Peter Tok Yi Xiang’s Testimony about His Journey with New Creation Church (2014-2020)  & the False Teachings of Joseph Prince (Dated 26 October 2020)

Although Peter Tok Yi Xiang is half my age, he has the courage of one who is twice his age. I take my hats off to him. He has the guts to do what many of his seniors don’t, to publicly share his journey with New Creation Church. The only reason he does this is to warn those who are still in New Creation Church to leave, and also to warn others from other churches not to delve into the heresies of Joseph Prince. 

Peter Tok Yi Xiang’s Testimony

A. How I Ended Up in New Creation Church

“I attended New Creation Church for about 7 years from 2014 to 2020. In 2014 after graduating from the Singapore Institute of Management, I attended a discipleship training programme for a couple of months in my previous church. As most of the materials were based on the Sermon on the Mount, which detailed Christ’s expectations for His disciples, I felt disturbed as I thought I might not measure up. I didn’t realise then that if Christ expects me to be a committed disciple, He, through the Holy Spirit would empower me to be one. It was during this time that I started listening to Joseph Prince’s sermons. It was sort of refreshing to hear the messages he preached, which, at that time, was radically different and seemed to make sense.

It was in the same year of 2014 that I went to The Star Vista (the mall in which New Creation Church was located). It was my first time listening to Joseph Prince in person. He was preaching on the root of bitterness in Hebrews 12:15. He mentioned that the text has to do with our bitterness and that being justified by the law means one has fallen from grace or one has missed grace. If that happens, Christ will be of no effect to him. Of course, this was a false interpretation, which I didn’t realise then. It was only years later when I studied the issue in Hebrews 12:15, I realised that Joseph Prince had taken it out of context. The root of bitterness in Hebrews 12:15 is not the common bitterness that we experienced. But it has to do with apostasy and treating holiness and salvation with contempt (Hebrews 12:15 and Deuteronomy 29:18-19). But he falsely teaches that the root of bitterness was the common bitterness that we experienced, and he ascribed the cause of it to the law.

It seems we can blame everything on the law, thus relieving me of all my faults and sins. What a feel-good teaching that certainly was! That is why so many are drawn to New Creation Church because of Joseph Prince’s feel-good teachings. It sounded so good to our flesh as according to his teaching, there is nothing wrong with us or the sin that is in us (as every sin has been forgiven at the cross) but everything is wrong with what the law has done and can do to us. It was also at the time of my first visit to New Creation Church that I was feeling bitter. I felt somewhat ‘liberated’ listening to Joseph Prince on Hebrews 12:15 in 2014.

During the years in New Creation Church, I had accepted Joseph Prince’s sermon ‘unquestionably’, as I had wrongly assumed that a Pastor, including Pastor Joseph Prince, would have some form of authority regarding the preaching and interpretation of God’s word. What partly contributed to my acceptance of Joseph Prince’s teachings was also because nobody from my previous church had refuted his teachings. I reasoned that if Joseph Prince’s teachings were false, someone from my previous church would have refuted it. This was one serious mistake I made as I now realise we need to be like the Bereans (Acts 17:11) to check out what is taught even by preachers as no one is above God’s word. 

B. Why I Left New Creation Church

The first push factor that led me to leave New Creation Church was when the church decided to buy over The Star Vista from CapitaLand at the end of 2019. As the whole project involved a huge sum of money, I wasn’t pleased with how the whole thing was communicated to the church and executed.

The second push factor was also because at this time I began to seriously examine the doctrines of Joseph Prince. I started to realise there were several doctrines that Joseph Prince taught which were false. In 2020, I stumbled into the website of Rev George Ong and was amazed at how one man could write so much against the teachings of Joseph Prince. I then got in touch with him. What Rev George Ong wrote in the 10 volumes of ebooks and said in his many videos on his website greatly helped me to confirm what Joseph Prince teaches are false. I was also convinced by Rev George that Joseph Prince, is indeed, a wolf in sheepskin. 

C. The False Teachings of Joseph Prince are Massive

In 2020, I began to be aware that Joseph Prince’s false teachings are massive. This is a result of my own study and also from my constant reference to the 10 volumes of ebooks that Rev George Ong had written. To date, I have read about 70% of the 4,800 pages of notes and viewed all 46 videos on his website. These false teachings of Joseph Prince are just too many to list. But allow me to share several examples.

First, much of Joseph Prince’s teachings are focussing on the worldly blessings of this current life. Joseph Prince claims he is preaching a Christ-centred Gospel, but in actuality, it is a very Me-centred Gospel. It is all about me receiving blessings and prosperity from God and that God would protect me from all the hard-knocks of life. There is a ‘Vision Sunday’ set aside every year by Joseph Prince in which members would make 3 wishes. Is God a genie whose job is to grant you 3 wishes every year? The desire to always have more is in fact covetousness. Looking back, I can now see why there is always a spike in attendance to over 40,000 on every annual ‘Vision Sunday’.

Second, Joseph Prince’s teachings contain many errors as he takes many verses out of their contexts. Taking verses out of their contexts is what he consistently and frequently does. He takes verses out of their contexts as a pretext to preach what he wants. What is deplorable is that he frequently says on the pulpit that a preacher must always preach a Bible text in its context. Isn’t this hypocrisy – teaching a maxim when he himself is guilty of breaking so many times? In fact, hypocrisy is a serious sin that Jesus severely reprimanded the Pharisees of in Matthew 23. 

Third, Joseph Prince teaches that the Galatians were trying to be justified by the law. But, out of nowhere, he throws the moral law into the argument when Paul was mainly referring to the issue of circumcision, the ceremonial law. Joseph Prince’s constant preoccupation is to ‘get rid’ of the moral law for New Covenant believers. But nowhere does the Bible say that the moral law has been made obsolete.

Fourth, Joseph Prince also frequently preaches that there is nothing we can do that can change God’s opinion of us. God is always pleased with us, and what we do or don’t do cannot change His opinion of us. Though this sounds very good to the flesh, it is unbiblical. Sadly, it is through this false teaching of Joseph Prince that I became less and less remorseful of sin when I commit them, since what I do or don’t do, doesn’t affect God’s opinion of me. But if God is always pleased with us, as Joseph Prince falsely teaches, why did Jesus in Revelation 2-3, warn five of the seven churches to repent or face His severe judgement?

Fifth, Joseph Prince’s core doctrine is to pit grace against law. I was drawn to this doctrine initially as it really pleases my flesh. Whenever I fall short, it is always not my fault. It is Mr Law’s fault. There is nothing wrong with me. Anything I do wrong, I could just conveniently point to the law as the law always condemns me. This is the kind of feel-good teaching that Joseph Prince teaches.

Sixth, is the teaching that we can have effortless success because of the finished work of Christ. This again sounds good to the flesh. There is nothing left for me to do. There is no need for me to serve, be accountable, confess my sins, be obedient to God’s laws, and be a disciple of Christ. Just rest in the finished work of the cross and success is automatic. It was this poisonous teaching that I became very slackened in my Christian living. 

D. Hero-Worshipping Pastor Joseph Prince

There is a clear difference between honouring one’s leader and hero-worshiping a Pastor. A large proportion of New Creation Church servers seem to worship Joseph Prince. His name is mentioned more often than the Lord Jesus during those closed-door meetings. This is not helped by the fact that New Creation Church Pastors perpetuate this hero-worship by constantly talking about Joseph Prince. Prayers that are answered and healings that occur are always spoken of because of Joseph Prince’s grace teachings – that the name of the Lord Jesus, the ultimate healer, is somewhat eclipsed. Another indication of hero-worship is the constant preoccupation of church members to protect Joseph Prince at all cost. When honest questions are raised about doctrines taught by Joseph Prince, it would be seen by them as attacking the person of Joseph Prince.

E. Connection to Word Of Faith Preachers

I am uneasy with the connection that New Creation Church has with the Word of Faith movement. Joseph Prince publicly calls the late Kenneth Hagin, the leader of the Word of Faith movement, his mentor. Joseph Prince calls Kenneth Copeland, another leader of the same movement, his fellow brother. If you are unaware, Kenneth Copeland, who owns 3 private jets, compared flying in commercial class to getting ‘in a long tube with a bunch of demons’ in 2015. Joseph Prince also endorses Creflo Dollar in one of his sermons. Creflo Dollar is a preacher who had asked his congregation to support his funding of a private jet. One common doctrine that binds all these preachers, including Joseph Prince, is the false Prosperity Gospel that they preach.

F. Joseph Prince is Preaching the False Gospel

As Rev George Ong rightly puts it in Volume 1, Chapter 22: “The Deceitfulness & Destructiveness Of Half-Truths,” on his website, he describes Joseph Prince’s gospel as a “No-repentance, no-obedience, no-discipleship, no-cost-of-Christianity, no-sacrifice, no-suffering, no-persecution, no-martyrdom, no-law, no-effort, no-works, no-fasting, no-more-moral-commandments-of-God-to-obey, no-fear-of-God, no-more-anger-from-God, no-more-punishment-from-God, no-more-judgement-from-God, no-sanctification-for-salvation, no-more-pleasing-and-loving God, no-more-examination-of-self, no-more-sins-to-confess, no-more-conviction-of-sin-from-the-Holy-Spirit, no-more-sin-to-deal-with, no-more-guilt-to-bother-you-with” grace gospel.

Friends, does this still sound like the gospel that the early church preached? In contrast, these are serious doctrinal errors that Joseph Prince has constantly been regurgitating over the course of many years.

G. What Pastors & Believers Must Do

I commend Rev George Ong for being a faithful watchman and for taking up such an unenvious task of refuting the numerous false doctrines of Joseph Prince for the sake of the church. If so many of the major doctrines taught by Joseph Prince are wrong, will the churches of Singapore stand together to refute his teachings and warn their sheep about his false teachings? If not, by your silence, you are admitting that Joseph Prince is preaching a gospel that should be accepted and that he is not wrong in his teachings. To love your sheep is to refute unsound doctrines and rebuke false teachers. How many more sheep need to be led astray before Pastors do something about this?

Perhaps, if my previous church had taught and forewarned the congregation about the heresies of Joseph Prince, I might not even have attempted to listen to Joseph Prince’s sermons and attend New Creation Church in the first place. I am not shifting blame. I know I am ultimately responsible for my decision of being deceived by Joseph Prince for the last seven years of my life. Yet, the true shepherds of God must start to refute the false teachings of Joseph Prince and warn their sheep from straying into his fold. We must never sacrifice truth for the sake of unity. Borrowing a quote from Charles Spurgeon, “To pursue union at the expense of truth is treason to the Lord Jesus.” Have we been compromising the truth for the sake of a false unity with false teachers?

H. New Creation Church Members Must Flee from the Heresies of Joseph Prince.

For those who are in New Creation Church, and especially many of my friends, I am sure you must have come across many people who have already warned you about the false teachings of Joseph Prince. It is no more the lack of knowledge but the lack of humility, repentance and the will to acknowledge that the heresies you have embraced from Joseph Prince would lead you to destruction.

I had to come before God and repent for embracing Joseph Prince’s false grace teachings, and will be committing to discipleship and the Great Commission mandate again. As you know, the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), which is Christ’s commandment for the Church was never preached by Joseph Prince, and discipleship, which is Christ’s core teaching, was what Joseph Prince teaches against. How can Joseph Prince who goes against two of Christ’s most important priorities be preaching the Jesus of the Bible? He is preaching the counterfeit Jesus! It’s time for you to act. It is time for you to flee from Joseph Prince the false prophet, whose teachings, which are not from God, will lead you down the slippery slope to hell.

Don’t be deceived by Joseph Prince as he constantly invokes the bondage of double curse in Galatians 1:8-9 to prevent New Creation Church members from leaving the church for other churches, which preach the true grace doctrine. It is his ploy to put fear into church members from leaving New Creation Church. But the reality is, you would really be under a double curse if you choose to continue to stay in New Creation Church as Joseph Prince, who anchors it, is the unrepentant heretic who is preaching the false grace gospel.”

Peter Tok Yi Xiang

Ex-Server of New Creation Church, Singapore
I Am Considering Attending Covenant Evangelical Free Church or Gospel Light Christian Church, Singapore