Evangelist Benny Hinn (courtesy of Benny Hinn Ministries.)
Popular Evangelist Benny Hinn whose ministry has preached face to face and through television to more than a billion people has renounced the prosperity gospel saying it offends “the Holy Spirit to place a price on the Gospel.”
Speaking to believers during a Facebook Live broadcast on Monday, Benny Hinn said he initially hesitated to go public about his decision because he didn’t want to hurt his friends “who believe things I don’t believe anymore.”
“Am I shocking you?” Hinn asked viewers shortly after the announcement was made.
“I don’t want to get to heaven and be rebuked. I think it’s time we say it like its: The Gospel is not for sale,” Benny Hinn stated.
According to scholars, Prosperity theology sees the Holy Spirit as a power to be put to use for whatever the believer wills.
The prosperity gospel teaches, among other things, that believers have a right to the blessings of health and wealth, and they can obtain these blessings through positive confessions of faith and the “sowing of seeds” through the faithful payments of tithes and offerings.
“I’m sorry to say that prosperity has gone a little crazy and I’m correcting my own theology and you need to all know it. Because when I read the Bible now, I don’t see the Bible in the same eyes I saw 20 years ago,” Hinn said to his audience.
He continued: “I think it’s an offense to the Lord, it’s an offense to say give $1,000. 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.”
“I think it 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,” he said. “If you are not giving because you love Jesus, don’t bother giving. I think giving has become such a gimmick; it’s making me sick to my stomach.”
