Joseph Prince was caught by Colin Miller for adding words to Jesus’ & Paul’s mouths & preaching out of context – By Rev George Ong (Dated 8 Mar 2023)
Note that Joseph Prince didn’t preach last Sunday, on 5 Mar 2023.
Last Sunday, New Creation Church made an announcement that
Bob Fitts
will be leading the worship service this Sunday.
If you remember, I mentioned in a previous article that for consecutive 3 weeks,
Joseph Prince ‘converted’ the worship service into a healing service, and the performance of so-called signs and wonders,
with the probable aim of drawing the thousands of people, who are missing from New Creation Church, back to church.
Bob Fitts is another of Joseph Prince’s probable strategies for bringing back the crowds.
Some people may say to me,
“George, why are you so foolishly promoting the coming of Bob Fitts to New Creation Church on your website?”
Well, let me just say that if people are foolish enough to go to New Creation Church
just because Bob Fitts is leading worship this Sunday,
then it only proves that those who go to New Creation Church,
go, not to worship God, but to worship man.
Period.
(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 video, Colin Miller, in critiquing Joseph Prince’s false doctrines, said;
Please click here to view the 8-minute video (2 parts):
(For those who are interested, the link to Colin Miller’s YouTube channel is given at the end of this article.)
Part 1
“I want to make it clear that if you listen to Joseph Prince, you will find that at least in this particular sermon,
the danger
is teaching that he offers is much less obvious, much less pronounced than someone, for example, like Joel Osteen.
In fact, I found myself regularly agreeing with many of the things Joseph had to say.
And yet in Galatians 5:9, Paul tells us that a little leaven, that is false teaching
will work its way through the whole lump.
That is to say, a little false teaching is still very dangerous in its effects.
So, it’s still very important then that if Joseph Prince has false teaching, we identify it and critique it.
And with that, let’s move right into our first subject,
Joseph’s teaching about healing.
Watch this.
Joseph Prince said:
He says that your body is the temple of God (1 Cor 6:19), Amen. So, the temple of God is holy.
Holy means beautiful, set apart, glorious, Amen, no blemish.
And so, if you honour God’s body, the Bible says glorify God in your spirit and in your body, which are God’s, Amen,
that means you will be healthy, not just peaceful inside, Amen, at rest, but you will be healthy.
God will take care of His temple.
I say God will take care of His temple, Amen.
So, the first thing you will notice about this teaching
is that it’s subtle, right?
Instead, he simply says something that sounds, well, really common sense. As a Christian, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, according to 1 Corinthians 6 (verse 19) and quote, ‘God will take care of His temple,’ Joseph says.
But make no mistake about it,
this is just a more covert and deceptive version
of what all the other faith healers and Prosperity Gospel teachers are preaching.
So now, let’s follow the logic again.
Believing the gospel means you receive the Spirit.
Receiving the Spirit means your body is God’s temple.
And being God’s temple
means that you will be healthy.
To put it bluntly, if you believe the gospel,
God will give you perfect health.
That is what Joseph Prince is preaching here.
And again, it is very subtle, very below the surface,
but it’s still there and it’s still dangerous.
First off, the passage Joseph is talking about
has seemingly no relationship to divine healing and health, at least, not in the immediate context.
The verse just before the one that Joseph quotes is 1 Corinthians 6:18, which says,
‘Flee from sexual immorality. For every other sin a person commits is outside the body but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.’
So, when we were speaking about the body and the body being a temple,
there’s a clear context in which it is mentioned.
The passage is saying you should not put God’s temple, ie, your body to crooked and sinful uses, specifically, that of sexual immorality.
The passage is not guaranteeing your divine healing, nor is it meant to.
In other words, Joseph has taken the passage out of context
in order to preach a popular message, one that he believes will work, and that is a serious problem.
Joseph Prince absolutely preaches mainstream Word of Faith Prosperity Gospel doctrine.
Moreover, this doctrine often times is hidden beneath the surface,
which makes it even more subtle and effective.
We’ve also demonstrated that in this one sermon alone,
he has taken clear scriptures out of context, at least 2, if not 3 times.”
Part 2
“Joseph is the Pastor of New Creation Church based in Singapore.
His teaching is absolutely riddled with the Prosperity Gospel.
It is clear that material wealth, health and success is a huge part of his teaching.
In fact, it may even be accurately called the main hallmark of his ministry.
And, as such, Joseph Prince is a false teacher,
who cannot resist bringing the topic of material success into pretty much any and every conversation.
In the following clip, you will see an interview that is no exception.
Posted by the Trinity Broadcasting Network, it takes place between Joseph Prince and Matt and Laurie Crouch.
Watch this.
Matt said:
Joseph Prince, our guest. What do you want people to let go of? What are we talking about here?
Joseph Prince said:
Of all the blessings that the Lord left behind, He says on the night that he was betrayed,
‘Peace, I Ieave with you. My peace I bequeath unto you. That peace that you saw me operating in when I was asleep in the boat in the midst of a storm, that peace I leave with you.’
But the amazing this is that we would understand that He’s speaking to His fellow Jews. So, He’s speaking in Hebrew, Aramaic. He probably say, ‘Shalom, I leave with you.’
And shalom is not just peace of mind. Shalom is health, welfare; the health you saw me operating in; for 3 and a half years, you never saw me sick, that shalom, that soundness; that mental soundness, that wholeness I leave with you.
So, here, we are going to analyse this clip as we compare it to scripture.
As a result, you will see a demonstration in real time
of how deceptive and unbiblical the teaching of Joseph Prince really is.
So, Joseph makes the case that when Jesus says, ‘Peace I leave with you (Jn 14:27),’ the word He might have used is ‘Shalom.’
This would not just mean mental peace but also the peace that comes with health and complete welfare.
And we should know, it seems fair to assume that
Joseph Prince is referring to some level of financial welfare given his track record.
But the point is this, we need to ask the all-important question:
Is this truly what Jesus is saying in the passage he’s talking about.
That’s all that really matter.
Well, let’s see.
It seems he’s (Joseph Prince) quoting John 14:27, in which Jesus says this, ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.’
Now, in my research for this video, I read no less than 8 Bible commentaries on this verse alone, several of which will be linked in the description.
The word for ‘peace’ given here in Greek is ‘ειρήνη’ which has several potential meanings.
One meaning certainly carries the connotation of ‘security, safety, prosperity, felicity’.
But there are many other potential meanings, including ‘the Messiah’s peace’ and the peace of Christian salvation in general.
In fact, there are no less than 6 potential meanings of this word, according to Strong’s outline of biblical usage.
But what is this word mean in this passage, specifically.
That’s where we’re asking.
Well, in order to answer that,
we need to study the context to find out.
And in the plethora of commentaries, I found on this passage, several of which were very technical and went into the original language in depth,
not even one of them shared the view of Joseph Prince here.
Not a single commentary agrees that the ‘peace’ Christ gave in this passage
was mentioning the peace of prosperity and the peace of healing.
And by contrast, every single commentary, to one degree or another,
believe that this pointed to some level of internal or spiritual peace that came with putting your faith in Christ.
Indeed, Ellicott’s commentary puts it quite simply when it says this;
‘He gives them not land or houses or possessions but peace, and that His own peace, the peace of God which passeth all understanding.’
This is made clear by what Jesus says in verse 27 (Jn 14:27,) just after,
‘Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.’
So, what is obvious what kind of peace Jesus is talking about in John chapter 14.
It is the spiritual and ultimate peace that comes with being united to Him by faith.
You see Joseph Prince, on the other hand,
he wants to interpret the passage and make it all about health and welfare as per usual.
First off, a careful consideration of the context of the passage
shows us that Jesus is not talking about health, wealth or prosperity here.
There is absolutely no reason to think otherwise unless, of course, you are coming to the text with a preconceived commitment to the Prosperity Gospel, which is, of course, exactly what happened.
You see there is simply no way to consistently hold to the teaching of Joseph Prince and that of the Bible.
He manipulates John chapter 14 regarding the peace of Christ.
He twists what the Bible says about healing.
Joseph Prince is a Prosperity Gospel preacher who is not doctrinally sound.
Flee from his teaching and avoid it.
It is dangerously unbiblical.”
From what Colin Miller has critiqued about Joseph Prince’s false teachings,
we can draw 3 persistent and unrepentant misdemeanors
that Joseph Prince keeps committing in his sermons.
First, Joseph Prince added words to Jesus’ mouth
when Prince said that in John 14:27,
Jesus meant not only spiritual peace,
but also the peace of healing.
But in the context of John 14:27,
the claim by Joseph Prince
that the peace of healing was what Jesus also meant
cannot be justified.
In a previous article, Joseph Prince did the same thing by adding words to Jesus’ mouth;
Joseph Prince puts words in Jesus’ mouth, teaches against Christ on the rapture & double-talks – By Rev George Ong (Dated 2 Mar 2023).
Kindly click on the link below if you haven’t read it yet;
Joseph Prince has committed this aberration of adding words to Jesus’ mouth many times.
Second, Joseph Prince added words to Paul’s mouth,
when he implied that Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:18 was teaching
that if we take care of God’s temple, which is our body,
we will be healthy.
But health or healing
is not even in the context of the immediate passage,
nor was it the context of the larger text in 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
Paul never meant that either God or us taking care of God’s temple,
which is our body in 1 Corinthians 6:18,
will necessarily bring good health.
This isn’t the first time that Joseph Prince has added words to Paul’s mouth.
Let me give you another concrete example of how Joseph Prince put words in Paul’s mouth.
In his book, ‘The One Thing, 31-Day Devotional’, Joseph Prince wrote;
“If you are financially barren, start planning for what you would do when your finances increase.”
“You may say, ‘Pastor Prince, you don’t understand, the banks are chasing me!’
God says, ‘Rejoice because you are well provided for in Christ.’
In Christ, you are already blessed with every spiritual blessing,
including financial provision. (Ephesians 1:3)”
Joseph Prince has sinfully added the word ‘financial provision’ to Paul’s mouth.
This is because when Paul lists down the blessings;
in the entire chapter 1 of Ephesians,
every single one of them are spiritual blessings.
Never once did Paul include the 2 words ‘financial provision’ that Joseph Prince has added:
Ephesians 1:1-3 NIV
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
Ephesians 1:4-23 then talks about all the spiritual blessings we have in Christ,
as mentioned in Ephesians 1:3,
and none of them are physical or material blessings,
such as ‘financial provision’
that Joseph Prince has daringly added to Paul’s mouth and to the biblical text.
(Please go through Ephesians 1:1-23, verse by verse, and see for yourself if what I said is true.)
Third, Joseph Prince has again preached out of context.
How many times have you heard me say that?
That only proves that Joseph Prince is a serial hypocrite.
Please see the article;
Joseph Prince’s Out-of-Context ‘Giving to Gain’ Prosperity Gospel Teaching in Luke 6:38 has confirmed himself as a Serial Hypocrite & a Serial Double-Talker – By Rev George Ong (Dated 16 Dec 2022),
by clicking on the link below;
In summary, Joseph Prince has persistently and unrepentantly
put words in Jesus’ and Paul’s mouth,
and preached out of context.
If Joseph Prince keeps distorting and making Jesus say and teach what he didn’t,
then He is definitely not preaching the Jesus that is revealed in the Bible
but his own counterfeit version of Jesus.
If Joseph Prince keeps twisting the words and teachings of Paul
and making him teach what he didn’t,
then he is not preaching Pauline’s Theology,
but his own fake version of Paul’s teachings.
If Joseph Prince keeps preaching God’s word out of context
at an alarming and disturbing frequency,
and in an unrepentant way,
then he is not preaching the truth of God’s word,
but his own distorted and bogus version of the scriptures.
A true teacher of God’s word will never do all that,
but only a heretic would.
If you wish to visit the YouTube channel of Colin Miller,
kindly click on this link below:
https://www.youtube.com/@FightForTruthMedia/videos
Rev George Ong