It's 6 o'clock on Saturday evening in Tel Aviv, and crowds are already forming outside the Nokia Arena, home to the champion basketball team, Macabee Tel Aviv. Linger for a moment, however, and it is soon apparent that it is not a basketball game they have come to see. "God couldn't have picked a better time," says a blonde Australian woman enigmatically. A large American lady, sporting bouffant black hair and a flowing blue gown, enthusiastically agrees. "I saw him many times in the USA," she says, "But here in Israel, it's something else."
Security is tight around the arena tonight. Dozens of policemen and two mounted police units are already stationed, horses at the ready, outside the gates. But it is neither a politician nor a rock star gracing the Tel Aviv stage: it is Benny Hinn, a California-based Evangelical preacher, come to "bring the word of Jesus back to the land from which he came."
Although his may not be a household name, to the initiated he is a star. His television show, "This is Your Day," appears daily throughout the Middle East, and his live Sunday services attract thousands of worshipers. And his message is that Jesus Christ will rise again - soon - and that you will only be "saved" if you believe in Him.
The car park is filled with tour buses from all over Israel. Groups of Ethiopian men, smartly dressed in suits and shiny shoes, mingle with gaggles of Filipino women and gangs of middle-aged Americans. In a country where only around 2 percent of the population is Christian, such an enthusiastic turnout is quite staggering.
By 7 pm, there is an air of anticipation inside the arena. A huge choir, accompanied by a band and two pianists, rehearse their numbers. Camera cranes and sound crews test their equipment. Gradually, the arena fills. The basketball court itself is tonight reserved for important guests, pastors from across the globe, and the handicapped whom Hinn claims to be able to heal. A blind lady in dark glasses is helped to her seat, several wheelchairs roll in.
Then, finally, at around 7.45 pm, the lights dim and the service begins: roughly five full hours of singing, preaching, and 'miracle working' conducted by a white-suited Hinn. The audience prays, kneels, chants and throws its arms in the air, as he promises that each and every one will feel the healing power of Jesus this evening. Hinn is well-known for his ability to make entire sections of the audience swoon simply by 'blowing' the Holy Spirit toward them.
The first in a series of seven worldwide 'crusades' over the next few months, Hinn says that he chose Israel as his first stop in order to bring the Bible "back to its roots." He, too, is coming home: Hinn was born and raised in Jaffa, near Tel Aviv. Renouncing his Greek Orthodox upbringing, he then went to the United States where he established himself as one of America's top primetime Evangelist 'faith healers.'
However, despite his popularity, he has attracted a substantial amount of criticism. The Rick A. Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements is at the forefront of such criticism, focusing on Hinn's personal wealth, his 'mass-hypnosis techniques,' and his claims to be a 'telephone' through which God speaks directly to his audiences.
According to material collected by the institute, not only does Hinn claim he can heal the sick, but also that he can bring the dead back to life. Critics state that he is thus taking advantage of the most vulnerable of people, in order to gain both fame and money. (Hinn admits his penchant for large houses and fast cars.) Indeed, two of Hinn's critics have even gone so far as to write a book in which they investigate his claims regarding his own powers: The Confusing World of Benny Hinn, by G. Richard Fisher and M. Kurt Goedelman.
By 9.15 pm, an hour-and-a-half into the event, the atmosphere is becoming rapidly more charged. But outside the arena, another gathering is beginning to assemble. A bus pulls up, and dozens of black-suited Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews pile out, carrying signs and banners, bearing the slogan, "Missionaries are more dangerous than Hamas!" Police start to set up cordons, as more join the throng to protest Hinn's visit and his desire to convert millions across the globe.
From what can be seen inside the arena, however, Hinn is in a sense already preaching to the converted: there are very few apparent 'unbelievers' among the crowds. But one wonders whether the Orthodox protestors - now chanting and singing so enthusiastically - are fully aware of Hinn's power to mesmerize an audience. After all, tonight they have a long wait in front of them: it will be at least another three long miracle-filled hours before Hinn's adoring crowd will be released, ecstatic, into Tel Aviv's cool night air.
'Faith healer' mesmerizes Christians in Israel
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