Joseph Prince Double Talks by using the Gospels which he said are under Old Covenant Law to teach New Covenant Truths – By Rev George Ong (14 August 2022)
(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 a weekly Sunday sermon aired on YouTube on 7 August 2022, last Sunday, Joseph Prince said the following;
Please click here to view excerpts in the 30-second video:
“I’m telling you ever since Jesus was manifested, grace, the true grace, the reality of grace came forth. Let me show you this verse. It says in John chapter 1 (V16) ‘And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.’
Just let you know that this ‘His’ here is our Lord Jesus. Of His fullness, of His fullness, out of His fullness, his fullness, we have received. And grace for grace.”
“Now watch this, the next verse says, ‘For the law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.’ Now I always say this (John 1:17) is one of my favourite verses in the Bible.”
The main crux of what Joseph Prince said in the video is that Jesus came to reveal grace upon grace to New Covenant believers, and that’s the glorious truth which I fully agree with him and would say a big ‘Amen’ to.
Yet, at the same time, Joseph Prince, by what he said on the video (even though he had said it correctly), has revealed himself again as a double-talker.
In many of Joseph Prince’s sermons and books, (not just in this sermon on 7 August 2022), he has championed John 1:17 in the Gospel of John as unfolding the truth that Jesus came to reveal the New Covenant of grace to New Covenant believers – and he is right.
That’s why he said on video that John 1:17 is one of his favourite verses in the Bible.
Yet, in many of his other writings and sermons, Prince, has, at the same time, discounted and even dismissed and ‘deleted’ what were written in the gospels, including John 1:16-17, as they, according to his teaching, were written and said under the Old Covenant of Law.
In a weekly Sunday sermon aired on YouTube on 22 May 2022, Joseph Prince said;
Please click here to view excerpts in the 5-second video:
“… Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is Jesus still under the law. All his disciples were under Law.”
In ‘Destined To Reign’, Page 92, Joseph Prince wrote,
“The new covenant only begins after the cross, when the Holy Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost.”
In ‘Unmerited Favor’, Page 97, Joseph Prince wrote,
“However, the new covenant does not actually begin with the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as these books deal predominantly with the life of Jesus before the cross.
In fact, the new covenant begins after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Hence, the cross is our clearest marking point of where the new covenant begins.”
In ‘Grace Revolution’, Page 309, Joseph Prince wrote,
“You can’t simply take something that was recorded and spoken during the dispensation of the law of the old covenant, and apply it to new covenant believers today.
Likewise, you cannot take what was recorded and spoken before the cross of Jesus and apply it to new covenant believers today.”
From what Joseph Prince had said and written in the above, do you know what that means?
That means the teachings of Christ and the words of Jesus and whatever that are written in the gospels, including John 1:16-17 which is before the cross, are under the Old Covenant of Law and are not applicable or binding on New Covenant believers.
In other words, Joseph Prince is teaching that everything that is taught in the gospels, including John 1:16-17 before the cross doesn’t apply to New Covenant believers because they were spoken and taught under the Old Covenant Law.
One moment, Joseph Prince teaches that John 1:16-17 in the Gospel of John is the revelation of grace upon grace by Jesus to New Covenant believers (in the video on 7 August 2022), and the next moment, he said all that were written in the gospels, including John 1:16-17, are under the Old Covenant of Law.
This is double-talking and self-contradiction of the highest order!
Joseph Prince has to come forward and admit, publicly, that one of either of his teachings is false, as both cannot be true at one and the same time.
If Joseph Prince is unwilling, due to his sin of pride, then you and I have every right to call him a double-talker.
By saying in the video on 22 May 2022 that
“… Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is Jesus still under the law. All his disciples were under Law,”
Joseph Prince is clearly saying that Jesus Himself is still under the Old Covenant Law.
So how can Jesus, who is still under the Old Covenant of Law, be revealing grace upon grace under the New Covenant to New Covenant believers in John 1:16-17 as he had said on video on 7 August 2022?
This is getting ridiculous!
By writing in ‘Destined To Reign’, Page 92 that
“The new covenant only begins after the cross, when the Holy Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost,
Joseph Prince is clearly teaching that since the New Covenant only begins after the cross, what were written and taught in the gospels, including John 1:16-17 which is before the cross, belongs to the Old Covenant of Law.
So how can something written in John 1:16-17 in the Gospel of John, which he said is under the Old Covenant Law, be used by Joseph Prince to teach the New Covenant grace to New Covenant people, which he did on video in his sermon on 7 August 2022?
Can you see how absurd this is getting?
Come to think of it, as Prince had said,
“The New Covenant only begins after the cross,”
everything in the gospels which is before the cross is under the Old Covenant Law.
Then, why has Prince, on so many occasions, used many lessons in the gospels to teach and support his New Covenant grace doctrine such as:
John 3:16, the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11-32), the woman who was forgiven much (Lk 7:36-50), Zacchaeus (Lk 19:1-10), and plenty of others?
He is not supposed to as he has said so many times that Old Covenant Law doesn’t apply to New Covenant believers.
Specifically, Joseph Prince, who frequently preaches on John 3:16 as the New Covenant gospel is contradicting himself:
John 3:16 NIV
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
For Joseph Prince to be consistent in saying that Jesus Himself was under the Old Covenant Law in the gospels, and only what transpired after the cross apply to us today, he would have to say that John 3:16 which is before the cross, is not the gospel and as it is not under the New Covenant.
But why is Prince quoting John 3:16 so often in his own sermons as the gospel message to support his New Covenant grace teaching?
This is a clear and blatant example of double-talking!
Can you trust a guy who double-talks in broad daylight?
The reason why Joseph Prince teaches that the gospels are under the Old Covenant of Law is that there are many things that Christ said and taught in the gospels that contradict his grace teachings:
The Sermon on the Mount, the cost of discipleship, and obedience to the Ten Commandments, are just some examples that threaten Prince’s easy gospel and feel-good Christianity.
So, Prince has to find a way to get rid of them by posturing such a doctrine.
This is why when confronted with the many parts of what Jesus said and taught in the gospels that threaten his grace theology, you can expect Joseph Prince to say,
“These are not for New Covenant believers, as they were spoken by Jesus under the Old Covenant Law.”
Yet, Prince contradicted himself by using the very thing (for example Jn 3:16) which he dismissed as part of the New Covenant to teach and support his New Covenant Grace Theology.
If this is not double-talking, I don’t know what is?
And why is Prince using John 1:17 (NIV)
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ,
so frequently as one of his key texts (one of his favourite texts) to support his own New Covenant Grace Doctrine?
How can Joseph Prince, who keeps using John 1:17, that grace came through Jesus Christ to promote his own grace doctrine for New Covenant believers, and say at the same time that the same Jesus who came to give grace in John 1:17 was under the Old Covenant law in the gospels?
This is nothing but blatant and shameless double-talking and self-contradiction that serves to totally discredit himself as a so-called grace teacher.
Finally, if you have followed the many articles that I had written on my website, you would have noticed that Joseph Prince is not only an incidental double-talker in this instance, but also a frequent and recalcitrant serial double-talker.
So how can anyone in his right mind consider and esteem a serial double-talker, Joseph Prince, to be a true teacher of God’s word?
Rev George Ong