Article 1: Joseph Prince’s ‘Animals Can Talk’ Bizarre Teaching has Lied against God & the Scriptures – By Rev George Ong
Article 2: Joseph Prince’s Law & Grace Teaching is Again Refuted & Invalidated by Martyn Lloyd-Jones – By Rev George Ong
These 2 articles are relatively short.
Don’t miss the short note of challenge to Joseph Prince in the ‘afternote’ at the end of the second article.
Joseph Prince’s ‘Animals Can Talk’ Bizarre Teaching has Lied against God & the Scriptures – By Rev George Ong (Dated 19 Sept 2022)
(This article was also sent to Rev Dr Ngoei Foong Nghian, General Secretary, National Council of Churches of Singapore (NCCS) office, and for the attention of the Executive Committee Members.)
In a weekly Sunday sermon aired on YouTube on 18 September 2022, yesterday, Joseph Prince said the following;
Please click here to view excerpts in the one-and-a-half-minute video:
“Because creation fell when Adam fell. When the head of the creation fell, all creation fell. That’s why the cows moo and the cats meow and the monkeys swing. Amen. All this is because man fell. Once upon a time, animals talk. Imagine your cat in the morning, ‘Yo, good morning!’ Imagine, how you feel? Amen. Wow and that’s normal. All creation fell.
We have a glimpse of this when Balaam’s ass, his donkey; I said Balaam’s ass. Modern times, you cannot say that, alright. He’s not talking to himself [sic]. His donkey spoke to him. Remember that. And someone says that God can use a donkey to speak. The donkey didn’t speak on behalf of God. God doesn’t use donkey to speak. He used his prophets. The donkey said, ‘Why are you hitting me?’ That’s not God talking. That’s the donkey talking for himself. God opened the mouth of the donkey; so, in other words, in the beginning, all animals can talk. ‘Why are you beating me like this? How come the food is the same every day?’ Imagine, your dog telling you that, ah! Amen. All creation fell.”
a. Joseph Prince’s Teaching is based on Mere Presumption.
Joseph Prince said,
“Because creation fell when Adam fell. When the head of the creation fell, all creation fell. That’s why the cows moo and the cats meow and the monkeys swing. Amen. All this is because man fell. Once upon a time, animals talk. Imagine your cat in the morning, “Yo, good morning!” Imagine, how you feel? Amen. Wow and that’s normal. All creation fell.”
“… so, in other words, in the beginning, all animals can talk.”
Joseph Prince’s teaching that animals could talk before Adam’s fall is bizarre.
Though this isn’t a major doctrinal point, it is still important for me to highlight in order to show how flippant Joseph Prince’s attitude is towards God and the scriptures. This same frivolous attitude is reflected in many of his teachings on his Grace Doctrine.
The teaching of Joseph Prince that before the fall of Adam, animals can talk like human beings do, is clearly an argument from mere presumption.
There is no biblical text that supports such an assertion. Yet, the way Joseph Prince teaches it is as if it is gospel truth.
With no biblical basis, Joseph Prince even dares to declare with authority that animals can talk before the fall.
b. Joseph Prince’s Blatant Self-Contradiction.
Joseph Prince said,
“Because creation fell when Adam fell. When the head of the creation fell, all creation fell. That’s why the cows moo and the cats meow and the monkeys swing. Amen. All this is because man fell. Once upon a time, animals talk. Imagine your cat in the morning, “Yo, good morning!” Imagine, how you feel? Amen. Wow and that’s normal. All creation fell.
We have a glimpse of this when Balaam’s ass, his donkey… His donkey spoke to him. Remember that.
One moment, Joseph Prince said that once upon a time before the fall of man, animals talk. But with the fall of Adam, all creation fell and that includes animals who now find themselves unable to talk.
The next moment, Prince now says that animals such as Balaam’s donkey could talk even though he was still living under Adam’s Fall.
If Adam’s fall caused all animals who could talk but now couldn’t, how then could Balaam’s donkey talk when he is still living under the curse of the Fall?
If that is not barefaced self-contradiction, I don’t know what is.
c. Joseph Prince is Lying against the Scriptures & God Himself.
Joseph Prince said,
“And someone says that God can use a donkey to speak. The donkey didn’t speak on behalf of God. God doesn’t use donkey to speak. He used his prophets. The donkey said, ‘Why are you hitting me?’ That’s not God talking. That’s the donkey talking for himself. God opened the mouth of the donkey;”
Numbers 22:21-33 NIV
21 Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite officials. 22 But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. 23 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, it turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat it to get it back on the road. 24 Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path through the vineyards, with walls on both sides. 25 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot against it. So he beat the donkey again. 26 Then the angel of the Lord moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. 27 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat it with his staff. 28 Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?” 29 Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.” 30 The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?” “No,” he said. 31 Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown. 32 The angel of the Lord asked him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. 33 The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared it.”
The episode of Balaam and his donkey was that Balaam was a pagan prophet, who led the Israelites astray (2 Pet 2:15-16). He was a covetous man (Jude 1:11) who prophesied for monetary gain.
King Balak of Moab, who feared the Israelites, enlisted Balaam’s help to curse them.
God knew that the real intention of Balaam who went ahead with the Moabites officials was to curse the Israelites, so He despatched an angel with a drawn-sword to stop him in his tracks.
Although Balaam couldn’t see the angel, his donkey could.
When the donkey refused to move because the angel of the Lord was blocking him, Balaam beat his donkey 3 times.
We then learned in Numbers 22:28,
Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?” (Num 22:28)
Balaam and his donkey began to communicate with each other; with Balaam reproaching his donkey for not moving forward.
The Lord then revealed to Balaam that it was the angel who had prevented it from going forward.
The fact that Balaam and his donkey carried on a rational conversation, with the donkey asking some questions of its own, only proves that the donkey was given not only the power to speak but also the power to reason and think.
We are all well aware that no donkey since time immemorial possesses the ability of speech nor the power to reason.
The only logical and scriptural explanation is that it was God who spoke through the donkey or that God was using the donkey to do His purpose by giving it the power of speech and reasoning.
Furthermore, the angel that stopped Balaam and his donkey, was called ‘the angel of the Lord’ – which could be a manifestation of the presence of God Himself (Gen 16:9-16; Ex 3:1-6).
Additionally, the question that the donkey asked in Numbers 22:28 was the same question that the angel of the Lord asked in Numbers 22:32:
Numbers 22:28, 32-33 NIV
28 Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”
32 The angel of the Lord asked him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me.
33 The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared it.”
The fact that the angel asked Balaam the same question as the donkey is a strong indication that the Lord was speaking through the donkey.
This is a crucial piece of evidence that God Himself, and not the donkey, was speaking.
Hence, when Joseph Prince said,
“And someone says that God can use a donkey to speak. The donkey didn’t speak on behalf of God. God doesn’t use donkey to speak,”
He is obviously lying against the scriptures and God Himself.
Joseph Prince said,
“God doesn’t use donkey to speak, He used his prophets. The donkey said, ‘Why are you hitting me?’ That’s not God talking. That’s the donkey talking for himself. God opened the mouth of the donkey;”
What Joseph Prince said in the above does not alleviate himself from the accusation that he was lying against God and the scriptures, if one were to compare what he said with what the Apostle Peter wrote:
2 Peter 2:15-16 NIV
15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16 But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey – an animal without speech – who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
First, Peter acknowledged that donkeys don’t talk. So, it must have been God who was speaking through the donkey in a human voice.
Second, Peter said that what was done through the donkey was to restrain Prophet Balaam’s madness to curse the Israelites.
Why would a donkey who was a mere animal be concerned about stopping Balaam from cursing the Israelites, except it be the Almighty God Himself?
Though God often uses prophets to speak to His people, He is not limited to them.
He can use anything He wants to speak to us or to get our attention.
Just as He had used the ravens to feed Elijah, the big fish to swallow Jonah and later release him to land, He had also used the donkey to speak and reason with Balaam as to why it couldn’t move forward with the primary aim of preventing Balaam from cursing the Israelites.
If God could bring about the virgin birth, and make Christ who was in the flesh to rise from the dead, what is there to stop Him from making the donkey talk and to bring about His purposes.
Joseph Prince’s Law & Grace Teaching is Again Refuted & Invalidated by Martyn Lloyd-Jones – By Rev George Ong
(This article was also sent to Rev Dr Ngoei Foong Nghian, General Secretary, National Council of Churches of Singapore (NCCS) office, and for the attention of the Executive Committee Members.)
In a weekly Sunday sermon aired on YouTube on 18 September 2022, yesterday, Joseph Prince said the following;
Please click here to view excerpts in the 12-second video:
“But there is also a contrast. Like you find that the law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. That’s why Church, you are not under the law… No, we are under grace.”
In his book ‘Studies in the Sermon on the Mount’, Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:
“But let us remember also that it is equally possible so to overemphasize emphasize grace at the expense of law as, again, to have something which is not the gospel of the New Testament.”
“To say that because we are under grace we therefore have nothing at all to do with law and can forget it, is not the teaching of the Scriptures.
We certainly are no longer under the law but are under grace. Yet that does not mean that we need not keep the law.
We are not under the law in the sense that it condemns us; it no longer pronounces judgment or condemnation on us. No! but we are meant to live it (the law), and we are even meant to go beyond it (the law).
The argument of the apostle Paul is that I should live, not as a man who is under the law, but as Christ’s free man. Christ kept the law, He lived the law; as this very Sermon on the Mount emphasizes, our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. Indeed, He has not come to abolish the law; every jot and tittle has to be fulfilled filled and perfected. Now that is something which we very frequently find forgotten in this attempt to put up law and grace as antitheses, and the result is men and women often completely and entirely ignore the law.”
“The Christian is a man who of necessity must be concerned about keeping God’s law. I mentioned in chapter one the fatal tendency to put up law and grace as antitheses in the wrong sense.
We are not `under the law’ but we are still meant to keep it; the `righteousness of the law’ is meant to be `fulfilled in us’, says the apostle Paul in writing to the Romans. Christ coming `in the likeness of sinful flesh,… condemned sin in the flesh’.
Well; why? `That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit’ (Rom. viii. 3, 4). So the Christian is a man who is always concerned about living and keeping the law of God.”
Regarding the biblical understanding of law and grace, who do you trust – Martyn Lloyd-Jones a giant in expository preaching or Joseph Prince, the master deceiver?
Rev George Ong
Afternote:
In 2 previous articles, I had shown that the big guns of Bible exposition, namely, John Stott, David Pawson and especially Martyn Lloyd-Jones have all debunked Joseph Prince’s law and grace teachings (click below to read):
I had mentioned that Prince needs to have the courage to defend his teachings against especially Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who has massively torn his law and grace teachings apart.
But in Prince’s latest Sunday sermon yesterday (18 Sep 2022), he dared not even mention a single point of Lloyd-Jones’ refutation against his law and grace doctrine.
This only goes to show that Joseph Prince is a coward who could not bring himself to face Lloyd-Jones.
As you are now aware, in the second article, I have also featured more rebuttals of Lloyd-Jones against Prince’s law and grace doctrine.
Let’s see if Joseph Prince will rise above his cowardly silence and speak in defence of his grace doctrine against that of Martyn Lloyd-Jones this coming Sunday on 25 Sep 2022.