For Joseph Prince, who is a False Prophet to claim that He is being Persecuted by the True Church, is Almost a Joke – By Ang Lip Jin (Dated 25 Nov 2020)
“It is rather unsettling to note so many erroneous teachings by Joseph Prince in his recent Sunday sermons. Because of space, I will discuss just two.
First is the question of what is meant by the word ‘grace’. To Joseph Prince, it is equated with blessings (our earthly-minded kind), health and wealth. His thinking is that once we are the children of God, we “are born of grace, and we should take our place of sonship and enjoy all the blessings that God has for us”. There he goes again, promulgating his brand of grace theology, which is always about the blessings but never about sufferings (what carnal human minds envisage them to be). No wonder it clicks with people looking for such things. No wonder, his sermons have continued to influence more people; people of the wrong kind – people of carnality. People who are merely looking for blessings but put off by sufferings. A Christianity of blessing without suffering is not New Covenant Christianity and not the Christianity that Jesus embodies and teaches.
On the contrary, the Bible often links ‘grace’ to God in saving us from eternal damnation and making us his children, so that we become part of his family throughout eternity. We don’t deserve this treatment, but God is kind. It is about his way of atonement for our sins. Health and wealth are just gifts from God but they are not a given. Grace makes us free but not from conscience and sin as Joseph Prince falsely teaches. It makes us free men so we have the liberty to call God our Father, a liberty which slaves do not have. When we become children of God, He does discipline us, and sometimes such discipline can be severe, (not the Lovey Dovey child-discipline that Joseph Prince conjures). This is also part of His grace. If not, He could have abandoned us to our sins and wayward ways. We have to break out of this genie mentality of Joseph Prince of just equating grace with health, wealth and financial blessings of pay increase and job promotion. Even if we may not be in the best of health or have lots of money to spend, does that mean we do not have the unmerited favour of God? Not at all. He has graciously provided for our salvation and made us heirs in His heavenly kingdom.
Second, Joseph Prince mentioned: “Among the body of Christ, we all share the same heavenly Father, but we have different mothers. There are those whose mother is Hagar, and they are the ones who still insist on being under the law. Then there are those whose mother is Sarah – the true wife of Abraham – and they are the ones who are under grace.”
This is an untrue statement. Of course, the TRUE body of Christ does know that she is under the covenant of grace and not the covenant of law. The Book Of Galatians is crystal clear on this. Instead, Joseph Prince is trying to group those who embrace his hyper-grace theology (which is false grace), to be under the “Sarah”/grace camp, and put everyone else who does not buy his false grace theology, in the “Hagar”/law camp. By this type of segregation, he thus said “we have different mothers”. The fact is there is no “law” or “Hagar” camp as he made it out to be, to begin with, as far as the TRUE body of Christ, which preaches true grace is concerned (unless you have contemporary people like the Judaizers in Biblical times pushing for circumcision, observance of Jewish festivals etc., which would be quite absurd). While it is true that we are not to go back to the ceremonial laws, the moral laws must be obeyed. The latter is never done away with. Moral laws like not to steal, not to murder etc are universal laws. No true church of God is confused about that. The issue is not about the “Hagar”/law camp persecuting those in the “Sarah”/grace camp, which Joseph Prince has made an issue of. What is really happening is the TRUE church of God calling out and exposing Joseph Prince’s false doctrines, which he has deceptively twisted it as a form of persecution on him and his grace doctrine (which is false).
This specific issue about Joseph Prince claiming that the “Hagar”/law camp (which is us – but are actually preaching true grace) is persecuting the “Sarah”/grace camp (those who belong to Joseph Prince’s grace camp – but are actually preaching false grace) has to be unpacked. Regarding this, let me unveil what Rev George Ong had written about this same issue. He says it so well and I quote (italics).”
In one of his books, Joseph Prince wrote,
“In any case, I was not unprepared for the persecution. The Lord had warned me a long time ago that there was a price for preaching the gospel that Paul preached. He told me that people would call me names and persecute me. And the persecution has indeed come. But the persecution has come mainly from people who believe in justification through the law and man’s self-efforts.”
Joseph Prince is again using the usual straw man tactic to deceive the masses. The straw man tactic is one of his key strategies of deception. He said that “the persecution has come mainly from people who believe in justification through the law and man’s self-efforts.”
Joseph Prince is totally aware that no true evangelical church would believe that salvation is through the law and man’s self-efforts. He is fully in the know that our teaching is that no one can be saved by the law, and yet, after one is saved, he is expected to obey the law, not as part of justification, but sanctification. Yet, he has deliberately perpetuated the lie to deceive his congregation that it is the evangelical churches who hold to the false doctrine of justification by the law, are persecuting him for preaching his so-called true grace doctrine. If you don’t believe me, just ask Joseph Prince to name you just one true evangelical church or pastor “who believe in justification through the law and man’s self-efforts.” ‘I bet you to my last dollar’ that he can’t even name one unless that particular evangelical church or pastor has gone heretic.
So, have I now convinced you that Joseph Prince is concocting a lie to paint us with a legalistic brush so his congregation would be misinformed about us and view us with disdain? The use of emotions by Joseph Prince that he is being persecuted by others would draw even more sympathy to his cause, and his supporters’ fierce dislike, and resentment towards those who criticise his teachings would increase.
Joseph Prince is also well aware that only cults would teach a ‘justification by law and self-efforts’ doctrine – which is legalism. Such groups are no different from his group, which is also a cult – the only difference is, while they teach legalism, he teaches Antinomianism. Legalism is the reliance of ceremonial works such as circumcision as it was in the case of the Jews to attain salvation, while Antinomianism, which he is passionately preaching, is the doing away with God’s holy and moral laws entirely. The doing away with God’s holy law is an utterly sacrilegious act – it is tantamount to doing away with His character and His person.
So, the real picture is not that which is painted by Joseph Prince – that he is being persecuted by the true church. The real picture is that the true evangelical church is contending against his false Antinomian doctrine. But he has ‘cleverly’ turned things around and portrayed himself as the victim of persecution.
This is the first time I’ve ever heard – that true shepherds, who are trying to protect the sheep are persecuting ferocious wolves like him, who is devouring the sheep! Joseph Prince’s talent at twisting things around, spinning falsity to become truth and truth to become falsity is unmatched.
On a practical and down-to-earth level, it is rather ‘comical’ for Joseph Prince to claim that he is being persecuted. How can the richest pastor of the richest church in Singapore be persecuted? This must be the joke of the year! How can the pastor of the biggest church in Singapore be persecuted by pastors of much smaller churches? How can Joseph Prince who is adored by the world be persecuted by mere individuals who risk everything to publicly expose his heresies, when these same individuals are themselves ‘persecuted’ by some sections of the true church? How can Joseph Prince, having body-guards all around him during the Sunday services that his church members can’t even get anywhere near him, be persecuted? Who is he trying to kid?
By posturing himself as the one who is being persecuted, he has greatly insulted the many believers, especially in the poor Third World nations, who are the real victims of persecution. This means that Joseph Prince doesn’t even understand what persecution is. Persecution to Joseph Prince is when you have the dare to expose him for the heresies that he is deceiving the church with.
He sure has the deceptive ability and evil inclination of painting the villain in him as the hero and the hero in others, who have the guts to criticise him and his teachings, as the villain who persecutes him. His ability to spin and redefine persecution to his own advantage as something that even applies to him, being one of the richest pastors in Asia and perhaps the world, is unequalled.
Ang Lip Jin
Attending Grace Assembly of God, Singapore