Part 1: Joseph Prince’s never-ending double-talks & self-contradictions about Jesus & the Scriptures give the impression that he is mentally unsound
Part 2: Joseph Prince has again used a text out of its context, this time, to prove his God-will-heal-everyone doctrine – thereby confirming he is the real con man & hypocrite
Part 3: Joseph Prince’s doctrine of perfect health that every believer can and will be healed based on Isaiah 53 & the cross was exposed by Zac Poonen and Gordon Fee to be false (Dated 9 Apr 2025)
Announcement:
More of what Joseph Prince wrote in Part 3
about healing in Isaiah 53
is given in the Appendix.
(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.)
Part 1: Joseph Prince’s never-ending double-talks & self-contradictions about Jesus & the Scriptures give the impression that he is mentally unsound
In the sermon on 6 Apr 2025, 3 days ago,
Joseph Prince said:
“You know I believe that when Jesus shared this sermon
(Sermon on the Mount) on the Mount of Beatitudes,
known as the Mount of Beatitudes.
It’s still there in Israel, we visit it.
Every time we go to Israel,
we visit that Mount of Beatitudes
because this wonderful word (of Jesus);
you can see the lilies of the field,
this word about the lilies of the field,
and the birds of the air
still rings throughout the mountains
because you can see them.”
So Joseph Prince said that the word spoken by Jesus
in the Sermon on the Mount
was a wonderful word.
Yet, on another occasion, Joseph Prince said:
“That means all the rest of His ministry,
3 and a half years is not,
it’s just milk, milk,
and it’s not the meat.”
One moment, Joseph Prince said
that the word spoken by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount
was a wonderful word.
The next moment, Joseph Prince said
during the 3 years of Jesus’ ministry,
which includes the words Jesus spoke
in the Sermon on the Mount,
were only milk and not meat.
How a wonderful word spoken by Jesus
be only milk and not meat,
will drive any sane person ‘crazy’.
This is just one of the countless of times
I have caught Joseph Prince for double-talking.
Yet, despite that,
the people would still choose to trust him.
This indicates the low mentality
and the deep bondage to Joseph Prince’s demonic spell
that his people are kept under.
Part 2: Joseph Prince has again used a text out of its context, this time, to prove his God-will-heal-everyone doctrine – thereby confirming he is the real con man & hypocrite
Last Sunday, 6 Apr 2025, 3 days ago,
immediately after one of Joseph Prince’s staff, Gabriel Tan
read the testimonies about healing,
Joseph Prince walked on stage
and said the following in his sermon:
“Praise the Lord
for all the wonderful (healing) testimonies, Amen.
If God did it for them,
He can do it for you.
God is no respecter of persons.”
Joseph Prince in saying that
“God is no respecter of persons”
– that if God can heal them,
He can heal you too
– he has used a text out of its context.
There are texts in the New Testament
that mentioned the phrase
“God is no respecter of persons”
or “God does not show favouritism”
or their equivalents:
Acts 10:34, Romans 2:11, Galatians 2:6,
Ephesians 6:9, Colossians 3:25,
1 Timothy 5:21 & James 2:1.
But none of these texts ties or relates such phrases,
“God is no respecter of persons”
or “God does not show favouritism”
to healing.
Let’s take Acts 10:34 as an example:
Acts 10:34 KJ
34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said,
Of a truth I perceive that
God is no respecter of persons:
If one reads the entire Acts chapter 10,
one would be clear
that the context is not about healing.
The context is Peter was making the point
that just as the gospel
and the gift of the Holy Spirit
came on the Jews,
they were also for the Gentiles
– and in that sense,
God is no respecter of persons.
Joseph Prince has time and again
accused others of preaching out of context
and he said those who preached a text out of its context
is a con man.
Now you know who is the real con man
and who is the real hypocrite
– as Joseph Prince keeps committing the same wrongdoing
of preaching texts out of contexts,
that he is accusing others of.
Part 3: Joseph Prince’s doctrine of perfect health that every believer can and will be healed based on Isaiah 53 & the cross was exposed by Zac Poonen and Gordon Fee to be false
Key Passages to the Issue:
Isaiah 53:4-6 NIV
4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Matthew 8:16-17 NIV
16 When evening came,
many who were demon-possessed
were brought to him,
and he drove out the spirits with a word
and healed all the sick.
17 This was to fulfill what was spoken
through the prophet Isaiah:
“He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.”
1 Peter 2:24-25 NIV
24 “He himself bore our sins”
in his body on the cross,
so that we might die to sins
and live for righteousness;
“by his wounds you have been healed.”
25 For “you were like sheep going astray,”
but now you have returned to the Shepherd
and Overseer of your souls.
Joseph Prince often argues from Isaiah 53
and passages in Matthew and 1 Peter
that healing is in the atonement
– that just as Christ has come to save us from our sins
when He was crucified on the cross,
He too, on the same basis of His death on the cross,
has come to remove our sicknesses
on this side of heaven.
Because of that, Joseph Prince argues
that every believer can and will be healed
as that is what God wants and loves to do.
In the sermon on 6 Apr 2025, 3 days ago,
Joseph Prince said:
“Healing is available. Amen.
Did He (Jesus) pay for that as well?
Did He purchase that for us?
Yes, on the cross.
That is why, some people say,
“By His stripes we are healed,”
some people tried to interpret that
and say; “O that’s spiritual healing.”
No, friend, we are not spiritually healed.
Joseph Prince said:
“Why then will He give up His Son?
Why did His Son on that cross
carried our sins as well as our diseases?”
But Zac Poonen and especially Gordon Fee,
who is an accomplished Bible scholar who is well-respected
by both the Pentecostal/Charismatic
and non- Pentecostal/Charismatic circles,
contradicted Joseph Prince’s teaching on healing.
In a teaching session, Zac Poonen said:
“In Isaiah 53 which speaks about the cross,
it says here, verse 5,
“He was pierced through for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him
and by His stripes we are healed
or by His scourging we are healed.”
Now, most charismatics and Pentecostals take that verse
to apply to healing from sickness
and say that Jesus died not only for the sins of the world
but also to heal us of our sicknesses.
Now we have to always compare the Old Testament
with where it is quoted in the New Testament
to understand truth correctly.
So if you turn to Matthew chapter 8,
we read of one of those prophecies in Isaiah
which is quoted here in verse 17, Matthew 8:17,
“This was to fulfil
what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet.
He Himself took away our insult,
took our infirmities and carried away our diseases.”
That is Isaiah 53:4.
But the point is, when was it fulfilled?
Matthew chapter 8 is not speaking about the cross.
Matthew chapter 8 is speaking about a time
when Jesus, verse 16,
were healed all who were ill.
And when he healed all the sick people who came.
If there were 2,000 there who were sick,
all 2,000 were healed. Not 90 percent.
Not 1 percent like we hear today. 100 percent.
They were all healed.
And that was to fulfil that He took away our infirmities.
Where did He take it away?
Right there.
He took away their sicknesses.
It’s not talking about the cross at all.
So does it mean that Jesus didn’t die for our sickness?
He died to take away the entire curse.
Sickness is a result of the curse that came upon Adam.
God did not curse Adam.
He cursed the ground.
You read in Genesis 10:3. When Adam sinned,
God says, “Curse is the ground.”
And it is that ground that which our body is made.
That’s why we get sick.
And until the curse is removed from our body,
sickness will come even to believers.
We got to face reality and not live in a world of delusion.
Our spirit has already been redeemed from the curse.
There’s no curse in my spirit.
But my body will be redeemed only when Christ comes.
We read in Philippians chapter 3.
You know if you compare scripture with scripture,
you can never go astray.
And you live in a world of reality
instead of living in a world of illusion
and deceiving other people.
Philippian chapter 3 it says, verse 20 (and 21),
“Our citizenship in heaven
from which we eagerly wait
for the Saviour Lord Jesus Christ
who will transform this body of our humble state,
this curse, this body
which is formed out of dust of the ground
which God cursed in Genesis chapter 3
will be transformed into the body of His glory.
That is the time when the body
will be redeemed from the curse
and there will be no more sickness.
But till then what does it mean
that by His stripes we are healed.
Well, the best is to compare scripture with scripture.
The Holy Spirit has inspired
the Old Testament and the New Testament.
So if you compare scripture with scripture,
you can’t go wrong.
If you just listen to the interpretation of some human being,
whether it’s me or anybody else, you can go astray
unless it’s based on scripture.
So in 1 Peter chapter 2,
it says here in the last part of verse 24.
1 Peter 2:24.
This word from Isaiah, Isaiah 53:4,
“By His wounds we are healed,”
is quoted there in verse 24 towards the end.
“By His wounds you are healed.”
That’s the verse we found in Isaiah.
But see the interpretation of it is the Holy Spirit
gives through Peter in that verse.
It doesn’t say He bore our sicknesses on the cross,
He bore our sins in His body on the cross
not so that we might be healed from sickness,
so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness
because by His wounds you are healed.
Healed from what?
From sin.
It’s so obvious in that verse.
So we find here that if you go by scripture,
you never live in a world of unreality, imagining
and claiming this which are not promised in scripture.
Does it mean that we cannot pray for healing
when we are sick?
Of course, we can pray for healing when we are sick
because James says in chapter 5, James 5, and verse 14,
“If anyone is sick, called for the elders of the church
and let them pray over Him.”
And it says here the prayer of faith, verse 15,
“The prayer offered in faith
will restore the one who’s sick.”
In ‘The Disease of the Health & Wealth Gospels’
Gordon Fee wrote:
“It is also questionable whether one can rightly argue
that the Bible teaches
that healing is provided for in the atonement.
Such a doctrine has in fact
been the position of historic Pentecostalism.
However, the “position paper” on divine healing
adopted by the General Presbytery
of the Assemblies of God (dated August 20, 1974)
makes it quite clear that the historic position
does not see healing in the atonement
in the same way as salvation.
Healing is “provided for” because the “atonement
brought release from the… consequences of sin”;
nonetheless, since
“we have not yet received
the redemption of our bodies,”
suffering and death are still our lot until the resurrection.
… While there are scores of texts that explicitly tell us
that our sin has been overcome
through Christ’s death and resurrection,
there is no text that explicitly says the same
about healing,
not even Isaiah 53 and its New Testament citations.
Matthew’s (Matt 8:16-17) use of Isaiah 53:4
does not even refer to the cross;
rather he clearly sees the text
as being fulfilled in Jesus’ earthly ministry.
This is made certain both by the context
and by his choice of Greek verbs
in his own unique translation of the Hebrew
(elaben = he took; ebastasen = he removed).
The citation of Isaiah 53:5 in 1 Peter,
on the other hand,
does not refer to physical healing.
The usage here is metaphorical, pure and simple.
In a context in which slaves are urged
to submit to their evil masters
– even if it means their suffering for it
– Peter appeals to the example of Christ,
which Christian slaves are to follow.
This appeal to Christ, beginning at verse 21 (1 Peter),
is filled with allusions to and citations of Isaiah 53,
all of which refer to Christ’s having suffered unjustly
as the source of the slave’s redemption from sin.
“He himself bore our sins (Isaiah 53:12, cf. 53:4
in the Septuagint)… that we might die to sin.”
He then goes on (1 Pet 2:24-25):
“By his wounds you have been healed (53:5),
for you were as sheep going astray (53:6).”
The allusions to both verses 5 and 6 (Isa 53),
joined by for and referring to “sheep going astray,”
plus the change to the past tense,
all make it abundantly clear that “healing” here
is a metaphor for being restored to health
from the sickness of their sins.
Such a metaphorical usage would be natural for Peter,
since sin as “wound,” “injury” or “sickness”
and the “healing” of such “sickness”
are thoroughgoing images in the Old Testament
(see, e.g., 2 Chronicles 7:14; Psalm 6:2; Isaiah 1:5-6;
Jeremiah 30:12-13, 51:8-9; Nahum 3:19).
Matthew (Matt 8:17) clearly saw Isaiah 53:4
as referring to physical healing,
but as a part of the Messiah’s ministry,
not as a part of the atonement.
Peter (1 Pet 2:24), conversely,
saw the “healing” in Isaiah 53
as being metaphorical
and thus referring to the healing of our sin sickness.
Thus, neither New Testament reference
(Matt 8:16-17 & 1 Pet 2:24-25)
sees the “healing” of Isaiah 53
as referring to physical healing in the atonement.
But what did Isaiah himself intend?
Almost certainly his first reference is metaphorical,
as the Septuagint, the Targums, and Peter all recognize.
Israel was diseased;
she was grievously wounded for her sins (Isaiah 1:6-7).
Yet God would restore His people.
There would come one who himself
would suffer so as to deliver.
In grand cadences of Hebrew poetry
(note the synonymous parallelism),
Isaiah says of him:
“The punishment that brought us peace
was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.”
In the context of Isaiah,
that refers first of all to the healing of the wounds
and disease of sin.
Yet, since physical disease was clearly recognized
to be a consequence of the Fall,
such a metaphor could also carry with it the literal sense,
and this is what Matthew picked up.
The Bible, therefore, does not explicitly teach
that healing is provided for in the atonement.
However, the New Testament does see the cross
as the focus of God’s redemptive activity.
In this sense
(and in the sense that sickness is ultimately
a result of the Fall),
one may perhaps argue
that healing also finds its focal point in the atonement.”
Finally, Joseph Prince, as he has always done,
is probably going to slander us again
by falsely accusing us of not believing that God still heals today.
On the contrary, Zac Poonen, Gordon Fee and myself
believe that God can and still heal today.
But for Joseph Prince to build and base
his healing doctrine of perfect health
on Isaiah 53 and the cross
– that God must heal every believer today
is what we are strongly against.
Rev George Ong
Appendix
In ‘Health And Wholeness Through the Holy Communion,
Joseph Prince wrote:
“The prophet Isaiah said,
“Surely He has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows…” (Isaiah 53:4, NKJV)
The Young’s Literal Translation or YLT Bible
provides a more accurate translation
for the words “griefs” and “sorrows”, stating that
“Surely our sicknesses He hath borne, and our pains
– He hath carried them…”
Similarly, in the Gospel of Matthew,
this verse was interpreted
as “He Himself took our infirmities
and bore our sicknesses”. (Matthew 8:17)
In the Greek, “infirmities” or astheneia
means bodily weaknesses.
So we can see very clearly that Isaiah was saying
that the Messiah would take upon His own body,
our bodily weaknesses, sicknesses and pains.
In other words, Jesus bore not just our sins,
but also our bodily weaknesses,
sicknesses and pains.
In Eat Your Way To Life and Health,’
Joseph Prince wrote:
“Isaiah 53:5 tells us that by Jesus’ stripes
we are healed.
Every stripe He bore as He was scourged
was for our healing.
And He willingly allowed stripe after stripe
to rip into His body so you and I could be well.
Don’t ever believe the enemy’s lie
that God wants you sick
or that He is not willing to heal you.
At the cross,
our Lord Jesus demonstrated once and for all
that He wants you well.
… In fact, He has already paid the price for your healing.
Your part is to keep believing and keep trusting
until you see the full manifestation of your healing.”