Joseph Prince’s feel-good & crowd-puller teaching that God’s love is unconditional is unscriptural – By Rev George Ong (Dated 1 Jan 2023)
Joseph Prince wrote;
“God loves the sinner, but He hates the sin.” “God hates sin, but He loves the sinner.” (The Power of Right Believing, Page 188)
Charles Finney, who was mightily used in the Revivals from 1825 – 1835 wrote in ‘The Guilt of Sin’;
“God is not angry merely against the sin abstracted from the sinner, but against the sinner himself.
Some persons have labored hard to set up this ridiculous and absurd abstraction, and would fain make it appear that God is angry at sin, yet not at the sinner. He hates the theft, but loves the thief. He abhors adultery, but is pleased with the adulterer.
Now this is supreme nonsense.
The sin has no moral character apart from the sinner. The act is nothing apart from the actor. The very thing that God hates and disapproves is not the mere event – the thing done in distinction from the doer; but it is the doer himself.
It grieves and displeases Him that a rational moral agent, under His government, should array himself against his own God and Father, against all that is right and just in the universe.
This is the thing that offends God. The sinner himself is the direct and the only object of His anger. So the Bible shows.
God is angry with the wicked, not with the abstract sin. If the wicked turn not, God will whet His sword – He hath bent His bow and made it ready – not to shoot at the sin, but the sinner – the wicked man who has done the abominable thing.
This is the only doctrine of either the Bible or of common sense on this subject.” (Kregel Publications, 1965, reprinted 1985).
(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 Dec 2022, last Sunday, Joseph Prince said (this also includes what RC Sproul said);
Please click here to view the 2-minute video on what Joseph Prince and RC Sproul said:
Joseph Prince said;
“The gift of His Son is the gift of unconditional love and grace.”
RC Sproul said;
“What this says about everything else, ladies and gentlemen, is that there is a border to the love of God. And we cannot understand the love, or the attitude of God towards His fallen creation as being exclusively one of love. Because the Bible tempers its extolling of the transcendence majesty of the love of God with these warnings of the limit of His love, beyond which there is divine wrath, and there is divine abhorrence.
I know that what I’m saying here goes counter to the message that is being preached every day in our culture and our land. There is a concept that I hear all the time from preachers that I never find in scripture. And it is this concept: the unconditional love of God.
And I ask myself what does that impenitent unconverted person hear when they listen to a sermon and they hear this announcement, ‘God loves you unconditionally.’
Let me tell you what he hears. He hears this, ‘Well, God loves me just as I am. I don’t have to repent of my sins. I don’t need a Saviour. I don’t have to worry about going to hell because a God who loves everybody unconditionally, won’t ever send anybody to hell. So, I can keep on living a hellish life just as I am, and never worry again about offending God because He cannot be offended, so unconditional is His love.”
I can’t think of a more perilous message to communicate to people than to stand there and announce the unconditional love of God.”
Introduction
Nowadays, it has become fashionable and the ‘in-thing’ to speak of the unconditional love of God.
To preach a non-threatening gospel message, it is so tempting to present a feel-good, seeker-friendly and politically correct sermon.
Any preacher who preaches on a feel-good sermon that people like to hear can always get a decent crowd to listen to him.
And the best way of doing it is to speak about the unconditional love of God.
But we do not bother to check whether such a concept is biblical.
We need to repent from our careless and baseless assurance to believers and unbelievers about the unconditional love of God.
Let me, at the outset, carefully qualify what I do not mean.
By saying God’s love is not unconditional, I do not mean His love is so fickle and unstable that He would withdraw His love at the slightest mistake we make.
Every believer, being subject to human failings and momentary weaknesses, will have their fair share of making honest mistakes.
But God is gracious enough to overlook all that.
He doesn’t expect us to be perfect, and He accepts our human weaknesses and that we are prone to fail Him from time to time.
No matter how strong we are spiritually, we can, and we will fail God every now and then.
And God will not love us one moment, and quickly withdraws His love the next moment when we displease Him.
God’s love is unconditional as He would not come down hard on us for every mistake we commit, and every wrong turn we make.
He is not a capricious God who is just waiting for the first blunder we make before unleashing His punishment on us.
He allows us to grow in and through our failures.
God’s love is unconditional in so far as His love is not fickle, manipulative, but dependable and steadfast.
His love is more patient, stable and secure than what many people think.
But, after having said that, we must not push this to an extreme to posture the unbiblical view that even though we are wilfully living in constant disobedience without the sincerity and willingness to repent from our rebellious and wayward ways, God’s love is still unconditional.
There are preachers, such as Joseph Prince, who falsely teaches that the love of God is unconditional at all times and for every situation.
Joseph Prince wrote in his book;
“The devil is afraid of any church that preaches Jesus Christ on the cross because he knows that when people know how God sent His only begotten Son to die on the cross for them, they will see that they have a merciful God who loves them unconditionally.” (Destined To Reign, Page 200)
(Please refer to the Appendix at the end of this article for 12 more of Joseph Prince’s quotes on the unconditional love of God.)
The unconditional love of God and also of Jesus is not only taught by Joseph Prince but many pastors, though most of them do not go as far as Joseph Prince does, in distorting the love of God.
The phrase, “God loves you unconditionally,” is liberally used in the pulpits of many churches.
But is the unconditional love of God scriptural?
Joseph Prince made this statement, which is not original as it was made by many pastors, too, that;
“There is nothing that you can do that will make God love you more and there is nothing that you can do that will make Him love you less.” (Destined To Reign, Page 29)
The above statement by Joseph Prince sounds very sentimental, mushy and makes one feel good.
But is there any truth in it?
I will prove what Joseph Prince said is sheer nonsense.
If I can prove that his statement is sheer nonsense, why would you still want to stay under the bondage of his teachings?
A. The word or concept of unconditional love is not found in the Bible.
The teaching of the unconditional love of God is so prevalent that the same people who teach it would be shocked to know that the word ‘unconditional’ never appears even once in the scriptures.
What about the concept?
I cannot find this being taught in the scriptures too.
I can’t find any verse in the Bible, which states that God loves humanity unconditionally or without conditions.
Some may point to Romans 5:8 or John 3:16.
But there is no evidence in these two verses that indicate God’s unconditional love.
It is no doubt that God’s love for us is achieved at great cost with the sacrifice of His own Son, Jesus.
But is it unconditional?
No.
In fact, John 3:16 states there is a condition to meet (repentance is the other in Lk 13:3,5) before one can qualify for God’s love, avoid perishing in hell and inherit the gift of eternal life:
“that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
If we do not meet the condition of not just to believe in Christ once in the past, but to continue to believe, to go on believing in the present (the word believe in Greek is in the present participle tense) in Christ, we will still perish.
B. Does God love unconditionally?
God’s relationship with us is often portrayed as that of between a husband and a wife.
Would God as the spiritual husband love us unconditionally if we, as the spiritual wife, commit spiritual adultery with other gods and refuse to leave them?
Loads of scripture would reveal that that is impossible.
It is precisely because of Israel’s adulterous relationship with her other gods that is the chief cause of God’s grief, anger and judgement on her.
Prophet after prophet was sent to warn her that if she doesn’t repent, she would be chased out of the Promised Land eventually, which happened at the last straw of God’s patience.
Did God tell the Israelites:
“My people, though you have grieved me by your sins and disobedience and went after gods, I will continue to love you as my love for you is unconditional”?
No.
God said:
“If you don’t love with me with all your heart and go after other gods time after time, despite my patience with you for all these years, I will bring about sufferings and calamities to punish you, and I will finally chase you out of my Land.”
That’s the kind of love that is conditional that I find in the Bible.
God said to the Israelites,
“If you obey me, I will bless you; but if you disobey me, I will punish and judge you.”
Is that kind of relationship based on unconditional love?
No way.
It is conditional on whether the covenantal people would obey Him.
Joseph Prince is sure going to deceive you by telling what I have just told you is under the Old Covenant, but it doesn’t apply to New Covenant people.
But what did 1 Corinthians 10:1-12 say?
In that passage, God disqualified the Old Covenant people from entering the Promised Land and killed many of them because of their disobedience, immorality and idolatry.
If that episode doesn’t apply to New Covenant people, why would Paul go on to remind the Corinthians who are the New Covenant people about how the Old Covenant people ended up pathetically:
1 Corinthians 10:1-5 NIV
1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
If that episode doesn’t apply to New Covenant people, why would Paul go on to say to the Corinthians, who are the New Covenant people, that what had happened to them are examples to keep us from doing evil as they did:
1 Corinthian 10:6-10 NIV
“Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did”? 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test Christ, as some of them did – and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did – and were killed by the destroying angel.
If that episode is irrelevant to New Covenant people, why would Paul go on to warn them that what had happened to the Old Covenant people when they fell, could also happen to New Covenant people:
1 Corinthians 10:11-12 NIV
“These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall” (1 Cor 10:11-12)?
If obedience is no longer an issue for New Covenant people as a condition to continue their love relationship with God, why would the author of Hebrews say to New Covenant people:
“and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Heb 5:9)?
C. God’s gracious love but temporary love for unbelievers.
The love of God is unconditional, in so far as no one, whether by creed, colour or culture, is excluded from receiving the common grace of His gracious love.
God loves everyone by His gracious providence of rain and sunshine (Matt 5:45).
His gracious love is unconditional in that despite how evil humanity is, they still receive the rain and sunshine.
Seldom do we have a situation where the rain and sunshine fall only on the righteous, while the wicked are deprived of the same blessings.
Both the righteous and wicked farmers receive the blessings of rain and sunshine for their crops.
God loves the unbelievers as He doesn’t want them to perish (Jn 3:16) but to come to repentance (2 Pet 3:9), and He wants them to be saved (1 Tim 2:3-4).
God loves them as He patiently delays His judgement upon them, and He gives them time to repent.
God’s gracious love, which is unconditional, is available to all mankind.
His most gracious love is shown by the giving up of His very own Son to suffer and die for their sins.
But God’s gracious love for everyone, no matter how gracious and unconditional, is at the same time only temporary.
It is temporary in that the offer of His love for the ungodly will only last as long as the person is alive.
God is averting His judgement and giving them time and opportunities to repent.
But when the time for His judgement has finally come, His gracious love no matter how unconditional will be withdrawn, as those who spurned God’s gracious love and refused to believe in His Son Jesus will be thrown into the lake of fire.
So, is God’s love really unconditional without any conditions?
Is God’s love unconditional in that He will continue to love regardless of how men would respond to Him?
Is Joseph Prince telling the truth:
“… there is nothing that you can do that will make Him love you less”?
What if the person doesn’t do something – by receiving Christ into his life even at his death?
Does God still love him unconditionally?
Not only will God’s gracious love be withdrawn, but He will also banish him into the eternal fires of hell.
Yes, God’s gracious love is unconditional, yet at the same time, it is only temporary.
It is temporary because anyone who wishes to enjoy His eternal love must fulfil the condition of receiving His Son, Christ Jesus as Saviour and Lord.
D. God’s deeper love but conditional love for believers.
God’s love is not only gracious but temporary; it is also deeper but conditional.
Some despise such conditional love, arguing that if love is conditional, it is not love.
Others say if love is conditional, it is just a selfish form of love.
These same people should confront God and say to Him:
“God, don’t you think if love has a condition, it is a selfish form of love. Perhaps, you shouldn’t have created hell.
If there isn’t a hell, You could then love everyone on the face of the planet unconditionally, and all will get to enjoy the eternal bliss of heaven.”
Does anyone dare to confront God this way?
They are insisting on their own ideas about how God ought to love, instead of submitting themselves to the authority of the scriptures about how God has revealed Himself concerning love.
To insist on one’s idea of God about how God ought to love is to commit the sin of idolatry.
Idolatry is to insist on one’s idea about how God ought to be conceived.
It is creating God in our own image, according to our own ideas of how He ought to behave or relate towards us.
They are, in effect, manipulating God, saying;
“The kind of God I ‘create’ that He ought to be the unconditional God of love is the kind of God I like to worship.”
These people who make such statements are ignorant and rebellious as they are imposing on God what He has not revealed Himself to be.
The scriptures must be the final authority that we must go to weigh such matters, and not our own humanistic or sentimental views.
For a start, we are going to examine what the Apostle John has to say about the love of God/Christ for us and our love for them.
Why John?
Well, John was known as the ‘Apostle of love’.
So, he is the best person to go to for a correct understanding of whether God’s love is unconditional.
1. God’s love for us is conditional on obedience.
What does John 14:15 say?
John 14:15 NLT
15 “If you love me, obey my commandments.”
Is there a condition for loving Jesus?
It appears to be so.
What is the condition of loving Jesus? – By obeying His commandments (Jn 14:15).
But if we don’t obey His commandments, it means we don’t love Him.
Is that simple enough?
And if we don’t love God, will God continue to love us?
Read on for the answer:
John 14:21 NLT
21 “Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
What is the condition to receive the love of God the Father and Jesus the Son of God as described in John 14:21?
It is by obeying Christ’s commandments as proof of our love for Him.
If we love the Lord Jesus by obeying His commandments, both Christ Jesus and Father God will love us, and Jesus will reveal Himself to us, or draw closer to us in a special way.
But, if we don’t meet the condition of loving Christ by obeying His commandments, both Father God and Christ Jesus will not love us.
Next, what is the condition to enjoy the intimate love of Father God, and Jesus, the Son of God, as described in John 14:23?
John 14:23 NIV
23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
It is by loving Christ and obeying His teaching.
If you claim to believe in Jesus and love Him, then you must obey His commandments and His teaching.
Only then, will Father God love you.
If you do not obey Christ’s teaching, it means that you do not love Him, regardless of whatever warm feelings you may have towards Him.
Jesus then states in John 14:24, the next verse, emphatically, that these words belong to the Father who sent Him.
Since these words spoken by Christ belong to the Father, we must take it with the utmost gravity:
John 14:24 NIV
24 “Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
Loving Christ and obedience to His teaching are integrally related.
To make sure we fully understand, Jesus states the reverse that anyone who does not love Him will not obey His teaching (Jn 14:24, see above); and similarly, one who does not obey His teaching does not love Him.
If one doesn’t love God, God will not love him as he is cursed, and a cursed person can never be a believer (1 Cor 16:22):
1 Corinthians 16:22-23 NIV
22 “If anyone does not love the Lord, let that person be cursed! Come, Lord! 23 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.”
God’s love is certainly conditional.
What is the condition for remaining in Christ’s love according to John 15:9-10?
John 15:9-10 NLT
9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.”
The condition for remaining in Christ’s love is by obeying His commandments (Jn 15:9-10).
The clear implication is that if we don’t observe the condition of obeying His commandments, we will not remain in His love.
What happens to those who do not remain in Christ (Jn 15:6)?
John 15:6 NIV
6 “If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”
If we don’t remain in His love, we will be cut off and thrown in the fire to be burned.
To be cut off and thrown in the fire to be burned is certainly a portrayal that is closer to hell than heaven.
What is clear to us is that we must fulfil the conditions of loving Jesus, obeying Him and His commandments before we can qualify for His love and the love of the Father.
2. Even Christ has to meet the condition of obeying His Father to be loved by Him.
We have learned that we have to obey Christ and His commandments to prove that we love Him to qualify for the Father’s love.
But, what about Jesus?
Did the Lord Jesus set us the example?
Yes, He did:
John 10:17 NIV
17 “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again.”
God the Father loves Jesus because of His obedience to Him to lay down His life on the cross (Jn 10:17).
Isn’t it crystal clear that the love of God the Father has of His Son, Jesus, is conditional too on Christ’s willingness to obey Father God by dying for the sins of the world?
The Father’s love for Christ, not just for us, is also conditional.
As uncomfortable as the truth may seem, there is just no way one can get around it.
Let’s look again at John 15:10:
John 15:10 NIV
10 “When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.”
How did the Lord Jesus remain in His Father’s love? – By obeying His Father’s commandments.
Just as the love Father God has for Jesus was based on His keeping of His Father’s commandments, Jesus’ love for His disciples is also based on our keeping of His commandments.
Christ could remain in His Father’s love only because He met the condition of obeying His Father’s commandments.
Even the Lord Jesus has to meet the condition of obeying His Father’s commandments to remain His love.
In the same way, if we want to remain in Christ’s love, we must meet the same condition of obeying Christ’s commandments.
Conversely, if we disobey Christ’s commandments, we will not remain in the love of Jesus.
God’s love for us is not just based on grace, but more crucially, it is conditional on our obedience.
That means Jesus’ love for us is conditional, and there is no getting around that fact.
The teaching by Joseph Prince that God loves believers unconditionally is erroneous.
3. God’s love for us is conditional on us loving Christ and believing in Him.
John 16:27 NIV
27 “No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.”
What is the condition to continue to experience the love of God the Father?
It is by loving God the Son and believing that Jesus came from God (Jn 16:27).
But what if an unbeliever refuses to believe that Jesus came from God?
And what if a believer chooses to go his own way and turns away from believing in Christ?
The answer is obvious.
Not only will they forgo His love, but they will also die spiritually (Jn 8:24):
John 8:24 NIV
24 “I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”
Hence, God’s love for both the unsaved and the saved is conditional.
4. God’s love for us is conditional on not loving the world.
1 John 2:15 NASB
15 “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
How do we ensure that God’s love remains in us? – By meeting the condition of not loving the world (1 Jn 2:15).
If we don’t meet the condition and choose to love the world, the love of the Father is not in us.
Anyone who loves the world becomes a friend of the world, and God will treat that person as His enemy (Jas 4:4):
James 4:4 NIV
4 “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”
If we become the enemies of God, there is no more hope for us as we will be consumed by the raging fires of judgement and destruction (Heb 10:27):
Hebrews 10:26-27 NIV
26 “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.”
According to Hebrews 10:12-13, if one is considered an enemy of God or Christ, he can never be a believer in Christ.
Christ will make His enemies His footstool, and He will never treat believers in such a degrading manner (Heb 10:12-13):
Hebrews 10:12-13 NIV
12 “But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.”
Furthermore, does it surprise you that if anyone wishes to remain a friend of Christ, he has to meet the condition of being obedient to His command?
John 15:14 NIV
14 “You are my friends if you do what I command.”
If you do not obey Christ’s commands, you are not His friend.
And if you are not His friend, you have become His enemy, and you would be consumed by the same fires of judgement in Hebrews 10:27.
Hence, the clear conclusion is that God’s love, besides being gracious, is also conditional.
It is conditional upon our obedience to Christ’s commandments and for not loving the world.
Hence the statement that Joseph Prince made,
“There is nothing that you can do that will make God love you more and there is nothing that you can do that will make Him love you less,” (Joseph Prince, Destined To Reign, Pg 29) is false.
5. Other passages that prove God’s love is conditional.
Is the declaration that God will love His people unconditional in Proverbs 8:17?
Proverbs 8:17 NIV
17 “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.”
No.
It is conditional on those who love Him, seek and find Him.
Is the God who promises to show His love to a thousand generations unconditional in Exodus 20:6?
Exodus 20:6 NIV
6 “but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
No.
It is conditional on those who love God and keep His commandments.
Is the love of God unconditional in Psalm 146:8?
Psalm 146:8 NIV
8 “the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous.”
No.
It is conditional on those who are righteous.
Is the love of the LORD unconditional in Proverbs 15:9?
Proverbs 15:9 NCV
9 “The Lord hates what evil people do, but he loves those who do what is right.”
No.
It is conditional on those who do what is right.
Is the love of God unconditional in 1 John 3:17?
1 John 3:17 NIV
17 “If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion – how can God’s love be in that person?”
No.
It is conditional on those who are compassionate to the needy.
E. God Does Not Love Everyone – He Even Hates Others.
1. God hates Esau not because he was predestined to be hated.
Romans 9:13 NIV
13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Malachi 1:3 NIV
3 “but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”
Joseph Prince, has gone wrong in teaching that God loves everyone, unconditionally.
Not only does God not love everyone, but He also hates some people.
The scripture clearly states that God loved Jacob and He hated Esau (Rom 9:13; Mal 1:3).
No, I am not a believer of a particular doctrine that teaches that some are predestined to be loved, while others are predestined to be hated, without any cogent explanation.
God’s hatred for Esau was not because he was predestined to be hated, capriciously, by God.
1 Peter 1:1-2 throws some light on the issue:
1 Peter 1:1-2 NIV
1 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.”
Through God’s foreknowledge, He can foresee how a person will respond when presented with the gospel, and even if he accepts Christ as Saviour whether he will persist in his faith.
In the case of Esau, he exercises his own free will to rebelliously choose to go his own way of sin and destruction, and that’s why God hated him.
2. God hates Esau not because He loves Esau less.
I am also not of the same view as those commentators who have treated God’s hatred for Esau in the same way that Luke 14:25-33 is interpreted.
In that passage, Jesus exhorts that if one does not forsake all, including hating one’s father and mother, spouse and children, he cannot be His disciple.
Here the message of Jesus was, we must love Him above all others if we are to be His disciples.
The word ‘hate’ in Luke 14:26 clearly means ‘to love less’.
Jesus cannot possibly be asking His disciples to hate their parents as after all, He was also the one who understood the need to obey God’s fifth commandment for children to honour their parents (Ex 20:12).
But God hating Esau in the text of Malachi 1:1-4 goes beyond the level of ‘God loving Esau less’.
It portrays the picture of the judgement of God against Esau.
It describes God laying waste to Esau’s hill country and his inheritance and demolishing what they build into ruins because of His wrath:
Malachi 1:1-4 NIV
1 A prophecy: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi. 2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’ “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob, 3 but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.” 4 Edom may say, “Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.” But this is what the Lord Almighty says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord.
God’s hatred encompasses His rejection of Esau, who has been passed over as the blessing was given to Jacob.
Esau became the object of divine wrath and punishment.
In the case of Esau, God knew that he would disregard his birthright with contempt by selling it for a bowl of ‘soup’.
Because Esau had done such a despicable act to a precious and invaluable inheritance, he became a godless man, and God hated him.
This proved that Joseph Prince’s sentimental words that
“there is nothing that you can do that will make God love you more and there is nothing that you can do that will make Him love you less,”
is false.
It is untrue to say that God will still love us no matter what we do.
Instead of God loving us no matter what we do as taught by Joseph Prince, those who refused to believe in the Son stands condemned already (Jn 3:18), and He hates the wicked who rejects His Son as His wrath remains on them (Jn 3:36):
John 3:18 NIV
18 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
John 3:36 NIV
36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”
F. God Hates Sin, But He Loves Sinners, Is An Incomplete Truth.
1. God does not just hate sins, but He hates sinners too.
Besides Joseph Prince, many pastors and teachers have also gotten this wrong – when they teach that God hates sins, but He loves sinners.
The scriptures did not just say that He hates sin or wrongdoing, but He also hates sinners and all who do wrong.
When Esau did that which was wrong, God hated him.
The following three passages clearly show that God doesn’t just hate sins, but He also hates sinners:
Psalm 11:5 NIV
5 “The Lord examines the righteous, but the wicked, those who love violence, he hates with a passion.”
Hosea 9:15 NIV
15 “Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there. Because of their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious.”
Jeremiah 12:8 NET
8 “The people I call my own have turned on me like a lion in the forest. They have roared defiantly at me. So I will treat them as though I hate them.”
Isn’t it clear that God hates the wicked, the violent, the sinful and the defiant (Psa 11:15; Hos 9:15; Jer 12:8)?
Furthermore, God hates all evil doers who do wrong:
Psalm 5:5-6 ESV
5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. 6 You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
Psalm 5:5-6 NIV
5 “The arrogant cannot stand in your presence. You hate all who do wrong; 6 you destroy those who tell lies. The bloodthirsty and deceitful you, Lord, detest.”
Since many unregenerate people are evil doers and “do wrong,” we can conclude that God hates them all (Psa 5:5).
You may wish to reason like Joseph Prince does, that the God who hates is in the Old Testament, but we are now in the New.
But are you trying to imply that the God of the Old Testament is a different God from the New?
Are you saying that the God of the Old Testament is a God who hates, while the God of the New Testament is a God who loves?
If that is the view, Joseph Prince is effectively making God into a schizophrenic.
Joseph Prince has created a god in his own image – of a god who only loves and doesn’t hate.
That’s what Joseph Prince has done.
If you think that the wrath and hatred of God for sinners in the New Testament is a lot less severe and pronounced than what was displayed in the Old Testament, you are mistaken.
The opposite is the truth.
Aren’t you aware that Paul was speaking to the Christians in Rome who are New Covenant believers these following words;
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness” (Rom 1:18)?
Have you forgotten that the anger, wrath and hatred for sinners, including saints, who have become apostates in the book of Revelation in the New Testament, is a whole lot worse than what God had displayed in the Old Testament?
“The God of love and wrath is the same God in the Old Testament and the New – the only difference is as compared to the Old, God’s grace is expressed in greater immensity at the start of the New, but the wrath of God is expressed in harsher proportions at the close of it.” (George Ong)
“Just as the grace of God was displayed in greater immensity in the New Testament than in the Old at Christ’s first coming, the wrath of God will be unveiled in harsher proportions in the New Testament than in the Old at Christ’s second coming.”
(George Ong)
The God of love and wrath is the same God both in the Old Testament as well the New.
2. God loves sinners & He hates sinners too.
Joseph Prince wrote;
“God loves the sinner, but He hates the sin.” “God hates sin, but He loves the sinner.” (The Power of Right Believing, Page 188)
God loves the sinner, but He hates his sins is just one side of the truth.
The other side of the truth is – God loves sinners, but He also hates sinners.
From the standpoint of His gracious love, God loves sinners (Eph 2:4-6).
God loves the sinners in that He bestows rain and sunshine to everyone in this world.
God loves the sinners in a sense He doesn’t want them to perish (Jn 3:16) but to come to repentance and inherit all the riches that are in Christ Jesus (2 Pet 3:9, Eph 2:4-6).
But we must remember, God also hates sinners for their evil and wicked deeds at the same time:
Deuteronomy 22:5 GNT
5 “Women are not to wear men’s clothing, and men are not to wear women’s clothing; the Lord your God hates people who do such things.”
Leviticus 20:23 NCV
23 “I am forcing out ahead of you the people who live there. Because they did all these sins, I have hated them. Do not live the way those people lived.”
Leviticus 26:29-30 NLV
29 “You will eat the flesh of your sons and daughters. 30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your altars of special perfume. I will throw your dead bodies on what is left of your gods. My soul will hate you.”
Proverbs 3:32 NLV
32 “For the bad man is hated by the Lord, but He is near to those who are right with Him.”
Proverbs 11:20 NLV
20 “The Lord hates those who are sinful in heart, but those who walk without blame are His joy.”
Proverbs 16:5 NCV
5 “The Lord hates those who are proud. They will surely be punished.”
Proverbs 17:15 NLV
15 “He who says that the sinful are right, and he who says those who do right are wrong, both are hated by the Lord.”
Proverbs 6:16-19 NASB
16 “There are six things which the Lord hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: 17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, 18 A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil, 19 A false witness who utters lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers.”
From the above-mentioned scriptures, it is clear that God not only hates sins but He also hates sinners.
To separate the sin from the sinner by saying, “God loves the sinner but hates the sin” is potentially misleading.
Charles Finney, who was mightily used in the Revivals from 1825 – 1835 wrote in ‘The Guilt of Sin’:
“God is not angry merely against the sin abstracted from the sinner, but against the sinner himself.
Some persons have labored hard to set up this ridiculous and absurd abstraction, and would fain make it appear that God is angry at sin, yet not at the sinner. He hates the theft, but loves the thief. He abhors adultery, but is pleased with the adulterer.
Now this is supreme nonsense.
The sin has no moral character apart from the sinner. The act is nothing apart from the actor. The very thing that God hates and disapproves is not the mere event – the thing done in distinction from the doer; but it is the doer himself.
It grieves and displeases Him that a rational moral agent, under His government, should array himself against his own God and Father, against all that is right and just in the universe.
This is the thing that offends God. The sinner himself is the direct and the only object of His anger. So the Bible shows.
God is angry with the wicked, not with the abstract sin. If the wicked turn not, God will whet His sword – He hath bent His bow and made it ready – not to shoot at the sin, but the sinner – the wicked man who has done the abominable thing.
This is the only doctrine of either the Bible or of common sense on this subject.” (Kregel Publications, 1965, reprinted 1985).
God loves sinners because He doesn’t want anyone to perish and everyone to come to repentance, but He hates sinners because He hates sins, and sins that are committed by sinners cannot be separated from each other.
God’s love for sinners will end if the sinner dies without coming to Christ, and His hatred for sinners will be fully consummated by His act of banishing them to the fires of hell forever and ever.
Ultimately, we cannot separate a person from what he does.
We cannot separate the sinner from the sin he commits.
What a person does reveals his character – who he is.
Thus, if God disapproves of sin, He, of course, must disapprove of sinners.
God is so pure that His disapproval is very strong, and the word ‘hate’ describes it well.
3. God’s unconditional love for sinners & His destruction of the world just doesn’t square.
2 Peter 2:4-6 NET
4 “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment, 5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, but did protect Noah, a herald of righteousness, along with seven others, when God brought a flood on an ungodly world, 6 and if he turned to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when he condemned them to destruction, having appointed them to serve as an example to future generations of the ungodly.”
If God hates sin but loves sinners, why did He destroy the people in Sodom and Gomorrah except for the righteous Lot and his two daughters? (2 Pet 2:6)
If God didn’t spare the angels and destroyed the entire ancient world in Noah’s flood, except for Noah and his family, how can the doctrine of God’s unconditional love be tenable? (2 Pet 2:4-5)
Has the morality of humanity changed since the time of Noah?
Certainly not, humanity is just as wicked, if not more so.
If that is so, would God destroy the world again?
Of course, He would for the scripture to remain true.
God only promised He wouldn’t destroy the world by flood, but as the Book of Revelation reveals, He will destroy the world by fire and with greater calamities and destruction as compared to Noah’s flood.
“The God who loves the world is also the same God of wrath who had destroyed it once by flood and will do it again by fire.” (George Ong)
That being the case, the teaching about the unconditional love of God ought to be thrown down the rubbish chute.
4. The unconditional love of God & the existence of hell are irreconcilable opposites.
If God just hates sin and doesn’t hate sinners and those who do wrong, He wouldn’t have thrown all these sinners who do wrong in hell:
Revelation 21:8 NIV
8 “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
The people who will be thrown into the lake of fire ‘are not just sins’, but sinners who sin and do wrong: the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars.
If God hates just their sins and loves sinners unconditionally, why does God send sinners to hell?
The teaching that God hates the sin, but He loves the sinners is not incorrect but incomplete as it is the sinners who are sent to hell, not just their sins.
If God’s love is unconditional, the existence of hell is a misnomer.
The unconditional love of God and the existence of an eternal hell are irreconcilable opposites.
Concluding Summary
I believed I had debunked Joseph Prince’s teaching about the unconditional love of God to be an unscriptural doctrine.
As a summary and to recap, let’s examine these three unbiblical statements:
1. Unbiblical Statement Number 1: There is nothing that you can do to make God love you more or less, and to make God stop loving you.
The above statement, as I have shown, is false.
Believers can do something that make God love them more by obeying His commandments and teachings.
Believers can also make God love them less through disobedience, and in severe cases, even forfeit that love by wilfully and unrepentantly disobeying His commandments and teachings, and committing the grave sin of apostasy.
As for unbelievers, they can make God love them more by repenting and receiving Christ as Saviour and Lord and becoming His child.
Unbelievers can also make God hate them when they die as unrepentant rebels spurning the love of God through Christ.
And they would also lose the only gracious love that God has for them by being banished in hell.
If believers turn away from God in rebellion and are unrepentant, when they die, not only will they lose God’s love, they will be thrown into the lake of fire.
2. Unbiblical Statement No 2: God loves everyone equally.
God does not love everyone equally, but He loves the believers more than He loves the unbelievers.
He loves unbelievers with a gracious but temporary love, waiting for them to repent so that He can love them in a deeper way as He would love believers.
He loves believers more than unbelievers because they can draw closer in intimate love towards Him if they meet the conditions of loving Him and obeying His teachings and commandments.
It appears that the love of God, no matter how high or eternal in Psalm 103:11-13, 17-18, is conditional upon whether the people fear Him:
Psalm 103:11-13 NIV
11 “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.”
Psalm 103:17-18 NIV
17 “But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children – 18 with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.”
God lavishes His great love and compassion only on those who fear Him.
Doesn’t this imply that God doesn’t have the same love and compassion on those who don’t fear Him as much?
The fact that God loves everyone equally isn’t as correct as it is thought to be.
3. Unbiblical Statement No 3: God loves people unconditionally.
Yes, God loves everyone on the face of the earth with His gracious love by His common blessings of rain and sunshine, and by offering the gospel to everyone regardless of race, language or religion.
But, for the unbelievers, His love is conditional upon whether one believes in Christ as Saviour and Lord.
It is also conditional on whether believers love Him by obeying His commandments and His teachings.
If an unbeliever refuses to believe in Christ even on his deathbed, he will be a recipient of God’s eternal hatred and banished in hell forever and ever.
If a believer repeatedly and unrepentantly failed to love Christ by his obedience to His commandments and His teachings, and worse, becomes an apostate, the love of Christ is forfeited, and their destiny would be the same as the unbelieving.
Thus, the teaching that God’s love is unconditional for everyone, is unbiblical as it cannot stand the tests of scriptures.
Rev George Ong
Appendix:
Joseph Prince wrote the following about the unconditional love of God in his books:
“It will be a genuine repentance that is motivated by His grace, unconditional love and compassion.” (Destined To Reign, Page 232)
“Instead of saying, “God, forgive me for being such a failure,” he is able to rise above his feelings of anger and irritation, and catch a fresh revelation of God’s unconditional love for him.” (Destined To Reign, Page 244)
“You can because His love for you is constant and unconditional! Are you loved by God because of what you have done?” “So God will not stop loving you because of what you have done.” (Destined To Reign, Page 299)
“God is not with you because of what you do or don’t do, or because of what you have done or not done. That kind of thinking still places the focus on you. God’s love for you is unconditional.” (Unmerited Favour, Page 41)
“His love for you is unconditional!”
(Unmerited Favour, Page 138)
“I want you to be so conscious of Jesus’ unmerited favor that your heart can be set ablaze with His unconditional love for you.” (Unmerited Favour, Page 341)
“That’s the amazing unconditional love that God has for you and me.” (Unmerited Favour, Pg 94)
“He offers you a deep sense of rest that can only be found in His perfect and unconditional love.” (The Power of Right Believing, Page 30)
“God’s love for you is unconditional.” “It has nothing to do with your performance, but everything to do with who you are in God’s eyes – His beloved.” (The Power of Right Believing, Page 35)
“Do you really believe that His love for you is truly and indeed unconditional?” “While our love for God can fluctuate, His love for us always remains constant. His love for us is based on who He is and not based on what we do.” (The Power of Right Believing, Pages 36-37)
“Beloved, it’s time for you to stop listening to the roaring of the lion and to start seeing God as your heavenly Father who loves you with an unconditional love and who will never leave you nor forsake you, no matter what.” (The Power of Right Believing, Pages 193-194)
“Jesus paid an immensely heavy price on the cross so that you can live life completely accepted and unconditionally loved by God.” (The Power of Right Believing, Pg 73)