boundaries of Christian orthodoxy. In other
words, some of his teachings are either on their way, or
have arrived, at the borderline between truth and error,
orthodoxy and heresy. Grave and disturbing consequences
are very likely to ensue if some of the things that Benny
teaches are taken to their logical conclusion. Therefore,
there is a great need for Christians--and especially those
who deal with the Christian public--to be aware of this
book's contents. Benny's Birth Childhood Visions Benny's second vision at age eighteen is no less sensational as the Lord "came into my room and visited me" (p.28). Following two apocalyptic visions Benny prays, "Lord Jesus, come back," repeating the words over and over again. As he utters these words he again experiences a feeling of numbness though "less intense, but I could feel the voltage of that same force" (p.31). Then he writes, "Suddenly I saw Jesus with my own eyes." He considers this his conversion. Benny's third vision takes place three days after his conversion.
He writes, "Everywhere I went, a picture kept flashing
before me. I saw myself preaching." He tells a
charismatic friend, "I can't shake the picture of
me speaking in huge open-air rallies, in stadiums, in churches,
in concert halls" (p.36). Again, although we cannot
dogmatically prove or disprove the validity of Benny's subjective
experience here, we may honestly consider the possibility
that perhaps Benny is actually suffering from a youthful
case of megalomania--self-proclaimed delusions of grandeur--since
he had only been a Christian for three days at the time
of this vision. Kathryn Kuhlman's Example
While waiting in line for the meeting, Benny starts to shake uncontrollably (p.4). During the service Benny encounters a plethora of emotional experiences. He experiences "an unusual sensation that didn't really seem physical at all," "a feeling of intense glory," "as if I had exploded...Talk about ecstasy!" (p.5). He then feels the Spirit "go down one arm and up the other. I actually felt it moving" (p.6). During the service, Kathryn Kuhlman stops everything and begins sobbing and crying out, "Please don't grieve the Holy Spirit...Please! Don't wound Him. He's all I've got. Don't wound the One I love!" (p.9). Benny then sees "what seemed to be a mist around and over" Kathryn Kuhlman (p.10). This so grabs Benny's attention, that he cries out that he has got to have what she has got (p.11). After the service, Benny tells of his searching to understand if he should rightly pursue his desire to meet the Holy Spirit. It is here that we discover Benny's criterion for truth. Benny asks, "'Should I be speaking to the Holy Spirit like this?' Then I thought, 'If I'm honest in this, God will show me whether I'm right or wrong.'" (p.12). Here is the disturbing part. Notice what verifies to Benny that he is right: "My eyes were closed. Then, like a jolt of electricity my body began to vibrate all over." (p.12). Benny's experience proves to him that he is right. He is dominated and guided by sensational experiences and herein is where many of his errors have their beginning. Benny makes no bones about the importance and significance of his spiritual experiences. He writes, "A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument" (p.98). Later in the book he writes of an experience where he weeps for "more than three weeks" (p.150). Strewn throughout the book are his constant references to "feeling" the Holy Spirit; experiencing what feels like "jolts of electricity" or "a blanket of warmth" (p.110). In fact, Benny is so hung up on experiences that, like a drug addict who must ever increase his dosage to maintain his high, Benny must always intensify his experience. At one point in the book, he asks, "Is that all there is?" (p.109). This focus on sensational experiences puts Benny in the dangerous position where his spiritual experiences must intensify at expense of the truth. In other words, Benny generally does not encourage his readers to seek to grow in personal holiness and in their understanding of the truth. Instead he encourages them--by his own example--to primarily seek temporary sensational experiences. Though Benny commendably goes to the Bible to justify his experience (p.14,33), he only does so after the experience has occurred. Readers are left with the impression that Benny will force the Bible to fit whatever he experiences instead of letting the Bible define what should be valid experiences. Sadly, sometimes even God's word isn't enough for Benny: "Jesus, I know You say in Your Word You love me...but please do me a favor. Tell me that You love me" (p.102, emphasis his). At one point, Benny clearly reveals his anti-intellectual bias, when he teaches that a Christian will surely flounder in their spiritual walk when they are found guilty of "depending on your mind" (p.171). Due to his new found experiences with the Holy Spirit, Benny soon becomes disturbingly familiar with God the Holy Spirit. In fact, Benny becomes so accustomed to the Spirit that he makes Him appear as little more than a child's imaginary play-friend. You tell me, does this sound like the Almighty, Eternal and Awesome Spirit of God--or does it sound more like a child's imaginary play-friend: "When I left the house in the morning, He left with me. I actually felt someone beside me. On a bus I'd feel the urge to start talking with Him, but I didn't want people to think I was crazy. Even at work, there were times when I whispered things to Him. At lunch, He was my companion. But day after day, when I got home, I hopped up those stairs, locked the door to my room, and said, 'Now we are alone.' And my spiritual journey continued" (p.41). As all experiences go, Benny's soon begins to taper off in it's newness: "I became so accustomed to Him that I did not feel the electricity of those special times" (p.41). However, as Benny's experience seems to wane, he soon finds that he is becoming a special conduit of the Spirit to others. Friends and family start feeling the anointing flowing though him. Free Methodist minister Jim Poynter feels it; Benny's mother is knocked back and nearly over by it, and even his brothers start to feel something unusual (p.42). Due to Benny's familiarity with the Spirit and his exalted
position of being a literal conduit of that Spirit to others,
we are led to believe that Benny is somehow supposedly qualified
to teach us. And thus we enter the doctrinal portion of
the book. Three Major Errors 1) The Holy Spirit is the most gentle and thus the most approachable Person in the Trinity. Although Benny stresses throughout the book the truth that the Holy Spirit is equal in the Godhead, and is just as much a Person as God the Father and God the Son, he defeats his purpose when he elaborates on his teaching of the Spirit's personality. Although Benny writes that the "Holy Ghost is not a weak personality" (p.173), we are led to believe this very thing by the way Benny describes Him. The Holy Spirit is described as being "quiet, lovely, and perfectly clear" (p.71). He is "not a fighter; He's a lover" (p.92). He "is so gentle" (p.157). He feels "heartache in a different way than the Father and the Son" (p.153). Benny writes that since "the Father knows how tender the Spirit is" He protects Him from blasphemy--hence the sin of blasphemy of the Spirit (p.154). Finally, in the Trinity's dealings with man's willful sins, Benny teaches that the Father is known as dealing with man by killing, the Son by rebuking, and the Spirit by convicting (p.139). We are left with an unmistakable picture of the Spirit being the most pleasant and friendly Person of the Trinity. But is this picture true? First, it is true that we are to have communion (or fellowship; the greek word is 'koinonia') with the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 13:14). But it is also likewise true that we are to have communion with all three Persons of the Trinity. No One of them is exempt, nor are we taught to pursue One over the Other. The Christian can say with the Apostle John, "indeed our fellowship ['koinonia'] is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3). Paul writes that we are "called into fellowship [koinonia'] with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Cor. 1:9). Jesus prays, "this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3). Our relationship is towards all three Persons of the Trinity precisely because they are the one God. Second, all three Persons of the Trinity are said to indwell the believer. Jesus says, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him" (John 14:23, see also 1 John 2:24). Both the Father and the Son, as well as the Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16), indwell the believer so that the believer can rightly be called the "temple of the living God" (2 Cor. 6:16). It is therefore not true that the Holy Spirit has any position of preeminence in our dealings with the Trinity. We have fellowship with the Triune God and are indwelt by the Triune God. Benny's emphasis on presenting the Holy Spirit as more friendly and personable than the other two Persons of the Trinity is therefore a false distinction. 2) The three Persons of the Trinity all have their own personal bodies. Beginning with a vague definition of the Trinity: "God is one. But God is three: Father, Son and Holy Ghost" (p.71) , Benny then proceeds to explain that all three Persons in the Trinity have Their own separate bodies. Though this is more pronounced in his public preaching, the idea is still contained in his book. He writes, "Yes, God the Father has a form" (p.72); or again, "God...is spirit with mysterious form" (p.82). He then goes on to use what are known as anthropomorphic references in the Bible to prove that God does have an actual spatial body. This is the exact method used by the Mormon cult in their attempts to prove that God the Father has a body. This method and teaching has been soundly refuted and completely rejected as heretical throughout the history of the Christian church. To find this teaching stated here and apparently accepted without question by the majority of its readers demonstrates how far modern Evangelical Christianity has strayed from its doctrinal moorings. There is no question in Benny's mind that the Holy Spirit likewise possesses a body. How does he know? What is his standard for truth? Experience, of course: "But what about the Holy Spirit?...Does He have a body? He certainly does. It's a subject that most ministers are afraid to discuss, but I have experienced the Person of the Holy Ghost" (p.84). Benny, with his characteristic boldness, boasts that most ministers will not discuss this. The simple fact of the matter is that most ministers will not discuss this because most ministers are aware of the heresy in it. The problem with the teaching that asserts that each Person of the Trinity consists of His own separate body--besides the plain fact that there is no biblical warrant for it--is this: It produces far too much of a distinction between each Person of the Trinity. They are now no longer "One in essence, Three in Person," but are now "Three in essence, and Three in Person." This is a heresy known as Tritheism, the belief in three Gods. Though Benny Hinn would never admit that he subscribes to this error, his teaching is dangerously leaning in that direction. I believe it is Benny's misunderstanding in this area that leads him to the mistaken belief that the Holy Spirit is more approachable and available than the other two Persons of the Godhead. Logically, if all three Persons possess their own distinct body, then all Three are limited to being primarily at one place at one time. Therefore, since God the Father is in heaven and God the Son is at the Father's right hand, it only makes sense that the Holy Spirit is the only One dwelling on the earth, and therefore the most approachable and available of the Three, which is exactly what Benny teaches (p.111). 3) Jesus was merely an anointed man while on earth. Again, this error is more prominent in his public ministry where Benny has been recorded as teaching such prominent Word-Faith doctrines as Jesus taking upon Himself the nature of Satan on the cross, and Jesus being born again in hell. Pages 134 and 135 of his book teach that Jesus was totally reliant on the Holy Spirit. So much so that "He could not move unless the Holy Spirit moved Him"; "Had the Holy Spirit not been with Jesus, He may have likely sinned"; and, "Without the Holy Ghost Jesus may have never made it" (p.135). This teaching might not seem too harmful on the surface, but one must realize that the primary error of the Word-Faith movement finds its source in this: Since Jesus was nothing more than a Spirit-anointed man, and since that is what we as believers are, then we must be little messiahs, or as Benny Hinn puts it, "little god[s] on earth running around" ("Praise-a-thon" (TBN), recorded November, 1990). Jesus did not overcome Satan and sin as just a mere man
empowered by the Spirit. If we, as mere men, act outside
of the empowering of the Spirit, we will surely fail in
any of our endeavors. But this does not hold true for the
divine Son of God. While it is true that Jesus was anointed
and filled by the Spirit at His baptism, it does not subsequently
follow that without the Spirit's aid Jesus would have failed
at whatever He attempted. Jesus is no less than God the
Son, the 'Theanthropos'--fully God and fully man.
Jesus is fully God just as the Spirit is fully God. Any
teaching that would make Jesus out to be any less dangerously
diminishes the glory, majesty, and deity of the Lord Jesus
Christ who is "holy, innocent, undefiled, separated
from sinners and exalted above the heavens" (Heb.
7:25). Hinn is guilty of presenting a diminished view of
the deity of Christ when he makes Jesus' obedience and success
to depend solely on the Spirit's assistance. Three Minor Errors 1) On assurance of salvation. Benny writes, "Someone recently asked me, 'Benny, how do you know you are saved?' All I could say was, 'I know, that I know, that I know, that I know" (p.73). Benny's standard for assurance of salvation is far from reliable. There is such a thing as false peace, thinking God is among us when he is really not (cf. Mic. 3:9-11). There are even those who can say, "I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart" (Deut. 29:19). We are told to produce fruit in keeping with repentance (Matt. 3:8), to look for fruit in other's lives to prove their authenticity (Mat. 7:16), and "to make certain about His calling and choosing you" (2 Pet. 1:10) by examining our lives to see if we are growing in holiness, godliness, and love. In short, we are to "Test ourselves to see if [we] are in the faith" (2 Cor. 13:5). Benny turns this command of the Lord one-hundred-and-eighty-degrees around when he advises us "you must never question whether you are born again" (p.169). 2) On the inner leading of the Spirit. Again, Benny is very vague in advising us how to discern whether or not we are doing God's will in our day-to-day matters. Instead of guiding us to seek direction from Scripture, he asks us to be ready to receive personal, direct revelation from the Holy Spirit in the form of an inner voice. Though Protestants have been very open to this teaching lately, it must be noted that this idea radically denies the sufficiency of the Scriptures in all matters of faith and conduct. Scripture is our guide. The Holy Spirit uses Scripture and applies it to our life to guide us. An inner voice from inside is too vague and too prone to stem from our own desires and lusts and therefore must be questioned as a source to guide us. But not for Benny. He writes, "During a church building program I was asked, 'How do you know you're doing the right thing?' The answer was the same as if I'd been asked about my salvation. 'I know that I know, that I know, that I know.' The Lord, through the Holy Spirit, told me to start building. Every decision in my life is based on that same inner voice" (p.76). Isn't it funny how all these Word-Faith teachers seem to have a direct pipeline to God? 3) On sanctification, or growing in holiness. We read very little in Benny's book of the Spirit's primary work--causing us to grow in holiness and godliness. We are confused when it comes to Benny's own experience in this matter. At one point he boldly states, "My struggle was over!" (p.109), but yet later commendably states, "I believe Christians grieve the Spirit every day. I, for one, am guilty" (p.157). One thing is certain though, Benny is more obsessed with the outward operations of the Spirit than the inward. He equivocates growing closer to God with becoming more competent in the area of healings, miracles, and spiritual battles: "I believe the day is approaching when men and women of God will become so close to the Spirit of God that we will witness much more than healings and miracles. We will witness the Spirit as He scatters those who dare to fight Him" (p.118). Again, Benny's fixation on outward operations of the Spirit
is made evident when he writes, "I am convinced
there is a point in your relationship with the Spirit when
the anointing becomes so heavy on you--his presence so close
to you--that you can look up and see a vision of God"
(p.119). Visions, miracles, wonders, and signs seem to be
Benny's chief concern. Where do we read of growing in holiness?
Though Benny admirably writes in the conclusion of his book,
"The greatest work of the Spirit is not to lead
you into some heavenly ecstasy on earth" (p.176)
we are led to believe otherwise by the emphasis he places
throughout the book on sensational experiences. Conclusion
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