Part 1: Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim & the National Council of Churches of Singapore, NCCS’ Ungodly Unity with Joseph Prince

 

Part 2: Joseph Prince Distorted Paul’s Teachings in Romans Chapter 6 as exposed by Martyn Lloyd-Jones; and the teaching on obedience by Joseph Prince was contradicted by 4 prominent Bible teachers: Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John Stott, AW Tozer & Kong Hee;

so, we have to ask Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim and the National Council of Churches of Singapore, NCCS whether they would support Joseph Prince as they did in the 20-point letter to all churches under NCCS against Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John Stott, AW Tozer & Kong Hee’s teachings

 

 

Important Announcement:

 

Seminar on Joseph Prince’s teachings by George Ong

 

on 28 Feb 2026 (Saturday) & 7 Mar 2026 (Saturday)

 

(Participants to choose one of the dates)

 

Duration:

9 am to 2 pm

 

Registration:

Opened from 15 Jan 2026

Closing date on 8 Feb 2026

Limited Seats Available

 

 

Excerpts to Part 2 of this Article:

 

In conclusion, Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim and NCCS

 

ought to know by now

 

that the teaching on obedience by Joseph Prince

 

was contradicted by 4 prominent Bible teachers:

 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John Stott, AW Tozer & Kong Hee,

 

and many others,

 

as proven in my many articles on my website.

 

So, why are they still supporting Joseph Prince?

 

Besides others, I can think of 2 probable reasons:

 

First, Joseph Prince has grown so big in his influence

 

that they are now too afraid or fearful to touch a big fish.

 

Leaders such as

 

Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim and NCCS, 

 

who fear men rather than God

 

have no business to lead the Singapore Church.

 

Second, as I have already mentioned,

 

it is institutional self-preservation

 

– that they have chosen to toe the line of their predecessors

 

to maintain the lie that Joseph Prince isn’t a heretic

 

even though they know in their heart of hearts that he is,

 

and even though they know that by their ungodly actions,

 

they are putting their own sheep in danger

 

of being influenced by Joseph Prince

 

and be led to their destruction.

 

This is what is abominable!

 

 

Excerpts to Part 1 of this Article:

 

In ‘The Truth War, Fighting for Certainty in an age of Deception,’

 

John MacArthur wrote:

 

“But the evangelical movement

 

isn’t really very evangelical anymore.

 

The typical evangelical leader today

 

is far more likely to express indignation at someone

 

who calls for doctrinal clarity and accuracy

 

than to firmly oppose another self-styled evangelical

 

who is actively attacking some vital biblical truth.”

 

George Ong’s Comments:

 

What was described by John MacArthur is, indeed,

 

a sad state of affairs.

 

Frankly, this has been my experience

 

when I took on the unpopular task

 

of calling out Joseph Prince as a wolf in sheepskin.

 

The irony in the modern church is this

 

– pastors and elders who obey the scriptures

 

to refute false doctrines and rebuke false teachers,

 

such as Joseph Prince

 

are sharply criticised

 

for being unloving, divisive and intolerant.

 

Conversely, pastors and elders who disobey the scriptures

 

by keeping silent and dare not raise a whimper

 

against false teachers such as Joseph Prince

 

to avoid trouble, to protect their respectable image,

 

and to hide their cowardice,

 

are praised for being loving, tolerant

 

and for promoting unity. 

 

What has gone wrong

 

with the Leadership of the Singapore Church?

 

What has gone wrong with

 

Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim and NCCS?

 

 

This article was also sent to Bishop Philip Lim, President of the National Council of Churches of Singapore (NCCS) and Rev Dr Ngoei Foong Nghian, General Secretary and for the attention of the Executive Committee Members.

 

This article was also sent to the Alliance of Pentecostal & Charismatic Churches of Singapore (APCCS), for the attention of the Chairman, Rev Yang Tuck Yoong & Co Chairman, Rev Dominic Yeo (General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God of Singapore) and Council Members.

 

 

Part 1: Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim & the National Council of Churches of Singapore, NCCS’ Ungodly Unity with Joseph Prince

 

Please click here

 

to view the entire video:

 

Let us recap the 20 Points that Bishop Philip Lim,

 

President of NCCS wrote.

 

Please click here to view:

 

In this Article, let me address Point No 19

 

that Bishop Philip Lim wrote:

 

19. The Council is saddened by the ongoing complaints by a group of Christians who do not officially represent the leadership of their churches or denominations, and who in their personal capacities have brought acrimony and discord to the Christian community in Singapore.

 

Regarding No 19,

 

what Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim and NCCS

 

had done is downright improper.

 

By accusing us of having brought acrimony and discord

 

to the Christian community in Singapore,

 

they are effectively supporting the villain,

 

Joseph Prince, the wolf,

 

and ‘punishing’ the real victims,

 

who have at great cost to themselves,

 

have exposed Joseph Prince as a false prophet.

 

But what Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim and NCCS

 

have done that is worse than ‘punishing’ us

 

for causing acrimony and discord

 

to the Christian community in Singapore,

 

is that they themselves are having fellowship and unity

 

with Joseph Prince, the wolf

 

by speaking up for him and protecting him

 

under the umbrella of NCCS.

 

They are also propounding the presupposition

 

that believers should unite even with Joseph Prince, the wolf. 

 

If I cannot convince Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim

 

and NCCS from uniting with Joseph Prince, the wolf,

 

may the words

 

of godly leaders and well-regarded Bible teachers,

 

such as JC Ryle, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John Stott,

 

Charles Swindoll, RC Sproul and John MacArthur,

 

serve as a public rebuke to them

 

for their grossly improper actions.

 

 

In a sermon, RC Sproul said:

 

Please click here to view the video:

 

“And one of the most egregious of those problems

 

is the infecting of the congregations with false doctrine.

 

And I’m amazed in our day and age how little attention

 

we want to give to matters of sound doctrine.

 

We are perhaps the more relationally-oriented

 

or the most relationally oriented generation of Christians

 

in the history of the church.

 

What I mean by that is that

 

we want to put so much emphasis on community

 

and fellowship and relationships,

 

and we see the tendency of doctrine,

 

and doctrinal differences

 

to provoke debate and quarrels and divisions

 

that we’ve come to the place in many circles

 

where we say,

 

“Oh, we shouldn’t be engaged

 

in the study of doctrine at all

 

because all it does is to end up in controversy

 

and divisions and the like.”

 

But that idea would be utterly foreign

 

to the thinking of the Apostle Paul

 

because Paul always saw an unbreakable relationship

 

between a true understanding of the word of God

 

and righteous relationships.

 

It would have been a false dichotomy

 

for the Apostle to have a wedge driven

 

between doctrine and practice.

 

And he was very much concerned,

 

as the church was beginning to grow

 

in its own original setting,

 

with the invasion of false teaching.”

 

 

In ‘Great Doctrines of the Bible, by Martyn Lloyd-Jones,’

 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:

 

“But the second principle is equally clear in the Scriptures,

 

and that is that unity must be based on doctrine;

 

it must be doctrinal.

 

It is said,

 

‘Let’s all get together.

 

We can then decide about matters of belief.’

 

But we cannot have fellowship

 

apart from this unity of doctrine.”

 

 

In ‘An Exposition of Ephesians 4:1-16, Christian Unity,’

 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:

 

“When he (Paul) says ‘speaking the truth in love’

 

he does not mean merely being nice and loving.

 

I am compelled to start with that negative

 

because the text is commonly interpreted today

 

in this fashion.

 

This has become the controlling idea at the present time

 

in discussions concerning church unity.

 

Fellowship is put into the first position.

 

We are told that nothing is as important as fellowship;

 

unity in and of itself is the supreme thing.

 

… and that at all costs we must put fellowship and unity

 

in the supreme position.

 

To that end we are told

 

that we must tolerate almost anything and everything;

 

that as long as a man is nice and loving,

 

and shows a friendly spirit and does good works,

 

especially if he makes a sacrifice in order to do so,

 

then what he believes or does not believe

 

is comparatively unimportant.

 

… Doctrinal correctness, they maintain,

 

has been over-emphasized in the past.

 

… Indeed, to hold doctrinal views strongly

 

and to criticize other views

 

is virtually regarded as sinful

 

and is frequently described as being ‘sub-Christian’.

 

This is how the phrase ‘speaking the truth in love’

 

is being commonly interpreted.

 

… To put life, or ‘spirit’, or niceness,

 

or anything else, before truth

 

is to deny essential New Testament teaching;

 

and in addition is to contradict directly

 

the Apostle’s solemn warning in verse 14 (Eph 4:14).”

 

 

In ‘The Message of the Sermon on the Mount by John Stott,’

 

John Stott wrote:

 

“The visible unity of the church

 

is a proper Christian quest,

 

but only if unity is not sought

 

at the expense of doctrine.

 

Jesus prayed for the oneness of his people.

 

He also prayed that they might be kept

 

from evil and in truth.

 

We have no mandate from Christ

 

to seek unity without purity,

 

purity of both doctrine and conduct.”

 

 

In ‘The Complete Works of JC Ryle,’

 

JC Ryle wrote:

 

“Religious divisions of some kind there must always be,

 

so long as false doctrine prevails,

 

and men will cleave to it.

 

What communion can there be

 

between light and darkness?

 

How can two walk together except they be agreed?

 

What unity can there be

 

where there is not the unity of the Spirit?

 

Division and separation from those

 

who adhere to false and unscriptural doctrine

 

is a duty, and not a sin.”

 

 

George Ong’s Comments:

 

There is a great tendency

 

to be discouraged and downhearted

 

when we, who, at great cost to ourselves,

 

have called out false teachers such as Joseph Prince,

 

are censured by none other than

 

Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim and NCCS,

 

the National Leaders of the Singapore Church,

 

who should have known better.

 

So, may the words of JC Ryle and John MacArthur

 

serve as an encouragement

 

to spur us on with this unenviable and daunting task

 

of battling against Joseph Prince’s heresies:

 

 

In ‘The Complete Works of JC Ryle,’

 

JC Ryle wrote:

 

“It was practical obedience to this saying

 

which produced the blessed Protestant Reformation.

 

Its lessons deserve close attention.

 

Do we not see here the duty of boldness

 

in resisting false teaching?

 

Beyond doubt we do.

 

No fear of giving offence,

 

no dread of ecclesiastical censure,

 

should make us hold our peace,

 

when God’s truth is in peril.

 

If we are true followers of our Lord,

 

we ought to be out-speaking,

 

unflinching witnesses against error.

 

… It is at our peril if we submit to unscriptural teaching:

 

our blood will be on our own heads.”

 

 

In ‘The Truth War, Fighting for Certainty in an age of Deception,’

 

John MacArthur wrote:

 

“Where are the men and women today 

 

with the courage to stand alone?

 

The church in our age has abandoned

 

the confrontive stance.

 

Instead of overturning worldly wisdom

 

with revealed truth,

 

many Christians today are obsessed

 

with finding areas of agreement.

 

The goal has become integration

 

rather than confrontation.

 

As the church absorbs the values of secular culture,

 

it is losing its ability to differentiate

 

between good and evil.

 

What will happen to the church if everyone proceeds

 

down the slippery path of public opinion?

 

It is interesting to speculate

 

what the church would be like today

 

if Martin Luther had been prone to compromise.

 

The pressure was heavy on him

 

to tone down his teaching, soften his message,

 

and stop poking his finger in the eye of the papacy.

 

Even many of his friends and supporters

 

urged Luther to come to terms with Rome

 

for the sake of harmony in the church.

 

Luther himself prayed earnestly

 

that the effect of his teaching would not just be divisive

 

– but that the truth would triumph.

 

When he nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the church door,

 

the last thing he wanted to do was split the church.

 

Yet sometimes division is fitting, even healthy.

 

Especially in times like Luther’s – and like ours

 

– when the visible church

 

seems full of counterfeit Christians,

 

it is right for the true people of God

 

to declare themselves.

 

There is no room for compromise.

 

Discernment demands that we hold biblical convictions

 

with the most fervent tenacity.

 

Titus 1:9 says a basic requirement for every elder

 

is that he be the kind of man who “[holds] fast

 

the faithful word as he has been taught,

 

that he may be able, by sound doctrine,

 

both to exhort and convict those who contradict.

 

… It is thus mandated by God

 

that we take issue with error.

 

We must refute those who contradict,

 

or we do not fulfill our divine calling.

 

… We must take an unmovable stance

 

on all issues where the Bible speaks plainly.

 

What if people don’t like such dogmatism?

 

It is necessary anyway.

 

Sound doctrine divides, confronts, separates, judges,

 

convicts, reproves, rebukes, exhorts, and refutes error.

 

None of these things is very highly esteemed

 

in postmodern thought.

 

But the health of the church depends

 

on our holding firmly to the truth,

 

for where strong convictions are not tolerated,

 

discernment cannot survive.”

 

 

In conclusion, if any Singapore Pastor

 

were to fellowship with Joseph Prince

 

even though he had not even recanted or repented

 

from his heresies,

 

this Pastor would have disobeyed what the scripture teaches

 

and went against what men of God

 

such as Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John Stott, JC Ryle,

 

John MacArthur, Charles Swindoll and RC Sproul

 

had spoken about.

 

Peace-making efforts to build bridges

 

between estranged friends are to be lauded. 

 

But the same endeavour

 

by Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim and NCCS

 

to bring 2 parties together

 

without any regard for doctrine

 

would do more harm than good.

 

What’s the point of arranging a meeting

 

between, say, me, or other Pastors for that matter

 

to meet with Joseph Prince,

 

if Joseph Prince refuses to change his heretical doctrinal stand?

 

Is the aim of NCCS the following:

 

“Okay you meet with Joseph Prince and at the end of the day, even if Joseph Prince refuses to change his doctrinal stance, never mind Lah, you can still have close fellowship with him from then on, right; friend, friend, okay.”

 

So, in the end, it is clear

 

that Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim and NCCS

 

are not even guided by doctrinal considerations

 

but expedient convenience;

 

that they just want people to make up.

 

That their concern for relationships

 

has overtaken the need for truth and doctrine,

 

which are far more important.

 

And Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim and NCCS

 

think they are doing a great job

 

by trying to help the Body of Christ

 

to make up with Joseph Prince,

 

even though Prince chooses to be an unrepentant heretic.

 

Friends, what Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim

 

and NCCS are doing

 

would harm the body of Christ.

 

If this is the attitude of the top leadership

 

in the Singapore Church,

 

then we are in for trouble.

 

 

In ‘The Truth War, Fighting for Certainty in an age of Deception,’

 

John MacArthur wrote:

 

“But the evangelical movement

 

isn’t really very evangelical anymore.

 

The typical evangelical leader today

 

is far more likely to express indignation at someone

 

who calls for doctrinal clarity and accuracy

 

than to firmly oppose another self-styled evangelical

 

who is actively attacking some vital biblical truth.”

 

George Ong’s Comments:

 

What was described by John MacArthur is, indeed,

 

a sad state of affairs.

 

Frankly, this has been my experience

 

when I took on the unpopular task

 

of calling out Joseph Prince as a wolf in sheepskin.

 

The irony in the modern church is this

 

– pastors and elders who obey the scriptures

 

to refute false doctrines and rebuke false teachers,

 

such as Joseph Prince

 

are sharply criticised

 

for being unloving, divisive and intolerant.

 

Conversely, pastors and elders who disobey the scriptures

 

by keeping silent and dare not raise a whimper

 

against false teachers such as Joseph Prince

 

to avoid trouble, to protect their respectable image,

 

and to hide their cowardice,

 

are praised for being loving, tolerant

 

and for promoting unity. 

 

What has gone wrong

 

with the Leadership of the Singapore Church?

 

What has gone wrong with

 

Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim and NCCS?

 

 

Finally, let the crisp words of Charles Swindoll

 

serve as a public rebuke

 

to Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim and NCCS

 

for penning the following:

 

19. The Council is saddened by the ongoing complaints by a group of Christians who do not officially represent the leadership of their churches or denominations, and who in their personal capacities have brought acrimony and discord to the Christian community in Singapore.

 

In ‘Swindoll’s Living Insights, New Testament Commentary, Luke,’

 

Charles Swindoll wrote:

 

“Truth divides.

 

The fact is, truth does not unite people;

 

it divides people.

 

Truth unites people who desire truth,

 

but it stirs violence in the hearts of those who don’t.”

 

 

Part 2: Joseph Prince Distorted Paul’s Teachings in Romans Chapter 6 as exposed by Martyn Lloyd-Jones; and the teaching on obedience by Joseph Prince was contradicted by 4 prominent Bible teachers: Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John Stott, AW Tozer & Kong Hee;

so, we have to ask Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim and the National Council of Churches of Singapore, NCCS whether they would support Joseph Prince as they did in the 20-point letter to all churches under NCCS against Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John Stott, AW Tozer & Kong Hee’s teachings

 

Let me surface what I featured in a previous article

 

on Joseph Prince and Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

 

In a sermon on 2 Nov 2025, Joseph Prince said:

 

Please click here to view the video:

 

“If I preach like that, right?

 

Do your best.

 

Do your best not to sin.

 

And when you sin, alright?

 

I tell you, confess it completely,

 

make sure that God forgives you,

 

and then from then on, don’t sin.

 

Do your best. Do good.

 

As much as you can, do good.

 

And when you die, right? You go to heaven.

 

You will never have this accusation.

 

So what you’re saying is that,

 

let’s sin more that grace may abound.

 

Never.

 

You will never be accused of that.

 

Paul will never be accused of that.

 

This guy called JP will never be accused of that.

 

Not many men of God, down through the years,

 

even from the time of Martin Luther,

 

Martin Luther got it, but from then on,

 

not many men of God.

 

Have said things like, the great theologian and pastor,

 

Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones.

 

And I’ve quoted before, here and there,

 

trying my best to like, not verbatim,

 

but paraphrase what he said.

 

But I’m going to show you right now what he said,

 

in terms of the gospel of grace.

 

You want to see it? Okay.

 

“First of all, let me make a comment.

 

To me, a very important and vital comment.

 

The true preaching of the gospel of salvation

 

by grace alone, always,

 

always leads to the possibility of this charge

 

being brought against it.

 

There is no better test as to whether a man

 

is really preaching the New Testament

 

gospel of salvation than this.

 

That some people might misunderstand it

 

and misinterpret to mean

 

that it really amounts to this.

 

That because you are saved by grace alone,

 

it does not matter at all what you do.

 

You can go on sinning as much as you like

 

because it will redound

 

all the more to the glory of grace.

 

That is a very good test of gospel preaching.

 

If my preaching,

 

(and the preaching of JP, that’s added, right?)

 

If my preaching and presentation of the gospel

 

of salvation does not expose it

 

to that misunderstanding,

 

then it is not the gospel.”

 

Okay? Don’t take my photo lah.

 

Eh, you got permission or not?

 

Oh, you’re taking the screen.

 

Okay, no problem then.

 

If you want a photo, you must take a nice one.

 

Yeah, okay.

 

All right. That’s Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones,

 

pastor of the Westminster Chapel in London.

 

The world is crying for the gospel

 

and they’re not hearing it.”

 

 

By surfacing just one quote from Martyn Lloyd-Jones,

 

Joseph Prince wants to give the impression

 

that Martyn Lloyd-Jones supports his grace teachings.

 

But even for that one quote,

 

did you realise that Joseph Prince

 

dared not reveal the title of the book

 

where he got Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ quote from?

 

Let me give you the title of the book

 

where Joseph Prince took the quote from?

 

It was taken from

 

‘Exposition of Romans Chapter 6, The New Man,’

 

(I have a hard copy of the book)

 

I would tell you why

 

Joseph Prince dared not quote the source of this book.

 

This is because there are plenty of teachings

 

that Martyn Lloyd-Jones shared in his many other books

 

and in this book,

 

‘Exposition of Romans Chapter 6, The New Man,’

 

that contradicted Joseph Prince’s teachings.

 

So, Joseph Prince is afraid to give the title of this book,

 

for fear that his congregation

 

may buy it and start to read the book,

 

and discover the many teachings of Martyn Lloyd-Jones

 

that went against his teachings.

 

In that previous article, I have given many proofs

 

in Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ many other books

 

that contradicted Joseph Prince’s teachings.

 

Now, I will give you the proof that Martyn Lloyd-Jones

 

in his book, ‘‘Exposition of Romans Chapter 6, The New Man,’

 

that Joseph Prince took the quote from

 

also contradicted many of Joseph Prince’s teachings.

 

 

Before I even dwell on the specifics

 

of Joseph Prince’s false teachings in Romans chapter 6,

 

let me expose the deceptive ‘exegetical’ strategies

 

of Joseph Prince that he concocted to deceive people.

 

First, like many Bible scholars,

 

of which Martyn Lloyd-Jones is one,

 

they will see Romans 6 as a sanctification passage

 

after Paul had covered justification

 

from Romans chapters 3 to 5.    

 

Romans 6:1-11, particularly, verses 8 to 11,

 

is a reiteration of the position of believers

 

based on the justification that Christ had achieved for them

 

through his death and resurrection.

 

But from Romans 6:12 onwards to the end of the chapter,

 

Paul then moves on to sanctification. 

 

But because Joseph Prince only preaches

 

a justification-only salvation

 

and is against the teaching of sanctification,

 

he twisted the interpretation of Romans 6:12 onwards,

 

which is supposed to be a sanctification passage

 

into a justification passage. 

 

And hence, Joseph Prince

 

removes the crucial part of the believers’ role

 

to obey God’s command in dealing with sin

 

as part of sanctification in Romans 6:12-23.

 

Joseph Prince teaches the false doctrine

 

that once believers are justified (Romans 3-5 & 6:1-11),

 

then they would automatically have victory over sin,

 

without any effort,

 

and by just counting on the fact that they are justified.

 

 

In a sermon on 23 Nov 2025,

 

his last sermon before he went on his long vacation,

 

Joseph Prince said:

 

Please click here to view the video:

 

“Now watch this.

 

Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead.

 

Likewise means what?

 

In the same manner that Jesus died to sin once and for all.

 

So, this is the way we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin.

 

That means it happened already. Happened.

 

Dead to what?

 

Dead to sin.”

 

… This is important.

 

Go back to Romans, yeah, verse 12. This is verse 12.

 

Look at verse 12.

 

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey in its lust.

 

Now, a lot of people,

 

they want to bring this out and say,

 

look, we must not obey.

 

It does not say we must, we should not.

 

It didn’t start like that.

 

It starts with “therefore”;

 

And why is ‘therefore”, there for?

 

Why is “therefore”, there for?

 

When you see a “therefore”, find out why it is there for.

 

Why is “therefore”, there for?

 

It is “therefore” because of the previous verse.

 

Once you are dead to the guilt, you lose the power of sin.

 

Rather, the power of sin is broken. Amen.

 

Therefore, now you can let not sin reign in your body.

 

Through your tongue, through your eyes, your actions.

 

The way to do this is actually the preceding verses.

 

You cannot just jump to this verse.

 

You must do it God’s way.”

 

 

George Ong’s Comments:

 

Joseph Prince is right in highlighting

 

that there is a link between verse 11 and verse 12

 

of Romans chapter 6 with the word, “Therefore”.

 

But it is on the reason for the word, “Therefore”

 

between verses 11 and 12 that he twisted.

 

Joseph Prince teaches that once we are dead to sin

 

in verse 11 of Romans chapter 6,

 

we will automatically be set free from its power

 

in verse 12 of Romans chapter 6,

 

and this is done with no effort

 

or participation of believers.

 

Instead of seeing verse 11 as our justification

 

leading to our sanctification in verse 12,

 

Joseph Prince convolutes the 2 verses

 

to support one idea – that of justification.

 

Joseph Prince deliberately left out mentioning

 

that it is the command of God for us to deal with sin

 

not as part of justification but sanctification

 

in Romans 6:12-13:

 

Romans 6:12-13 NKJV

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

 

 

In ‘Exposition of Romans chapter 6, The New Man’,

 

expounding on Romans 6:12-14, 

 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:

 

Romans 6:12-14 KJV

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

 

“So what the Apostle asserts here is that,

 

while we are left in this mortal body,

 

sin will go on trying to bring that about.

 

It will try to trip us,

 

it will try to dominate over the body.

 

And we must not allow it to do so.

 

All along, it will be trying to do so, 

 

but we must restrain it,

 

we must resist it, we must fight it.

 

(George Ong’s Interjection: 

What a difference in counsel! While Martyn Lloyd Jones said we must restrain, resist and even fight against sins that are in our mortal body, Joseph Prince asserts in another teaching video that we should just ignore them as they are dead. Prince also states that the more you pray against sins or act against them, the more you would make them come alive.)

 

… There is no exposition of verse 11 (Rom 6:11)

 

which is quite so wrong as that which regards it

 

as saying (as it has so often been put) 

 

that we are to reckon that sin is dead to us,

 

for that is the exact opposite

 

of what the Apostle is saying.

 

He never says that sin is dead;

 

what he does say is that we are dead to sin.

 

He says that sin is not only not dead, 

 

but that it is still in our mortal body; 

 

and if we do not realize that, and deal with it,

 

it will soon reign in our mortal body.

 

… What is the first principle

 

in the New Testament doctrine of sanctification?

 

It is, obviously, that this doctrine is something

 

that you and I have to put into practice. 

 

An exhortation is addressed to us:

 

Do not allow sin to ‘reign in your mortal body’:

 

… Romans 6:12-13 KJV

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

 

… ‘Therefore’, says the Apostle in verse 12

 

– and this ‘therefore’ as we saw is most important

 

– ‘let not sin reign in your mortal body’. 

 

The ‘therefore’ still continues in this 13th verse.

 

We have seen the light that this teaching

 

throws on the New Testament doctrine and teaching

 

with regard to sanctification and holiness.

 

… we are confronted by a command, by an exhortation:

 

‘Neither yield ye your members.’ (Rom 6:13)

 

These words are addressed to our wills;

 

this is something that we are told to do,

 

something, therefore, that we can do.

 

I emphasize this once more for this reason,

 

that any teaching concerning sanctification or holiness 

 

which tells us that we really have nothing to do,

 

and that the main call to us

 

is to stop trying to do anything

 

in the matter of our sanctification,

 

is obviously a contradiction of this.

 

(George Ong’s Interjection: 

What Martyn Lloyd-Jones had described what sanctification is not is exactly what Joseph Prince teaches – that sanctification is not about doing, as it is an accident, and it is merely the act of passively sitting down to rest as Christ also sat down besides His Father.)

 

There is, as I have already indicated,

 

a teaching that does that quite definitely.

 

It says that sanctification is quite simple,

 

that the mistake you have been making all your life

 

is that you have been trying to fight the sin

 

that is in you, 

 

that that is where you have gone astray.

 

What you have to do is to give up struggling,

 

to give up fighting;

 

you have just to hand yourself and your whole problem

 

to the Lord Jesus Christ,

 

and He will do it for you and in you.

 

The greatest mistake of all, they say,

 

is to attempt to fight sin;

 

our business is rather to stop trying to do so.

 

(George Ong’s Interjection: What Martyn Lloyd-Jones said is exactly what Joseph Prince taught. It has also exposed Joseph Prince’s false ‘Let God and let go’ theology – that Christianity is about God doing everything for us, and what is required of us is just to rest in Him.)

 

I am suggesting that that teaching

 

cannot be reconciled with the verse we are considering,

 

any more than it can be reconciled

 

with the previous verse (V12). 

 

‘You must not allow sin to reign in your mortal body,’

 

says the Apostle (V13), 

 

‘neither must you yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.’

 

So a teaching which tells us

 

that sanctification and holiness

 

are really quite simple

 

is clearly not in accord with this.

 

… In both instances,

 

these verses call upon us to do something. 

 

They do not tell us that we can do nothing,

 

and that we merely have to allow the Lord to do it for us.

 

… whereas the first thing that is needed

 

is that we should realize

 

that this is an appeal addressed to us as Christians 

 

to exercise our wills, to do certain things

 

and not to do other things.

 

… Here am I thus struggling and striving,

 

defeated and unhappy.

 

Suddenly I look at an advertisement

 

which says, ‘Come to the clinic’. 

 

I am quoting actual words that are used

 

– ‘Come to the clinic’.

 

What you need, we are told, is to come to the clinic,

 

to the spiritual hospital,

 

and here your sickness and your illness

 

can be dealt with.

 

But as I read the verses that we are studying

 

I see no suggestion whatsoever of a clinic.

 

Rather, I find a barracks; not a hospital,

 

but a military centre.

 

What do I need? what do I find?

 

I do not find a doctor here. 

 

What we all need is not a doctor,

 

but a sergeant major.

 

Here we are, as it were,

 

slouching about the parade ground,

 

feeling our own pulses, feeling miserable,

 

talking about our weakness.

 

So we say,

 

‘I need a doctor, I need to go to the clinic, I need to see the Medical Officer’.

 

But that is not right.

 

What you need is to listen

 

to the voice of the sergeant major

 

who is there shouting out the commands of God to you 

 

“Let not sin reign in your mortal body’. ‘Yield not your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.’ ‘Yield yourself unto God.’ (Rom 6:12-13)

 

You have no business to be slouching about like that;

 

stand on your feet, 

 

realize who and what you are,

 

enlisted in the army of God. 

 

‘Present yourself.’ This is not a clinic.

 

The main trouble with the Christian Church today

 

is that she is too much like a clinic,

 

too much like a hospital; 

 

that is why the great world is going to hell outside!

 

… We have lost the concept of the army of God,

 

and the King of righteousness in this fight

 

against the kingdom of evil…

 

It is not a clinic you need;

 

you must realize that we are in a barracks,

 

and that we are involved in a mighty campaign.

 

… We must not fraternize with the enemy. 

 

That is the New Testament way of teaching holiness. 

 

What most of us need is not a clinic,

 

but to listen to the sergeant major drilling his troops,

 

commanding them, warning them, threatening them,

 

showing them what to do.

 

The New Testament teaching is altogether different

 

from the sentimentality and subjectivity

 

that have controlled holiness and sanctification teaching

 

for so long, and which tell us that it is ‘quite simple’.

 

But it is not easy.

 

‘Fight the good fight of faith’

 

says the New Testament. Play the man.

 

‘Quit yourselves as men’;

 

‘Put on the whole armour of God’;

 

‘stand in the evil day’. 

 

Those are all military commands; 

 

there is nothing of the clinic about them.”

 

 

In ‘Exposition of Romans chapter 6, The New Man’,

 

expounding on Romans 6:12-14, 

 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:

 

“The New Testament calls upon us to take action; 

 

it does not tell us that the work of sanctification

 

is going to be done for us.

 

That is why it does not put us into a clinic or a hospital

 

where the patient is told

 

‘It will be done for you’,

 

and ‘Allow the Lord Jesus Christ to do it for you’.

 

It calls upon us to take action, and exhorts us to do so.

 

And it tells us and commands us to do so for this reason,

 

that we have been given the ability to do it.

 

… But as we have been given the power and the ability

 

and the capacity,

 

the New Testament quite logically,

 

and in perfect consistency with itself,

 

calls upon us to do it:

 

‘Do not let sin reign in your mortal body’ it says. ‘Do not present your members as instruments unto sin or unrighteousness.’ (Rom 6:12-13) 

 

… This is something that you and I have to do; 

 

it is not going to be done for us.

 

We are in the good ‘fight of faith’,

 

and we have to do the fighting.

 

But, thank God, we are enabled to do it;

 

for the moment we believe, and are justified by faith,

 

and are born again of the Spirit of God,

 

we have the ability.

 

So the New Testament method of sanctification 

 

is to remind us of that; and having reminded us of it, 

 

it says, ‘Now then, go and do it’.”

 

(George Ong’s Interjection: Notice the complete dissonance between the teachings of Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Joseph Prince. Martyn Lloyd-Jones keeps reiterating that we must do, do, do, as part of sanctification, whereas Joseph Prince keeps harping that Christianity is done, done, done for us, and not do, do, do – Joseph Prince’s justification-only-without-sanctification doctrine.)

 

 

In a sermon on 23 Nov 2025,

 

his last sermon before he went on his long vacation,

 

Joseph Prince said:

 

Please click here to view the video:

 

“Okay, verse 16.

 

Know ye not that to whom you yield yourselves, servants to obey, His servants you are, to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.

 

Now, I’m going to tell you this.

 

When you read this, what do you understand?

 

Look at it again.

 

Know ye not that to whom you yield yourselves, servants to obey, His servants you are, to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.

 

So, one side is sin unto death.

 

Okay, look up here.

 

This side here, sin unto death.

 

Sin, you mati, sin unto death.

 

Obedience unto righteousness.

 

You obey, you become righteous, right?

 

So when you read this, what do you think?

 

You think, am I right, most people will read this

 

and they think to themselves.

 

Because of time, I’m going to just give you the revelation.

 

Most people read this.

 

I used to read like this.

 

And I tell you this,

 

I try my best to find this in many commentaries

 

on Romans.

 

But I can hardly find it.

 

Most people either don’t comment on this, this verse,

 

or they comment the traditional way.

 

The traditional way,

 

and many of us think this way,

 

is that when you sin, you die.

 

When you obey, you become righteous.

 

Because it says sin unto death

 

or obedience unto righteousness.

 

Am I right? That is dangerous.

 

Now we have a problem.

 

What are we saying?

 

That our obedience can make us righteous.

 

Look at the previous chapter, Romans 5,

 

for as by one man’s disobedience,

 

many were made sinners.

 

Am I right?

 

And Romans (verse) 17,

 

a few verses before this,

 

by one man’s offense, death reigned by one.

 

Not only people became, men became sinners,

 

but death came in by one man’s disobedience.

 

So who is this one man’s disobedience?

 

Say it! Say it! Adam.

 

Any Adam here? Fed up.

 

How many times we are dealing with your issues today?

 

So, this is a very clear, this verse here says,

 

by one man’s obedience.

 

Who is that one man’s obedience?

 

Many will be made righteous.

 

Is it clear it’s not my obedience that made me righteous?

 

And it wasn’t my sin that brought death.

 

Am I right?

 

He’s actually personifying it.

 

It’s almost like, you want to submit to Adam,

 

or you want to submit to Jesus.

 

Because it says,

 

Know ye not that to whom is a person, you yield yourself servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey, whether sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness.

 

Do you believe that now when you sin, you die?

 

Or do you believe that Jesus’ obedience

 

made you righteous?

 

You’re no more under Adam, you’re under Christ.

 

You’re no more in the flesh, you’re in the Spirit.”

 

 

George Ong’s Comments:

 

What Joseph Prince has done

 

is to destroy the doctrine of sanctification for salvation,

 

of which our obedience is key

 

in verse 16 of Romans chapter 6,

 

and he twisted it into a justification verse

 

by deceptively and inappropriately

 

bringing Romans chapter 5 about Christ’s obedience

 

for our justification to support it.                                                            

 

By doing so,

 

Joseph Prince has twisted verse 16 of Romans chapter 6,

 

which is supposed to be a sanctification text

 

into a justification text,

 

by forcibly reading Christ’s obedience for our justification

 

into verse 16,

 

and obliterating our obedience for sanctification

 

for salvation

 

in the same verse.

 

 

Joseph Prince, don’t try and bluff us

 

that the interpretation,

 

“When you sin, you die.

 

When you obey, you become righteous.

 

Because it says sin unto death

 

or obedience unto righteousness,”

 

contradicts all that Paul taught

 

from Romans chapter 1 to 6.

 

But if one were to interpret Romans 6:16

 

from the sanctification lens,

 

it does not in any way negate Paul’s teaching.

 

Yes, in many parts of Romans Chapters 1 to 5,

 

and especially in Romans 5:17-19,

 

it talks about justification (the imputed righteousness of Christ)

 

that is needed for salvation.

 

But in Romans chapter 6,

 

both justification and sanctification,

 

which are required for salvation,

 

are discussed and taught.

 

As a matter of fact, Romans chapter 6 talks a lot more

 

about sanctification (how a believer ought to live his life)

 

than justification (Christ’s righteousness that is imputed on us).

 

Joseph Prince, even though it is so plain and clear

 

that Romans chapter 6 talks a lot more about

 

sanctification than justification,

 

you have the unholy guts to deceive believers

 

that justification is only taught in Romans chapter 6.

 

 

The reason Joseph Prince said the statement,

 

“When you sin, you die.

 

When you obey, you become righteous.

 

Because it says sin unto death

 

or obedience unto righteousness,”

 

negates what Paul taught

 

– is that to Joseph Prince,

 

sanctification is not a component of salvation,

 

but only justification is. 

 

It is not a negation of what Paul taught

 

if we accept both justification and sanctification

 

as essential for salvation.

 

It becomes a negation to Joseph Prince

 

because Joseph Prince only accepts justification

 

and not sanctification for salvation.

 

Because Joseph Prince does not accept sanctification

 

of which our obedience to Christ is a part,

 

as a compulsory factor to our salvation,

 

he has to twist the interpretation of Romans 6:16

 

to one that fits the justification mould.

 

He does this recklessly by reading into the text

 

and replacing words

 

– replacing ‘our obedience’ with ‘Christ’s obedience’

 

in Romans 6:16.

 

Can you believe

 

what this so-called world-renowned teacher is doing?

 

Can you stomach the fact that Joseph Prince

 

is actually tweaking the word of God in broad daylight?

 

When the text plainly says it is our obedience

 

that leads to righteousness (which is our role in sanctification),

 

he blatantly changed it to

 

– it is Christ’s obedience that leads to our righteousness (our justification through Christ’s death).

 

He deceptively interprets this sanctification verse

 

in Romans 6:16 with the justification lens,

 

and forces this sanctification verse

 

to be interpreted completely with a justification slant.

 

 

Let me reveal how Romans 6:16

 

ought to be correctly interpreted:

 

Romans 6:16 KJV

16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

 

Paul was stating 2 choices for the Romans.

 

It is either they continue to live a life of sin,

 

which reveals that they are still servants or slaves to sin,

 

and which leads to death,

 

“whether of sin unto death,”

 

or they must obey God,

 

which reveals that they are servants or slaves to God

 

as God is their master,

 

and hence this proves

 

that they possess true righteousness or true salvation:

 

“or of obedience unto righteousness?”

 

Paul is proving is that there is a vital connection

 

between not just our belief,

 

but also our obedience to righteousness or salvation.

 

This is because obedience, not just belief,

 

is an essential requirement of salvation,

 

and for all who would follow Christ:

 

Hebrews 5:9 NIV

and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him

 

Jesus made the promise of eternal life

 

only to those who obey (right behaviour) Him.

 

This truth about obedience

 

concerning the inheritance of our salvation

 

cannot get any plainer.

 

This means that besides the grace of God

 

and the faith of man (justification),

 

our obedience (sanctification)

 

has everything to do

 

with the inheritance of our eternal salvation. 

  

Saving faith is also an obedient faith.

 

One cannot claim to be a believer in Christ

 

if one fails to obey Christ.

 

One cannot believe without obeying.

 

Paul is asserting that there is no way to get round it:

 

Romans 6:16 KJV

16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

 

It is either we obey sin, which leads to death,

 

and are enslaved by it,

 

or we have been freed from sin to obey God

 

as His servants or slaves

 

– and hence, this proves

 

that we possess true righteousness or salvation.

 

This is the key connection

 

that Paul wants us to understand

 

in Romans 6:16

 

– that there is a vital link

 

between our obedience

 

and our true righteousness or salvation.

 

Paul is not teaching any strange idea

 

that Joseph Prince wants us to believe.

 

He is no more than echoing what Jesus teaches:

 

Jesus says:

 

John 11:25-26 NIV

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

 

But Jesus also says:

 

John 8:51 NIV

51 “Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.”

 

Did Jesus in John 8:51 say:

 

“If you have right-believing, or if you keep on declaring you have the righteousness of God in Christ (justification), as Joseph Prince always champions, you will never see death?”

 

No, but Jesus says that if you continue to obey (sanctification),

 

you will never see death.

 

There is no such thing as a believer who believes

 

but doesn’t obey.

 

A believer (justification) of Christ

 

is one who obeys (sanctification) Christ,

 

and the one who obeys Christ

 

is a believer of Christ.

 

Taking what Jesus says

 

in both John 8:51 and John 11:26 together:

 

John 11:26 NIV

26 “and whoever lives by believing in me will never die….”

 

John 8:51 NIV

51 “Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death,”

 

the Lord Jesus is clearly saying

 

that we will have to believe (justification) in John 11:26

 

and obey (sanctification) in John 8:51

 

so we will never die

 

and we will never see death.

 

Jesus is not only our Saviour and Redeemer

 

to save us from our sins when we believe in Him,

 

John 11:26 – justification,

 

but He is also our Lord and Master,

 

who requires us to obey Him,

 

John 8:51 – sanctification.

 

What Joseph Prince does is he will show you

 

just one half of the truth in John 11:26 (justification)

 

and hide from you the other half of the truth in John 8:51 (sanctification)

 

to promote his

 

‘justification-only salvation-without-sanctification’

 

salvation doctrine

 

– and such a half salvation doctrine can never save. 

 

“Faith (right believing or justification) and obedience (right behaviour or sanctification) are not repelling magnets but inseparable Siamese twins; both are essential to our salvation and one cannot do without the other.” (George Ong)

 

Paul did not just teach that the gospel

 

is to be believed (right believing),

 

he also emphasised that

 

it is something to be obeyed (right behaviour).

 

He warned the Thessalonians

 

that those who do not “obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus

 

will be punished with everlasting destruction” (2 Thess 1:8-9):

 

2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 NIV

8 “He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.”

 

To Paul, the gospel is not only to be believed (right believing),

 

but also to be obeyed (right behaviour).

 

The issue of faith must be clarified.

 

Faith is not just what one believes in the mind.

 

For faith to be genuine,

 

it must be a submissive and obedient faith.

 

We are saved not just to believe in Jesus (right believing)

 

but more importantly, to submit to and obey Him (right behaviour).

 

A faith that is disobedient and unsubmissive to Jesus

 

is not true faith.

 

This is why Paul mentions twice in his epistle to the Romans

 

the “obedience of faith” (Rom 1:5; 16:26).

 

The entire goal of Paul’s ministry

 

is not just to get believers to believe in Jesus in their minds,

 

but to bring about obedience, the “obedience of faith”

 

among all the Gentiles (Rom 1:5).

 

Obedience is the expression and evidence of true faith (Rom 1:5; 16:26). 

 

True faith is bound to produce obedience,

 

and obedience is the result of true faith (Rom 1:5; 16:26). 

 

So, in the end, no matter how one puts it,

 

one cannot avoid the fact

 

that both faith (justification, right believing)

 

and obedience (sanctification, right behaviour)

 

are essential for genuine salvation.

 

 

In a sermon on 23 Nov 2025,

 

his last sermon before he went on his long vacation,

 

Joseph Prince said:

 

Please click here to view the video:

 

“It opens chapter 1 with obedience of faith.

 

It ends the entire book. Last few verses, it says,

 

now this gospel has been disclosed and through the prophetic writings have been made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith. (Rom 16:26 ESV)

 

Right believing.

 

So, it’s a belief.

 

But Pastor, it says obey.

 

Obedience in the New Testament, I’m going to show you.

 

This is Book of Romans.

 

Both the first chapter and the last chapter,

 

the last few verses, talks about obedience of faith.

 

Show them.

 

Through whom,

 

Paul says, we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all nations. (Rom 1:5 ESV)

 

Obedience of faith.

 

Pray, tell me, how does that look like?

 

It’s right believing.

 

To God, when you believe right,

 

God says, that’s obedience.

 

That’s the highest form of obedience.”

 

George Ong’s comments:

 

In a teaching session, George Ong said:

 

Please click here to view the video:

 

George Ong’s comments:

 

Joseph Prince is simply reading his pet theology

 

of ‘right believing’ into the text

 

of Romans 1:5 and Romans 16:26.

 

All he is saying is that the interpretation

 

of ‘obedience to the faith’ is faith,

 

meaning believing or right believing

 

(believe is the verb for faith which is the noun).

 

If that is the case, why did Paul add the word ‘obedience’

 

to the phrase, ‘obedience to the faith’?

 

Where has the word ‘obedience’ ‘gone to’

 

in Joseph Prince’s interpretation?

 

He is indeed a magician that could make words

 

such as ‘obedience’ disappear in thin air.

 

Joseph Prince has to get rid of the word ‘obedience’

 

because it threatens his theology

 

– his theology is that obedience

 

is not essential for saving faith.

 

None of the 40 translations that I have checked

 

comes anywhere close to what he has interpreted.

 

Many of the well-respected Bible teachers

 

such as Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John Stott, AW Tozer and Kong Hee

 

did not interpret the text in his way.

 

 

In ‘Exposition of Romans Chapter 1, The Gospel of God,

 

expounding on Romans 1:5,

 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:

 

“Why should you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?

 

Is it in order to be delivered or to be helped?

 

Not at all!

 

God commands you.

 

Nothing less!

 

He calls for obedience.

 

… In other words, to believe the gospel,

 

to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,

 

is not a kind of ‘believism’,

 

which has so often made havoc in the church.

 

… There was a terrible heresy in the church

 

about one hundred and seventy years ago

 

called the Sandemanian heresy.

 

… It taught that all that a man had to do was to say

 

that he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and all was well.

 

It did not matter at all whether he felt anything.

 

It did not matter very much what his life was like,

 

as long as he said he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ

 

– ‘Confession is made with the mouth unto salvation’.

 

That was their great text.

 

That is a kind of ‘believism’ and, as l say,

 

it did lead to terrible havoc in the church.

 

… Now no-one can become a victim

 

of the Sandemanian heresy

 

if he remembers this phrase, ‘the obedience of faith’.

 

The whole man is involved.

 

You are not saved if you merely say

 

that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The whole personality must be involved.

 

… Now that is what believing in the Lord Jesus Christ means.

 

It does not merely mean a statement that we believe.

 

It does not merely mean acceptance with the intellect,

 

or giving assent with the intellect.

 

It means a surrender of ourselves,

 

a committal of ourselves,

 

the involvement of our whole personality.

 

According, then, to the Apostle’s teaching,

 

no-one really can be regarded

 

as having believed the gospel

 

who has not repented and turned from a life of sin

 

to a life of obedience to God in Jesus Christ.

 

Surely, believing the gospel

 

cannot mean anything less than that!

 

… Now we already glanced at this

 

when we were looking at the fifth verse,

 

where the Apostle says,

 

‘By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations’.

 

And you see the importance of emphasizing

 

this tripartite character, or nature, of faith,

 

because there are many who are tempted

 

to confuse faith and mere ‘believism’.

 

There are some people who are even taught to do that;

 

they are evangelized in that way.

 

Speakers say,

 

‘Do you believe this Word of God?’

 

The hearer says,

 

‘Yes, I do’.

 

‘Very well then, you are saved’.

 

But merely to say that you believe this Word of God

 

does not prove automatically that you are saved.

 

Are you persuaded?

 

Have you embraced the truth?

 

Have you made this confession

 

in connection with the obedience of faith?”

 

 

“Salvation apart from obedience is unknown in the sacred Scriptures… Apart from obedience, there can be no salvation, for salvation without obedience is a self-contradictory impossibility.” (AW Tozer)

 

“We admit no faith to be justifying, which is not itself and in its own nature a spiritually vital principle of obedience and good works.” (John Owen)

 

 

In ‘Paths To Power’, AW Tozer wrote,

 

“The Church of our day has soft-pedaled

 

the doctrine of obedience,

 

either neglecting it altogether

 

or mentioning it only apologetically and without urgency.

 

This results from a fundamental confusion

 

of obedience with works

 

in the minds of preacher and people.

 

To escape the error of salvation by works,

 

we have fallen into the opposite error

 

of salvation without obedience.

 

In our eagerness to get rid of the legalistic doctrine of works,

 

we have thrown out the ‘baby with the bath’

 

and gotten rid of ‘obedience’ as well.

The Bible knows nothing of salvation

 

apart from obedience.

 

Paul testified that he was sent to preach

 

“obedience to the faith among all nations.” (Rom 16:26)

 

He reminded the Roman Christians

 

that they had been set free from sin

 

because they had “obeyed from the heart

 

that form of doctrine which was delivered you.”

 

In the New Testament,

 

there is no contradiction between faith and obedience.

 

Between faith and law-works,

yes; between law and grace, yes;

 

but between faith and obedience, not at all.

The Bible recognizes

 

no faith that does not lead to obedience,

 

nor does it recognize any obedience

 

that does not spring from faith.

 

The two are opposite sides of the same coin.

 

Were we to split a coin edgewise,

 

we would destroy both sides

 

and render the whole thing valueless. 

 

So, faith and obedience are forever joined

 

and each one is without value

 

when separated from the other.

 

The trouble with many of us today

 

is that we are trying to believe without intending to obey.

 

The message of the Cross contains two elements:

 

(1) Promises and declarations to be believed, and

 

(2) commandments to be obeyed.

 

Obviously, faith is necessary to the first,

 

and obedience, to the second.

 

So, the apostle could speak of “obedience to the faith”

 

(Rom 1:5, 16:26) without talking contradictions.

 

And it can be said,

 

“The gospel is the power of God unto salvation

 

to everyone that believeth,” (Rom 1:16)

 

and “He became the author of eternal salvation

 

unto all them that obey him.” (Heb 5:9)

 

There is nothing incompatible

 

between these statements

 

when they are understood

 

in the light of the essential unity of faith and obedience.

The weakness in our message today

 

is our overemphasis on faith

 

with a corresponding underemphasis on obedience.

 

This has been carried so far that “believe” has been made

 

to double (up) for “obey”

 

in the minds of millions of religious persons.

 

The result is a host of mental Christians

 

whose characters are malformed

 

and whose lives are all out of proportion.

 

Imagination has been mistaken for faith,

 

and belief has been robbed of its moral content

 

and made to be little more than an assent to gospel truth.

 

And all this in the name of orthodoxy.

 

Without doubt,

 

the popular misconception of the function of faith,

 

and the failure of our teachers to insist upon obedience,

 

have weakened the Church

 

and retarded revival tragically in the last half-century.

 

The only cure is to remove the cause.

 

This will take some courage,

 

but it will be worth the labor.”

 

George Ong’s Comments:

 

AW Tozer had said it so well

 

that there is no more need for me to elaborate,

 

except to say that he, together with other men of God

 

hold to the biblical position

 

that obedience is an essential condition to salvation,

 

totally contradicting Joseph Prince’s doctrine

 

that obedience only refers just to right believing.

 

 

In his book, ‘The Message of Romans’ under the BST Series,

 

expounding on John 1:5, John Stott wrote,

 

“At the same time,

 

we note that this is the obedience of faith,

 

not the obedience of law.”

 

(George Ong’s Comments: Joseph Prince would always craftily teach that obedience is to fall back to the law, which John Stott would stoutly disagree.)

 

… For the proper response to the gospel is faith…

 

Yet, a true and living faith in Jesus Christ

 

both includes within itself an element of submission (cf Rom 10:3),

 

especially because its object is ‘Jesus Christ our Lord’ (Rom 1:4)

or ‘the Lord Jesus Christ’ (Rom 1:7),

 

and leads inevitably into a lifetime of obedience.

 

That is why the response Paul looked for was a total,

 

unreserved commitment to Jesus Christ,

 

which he called ‘the obedience of faith’.

 

This is our answer to those who argue

 

that it is possible to accept Jesus Christ as Saviour

 

without surrendering to him as Lord.

 

It is not.

 

Certainly, the Roman Christians had believed and obeyed,

 

for Paul describes them as being among those

 

who are called to belong to Jesus Christ (Rom 1:6).”

 

(George Ong’s Comments: John Stott had categorically stated that it is impossible to accept Jesus as Saviour and not Lord. Accepting Jesus as Lord doesn’t mean just perfunctorily saying it in the sinner’s prayer, but obedience to Christ as Lord must be evidenced as a lifestyle in one’s life.) 

 

 

In a sermon, Kong Hee said:

 

Please click here to view the video:

 

“The kingdom of God requires radical obedience

 

and willing surrender.

 

Nothing must stand in your way

 

of the rule of God in your life

 

if He’s going to be king in your heart.

 

The kingdom of God requires radical obedience

 

and willing surrender.”

 

 

The whole of the New Testament

 

contradicts Joseph Prince’s teaching

 

as it abounds with this message:

 

true faith is an active, obedient faith.

 

If one believes, one obeys.

 

 “Salvation is never earned by our obedience to God but neither can we finally be saved without the presence of it.” (George Ong)

 

“While works will never earn a man his salvation, obedience is necessary to validate it.” (George Ong)

 

 

In conclusion,

 

Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim and NCCS

 

ought to know by now

 

that the teaching on obedience by Joseph Prince

 

was contradicted by 4 prominent Bible teachers:

 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John Stott, AW Tozer, & Kong Hee

 

and many others, as proven in my many articles on my website.

 

So, why are they still supporting Joseph Prince?

 

Besides others, I can think of 2 probable reasons:

 

First, Joseph Prince has grown so big in his influence

 

that they are now too afraid or fearful to touch a big fish.

 

Leaders such as

 

Archbishop Titus Chung, Bishop Philip Lim and NCCS, 

 

who fear men rather than God

 

have no business to lead the Singapore Church.

 

Second, as I have already mentioned,

 

it is institutional self-preservation

 

– that they have chosen to toe the line of their predecessors

 

to maintain the lie that Joseph Prince isn’t a heretic

 

even though they know in their heart of hearts that he is,

 

and even though they know that by their ungodly actions,

 

they are putting their own sheep in danger

 

of being influenced by Joseph Prince

 

and be led to their destruction.

 

This is what is abominable!

 

Rev George Ong

 

Appendix

 

George Ong’s Comments to Romans 1:5 and 16:26:

 

The purpose of the gospel is not just to believe

 

but to obey (Rom 1:5, 16:26):

 

Romans 1:1-7 NIV

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.

 

Romans 1:5 GNT

5 “Through him God gave me the privilege of being an apostle for the sake of Christ, in order to lead people of all nations to believe and obey.”

 

Romans 1:5 ICB

5 “Through Christ, God gave me the special work of an apostle. This was to lead people of all nations to believe and obey. I do this work for Christ.”

 

Romans 1:5 NLT

5 “Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.”

 

Romans 1:5 TLB

5 “And now, through Christ, all the kindness of God has been poured out upon us undeserving sinners; and now he is sending us out around the world to tell all people everywhere the great things God has done for them, so that they, too, will believe and obey him.”

 

Paul said it so clearly that as an apostle,

 

he is called to lead people

 

not only to believe but obey. 

 

Paul is famous for his ‘justification by faith’ teaching

 

in the Book of Romans.

 

Yet, he never teaches (in the same Book of Romans)

 

that faith, to the exclusion of obedience,

 

is the only ingredient for salvation.

 

He stated it twice in Romans,

 

first at the beginning in Romans 1:5,

 

and at the end in Romans 16:26,

 

that people must not only believe but obey:

 

Romans 16:26 GNT

26 “Now, however, that truth has been brought out into the open through the writings of the prophets; and by the command of the eternal God it is made known to all nations, so that all may believe and obey.”

 

Romans 16:26 NLT

26 “But now as the prophets foretold and as the eternal God has commanded, this message is made known to all Gentiles everywhere, so that they too might believe and obey him.”

 

Romans 16:26 TLB

26 “But now as the prophets foretold and as God commands, this message is being preached everywhere, so that people all around the world will have faith in Christ and obey him.”

 

Paul wrote clearly that it is not just by faith,

 

but by ‘obedience of faith,’ (NASB)

 

or ‘they might believe and obey Him’ (NLT).

 

Paul treats obedience with such importance

 

that he opens the letter of Romans in Romans 1:5 on it

 

and closes in Romans 16:25-27 with it.

 

Where does obedience come from?

 

– It comes from faith.

 

Paul didn’t say it is by faith only or by obedience only,

 

but the two ingredients must be present

 

in authentic salvation

 

in the preaching of the gospel of grace.

 

We are saved by grace through faith,

 

but true faith will produce obedience. 

 

Though we are saved by faith and not by obedience,

 

obedience is the evidence of faith.

 

If there is no obedience in a person’s life,

 

then the faith he claims to possess is inauthentic.

 

Just as there must be coldness in ice,

 

obedience must be present in true faith.

 

If ice is not cold, then it is not ice,

 

so if faith has no obedience, it is not true faith.

 

It is people like Joseph Prince

 

who corrupts what Paul taught.

 

He libelled Paul because he said that Paul teaches

 

that salvation is only gained through justification by faith

 

minus sanctification,

 

and Joseph Prince further teaches

 

that to include obedience as a condition for salvation

 

is legalism. 

 

Paul never taught such utter nonsense

 

that Joseph Prince has spewed out.

 

The purpose of the gospel is to bring about a faith

 

that must be characterised by obedience.

 

The faith that we possess must be marked by obedience.

 

The phrase, ‘the obedience of George,’

 

clearly means that George demonstrates obedience.

 

Another phrase, ‘the joy of salvation,’

 

plainly implies that salvation is characterized by joy.

 

Paul did not just teach that the gospel is to be believed,

 

he also emphasised that it is something to be obeyed.

 

He warned the Thessalonians that those who do not

 

“obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus…will be punished with everlasting destruction” (2 Thess 1:8-9).

 

To Paul, the gospel is not only to be believed

 

but to be obeyed. 

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