4 Malaysians: Rev Arnold Rajan, Matthiew Lau, Charles Pitan & Wilson Kwan’s Open Letters to National Council of Churches of Singapore (NCCS) (Dated 19 Oct 2021)
Open Letter to National Council of Churches of Singapore (NCCS) – By Rev Arnold Rajan
(This Letter was also sent to NCCS office.)
Dear Rev Dr Ngoei Foong Nghian (General Secretary of NCCS), and for the attention of the Executive Committee Members.
(AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL CHURCHES AND CHRISTIAN LEADERS)
“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” (Jude 1-3).
How true and pressing are these words in our current time. Perverting the grace of God into a license for immoral living is an old devil. That devilish teaching has reared its head again in our days in the form of the so-called “hyper grace.” I prefer to use the term that Bro. George Ong uses, “pseudo grace” for that is actually what this unscriptural doctrine really is.
I am writing this out of concern and not of any personal grudge as I do not know Joseph Prince nor have I ever even seen him personally. But as the apostle Paul names the false teachers in his Pastoral Epistles (e.g. Hymenaeus and Philetus – 2 Timothy 2:17), I feel we must also be daring to call a spade a spade. I have listened to 30 plus of his sermons to see if his teaching is false as I have heard many say that and my conclusion is yes, false and dangerous.
1. Cherry picking – in his sermons Joseph Prince will use Old Testament passages and always “explaining” them in such a way to fit his doctrines. But when other Old Testament passages are quoted to confront his teachings, his response is “that is the Old Testament.” In fact, I have heard him say this a few times. He goes to the Old Testament when it suits him but rejects it when it is problematic for him. He is not sure of his hermeneutics it seems. Such a person should not be speaking authoritatively when he dilly dallies like this. It amazes me, doesn’t his devotees see this?
2. Blatant twisting of scriptures – this is becoming the hall mark of Joseph Prince’s teaching. What is simple and straight forward is twisted to suit his doctrines. What is so difficult about passages such as 1 John 1:9? Any new convert can read this verse and understand it. But no, not for the members of this group. Joseph Prince has to work hard by inserting ideas not found in the passage to twist it to mean what it does not mean. In hermeneutics we learn “when the plain sense of the text makes common sense, seek no other sense.” Otherwise, you end up with nonsense, which is what the members of this group are being fed. If only the members of NCC were to pick up hermeneutics and apply it when they read their Bible, most of them would have known the blatant errors in Prince’s “interpretation” and would have confronted him for an explanation or on seeing that this is his norm would have left knowing that they are not being taught the truth of the scriptures.
3. Pseudo-Greek knowledge – it is ok to refer to the Hebrew or Greek words as all Bible teachers do when needed. I do it too. But simply looking at the root word is not the same as knowing the Biblical languages. One cannot simply choose a word from the semantic range and apply as one likes without keeping in line with the context. I am so glad to see that Bro. Asher has risen up to expose Prince’s misinterpreting the Greek (as well as the Hebrew). Surely there are many out there who do know the Biblical languages and are aware of Prince’s mishandling of the Biblical words but sadly why hasn’t anyone come forward to expose Prince’s errors. Once again, kudos to Bro. Asher who is boldly exposing these mishandlings of the Biblical words.
4. Rejecting New Testament Scriptures – I can understand when one says such and such a passage from the Old Testament is not binding on Christians but to make the same claim on New Testament books shows the extent one would go to protect his doctrines. I know that proper hermeneutics must be used in the Gospels but to make a blanket claim that the teachings of Jesus before the cross is not for us is unbelievable. Most of the teachings of Jesus were before the cross and to claim that one is a follower of Jesus but will not follow His teachings is ludicrous. The Lord commissioned His apostles to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20) is still applicable. What was commanded to the apostles are to be taught to us. Almost all that the Lord commanded His disciples were before the cross.
I can go on and talk about his frequent claims of God speaking to him to justify and to self-authenticate his sermons. But the few points I have raised are sufficient to show that this (Joseph Prince) is no Bible teacher. He may have started well but has certainly swerved away from the right path and is taking thousands with him on his slippery slope. My main concern is the mindset that one may have if one adheres to this false grace teaching. Prince never once says that you can go and sin. But if you listen to his messages continuously the idea one will get is, its ok to live in sin, in fact, don’t even call it sin anymore. If a non-Christian lives sexually immoral it is a sin but if you are a Christian, it is ok? Even the world will laugh if one was to say that what the world calls sin is no longer sin for a Christian.
A pastor once shared with me about a couple (not from NCC) who were devout and active in church but somehow came under the influence of the “hyper-grace” teaching, the same heresy that Prince is promoting. This couple now are both having affairs and don’t see anything wrong with it because God had already forgiven them and their immoral living is no sin at all. Reminds of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 5:1-6 – “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh] so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?”
What would Joseph Prince do with such a passage? What would Joseph Prince do if this couple were in his church? Many leaders warn their church about wolves in sheep’s clothing and about false teachers. But what do you do when one appears? Be silent so as not to get into problems and just let the many be misled? Time to call a spade a spade. At least be vocal about the teaching that is damning the souls of thousands.
Rev Arnold Rajan
Senior Pastor
City Tabernacle KL, Malaysia
Open Letter to National Council of Churches of Singapore (NCCS) – By Matthiew Lau
(This Letter was also sent to NCCS office.)
Dear Rev Dr Ngoei Foong Nghian (General Secretary of NCCS), and for the attention of the Executive Committee Members.
I’ve been a Christian for 40 years and have been exposed to the teachings of many denominations. I’m just a nobody but with a passion for God’s truth.
Over the 40 years, I had attended many Christian seminars, conferences, Bible Study classes and had read and studied a few hundred Christian books.
I had also attended Joseph Prince’s health and wealth hyper-grace conference in Malaysia. I had read 2 of Joseph Prince’s books (‘Destined To Reign’ & ‘Unmerited Favor’) and other hyper-grace books by different authors, such as ‘The Naked Gospel’ by Andrew Farley.
I also read the writings of those who wrote against the hyper-grace teachings of Joseph Prince. In particular, I had read through 100 percent of Rev George Ong’s 4,800 pages of notes and also viewed 100 percent of all the 129 videos that he had put up on his website. You may think I’m exaggerating. No, I’m not. I am speaking the truth.
With all that I’ve read and studied, and most importantly, with the Bible and God-given conscience as my guide, I strongly concluded that the health and wealth and hyper-grace teachings of Joseph Prince are not only obviously false but they can also lead believers to become worldly and what is worse is, they are spiritually destructive.
The teachings of Joseph Prince have twisted Bible truths so badly, that to me, they are only suitable for people ‘who have gone crazy’. I do not mince my words.
To keep it short and simple, let me list below some of the Bible teachings spoken by Jesus and the apostles:
– repent and sin no more
– sins are to be confessed to be forgiven
– If you continue to sin unrepentantly, no power or sacrifices will be able to save you
– make every effort to enter through the narrow door (salvation)
– one who does the will of God will enter the Kingdom of heaven
– faith without works is dead, useless and cannot save
– God’s law is with us until heaven and earth pass away
Are these teachings applied to Christians and the people Jesus and the apostles spoke to for only once? Definitely not! These teachings are spiritual guiding principles to be applied to all Christians at all times – past, present and future. The Bible is full of spiritual guiding verses. Read and study them for yourself.
But Joseph Prince teaches against all that I have listed. He doesn’t teach the Bible in an honest and objective way. He picks and chooses only those teachings that appeal to him but those teachings that contradict his Grace Doctrine, he either keeps silent on them by not teaching them or he speaks openly against them.
The Great Commission is one clear example. I’ve learnt from Rev George Ong that Joseph Prince doesn’t touch on this topic even once in his teaching and preaching to his congregation for the last 20 over years of his ministry.
How can a true Bible teacher, which Joseph Prince claims himself to be, not teach on the Great Commission? The Great Commission is Jesus’ command for every church in every nation and generation to be obeyed. Any person who dares to leave this out of his doctrine is clearly a heretic.
I also learnt that Joseph Prince did something far worse. He replaced the Great Commission, which is the true gospel with his Grace Revolution message, which is the false gospel.
It is a false gospel because it contains many half-truths (like just believing and no repenting, and only believing and no obeying). Half-truths which distort the gospel is no different from heresies. It is not the true gospel that convicts people of sin but it is a cheap gospel that makes people feel good. Preaching half-truths and cheap grace can never be associated with a true teacher of God’s word.
Therefore, I pray that NCCS will make the right spiritual decision that is good for the spiritual wellbeing of all Christians not only in Singapore but also the world. More importantly, it must be based on the truth of God’s word.
But if NCCS should ever declare Joseph Prince as not a heretic, and for their decision to be credible, it must be able to defend against all the important and clear evidence that Rev George Ong has produced and marshalled in his website.
I can speak confidently and with conviction because, as I have said, I have read through 100 percent of the 4,800 pages of notes and viewed 100 percent of his 129 videos on his website, and they make very sound and strong biblical sense to me. This isn’t just my opinion but that of almost all who had written their Open Letters to NCCS and many others who had written articles in his website.
A special contribution of Rev George Ong to the analysis of Joseph Prince’s heresies is that not only does he cover Joseph Prince’s books but he has also covered many excerpts of his sermons captured on videos.
This is important as Joseph Prince’s heresies are not just seen in what he has written in his books, but also what he has uttered from his mouths in his videos. It is Joseph Prince’s sermons captured on his videos that many of his heresies are uttered, and these heresies may not be captured in his books.
Hence, any decision by NCCS, must give weight to the heresies that Rev George Ong has surfaced in Joseph Prince’s videos.
If NCCS does not take this into consideration, and if they should ever declare Joseph Prince as not a heretic, their decision cannot be accepted as the major evidence to the issue has been left out either deliberately or inadvertently.
Lastly, it is very important to know who we are worshipping. We are to worship the true God in spirit and in truth. False teachers, such as Joseph Prince, who leads believers astray to worship another god and another Jesus, will be punished greatly.
Shalom Amen,
Matthiew Lau
Attending Calvary Church, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Open Letter to National Council of Churches of Singapore (NCCS) – By Charles Pitan
(This Letter was also sent to NCCS office.)
Dear Rev Dr Ngoei Foong Nghian (General Secretary of NCCS), and for the attention of the Executive Committee Members.
I’m a Malaysian and I live in Miri, Sarawak. I attend Borneo Evangelical Church (BEM).
I am writing to you as a concerned member of the body of Christ because of the huge numbers of people, especially Christians in Malaysia (my beloved country), who are influenced by the hyper grace teachings of Joseph Prince.
I don’t have any personal issues with Joseph Prince. My main issue of contention is about his twisted teachings and the harm they have done to the millions of lives who are heading for eternal destruction in hell.
I, too, was once impressed and influenced by his ‘sweet’ and ‘feel good’ teachings about health, healing, prosperity, wealth, long life, success, etc. But thank God that He through the Holy Spirit had convicted me that many of Joseph Prince’s teachings are nothing more than heresies.
While it is not wrong for believers to enjoy the blessings of health and wealth, it becomes sorely wrong for Joseph Prince to teach that every Christian is expected to be very wealthy and every Christian will always enjoy perfect health.
Those who are not wealthy will start to dream to be wealthy. Those who are already wealthy will work to becoming very wealthy. And you know what is going to happen. Soon greed will take hold of their lives and the result would be horrendous. Paul warned that covetousness for wealth can even lead one to their eternal ruin and destruction (1 Tim 6:9-10).
Regarding perfect health, those who find themselves sickly will soon feel condemned for not experiencing the good heath that Joseph Prince promises and this could lead to self-guilt that could devastate them psychologically and spiritually. Mind you, these are what would happen to those who embrace Joseph Prince’s teachings.
Rev George Ong had done an excellent job in detailing all the heresies of Joseph Prince on his website. I myself, have read through almost 100 percent of his 4,800 pages of notes and viewed about 50 percent of the 129 videos on his website. After perusing these resources, and comparing with what the word of God says, I can confidently say that Joseph Prince is 100 percent a heretic.
Before NCCS makes a decision, they would need to take into account these resources in Rev George Ong’s website. It is not just my opinion but also the opinion of many others that Rev George Ong’s website contains excellent and exhaustive resources about Joseph Prince’s teachings.
If NCCS fails to take into serious consideration what is written in Rev George Ong’s website and eventually declares Joseph Prince as not a heretic, this only proves that they have already made up their minds regardless of the facts. Such a decision will definitely cause an uproar to arise from the ground. I, myself, for one, will not take this lying down.
I believe there are thousands of Malaysian Christians who are influenced and are now living under the bondage of Joseph Prince’s false teachings. This is evident in conversations and social media postings. Needless to say, millions, all around the world, are watching his sermons on YouTube.
While NCCS cannot be held responsible for how each Christian would respond to Joseph Prince’s teachings, they, as the top leadership of Singapore, are responsible to keep heretics, such as Joseph Prince, out of the Church.
Because they have not performed their basic responsibility of expelling Joseph Prince, the unrepentant heretic, today, not just Singapore, but also Malaysia and the rest of the world have to cope with such heresies that have permeated the churches.
This is the reason why I cannot keep silent anymore. This is why I am taking courage, as Rev George Ong and others have done, to write to NCCS to oust Joseph Prince and his church from NCCS. It is their duty and power to do so.
I’m saddened to read about NCCS’ first reply to Rev David Liew of the Methodist Church of Singapore, suggesting him to work through his denominational leadership. Is the NCCS, after reading my letter, going to suggest to me to refer to BEM leadership for action?
You mean NCCS is not the one who should be responsible for such a decision? What are those in the NCCS for? – to decide on such crucial issues. If NCCS cannot do what is right and defend the truth, why continue to sit in NCCS?
Rev George and many others have done their part to highlight to the Christian public about the menace of Joseph Prince’s heresies.
Now, in comradeship together with them, I ask that you make the right decision to act against Joseph Prince, who has been teaching heresies for the last 20 years and leading the multitudes of souls to hell.
I am still praying that you will take courage and finally stand for the truth. While you may or may not be able to stop Joseph Prince from preaching his heresies, but as long as you didn’t warn him and deal with his heresies, his blood and the blood of millions of souls he has led astray will be on your hands (Ezekiel 33:1-4, 8-9; Ezekiel 3:18).
Yours in Christ,
Charles Pitan
Attending BEM Pelita, Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia
Open Letter to National Council of Churches of Singapore (NCCS) – By Wilson Kwan
(This Letter was also sent to NCCS office.)
Dear Rev Dr Ngoei Foong Nghian (General Secretary of NCCS), and for the attention of the Executive Committee Members.
I am Wilson Kwan, and I worship at Faith Methodist Church. I was more Atheistic when I was younger until the Good LORD revealed Himself through sciences, logic, history and finally Scripture, and with that backdrop, I have since dedicated myself to serve Him in evangelism and apologetics.
I worship the Good LORD with my mind and it will be easy for me to quote scriptures about how Joseph Prince twists God’s Words to suit his misinterpretation of the Gospel and ‘widens’ the gates of hell, leading many to destruction.
The heresies that Prince preaches are so many that we can publish a book called “Answering Prince, a Scriptural response” to debunk his teachings.
However, after much prayerful consideration, I am not presenting that work to you today.
If you want to know in detail, Rev George Ong’s website has more than ample resources to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Joseph Prince’s teachings are not in line with the sound and core teachings of our Lord Jesus. Any teachings that deviate from that of our Lord Jesus must clearly be from a heretic. There’s never any doubt in my mind, from what Rev George Ong has written on his website, and from my own study of the scriptures, that Joseph Prince is indeed, a heretic and a wolf in sheepskin.
Instead, the Good Lord impressed upon my heart to go another approach, I am going to appeal to NCCS, using my testimony of what I have observed of the fruits of Joseph Prince. I am going to share four short stories of my interaction with four New Creation Church (NCC) believers.
Person One – The believer with the new interpretation of the Gospel
Person One believes that we are saved once we profess to believe in Jesus and our works are not going to bring us any closer to heaven (technically not wrong), but here’s where he is mistaken – we do not need to observe the moral law since Jesus has forgiven all our sins in the past, present and future.
When confronted with Scripture – you have to repent of your sins in order for the Saving Grace to take effect, he claims that:
(1) Repentance in Greek is nothing more than a “Change of Mind” (quoting Joseph Prince), to not to focus on your sins but look to Jesus for salvation. (Which we know, it is more than that, it is a Change of Mind to recognise what we do is wrong, also a Change of Heart to refrain and surrender it to God for His forgiveness, much like Psalm 51:17 – “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart”).
(2) The way that traditional churches look at repentance is an old way; this is the new interpretation and revelation of repentance given by God to Joseph Prince.
Person Two – The believer who believes that what God said before the Cross is not applicable
Person Two believes this – The Old Testament has little value at all other than to show how God gave the law and how we failed to comply, so Jesus came to fulfil the Law and we are free. And this takes effect when Jesus died on the Cross and what Jesus taught before the Cross are fulfilled as part of the Old Covenant, hence, they have no value for New Covenant believers.
I confronted her with the scripture where Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6:3, “the sound teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ”, and I asked her what has Joseph Prince to say about that?
She didn’t really answer the question but repeated her claims of what she learned from Joseph Prince – all the discipleship teachings of Jesus such as, “You must deny yourself”, “You must carry the cross daily” and “You must give up everything for my sake to be my disciple” are no longer applicable to New Covenant believers since they were said before the cross.
Person Three – The believer who believes confession of sin is wrong
Person Three believes that we are to confess our righteousness and not our sins, that is according to one of the sermons by Joseph Prince.
When confronted with 1 John 1:9, he showed me a Prince’s website (Now taken down, but the Google search result showed the once existence of this article, I still keep a pdf copy around) – essentially, 1 John 1 was not written for the Congregation but to the Gnostic, because unlike 2 John, this did not begin with a greeting to the Congregation until 1 John 2 – when it began with “My little Children”, so 1 John 1 was for Gnostics and 1 John 2 was for the Congregation.
This sounded logical at first glance until I showed my friend that the division of chapters in the Bible didn’t occur until after thirteenth century, so the whole epistle was one long letter without division into chapters. But despite that revelation, he still believes in Joseph Prince.
Person Four – The believer who refuse to listen to reason, who does not read Scripture but only the voice and writings of Joseph Prince.
Person Four is someone who does not read the Bible but professes to be a Christian (to be fair, not uncommon). And when I learned that she came from NCC, I asked her, did Scripture not tell us to be like the Berean Jews, examine every Spirit to see if they come from God, the response shocked me – “I just read Joseph Prince’s daily devotions, they are enough.”
And when I asked her, “Why don’t you go and read the Scriptures and test what Joseph Prince said to be true?”
Her response is – “I don’t have the capacity to analyse the scriptures, I believe in Joseph Prince.”
My response was, “What if I can show you Joseph Prince is wrong in some key doctrinal issues and I can quote scriptures to prove it.”
Her response was – “You can quote scriptures, Joseph Prince also can quote scriptures, I don’t want to know which is right and which is wrong. I believe in Joseph Prince because it works for me.”
These are just four stories out of the many that I have met and I have yet to meet one single person who is strong spiritually and scripturally and still worships in NCC.
To be fair, we can also observe such believers outside of NCC, but the concentration of such misguided believers seems unusually high among the NCC congregation; it doesn’t take a theology professor to deduce that some teachings within NCC are fundamentally contradicting the core discipleship teachings of Jesus which the Historic Church has continued to embrace and teach.
As we can see from the above NCC believers, whose beliefs are consistent with what Prince teaches, it will be wrong for us, not to declare such teachings as heresies and this self-proclaimed prophet (on multiple occasions, he claimed to have predicted Covid-19 amongst others) as a heretic.
Finally, one of the most common questions about false prophets: why did God allow Joseph Prince, the false prophet to come into the fore?
My response will be this, “God allowed false prophets to do two things:
(1) To test the people whether they would rather live in lies that are pleasant or to embrace the Truth which may be unpleasant (e.g. Isaiah 30:10) and
(2) to test the leaders in the church, whether are they going to stand with the LORD like Prophet Isaiah, Ezekiel or Jeremiah, rebuking such false prophets fearing no retribution from the world; or doing nothing against false prophets and even protecting them, and suffer retribution from the LORD.
As for me, I stand with the Truth of God’s Word, which is why I cannot let this go unmentioned. This is why I’m writing this letter to NCCS.
I urge NCCS to prayerfully consider removing NCC from the list of Christian Churches. The Council needs to openly rebuke the evil that is at hand so that people will know that is not the way of a true Church of Christ and the leader of NCC, Joseph Prince, is leading many astray with his heresies and to their eternal ruin.
Yours Sincerely,
Wilson Kwan
Attending Faith Methodist Church, Singapore