Benny Hinn Is Not a Christian, Mike Winger Says during Interview with Charisma
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Christian YouTuber Mike Winger recently sat down with Charisma Media’s John Matarazzo to discuss his four-hour video, “The Victims of Benny Hinn: 30 years of Spiritual Deception,” where he highlighted Hinn’s financial and spiritual abuse in ministry. According to Church Leaders, Winger, who is also an ordained pastor but is not shepherding a church, also posted a follow-up video stating that Hinn was trying to get his video, which has more than 900,000 views, removed from YouTube.
Winger’s interview with Charisma follows a two-part interview Charisma conducted with Hinn.
“We’re trying to platform voices the best way that we can as we see God moving,” Matarazzo told Winger. “You are not an anti-charismatic-heresy-hunter, but you are a Continuationist.”
In response, Winger said that most people assumed he was a Cessationist, in light of speaking out against Hinn. However, there is a “fundamental flaw” when “people will unintentionally think that criticism towards a Charismatic leader is criticism of the gifts,” Winger said.
“I believe in prophecy, tongues, all of those things,” he added. “I think there’s something that God has for believers, and I’m eager to have them. I think about what Scripture tells me about the desire to prophesy, I pray for prophetic things to happen and stuff like that in the church that are genuine and real.”
“But, I also affirm Scripture when it says test all things [and] hold fast to that which is good, that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, that there will never be fakery in the Christian church…and so I’m zealous for that,” he continued.
When Winger was asked if he believes Hinn is a Christian, he told Matarazzo that he does not typically “weigh in on” that type of question. However, at the same time Winger acknowledged doing so in the past, particularly with pastor Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church, whom Winger believes is misguided but still a Christian.
“But when it came to Benny Hinn, I don’t have that confidence at all,” he said. “God is the judge…I’m not actually judging. I’m not sending him anywhere.”
“[But] the layers of deception, the consistency of that deception that goes on,” Winger continued, “not only things he believes, but things he is actively partaking in massively deceiving large groups of people that is so inconsistent with a Christian, that it’s hard to believe that he really is [a Christian].”
Winger clarified, “By God’s grace I hope he is,” adding, “I think that he has the marks of a false teacher of the people in first Peter.”
Winger explained that he made the video about Hinn after he was asked whether he believes Hinn was genuine after he apologized in 2019 about preaching the prosperity gospel.
“I’m sorry to say that prosperity has gone a little crazy, and I’m correcting my own theology,” Hinn said at the time.
Winger told Matarazzo that he did not respond to that question at the time because he wanted to see if Hinn would repent.
“Well, four years went by, and I hadn’t talked about it and at some point I thought, you know, now’s a good time to go ahead and address this issue,” Winger told Matarazzo. He noted that clips of Hinn had been “surfacing, showing that [Hinn] was doing the same stuff again.”
“Very bad stuff. And when I say bad stuff, I don’t mean making mistakes,” he added. “I mean targeting the poor; talking them into giving you their last penny, even if they’re already in debt.”
“That’s [Hinn’s] specific instruction,” Winger said. “Give all your money, even if you’re already in debt and then God will pay off your debts for you. This is the exact same stuff that he in 2019 said ‘grieves the Holy Spirit and it didn’t work and it hurt people.’”
“He’s doing it again now,” he continued.
Winger shared in one video, a woman telling Hinn how she was still in pain during his healing services but an announcer on stage can be heard yelling, “She’s perfectly healed! God healed her today.” Additionally, Hinn then “pulls the microphone away so you don’t hear her or they dubbed some fake guy speaking in tongues over that spot in the video…This is like deliberate deception.”
“It makes me mad,” Winger said. “I got mad. I saw their faces. I see this woman who’s got cancer and he’s pushing her down and hurting her onstage and then putting it on camera.”
“I found so much more content and it was so much worse than I thought, that I felt there needed to be a red flag,” he explained. Winger also shared that he wanted to warn others about Hinn after discovering he is “surging in popularity” in places like Africa.
“I care about my brothers and sisters,” Winger said. “A lot of people think this is about Benny Hinn. It’s not. It’s about the Christians. This is about the non-believers watching. This is about everybody but Benny Hinn.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.crosswalk.com/headlines/contributors/milton-quintanilla/benny-hinn-is-not-a-christian-mike-winger-says-during-interview-with-charisma.html.
