Joseph Prince’s Antinomian heresy about Ten Commandments is against the teachings of Martin Luther – By Rev George Ong (Dated 1 July 2023)
Note that though Joseph Prince is on sabbatical,
he appeared in person and preached 6 days ago on 25 June 2023
at the worship services of New Creation Church.
Why can’t Prince leave the preaching responsibilities to his pastors
and rest (takes his sabbatical) in peace?
Prince has to realise that no one is indispensable, including him.
This is the first article in a series of 3.
In this article, I want to dwell on the teachings of Martin Luther
– how they contradicted the Antinomian teachings of Joseph Prince.
In the next article,
I will focus on John Calvin,
and the third and final article, on John Wesley.
In this article, to convince readers
that Joseph Prince’s Antinomian teachings
is what Martin Luther taught and fought against,
I have gone to study and research the primary sources
of what Martin Luther said and taught.
(This endeavour has taken me hours and hours of my precious time.)
In other words, you are getting from the horse’s mouth.
Don’t miss the excellent sayings of John Stott
regarding the call and need to be a controversialist,
like Jesus and the Apostles did (towards the end of the article).
(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 25 June 2023, 6 days ago, Joseph Prince said;
Please click here to view the 30-second video:
“That’s why the Bible says,
‘We are no more under the law,’
because we don’t attempt to keep the law….”
“But now, the righteousness of God
apart from the law,
see, apart from the law
the righteousness of God now,
is now revealed (Rom 3:21-24).
The righteousness of God
apart from the Ten Commandments,
apart from the law is revealed.”
“That’s why we are not under law,
we are under grace.”
In another Sunday sermon, Joseph Prince said;
Please click here to view the 30-second video:
“So the first will is the will of the Father.
See what the will of the Father is?
That we don’t be under law
but under the New Covenant in grace.
Then Jesus said, this is Jesus:
‘Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God’ (Heb 10:9).
He’s talking to the Father.
So the Father has a will.
What’s the will?
Jesus ‘takes away the first that He may establish the second’ (Heb 10:9).
The first is the Ten Commandments. Amen.
You shall not, you shall not, you shall not.
The second is God says, ‘I will do this, I will do this.
I’ll be merciful to your unrighteousness.”
In an interview, Joseph Prince said;
Please click here to view the 1-minute video:
“…If you have been watching TV anywhere, he’s (Joseph Prince) been on there and he’s touching the world with his message of grace….
I think it’s crucial to lay a foundation of what you mean when you say the gospel of grace….”
Joseph Prince:
“…Unfortunately, every time God restores a truth and it is a restoration.
I’ll be the first one to be really concerned if I am getting all these things out of the blue from nowhere – I’m being deceived.
But it’s nothing more than God restoring the gospel back to the church.
The same gospel that God restored back to the reformers during the time of Martin Luther: justification by faith.”
Joseph Prince’s gospel is not the gospel
that is proclaimed by the scriptures or the Apostles
or the Reformation Fathers.
Prince specialises in camouflaging a lie
with a well-placed half-truth.
– the justification part of salvation.
But Prince is also well aware that at the same time,
he is teaching Antinomianism,
a doctrine which the Reformation Fathers
consider to be heretical.
Because of the ignorance of the laity and even the clergy,
the masses, including many pastors,
are being deceived that what Joseph Prince teaches
is in line with the doctrinal traditions of our Reformation Fathers.
Biblical ignorance is one key reason
why Joseph Prince has deceived so many people.
Many ignorant people think
Joseph Prince is preaching what Martin Luther teaches,
when the truth is, he is preaching against Martin Luther.
Joseph Prince is preaching Antinomianism,
a false doctrine that the Reformation Fathers fought against.
What is saddening is that many have been deceived into thinking that
Joseph Prince is teaching the Martin Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith
through his Super-grace gospel.
No, he isn’t!
Joseph Prince is teaching Antinomianism,
a false gospel, which Luther fought against.
I believe the initial attractiveness of the Pseudo-grace gospel of Joseph Prince
is that at first, it sounds to people like it is promoting the Reformation doctrine.
And what Joseph Prince has ‘ingeniously’ done to deceive the modern audience
is that he has craftily disguised the heresy of Antinomianism
with a grace-centred theology and Christ-centred twist.
Joseph Prince’s modern Grace message,
is indeed, a fresh spin of the old heresy of Antinomianism.
With the crafty disguise of the Antinomian gospel
as Paul’s gospel of grace by Joseph Prince,
masses of people have been hoodwinked by him.
In reality, Joseph Prince is promoting a doctrine called Antinomianism,
that the leaders of the Reformation had constantly fought against.
Martin Luther coined the term Antinomianism
to describe those who teach that since salvation is a free gift of God’s grace,
obeying God is unimportant, and, particularly,
the need to obey God’s moral laws in the Ten Commandments is abrogated.
Luther called them Antinomians:
anti means against, and nomos means law.
So, this means Antinomians are against all laws,
including the moral laws in the Ten Commandments of God.
A simple definition of Antinomian
is a person who believes that Christians are released by grace
from the obligation of observing God’s moral laws.
That aptly describes what Joseph Prince is teaching
– if you read his books and follow his teachings,
his passionate pursuit is to teach that New Covenant believers
are no longer required
to obey the moral laws in the Ten Commandments of God
because they have become obsolete.
To put it starkly, what Joseph Prince teaches,
is in essence, Antinomianism pure and simple!
The heresy of Antinomianism,
which Luther fought against in his day,
has continued and survived today in many forms
and especially in the teachings of Joseph Prince.
Joseph Prince is indeed a true-blooded Antinomian,
and what is worse is that
he has gone on to declare
that he is preaching Luther’s doctrine shamelessly.
If Luther were alive today and knowing his vigorous character,
I’m sure he would grab Joseph Prince by the collar,
give him a good shake,
and demand an explanation for misrepresenting and slandering him.
To convince readers
that Joseph Prince’s Antinomian teachings
is what Martin Luther taught and fought against,
I have gone to study and research the primary sources
of what Martin Luther said and taught.
(This endeavour has taken me hours and hours of my precious time.)
In other words, you are getting from the horse’s mouth.
Please note that the following were written in the 1500s,
And so, from our present-day perspective,
the English expression could be a little quaint.
But with some effort and careful reading,
they should still be understandable to many.
In ‘Works of Martin Luther Vol. 2 by Martin Luther,’ he wrote:
“A BRIEF EXPLANATION
OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS,
THE CREED, AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
1520
PREFACE
The ordinary Christian, who cannot read the Scriptures,
is required to learn and know the Ten Commandments,
the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer;
and this has not come to pass without God’s special ordering.
For these three contain fully and completely everything that is in the Scriptures,
everything that ever should be preached,
and everything that a Christian needs to know,
all put so briefly and so plainly
that no one can make complaint or excuse,
saying that what he needs for his salvation
is too long or too hard to remember.”
“In all these works
we see nothing else than the love of others
— that is, of God and of one’s neighbor
— which seeketh not its own,
but what is God’s and its neighbor’s,
and surrendereth itself freely to every one to be his,
to serve him and to do his will.
Thus, you see that the Ten Commandments
contain, in a very brief and orderly manner,
all the teaching that is needful for man’s life;
and if a man desires to keep them,
he has good works for every hour of his life,
and has no need to choose him other works,
to run hither and thither, and do what is not commanded.
All this is evident from the fact
that these (Ten) Commandments
teach nothing about
what a man shall do or not do for himself,
or what he shall ask of others,
but only what he shall do and not do for others
– God and man.
From this we are to learn that their fulfillment
consists in love toward others, not toward ourselves…
for so the Ten Commandments teach.”
Martin Luther places the Ten Commandments
as fundamental and important issues
to be learnt by New Covenant believers.
The emphasis of the Ten Commandments
as pointed out by Luther,
is the focus not on self but others (including God).
Note the contrast between what Martin Luther wrote
about the Ten Commandments,
and what Joseph Prince has sacrilegiously written
in Destined To Reign:
“We are not to live by the Ten Commandments written and engraved on stones.
There is no nourishment in the ministry of death and condemnation.”
In ‘Works of Martin Luther Vol. 6, by Martin Luther,’ he wrote:
but the Ten Commandments cannot be done away…”
“Then, when Christ comes,
the law ceases, especially the Levitical law…”
“The Ten-Commandments do not cease,
in the sense that they are no longer to be kept or fulfilled,
but Moses’ part in them ceases,
and no longer strengthens sin
by the Ten Commandments,
and sin is no longer the sting of death.
For through Christ sin is forgiven, God is reconciled,
and man’s heart has begun to be inclined to the law.
George Ong’s comments:
Luther categorically wrote that when Christ came,
though the Levitical laws cease,
the Ten Commandments do not cease.
Luther further wrote that New Covenant believers,
who have their sins forgiven and are reconciled to God,
are now inclined to obey the law (Ten Commandments).
But what Joseph Prince teaches concerning the Ten Commandments
is in total contradistinction with what Luther taught.
In ‘Destined To Reign’ Joseph Prince wrote:
“In other words, with the advent of the new covenant of grace,
the Ten Commandments have been made obsolete.”
In ‘Sermons of Martin Luther Vol. 5, by Martin Luther,’ he wrote:
“1. In this Gospel Christ answers the question the Pharisees put to him:
Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?
and in turn asks them the question:
What think ye of the Christ, whose son is he?
Thus, this Gospel presents to us that which we continually hear and should hear,
so that these two sermons must continue to be preached in Christendom,
namely: the first, the teaching of the Law or of the ten commandments,
and the second, the doctrine concerning the grace of Christ.
For if either of these falls
it pulls the other with it;
while on the other hand,
wherever the one remains steadfast and is faithfully put into practice,
it brings the other with it.
2. And God has ordained that these two themes shall be preached forever in the Christian Church,
yea, they have always since the beginning of the world accompanied one another;
they were given to our father Adam, while he was still in Paradise,
and were later confirmed through Abraham, Moses and the Prophets.”
“4. Therefore, it is wrong and not to be allowed,
as some in ancient times said
and as some stupid spirits now say:
‘Although you do not keep the commandment,
and do not love God and your neighbor,
yea, although you are even an adulterer,
that makes no difference,
if you only believe,
then you will be saved.’
No, dear mortal, that amounts to nothing;
you will never thus gain heaven;
it must come to the point
that you keep the commandments,
and abide in love toward God and your neighbor.”
“Again, to the Galatians, 5:19-21:
‘Now the works of the flesh are manifest,
of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you,
that those who practice such things,
shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, etc.’
“19. Therefore learn, who can learn, and learn well,
so that we may know, first the ten commandments,
what we owe to God.
For if we do not know this,
then we know nothing
and we will not inquire about Christ in the least.”
George Ong’s comments:
Luther stressed that not just the gospel of God’s grace
but the moral law in the Ten Commandments
must also be preached.
If one is preached to the exclusion of the other,
than both would be ‘pulled down’ in the process.
Note that a few of the Ten Commandments
are contained in Galatians 5:19-21.
Hence, what Luther was saying is that
those who only believe the gospel
but break God’s commandments (in Gal 5:19-21)
in an unrepentant way,
will not enter God’s kingdom.
What this means is that
Joseph Prince who teaches that we only need to believe,
but at the same time, he denigrates the Ten Commandments
as being obsolete for New Covenant believers to obey,
isn’t preaching the true gospel,
as according to Martin Luther,
those who hear such a gospel
without obeying the Ten Commandments,
will not enter God’s kingdom.
It is not that obeying the Ten Commandments
will save us,
but that keeping these commandments
as an expression and evidence of true faith, would.
But merely believing the gospel
without obeying the Ten Commandments,
which Joseph Prince teaches
only indicates the lack of true saving faith.
In ‘Works of Martin Luther, Vol. 5, by Martin Luther,’ he said:
“That is what my Antinomians, too, are doing today.
They are preaching finely and (I can think nothing else) with real seriousness
about Christ’s grace, the forgiveness of sins,
and the other things that can be said concerning redemption.
But they flee the consequence of this,
as though it were the very devil,
and will not speak to the people about the Third Article,
which is sanctification, i.e., the new life in Christ.
For they think that they ought not to terrify people, or disturb them,
but always to preach in a comforting way
about grace and the forgiveness of sins in Christ,
and utterly avoid such words as these:
“Listen! You want to be a Christian
and yet remain an adulterer, fornicator, drunken swine, proud, covetous, a usurer, envious, revengeful, malicious!”
On the contrary, they say:
“Listen! Though you are an adulterer, a fornicator, a miser, or any other kind of sinner,
only believe, and you will be saved
and need not fear the law;
Christ has fulfilled it all!”
“Whoever, then, does not cease from sinning,
but continues in his former wicked life,
must have another Christ from the Antinomians,
for the real Christ is not there,
even though all the angels were to cry only “Christ! Christ!”;
and he must be damned with his new Christ.”
George Ong’s comments:
Joseph Prince hardly teaches on the important topic of sanctification.
Many Ex New Creation Church members have testified publicly
that in their many years at New Creation Church,
they have not even heard a single sermon from Joseph Prince on sanctification.
Joseph Prince’s only-believe and a no-repentance
and a no-sanctification gospel
is the Antinomian false gospel that leads to destruction.
According to Martin Luther,
the new Christ that Antinomians, like Joseph Prince preaches,
is not the true Christ
but the false Christ that will damn them.
In ‘Works of Martin Luther, Vol. 5, by Martin Luther,’ he said:
“Those who are not of this sort
ought not to count themselves Christians,
and they ought not to be comforted,
as one comforts Christians,
with much talk about the forgiveness of sins
and the grace of Christ,
as the Antinomians do.
For they, rejecting
and not understanding the Ten Commandments,
preach much about the grace of Christ instead.
They strengthen and comfort those who remain in sins,
telling them that they shall not fear sins or be terrified at them,
since through Christ,
these are all done away.”
George Ong’s comments:
Luther made the point that those Antinomians,
such as Joseph Prince,
who preached on the forgiveness and the grace of Christ
but rejected the Ten Commandments,
are not Christians in the first place.
If Joseph Prince isn’t a Christian to start with,
how can he be preaching the true gospel?
And how can those who supposedly accept Christ
through Joseph Prince’s grace message be really saved?
In ‘Works of Martin Luther Vol. 1, by Martin Luther,’ he wrote:
“Let the Christian say, then, with full confidence:
“O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God,[75] which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” [1 Cor. 15:55 ff.]
That is to say, the law makes us sinners,
and sin makes us guilty of death.
Who hath conquered these twain?
Was it our righteousness, or our life?
Nay: it was Jesus Christ, rising from the dead,
Condemning sin and death,
bestowing on us His merits, and holding His hand over us.
And now it is well with us, we keep the law,
and vanquish sin and death.
For all which be honor, praise, and thanksgiving
unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.”
George Ong’s comments:
Joseph Prince teaches that the dawning of grace
means we have nothing to do with the law,
whereas Martin Luther taught that
a true experience of grace
is to enable us to keep the law.
In ‘Sermons of Martin Luther, Vol. 4, by Martin Luther,’ he said:
“45. Hence those foolish souls (Antinomians)
are entirely wrong,
who allege that the Law is not to be preached
under the New Testament dispensation…”
“47. But besides, we must bear in mind
that the doctrine of the Law
is not to be entirely done away with,
even in the case of those who are Christians,
inasmuch as Christians must exercise themselves in daily repentance,
because they still live in the flesh which is moved by sinful lusts.
Hence, they must be so taught and admonished,
after they have received the forgiveness of sins,
that they do not fall back again into a state of security,
or give the flesh occasion to war against the Spirit. Galatians 5:13.”
“59. In the next place,
when we have received such grace and salvation,
have been baptized into Christ and believe,
his will is that we should afterwards live accordingly,
obey God and do what is commanded us
in the ten commandments…”
George Ong’s comments:
Joseph Prince teaches that New Covenant believers
have nothing to do with the law,
whereas Martin Luther states that
the law in the Ten Commandments
have everything to do with us,
in that we are required to obey them
after we become believers.
In ‘Preface to Luther’s Commentary on Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians” Martin Luther wrote:
“But Satan, the god of all dissension,
stirreth up daily new sects,
and last of all, (which of all other I should never have foreseen or once suspected,)
he hath raised up a sect as such as teach that
the Ten Commandments ought to be taken out of the church,
and that men should not be terrified by the law,
but gently exhorted by the preaching of the grace of Christ.”
George Ong’s comments:
Martin Luther wrote about a satanic doctrine, Antinomianism,
that was invading the Church of his day.
What Luther described is exactly what Joseph Prince teaches.
Joseph Prince teaches that the Ten Commandments
are no longer relevant for the church,
and that we must never use the law to terrify;
instead, he, like his Antinomian doctrinal forefathers,
would gently exhort by preaching the grace of Christ.
Just as Luther had stated that the Antinomian doctrine
originated from Satan in his day,
if he were alive today,
he would have no qualms about declaring
that Joseph Prince’s grace doctrine is satanic.
This is because Joseph Prince
is teaching exactly the same doctrine as his Antinomian ancestors
– that with the advent of grace,
there is no more place for the moral law in the Ten Commandments.
I believe that from the writings and sayings of Martin Luther,
I have proven beyond a shadow of doubt
that Joseph Prince is an Antinomian,
who teaches Antinomianism,
a heresy that Martin Luther fought against.
May I appeal to the Lutheran Bishops, Pastors and members
of the Singapore Lutheran Church,
that they must no longer keep cowardly silent
about the Antinomian heresies of Joseph Prince,
that are plaguing the world.
If Martin Luther, the foremost of their doctrinal forefathers,
had fought relentlessly against Antinomianism of his day,
for Luther’s followers not to do or say anything
against the Antinomian teachings of Joseph Prince,
who hails from our own backyard in Singapore,
is just a total letdown and a shame!
To all the Lutheran Bishops, Pastors and members
of the Singapore Church,
including the Bishops, Pastors and members
of the Singapore Anglican Church,
as John Stott was an Anglican,
let John Stott, a very well-regarded preacher and statesman
challenge you not to keep silent
but to speak up to warn the sheep
when the truth of the gospel is at stake.
In ‘Christ in Crisis,’ John Stott wrote:
“The second way in which the spirit of the age
is hostile toward the theme of this book
is the modern hatred of controversy.
That is to say, it is bad enough to be dogmatic, we are told.
But “if you must be dogmatic,” our critics continue,
“do at least keep your dogmatism to yourself.
Hold your own definite convictions (if you must),
but leave other people alone in theirs.
Be tolerant.
Mind your own business,
and let the rest of the world mind theirs.”
Another way in which this point of view is expressed
is to urge us always to be positive,
if necessary, dogmatically positive,
but never to be negative.
“Speak up for what you believe,” we are told,
“but don’t speak against what other people believe.”
The Bible’s problem with this approach
is that the Christian leader is not only to “[encourage] … by sound doctrine”
but also to “refute those who oppose it” (Titus 1:9).
Opposition to intolerance arises naturally from a dislike of dogmatism.
Indeed, the two usually go together.
It is very easy to tolerate the opinions of others
if we have no strong opinions of our own.
But this is not something we should go along with.
We need to make a distinction
between the tolerant mind and the tolerant spirit.
A Christian should always be tolerant in spirit
– loving, understanding, forgiving and being patient with others,
making allowances for them, and giving them the benefit of the doubt,
for true love “always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:7).
But how can we be tolerant in mind
of what God has clearly revealed to be wrong?”
“But we cannot avoid controversy itself.
“Defending and confirming the gospel” (Phil 1:7)
is part of what God calls us to do.
Perhaps the best way to back up the claim
that controversy is sometimes a painful necessity
is to remember that our Lord Jesus Christ himself was a controversialist.
He was not “broad-minded”
in the sense that he was prepared to go along with any views on any subject.
On the contrary, as we will see in the later chapters of this book,
he frequently engaged in debate with the religious leaders of his day,
the teachers of the law and Pharisees, the Herodians and Sadducees.
He claimed that he himself was the truth, that he had come to testify to the truth and that the truth would set his followers free (John 14:6; 18:37; 8:31-32).
His loyalty to the truth
meant that he was not afraid to disagree publicly with official pronouncements (if he knew them to be wrong),
to expose error and to warn his disciples about false teachers.
He was also extremely outspoken in his language,
calling them “blind guides,”
“wolves in sheep’s clothing,”
“whitewashed tombs”
and even a “brood of vipers.”
It wasn’t only Jesus himself.
The New Testament letters make it clear
that the apostles were controversialists too.
Jude, for example, appealed to his readers
“to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people” (Jude 1:3).
Like their Lord and Master,
they needed to warn the churches of false teachers
and to urge them to stand firm in the truth.
It’s sometimes suggested that this is incompatible with love.
But take John, for example, well known as the apostle of love.
We have from him the sublime declaration
that God is love,
and his letters overflow with appeals
for Christians to love one another.
Yet he roundly declares
that whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ
is a liar, a deceiver and antichrist (1 John 2:22).
Similarly, Paul, who in 1 Corinthians 13
gives us the great hymn to love
and declares that love is the supreme hallmark of the Spirit,
nonetheless pronounces a solemn curse upon anyone
who distorts the gospel of the grace of God (Galatians 1:6-9).
In our generation
we seem to have moved a long way
from this vigorous passion for the truth
displayed by Christ and his apostles.
But if we loved the glory of God more,
and if we cared more for the eternal good of other people,
we would surely be more ready to engage in controversy
when the truth of the gospel is at stake.”
Finally, let me quote what Dr Roland Chia,
a Bible scholar from Singapore and a Methodist
who had written in an article, titled, “A Therapeutic ‘Gospel’”
that was featured on this website:
“Despite its deceptive veneer and a common vocabulary,
this religion, as propounded
by Joseph Prince and the new antinomians,
is not orthodox Christianity
but a dangerous distortion of it.
The gospel that they present is a different gospel,
a false gospel.
The gate through which it leads the followers of Joseph Prince and the antinomians
is not the narrow gate, but the wide gate.
And the wide gate does not lead to God’s kingdom.
It is not the entrance to life,
but to destruction (Matthew 7:13).”
Dr Roland Chia categorically asserts
that the Antinomian gospel that Joseph Prince preaches
is a different and a false gospel
that leads to eternal destruction.
If Dr Roland Chia, who is well-regarded for his scholarship and research
on Joseph Prince’s Pseudo-grace doctrine,
has reached the firm conclusion
that Prince’s Antinomian gospel
can lead people to eternal destruction,
how can Prince not be a heretic,
and how can a Singapore Methodist Bishop
and a Singapore Presbyterian Pastor
say he is not a heretic?
Rev George Ong