Todd Bentley, Encouraging Astral Projection

By Mishel http://www.deceptonbytes.comJust when I thought that I could not possibly be further disturbed by the heretical teachings of Todd Bentley, along comes Todd Bentley, Open Heavens Part 1 of 2. In this teaching Bentley among other things encourages us to essentially astral project into the “heavenly dimension.” In this two part teaching, Bentley states that “heaven is without the sickness, the sin, the disease, the death, the poverty, and the devil, that we have here. And since we [can and do] enjoy what God has created in the earth, then is there any reason why we can’t, as spiritual beings with spiritual senses, go places in the spirit and taste, see, and touch [experience the geographical beauty of] everything that God has created in the heavenly dimension? After all, everything we have in the natural/temporal realm is created out of the heavenly invisible realm in the first place! Todd Bentley, Open Heavens Part 1 of 2.So, Todd Bentley believes that we can (and should) go to heaven whenever we wish and taste, see, and touch, while in our mortal bodies. Nowhere in scripture are we encouraged to SEEK these experiences! There is not one example in scripture of a person going to heaven at will. These men and women in scripture who did have encounters NEVER asked for them, or sought after them. In the first sentence, Bentley, acting as God’s travel agent, states the benefits of astral projecting into the heavenly realm. Of course he does not call it astral projecting as that would make the Bible believing Christians nervous. It is important to cloak these things in Christian-ese so that those who are not familiar with scripture will swallow the teaching. It is rather like wrapping a pill in a piece of meat so that your dog will take his medicine. You and I both know if we feed the dog a straight pill he will spit it out. However, wrap it in something he is familiar with and he will eagerly gulp it down every time. What is astral projection? Well Wikipedia describes it as “a paranormal interpretation of an out-of-body experience achieved either awake or via lucid dreaming or deep meditation. The concept of astral projection assumes the existence of another body, separate from the physical body and capable of traveling to non-physical planes of existence.In astral projection the traveler finds him- or herself in an apparently real domain, which often has no parallel to any physical setting, though can be parallel to different time lines and/or physical settings different from our own. This is termed by New Agers and occultists among others as the astral plane or "the astral".Now compare this explanation again to what Todd Bentley is encouraging us to pursue. “since we [can and do] enjoy what God has created in the earth, then is there any reason why we can’t, as spiritual beings with spiritual senses, go places in the spirit and taste, see, and touch [experience the geographical beauty of] everything that God has created in the heavenly dimension? Todd Bentley, Open Heavens Part 1 of 2Looks to me that he is teaching exactly what the New Agers and Occultist teach and just wrapping it in a cloak of Christianity.Bentley also states that heaven is without sickness, disease, death, poverty, and the devil. “But heaven is without the sickness, the sin, the disease, the death, the poverty, and the devil, that we have here.” Todd Bentley, Open Heavens Part 1 of 2.That is incorrect! When we examine Scripture, we see that Satan still has access to the heavenly throne accusing the saints as he has from the beginning. Satan’s access to heaven will remain until his is cast out of heaven as described in Revelation chapter 12. Bentley goes on to state in his teaching that “God is emphasizing Revelation Chapter 4, verse 1 (above), opening it up, issuing an invitation into the throne zone [huh?]—the third heaven—and into the anointing represented in that particular scripture. What’s more, we need to receive this whole invitation just as eagerly as we have received the prophetic dimension. Todd Bentley, Open Heavens Part 1 of 2.Now lets us look at that scripture he refers to as an indication that God wants us to go, in our mortal bodies, to the third heaven and the throne of God. Revelation 4:1 “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” This was a unique experience given to John so that he could receive instruction in order to write the book of Revelation. John did not seek this experience and he was clearly not asking for it. On the contrary, he was the one being asked to come up. There was a divine purpose in him going into the heavenly realm, it was not so he could look at all the nifty things and “hang out” with Jesus. What exactly does Bentley mean when he says that God is inviting us into the anointing represented by that scripture? Where in scripture is there reference to a special anointing to go up and visit heaven whenever we wish. But, Bentley claims that God is not only inviting us, He is emphasizing it! Now, here is a thought. If you are in the throne room, then there must be a throne. If there is a throne, God must be on the throne. So, Bentley is claiming that he is in the same room as God. However, in all of Bentley’s tales of heaven we never hear of him falling down on his face and worshiping God. Then there is another big problem. Unless God is sitting backwards in his throne so as not to kill Todd, the Bible declares that NO MAN has seen the face of God and lived. Let us take a look at what scripture says.(John 1:18). . . No man has seen God at any time. . . (Exodus 33:19-20) . . .But he said: “I myself shall cause all my goodness to pass before your face, and I will declare the name of Jehovah before you; and I will favor the one whom I may favor, and I will show mercy to the one to whom I may show mercy.” 20 And he added: “You are not able to see my face, because no man may see me and yet live.”Further into his heretical teaching Bentley states the following:“Since a lot of Christians actually believe it is demonic, the church most of the time doesn’t want to touch the supernatural. But just read your Bible. The supernatural is the way through which God communicated with the prophets and just about everyone. It had to be that way and it’s that way today because He’s God and we’re not!—how else is He going to communicate with us?—He does so in dreams, or trances, etc., which are supernatural.” Todd Bentley, Open Heavens Part 1 of 2So Bentley claims that God can not deal with us aside from dreams visions and trances. Really Mr. Bentley- God can ONLY speak to us through the supernatural? What exactly do we need scripture or the Holy Sprit for then? However, for those who like Bentley believe in progressive revelation, we do not need God’s Word or the Holy Spirit for we have visions, trances, dreams, trips to heaven and angels to reveal all things to us. Is this really the level to which the Church has fallen?Bentley goes on to explain that God dealt with just about everyone in scripture supernaturally. That is simply not true. God did communicate via supernatural means in the Old Testament to some because the Holy Spirit had not yet come. However, these experiences were few and far between and always had distinct purpose. We do not see God dealing in this manner with the New Testament saints. The Bible is filled with people who NEVER claimed to have supernatural experiences and those that did may have had only one or at the most two in a whole lifetime! These rare experiences were always for pivotal earth changing events and always happened prior to the coming of the Holy Spirit. You will never find even one example in scripture of God just stopping in to say hi, or people floating up to the third heaven just to look around. Bentley goes further and states that he wants “to challenge some of you. It’s time to overcome the fear of being deceived and come to grips with the fact that God in His ability to keep you is greater than the devil’s ability to deceive you.Considering that scripture clearly states that the end days will be marked by strong deception, I think it would be most unwise of us to overcome our fear of deception. In fact scripture says that this end time deception will be marked by signs and wonders so believable that it will be possible to deceive the very elect. The elect are those that are closest to God and love Him the most! Now, ask yourself, why would an honest man of God want us to put aside our fear of deception unless he was actually trying to deceive us? This fear of deception is natural and innate, much the same way as man has a fear of fire, sharks or snakes. It is a fear unto self preservation! Ahhh, but you say God has not given us a spirit of fear. That is correct, indeed He has not. However, fear of deception is not a SPIRIT (of fear); it is a natural God-given emotion. If mankind had no fear then our lifespan would be very short to say the least. In fact, the Bible tells us to fear the Lord so it is obvious that God is not telling us that all fear is of the devil.Although I could write a whole book on the errors Bentley’s two part teaching contains I think I have pulled out enough to make the point clear. My purpose in doing this is not to tear this man down. God Loves Todd Bentley and wants him to come into the knowledge of His Truth and align his teachings with those of the scripture. My purpose is only to point out the error in his new age teachings for those who wish to hear. We need to continue to pray not only for Todd Bentley but for the well meaning sheep that are unknowingly being lead astray by his new age doctrines.