The “Drag” Show will be held at New
Creation Church at Star Vista on 7 Sep 2023.
For the sake of the larger Christian
Community in Singapore, the Senior Pastor, Joseph Prince, ought to comment on
whether the content of the show involves cross dressing:
Deuteronomy 22:5
5 A woman must not wear men’s clothing,
nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord
your God detests anyone who does this.
Title of Article:
Joseph Prince accuses God and 20 godly men:
Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, George Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon, George Muller, JC Ryle, Arthur Pink, AW Tozer, Billy Graham, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Gordon Fee, JI Packer, Oswald Chambers, DA Carson, RC Sproul, John Piper, John MacArthur, Derek Prince & David Pawson
of lying & obliquely portrays them as child-abusers & sadists, Part 2
– By Rev George Ong (Dated 21 July 2023)
This Article Contains 1 Video & 2 Audios on Joseph Prince.
Don’t miss the 1 video on Joseph Prince,
and especially listening to his 2 audios.
How Prince has put things across in these 2 audios
may shock you.
John MacArthur & Steve Lawson
1 video each
on John MacArthur and Steve Lawson
is also featured.
Appendix
The Appendix, at the end of this article,
contains the sayings and writings of
Martin Luther, John Calvin, George Whitefield,
George Muller and JC Ryle,
which could have been featured in the last article,
but because of the length of the previous article,
I can only do it in this article.
This is Part 2 of the previous article.
If you have missed the previous article, Part 1,
which is a very crucial article, titled,
Joseph Prince strongly implies that God commits one of the most evil acts when He chastises believers with sicknesses,
& falsely accuses
Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, George Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon, George Muller, JC Ryle, Arthur Pink, AW Tozer, Billy Graham, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Gordon Fee, JI Packer, Oswald Chambers, DA Carson, RC Sproul, John Piper, John MacArthur, Derek Prince & David Pawson
for advocating one of the most evil teachings,
because they teach that God can send sickness to believers (Part 1),
Please click on the link below to read:
(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 ‘Eat Your Way to Life and Health,’
Joseph Prince wrote:
“And yet people have somehow
believed the lie
that sometimes it is God’s will for us to be sick.
There are even those who claim that
God uses sickness to “chastise” us
or teach us a lesson.
These lies
have robbed His people of partaking
of their blood-bought right to divine health.
These lies
have caused too many believers
to simply accept sickness in their bodies.”
“But maybe you are wondering
if the disease you are fighting
is somehow from God.
Maybe you think He is punishing you
for something you did
and that there is a lesson He wants you to learn.
If you have believed any of the lies above,
then you have fallen prey to Satan,
who is the great deceiver
and father of lies (Rev. 12:9; John 8:44 NLT).
His modus operandi is to deceive you,
and his master strategy is to convince you
sickness is actually from God.
I want you to know in no uncertain terms
that your heavenly Father loves you,
and He wants you well.
He does not want your life
to be cut short by sickness,
and it is never His plan for you or your loved ones
to suffer any sickness or disease.”
“Don’t ever believe the enemy’s lie
that God wants you sick
or that He is not willing to heal you.”
“God is a good God, and He loves us so much.
That is why I cannot understand
why there are those who teach that
God sometimes uses sickness to teach us a lesson
or that we need to “pray hard” for His healing.”
“Don’t let man’s conjectures and theories
cause you to believe the lie
that maybe God wants you
to endure the sickness in your body
so you can learn to trust Him more
or grow in patience.”
In ‘Destined To Reign,’ Joseph Prince wrote:
“Let me say this again to make it very clear:
Sicknesses, diseases and accidents
are not lessons from God!”
“God would never use sicknesses and accidents
to teach you and me – His children – lessons!”
“I always tell my congregation
not to leave their brains at home
when they come to church.
Stop believing the LIE
that God gives you sicknesses, diseases and accidents
to punish you or teach you a lesson.”
“Having a sickness or disease
does not mean that you have sinned
or that God is teaching you a lesson.
It just means that your healing is on its way!”
“Many believers are sick today not because of sin,
for sin has already been punished on the body of Jesus,
but because of condemnation.”
“I have shown you that under the dispensation of grace,
God is not judging you
and does not punish His own children
with sicknesses, diseases or accidents.”
Joseph Prince categorically wrote in his book
that the teaching
that God could send sicknesses to believers,
and its equivalents,
are lies,
and he mentioned the word ‘lie’ or ‘lies’ 7 times.
What this means is that
Joseph Prince is accusing
Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, George Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon, George Muller, JC Ryle, Arthur Pink, AW Tozer, Billy Graham, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Gordon Fee, JI Packer, Oswald Chambers, DA Carson, RC Sproul, John Piper, John MacArthur, Derek Prince & David Pawson
of lying
as all 20 of them have taught ‘the lie’
that God could send sicknesses and even death
to believers to chastise them.
(You have to refer to the last article, Article 1, for the proof.
Please see the beginning of this article to obtain the link.)
The most despicable and contemptible liar
is one who falsely accuses others,
especially the 20 godly men of lying,
when he is himself is a serial liar – Joseph Prince.
In my previous articles,
I have proven that Joseph Prince had lied many times.
And from what he wrote in his book, ‘Destined To Reign’,
he has lied again,
when he said that to teach
that God could send sicknesses to believers
is a lie,
when it is the truth.
But what is most horrifying is that
Joseph Prince is also accusing God Himself of lying
as He is the one who has sent sicknesses
to believers’ lives to chastise them,
time after time,
both in the Old and New Testament
(which Joseph Prince said are lies).
If Joseph Prince has the unholy guts
to even accuse God of lying,
how can he not be a tool of Satan,
who was sent by Satan himself to malign God?
How can a Singapore Methodist Bishop
and a Singapore Presbyterian Pastor
say that Joseph Prince is not a heretic?
In a weekly Sunday sermon aired on YouTube on 2 July 2023, Joseph Prince said;
(I have featured what Joseph Prince said in my last article
on this same short video.
But what you got in my last article is only the first half.
What you are getting now
is both the first and the second half of the video.)
“And there’s some doctrine of some Christian circles,
and that’s how they teach it;
that God wants you to have this sickness,
to teach you some lesson,
until it happens to their child.
And all of a sudden, they look for healing.
No matter what, they want their child to be healed.”
To support his position
that God will never use sickness to chastise us,
Joseph Prince has often alluded
to the earthly father-son relationship
in many of his videos and writings in his books;
and in this video,
he has again invoked the same argument.
The argument is that what the earthly father
would do or wouldn’t do a certain action to his son,
then that’s the way
the Heavenly Father would or wouldn’t do to us.
In order to support his doctrine
that God will never send sickness to chastise believers,
by using the father-son relationship,
Joseph Prince would go to sickening proportions
to attack his critics and misrepresent their views.
Joseph Prince said in a 45-second audio (first),
“Boy, come here, boy,
‘I have been telling you right,
your mother said,
You always go to the kitchen,
and I said no, kitchen is out of bounds, right.
Now, bring your hand here,
here’s a hot stove, okay,
this is hot, hot, understand or not,
Pshhh!
(George Ong’s interjection:
Joseph Prince then lets out a ‘devilish’ shout,
representing the sadistic laughter of the father
after he had used the hot stove to burn him.)
Now is hot.’
In the midst of the burning flesh,
you tell your boy,
‘Now you know daddy love you, right.
I did that to teach you a lesson
that stoves are pain, pain.’
Now, what do you think of a father like that?
And there are some people saying God is like that.
They don’t call God a child-abuser,
but it’s as good as calling God a child-abuser.
God does not train us with sickness and disease.
God trains us with his word by the preaching.
When you come to church,
you are being trained right now
– so that you will not be condemned with the world.
You will not suffer what the world suffers.”
Joseph Prince by saying,
“Now, what do you think of a father like that?
And there are some people saying God is like that.
They don’t call God a child-abuser,
but it’s as good as calling God a child-abuser.
God does not train us with sickness and disease,”
Prince is falsely accusing these 20 godly men,
(who teach that God can send sicknesses
to believers to chastise them,)
for calling God a child-abuser.
Next, when Joseph Prince says,
“but it’s as good as calling God a child-abuser.”
God does not train us with sickness and disease,”
the flow of Joseph Prince’s argument is as follows:
There are people who call God a child-abuser
because they teach that
God trains us through sickness and disease.
But God is not a child abuser
because God does not train us with sickness and disease.
In other words, Joseph Prince has defined a child-abuser
as one who trains us with sickness and disease.
And the biblical fact is
God does train us with sickness and disease.
If Joseph Prince defines that one,
who chastises believers
with sicknesses and diseases
to be a child abuser,
then Prince is obliquely and even effectively
accusing these 20 godly men and even God Himself
to be child-abusers,
as these 20 godly men
did teach that God can send sicknesses to believers,
and God did send sicknesses to believers
both in the Old Covenant and the New.
This is absolutely outrageous!
Joseph Prince said in a 50-second audio (second),
“Boy, ‘Come here, your mama says
you have been playing by the roadside.
Come here.
Cars are dangerous.
Okay, lie down there.
Okay, stay there.
Daddy going to reverse, okay
because Daddy love you.
Uhhh, reversing, are you there?
Okay, okay, put your leg down there,
ya, under the tyre, ya.’
(George Ong’s interjection:
Joseph Prince lets out a ‘devilish’ shout
to show that the daddy enjoys punishing the child
by driving his car over the leg of the child.)
The boy crying.
Then you pick the boy up.
Uhhh – in the midst of the boy’s tears.
‘Now listen boy,
Daddy did that because Daddy love you.’
You are sick.
Don’t say Christians; people of the world
will put fathers like this in a special home.
And that’s what we say of God.
There are preachers saying today,
God teach you with sickness and disease.”
Joseph Prince by saying,
“You are sick.
Don’t say Christians; people of the world
will put fathers like this in a special home.
And that’s what we say of God.
There are preachers saying today,
God teaches you with sickness and disease,”
Prince is effectively saying
that these 20 godly men, who teach that
God can send sicknesses and diseases to believers
to chastise them
ought to be placed in a special home – THE LUNATIC WARD!
This is outrightly disgusting!
By the repulsive manner that Joseph Prince went about
describing how the father disciplined his child,
he is also obliquely portraying his critics
and these 20 godly men as sadists.
This is incredibly revolting!
As part of Joseph Prince’s deceptive scheme,
his typical strategy
is to misrepresent his critics’ view.
(You have to believe me
as I have watched tons of Joseph Prince’s sermon videos
and read 5 of his main books at least twice.)
In this case, Joseph Prince does it
by stretching his critics’ view to an extreme.
Prince does it by obliquely portraying his critics as sadists,
who, in a sense, enjoys punishing their children.
Joseph Prince would need to tell us
which earthly parents
would impose such sadistic punishment on his child?
Which Bible-believing church or pastor
would teach this form of sadistic discipline?
Which sensible Christian
would believe that God is a sadist,
who enjoys punishing His children?
Which Bible teacher would teach
in such a way that would represent God as a child-abuser?
Which sane pastor or Christian,
regardless of denominations,
would present God in such a sickening and sadistic way
that Joseph Prince has presented in these 2 audios?
Friends, this is just a figment
of Joseph Prince’s evil imagination
that he has wickedly concocted
to attack his critics.
What all Bible-believing preachers and believers
would say is that
God can allow a believer
to go through sickness as a punishment,
not because He is a sadist or child-abuser
as Joseph Prince has horribly presented,
but because God loves him.
And let me further add that
it could be God’s will,
to allow us to go through suffering, sickness,
a near-death experience and even death,
not because God is a child-abuser,
but His purpose of scourging us
is to get us to repent.
And no matter how terrible or harsh the scourging is,
God would rather us losing a limb,
and even our lives,
rather than losing our soul,
and spending our eternity in hell.
And it is His love for us
that moves God to do what He did.
But critics have never taught in the way
that Joseph Prince has presented
– in such a sickening and revolting manner.
Joseph Prince is indeed so bankrupt
with decent and scriptural arguments
that he had to resort
to such emotive, despicable and low-class arguments
of ‘destroying’ the arguments of his doctrinal opponents
by misrepresenting their views.
In ‘Destined To Reign’, Joseph Prince wrote,
“Now, think about this for a moment:
Would you give your son a terminal disease
to teach him a lesson?
No way!
Then, why do you think
that your Father in heaven would do that?”
“God does not train His children
with sicknesses, diseases and accidents
any more than you and I do!”
As in the above, Joseph Prince frequently
uses the earthly parent-child relationship
as one of his key illustrations
to undergird his grace teachings
(in his books and teaching videos/audios).
He has consistently argued
that just as what an earthly parent
will do for his child or will not do for him,
so does the Heavenly Father act in the same way with us.
Yes, to a certain extent, this is true.
Even the word of God in Matthew 7:9-11,
talks about the good that the earthly fathers do to us
is what the Heavenly Father would do, too.
But such similarities
between our earthly fathers
and our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus,
would not only break down at some point,
but it is also downright unbiblical.
From the evidence of scriptures,
God and the Lord Jesus do not completely ‘imitate’
or do what the earthly fathers
do or don’t do to their children.
On the contrary, in many cases,
our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus do the opposite
of what our earthly fathers do or not do to them.
Didn’t Jesus say in Matthew 10:33,
“But whoever disowns me before others,
I will disown before my Father in heaven” (NIV)?
To be true to his use
of the earthly father-son relationship
to support his teachings,
Joseph Prince would have to say to Jesus:
“Jesus, I didn’t know you would be so hard-hearted
to disown your own New Covenantal people.
Aren’t you aware that regardless of what
the children may do to hurt their earthly parents,
the great majority of them
would never do such an unthinkable and harsh thing
of disowning their children?
Jesus, if earthly parents
know how to overlook the hurts
their children may do to them,
why can’t you do the same thing?
Why must you do the heartless thing
of disowning your own New Covenantal people?
Don’t you know that once you have disowned them,
they will be condemned to hell?”
Didn’t Paul teach in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 NLT
that God can destroy any of His New Covenantal people
for destroying His temple?
“Don’t you realize that
all of you together are the temple of God
and that the Spirit of God lives in you?
God will destroy anyone
who destroys this temple.
For God’s temple is holy,
and you are that temple” (1 Cor 3:16-17 NLT).
The context is that the Corinthians
were ‘fighting’ with each other
and causing divisions in the body
– tantamount to destroying the church,
being the temple of God.
And God will not allow this to happen,
and if necessary,
He will destroy the individual believer
who is trying to destroy the church.
Did the verse say that the devil is the one
who destroys that person,
which Joseph Prince would be fond of saying?
Nothing is said in the verse
about the devil destroying anyone,
but Paul wrote that God is the one
who will destroy that person (1 Cor 3:17 NIV).
If God is prepared to destroy a believer,
why wouldn’t He afflict him with sickness
to get him to come to his senses
and repent and turn from his wicked ways?
Joseph Prince, who strongly believes
that the Heavenly Father would do/not do,
what the earthly fathers would do/not do for us,
would have to say to God:
“Since I’ve never heard of any earthly parent
who would destroy his/her own children,
I can never accept that you,
as the loving Heavenly Father,
would destroy your own New Covenant children.
I’m not sure whether I have believed in the right God.”
If God the Father is prepared
to destroy His own Covenantal Children,
what about the Lord Jesus?
Didn’t Jesus say in Revelation 2:21-23
that He would make His children
who have allowed themselves
to be influenced by heretical teachings
to suffer intensely and would even kill them?
“I have given her time to repent of her immorality,
but she is unwilling.
So I will cast her on a bed of suffering,
and I will make those
who commit adultery with her suffer intensely,
unless they repent of her ways.
I will strike her children dead…” (Rev 2:21-23 NIV)
Did Jesus say it is the devil
who will strike the children dead?
No, Joseph Prince would love to say that.
Jesus said that it is He Himself
who would make the kill:
“I will strike her children dead…”
If Jesus had warned that
He could even strike the unrepentant believers dead,
why wouldn’t He send sickness to afflict them
for their good?
Going by his earthly father-child relationship argument,
Joseph Prince would have to further say to Jesus:
“Jesus, you mean you would be so mean and cruel
that you would make your own children suffer intensely
and even kill the blood-bought members
of your own church?
Come on, Jesus,
even the earthly parents would never do that.
They will never make their children suffer intensely
and even kill their own children.
That’s why I’m totally horrified that you would.”
To be true to his belief
in the earthly father-son illustration,
Joseph Prince would have to say to Father God:
“God, you mean you are so terrible
as the Heavenly Father
that you would even allow 11 of your 12 disciples
to be killed and martyred
in such a horrible and undignified manner?
No earthly father would ever allow their children
to die in that terrible manner.
God, why are you so cruel
to have allowed Peter, your spokesman,
to be crucified upside down (church history)?
And thousands and even millions of your own children
in the many centuries of the Christian Church
were mercilessly slaughtered as martyrs.
Father God,
you could have prevented their terrible deaths,
but why didn’t you?
I’m beginning to doubt that you are a God of love.
If you are really a loving God,
you could have delivered them straightaway
just by the snap of your finger,
but why didn’t you?
Since every earthly parent
would never have allowed their children
to go through such terrible suffering and deaths,
I can never accept
that you as the Heavenly Father, would.”
When the martyred saints were crying to God
for retribution in Revelation 6:9-11,
did God promise these martyrs instant retribution
against their enemies,
and assure them that no more believers will be killed
as they have been?
No!
God said to them
that many more saints would be killed
as they had been
before He would deal with the situation:
“When he opened the fifth seal,
I saw under the altar the souls of those
who had been slain because of the word of God
and the testimony they had maintained.
They called out in a loud voice,
“How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true,
until you judge the inhabitants of the earth
and avenge our blood?”
Then each of them was given a white robe,
and they were told to wait a little longer,
until the full number of their fellow servants,
their brothers and sisters,
were killed just as they had been”
(Rev 6:9-11 NIV).
Joseph Prince
would have to say to God:
“Come on, God,
no earthly parent
would allow one of his own children
to be killed by others,
yet, you as the Heavenly Father would.
And if one of his own children is killed,
he would do everything he can
to prevent the rest of his other children
from suffering the same fate.
But, God, instead of preventing the same thing
from happening to the rest of your children,
why would you cruelly say
that you are just waiting
for the rest of your other children to be killed
before you would do something about the situation?
This is madness!
This is certainly not my grace theology
I have been teaching your people.”
As a matter of fact, the God of the Bible
has allowed millions of His children
to be killed and martyred for His glory
throughout the centuries of the Christian Church.
Godly and courageous parents
have seen with their own eyes
how their children were ‘butchered’
by their persecutors
simply because these parents
refused to deny or disown Christ.
I hope you are beginning to realise
that if the earthly parent-child illustration
is not properly explained and carefully qualified,
it will lead us to many heresies,
which Joseph Prince has capitalised on
to deceive many.
Joseph Prince has falsely presented God
as the doting and indulgent earthly grandfather,
instead of the Heavenly Father,
who is gracious and loving,
and yet, severely disciplines, destroys and even kills.
(1 Cor 3:16-17; 11:27-32; Acts 5:1-11; Heb 12:5-6, Rev 2:20-23)
Let us be soberly reminded
that the same God who revealed Himself
as the Consummate Father (Gal 4:6)
has also revealed Himself as the Consuming Fire. (Heb 12:29)
But being responsible believers,
we must not swing from one extreme to another.
When a believer is taken ill,
he or she should pray to be healed,
as God certainly wants His children
to be healthy and well.
If God doesn’t heal,
it does not necessarily mean there is sin in one’s life.
We must never go to the other extreme of witch-hunting
– of attributing every sickness
to the sin of an individual.
And we have no business to poke our noses
into other peoples’ lives
and tell them that they aren’t healed
because of a certain sin
that they have not dealt with.
The proviso is that you are the pastor
who has been given spiritual oversight of your flock,
or God has given you a special ministry
of discernment/knowledge/wisdom
or other associated gifts/ministries.
Even then, one has to deal with the issue
very sensitively and carefully,
lest one commit the ‘sin’ of Job’s miserable comforters,
who insist that Job’s sickness was due to his own sin.
But if the Holy Spirit should reveal to you
that your sickness is due to a particular sin,
then you should humbly deal with the root and repent.
Once the root is dealt with,
I’m sure health would return.
In conclusion,
I believed I have debunked
Joseph Prince’s use of the earthly father-child argument
that God can never use sickness to discipline us.
Though sickness is generally attributed to the devil,
God, being sovereign,
can use anything, including sickness,
to chastise His children
because He loves them.
Most importantly,
those who have been wrongly taught by Joseph Prince,
believing that no sickness can come from God,
or from their own sins,
can end up resisting and opposing God
(thinking they are fighting the devil),
who may have allowed sickness into their lives
as a form of discipline
to chastise them and deal with their sins.
Let me show you just 2 examples
of what these 20 godly men have taught
that God could send sicknesses
and even death to believers.
In a sermon, John MacArthur said;
Please click here to view the 1-minute video:
“God does not necessarily bring to bear
serious and severe discipline on us
throughout all our lives,
but there are times when He does,
and always, always, for His own purposes,
for our good and His glory.
Sometimes, this correction
takes very serious, serious extent.
For example, in the letter to the Corinthians,
1 Corinthians chapter 11,
a correction reached the point
where some people were sick
because of the way they came to the Lord’s table.
And some of them
the Lord actually took them to heaven
because they were more trouble here
than they were worth.
But it is possible to be sick,
according to 1 Corinthians 11,
because of sin,
the frivolous sin in coming to the table of the Lord.”
In a sermon, Steve Lawson said;
Please click here to view the 40-second video:
“This may mean for illness and sickness
to come to his body,
or it may mean, ultimately,
as it does in 1 Corinthians 11.
Later, when they came to the Lord’s Supper
in an unworthy manner,
and Paul said,
“For this reason, some of you are sick
and some of you are ‘asleep’,
meaning ‘You have died in Jesus.’
You have become such an embarrassment
to the Lord upon this earth
that God simply has called you home early.
To put it in the vernacular,
“The Lord has taken you out,”
and it really is an act of church discipline on God’s part.”
Finally,
if Joseph Prince can accuse God and 20 godly men:
Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, George Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon, George Muller, JC Ryle, Arthur Pink, AW Tozer, Billy Graham, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Gordon Fee, JI Packer, Oswald Chambers, DA Carson, RC Sproul, John Piper, John MacArthur, Derek Prince & David Pawson
of lying
& obliquely portrays them as child-abusers & sadists,
how can he not be a servant of Satan,
who has been sent to spread the satanic heresies?
And how can a Singapore Methodist Bishop
and a Singapore Presbyterian Pastor
say that Joseph Prince is not a heretic?
Three Quotes on God’s Chastisement for your Reflection:
“If God promise riches, the way thereto is poverty.
Whom he loveth, him he chasteneth:
whom he exalteth, he casteth down:
whom he saveth, he damneth first.
He bringeth no man to heaven,
except he sends him to hell first.”
(William Tyndale)
“God has no pleasure in afflicting us,
but He will not keep back
even the most painful chastisement
if He can but thereby guide His beloved child
to come home and abide in the beloved Son.”
(Andrew Murray)
“Oh, how many have been wheeled to hell
in the chariots of earthly pleasures,
while others have been whipped to heaven
by the rod of affliction!”
(John Flavel)
Rev George Ong
Appendix
The following
by Martin Luther, John Calvin, George Whitefield,
George Muller and JC Ryle,
could have been featured in the last article,
but because of the length of the previous article,
I can only do it in this article.
To refresh your memory,
I featured the bulk of it in the last article
and now, the remainder, in this article,
to prove that these 20 godly men
which includes Martin Luther, John Calvin and John Wesley,
have all taught that God can send sicknesses or diseases
(or plagues, or pestilences)
to chastise believers,
contradicting the doctrinal stand of Joseph Prince
that God couldn’t.
Here are their sayings and writings:
In ‘Sermons of Martin Luther, Vol. 2, Sermons on Gospel Texts for Epiphany, Lent & Easter, By Martin Luther,’
Martin Luther said:
“But their claim that
God punishes sins
with temporal punishments
and plagues,
sometimes even when they have been forgiven,
is true;
but that is no satisfaction or redemption from sin,
nor is it a merit on account of which sin is forgiven,
but a chastisement which God inflicts
to urge us to repentance.”
In ‘Sermons of Martin Luther Vol. 5, Sermons on the Gospel Texts for the 13th to 26th Sundays after Trinity, by Martin Luther,’
Martin Luther said:
“If God does not punish by the ordinary authorities
he will do it by pestilence,
war, revolutions
and other plagues;
for he can punish rulers as well as their subjects.”
In ‘Sermons of Martin Luther, Vol. 7, Sermons on the Epistle Texts for Epiphany, Easter & Pentecost, by Martin Luther,’
Martin Luther said:
“The vengeance and wrath of God
are dispensed in various ways:
through the instrumentality of political government;
at the hands of the devil;
by illness, hunger and pestilence;
by fire and water;
by war, enmity, disgrace;
and by every possible kind of misfortune on earth.
Every creature may serve
as the rod and the weapon of God
when he designs chastisement.
As said in Wisdom of Solomon, Song of Solomon 5:17:
“He shall . . . make the creature his weapon
for the revenge of his enemies.
So Paul says, “Give place unto wrath.”
I have inserted the words “of God”
to make clearer the meaning of the text;
the wrath of God is intended,
and not the wrath of man.
The thought is not of giving place
to the anger of our enemies.
True, there may be occasion even for that,
but Paul has not reference here to man’s anger.
Evidently, he means misfortunes and plagues,
which are regarded as expressions of God’s wrath.
Possibly the apostle omitted the phrase
to avoid giving the idea
that only the final wrath of God is meant
– his anger at the last day,
when he will inflict punishment without instrumentality.
Paul would include here all wrath,
whether temporal or eternal,
to which God gives expression in his chastisements.”
In ‘Works of Martin Luther, Vol. 2, by Martin Luther,’
Martin Luther wrote:
“And if you will not love one another,
God will send a great plague upon you;
let this be a warning to you,
for God will not reveal His Word
and have it preached in vain.
You are tempting God too far, my friends.
If someone in times past
had preached the Word to our forefathers,
they would perchance have acted differently.
Or if the Word were preached today
to many poor children in the cloisters,
they would receive it with much greater joy than you.
You do not heed it at all,
and give yourselves to other things,
which are unnecessary and foolish.
I commend you to God.”
In ‘Selected Works of John Calvin Vol. 4, Letters 1528-1545, by John Calvin,’
John Calvin wrote:
“When I see the dear judgments of God
appearing in those noisome pestilences
which have been afflicting the wretched Church,
I am partly comforted and refreshed,
but also somewhat disturbed in mind,
because I perceive that they are sent,
not altogether without just cause of anger.
It is, however, greatly to be desired,
that in whatever way it pleases himself,
the Lord would purify his Church
from all filth of the kind.”
In ‘The Selected Works of John Calvin Vol. 3, Tracts Part 3, by John Calvin,’
John Calvin wrote:
“But God nevertheless still chastises believers.
I admit it.
But to what end?
Is it that he, by inflicting punishment,
may pay what is due to himself and his own justice?
Not at all; but that he (God) may humble them,
by striking them with a dread of his anger,
that he (God) may produce in them
an earnest feeling of repentance,
and render them more cautious in future.
But there are means by which
they may avert these punishments;
I mean, when they anticipate them of their own accord,
there is no reason why God
should as it were drag them violently.
When is there occasion for the rod
but just when voluntary correction is wanting?
Accordingly, the Apostle tells us
that those who shall have judged themselves
shall not be judged by the Lord. (1 Corinthians 11:31.)”
In ‘George Whitefield, America’s Spiritual Founding Father, by Thomas S. Kidd,’
he wrote:
“Whitefield’s Lenten illness wracked him for seven weeks.
Confirming some physical details of his travail,
he noted in his unpublished diary
that he lay “abed ill” all morning on April 3,
and felt “great pressures in stomach” on the 4th.
Surely, he thought, the Holy Spirit
was using the sickness
to purge him of his evil inclinations.
He wrote down all the sins that he could identify,
both sins of the heart and of actions,
and confessed them to God.”
In ‘George Whitefield, America’s Spiritual Founding Father, by Thomas S. Kidd,’
he wrote:
“God could always redeem disease,
however, and even turn it into a catalyst for conversion,
as he did for Whitefield at Oxford.
After his new birth,
ever-present sickness
helped Whitefield keep a loose grip
on the things of the world.
As he presented it,
illness was an agent of sanctification,
for his followers as well as him.
The devout kept the faith
in the face of sickness.
Doing so was a sign of a heart
fully committed to God.”
In ‘A Narrative of Some of the Lord’s Dealings with George Mueller, Part 1, by George Mueller,’
George Mueller wrote:
“August 9. After extreme suffering,
which lasted about seventeen hours,
my wife was this day delivered of a still-born child.
–Who of my readers would suppose,
that whilst I was so abundantly blessed by God,
and that in so many respects,
my heart should have been again many times
during several months previous to this day,
cold, wretched, carnal?
How long-suffering is the Lord!
Repeatedly, during this time,
I could let hours run on,
after I had risen in the morning, before I prayed;
at least, before I retired for prayer.
And at that time when I appeared most zealous for God,
perhaps more so than at any time before or since,
I was often far from being in a spiritual state.
I was not now, indeed,
indulging in gross outward sins,
which could be noticed by my brethren;
but often–very often,
the eye of my kind loving Father
must have looked on me with much grief.
On this account, I have no doubt,
the Lord now, in great compassion,
sent this heavy blow.
I had not seriously thought
of the great danger connected with childbearing,
and therefore, had never earnestly prayed about it.
Now came this solemn time.
The life of my dear wife was hanging,
as it were, on a thread,
and, in the midst of it,
my conscience told me,
that my state of heart
made such a chastisement needful.
Yet, at the same time, I was much supported.
— When the child was still-born,
I saw almost immediately afterwards,
that this could not have been expected otherwise,
for I had not looked on the prospect
of having a child as on a blessing,
which I was about to receive from God,
but rather considered it as a burden and a hindrance
in the Lord’s work;
for I did not know then,
that, whilst a wife and children may be in certain respects,
on the one hand, a hindrance to the servant of Christ,
they also may fit him,
on the other hand, for certain parts of his work,
in teaching him things which are important to be known,
especially for the pastoral work.
The Lord now brought, in addition to this,
very great sufferings upon my beloved wife,
which lasted for six weeks,
combined with a partial lameness of the left side.
–Immediately after the eventful time of August 8th and 9th,
the Lord brought me, in His tender mercy,
again into a spiritual state of heart,
so that I was enabled to look on this chastisement
as a great blessing.
May this my experience be a warning to believing readers,
that the Lord may not need to chastise them,
on account of their state of heart!
May it also be a fresh proof to them,
that the Lord, in His very love and faithfulness,
will not, and cannot let us go on in backsliding,
but that He will visit us with stripes,
to bring us back to Himself!”
In ‘A Narrative of some of the Lord’s Dealings with George Mueller, Part 2, by George Mueller,’
George Mueller wrote:
“Jan. 14.
… My soul is now brought into that state,
that I delight myself in the will of God,
as it regards my health.
Yea, I can now say, from my heart,
I would not have this disease removed
till God, through it,
has bestowed the blessing for which it was sent.”
“… and I and the saints in Bristol
shall have abundant reason
to praise God
for this my illness.
Jan. 15.
I have had since yesterday afternoon
less suffering in my head
than for the last eight days!
though it is even now far from being well.
I have still an inward assurance,
on account of the spiritual blessings
which the Lord has granted to me,
that through this affliction
He is only purifying me for His blessed service,
and that I shall be soon restored to the work.”
In ‘The George Muller Collection, Autobiography,’
George Mueller wrote:
“Should it please the Lord
to lay me on a bed of sickness,
or keep me otherwise by reason of infirmity,
or old age, or want of employment,
from earning my bread by means of the labor of my hands,
or my business, or my profession,
he will yet provide for me.”
In ‘The George Muller Collection, Autobiography,’
George Mueller wrote:
“And to temperance, patience;”
that is, to be satisfied with the will of God.
If we have this contentment,
we shall be able to endure tribulation and suffering,
and even bereavement and sickness,
satisfied that it is for the best.
If we are the children of God,
we are but strangers and pilgrims here.
This is not our home,
we here have no abiding city;
therefore, we heed not the troubles or difficulties
by the way, they will soon pass.
Let us therefore aim after showing,
by our quiet, patient demeanour,
that we are satisfied with God.”
In ‘The George Muller Collection, Autobiography,’
George Mueller wrote:
“I do not ask you,
without asking myself the question,
What is my portion, my happiness, my all?
Is it God Himself, or the things of this world?
I answer for myself,
I could not be satisfied with anything short of this,
that God, and God alone, should be my portion,
day by day, and week by week,
and month by month, and year by year.
Oh, beloved friends,
stop short of nothing till you come to this,
that God Himself is your only portion.
The consequence of having Him for your portion will be,
that whatever be the circumstance
in which you are placed,
whether there be war,
or famine, or pestilence,
or whatever be the circumstances
connected with your present life,
still, you can be happy in the midst of them all.
Let it be sickness, or danger,
or even the prospect of death itself,
God is yours, and you will yet be happy…”
In ‘The Autobiography of George Mueller, by George Mueller,’
George Mueller wrote:
“June 3. From May 16 up to this day,
I have been confined to the house
and a part of the time to my bed
because of sickness.
Almost every day during this time,
I have been able to write a narrative
of the Lord’s dealings with me.
My greatest objection against writing it for publication
was a lack of time.
Now, this affliction
leaves my mind free and gives me time
because I am confined to the house.
I have written over one hundred pages.”
In ‘The Complete Works of JC Ryle,’
JC Ryle wrote:
“Let us mark well this lesson.
If we are true Christians,
we must not expect everything smooth
in our journey to heaven.
We must count it no strange thing,
if we have to endure
sicknesses,
losses,
bereavements,
and disappointments, just like other men.
Free pardon and full forgiveness,
grace by the way and glory at the end
– all this our Saviour has promised to give.
But He has never promised
that we shall have no afflictions.
He loves us too well to promise that.
By affliction
He teaches us many precious lessons,
which without it we should never learn.
By affliction
He shows us our emptiness and weakness,
draws us to the throne of grace,
purifies our affections, weans us from the world,
makes us long for heaven.
In the resurrection morning we shall all say,
“it is good for me that I was afflicted.”
We shall thank God for every storm.”