Joseph Prince Affirmed that it was God who answered the Prayer of his church member because she won the Toto (lottery) Top Prize of $2.8 million – By Rev George Ong (Dated 14 Mar 2021)

On 10 March 2021 (4 days ago), Melissa Thangavellu’s sober testimony was featured in this website. She shared that one of her family members who attended New Creation Church even bought Toto. If you missed the testimony, please click to read.  

Melissa said of her family member, “She often bought 4D, Toto and big sweep and claimed God’s blessings on her. She asked Jesus for 4D numbers and referred to the numbers as Jesus’ numbers.”

This is not surprising, given what you are about to hear what Joseph Prince said about Toto in a 1-minute audio clip. 

In a sermon excerpt, titled, “The Covenant That Demonstrates His Wealth & Health,” Joseph Prince said (click to hear)

Here is a verbatim of what Joseph Prince said:

“Now, recently, something else happens. Just two weeks ago, there was a lady in Singapore, who was working as a cashier at a coffeeshop, Kopitiam. And one lady walked in and offered her a Toto – just one piece. Now, she never plays Toto in her life. She bought that one piece. I was told later that she wanted Christians to know she don’t plays Toto. There was one time the lady came in and insists on her taking the one. She took that piece. She bought it – the one piece. And that was the top prize – $2.8 million. It was on the front page of The New Paper. $2.8 million, and the word got around in Singapore, saying a Kopitiam aunty has won the top prize. Now what people didn’t know was this; she was praying to God; she’s a new convert. And she was praying to God that she can go to church because somehow her finances didn’t allow and she had to work on Sundays at the Kopitiam, the coffeeshop. So, she asked God to help her. Boy, did God help her. I want to read to you a testimony. And yes, she is from this church.” 

On one hand, Joseph Prince tried to explain for the lady when he mentioned that “she don’t plays Toto.” Yet, on the other hand, he said it was God who answered her prayer by providing for her finances because she won the prize of $2.8 million.

What Joseph Prince is clearly implying is that God can provide for you through gambling. And especially, if it is $2.8 million, it has to be God, and it has to be the right thing to do. I guess, for Joseph Prince, it is because it is $2.8 million that makes it right.

Could you accept such flippant and irresponsible attitude and approach of Joseph Prince (who is a pastor) towards gambling and wealth? It seems that Joseph Prince’s theology is that the ends justify the means – if it is $2.8 million, then it has got to be God.

(This is so characteristic of Joseph Prince as he constantly uses this argument – that just because his church has experienced phenomenal growth, or just because he can produce the plenty of testimonies, this means he is preaching the true grace doctrine.)

In order to promote his Prosperity Gospel doctrine that every believer is to be very rich like Abraham in the Old Testament was, Joseph Prince is even prepared to drag God into this gambling thing. He is making God say that it is okay to gamble as it is God who answered the lady’s prayer by taking care of her finances because He had helped her win the $2.8 million Toto prize.

And what I am interested to know from Joseph Prince is, did she continue to buy Toto after winning the $2.8 million? Well, the reasoning is, if God can answer her prayer by helping her win a monetary prize through Toto once, why can’t He do it the second and third time? If it is okay for God to do it once, shouldn’t it be okay for Him to do it the second and third time?

Instead of giving a clear signal to his church members that gambling is wrong because it promotes the sin of covetousness, unbelievably, Joseph Prince gave tacit approval to it.

How would his church members, especially the new converts and those who are weaker in faith, and worse, those who may have the temptation to gamble, go away with Joseph Prince’s frivolous approach to the issue of gambling?

They must be thinking, that perhaps, buying Toto is not all that wrong, especially if one can win the top Toto prize of 2.8 million, as, after all, their Pastor Joseph Prince Himself had dared to testify publicly, in a worship service about a believer winning Toto.

By now, can you make the connection why the family member of Melissa Thangavellu’s could buy Toto, even though she is attending New Creation Church?

The horrifying thing is, not only does Joseph Prince not give a clear signal that gambling is wrong as it is an insidious form of covetousness, he indirectly promotes it by saying that God can answer the prayer of a believer because He had helped her win a Toto prize.

“Prosperity cannot be proof of God’s favour for it is what the devil promises to those who worship him.” (John Piper)

Going by what John Piper said, it is not God, but very likely the devil, who has helped his lady member win the Toto prize.

By the same token, it is not God, who is responsible for the massive growth of Joseph Prince’s New Creation Church, and the unceasing number of testimonies that he is so anxiously belting out during almost every Sunday worship; it is the devil. (Though portions of these testimonies could be true, not because of the Pseudo-grace doctrine of Joseph Prince, but due to the true grace of God.)

When Joseph Prince is preaching stark heresies, to say that God is the one who is responsible for the growth of his church and the testimonies that he belts out every Sunday is to malign God.

Let me also remind you that not just true prophets, but false prophets could also perform signs and wonders. Deuteronomy 13:1-2: If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, ² and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,”

Many have told me that Joseph Prince must be right since he is blessed by God with the biggest church in Singapore. But haven’t they read the passage from Matthew 4:1-11 that Satan can also bless anyone with fame, popularity, success and wealth when this person chooses to worship him and do his biddings.

What is sobering is that the more his church grows and the more testimonies he receives, the more self-deluded and arrogant he becomes. The more affirmation and praises unthinking and simplistic believers lavished on him about the growth of his church and the testimonies that seem to allude to his grace teaching, the more they are leading him onto the road of no-repentance, no-return and self-destruction.

Rev George Ong