Discussion--Costi Hinn--Religion

 

Discussion Costi Hinn & Prosperity Preachers  5-13-23

William Bond, Pete Jackson {Ajax the Great} & Rasa Von Werder 

 

From Pete Jackson:

Very well-said, Rasa.  Indeed, Costi Hinn, Benny's nephew, wrote a tell-all book about it:

 

https://www.amazon.com/God-Greed-Prosperity-Gospel-Overwhelms/dp/0310355273?ref=d6k_applink_bb_dls&dplnkId=5487056d-53d3-47e9-a7df-6e70628865a7

 

Googling "Benny Hinn nephew" also found me the following article as well:

 

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/reviews/god-greed-prosperity-gospel/

 

These shady preachers and televangelists are indeed nothing more than con men running a Ponzi scheme, all while cynically pretending to be of God.  Very evil indeed. 

From Rasa Von Werder:

Thanks for the links Pete.

The article from Derek J. Brown is terrific.  Really explains everything pertinent, well educated man.

I'm studying Costi’s interviews & sermons now.  Very interesting.  Although I'm quite sure he will not approve of our other spiritual beliefs, like Yoga, Buddhism, Wicca, or Catholicism, his teachings on Christianity seem to be solid & also he's explaining what is going on in the Protestant world today which I was not aware of.  All educational.

 

From William Bond:

I suppose the big problem in starting any religion is that the majority of people are not deeply spiritual. Most people won’t spend time in meditation or prayer or ask themselves basic questions like, “what is the purpose of life”. So you end up having this choice, you can create a deeply spiritual religion but only attract a small minority of people. Whereas if you want a large following then the teachings have to be simple and easy to understand. In the end if we want a successful religion we have to put out ideas that has a popular appeal. 

 

This is why over the centuries the con-men end up taking over religion, because they understand the principle of KISS, (keep it simple stupid). Whereas genuine spiritual people only have a small following because their teachings too complicated. So I think we need to understand this and keep our teachings simple as possible.

 

So if we are selling the idea that God is female. I would imagine that one idea that should be popular with people and that is if God is like a mother She will love us all unconditionally. The big problem with this is that people will say, “if that is true, why do we live in a world of conflict and suffering?” And I think the answer to this, is that we live in a world of suffering because we have lost our contact with God, by worshiping false male gods.  

Now, I think that these two simple ideas could have wide appeal. In the end, the majority of people only want a religion that will make their lives better for them. And if we have female priests or priestesses who can communicate with MotherGod and answer people’s personal concerns or problems and give healing, then I should imagine we would have a religion with wide popular appeal.

 

Found this video about the return of the Goddess but these two men think this is terrible. They don't talk about the Goddess until nearly half-way through the video. 

 This Ancient Goddess Is Back (she's even hiding in the church) - Jonathan Cahn Interview, Troy Black

 

From Pete:

It figures that guys like them would oppose such a thing and twist it into a horrible idea, for obvious reasons.  But simply strip away all of their negative spin and verbal defecation, and the undeniable truth still remains: the return of the Goddess is inevitable and happening as we speak.

 

From Rasa:

Even good guy Costi might not like our Mother God - Goddess beliefs, but I will forgive him for that as I had a dream about him & he is good.

 

But some of these other guys are not so good.  They might just hate women & want to dominate them & turn them into slaves so they're holding the Patriarchal party line.

 

I am posting right now giving our opinions on many of these videos, & refuting the ones who are pushing down women, degrading them, defiling them.  Defended a psychic woman yesterday where a guy video taped her doing a reading & denounced her.  She was so innocent.  Just because she had psychic power, he denounced her as a witch & a demon more or less.  So evil.  But no one defended her except me.  People are afraid of these guys.

 

I like the way you say about some of these guys 'verbal defecation' Pete - Lol.  So true. 

Rasa Says:

Going to post what I gathered on Costi on my site.

 

Studying his videos, they're all good.

 

He has in fact revealed a lot to me, that clarifies my own position on the prosperity preachers.  He comes to it from another viewpoint & he's explaining how the prosperity 'gospel' has now morphed into the 'feel good - positive thinking - all is great' POV.  In other words, the new preachers aren't recognizing the utility of suffering, the cross, the passion - nothing to do with poverty or hardship being Blessed or meaningful.  They're selling a false doctrine still but pretending, again, that they represent God or Jesus.  But they don't.

 

Then there's the Bethel School that I never even heard of.  They're saying that Jesus did his miracles & healings from his flesh, not his God Self.  It's because they want to have God Power in their own hands & pretend they can TEACH IT in their school. This is totally wrong.  Healing / miracles are not possible in the flesh - they are Supernatural.

 

Humans cannot control everything, cannot demand anything.  He says he was brought up to basically tell God what to do - tell 'him' what we want, plant a seed which is work or donations, & God will do it.  If God does not, something is wrong with our faith or we didn't do what we had to do, like make a donation.  They call it 'gab & grab,' 'name it & claim it'.  As long as you have faith & 'plant a seed' which is either work or a donation, then God is somehow compelled to do it.  Of course this is totally wrong, God does not have to do anything, & God DOES NOT want to heal everyone - by no means. 

 

 Sometimes God wants us to get sick, have an accident, or be in poverty - even homeless - for our own spiritual good. {You recall that man who became homeless, then later rallied & wrote a book, which they made a movie of?  The Secret is the name I think & you said you & Pamela had his books, William.  Look at the greatness that came out of his homeless experience!} And the right attitude is to say 'something good will come out of this' when hardship befalls you.  We do not love God only in good times, it's 'for richer or poor, 'in sickness or health' 'till death do us part' just like the marriage vows.

 

Pete says:

Well-said overall, Rasa.  These con men seem to succeed by exploiting a critical flaw in human nature.  As pendulum theory would have it, after thousands of years of patriarchal religion claiming that pain is a virtue and pleasure is a vice, and that suffering is inherently good for the soul (i.e. for it's own sake and in an unqualified sense), many people now swing hard all the way to the other extreme, and these grifters see them coming and exploit that like crazy.

 

Rasa says:

Indeed, that’s an interesting observation.  Religion has depressed people- pain & sacrifice have been preached as the way to God.  People are tired of their sufferings & so this extreme toward wellness & profit might tempt them.  But it’s selling your soul to the devil who promises all good on earth but PS, after that is another story.

 

William says:

It does seem to me that patriarchy is able to dominate our world by making it as difficult as possible to communicate with MotherGod. This is because men are stronger than women in the physical world, which means masculine power comes from the material world while feminine power comes from the spiritual world. 

 

Patriarchy has been designed to make it difficult to communicate with spirit, so people who try this have a hard time doing this. Monks and other holy men who attempt this have to spend years in mediation and prayer and keep away from the material world.  It is also clear that men who are able to do this, are not macho men. For instant the most successful male clairvoyant healer and psychic in the 20th century was Edgar Cayce. But he was able to do this because he was a passive man and it was so easy to hypnotise him. And off course both Jesus or Buddha were not macho men either. 

 

It is always a lot easier for women to communicate with God. They don’t have to go through years of mediation like men and with some women it is a natural gift they had since they were children. The reason why women find it so much easier than men to do this, is because as Jesus tried to tell us, God is a God of love. So because women are more loving people than men, they find it easier to tune into the love vibration of MotherGod’s love. Although patriarchal culture doesn’t encourage this and many female mediums and psychics are given a hard time. 

 

There is no religion in the last few thousand years that recognizes that God is female and encourages female mediums and psychics, because patriarchy fears this. Once a religion like this is established, then it has the power to destroy patriarchy. This is because patriarchy can only offer pain, suffering, fear, hate, conflict and war, which people don’t want. The only way we can live in a loving and caring world is to allow women to communicate with MotherGod and for women to rule our world. And then, "the lion and the lamb shall lay down together".

 

Rasa:  Comment on video of Justin Peters & Costi Hinn ‘Healing Today & Cessation’:

One imp point: Listening to the entire show, after putting down the 'charismatics' & 'faith healers' you finally both admit THERE ARE AUTHENTIC HEALINGS AS THE ONES YOU CLAIM NO LONGER EXIST: APOSTOLIC WORKS OF POWER & HEALING. But you spent most of the show putting down everyone who runs these performances. I am in agreement with you about all the Prosperity Preachers on Trinity & elsewhere, they are a sorry lot & leading folks on the Broad Highway to Hell. But why throw the baby out with the bath water? Can you give more than a couple sentences to the authentic ones? I dread to find out of Costi slammed & smeared all the God's Generals as they smeared Aimee Semple McPherson. Did he demean Smith Wigglesworth, Jack Coe, Maria Woodworth Etter, John Dowie, John G. Lake, Kathryn Kuhlman, A.A. Allen, William J. Seymour & the rest? These folks had nothing to do with Prosperity Preachers of today like Kenneth Copeland & the band of dirty thieves. But are you lumping them all together? Are you guys taking the big brush stroke & removing all mystics & charismatics? If you do that, you are left with only the words in the Bible, no personal experience of God. All the Saints were mystics / charismatics, of all religions, Protestant, Catholic, Yoga, Shamans, Sufis....the people who are DEVOTED to God receive visions, voices, illuminations, translocations, bilocations, channeling, leaving their body & going to the next dimension - all of that is real. I notice you are against that. You warn against it. Why? Because SOME are fakes? I could argue how evil many men are - 98% of people in jail are men. But are all men evil? Of course not. Because you have many charlatans in this field expose the charlatans, not everyone who has Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Yes, some healings are psychosomatic. So what? They are still healed. I get psychosomatic illnesses & when my doctor would tell me what they were, they would go away. Illnesses sometimes come from STRESS & TRAUMA. But they are REAL. If they get healed it's a good thing. Yes, there's a lot of HYPNOSIS going on in these crusades, but NOT ALL OF IT. Yes some are like BH, who is criminal in his exploitation of the sheep. But NOT ALL are criminal or evil, many there are who SUFFER, do NOT exploit the sheep, they sacrifice, they love, they do good. Shall I speak only about the male criminals, how evil they are, & paint all men as the same? I will say more later.

 

Rasa comments:

OK I do like a lot of what you say, Justin. Especially things re Jesus. But I now have seen your work & that of John MacArthur & I think Costi went FROM THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE. MacArthur goes off on Holy Mary for 3.5 hours, saying her apparitions are DEMONIC. He is crazed. You think Buddha did not love God, Buddhists do not know God & are going to Hell. And I did hear many other things you said that are so narrow minded, so prejudiced, so fanatical that it is beyond belief. Costi is diplomatic & speaks in a reasonable way - he has said NONE of the things like attacks that you & MacArthur say. I don't think he wrote those things in the book against Aimee Semple MacPherson - he is too diplomatic & he speaks differently than that. You talk about CHARACTER ASSAULTS. That book had it. I cannot picture Costi writing it. All of what I have heard him speak - including here - he does not speak in a hateful way. I am impressed by the way he speaks his opinions & beliefs, always in a reasonable way. But you & MacArthur say the most OUTRAGEOUS things against everyone except those who believe exactly as you do. I agree with some of it - the Bethel people are strange, does anyone take them seriously, in general? They are like clownish & bizarre. And the Prosperity Preachers, it is common knowledge they are warped. But you are going off on anyone that is not exactly of your belief, which puts you like a crazed Fundamentalist or ferocious, threatening Muslim - that type of mentality. You say it in a soft way, but what is in your HEART?