David Pawson Opposes Joseph Prince’s ‘Believing-Without-Repentance’ False Gospel – By Rev George Ong (Dated 18 Feb 2022)
Don’t miss David Pawson’s 3-minute video clip (see below) about his view that the no-repentance gospel of Joseph Prince has no saving grace. I quote what David Pawson said,
“And this teaching is now spreading around the world from Singapore and from here in America.”
(This article was also sent to Rev Dr Ngoei Foong Nghian, General Secretary, NCCS office, and for the attention of the Executive Committee Members.)
In a weekly Sunday sermon on 23 January 2022, Joseph Prince said; please click here to view excerpts in the 30-second video:
“Pray this prayer with me right now. ‘Say, Lord Jesus, I thank you that you died on that cross for my sins. I thank you, you rose from the dead, conquering death for me. Jesus, I confess Jesus Christ is my Lord, my Saviour. And Father God, you are now my Father, I’m your child and I’m greatly blessed, highly favoured. And I’m so loved by you. Thank you, Father God, in Jesus’ name.’ Congratulations, child of God. You are now in the family of God. Get ready for the blessings that came on Obed-Edom to come on you and on your families as well. Praise the name of Jesus.”
First, Joseph Prince led in the sinner’s prayer of salvation at the end of the sermon. Prince then pronounced those who said the prayer as saved as they are now in God’s family.
But note that Prince’s salvation prayer (which is his typical prayer) is a ‘just-believing-without-repentance’ half-gospel. A ‘just-believing-without-repentance’ ‘gospel’ isn’t the gospel that Jesus came to preach.
Jesus came to preach a gospel that involves not only believing but also repentance:
Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mk 1:14-15 NASB)
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt 4:17 ESV)
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Change your hearts and lives, because the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Matt 4:17 NCV)
So Jesus preaches the true gospel that involves both repentance and believing or faith, whereas Joseph Prince’s gospel of grace that involves only believing without repentance or a false repentance that involves only a change of mind (see above for Matt 4:17 NCV), is a false gospel that is devoid of any saving faith.
After Jesus was resurrected and before His ascension, He commanded His disciples and us that “repentance for the forgiveness of sins” be preached throughout the nations of the world as part of the Great Commission:
“… and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all Nations…” (Lk 24:47 NIV)
What Jesus was stressing is that if there is no repentance from sins, there is no forgiveness of sins. And if there is no forgiveness of sins, man is still doomed to hell. Hence, Joseph Prince’s ‘only-believing-without-repentance’ false gospel will not prevent sinners from ending up in the lake of fire.
Both Peter and Paul (the 2 leading Apostles), like their Master Jesus, also preached the true gospel that includes repentance (not just believing): Acts 2:38; 3:19; 10:43; 17:30; 20:21; 26:20; 2 Pet 3:9.
Now, let’s hear what David Pawson has to say regarding Joseph Prince’s ‘only-believing-without-repentance’ half-gospel.
In a 3-minute video, David Pawson said; please click here to view:
“These are deeds of repentance; deeds of faith, which don’t earn salvation, but they are necessary part of receiving salvation. Do you follow me? Now the preachers of free grace are saying, ‘The only thing you need do is believe. And that’s something you do inside you; it has nothing to do with any actions. And there’s no need for repentance to be saved. And this teaching is now spreading around the world from Singapore and from here in America. No repentance. You can be saved without repentance. You can even be saved without any deeds of faith. You only need to believe inside. And that’s it.
Furthermore, they go on to teach that not only are your past sins forgiven, but all your future ones are also forgiven at the same time. In other words, there’s nothing you need to do to be saved.”
“So repentance comes out of the box. So faith with action comes out of the box. And all you need do for salvation and to get to heaven is to believe inside. No need for repentance. That’s to do with discipleship. And it’s a separation of two things that in my New Testament belong together. Salvation, discipleship are almost interchangeable in the New Testament.”
“So this Free Grace teaching is downgrading repentance and saying, ‘It’s not necessary’. It’s deactivating faith. It’s debasing baptism. And it’s dismissing the Holy Spirit. And it’s simply – Grace is free – once you believe – that’s it. And any sins you commit after that are cancelled.
Can you imagine the result that that’s having? Well, I can tell you, this teaching of so-called Free Grace has really captured the churches in South Africa. And when I asked the Pastors, what effect that was having on Christian living, they all said the same thing. They said, ‘We’re getting a vast increase in divorce and remarriage.’ Isn’t that interesting? Because even if it’s wrong to divorce and remarriage – that’s okay – you’ve been forgiven in advance. Doesn’t matter how you live now. And that’s the fruit of that wrong teaching of grace.
Well, my time has come to an end for this evening but let me just summarise what I’ve been telling. I believe we are saved by grace. I loved that. I love the word, ‘Grace’. It’s generous, it’s giving, it’s undeserved. Yes, it’s free because Christ paid for it, but it’s not free in the sense that we are now called to repent and believe and be baptised and be filled with the Spirit. There are things we need to do to appropriate this grace.”
“Stay with saving grace and use it in the Biblical way to spread the good news to everybody else.”
David Pawson said,
“And this teaching is now spreading around the world from Singapore and from here in America.”
Every Bishop, Pastor, Elder and Leader in the Singapore Church had better wake up (if they are still in slumber) and take responsibility for what they didn’t do (or didn’t do enough) to contend against Joseph Prince from spreading his ‘no-repentance’ false gospel and his ‘every-future-sin-has-been-forgiven’ heretical virus that has now infected the world.
As the saying goes – “better late than never”; it is still not too late to do something concrete to curb the spread of Joseph Prince’s heresies from reaching and destroying even more people.
David Pawson said,
“Can you imagine the result that that’s having? Well, I can tell you, this teaching of so-called Free Grace has really captured the churches in South Africa. And when I asked the Pastors, what effect that was having on Christian living, they all said the same thing. They said, ‘We’re getting a vast increase in divorce and remarriage.’ Isn’t that interesting? Because even if it’s wrong to divorce and remarriage – that’s okay – you’ve been forgiven in advance. Doesn’t matter how you live now. And that’s the fruit of that wrong teaching of grace.”
Has Joseph Prince ever told you what David Pawson and the South African Pastors have stated about the damaging impact of his grace teaching – regarding the increase in divorce and remarriage in South Africa?
Of course, he won’t. Joseph Prince will make sure he hides all these horrendous effects of his teachings from you. If not for David Pawson, many of you would still be in the dark.
My wife and I were in South Africa a few years ago. And we witnessed first-hand how Joseph Prince’s teachings have had an adverse impact on the churches in South Africa.
Joseph Prince has on countless times in his books and Sunday sermons, trumpeted the fact that many have been so-called delivered from their bondage by his grace theology. But he has remained deceptively silent about the many who are destroyed by the same grace message.
Joseph Prince never fails to justify that he does not condone sin, nor does he encourage Christians to sin. But that doesn’t help a teeny-weeny bit in alleviating the serious abuses that his false grace teachings can and have led to. He cannot wriggle his way out by just saying that he is against sin and that he doesn’t encourage others to sin.
Let me give you an illustration.
Let’s assume that Joseph Prince was to release a dam that stands between a huge village and the waters.
He cannot just harp on the fact that with the release of the waters, he has saved many people with the fresh supply of water. At the same time, he has to be held totally responsible for the many who have drowned and are swept off by the rushing waters to their destruction.
Oh, Joseph Prince would love to claim credit for providing water to the many who needed it, but he would plainly refuse to take responsibility for the many other lives that have been destroyed by the rushing waters.
It is like this mayor who tells his citizens that he is against robbers and that he is afraid that robbers may come and destroy their homes, and he warns his people about them.
Yet, on the other hand, he tells his citizens that it is perfectly alright to leave their doors open for most of the time to enjoy the nice and cool breeze.
If robbers were to enter the house when the doors are opened, and the people are robbed and killed, the mayor must be held responsible for misleading the citizens by engaging in double-talk (as Joseph Prince often does).
Does it help for the mayor to say, “Oh, didn’t I tell you all that I am against robbers, and didn’t I warn you about robbers?”
“But at the same time, Mr Mayor, you told them to open their doors, didn’t you?”
Does it help for Joseph Prince to say, “Oh, didn’t I tell you I am against sin, and I hate sin?”
“But at the same time, Joseph Prince, you taught them the heretical teachings that all their past, present and future sins are forgiven, and no more confession for the forgiveness of sins is needed, didn’t you? You gave them the false hope that they will never be judged again – and they will never lose their salvation, no matter what, even though they are living a lifestyle of sin, didn’t you?”
So, when believers get into horrible sin and meet with a tragic end because of the double-talk, feel-good teachings and heretical doctrine of Joseph Prince that appeal to their flesh, no amount of justification by Joseph Prince (that he is against sin) will help to alleviate his responsibility.
Joseph Prince frequently boasts about the many testimonies that his grace theology has set people free from their bondage. However, if there are tragic testimonies that people’s lives have been wrecked because they practise his teachings, he is never going to tell you, and he would immediately disclaim responsibility if they were to come out into the open.
As for myself, I have many people who came to tell me about how the lives of their relatives and friends were wrecked because they came under the influence of Joseph Prince’s teachings.
One Christian lady personally told me that her son-in-law, who is a believer, committed adultery and is still with the woman because he was convinced by Joseph Prince’s theology that all our sins have been forgiven: past, present and future, and that our salvation can never be lost, no matter what.
Another sister who is a believer, shared with me that her husband had committed adultery for several years. And during the period of his adultery, guess where he was worshipping – at Joseph Prince’s church.
A Christian brother told me that when his wife committed adultery, where was she and her lover worshipping? – they were raising their hands worshipping God at Joseph Prince’s church.
These occurrences are not at all surprising because of Joseph Prince’s teachings that all their future sins have been forgiven (including adulterous sins) and that Christians can never lose their salvation (even though they had committed adultery without repenting.)
Mind you, these 3 cases are just a few of the many first-hand accounts of similar stories that I have personally heard.
It doesn’t help a tiny bit for Joseph Prince to defend himself that he is against sin. He can shout all he wants that he is not teaching the people to sin – the fact remains his Pseudo grace teachings would lead and have led to that horrible licentious end.
This is because some of the key aspects of Joseph Prince’s grace doctrines are as follows:
All your future sins – any sin, whether big or small and whether they be anger, lying, adultery, rape, murder, etc, are automatically forgiven.
There is no confession of sins required after conversion for whatever sins, (even rape or murder) you may have committed. If you confess your sins (for example, rape or murder), you are insulting God because all your future sins (including rape or murder) have been forgiven at the cross.
When you sin (including pornography or adultery or murder, etc), Prince disallows you to confess these sins to be forgiven but he teaches that you are to confess you have the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus when you are in the very act of watching pornography or committing adultery, or murdering someone.
In ‘Grace Revolution’, Pages 290-291, Joseph Prince wrote, “And when you have sinned, what do you say? That’s the time to say by faith, ‘I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus’” (see 2 Cor 5:21).
What Joseph Prince teaches is that when you sin, any sin, big or small, whether it is the sin of pornography or sex with prostitutes, etc, you don’t have to confess your sins but you need to confess you are righteous while you are engaging in the act of sinning, by declaring, ‘I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.’
Just imagine this horrific scene of a married Christian who has embraced Joseph Prince’s teachings, and who is committing the sin of having sex with a prostitute. And knowing that his adulterous sin with prostitutes has been forgiven at the cross (because he had learned that from Joseph Prince that all his future sins, including sex with prostitutes, have been forgiven), and still in bed with the prostitute, committing the adulterous act, he follows the advice of Joseph Prince, and keeps repeating, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.” After repeating that ‘magic’ phrase several times, he continues to have sex with the prostitute. After the entire adulterous act is over, he caps it off by shouting one last time on a victorious and triumphant note, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.”
Just think – how would the unbelieving prostitute respond when she hears a so-called Christian shouting “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus,” while he is having sex with her? She would think that he has gone mentally deranged. Or, if she thinks he is sane, she will never ever become a Christian, as she is witnessing for herself that a Christian can shout out the name of Jesus Christ shamelessly and pronounce that he is righteous in Christ while enjoying the forbidden sex with her, a prostitute. Such a doctrine that Joseph Prince teaches – that a believer is to proclaim he is righteous in Christ while he is sinning (any sin) is bordering on madness!
And that since you are once righteous, always righteous, there is nothing you can do to forfeit your salvation even though you are living a lifestyle of sin till the day you die because you are once saved, forever saved.
God is even blind to your sin after you become a Christian. The Holy Spirit does not convict you of sin; the devil does a better job at that.
With such horrendous teachings, can you see that it is so easy for those who are influenced by Joseph Prince to remain in sin, being deceived by him that they are, nonetheless, once saved, always saved.
Joseph Prince is so deceptive that his teachings are actually giving the people the license to sin, while at the same time, he can craftily claim that he isn’t overtly teaching it. That’s the kind of crafty wolf that you are dealing with.
So, Church, you had better wake up! Shepherds, you had better keep warning the flock about such destructive heresies that are churned out by Joseph Prince that would ultimately destroy the church!
Let me quote what Lindsay Lim, an Ex New Creation Church member for 18 years has to say about such destructive teachings of Joseph Prince. This was an excerpt (see below) taken from her testimony of how she came out of Joseph Prince’s church: (If you have missed reading Lindsay Lim’s testimony, please click here to read)
“At this point, I wish to share some key teachings of Joseph Prince which I believe can destroy a believer’s life. There are so many I can share but due to the practicality of space, I will highlight some:
The first aspect of Joseph Prince’s heresies is that Christians should just confess ‘we are the righteousness of God in Christ’ whenever we are tempted or when we have fallen into sin. This is a toxic teaching as just by the use of a simple illustration, I would reveal how false such a teaching is. If a child does something wrong that hurts his parents and all the child does is going around to confess ‘I am right, I am right’ all day long instead of saying sorry to his parents, people around him would say he is a spoilt brat and I believe his parents would be heartbroken as well. This boy would be seen as rebelling against his parents by doing what he is doing.
Likewise, by teaching Christians to confess ‘we are the righteousness of God in Christ’ when we sin against God, Joseph Prince is in fact encouraging us to be rebellious and ignoring God’s feelings when we break His laws and His heart. If we are living in rebellion and don’t want to be reconciled to our Abba Father, how can we continue to walk with God? In fact, the Bible gives a very serious warning about outright rebellion and how it leads to the work of witchcraft in our life and in the church. “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry…” (1 Sam 15:23) So Joseph Prince by his teaching is actually encouraging his followers to rebel against God.”
One of Joseph Prince’s final defences has always been to use the excuse that since every church has her fair share of such people who continue to sin, no matter what the church teaches – so why pick on his church?
But one mustn’t be fooled by Joseph Prince as no true evangelical church will ever teach what Prince teaches – for example, that all future sins are already forgiven without confession, and when one sins, he is not to confess his sins but he is to declare how righteous he is in Christ.
And it is these very heretical teachings Joseph Prince teaches (which no true evangelical church will ever teach) that are responsible for deceiving people that they are once saved, always saved, even though they are living a lifestyle of sin – and leading them to their final destruction.
Finally, David Pawson said,
“Stay with saving grace and use it in the Biblical way to spread the good news to everybody else.”
What David Pawson is definitely implying or even saying is that the free grace that Joseph Prince preaches of an ‘only-believing-without-repentance’ ‘gospel’ does not have saving grace.
To me, a gospel that has no requirement to repent that Joseph Prince preaches, is nothing but cheap grace and easy believism. No wonder droves of goats (false converts) are being drawn into Joseph Prince’s church.
Friends, it is not the quantity of false converts (goats who travel on the broad and easy road ‘gospel’ of Joseph Prince that will lead to destruction in Matthew 7:13) that Jesus is going after, but the quality of true disciples (sheep who tread on the narrow and difficult road gospel of Jesus that will lead to life eternal in Matthew 7:14) that Christ is interested in.
Hence, any true believer must never participate in the false gospel of grace that Joseph Prince is trying to mobilise the world to preach in his Vision 2022 by forwarding his sermon videos to unbelievers. This is because Joseph Prince’s gospel of grace (believing without repentance) is a false gospel that does not and cannot save.
It then behoves us to reject Joseph Prince’s false gospel of grace and listen to David Pawson’s godly and biblical advice to preach the true gospel that has the power to save:
“Stay with saving grace and use it in the Biblical way to spread the good news to everybody else.”
Rev George Ong