Release that anointed! Man:<i> The greatest
threats to Christians,</i> conservative Christians,
it's not the liberals. The greatest threat
is from within. It's those who appear
like they are sheep, but they're wolves. He takes advantage
of people who are vulnerable. I think it's offence
to the holy spirit, place a price on the gospel. Man: The problem is,
it's just like a ponzi scheme. The only guy getting rich,
is the guy at the top. I'm done wit it. [♪♪♪] Tonight is your
night for a miracle. I remember a man
in Sault St. Marie, Ontario that turned into
a snake before my eyes. And a man was raised from
the dead on the platform. That's a fact people. We have it on video. The greatest
threats to Christians, conservative Christians,
it's not the liberals. The greatest
threat is from within. It's those who appear like they
are sheep but they are wolves. [Bob] His name is Costi Hinn,
which may sound familiar because for years his uncle Benny
Hinn has been one of the most successful Christian
televangelists and faith healers in the world. It is gone from white suits and
big hair and all of that to V necks and skinny jeans. [Bob] Now Costi Hinn is at the
centre of a theological debate challenging those wolves
masquerading as sheep as he puts it and starting
with his uncle Benny. I'm gonna kind of bare
my soul here with you. Honest confession. I would know that there
were certain things that were completely deceptive. [Bob] The Vancouver born
preacher has written a book about the billion-dollar
business that's enriched Benny Hinn and others like him. It's the first time a Hinn
Ministry insider has so publicly spoken out. You know what the
track record shows? That men like my uncle,
they are devouring people. [Bob] Costi Hinn blames that on
what's known as the prosperity gospel. The theology it's estimated has
earned his uncle as much as $100 million dollars a year. Yeah, so the way that the
prosperity gospel works is that if you believe in Jesus and you
follow Jesus that he is gonna make you happy,
healthy and wealthy. The problem is, it's
just like a Ponzi scheme. The only guy getting
rich is the guy at the top. [Bob] But after 4 decades of
Benny Hinn preaching prosperity, a few months ago,
incredibly, this. I will tell you now something
that is going to shock you. I think it is an
offence to the Lord, it's an offence, to say
give a thousand dollars. I think it's an offence to the
Holy Spirit to place a price on the gospel. I'm done with it. [Bob] Now, Benny Hinn's
statement about not asking for pay to pray is under intense
scrutiny by fellow evangelical Christians many of
them very critical. All those years the
hundreds of millions you got, you owe the Body
of Christ a refund. You owe them to give
them all their money back. [Bob] Whatever Benny Hinn
says he's done with now it seems nothing much has changed. He insists he continues to raise
money only by promising what the Bible does, that those who give
to God's work will be rewarded. But Costi Hinn says the millions
who still support his uncle financially deserve to know
what's happened behind the scenes so they can judge the
prosperity gospel debate for themselves. When Jesus comes into your
life, God becomes your father. [Bob] It might seem a great
Canadian success story, the kid raised in Toronto who's become
one of the most recognizable religious figures of his time. With the so-called miracles and
displays of divine power that go with it. Costi Hinn saw it all
onstage right next to his uncle. Fire! Fire! Choir ,fire! [Costi] You've seen some of
those on TV. You know, he goes, "fire on
you" and people just go spinning and flying through the air. And the job was simple. Look good in a suit
and don't drop 'em. So, we had to look good
in a suit and not drop 'em. So, I was a catcher as well. Tonight, you've
wondered, is this man for real? [Bob] And Costi Hinn says he
got an inside view of ministry business. He admits taking a share of the
nightly crusade collection which could total hundreds of
thousands of dollars in cash. And I remember it weighing on
my conscience and I'm not saying that I'm, I'm, you know, no less
a sinner than everyone else. Believe me, I, I'm not, at all. If you could have a miracle, what would you want it to be? That I can walk. Just walk? Is that what you want, Grace? Just to walk? Just to walk. [Bob] Born with
curvature of the joints, Grace Brulotte of Fernie, BC
was just eight years old when we first met her at a
crusade in Calgary, hoping to be healed by the
man known as Pastor Benny. It was something that I focused
on like for eighteen years of my life and uh... Focused on it in what way? Just the healing. And you kind of think, oh
it's going to happen today, it'll happen this time. And that it's going to be...
your life is going to change. [Bob] In Calgary, Grace's mother
Janice carried her to the stage. But before long they were
stopped by the screeners who keep the truly sick and
disabled away from Benny Hinn. Emotionally it was a
little damaging for me, so to go back and even just
think about it is difficult for me. When you want something so bad,
when you want to be made well because you don't want to be in
pain anymore you kind of ignore all of the signs that maybe this
isn't right and that becomes what you fixate on. [Bob] We caught up with
them that day as they fled the arena, hope of a
miracle even a prayer from Pastor Benny...gone. So when he promises and that's
what he does do, he promises that today's the day
for your healing, for your miracle and
it doesn't happen, you blame yourself. Yes. First and foremost. Yes. And I think he takes advantage
of people who are... who are vulnerable. Pastor, she had epilepsy. Ghost! In Jesus name. [Bob] For Costi Hinn, it's the
price of promising prosperity whether in money or miracles. I saw the testimony of healing
and I saw the stories about healing, but I never
once saw a real healing. I never once saw my uncle or
anyone else for that matter go and lay hands on
someone and say, in Jesus name, rise and walk
and they would walk right away, just like you see in the Bible. [Bob] After the break, the first
time we investigated Benny Hinn and went undercover to do it. It's Bob McKeown, we met at a
crusade in Buffalo. [Costi] So, you guys are agents
of the devil sent to thwart and bring down and tear down our anointed ministry. You're evil, we're good. [♪♪♪] [♪♪♪] [Bob] Costi Hinn is now a pastor
himself with a congregation in Arizona, and he's become a vocal
critic of how his uncle Benny Hinn built his career and
fortune on the prosperity gospel. Yeah, the responsibility if
I am just speaking frankly, is to look really
good, look really blessed, sell the narrative, make all the
money and say "Look at my life". If you give to
this, if you follow it, if you obey it and
if you do what I say, God'll do it for you too. If God is speaking to you to
sow one thousand dollar seeds tonight... [Bob] For years Benny Hinn has
preached about what he calls biblically-based giving the
belief that exchanging money for miracles is
written in the Bible. I am asking for those amounts
because I want to see your faith released tonight. When you sow larger amounts you
release faith and when faith is released God almighty
will release the harvest. That's just the
way it works people. [Bob] But how does that square
with his apparent renunciation of the prosperity
gospel a few months ago? Like this. I think it is an
offence to the Lord, it's an offence, to say
give a thousand dollars. I think it's an offence to the
Holy Spirit to place a price on the gospel. I'm done with it. [Bob] Hinn argues he only asks
for specific amounts of money, like a thousand dollars, because
it's just promising what the Bible does, that God
will reward those who give. But in Evangelical circles
that's seen by some as an apparent theological flip flop. I'm just saying it seems like
at a minimum he's doing damage control. And at best he's really trying
to make good on his promise to be done with this. But again only time will tell. [Bob] Costi Hinn has recently
written a book about all this, God, Greed and the
Prosperity Gospel. It doesn't square
with the Bible at all. It's a complete scam. It's utter deception. There's no place
for it in the church. No pastor should ever do that. There is no model for,
hey, give all your money to, to my thing. That's a scam. Complete scam. Famously, you
have, in your book, drawn the parallel between the
Royal Family and the Mafia and the Hinns as you lived them? How would you explain that? Yeah. I would explain it like this,
we had the wealth and the lavish platform of the royal family. The aura, if you will. And then the enforced
loyalty of the Mafia. You don't turn
your back on family. You don't turn your back
on the family business. And if you do, you're out. [Bob] A decade earlier, however
during our first Fifth Estate investigation, Costi Hinn
was a member of Pastor Benny's executive protection
team, one of his bodyguards. So that's me, right there. Oh right, there you are. Got my spikey hair and all that. [Bob] That's him guarding the
elevator at Toronto's Royal York Hotel. At that time too, Benny Hinn was
under scrutiny with questions about his money and so-called
miracles being asked by the IRS and by us. If you get your money, all this
money, why will you not release that information to prove
that what you say is true? The financial information, yours
personally and the ministry's. Actually we've been on
camera, sir. You should know that. What's said after
something like that? So, you guys are
agents of the devil, sent to thwart and bring
down and tear down our anointed ministry. You're evil, we're good. But if what is being shown and
proven is that what Benny Hinn is saying to us is
not always the truth... Yeah. ..doesn't that sort of have a,
have a responsive chord with him? Not if you want to keep the
house and the cars and the power and the money and
the system going. If you want to keep
the system going, you don't at all concede. [Bob] And to this day Benny Hinn
refuses to concede anything. Again, he declined to
give us an interview. In a letter, his lawyer
refutes Costi Hinn's claims as "deceptive, inaccurate
and wildly embellished", "An embarrassing attempt to
exploit his family's name". It goes on to list how Benny
Hinn saves his ministry money giving up private jets and
$10,000 a night luxury hotels to better spread the
gospel around the world. Now in her 20's, Grace Brulotte
never got her miracle from Benny Hinn but she didn't give up. Her condition is in a terminal
stage but she's done what Hinn couldn't. She taught herself to
walk, albeit in a swimming pool. My caregiver kind of let
me go and let me just kinda walk around on the floor of the
pool and that was my first steps taken at 19 or 20 and it kind
of hit me that way that I didn't have to be physically healed in
order to get that experience. And uh, when you think of life
that way it just becomes so much more rich. [Bob] It sounds as if you had
the chance to talk to Benny Hinn he could learn something. He might. [Bob] But in the end it seems
not much has changed for Benny Hinn. He still promises miracle
healings especially for those who give money. It's how God wants it he says. Critics like his nephew
Costi remain unconvinced. Many times false teachers are
gonna come out and they are gonna go, "Oh, I'm
sorry, I'm sorry." And what are they gonna do? They are gonna go right
back to what they used to do. That is one of the best lessons
that I can give to people. Is say, watch what
they go back to. Watch what they give up and
watch what they go back to. [♪♪♪] [♪♪♪]
