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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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 had 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 healing for audience members who are sick or know someone who’s sick.

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.”

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.”

“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.”

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.”
Fiona Morgan, former editor of the Stanford Interior Journal and Danville Advocate-Messenger and other publications, is a freelance journalist based in Danville, Kentucky.
27 Responses
I’m sorry, I normally don’t say anything, but when problems like this come about, why are we surprised?
The Church across the board teach people they should be students who never graduate and are never expected to obey what they learn, so people get bored and look for the new and shiny thing that appeals to them 2 Tim. 3:7, “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” If we know what to and do not do it, scripture calls us a rebellious generation. Wolves come in all shapes and types; it grieves my soul that the sheep of our Lord are lost with so many famous shepherds for pay. Jesus’ solution is for us to pray for workers into the Hardest, Matt. 9:36-38
To Bradley -Do you mean “harvest”?
It’s almost as if Mr. Joyner is trying to see if there’s a limit to what he can get away with and still have followers and donors.
** “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. **
It is absolutely ridiculous for anyone to say this kind of thing and expect it to be taken seriously as something that came from God, but Todd Bentley? Crazier than crazy. I wonder if any of them actually believes their own shtick, or if the whole thing is an act from soup to nuts.
I’m not perfect, but come on. Where’s the discernment?!
Maybe Michael Brown and Mike Bickle can serve as his spiritual mentors, and have those sessions made into a Daystar reality tv series.
Brilliant! Especially the reality series!
Wow, Bentley has an answer for everything except how to humbly repent.
In his book, The Final Quest Part 2, Rick Joyner wrote about his conversations with people who have been deceased for a long time; I. E. before he was born.
Having followed what was going on with both Joyner and Bentley since I first learned of them, right when Bentley first got famous, this is an absolute dumpster fire. I quickly was able to see that Bentley had big problems, though I had no idea how bad they were. A man that would play “who wants to be a prostitute tonight?” with his interns, he is the most outrageous sex pervert selling a false Jesus with really bad theology. I started to notice Joyner had big problems after he talked about having Mike Warnke, who got famous with comedy selling a fake “Satan Seller” book about his fictional history. He later threw his own wife through a wall. Yet Joyner platformed a fraud who was violent towards his own family. Now he platforms the most in your face sexual pervert I have ever heard of? What is next? An unrepentant serial killer?
Joyner has shown by his actions that he has zero fear of the Lord, zero sense of conscience even towards the children who got molested in his ministry! It is not by their speech that you will know false ministers, it is by their actions. Joyner does not know the Jesus Christ that I know very personally. He is neither Christian or a minister. He is all snake!
I can imagine him defending a serial killer by saying that he preached the gospel to them before he murdered them, so now they’re in heaven! He just delivered them to the Lord before they could backslide!
If any of these vipers that are continually in the news (for all of the wrong reasons) have truly been born of the Spirit, if I see any of them in Heaven… I’m sure I’ll be a better person then and rejoice.
But what if, by their deeds and sheer unrepentance, or taking the side of the same, they have created massive stumbling blocks for their victims and the victims’ families, such that they never get saved? The concept of a perpetrator being with Jesus while his victims suffer eternally BECAUSE OF HIM, has galled me since Ted Bundy [supposedly] had an 11th hour conversion. I just can’t get my brain around it. And maybe it’s a “what if” with no application. I hope so. Beyond that, I can only acquiesce and pray with Abraham: “Will not the judge of all the earth do right?” Gen 18:25
If any of them have been born of the Spirit, if I see any of them in Heaven, I’m sure I’ll be a better person then and rejoice. But what if they have created massive stumbling blocks for their victims, such that they never get saved? The concept of a perpetrator being with Jesus while his victims suffer eternally BECAUSE OF HIM, has galled me since Ted Bundy had an 11th hour conversion. With Abraham I plead, “Will not the judge of all the earth do right?” Gen 18:25
Bentley molested a seven years old boy when he was fifteen?! And he was ordained to the ministry several years later!? .Where was common sense when it was needed? A person who does something like this at such an early age should never be trusted in any church setting, especially the ministry.
Back in 2008 in Lakeland, Florida, Todd Bently was heading a “revival” that had all the Hyper Charismatics chomping at the bit to get into the act. So New Apostolic Revival hacks like C. Peter Wagner, Bill Johnson, Rick Joyner, and a host of other dimmer NAR stars went down to Lakeland to give him a special annointing. Bentley was unheard of before this “revival.” 2 months after this special Charismatic event, all the dirt about Bentley came out about being drunk most of the time and cheating on his wife. His “revival” folded quickly at that time. But he went through a “restoration” with people like Bill Johnson and good ‘ole Dr. Michael Brown and Bentley just started popping up here and there again. And behaving no differently than he had before. There is a theory floating around that Rick Joyner is getting ready to put Todd Bentley in place as the figurehead at Morningstar Ministries since Chris Reed embroiled himself in his own scandal and got flagged off the track..
I remember when he claimed a FEMALE angel told him all sorts of things. There are NO FEMALE angels in the Bible! I personally know several high profile Charismatic pastors who visited during his so-called revival and it was false from the beginning. WHERE was their discernment? Egg on their faces when the truth came out about Bentley and his adultery and other misdeeds.
The story of this angel, “Emma” is disturbing. You can Google to find out what Todd said about this entity – “He (Bob Jones) told me that Emma was the angel that helped birth and start the whole prophetic movement in Kansas City in the 1980s”
And then there’s this clip of Todd Bentley’s wife – I can’t explain these things any other way other than demon possession.
https://youtu.be/XjMYqDHbYtg?si=7tSze_aRAS_OIH81
I had only heard vague references of this Todd Bentley until reading this article, and then going down a rabbit trail following linked articles. I can’t comprehend how he has any kind of following. Pure evil.
Tricia is right. The false prophet Bob Jones is likely why MorningStar’s founder Rick Joyner is blindly charging ahead with Bentley. Both of them are too invested in those prophecies to turn back (repent).
This can be seen from the 2002 clip of Bob Jones, which Joyner reposted in Nov. 2024, just one month after a large group of former MS supporters and congregants called on Joyner to resign. Jones had promised him a place in “God’s government” which was to start in 2002, underwritten by a supernatural invisible “blank check” from God.
https://youtu.be/9XDE5LJhj6s
With total ministry assets of close to $12 million (as of 2022), Joyner isn’t about to let go.
I am scared my husband is following Bentley & paying him for counseling sessions.. I have talked to him about how I feel uncomfortable about this man & he tells me I don’t know Jesus & this man Todd can raise the dead.. my husband is about to get his passport & travel with this man… my husband yells at me & makes me feel so empty but has so much faith in this Todd man & it’s ruining our marriage… I don’t feel safe, my husband has drank this Todd guys “Kool-aid” and literally believes he can heal people.. so your telling me a man that is a sexual predator can run his own ministry, makes me want to puke. Again I am scared. This is not good.. imagine how many others are doing this & would not be surprised if it comes up that Todd is involved in sex trafficking.
I am so sorry you are in this situation but God has given you discernment. Ask God to be your protector and do not participate in any sinful activities your husband may ask or force you to do. Plead the blood of Jesus over you and your marriage bed. He is receiving demonic counsel right now. Right now your walk with Jesus is more important than your marriage- to be honest. When our spouse becomes involved with a false (demonic) Jesus, they tend to become very hostile and/or abusive towards the spouse with the real Holy Spirit. Be wise and seek support. May the Lord deliver your husband and open His eyes! May God deliver you and your family! Don’t let your husband pull you into idolatry – hold on to Jesus. You are about to be tested but Jesus is faithful and He is worth whatever sacrifice you will endure. Be strong and be brave! Jesus said, I did not come to bring peace but a sword and often the sword causes division in the family. We can not walk along side of someone walking with an idol They will either repent or leave. In either case, God is for you and using this for your good and His glory.
These people are weird and repulsive.
No one’s gifts or calling or talents or ministry are necessary in the church.
It is totally ok for some people to not be in ministry.
Rick Joyner is the godfather of the charismatic crime family started in the 80s. Long before Todd Bentley, he platformed perverts Paul Cain, Bob Jones, and Mike Bickle. An entire book was written about him, What Lies Beneath, but it had no effect. Lawsuits against his ministry for SA coverup, also had no effect. So much harm has been inflicted on the Body of Christ because of him but nobody can stop him. It seems like angels are afraid of him. He is literally untouchable.
I just found the book you’re referencing:
The View Beneath by Mishel McCumber. It’s on Amazon.
https://a.co/d/cao9YPu
Having been involved in a CULT led by a woman that Joyner ( and Bill Johnson and other counterfeits ) endorsed, I have always been horrified by Joyner’s demeanor ( the eyes are the window to the soul ) and absolutely non-Biblical antics/beliefs. He endorses and promotes the WORST of the false prophets and criminals infesting the Church.
Galatians 5:20 lists “witchcraft” as one of the works of the flesh. Based on all that has been written about him, and what “The View Beneath” documents, I would refer to Joyner as a “warlock” in the literal sense. Jesus said we will know people by their fruits ( Matt. 7: 15-20.) What GOOD fruit has Joyner ever produced?
( My report on the cult I was in can be accessed by clicking on my name.)
How would Christianity in America look if all charitable giving went to the poor, and ministers we’re paid modest wages only
“Kick ‘em in the face with your boot, Todd.”
This guy is a predator. Jesus, forgive us for not protecting the sheep more diligently.
https://youtu.be/lCO5htE9BJs?si=Yv6dlCjsbw4tw-Lj
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