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)
– By Rev George Ong
This is Part 1 of the Article.
Part 2 will be featured about a week later or less.
Let me be so bold as to say
that what I have compiled
regarding what these 20 godly men
have insightfully said or wrote,
are precious gems
that you can’t get anywhere else.
It has taken humongous and persevering efforts
on my part to hunt for them.
So, hope you could take the time to read,
at least, portions of them.
Don’t miss, especially, David Pawson’s short sermon
in written form.
For those who are new believers,
your Pastors would be able to bear witness
and tell you that these 20 godly men
are no fly-by-night preachers,
but proven and very well-regarded Bible teachers
across denominations.
And all of them teach the same view
that God can send sickness to believers
to chastise them.
If all 20 of them,
including Martin Luther, John Calvin and John Wesley
teach against the view of Joseph Prince,
what does this leave Joseph Prince?
That Prince is confirmed to be a charlatan,
and a tool of Satan, to propound the satanic heresies.
(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.)
For a start, it is of vital importance
that I frame the issue in the proper context
to prevent Joseph Prince from twisting it
as he has evilly done all too frequently
to misrepresent his critics’ intention
and achieve his malicious agenda.
What needs to be said is that
most of every evangelical church, pastor and believer,
in the past as well as the present,
believe in healing and that God still heals today.
Many, themselves, have also experienced
the supernatural healings of God.
So, this is not the issue
that Joseph Prince often tries to put across
– that we don’t believe in healing,
or that we don’t have enough faith
to believe God for supernmatural healings
as he does;
as if to put across the impression
that only he, is the guru on healing,
while others are plain novices.
Friends, only a proud man, like Joseph Prince,
would want to leave the kind of impression to others.
So this is not the issue,
but the real issue that is at stake
is when Joseph Prince
starts saying that God cannot send sickness in our lives,
especially, to chastise us.
This is blatantly going against the scriptures,
and the teachings of most
renowned Bible scholars and teachers.
Furthermore, this is also impinging on God’s sovereignty,
curtailing and placing limits on what He can and cannot do.
But what is worse is that Joseph Prince
strongly implies that God is committing
one of the most evil acts
when He chastises believers with sicknesses,
and Prince is also falsely accusing these 20 godly men
for advocating one of the most evil teachings,
because they teach that God can send sickness to believers.
This is absolutely monstrous and revolting.
In a weekly Sunday sermon aired on YouTube
on 2 July 2023, Joseph Prince said;
Please click here to view the 20-second video:
“And there’s some doctrine of some Christian circle,
and that’s how they teach it;
that God wants you to have this sickness,
to teach you some lesson.”
In ‘Destined To Reign,’ Joseph Prince wrote:
“One of the most evil teachings that I have heard is that
God will chastise His own
with sicknesses, diseases, accidents and tragedies.”
“So how can anyone have the audacity to say
that God will still chastise us
with sicknesses, diseases and accidents today?”
By making the above statement,
Joseph Prince is not only 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
for advocating one of the most evil teachings,
that God could send sickness and even death
to chastise His people,
but, on the gravest note,
Prince is also accusing the Almighty God
for committing one of the most evil acts,
when He chastises believers with sicknesses,
This is because it can be so easily proven
from the scriptures
that God has indeed carried out such acts
(not evil, but sovereign).
If Joseph Prince is that malicious
to have the monstrous audacity
to even accuse God
of carrying out one of the most evil acts,
how can this man not be a servant of Satan?
And how can a Singapore Methodist Pastor
and a Singapore Presbyterian Pastor
say that Joseph Prince is not a heretic?
All these 20 men of God,
who come with good credentials,
have refuted Joseph Prince’s false teaching
that God cannot use sickness and even death
to chastise believers.
Let me start with David Pawson.
In a sermon on 1 Corinthians 11:17-34,
David Pawson said;
Please click here to listen to the 1-minute audio:
“But now comes a very serious word.
If you do not ask that question
and you eat and drink this bread and wine
without discerning the body,
then your body will be damaged.
Not your soul, your body.
That you could actually become weak physically,
ill physically and die physically,
as a result of abusing the Lord’s Supper.
If you failed to see His body,
then He damages your body.
For the Lord Jesus can not only heal the sick,
He can make the body sick.
It is His way of chastising and disciplining.
Not because He wants to condemn
but because He loves.
Whom the Lord loves, He chastises.
And therefore, He could chastise us
at the Lord’s Table itself
if we profane the body and blood.”
Let me give you the fuller text
of the insightful and balanced teachings
of what David Pawson said in his sermon:
“And one of the things we are not told in 1 Corinthians 11,
is that you have to be perfect before you can take it.
Let’s get rid of that idea.
The lovely story of the Scots woman,
who, when the minister held up to the bread to her said,
‘I cannot take it. I’m a sinner.’
And the minister said,
‘Take it, woman. It is for sinners.’
This is the right way
in which to approach the Lord’s Supper.
In the night in which he was betrayed,
He didn’t say,
‘Let’s wait till Judas is gone.’
He didn’t say,
‘Because of all the dreadful things
you are all going to do to me.
You are all going to run away,
I’m not giving you this.’
He said,
‘I know you are going to run away from me.
I know you are going to let me down.
I know you are going to betray me.
But let’s take it.’
And that puts the setting right.
You are going to let Christ down, so am I.
And yet He holds out the bread and the wine to us.
And above all,
He did not say
that you have to be perfect before you come.
What did he say?
He said there is only one thing needed
if you are going to take part worthily
and it is this:
that you discern the body.
That is all.
But that is not straightforward.
Which body?
Christ has 2 bodies.
Which one is referred to here?
There is the body He has in heaven,
His resurrection, the glorified body
that He took to heaven,
the body that still has the nail prints.
Is that what is meant?
If that is so,
then as you look at this bread and drink this wine,
do you see the body with the nail prints?
That is all.
But there is another meaning to the word, body of Christ.
He still has a body on earth.
It is made up of your hands,
and your feet and your mouth.
It is made up of the bodies of Christians.
And the whole context of the division
in the church at Corinth
is that they are not waiting for one another.
And they are being greedy before one another
and humiliating one another,
seems to me to point very clearly
to an emphasis on the second meaning.
When you take this bread and the wine,
do you see in the other people
eating and drinking with you,
the body of Christ?
I think the answer is both
for they merge into one another.
And therefore the 2 questions
you need to ask before you partake of these:
Do I discern the body of Christ in what is eaten?
And do I discern the body of Christ in those who eat it?
These are the only 2 questions you need ask.
Are you seeing Christ and having communion that way?
And are you seeing Christians and having communion this way?
That makes the cross for you.
This double relationship.
And that is all you need ask.
But now comes a very serious word.
If you do not ask that question
and you eat and drink this bread and wine
without discerning the body,
then your body will be damaged.
Not your soul, your body.
That you could actually become weak physically,
ill physically and die physically,
as a result of abusing the Lord’s Supper.
If you failed to see his body,
then He damages your body.
For the Lord Jesus can not only heal the sick,
He can make the body sick.
It is His way of chastising and disciplining.
Not because He wants to condemn
but because He loves.
Whom the Lord loves he chastises.
And therefore, He could chastise us
at the Lord’s Table itself
if we profane the body and blood.
And (someone) came and just said,
‘I want what I can get out of this.
I don’t care about the others
eating and drinking with me.
I just want a blessing from thee.’
That would be profaning
what is sacred and desecrating it.
So let us conclude.
Paul says,
‘If you want to be selfish then stay at home.
If you want a good time for yourself,
Then you can have it at home before you come.
But when you come together,
it is the Lord’s Supper and it is His family
and we are guests, not the hosts.
It is not our table.
It is not our communion.
It is not our supper.
It is His.’
And it is a holy privilege to be here
as we approach the table this morning.
Let us come to discern the body.
And let us come to rejoice in the covenant
sealed in blood whereby His love is ours
forever and ever.”
In a teaching sermon, Derek Prince said;
Please click here to view the 1-minute video:
“For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner
eats and drinks judgment to himself,
not discerning the Lord’s body.
(He isn’t realising that he is dealing
with the holiest thing on earth.)
For this reason many are weak and
sick among you, and many sleep.”
For what reason?
For partaking of the communion service
in an unworthy manner.
Are many among us weak and sickly?
The answer is yes.
And Paul goes on to say
that some have died prematurely.
Have some of us died prematurely?
The answer is yes.
Some of them are friends of mine,
have a real problem in accepting the fact
that they could be chastened.
That sickness could be a chastening.
But this is very clear.
Paul is speaking about people who get sick
and he says they are being chastened by the Lord.
And I find many times
when we are asked to pray for the sick,
we just launch into prayer.
We say, “Bless him Lord, heal him.”
We quote the Scriptures.
It doesn’t occur to us to ask
is he being chastened by the Lord.
If so, he won’t be healed
until he repents.”
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:
“How is it possible for us to love God,
as long as his will displeases us?
For if I love God
I love also his will.
Now, when God sends us sickness,
poverty, shame and disgrace,
that is his will.”
In ‘Sermons of Martin Luther, Vol. 7, Sermons on the Epistle Texts for Epiphany, Easter & Pentecost, by Martin Luther,’
Martin Luther said:
“Paul, however, threatens such sins
with the wrath of God,
lest anyone become remiss and indolent,
imagining the kingdom of Christ
a kingdom to tolerate with impunity such offenses.
As Paul expresses it,
“God called us not for uncleanness,
but in sanctification [holiness].”
The thought is:
Unchastity does not come
within the limits of Christian liberty and privilege,
nor does God treat the offender
with indulgence and impunity.
No, indeed.
In fact, he (God) will more rigorously punish this sin
among Christians than among heathen.
Paul tells us (1 Corinthians 11:30)
that many were sickly
and many had succumbed to the sleep of death
in consequence of eating and drinking unworthily.
And Psalm 89:32 testifies,
“Then will I visit their transgression with the rod.”
In ‘Works of Martin Luther, Vol. 2, by Martin Luther,’
Martin Luther wrote:
“This and other chastisements
are rather what it has deserved,
and to resist them
is nothing else than to resist God’s chastisement.
As humbly as I conduct myself
when God sends me a sickness…”
In ‘Works of Martin Luther, Vol. 2, by Martin Luther,’
Martin Luther wrote:
“Give us grace willingly to bear illness,
poverty, shame, suffering and adversity,
and to know that these are Thy divine will,
for the crucifying of our will.”
“Suffer us not to lay it to the charge of the devil
or of wicked men
when anything befalls us contrary to our will,
but help us to ascribe it only to Thy divine will,
which orders all such things
for the hindering of our will
and the increasing of our blessedness in Thy kingdom.”
In ‘The John Calvin Collection, 12 Classic Works,’
John Calvin wrote:
“Be pleased, most invincible emperor, and most illustrious princes,
to call to mind the disaster which of old
befell the Corinthians (1 Cor 11:17-34)
on account of one, and that not at first sight,
so very heinous an abuse of this sacrament.
Each brought from home his own supper,
not as a common contribution,
but that the rich might feast luxuriantly
while the poor hungered.
For this cause the Lord chastised them
with a severe and deadly pestilence.
Such is the account of Paul,
who, at the same time,
bids us regard it as a paternal rod,
by which the Lord called them to repentance.”
In ‘Selected Works of John Calvin Vol. 4, Letters 1528-1545, by John Calvin,’
John Calvin wrote:
“For in so far as it has pleased God to withdraw us out
of the horrible darkness wherein we were,
and to enlighten us in the knowledge
of the right way of salvation,
we are so much the more blamable
if we are negligent in doing our duty, as it is written,
“The servant knowing the will of his master,
and not doing it,
shall be severely punished.” (Luke 12)
So that we ought not to be astonished
if our Lord should visit us twofold,
on account of our ingratitude which is in us,
when we do not walk as children of the light,
and produce no fruit of that holy calling
to which he hath called us.
Moreover, he threatens that
judgment shall begin at his own house;
that is to say,
that he will correct his servants first of all. (1 Peter 4:17.)”
“Do you think that God can bear
with such pollutions and blasphemies
against his own honor?
St. Paul bears witness
that God had sent the plague on Corinth,
because the Holy Supper
had not been so reverently treated there as it ought. (1 Corinthians 11)”
In ‘The Works of John Wesley, Volume 6, First Series of Sermons (40-53), Second Series Begun (54-86), by John Wesley,’
John Wesley said:
“May it not be observed…
that the sin which the Apostle charges
on the communicants at Corinth in this chapter
is usually quite misunderstood?
It was precisely this, and nothing else,
“the taking one before another his own supper;”
and in such a shocking manner,
that while “one was hungry,
another was drunken.”
By doing this, he says, “ye eat and drink”
(not “damnation;” a vile mistranslation of the word, but)
judgment, temporal judgment, “to yourselves:”
Which sometimes shortened their lives.
“For this cause” – for sinning in this vile manner
– “many are sick and weak among you.”
Observe here two things:
First, What was the sin of the Corinthians?
Mark it well, and remember it.
It was taking one before another his own supper;
so that while one was hungry, another was drunken.
Secondly, what was the punishment?
It was bodily weakness and sickness;
which, without repentance,
might end in death.”
In ‘Answers to Life’s Problems, by Billy Graham,’
Billy Graham wrote:
“We do not always know all the reasons
why God allows things like this to happen to us.
But I want to tell you something
that I have heard time after time
from people who have faced similar difficulties
– and which I have also experienced.
It is this:
God can use even the painful experiences in our lives
to draw us closer to Himself and accomplish His purposes.
The Bible reminds us,
“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.
Later on, however,
it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace
for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).
Therefore, whatever the eventual outcome
of your illness may be,
I pray that you will constantly be open
to whatever God wants to teach you.”
In ‘Enduring Classics of Billy Graham,’
Billy Graham wrote:
“My friend of many years,
the late Herbert Lockyer,
in his book, ‘All the Promises of the Bible,’
illuminates some of his discoveries from the Bible
concerning the purposes of sickness.
One purpose is to teach us God’s laws.
The psalmist said,
“It was good for me to be afflicted
so that I might learn your decrees” (Psalm 119:71).
Another purpose of sickness and suffering
is to perfect the person who sins.
It’s the idea that God will pull us up short
to strengthen us for His purpose.
“And the God of all grace,
who called you to his eternal glory in Christ,
after you have suffered a little while,
will himself restore you and make you strong,
firm and steadfast” (1 Peter 5: 10).”
In ‘Commentary on the New Testament,’
Charles Spurgeon wrote:
30. For this cause many are weak
and sickly among you, and many sleep. (1 Cor 11:30)
“There is no doubt that God visited upon the Corinthians,
in the way of chastisement,
their want of reverence at his table;
many were weak and sickly among them,
and many died.”
“They that are without are, to a large extent,
left to sin as they please;
their punishment will fall upon them hereafter;
but the child of God cannot be allowed to do so,
and he shall be chastened for his sin.
The Lord still says to his spiritual Israel,
“You only have I known of all the families of the earth:
therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”
A father may let another man’s child alone,
but his own boy shall not transgress
without smarting for it.”
“… it does bring the chastening
with which God visits his children
when they walk contrary to him.
31. For if we would judge ourselves,
we should not be judged. (1 Cor 11:31)
If we are God’s people,
we shall be judged by him here for our wrongdoing.
We shall not be like the world
that is left to the day of judgment;
but we shall be judged now.
But when a church has lost its conscience,
and gets into such a state
as this Corinthian church fell into,
then, as it does not judge itself,
God judges it,
and chastens it severely.”
In ‘An Earnest Warning about Lukewarmness, by Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892),
a sermon delivered on 26 July 1874 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle,’
Charles Spurgeon said:
“Now mark this, if the Lord exalts a church,
and gives it a special blessing,
He expects more of it,
more care of His honour,
and more zeal for His glory
than He does of any other church;
and when He does not find it,
what will happen?
Why, because of His very love
He will rebuke it with hard sermons, sharp words,
and sore smitings of conscience.
If these do not arouse it
He will take down the rod and deal out chastenings.
Do you know how the Lord chastens churches?
Paul says,
“For this cause many are weak and sickly among you,
and many sleep” (1 Cor 11:30).
Bodily sickness is often sent
in discipline upon churches,
and losses, and crosses, and troubles
are sent among the members,
and sometimes leanness in the pulpit,
breakings out of heresy and divisions in the pew,
and lack of success in all church work.
All these are smitings with the rod.”
In ‘Reclaiming Christianity, A Call to Authentic Faith,’
AW Tozer wrote:
“In the Bible, I find the man (David) got sick
and when he got sick, he turned unto the Lord.
He said,
“Before I was afflicted I went astray:
but now have I kept thy word” (Ps. 119:67).
The churches believed through the centuries
that the Lord sometimes chastens His people
by letting illness happen to them.
You will find that in 1 Corinthians 11:27-34 (Holy Communion),
and you will find much else in the Scriptures
that would teach the same thing.”
In ‘The Dangers of a Shallow Faith, Awakening from Spiritual Lethargy,’
AW Tozer wrote:
“It is an odd thing that people react to physical illness
in two opposite ways.
Some react by using it as a means of grace.
David said,
“Before I was afflicted I went astray:
but now have I kept thy word” (Ps. 119:67).
While David was ill,
he had time to think it over and pray and wait on God,
and he used his affliction as a means of grace.
Others, as soon as they are touched with physical affliction,
throw in the towel.
Some people know how to use physical affliction.
David did:
“Before I was afflicted,
I went astray, I got careless.
When I got sick, I had time to think it over
and I got right with God.”
In ‘True Revivals Are Born After Midnight, by AW Tozer,’
AW Tozer wrote:
“The big thing, however, is that
we do not chafe against our illness
and resist it as something
that has visited us outside the will of God.
Or if a fair examination of the facts
proves that our illness
was caused by some disobedience
to the plain commandments of the Scriptures,
we have but to confess it
and make whatever amendments
are indicated in the Word.
This will bring us back into the center of God’s will
and put our lives on course.
But to fret and complain against our afflictions
like an animal caught in a trap
is to miss the whole disciplinary purpose of God
in our lives.”
In ‘Selected Sermons of George Whitefield, 1714-1770,’
George Whitefield said:
“And O that you would be wise in time,
and hearken to his voice today,
“whilst it is called to-day!”
For ye yourselves know how little
is to be done on a sick bed.
God has, in an especial manner, of late,
invited you to repentance:
two of your crew he (God) has taken off by death,
and most of you,
he has mercifully visited
with a grievous sickness.”
In ‘Selected Sermons of George Whitefield, 1714-1770,’
George Whitefield said:
“Are ye converted, and become as little children,
have ye entered into God’s family?
Then assure yourselves, that your heavenly father
will chasten you now and then:
“for what son is there whom the father chasteneth not:
if ye are without chastisement,
of which all are partakers,
then are ye bastards and not sons.”
“If therefore ye are God’s children;
if ye are converted and become as little children;
do not expect that God will be like a foolish parent; no,
he is a jealous God, he loves his child too well
to spare his rod.
How did he correct Miriam?
How did he correct Moses?
How hath God in all ages corrected his dearest children?
Therefore, if ye are converted,
and become as little children,
if God hath taken away a child,
or your substance,
if God suffers friends to forsake you,
and if you are forsaken as it were both by God and man,
say, Lord I thank thee! I am a perverse child,
or God would not strike me so often and so hard.
Do not blame your heavenly Father,
but blame yourselves;
he is a loving God, and a tender Father…”
In ‘Studies in the Scriptures, Annual Volume 1948,’
Arthur W Pink wrote:
““For this cause many are weak
and sickly among you, and many sleep” (1 Cor 11:30).
Here is a clear case in point
where many Christians missed God’s best,
and brought down upon themselves
His temporal judgments
because of their own misconduct.
“For this cause”
refers to their having eaten of the Lord’s supper
“unworthily” or unbecomingly
– see verses 20 and 21.
When numerous cases of sickness and death
occur in a Christian assembly,
they are not to be regarded as a matter of course,
but made the subject of a searching examination before God
and a humbling inquiring of Him.
God was not dealing with these Corinthian saints in mere sovereignty,
but in governmental righteousness,
disciplining them for a grave offence.
He was manifesting His displeasure at them
because of their sins,
afflicting them with bodily sickness
– which in many instances ended fatally (death)
– on account of their irreverence and intemperance,
as the “For this cause” unmistakably shows.
This, too, has been recorded for our instruction
– warning us to avoid sin in every form,
and signifying that the commission of it
will expose us to the divine displeasure,
even though we be God’s dear children.
Here, too, we are shown
that our entering into or missing of God’s best
has a real influence
upon the health of our bodies!
That same passage goes on to inform us
how we may avert such disciplinary affliction!
“For if we would judge ourselves,
we should not be judged” (1 Cor 11:31).
There is a divine judgment
to which the saints are amenable,
a judgment pertaining to this life,
which is exercised by Christ
as the Judge of His people (1 Peter 4:17).”
“Such was the case with the Corinthians.
They sinned again and again in different ways,
and were unexercised.
They were “carnal,”
and among them were envying and strife
– yet they judged not themselves.
The Lord gave them space for repentance,
but they repented not;
until, in the profanation of His holy supper,
He was obliged to act,
visiting them with bodily sickness and death.
Thus, from the words,
“when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord,”
the conclusion is unescapable:
we have failed to condemn ourselves.
As it is a rule of Christ’s kingdom
that when His people own their offences
and turn from the same,
He spares the rod;
so it is equally a rule in His kingdom
that when they sin and confess it not,
but continue in the same,
then He chastens them.”
“Sin must be “condemned”:
either by us, or by the righteous Judge
– here, or hereafter.
How much better to judge ourselves,
and thereby escape His judgment!”
In ‘Sins of the Saints,’
Arthur W. Pink wrote:
“His conduct will bring chastisement from the Lord.
God is holy and sin must be punished.
The sins of the believer must receive
“a just recompense of reward” (Heb 2:2)
equally as much as the sins of the unbeliever.
The difference between them
is not in the fact of punishment
but in the time of punishment.
The sins of the unbeliever
will be punished in the world to come:
the sins of the believer are punished
in this world, here and now.
Such was the experience of Jacob, of Moses, of David.
They were chastised severely.
This is a scripture which very clearly sets forth
the consequence of a believer’s sinning
– “If his children forsake my law,
and walk not in my judgments;
if they break my statutes,
and keep not my commandments;
then will I visit their transgression with stripes.
Nevertheless, my loving kindness
will I not utterly take from him,
nor suffer my faithfulness to fail” (Psa 89:30-33).
If God’s children walk disorderly and disobediently
they are not cast off or disinherited,
but they are chastised with the rod of divine justice.
If we sin, we shall suffer
– suffer in our bodies,
in our souls, in our circumstances.
His physical life is endangered.
But suppose the Divine chastisement
does not have the desired effect, then what?
Suppose that instead of the transgressor humbling himself
beneath the mighty hand of God,
he hardens his heart?
Suppose that instead of confessing and forsaking his sins
he deliberately continues therein?
In that case God will remove him
by the stroke of death.
In the first part of this article,
we referred to the fact that the Corinthian believers,
though guilty of the most awful sins,
yet, were still indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
But mark now the other side.
Referring to other desecration [14] of the Lord’s Table
the apostle says,
“For this cause many are weak and sickly among you,
and many sleep [had died]” (1 Cor 11:30).”
In ‘Knowing God by JI Packer,’
JI Packer wrote:
“Nor are the narratives of divine judgment
confined to the Old Testament.
In the New Testament story,
judgment falls on the Jews
for rejecting Christ (Mt 21:43-44; 1 Thess 2:14-16),
on Ananias and Sapphira for lying to God (Acts 5:1-10),
on Herod, for his pride (Acts 12:21-23),
on Elymas, for his opposition to the gospel (Acts 13:8-11),
and on Christians at Corinth,
who were afflicted with illness
which in some cases proved fatal, (death)
by reason of their gross irreverence in connection,
particularly, with the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11:29-32).”
In ‘Rediscovering Holiness, By JI Packer,’
JI Packer wrote:
“Praying for the sick,
and looking for special providences of recovery,
was in fact standard evangelical practice
from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century,
though with a clear understanding
that continued illness and early death
might well be God’s gracious will in any particular case
– an understanding, let it be said,
that is often (and very unfortunately)
less clear among those who pray for the sick today.”
In ‘A Narrative of Some of the Lord’s Dealings with George Muller, Part 1, by George Muller,’
George Muller wrote:
“January 31, and February 2.
These two days we have had especial (extra special) meetings
for prayer and humiliation,
on account of the influenza,
to acknowledge the hand of God
in this chastisement,
as the disease is so prevalent in Bristol.”
In ‘The George Muller Collection, Autobiography,’
George Muller wrote:
“July 18. I have felt for several days weak in my chest.
This weakness has been increasing, and to-day
I have felt it more than ever.
I have thought it well to refrain next week
from all public speaking.
May the Lord grant
that I may be brought nearer to him through this,
for I am not at all in the state in which I ought to be,
and I think sometimes that our late afflictions
have been lost upon me,
and that the Lord will need to chastise me severely.”
In ‘The George Muller Collection, Autobiography,’
George Muller wrote:
“Often the Lord is obliged
to allow deadness in business, or bad debts,
or sickness in our family,
or other trials which increase our expenses,
to befall us,
because we do not, as his stewards,
act according to stewardship,
but as if we were owners of what we have,
forgetting that the time has not yet come
when we shall enter upon our possessions;
and he does so in order that,
by these losses and expenses,
our property which we have collected may be decreased,
lest we should altogether
set our hearts again upon earthly things,
and forget God entirely.
His love is so great,
that he will not let his children quietly go their own way
when they have forsaken him;
but if his loving admonitions by his Holy Spirit
are disregarded,
he is obliged in fatherly love
to chastise them.
A striking illustration of what I have said
we have in the case of Israel nationally.
The commandment to them was,
to leave their land uncultivated in the seventh year,
in order that it might rest,
and the Lord promised to make up for this deficiency
by his abundant blessing resting upon the sixth year.
However, Israel acted
not according to this commandment,
no doubt saying, in the unbelief of their hearts,
as the Lord had foretold,
“What shall we eat in the seventh year?
Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase.” Levit. xxv.
But what did the Lord do?
He was determined the land should have rest,
and as the Israelites did not willingly give it,
he sent them for seventy years into captivity,
in order that thus the land might have rest.
See Levit. xxvi. 33-35.
Beloved brethren in the Lord,
let us take heed so to walk
as that the Lord may not be obliged by chastisement
to take a part of our earthly possessions from us
in the way of bad debts,
sickness,
decrease of business, and the like…”
In ‘The Complete Works of JC Ryle,’
JC Ryle wrote:
“I do not say that sickness always does good.
Alas! We ministers know to our sorrow
that it frequently does no good at all.
Too often we see men and women,
after recovering from a long and dangerous illness,
more hardened and irreligious than they were before.
Too often they return to the world,
if not to Sin, with more eagerness and zest than ever;
and the impressions made on their conscience
in the hour of sickness
are swept away like children’s writing
on the sand of the sea-shore when the tide flows.
But I do say that sickness ought to do us good.
And I do say that God sends it
in order to do us good.
It is a friendly letter from heaven.
It is a knock at the door of conscience.
It is the voice of the Savior asking to be let in.
Happy is he who opens the letter and reads it,
who hears the knock and opens the door,
who welcomes Christ to the sick room.
Come now,
and let me plead with you a little about this,
and show you a few of the lessons
which He by sickness would teach us.”
In ‘The Complete Works of JC Ryle,’
JC Ryle wrote:
“Let us mark this well.
There is nothing which shows our ignorance
so much as our impatience under trouble.
We forget that every cross is a message from God,
and intended to do us good in the end.
Trials are intended to make us think,
– to wean us from the world,
to send us to the Bible,
– to drive us to our knees.
Health is a good thing;
but sickness is far better,
if it leads us to God.
Prosperity is a great mercy;
but adversity is a greater one,
if it brings us to Christ.
Anything, anything is better
than living in carelessness, and dying in sin.
Better a thousand times be afflicted,
like the Canaanitish mother,
and like her flee to Christ,
than live at ease, like the rich “fool,”
and die at last without Christ
and without hope.” (Luke 12:20)
In ‘The Complete Works of JC Ryle,’
JC Ryle wrote:
“We ask that God would make us holy and good.
It is a good request indeed.
But are we prepared to be sanctified
by any process that God in His wisdom
may call on us to pass through?
Are we ready to be purified by affliction,
weaned from the world by bereavements,
drawn nearer to God by losses, sicknesses, and sorrow?
Alas, these are hard questions!
But if we are not,
our Lord might well say to us,
“Ye know not what ye ask.”
In ‘The Complete Works of JC Ryle,’
JC Ryle wrote:
“See, also, how often God chastens His people
with trial and affliction.
He sends them crosses and disappointments;
He lays them low with sickness;
He strips them of property and friends…”
In ‘The Complete Works of JC Ryle,’
JC Ryle wrote:
“Let us beware of murmuring in the time of trouble.
Let us settle it firmly in our minds,
that there is a meaning, a needs-be,
and a message from God,
in every sorrow that falls upon us.
There are no lessons so useful
as those learned in the school of affliction.
There is no commentary
that opens up the Bible so much
as sickness and sorrow.
“No chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous
– nevertheless afterward it yields peaceable fruit.”
(Hebrews 12:11)
The resurrection morning will prove,
that many of the losses of God’s people
were in reality eternal gains.”
In ‘The Complete Works of JC Ryle,’
JC Ryle wrote:
“Yet to practise the lesson
which heads this paper is very hard.
To talk of contentment
in the day of health and prosperity
is easy enough;
but to be content
in the midst of poverty, sickness, trouble,
disappointments, and losses,
is a state of mind to which very few can attain.”
In ‘Pauline Christology, An Exegetical-Theological Study, by Gordon Fee,’
Gordon Fee wrote:
“Similarly, in the context of the Corinthians’ abuse
of the Lord’s Table (1 Cor 11:17-34),
Paul sees the illness and death
of some members of the community
as evidence of God’s present discipline
of the Corinthian believers (vv. 30-32).
With a considerable play
on “judgment” language and themes,
Paul (as a Christian prophet)
first asserts that they are to understand
some illness and deaths among them
to be the direct result
of their abuse of “the body” (= the church)
at the table of the Lord,
where they should rather be affirming
that they together belong to the one Lord.”
In ‘Great Doctrines of the Bible, By Martyn Lloyd-Jones,’
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:
“So we say that this sacrament
must be received truly by faith,
and if we cannot take it in by faith,
then it is better to refrain
because Paul teaches that
if people will not examine themselves,
if they will not examine and judge
and condemn themselves and leave their sins,
they will be judged.
He says, ‘For this cause’
– because they would not examine themselves
– ‘many are weak and sickly among you,
and many sleep’ (1 Cor. 11:30).
He is specifically teaching
that some members of the church at Corinth
were weak and others were ill
because they would not judge themselves
as they should and cleanse themselves,
but came unworthily to the Lord’s table,
and the result was that God had chastised them.”
“There is, indeed, a mysterious phrase
‘and many sleep’ (1 Cor. 11:30),
which means that many were dead
because they would not judge themselves.
We do not understand this
but it is clearly taught here that these people died
because God chastised them in that way.
It does not mean they were lost
but it does mean that God chastised them
even by means of death itself.
For that they will suffer a certain loss in eternity.
We read in 1 Corinthians 3 that some people’s work
will be burnt up – it is ‘wood, hay, stubble’ (v. 12).
They will suffer loss
but they themselves will be saved ‘yet so as by fire’ (v. 15).
Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 11:30
probably means something like that.
Therefore, when we come to that table, to the Communion,
we must bear all those things in mind,
and as we do so,
it will be a means of great blessing to us.”
In “Great Doctrines of the Bible, By Martyn Lloyd-Jones,’
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:
“There is also that teaching in 1 Corinthians 11
in connection with the Communion Service,
to which we referred in the last lecture,
that because some people do not examine themselves,
they are weak and sickly.
Illness is a part of God’s process of discipline.
This does not mean that every time we are taken ill,
we are of necessity being punished for sin.
But we may be.
There is also no doubt that death, like illness,
is one of the means that God uses to sanctify us.
The fear of death
has often been a blessing to Christian people.
There have been Christians
who, carried away by success in this world,
have started to backslide,
forgetting God and their relationship to Him.
But suddenly they have been taken ill
or have seen someone die,
and this reminder of death
has brought them back again,
and God has healed their backsliding.
God has chosen, it seems to me,
to use sickness and death very much
as He used the nations
that He left behind in the land of Canaan
to perfect the children of Israel
when He brought them out of captivity in Egypt.”
In ‘An Exposition of Ephesians 4:17-5:17, Darkness and Light,’
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:
“Read the Old Testament;
see how God punished individuals;
see how He punished nations,
even the nation of Israel, His own people.
He sent them into captivity!
He punished kings,
He brought them down!
It is written in the histories of the nations
and of the world in general.
And it is a truth that is taught explicitly
in the New Testament.
For instance, hear the words read
at the Communion Service:
‘For this cause many are weak
and sickly among you, and many sleep.’
Because some of you people in Corinth,
says Paul, have not examined yourselves
before coming to the communion table,
some of you are weak, some of you are sick,
some of you have died!
It was a part of God’s punishment of sin.
Yes, says the twelfth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews,
‘Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom he receive.’
The wrath of God manifested
in the present against sin and evil!”
In ‘How Long, O Lord, Reflections on Suffering and Evil,’
DA Carson wrote:
“For the moment it is enough to observe that
illness can be the direct result of a specific sin
as in the case of those described in 1 Cor. 11:27-34…”
“Scanning the narratives of Scripture enlightens us:
war, plague, illness,
rebuke, ill-defined and rather personal “thorns,”
bereavement…”
“… illness and death
can be the immediate judicial consequence
of a specific sin.
… so are the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5);
… and the illness and deaths of some members
in the Corinthian congregation (1 Cor. 11:27–32).”
“… illness, bereavement, and suffering
actually shape us;
they temper us; they mold us.
We may not enjoy the process;
but they transform us.”
In ‘The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers,’
Oswald Chambers wrote:
“In 1 Corinthians 11:30
(“For this cause many are weak and sickly among you,
and many sleep”),
Paul alludes to sickness
which has a moral and not a physical source.
The immediate connection
is the obscene conduct at the Lord’s Supper
of former heathen converts,
and Paul says that
that is the cause of their bodily sickness.
The truth laid down abides,
that certain types of moral disobedience
produce sicknesses
which physical remedies cannot touch;
obedience is the only cure.
For instance nothing can touch the sicknesses
produced by tampering with spiritualism;
there is only one cure
– yielding to the Lord Jesus Christ.”
In ‘The Complete Works of Oswald Chambers,’
Oswald Chambers wrote:
““It can never be God’s will
that I should be sick,” you say.
If it was God’s will to bruise His own Son,
why should He not bruise you?
The thing that tells for God
is not your relevant consistency
to an idea of what a saint should be,
but your real vital relation to Jesus Christ,
and your abandonment to Him
whether you are well or ill.”
In ‘Acting the Miracle, God’s work and Ours in the Mystery of Sanctification, John Piper & David Mathis, General Editors,’
John Piper wrote:
“John Piper: Amen.
Here’s an illustration from the end of 1 Corinthians 11.
I just wrote a post on this a few weeks ago,
because that very point clobbered me.
Paul wants them to change their behavior
at the Lord’s Table, and so he says,
‘Anyone who eats or drinks without discerning the body
eats and drinks judgment on himself.
That is why many of you are weak and ill,
and some have died.
But if we judged ourselves truly,
we would not be judged.
[That is, we wouldn’t be sick and killed.]
But when we are judged by the Lord,
we are disciplined
so that we may not be condemned
along with the world. (vv. 29–32)
So God kills us to keep us from going to hell
if we abuse the Lord’s Supper – sometimes.’”
“So what I wrote recently was that
I want to become the kind of person
who feels loved by God by every way he loves me,
including killing me.
That’s what 1 Corinthians 11 says.
He makes some of us sick (and eventually dead)
so that we won’t be condemned with the world.
That’s how much he loves us.
And if I don’t feel loved
when the Bible talks to me that way,
I need to change. Not the Bible. I need to change.
I totally agree that the tone of the text,
the point of the text, mustn’t be muted.
Yes, we want to have the whole effect of Scripture.
That is one of the incentives
for a happy, faith-filled experience of Communion.”
In ‘The MacArthur Bible Commentary,’
John MacArthur wrote:
(Referring to 1 Corinthians 11)
1 Cor 11:29: judgment. i.e., chastisement.
not discerning the Lord’s body.
When believers do not properly judge
the holiness of the celebration of communion,
they treat with indifference the Lord Himself
– His life, suffering, and death (cf. Acts 7:52; Heb. 6:6; 10:29).
1 Cor 11:30: sleep. i.e., are dead.
The offense was so serious
that God put the worst offenders to death,
an extreme but effective form of church purification (cf. Luke 13:1–5; Acts 5:1–11; 1 John 5:16).
1 Cor 11:32: Believers are kept from being consigned to hell,
not only by divine decree, but by divine intervention.
The Lord chastens to drive His people back to righteous behavior
and even sends death to some in the church (v. 30)
to remove them before they could fall away (cf. Jude 24).
1 Cor 11:34: There is no point in gathering together
to sin and be chastened.”
In ‘What is the Lord’s Supper,’
RC Sproul wrote:
“The purpose of fencing the table
is not to exclude people out of some principle of arrogance
but rather to protect people
from the dreadful consequences
that are spelled out here by the Apostle Paul,
where in this chapter
he speaks of the manducatio indignorum,
which means “eating and drinking unworthily.”
When a person participates in the Lord’s Supper
in an unworthy manner,
instead of drinking a cup of blessing,
they are drinking a cup of cursing.
They are eating and drinking unto damnation,
and God will not be mocked.
If people celebrate
this most sacred of activities in the church
and they do it in an inappropriate way,
they expose themselves to the judgment of God.
Oscar Cullman, the Swiss theologian,
said that the most neglected verse
in the whole New Testament is 1 Corinthians 11:30:
“That is why many of you are weak and ill,
and some have died.”
In ‘The Invisible Hand, Do All Things Really Work For Good, by RC Sproul,’
RC Sproul wrote:
“And the Lord struck the child
that Uriah’s wife bore to David,
and it became ill. (2 Sam. 12:15)
Scripture declares that
the Lord struck the infant child of David
with a mortal illness.
This is a hard saying.
It is commonplace in the church today
to hear vain attempts by preachers
to exonerate God
from any involvement in human sickness and death.
I heard one televangelist declare
that God has nothing to do with disease and death.
He assigned these human tragedies to the work of Satan.
(George Ong’s comments:
Joseph Prince is one of the key culprits
who teaches this.)
Such sentiments do violence,
not only to our understanding of the providence of God,
but to our understanding of the whole character of God.
Christianity is not a religion of dualism
by which God and Satan
are equal and opposite opposing forces
destined to fight an eternal struggle
that must result in a tie.
God is sovereign over His entire creation,
including the subordinate domain of Satan.
God is Lord of death as well as life.
He rules over pain and disease as sovereignly
as He rules over prosperity.
(George Ong’s comments:
I am glad to have, besides John Wesley,
which I alluded to in a previous article,
another well-respected Bible teacher,
RC Sproul, to bear me out,
as we both, including John Wesley,
hold the same view.)
If God had nothing to do with sickness or death,
Christians, of all people,
would be the most to be pitied.
It would mean living in a universe ruled by chaos
where our Father’s hand was tied by fate
and bound by the fickleness of chance.”
In conclusion,
after perusing the views
of every one of these 20 men of God,
you would come to the conclusion
that they, indeed, have refuted and demolished
Joseph Prince’s view
that God cannot send sickness and even death
to chastise believers.
I have quoted only 20 of these men,
and there are many more out there,
who hold the same view as these 20 godly men.
What does this prove?
This goes to prove that
Joseph Prince
is a Lone Ranger Heretic,
as none of the Church Fathers,
such as Martin Luther, John Calvin nor John Wesley,
nor any of the other esteemed Bible teachers
can agree with this particular false teaching of his.
If you are not convinced
that Joseph Prince is a Lone Ranger Heretic,
just call up the Singapore Pastors,
and ask them whether anyone of them
would vouch for Joseph Prince’s grace teachings, publicly.
I can guarantee that none (or very few)
of the Singapore Pastors would dare.
One needs to note that
none (or very few) of the Singapore Pastors
are in regular fellowship with him.
Also, none of the Singapore Pastors
and churches (or very few)
would dare to recommend any believer
to attend New Creation Church,
or publicly state that
they support or endorse Joseph Prince’s grace teachings.
Friends, Lone Rangers,
such as Joseph Prince,
who claims to have a personal hotline to God,
and not accountable to anyone,
(He cannot be accountable to his Pastors
as they are so beholden to him
that they keep lavishing praise on him and his preaching)
are not to be listened to,
but to be fiercely avoided.
So, you had better flee
from this guy, called Joseph Prince,
who is not only falsely 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
for advocating one of the most evil teachings,
that God could send sickness and even death
to chastise His people,
but, on the gravest note,
Prince is also accusing the Almighty God
for committing one of the most evil acts,
of sending sicknesses to chastise His people.
If Joseph Prince is that malicious
to have the monstrous audacity
to even accuse God
of carrying out one of the most evil acts,
how can this man not be a servant of Satan?
And how can a Singapore Methodist Pastor
and a Singapore Presbyterian Pastor
say that Joseph Prince is not a heretic?
Rev George Ong
Appendix
My view is that we don’t praise and thank God
for the sickness perse,
but for the good
that He wants to achieve through our sickness:
1 Thessalonians 5:18 NASB
18 in everything give thanks;
for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.
What does God’s word in 1 Thessaloninas 5:18 say?
We don’t give thanks for everything, do we?
Rather, we give thanks in everything.
We don’t give thanks for
the sickness or accident or tragedy or bereavement.
But we can give thanks in everything;
even in the darkest moment
of every sickness, pain and sorrow.
We give thanks
not because of, but inspite of
the sicknesses and the tragedies of life,
as God is more than capable
of making something good and glorious
out of the most tragic
and impossible circumstances of our lives.