Joseph Prince & The Hyflux Fiasco – By Rev George Ong

 

Yesterday (22 July 2021), it was reported in The Straits Times that the High Court has approved the winding up of Hyflux.

 

This goes to show Joseph Prince’s claim that his grace doctrine was responsible for the success of Hyflux is now proven to be a scam.

 

When Hyflux was in its heydays, Joseph Prince trumpeted to the world that because the founder of Hyflux followed his prescribed grace doctrine of daring to ask big things from God, she succeeded. You can read the details in his book, ‘The Power Of Right Believing’, pages 274-282.

 

Because of space, I can only include two paragraphs of these pages.

 

In ‘The Power Of Right Believing’, Page 278, Joseph Prince wrote,

 

“She (Olivia Lum) shared with me (Joseph Prince) that when she walked out of the bank, she remembered a message that I had preached on being bold and asking God for big things. She said, “You told us not to insult God by asking only for small things. You said, ‘Ask God for big things, compliment Him, and have a positive, confident expectation of good.’” So she went home and before going to bed, she decided to step out in faith and ask God to do a big thing for her.”

 

In ‘The Power Of Right Believing’, Page 282, Joseph Prince wrote,

 

“How does a young girl… go from weaving rattan bags for a nickel to building a billion-dollar, public-listed company? My friend, that is the power of right believing. Olivia’s story is an amazing one, which tells of the goodness, favor, grace, and power of our God. I pray that you will be encouraged to see that nothing is impossible when you believe right in the person of Jesus and in His love and goodness. Ask God for big things. He loves you, and He has a track record of doing exceedingly and abundantly above all that we can ask, think, or even imagine (see Eph. 3:20).”

 

When Hyflux was doing well, Joseph Prince proclaimed loudly to the world that Hyflux succeeded financially because the founder believed and practised his grace doctrine.

 

But when it was reported in the Newspapers at the beginning of 2019 that Hyflux became embroiled with financial difficulties and later reports indicated that the founder of Hyflux and its directors were under criminal investigation for suspected false and misleading statements and corporate governance breaches, Joseph Prince kept absolutely quiet as a mouse about it.

 

One question that needs to be asked is – did Joseph Prince’s grace doctrine, which he claims in his book to have brought about Hyflux’s financial success, really work? If it did, why is Hyflux laden with financial problems? Why is it being placed under criminal investigation? Why is it in the final process of being wound up?

 

Friends, the truth is Joseph Prince trumpets only on the so-called successful cases, while hiding from you the many other cases of people who have floundered under his ministry. As the case of Hyflux may prove, even the so-called successful cases, may not be a true reflection of it after all.

 

Joseph Prince only knows how to claim credit for his success. That’s what he did when he held up the founder of Hyflux as the poster girl of his so-called successful grace doctrine.

 

But when they falter, as in the case Hyflux, he doesn’t want to have anything to do with it by keeping quiet about it. This is the kind of man you are dealing with.

 

When a believer tastes prosperity because he has so-called followed the hypergrace principles, Joseph Prince gets the credit. Such success will be shared over the pulpit in the weekly Sunday services. Joseph Prince’s name will always be mentioned as the reason for the person’s accomplishment. 

 

But when a believer does not experience wealth or is not healthy or even sickly, the ‘blame’ is placed on that individual for not having enough faith or doesn’t have enough revelation to experience the wealth or health that he should have experienced. 

 

Don’t be deceived by the many so-called testimonies that Joseph Prince frequently and anxiously belts out in his weekly worship services every Sunday to prove the efficacy of his grace doctrine.

 

Matthew 7:15-20 NASB

¹⁵ “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? ¹⁷ So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ So then, you will know them by their fruits.”

 

Matthew 7:20 says, “… you will know them by their fruits.”

 

But the application of the fruit test is not entirely easy, simple or straightforward. You have to wait until the fruit has appeared. There is the danger of being too excited about the fruit prematurely once some semblance of it starts to appear, only to realise that the fruit is rotten.

 

You have to wait until you have the opportunity to examine the fruit closely and carefully. You cannot always recognise the tree or the fruit at a distance. Even when you examine it closely, you may not immediately see if the tree is diseased or if the fruit is rotten with maggots and worms crawling inside it. So what is needed is not a superficial but critical assessment of the fruit of the false teacher, such as Joseph Prince.

 

Don’t be deceived – just as true teachers can be counterfeited; the fruit of false teachers can be fabricated too. The great deception is that even the counterfeited fruit of false teachers can appear so genuine. The fruit of false teachers which appears so real at a distance could turn out to be fake on closer scrutiny.

 

Don’t judge fruit by the short term; the authenticity of fruit can only be established in the medium or long term. Fruit must be given time to prove its authenticity.

 

And Joseph Prince has capitalised on the initial and short-term success of Olivia Lum to mislead the people about the truth and efficacy of his grace doctrine.

 

Don’t be deceived – the short-term result that Joseph Prince frequently shares about the many testimonies that he belts out, does not necessarily equal to permanent success or genuine fruit.

 

Finally, instead of warning people that their desire for wealth and to be very rich, can choke them to their spiritual death, unbelievably, Joseph Prince encourages them to pursue the very thing that could result in their eternal ruin (1 Tim 6:8-10).

 

God’s true shepherds would never bring about your destruction, but only the devil’s wolf would.

 

Be warned that if you blindly follow after Joseph Prince’s ‘every-believer-must-be-very-rich’ false doctrine, you are allowing covetousness to gain a foothold in your life. And the sin of covetousness would lead, not just to your earthly ruin, but also to your eternal destruction (1 Tim 6:9-10).

 

Because Hyflux is now being wound up, The Straits Times dated 22 July 2021 (yesterday) reported that “the long-suffering 34,000 retail investors … will likely end up with nothing.”

 

In the same report in The Straits Times, Sias president and chief executive David Gerald said,

 

“I am saddened by the result, but the court was very patient and accommodative. I feel sorry for the (PnP investors) who may now end up getting nothing.

“They put their trust in (founder) Olivia Lum and the board entirely. These are small investors and they have lost their investments.

“Those responsible for bringing down Hyflux will have to live with their conscience.”

 

If Joseph Prince has a conscience, he must repent from his Prosperity Gospel doctrine, as he was the one who encouraged the founder of Hyflux “… not to insult God by asking only for small things…” but to “… Ask God for big things…”

 

 

Hypergrace Scam – By Dr Chris Kang

 

Prosperity hypergrace preachers love to market the ravenous gospel of health and wealth camouflaged by the sheepskin of faith directed to a self-concocted Christ. Not quite Christ but a perversion of Christ, an imaginary pseudo-Christ born of the preachers’ own covetous imagination.

 

The prospect of great wealth through a hypergrace-caricatured Jesus is massively enticing. Who amongst us do not want to get rich and have more money? But if you observe carefully and even conduct an empirical study, we may find very few people, if any at all, actually getting rich through this hypergrace scam. Even if there are a handful, I bet it is not statistically significant compared to other money-making schemes in the world.

 

How many people among the 30,000, 40,000 or 100,000 devotees of prosperity hypergrace churches actually strike it rich through their blab-it-and-grab-it religion? A cursory observation will tell you that the only people seeming to get rich, dress and adorn themselves luxuriously, drive BMWs, live in giant private houses or apartments, redo their hair every week or every few weeks, overhaul their wardrobe every so often, receive six-figure salaries in multiples are the pastors and leaders themselves. While the material source of their money comes from the congregation, the spiritual source might be more sinister: I believe it is satan himself, not God.

 

These same beneficiaries of huge wealth transfers from congregation to pastorate further justify their actions and assuage the angst of their crowds by uttering something like this: “Just as anointing from God trickles down from the head down to the lower body parts, similarly all of God’s blessings will trickle down from the church leaders to the least among the congregation. So wait your turn!” If this is not blatant exploitation, I don’t know what is. Sounds like neoliberal capitalist trickle-down economics if you ask me: a fantasy concocted by the same people who claim capitalism is from God! What’s the biblical evidence for such a sweeping claim?

 

As believers and disciples of Christ, we need to be vigilant and call out falsehoods whenever and wherever we find them. It is time to call out the wolves in sheep’s clothing amongst us, wolves who are fleecing the flock in broad daylight by preaching a perverted gospel that is not the gospel. A marketing ploy and religious scam is not going to save our souls. But the real Jesus, the One who bore the cross for us and calls us even now to bear our own cross in His name, surely will. Be not deceived, my friends. The hypergrace “Jesus” is not my Jesus. Neither should it be yours.

 

 

Devil of a Genie – By Dr Chris Kang

 

In my view, the false God of hypergrace is a genie-like entity supposedly – but not really – subject to the command of a carnally insatiable devotee. Except that this is no God of the Bible but the god of this world – satan. In fact, I believe the god of this world that is the god of hypergrace is a trickster. He overpromises and underdelivers. Actually no, he counter-delivers: delivering all who worship him into despair and degeneration now, and finally into the unquenchable fires of hell. This devilish genie promoted by hypergrace teachings is extremely crafty and dangerous. We get lulled into thinking we are “heirs of this world” when in fact being such is tantamount to being heirs of wrath.

 

Promoters of the hypergrace scam would point to so-called positive testimonies of healing or prosperity as evidence for the efficacy of hypergrace. Yet, a little reflection would show the fallacy of this argument.

 

Compared to the numbers of unfulfilled hypergrace prayers, the numbers of fulfilled ones are probably in the small minority. There is little incentive for the majority to write in failed stories and even if they do, would the hypergrace movement publish them? For the minority of so-called success stories, this occurrence is not surprising.

 

The devil is capable of signs and wonders too, as the Bible teaches. And in his whim and fancy, he may decide to manifest healing or prosperity on select individuals he finds susceptible to deeper deception, who would subsequently provide free advertising and promotion of himself through teachers of hypergrace. No love or grace here, folks. The devil is capable of neither.

 

Also, God in His sovereign mercy and compassion may grant healing and provision to hypergrace devotees for His own good purpose and for the good of the oppressed and afflicted. It is not for us to fathom His purposes but we do know it is ultimately meant and effected by God for our good and his glory. What is clear is this: God is ultimately in total control even if satan is allowed to unleash himself on the world – for the time being. He will be chained up before long.

 

Satan the deceiver and trickster (through hypergrace ministries) is the genie-like god of hypergrace who brings nothing but pain and destruction here and now, and eternal damnation in the end.

 

My word of caution is this: let not temporary pleasures and seeming carnal success fool us into worshipping this demonic genie of hypergrace ideology. Much less entrench ourselves in the satanic clutches of this malevolent entity. If we are in this mess already, it is wise to get out and get saved before it is too late.

 

If you have missed reading Dr Chris Kang’s testimony about how he came out of New Creation Church, please read it here (click).