Benny Hinn, the evangelist best-known for his televised miracle healings, is doing damage control after a 4-hour expose on his ministry was released by popular theologian Mike Winger on his YouTube channel. Winger accuses Hinn of spiritual and financial abuse. “Initially, I wasn’t intending for it to be that long,” Winger told the Roys Report. “But as I dug into Benny Hinn, it was so bad and he is so messed up, I had to do four hours on it.” Winger accused Hinn of “abusing biblical teaching in order to manipulate people to give money to his ministry, while making promises in the name of God that God doesn’t make.” Winger analyzes videos from Hinn’s ministry to show what he calls Hinn’s false biblical teaching. Benny Hinn Ministries has asked YouTube to take down the video, accusing Winger of copyright infringement, but YouTube has allowed the video to remain under its fair use policy. It has been viewed over 800,000 times on Winger’s channel.

Hinn appeared to address Winger’s criticisms on a recent interview with Stephen Strang of The Strang Report. He told Strang he wants to “finish better,” admitting he has made some mistakes in his ministry. “The two things I regret most in ministry: I was not too wise a number of times with prophecy. I had guests come to the crusades that I think brought harm to not only people’s lives but also to my reputation because their prophecies were not really prophecy. They went outside the borders of redemption.” He admitted he shared things he thought were from God that were not.  “But in 1 Corinthians 14, we clearly see that we all prophesy in part. That means we don’t see the full picture. And sadly — and I wish I could go back and fix it — but sadly, there were some prophecies I gave that were not accurate or from the Lord. But who’s perfect?” He stated he has asked for forgiveness but, “I’m just human and made mistakes like that. And I’ll probably make them again, I suppose, down the road, because I’m not perfect.” His second regret was in promoting prosperity theology. He renounced prosperity theology in 2019, however, Winger’s documentary includes clips of Hinn promoting material wealth and better health after his public renouncement. Hinn appeared to admit to doing that, saying, “So I came to the conclusion in 2019 that I don’t want to be part of the gimmickry of [prosperity theology], and I still stand by that. But, sadly, I let pressure get to me and because of that pressure, I said things and did things that I should not have done. And for that, really, I am sorry and I ask the dear people watching us to really forgive me for that. And I’m striving with all my heart to be as biblical as possible with that.”

Winger has responded skeptically to Hinn’s interview with a video entitled “Benny Hinn is in full on damage control mode. Don’t believe him.” He accused Hinn of taking advantage of Christians’ desire for redemption and stated Hinn had misapplied 1 Corinthians 14 to cover false prophecy. He also accused Strang of being Hinn’s “damage control guy.” He said Hinn was doing “more harm” in the name of repentance and that real repentance should reveal specific instances, rather than the broad mentions that Hinn cites. He also stated there should be restitution towards those people who have lost their life savings based on Hinn’s promises of wealth, something he stated Hinn is “not interested” in. Winger asked why Hinn hasn’t removed videos of him promoting false doctrine if he is truly repentant and called on his audience to be “gentle as doves but wise as serpents.” He stated his viewers should be ready to accept true repentance from Hinn but to be wise to any half-hearted attempts he might make. Winger did stay he would be “open” to a one-on-one with Hinn, but was doubtful Hinn would agree or be genuine.