Last week, a well-known “prophet” and “apostle,” Todd Bentley, was accused by a former colleague and protege of a number sexual immorality charges, including soliciting sex from a male prostitute for money. Bentley was removed from ministry and restored over a decade ago for the exact same reason. One of the men who restored Bentley back then, Rick Joyner, recently admitted that he was aware of Bentley’s continued sexual immorality.

Of course, any Bible-believing Christian in their right mind can look at the charismatic movement as a whole and discern that it’s not a movement of God. It’s filled with fake miracles and false prophecies, false signs and wonders. The actual substance of the gospel is minimized if not discarded altogether and exchanged largely for a freak show. It is nothing more than a way for those seeking a “high” to alter their state of mind and consciousness.

One author at Charisma News, J. Lee Grady, (absurdly) poses the question, “should we restore Todd Bentley again?” While he leaves the obvious answer to this question (nooooooo) somewhat open-ended, he does conclude with the admission that charismaticism is mostly false and filled with people chasing hype. He writes,

Personally, I blame the system for this current mess. We charismatics are more enamored with “the anointing” than character. We run after healings and miracles, even if they are questionably manufactured. We chase gold dust, feathers, goosebumps and smackdowns instead of holiness, biblical revelation and true repentance. We are addicted to hype.

The fact that charismatic insiders are actually beginning to see this is encouraging, but it’s going to take a true move of the Holy Spirit to actually get masses of people out of this movement altogether.