Joseph Prince Makes Jesus a Liar Regarding the 100-Fold Blessing in Mark 10:29-30 – By Rev George Ong (Dated 5 July 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 3 July 2022, last Sunday, 2 days ago, Joseph Prince said the following;
Please click here to view excerpts in the 2-minute video:
“Peter began to say to Jesus, ‘See, we have left all and followed you.’ What does that mean? ‘We have left all and followed you.’ What shall we have? ‘We left all and followed you’. And Jesus said this.”
“He (Jesus) says, ‘Whoever has left. Whatever you leave.’ Whoever leaves all that, there is no one who has left all this ‘who shall not receive a hundredfold, now in this time – houses and brothers.”
“It’s talking about tangible things or spiritual things? Houses, fathers, mothers. My father is real leh! My wife is real. My sister is real. My bro is real. Amen. I mean, you receive what? – a hundredfold. However, He didn’t say ‘a hundred more’. He says ‘a hundredfold’. Whatever you want to interpret that as hundred more or hundredfold or whatever it is, listen, it is a lot more. Right, it’s a lot more. ‘Who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time – houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands’. Singaporeans, lands. Singapore! Lands! If God has to make lands for you, He will make land.”
“So this is not a promise when you go to heaven. ‘Now in this time’. Everyone say, ‘Now in this time’. Say again, ‘Now in this time’. Believe God for it. Don’t listen to people – trying to stop you from prospering and all that.”
“So notice He says you will receive where? ‘Now in this life’. Houses, brothers. Notice uh – with persecution. Hahaha! Okay, when you start to prosper, notice that persecution comes, He promised persecution when you receive a hundredfold. You receive a lot of persecution. Trust me, when you prosper, you receive persecution. And you know persecution don’t come from a dog. Doesn’t come from a cat. It comes from a being with 2 legs and a mouth. You know, they will persecute you. But you know something. Jesus promised you that. So cannot escape.”
1. Joseph Prince’s teaching that Jesus promises the hundredfold blessing of prosperity that includes literal lands (and literal houses) in Mark 10:29-30, is clearly interpreting the passage out of context.
In the other sermons of Joseph Prince that I have heard, besides this particular sermon on 3 July 2022, Joseph Prince alludes to Mark 10:29-30 to teach that New Covenant believers should have the faith to believe God for the hundredfold material blessing as part of his Prosperity Gospel Doctrine.
Did Jesus promise the hundredfold blessing in Mark 10:29-30?
Mark 10:28-30 NKJV
28 Then Peter began to say to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You.” 29 So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, 30 who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time – houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions – and in the age to come, eternal life.
Mark 10:28-30 NIV
28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!” 29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields – along with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life.
Yes, He did.
Did Jesus promise the hundredfold blessing in the here and now in Mark 10:29-30?
Yes, He did.
But did Jesus promise the hundredfold blessing of the Prosperity Gospel type that includes material blessings such as physical land (and houses), that Joseph Prince is rooting for in Mark 10:29-30?
Absolutely not!
Joseph Prince in teaching that Jesus promises the hundredfold blessing of prosperity that includes literal lands (and literal houses) that would make believers, presumably, a hundred times richer, is clearly interpreting the passage out of context.
By the way, don’t ever fall for the trap of Joseph Prince as he frequently and falsely asserts that it is his critics who teach against riches. Or that we champion that being poor is necessarily spiritual and being rich is necessarily wrong.
Prince is a specialist at using the straw man argument against his critics to paint a false picture of their views in order to turn his congregation against them.
To deliberately misrepresent our position even though he knows what our true view is – that to me, is being evil.
We have never said it is wrong to be rich. But we are saying here that what Prince teaches about prosperity and riches in Mark 10:29-30 is out of context.
The entire context starts from Mark 10:17 right through to Mark 10:27, which Joseph Prince has ‘hidden’ from you. Again, his half-truth deceptive strategy at play again.
Prince shows you the half-truth in Mark 10:28-30 but ‘hides’ from you the other half of the truth in Mark 10:17-27, which gives you the context.
The context is that a rich young ruler who wanted to inherit eternal life walked away sadly as he wasn’t prepared to do what Jesus said he must – to sell away everything he has and follow Him.
And as the rich man walked away dejectedly, Jesus declared,
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mk 10:25).
Jesus realised the serious danger and the pull of wealth – that it is extremely difficult for a rich person to be a Christian when He said the above.
In the light of what Jesus had told the rich man to sell everything and give to the poor if he wanted to inherit eternal life because riches had a hold on him, Joseph Prince, in using the same text to teach about the hundredfold material blessings, where you can possess plenty of land and be very rich, is clearly out of context.
Here, Jesus was trying to highlight the lure or trust in riches that could even keep one (the rich man) from eternal life.
But here is Joseph Prince, trying to tell the world that Jesus is promising to bless you with prosperity that comes with physical land (and houses) that would bring about tremendous riches that is a hundredfold and to make you a hundred times wealthier.
Does what Joseph Prince teach in Mark 10:29-30 that we can be a hundred times richer, square or gel with the point that our trust in riches can be a stumbling block to one’s eternal destiny that Jesus was trying to bring across in Mark 10:17-30?
Certainly not!
Notice Jesus said, “How hard it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God,” not only once but twice in a short span of 2 verses (Mk 10:23-24):
Mark 10:23-25 NIV
23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
Why does Jesus have to say it twice?
You will only say something twice in short succession when you want to emphasise on that particular issue, and you just want to make sure that your listeners don’t miss out on it.
Jesus didn’t just say it twice, but he also gave a concrete and an unforgettable illustration that homes in the point:
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Mk 10:25).
Any sensible person will know there is no way that a camel can go through the eye of a needle, and yet, Jesus said that it is even easier than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.
In other words, what Jesus is saying is that it is not just hard, but ‘impossible’ for the rich who trust in riches and under the bondage of greed to enter the kingdom of God.
When Jesus said,
“How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mk 10:23)
and
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mk 10:25),
Christ was clearly saying that because the rich man wasn’t prepared to sell everything he has as he was still under the bondage of greed, he could not enter the kingdom of God.
Though the rich man was not one who had murdered somebody or stole from another, he had the problem of greed that he must repent of.
But he wasn’t ready to repent from it. He was keeping all the wealth for himself that Christ had expected him to share with the poor.
Jesus knew what was keeping the rich ruler from heaven is the bondage of greed and greed would disqualify him for salvation (1 Cor 6:9-10; Eph 5:5-6).
Paul, too, had warned against greed and equated it to idolatry (Eph 5:3-5; Col 3:5), and it is certainly a serious sin. Paul emphatically declared that greedy people would not enter God’s kingdom (1 Cor 6:9-11; Eph 5:3,6).
The sin of greed, which is idolatry, was serious enough to disqualify the rich man, and we, too, from receiving eternal life.
This episode of the rich young ruler is never to imply that the giving up of riches can purchase eternal life. The issue is not about works-salvation but the Lordship of Christ; whether riches, or Christ is more important to the rich man.
The real point is that the wealth of the rich man was his master which controlled him, and that stood in the way of receiving Jesus as both his Saviour and Lord, and in inheriting eternal life.
This issue of wealth that Jesus brought up in the passage was such a serious matter that could even disqualify someone who is mired in riches from eternal salvation.
That being the case, it is impossible for Jesus to promise the hundredfold blessing of material wealth that includes lands (and houses) in Mark 10:29-30 that Joseph Prince is pushing for, as this would undo and contradict all that Christ was trying to communicate about the lure and grip of wealth in Mark 10:17-28.
What Joseph Prince has done is to cherry pick Mark 10:29-30 and severe it from its context in Mark 10:17-28. When one divorces a text from its context, almost anything can be proven. That’s what Prince has done time and again.
He has once again interpreted a text in Mark 10:29-30 out of its context in Mark 10:17-28 (and he has done this countless times on many other occasions) and twisted the word of God to shore up his Prosperity Gospel Doctrine.
Furthermore, the promise of Jesus is not that those who leave their homes to preach the gospel will possess literal lands (fields or farms) of a hundred times more or own a hundred literal houses (homes) as a blessing:
Mark 10:29-30 NIV
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields – along with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life.”
(The following versions translate ‘lands’ in NKJV that Joseph Prince uses as ‘farms’:
AMP, CEB, ERV, NASB, VOICE, WE, WYC, YLT
The following versions translate ‘lands’ in NKJV that Joseph Prince uses as ‘fields’:
CSB, DLNT, EHV, EXB, GW, GNT, HCSB, ICB, ISV, LEB, MEV, MOUNCE, NOG, NCV, NET, NIRV, NIV, NIVUK, NRSVA, NRSVACE, NRSVCE, NRSVUE.
The following versions translate ‘houses’ in NKJV that Joseph Prince uses as ‘homes’:
CJB, ERV, EXB, GW, ICB, ISV, PHILLIPS, TLB, MSG, NOG, NCV, NET, NIRV, NIV, NIVUK.)
There is no indication at all that Jesus was promising the blessings of wealth such as literal lands (and literal houses) as postured by Joseph Prince, to those who sacrificed for the sake of the ministry.
If ‘lands’ (and ‘houses’) are taken literally as postured by Joseph Prince, then, to be consistent, mothers (many), fathers (many) and children (many) in the same text of Mark 10:29-30 must also be taken literally.
However, this would be illogical and even nonsensical as every person has only one biological father (one) and one biological mother (one). And how could a person be the biological father or mother to 100 children – the hundredfold blessing!
So surely, they must be taken spiritually and not literally, as I shall show you.
The key point that Jesus was trying to communicate is that those who make sacrifices by leaving their farms or fields (lands), homes (houses) and families (fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, children) for the sake of Christ and the gospel will never be shortchanged, but they will be more than compensated or made up for as they will enjoy the manifold and spiritual blessings of winning others to Christ.
Those who make sacrifices will be blessed with the new believers who have received the gospel, and they will become their spiritual family.
These new believers, which would include brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers and children will open their homes to those who have to make the sacrifices. And these new families will share what they have with those who left everything for the sake of the gospel.
The promise is referring to the blessing of having the many new spiritual families or households opening up their homes for their stay and wonderful fellowship.
Jesus assured Peter,
“Peter, you left everything for My sake (Mark 10:28), but you didn’t lose anything. Whatever you sacrificed, you’ll be repaid a hundredfold. You will have hundreds of friends – the very people you have brought to salvation, and hundreds of homes you could go to and be at home with. I’ll give you a hundred more relationships even in this life. You have left behind a family to preach the gospel. But I’ll give you a big family (fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, children) a hundred times the size. The friendship, family and community which you will enjoy on earth and in heaven are much more precious and blessed than the earthly gold and silver, which will fade away. True friendship and community life will never fade away.
Besides, as for the fields or farms (or lands) you have given up, I will give you a hundred more. You could always visit the farms or fields (or lands) of those you brought to Christ, and they would love for you to enjoy the fruits or vegetables in their farms of fields (or lands), and share with you the fruits of their labour, as, after all, it is you who have laboured hard for their salvation. The farms or fields (or lands) you seem to lose, you will gain a hundred more.”
So the context of the passage is about the sacrifices that people make for the sake of Christ, and the gospel, will not go unnoticed, and they will be more than compensated for and amply provided for. They will certainly stand to gain much more than what they have lost.
Jesus is not promising that such people would acquire 100 pieces of literal land and 100 literal houses and 100 literal fathers, 100 literal mothers, 100 literal children, 100 literal brothers, and 100 literal sisters.
Jesus was emphasising that those who have made sacrifices to leave their fields or farms, homes and families to preach the gospel, would find that fellow believers, who came to know Christ through their ministry, would open their homes to them and warmly treat them as family among their families.
Both their emotional and material needs would be met by these new-found families, who have come to receive the gospel through their preaching.
Even if persecution were to lead to the death of parents who preach the gospel, the children of these martyred parents would have the love and care of these new-found parents (fathers and mothers) in the new community to count on.
2. Joseph Prince’s so-called persecution from his critics is pittance and almost laughable, as compared to the real persecution of the Apostles and Early Christians.
Joseph Prince said,
“So notice He says you will receive where? ‘Now in this life’. Houses, brothers. Notice uh – with persecution. Hahaha! Okay, when you start to prosper, notice that persecution comes, He promised persecution when you receive a hundredfold. You receive a lot of persecution. Trust me, when you prosper, you receive persecution. And you know persecution don’t come from a dog. Doesn’t come from a cat. It comes from a being with 2 legs and a mouth. You know, they will persecute you. But you know something. Jesus promised you that. So cannot escape.”
From the grammatical structure of the English language in Mark 10:30, it is rather clear that persecution is another subset of the hundredfold blessing that also includes homes (houses), brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields or farms (lands):
Mark 10:30 NIV
30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields – along with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life.
But Joseph Prince has twisted even the English language to mean that it is just the blessing of lands (and houses), which he falsely equates to prosperity, that would bring about persecution, when such an interpretation would require an obvious reading into the text and a contortion of the English language.
The NIV and NASB (including AMP, DLNT, GW, ISV, NOG, NIVUK, NLV, NLT, TLV, VOICE) translations on Mark 10:30 placed the issue beyond doubt:
Mark 10:30 NIV
30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields – along with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life.
Mark 10:30 NASB
30 but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.
If one checks the dictionary, “along with” someone or something, means in addition to someone or something; or together with someone or something.
For example: Peter went to the shopping mall along with Paul. Or, I ate some nuts along with some fruit.
Hence, it is clear that persecution is included “along with” not only with lands and houses, but also fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and children – and all these are part of the hundredfold blessing.
So, for Joseph Prince to posture the view that it is prosperity (of lands and houses only) that brings about persecution is a clear misrepresentation and violation of the English text.
Prince is, so to speak, trying to smuggle an idea and force a relationship between prosperity and persecution, when such a connection could not be logically made in the text without sounding grammatically awkward and silly.
Mark 10:30 did say that the hundredfold blessing comes with persecution but it didn’t say that prosperity of the Joseph Prince type would bring about persecution as Prince is asserting.
This is because Mark 10:30, which talks about the hundredfold blessing, has nothing to do with prosperity that Joseph Prince has smuggled into the text.
Joseph Prince said,
“Okay, when you start to prosper, notice that persecution comes… Trust me, when you prosper, you receive persecution… Jesus promised you that.”
Joseph Prince has once again daringly put words into Jesus’ mouth that in Mark 10:29-30, Jesus was teaching that believers who prospered, such as him, will be persecuted by fellow believers, who, presumably, are envious of his prosperity and ministry success (and this is what Joseph Prince actually said in his other sermons and I have the proof for it).
Or to be more specific, Joseph Prince is saying those who hold to his Prosperity Gospel Preaching and prosper will be persecuted by those who criticised his Prosperity Gospel Teaching or his Grace Teaching.
He has been teaching this in many of his sermons and books.
Let me just surface 2 concrete examples for you to peruse:
First, in a 10-second video excerpt of Joseph Prince, he said the following; please click here to view:
“Those who persecute you, this generation, if you are persecuted, these brothers, they share the same heavenly father. But they don’t share the same mother. Their mother is law. Our mother is grace.”
Also, in his book, ‘Grace Revolution’, Page 337, Joseph Prince wrote the same thing that those who are under law (referring to us, but it is a false accusation as we don’t preach only law, but both grace and law) are persecuting those who are under grace (referring to himself and those who preach his grace theology).
Elsewhere in his other videos/audios (and I have concrete evidence as proof), he shared that others have persecuted him because of his prosperity and his success of preaching his grace theology.
What?
You mean Joseph Prince who is preaching the false grace doctrine is telling the world that he is being persecuted by those who preach the true grace doctrine?
You mean, we, who are obeying the scriptures in Jude 3 to contend for the faith and against heretics like Joseph Prince, are persecuting him?
Wow!
This is the first time I’ve ever heard – true shepherds, who are trying to protect the sheep, are persecuting slimy wolves like Prince, who is devouring the sheep!
Joseph Prince’s talent at twisting things around, spinning falsity to become truth and truth to become falsity is unmatched.
What? You mean, Joseph Prince is being persecuted?
Joseph Prince must be joking.
How can that be?
You mean, Prince, being the richest pastor of the richest church in Singapore (through his regular and weekly honorarium given by the church, if any; and through the regular proceeds from his book sales and CDs in his 34,000-member church and around the world), is being persecuted?
This must be the joke of the year!
I am, of course, not against pastors who are rich.
But I am totally against any pastor, such as Joseph Prince, who profits by twisting and distorting the scriptures in order to churn out his feel-good, flesh-pleasing, self-centred and false grace teachings that appeal to and draw the crowds.
You mean, Joseph Prince and his church are so wealthy that he can afford to broadcast his messages to well over 150 countries of the world (according to his own source) – and everyone knows that will cost a fantastically hefty sum of money – and yet, he can claim that he is being persecuted?
(Frankly, on a fleshly and carnal level, I don’t mind being persecuted in the way Prince is.)
You mean, Prince, being the pastor of the biggest church in Singapore, who preaches the false gospel is being persecuted by pastors of much smaller churches who preach the true gospel?
You mean, Joseph Prince, having body-guards all around him for most of the time during the worship services that his own church members can’t even get anywhere close to him, is being persecuted?
Come off it – who is Prince trying to kid?
Joseph Prince sure has the deceptive ability and evil inclination of painting the villain in him as the hero, and the hero in others, who have the guts to criticise his teachings at a high cost to their own personal safety and their own ministries, as the villain who persecutes him.
Prince’s ability to spin and redefine persecution to his own advantage as something that even applies to him, probably being one of the richest pastors in Asia and perhaps the world, is unequalled.
By posturing himself as the one who is being persecuted, he has greatly insulted the many believers, especially in the poor Third World nations, who are the real victims of persecution.
By his definition of what persecution is, he has disgraced the Apostles of Christ and the early Christians who were severely persecuted.
Why were the apostles and the early Christians persecuted?
Because they were rich and prosperous as Joseph Prince is?
No way!
How were the apostles and the early Christians persecuted?
By merely being criticised for their teaching as Joseph Prince is?
No!
That form of persecution is pittance as they were persecuted even to their death.
When the Bible talks about persecution, it is usually referring to believers being persecuted for their faith by unbelievers.
But here Joseph Prince has completely changed the meaning of persecution to one that refers to prosperous ‘believers’ being persecuted by their fellow believers, just because they have rightly criticised Prince’s false Prosperity Gospel Doctrine.
If you read the entire New Testament, when Jesus talks about persecution, often, it has to do with believers being persecuted for their faith by unbelievers.
I have gone through all the verses that Jesus mentions about persecution or being persecuted in the entire New Testament, and there isn’t a single text that has to do with believers persecuting other believers just because they were blessed with prosperity and riches.
But the worst misdemeanour that Joseph Prince has committed is that he has put his own words into Jesus’s mouth – that according to Mark 10:29-30, prosperous believers are being persecuted by other believers just because the former have been blessed with riches.
Joseph Prince said,
“Okay, when you start to prosper, notice that persecution comes… Trust me, when you prosper, you receive persecution… Jesus promised you that.”
Jesus did say and promise that the hundredfold blessing would bring about persecution but He didn’t say that prosperous believers will be persecuted by fellow believers as Joseph Prince has made it out to be.
Joseph Prince, by stating that that’s what Jesus teaches when that is furthest from His mind is to make Christ, the Son of God, a liar.
When Jesus said to Peter and the rest of the apostles that the hundredfold blessing would include persecution in Mark 10:30, He meant it to a tee – when all 12 apostles were severely persecuted – with 11 of them to their death.
Compare the persecution of the Apostles with that to Joseph Prince’s claim that he is being persecuted just because he is prosperous – doesn’t Prince feel a sense of shame? As a matter of fact, I feel deeply embarrassed for him!
(Just in case you aren’t aware, not only does Joseph Prince teach against costly discipleship that is taught by Jesus Himself, but he is also dead against martyrdom, that which Christ and 11 apostles had to go through for our sake.)
Last, if you wish to read a more detailed account of this article and other related insights, don’t miss the following article by clicking below:
Rev George Ong
Afternote:
In this particular sermon that was featured on YouTube on 3 July 2022, 2 days ago, Joseph Prince tried to qualify that prosperity does not equal greed or materialism, and so on and so forth (not reflected in the video excerpts).
Don’t be deceived. Regardless of whether he means it or not, that doesn’t alleviate one single iota of Prince’s blatant twisting and deliberate misinterpretation of the scriptures in Mark 10:29-30 in order to promote his Prosperity Gospel which is no gospel at all as it is simply a false gospel.
Another separate point is that it isn’t difficult to comprehend why Jesus would include persecution as one of the hundredfold blessings in Mark 10:30.
Didn’t Jesus Himself say in Matthew 5:10-12:
Matthew 5:10-12 NIV
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.