Chuck Smith on Benny Hinn

4. We have the mystery of the healings at Laurdes in France, or at other shrines. We have the mystery of healings at Benny Hinn's meetings. How are they explained?
a. Jesus said, "According to your faith, be it done unto you."
b. People like Benny Hinn have a way of helping people to release their faith.
c. People travel for miles believing that if they can just get to a certain shrine, that they will be healed.
d. Again they are points of contact where faith is released. In reality it has nothing to do with the person such as Benny Hinn or Oral Roberts, it has to do with the person's faith, which these persons helped them to release. 

e.Some of these men are absolute frauds such as Peter Popoff, who was being coached by his wife reading the cards in another room of the person's conditions. He had a small receiver in his ear. He would call people out of the audience and begin to describe their conditions, and they would be healed. In their minds they had set a point for the release of their faith. If or when he calls out my name, I know that God will touch me.

f. The wife of a famous football coach had been attending some classes that I had been teaching on the Holy Spirit. She had been seeking the gift of the Holy Spirit. One night when she got home from class her husband was watching Monday night football so she went into the bedroom to pray and ask God to fill her with His Holy Spirit. Suddenly she heard the sound of a rushing wind, and she received the gift of the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues. It was only later that she realized that the sound of the rushing wind was when the furnace had turned on.[1]

Chuck Smith on Peter Popoff

And I got this letter the other day, some guy named Popoff. And here's a personal prophecy in the thing, "Thus saith the Lord, I am pleased with thee and I am going to bless thee" you know, and just share the blessing kind of a thing, you know, and all of this stuff.

Well, I wrote him back a letter and I said, "Thus saith the Lord, I am against the false prophets that prophesy in my name saying 'Thus saith the Lord' when I have not spoken" and I knew that the Lord was saying it because I was just quoting him right out of the word. But then I added my own little appendage, I didn't put this under the 'thus saith the Lord'. But I put under my own little appendage "thy name has been Popoff but even as the name of Saul was changed to Paul so your name is to be changed from Popoff to Rip-off". No doubt my name will be deleted from his mailing list shortly.

But there are a lot of rip-off artists who are going around disguising themselves as prophets of God. And as I said, God doesn't appreciate a person speaking for him when he hasn't spoken. And thus the false prophets in those days were to be put to death. [1]

Some of these men are absolute frauds such as Peter Popoff, who was being coached by his wife reading the cards in another room of the person's conditions. He had a small receiver in his ear. He would call people out of the audience and begin to describe their conditions, and they would be healed. In their minds they had set a point for the release of their faith. If or when he calls out my name, I know that God will touch me. [2]

Derren Brown - Miracles for Sale - Language Warning

At around thirty minutes there are a few f-words.  The first one is the commercial break preview.  The second one is the replay of the preview. At about thirty-seven minutes, there is a third f-word when the fake pastor messes up his sermon. The fourth one is at about fifty minutes when "Pastor James" gets upset. The fifth and sixth times are when Derren repeats it. The seventh is at an hour when they replay the first f-word. This is British TV and the f-word does not carry the same weight there as it does in the United States.


Despite the language, I think that it is important to see how things attributed to the power of God can be replicated by magic tricks. While some frauds may have deluded themselves, the trick of growing limbs is the mark of a knowing fraud. 

1987: Exposing WV Grant and Peter Popoff

Both WV Grant and Peter Popoff are still currently scamming people with their faith healing.  No one can pull the limb growing without being fake.  This magic trick involves intentional trickery.  Johnny Carson expressed consistent bafflement at the continued gullibility of Peter Popoff's followers even after he was debunked.

Correction


fixed there to their