Pastor Benny Hinn: Charlatan or Man of God?

[Spear]

We don't hear much about american preachers here, i only ever heard about 2 in fact.

I never heard good things from than one, our pastor said he was doing a show

The other one i ever heard about is Billy Graham, who seems to be someone really great from what i've read, even if our pastor told us he said a few things that deceived him in the past years, i didn't question about that to be honest.

 

[Marcia]

We don't hear much about american preachers here, i only ever heard about 2 in fact.

I never heard good things from than one, our pastor said he was doing a show

The other one i ever heard about is Billy Graham, who seems to be someone really great from what i've read, even if our pastor told us he said a few things that deceived him in the past years, i didn't question about that to be honest.

I'm not surprised since I don't think evangelical preachers are tolerated well in France, n'est-ce pas? (I am not saying Hinn is evangelical -- he's a false prophet and a heretical preacher).

In fact, evangelical Christianity is often considered a cult over there. I think the stats on born-again believers in France is something like less than 2%.

 

[Johnv]

... evangelical Christianity is often considered a cult over there (in France). I think the stats on born-again believers in France is something like less than 2%.

I'd like to see hard data on that.

 

[Marcia]

I'd like to see hard data on that.

My sister is a missionary there and would never give this information if it were not backed up by the best statistics. I have also heard this from at least 2 other missionaries in France. My sister was just here on furlough, speaking in churches about France and the situation there.

Talk to any Christian missionary in France and you'll find this is true - the soil is very hard there. Despite many who are nominally Catholic, it is mostly a secular, agnostic culture with a lot of New Age and belief in psychics thrown in, and a growing Muslim population.

France is one of the least Evangelized countries in the world. Although its population is over 63 million people, there are only 1,916 Evangelical churches (2006) in the entire country.

.....Religion is viewed as something negative. French people have been ‘disgusted’ by Roman Catholic dominance for centuries. Democracy came was seen as liberation from the Roman Catholic church. So religion is tolerated, but evangelicals live in a secular society where religion is considered to be a ‘private’ affair and evangelism is therefore frowned upon by local authorities.

The occult, however, is rampant in France. Statistics show that mediums, faith healers and fortune-tellers earn as much money as medical doctors. There are more registered occult workers in France than pastors (over 30,000 registered Mediums and Spiritual Healers).

About half of the French population believe in faith healing, with one quarter putting their faith in clairvoyants or astrology. An estimated 10 million people pay around $40 billion for occult consultations, three times the amount paid to their family doctors.

The average size of a French church is about 35-50 people. This means they can function with a “family” atmosphere, but often this number is hard to break out of, because it requires a different mentality of church life and growth. It is in the larger cities (population over 100,000) that churches grow most quickly.

There are 36,551 cites/towns/villages in France. The vast majority of them (35,000) are without an Evangelical church.

http://www.ccfof.org/evangelicalfrance/evangelicalfrance.html

 

[Spear]

http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=61927

Here, yes i've never seen more than 50 people in a baptist church, even in Lille where i used to live, where the area has 1000000 people. There were 2 baptists churches that i knew of, and 1 Assembly of God, there were maybe 1 or 3 more assemblies (and there are many catholic churches).

Here religion is a private thing. It's strictly forbidden to have any " clear sign " of religion in any public school, or if you work in a public office.

Same at work. If i had a printed verse on my desk, or on my own office wall, it could be the cause of a reproach, and i would probably have to remove it.

When i speak about religion in general, or put on one of my " Jesus " shirts, people generally tend to smile (not that they agree, more as if i put something excentric on). Some are naturally hostile to that, and will openly fight anything that has to do with religion and try to contrary you in any way they can. That used to be common with our friends, because i come from an atheist family, and our friends were surprised about me talking about the Lord. The immediate reaction was to try to tear my beliefs in pieces, kindly but surely.