Dr. Michael Brown was asked to invest these accusations regarding Todd. He put together a panel of five nationally known leaders and contacted an investigator to interview all the witnesses and compile the information and testimonies which would then be presented to the panel. Here is part of the decision (judgment) that the five ministers publicly released:
“Based on our careful review of numerous first-hand reports, some of them dating back to 2004, we state our theological opinion and can say with one voice that, without a doubt, Todd is not qualified to serve in leadership or ministry today.
There are credible accusations of a steady pattern of ungodly and immoral behavior, confirmed by an independent investigator’s interviews dating from 2008 up through 2019, along with other testimonies dating back to 2004.
Sadly, we see no signs of true, lasting repentance. Instead, we see a steady pattern of compromised behavior, including credible accusations of adultery, sexting (including the exchanging of nude pictures or videos), vulgar language, and substance abuse.
And, to repeat, these charges have been brought by numerous witnesses over a period of roughly 15 years, right until 2019. Even more importantly, many of these activities have involved people for whom Todd was spiritually responsible (interns, staff, team members, individuals he was ministering to), making these violations all the more serious.
In our view, this disqualifies Todd from public ministry until such time that he has demonstrated true, lasting fruits of repentance, which would include: the breaking of these long-term, sinful habits; public acknowledgement of his sin, without equivocation, including asking forgiveness of those he sinned against; and submission to local church leadership until trust had been rebuilt. This would likely take a period of years.
We also recognize that formal ordination into the ministry amounts to a recognition by other leaders of a candidate’s qualifications to serve as a leader in the Church. We therefore recommend that Todd’s current ordination be rescinded until the process of repentance and restoration, described above, has taken place.
It is also our opinion that, while it is possible for Todd to do public ministry again in the future, at no point should he lead his own ministry. Instead, if he was truly restored to God and in submission to godly authority, he could serve in another leader’s ministry. But we believe it would be unwise and even potentially dangerous for him to lead his own ministry again.”
The five ministers who issued this statement and decision are:
Dr. Joseph Mattera, Overseeing Bishop of Resurrection Church, Brooklyn, New York, and Convener of the U.S. Coalition of Apostolic Leaders
Dr. James W. Goll, Founder of God Encounters Ministries, Franklin, Tennessee
Dr. Jane Hamon, Co-Pastor, Vision Church @ Christian International, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida
Bishop Harry Jackson, Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church, Beltsville, Maryland, and Presiding Bishop of the Ambassadors of Hope Fellowship of Churches
Dr. Don Finto, Pastor Emeritus, Belmont Church, Nashville, Tennessee, and President and founder of Caleb Company
The investigation found that Todd was engaging in this sinful activity prior to the Lakeland Revival, as well as after he went through the restoration process from committing adultery. Todd never truly repented long-term yet he had been released back in to public ministry. If a leader chooses to oversee the restoration of another leaders then they make themselves responsible for that leader. If they choose to recommission the fallen leader back into ministry, they are responsible for them. If the fallen leader then continues to abide in sin and evil, the leader who recommissioned them is sharing in their sin and evil. Todd should have been publicly rebuked by the leader that recommissioned him into ministry as per the scriptures.
It is not easy to be a leader because every decision and action can have great consequences. However leaders do willfully take their God-given seats of authority and are therefore required to give an account to the Lord. I would be afraid if I had recommissioned a wolf that was destroying the Lord’s sheep. Sometimes leaders stand-up for each other instead of the sheep whom God has placed them over. The main responsibility of any shepherd or overseer is to protect the Lord’s sheep and to lead them to the Lord. If a leader will not protect the Lord’s sheep then they are not fit to be a leader in the body of Christ. The Lord will remove them from their leadership role.
Ministers who practice sin and lawlessness can and will damage the body of Christ. Jesus said it would be better for these stumbling stones to be killed by drowning to death than to damage His precious people (Matthew 18:6). We can see that the Over-Shepherd will protect His sheep even if His under-shepherds will not:
“Do you not know and understand that you [the church] are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells [permanently] in you [collectively and individually]? If anyone destroys the temple of God [corrupting it with false doctrine], God will destroy the destroyer; for the temple of God is holy (sacred), and that is what you are.” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17 AMP)
If we think that the Lord won’t do what His word says in order to protect His church from false doctrine and leaders that damage believers then we don’t really know Him. We should believe Him at His word. Leaders who have been involved in commissioning and recommissioning Todd may be able to protect and salvage their reputations in the church now, but will they have a good reputation in Heaven when they stand before the throne of God? Paul the apostle demonstrated apostolic leadership by taking a stand against sin in the church.
Church leaders seem to drift towards favoring and protecting one another instead of the Lord’s sheep. The Holy Spirit through Paul gave us very clear instructions on what to do when a leader sins publicly and makes a mockery of the house of God:
“Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear. I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality.” (I Timothy 5:19-21 NKJV)
Leaders are actually commanded to rebuke a leader publicly in the presence of all the church if a certain leader is found to be sinning. So why didn’t the apostolic leaders who commissioned Todd a month and half before he committed adultery, rebuke Todd publicly so that the rest would fear God? Why was Todd Bentley not publicly rebuked by the leader who oversaw his restoration and recommissioned him into ministry? Is it because the leaders were showing prejudice or partiality? If they were not showing partiality then they would have obeyed the will of the Lord revealed in His word.
Rebuking a leader publicly would not be a desirable thing to do but it is the job of apostolic leadership to do this. So if those being recognized as the apostolic leadership in the church didn’t fulfill their assignment, one has to wonder if they are truly apostolic leaders. Paul demonstrated that he was a real apostolic leader by dealing publicly with the sin of Peter:
“Now when Cephas (Peter) came to Antioch, I opposed him face to face [about his conduct there], because he stood condemned [by his own actions]. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat [his meals] with the Gentiles; but when the men [from Jerusalem] arrived, he began to withdraw and separate himself [from the Gentile believers], because he was afraid of those from the circumcision. The rest of the Jews joined him in this hypocrisy [ignoring their knowledge that Jewish and Gentile Christians were united, under the new covenant, into one faith], with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not being straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas (Peter) in front of everyone, “If you, being a Jew, live [as you have been living] like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how is it that you are [now virtually] forcing the Gentiles to live like Jews [if they want to eat with you]?”” (Galatians 2:11-14 AMP)
Paul rebuked Peter in front of everyone. Those who were commissioning Todd by their apostolic authority should have obeyed the Holy Spirit through the scriptures and did what Paul did. Thankfully and finally, the board compiled of five national leaders did publicly rebuke Todd Bentley in 2020 with the statement they released. However this was about 12 years too late. Many believers were damaged and corrupted between 2008 and 2020. Some were damaged sexually by Todd, some were enticed into sin by Todd, and some may have fallen away from the faith. The question remains, why did five leaders who were not overseeing Todd’s ministry have to do the job that the apostles who knew Todd and commissioned him should have done?
Why wasn’t this issue taken more seriously by the leaders in the Charismatic Church in 2008? Is it because the false doctrines of humanistic love and false grace that have infiltrated the church? True apostolic ministry doesn’t get swept away in false doctrines, they demolish the strongholds of false doctrines. If the Lord can’t find apostles like Paul who will actually use their god-given authority to obey His revealed will and protect the Lord’s church and His sheep, then the Lord will raise up mature apostles who will follow the Lord and His word.
Todd Bentley took about a year break from ministry after the council of five ministers made their public statement regarding Todd and his ministry. Around 2021 he then entered back into ministry by his own directive and authority which completely ignored the wisdom and judgment that the council released. This indicates that he is now ministering and operating as a law unto himself.
The apostolic leadership and prophetic leadership that commissioned him in 2008 and the leader that restored him and recommissioned him in 2010 or 2011 remained silent. I don’t even have words for this. Real apostles and prophets are responsible for dealing with this very thing. If a minister is living in unrepentant sin and not obeying a directive from a council of five national leaders, then that minister is endangering and or damaging the body of Christ. Any pastor or leader who has Todd minister at their church is acting in rebellion against church leadership and the counsel of God.
According to the authority of the word of God in 1 Timothy 3, Todd Bentley is not fit to be ministering to God’s people. His willful disobedience to the decision of the council of five leaders demonstrates that. But the word of God is enough to disqualify him from ministry. I have nothing against Todd personally. My desire is to see God’s people protected. That is the heart that the Lord gives to His shepherds. If apostolic or prophetic leaders are refusing to deal with the situation then it is a reflection that they are not really concerned about the Lord’s sheep. Maybe they are only concerned with the image of their own ministries?
According to scripture a public rebuke and warning is supposed to be given to the church (nationally in this case) so all believers understand the gravity of the situation (I Timothy 5:19-21). I cannot see true apostolic authority currently functioning on a national level. True apostles fulfill the ministry of an apostle that Paul examples in the scripture. Paul didn’t simply go around and preach about the presence of God, healing, and impartation. He actually dealt with sin and evil in the church so it did not destroy her. This is the judgment of the Holy Spirit through Paul to a believer who was in unrepentant sexual sin (which is the love of God):
“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (I Corinthians 5:1-5 NKJV)
Real apostolic authority told the church to expel the unrepentant believer so that they wouldn’t infect the rest of the church with their evil. How much more important to separate an unrepentant leader who has more authority and and greater capacity to damage the church. Paul was flowing in the love of God and it shows our current apostolic leadership is not as concerned about the church as Paul was. When you measure our current apostolic leadership to the ministry of the apostle found in the word of God - they do not measure up to the full measure of the gift functioning. The current apostolic ministry is not functioning in maturity.
Testimonies from Other Witnesses (2025 Update)
The following is a powerful testimony from two ministers who worked with Todd off and on for around 10 years. They observed multiple things that were sinful and out of order with Todd’s ministry. I recommend watching this to get a better understanding of the entire situation.
