By Fiona Morgan
On Dec. 31, 2024, Morningstar Ministries founder Rick Joyner (left) welcomed Todd Bentley (right) to preach at a New Year’s Conference at Morningstar Fellowship Church in Fort Mill, South Carolina.
Embattled MorningStar Ministries is facing backlash for platforming disgraced preacher Todd Bentley at their recent Vision conference.
Bentley was disqualified from ministry in 2020 by a panel of charismatic Christian leaders. The panel made the decision based on numerous firsthand reports of Bentley’s “steady pattern of ungodly and immoral behavior” over the course of almost 20 years, including reports of sexual abuse.
Despite the reports, MorningStar gave Bentley a platform at their Vision conference Dec. 29-31. After several leaders shared visions for 2025 during the Tuesday session, Morningstar leader Rick Joyner invited Bentley to pray for people in the audience who need healing.
“We love this guy, haven’t seen enough of him lately, he kind of disappeared,” Joyner said of Bentley when he came up to speak.
Bentley said he felt a duty to speak at the conference because of a recent near-death experience. Bentley shared that about a month ago, he fell unconscious at home and was taken to the hospital. Doctors initially could not find a reason for the episode, but later found that two spots in his brain were not getting enough oxygen.
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On Dec. 31, 2024, Todd Bentley (right) preaches, with Morningstar Ministries founder Rick Joyner (center) and Lt. Gen (Ret.) Jerry Boykin on stage (left), at Morningstar Fellowship Church in Fort Mill, South Carolina. (Video screengrab)
About 10 hours after falling unconscious, Bentley said he woke up at 3:33 a.m. in the hospital, and the Lord told him, “Because of the prayers of the church, God saved you.” Bentley mentioned seeing videos of a MorningStar Church in Moravian Falls, North Carolina, praying for his healing.
After several days, Bentley said he started to recall a spiritual experience he had while unconscious. He said Jesus appeared to him as an orb of light, and led him to the gates of Hades.
“I was there to get authority, because the mantle of authority is what the church needs,” Bentley said. “We have the authority to shut down the gates of hell and that’s why we have the key, and the Lord has the key there.”
Bentley went on to say that Jesus showed him a book of names of people who will die prematurely. These include those with terminal illnesses, those who might commit suicide, and those who might have a drug overdose. He said Jesus gave him a red crayon to “cross out the names of those appointed for death.”
“The Lord said, ‘You have authority over (those with terminal conditions). The devil thinks they’re appointed for death, but you have the authority to cancel that, and this is why you’re here,’” Bentley said.
He then prayed for healing for audience members who are sick or know someone who’s sick. MorningStar Fellowship Church in Fort Mill, South Carolina. (Photo via social media)
The video of Tuesday’s conference has over 4,000 views and has several comments from people critical of Morningstar giving Bentley a platform.
One person posted, “They are all working under false teaching, and false prophets. That’s their fruit! Rotten!”
Another person posted, “Putting Todd Bentley on the platform at Morningstar?! AGAIN?! You have got to be kidding me. Every single old fogey on that platform has disqualified themselves.”
Other leaders who were on stage during Tuesday’s session include Grand Master of The Knights of Malta Nicholas Papanicolaou and retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin. Both have been involved in MorningStar Ministries for years.
MorningStar itself has faced controversy in recent months after three lawsuits were filed in August and September 2024. All three suits allege that former volunteer youth leader Erickson Lee committed child sexual abuse while at Morningstar. Lee has since been sentenced to nine years in prison.
The suits, filed by alleged victims of Lee, also allege that MorningStar Ministries mishandled decades of sexual abuse allegations by several different people in the ministry.
Then-CEO of MorningStar Chris Reed resigned in late August after the first lawsuit was filed. The Roys Report (TRR) reported that Reed also admitted to sexual misconduct with a former student at MorningStar.
Despite the lawsuits and scandal involving Reed, Joyner wrote in a recent fundraising email that “2024 has been one of the best years for us at MorningStar. It has been challenging to see darkness increase, but we know this only makes the light shine brighter.”On Dec. 8, 2022, Morningstar Ministries Founder Rick Joyner and then-President Chris Reed appeared on “The Jim Bakker Show” for a joint interview. (Video screengrab)
Joyner has a long history with Bentley, being a board member of Bentley’s ministry and publicly supporting him after abuse allegations arose.
Ron Cantor, president of Shelanu TV, explained in a post on his website that he confronted Joyner in 2019 for refusing to meet with Bentley’s alleged abuse victims and for supporting Bentley’s return to ministry.
Bentley’s first documented abuse happened when he was 15 years old and was convicted of sexually assaulting a 7-year-old boy.
Bentley entered ministry in 1998 at age 22. Throughout the years, he’s been dogged by allegations of sinful behavior, including credible accusations of adultery, sexting, vulgar language, and substance abuse. In 2019, a former protégé accused Bentley of sexual perversion, which led to the 2020 disqualification.
Since the decision, Bentley has been slowly getting back into ministry. In 2023, he hosted several revival events as part of Revival Harvest Ministries, formerly Fresh Fire USA.
Bentley said during the Vision conference that God told him the last five years of his hardship have been preparation for “what’s ahead.”Todd Bentley (Photo via social media)
“I went through five years of the worst shaking death and dying you could imagine and I’m on the other side,” Bentley said.
Bentley, who’s been accused of sexually assaulting three girls in Pakistan, said he plans to go back to Pakistan and the Middle East for ministry.
Cantor told TRR that a person like Bentley, who has little evidence of lasting restoration, should not be in ministry.
“As a theologian, I can assure you that Proverbs 24:16 is not referring to a sexual predator continuing in ministry,” Cantor said. “The Hebrew prophets spoke against the powerful abusing the weak. Jesus’s words in Matthew 18:6 are chilling in regard to the abuse of one of these little ones. He said it would be better for them to have a millstone tied around their neck and thrown into the deepest part of the sea, than to cause a young believer to stumble away from the faith.”
Cantor added that “by bringing Todd Bentley back into the pulpit at MorningStar, they have put every person at risk.”Ron Cantor of Messiah’s Mandate (Source: Courtesy photo)
Joyner has not responded to a request for comment about his decision to platform Bentley.
After the 2020 panel disqualified Bentley, Joyner released a public statement on Morningstar’s website explaining that he felt God told him to help restore Bentley.
“I was told to expect Todd to have some repeated failures in his life, but that his falls did not displease The Lord as much as him getting back up and fighting on pleased Him,” Joyner wrote.
Cantor told TRR that Joyner is likely misunderstanding scripture when it says to restore the fallen.
“Rick has a wrong understanding of Galatians 6, where it speaks about restoring those who fall into sin. It has nothing to do with being restored to public preaching ministry. The context is restoring someone to Jesus and the Body of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 9:27, Paul says that an undisciplined minister can be disqualified from preaching,” Cantor said.
He added, “While these predators pretend that they are trying to ‘win souls,’ they are actually pushing souls away from the kingdom through their abuse.”
Comment by Truth Uncensored Afrika: Read more on Todd Bentley, Rick Joyner and Morning Star Ministries in DOMINIONISM THE RACE TO RULE THE WORLD on E-book from this site.
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