Main Title: Joseph Prince’s Just Rest & Don’t Work Doctrine given a Knock-Out Blow by Martyn Lloyd-Jones – By Rev George Ong (Dated 22 Jan 2024)
Sub Title: Joseph Prince blatantly lied that he learned his grace theology from Apostle Paul – Rev George Ong
Parable of King George & Prince Joseph
(George 1:1, sorry, not a Bible Text, just Comic Relief):
There is hardly anybody who can tame Prince Joseph,
except King George.
In yesterday’s sermon,
Prince Joseph dared not mention Mr Pen even once.
He also made some mistakes in his sermon.
I think when he saw my eyes staring at him on TV, ah,
when he was preaching,
Wah Yee Teo Chua Leh (he got scared of me)
He gabra (panicky), you know.
King George really strikes fear into him.
King George and Prince Joseph, who win?
Of course, King George, lah.
How can a Prince win a King?
Bo Toa Bo Sueh (not respectful for a Prince to win a King), right.
I think now ah, Prince Joseph,
Boey Tah Han Liao (cannot take it anymore),
Kanna suan (got insulted) by me.
Wah Boey Kia Yee (I’m not scared of Joseph Prince),
but Wah Kia See Ee Eh (but I’m scared of his) bodyguard, you know.
But can’t be help, lah,
Teo Par, Teo Par (get hammered)
by bodyguards, so be it.
But King George had to humble him.
Because Yee See Beh Tow Leh (Prince Joseph is very proud, arrogant).
Wah you should see how he suan (insulted)
so many of his critics, you know.
You must believe me.
Just ask those Ex New Creation Church people.
I saw it with my own eyes in the videos, also.
Chin Chuey (many) evidence that he really suan (insulted) them, you know.
Kio Yi Nan (Prince calls them) Fat-You-See, I mean Pharisee.
Prince suan (insult) Pastors who criticised him
as puppies, who yak, yak, yak, you know.
So, ah, King George must Chu Tong Liao
(I must appear on the scene to handle him).
But Prince cannot handle me.
Instead of suaning (insulting) me,
he kanna suan (insulted) by me, you know.
Pao Yin, Pao Yin (his retribution).
I gave him a chance to make his audience laugh
by mentioning my big name, Mr Pen.
But he chickened out,
So, I make you, my audience laugh, lah.
Joke, Joke only, lah.
My article, so serious, ah,
Hell here, hell there.
So, some comic relief to help you relax first.
Hear from me again soon.
By King George alias Mr Pen.
Joseph Prince’s Sermon on 21 Jan 2024:
As usual, I listened to Joseph Prince’s sermon yesterday.
And also, as usual, it was filled with rubbish.
It is already bad for Joseph Prince,
to be a collector of rubbish,
But what is worse is Joseph Prince
is not only a collector of rubbish,
but he is also a dispenser of rubbish,
dispensing them to his congregation.
And the worst thing is that
the thousands of Joseph Prince’s fans in Star Vista
are just cheering, clapping and lapping up the rubbish
that flow from his mouth.
Unthinkable!
Think with me
– how could Joseph Prince
who has the reputation of interpreting a text out of context,
reading into texts, twisting texts,
a serial-liar, serial-double-talker and serial-hypocrite;
yet the multitudes of unthinking people
are sitting every week in his church,
hungrily lapping up the saliva of his theological rubbish
and heresies that flow from his mouth.
Thousands are riveted in their seats every Sunday
listening to Joseph Prince in rapt attention,
and in an almost unthinking
and a robot-like manner,
saying ‘Amen’
to whatever he utters,
including theological rubbish
and Satanic heresies from his mouth.
The fact that even intellectuals, university professors and pastors
are singing praises of the utterly false grace theology of Joseph Prince
that can be so easily debunked
is the insanity of it all.
Announcement:
Appendix 1
This Episode Exposes the Real Character of Joseph Prince
Appendix 2
Just 2 Examples of the ‘Let go and Let God’ Teaching of Joseph Prince.
Note there are 3 videos on Joseph Prince.
(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 Sunday sermon aired on YouTube yesterday,
on 21 Jan 2024, Joseph Prince said;
Please click here to view the 40-second video:
“That’s when God begin to show me even clearer
that when you rest,
God works.
Now, if you are working,
no point, God says no point, both of us working, okay.
Because even if I help you,
you will think it’s you.
You give part of the glory to me,
and part of the glory to you.
No, God must have all the glory. Amen.
So, I always say if God wants to have all the glory,
let God do all the work. Amen.
And that’s our true posture.
Our life is to bring glory to God.
But we are so proud, aren’t we?
We creatures are so proud.
We always want to have something.
We want to do something.”
First, there is a place for rest and resting
in both Christian doctrine and Christian living.
Believers certainly need to take rest or breaks from time to time.
But for Joseph Prince to teach that when I work, God doesn’t,
and only when I rest God will start to work,
is not only a bizarre concept but totally unbiblical.
Second, Joseph Prince said:
“Now, if you are working,
no point, God says no point, both of us working, okay.
Because even if I help you,
you will think it’s you.
You give part of the glory to me,
and part of the glory to you.
No, God must have all the glory. Amen.
So, I always say if God wants to have all the glory,
let God do all the work. Amen.
And that’s our true posture.
Our life is to bring glory to God.”
For Joseph Prince to say that when we work or do,
God cannot get the glory,
and for God to get the glory,
He must do all the work or doing,
is blatantly false, as the 3 passages will show:
1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV
31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Philippians 1:11 CEV
11 Jesus Christ will keep you busy doing good deeds that bring glory and praise to God.
1 Peter 4:11 NLT
11 Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
These 3 passages all show
that we can glorify God or bring glory to Him
by what we do or by our works.
Third, Joseph Prince said:
“But we are so proud, aren’t we?
We creatures are so proud.
We always want to have something.
We want to do something.”
What Joseph Prince is doing is that
he is falsely accusing his critics
for committing the sin of pride,
when they are actually obeying and glorifying God
by their works and doings.
Can you now see that Joseph Prince is such an evil man
that he would not bat an eyelid
for teaching against God’s word,
and also slandering against his critics for being proud.
What is worst is that Joseph Prince has committed these same sins
of going against God’s word and slandering his critics
countless of times.
In this article, I have only featured Martyn Lloyd-Jones
because he has so much to share.
And I can assure you that Martyn Lloyd-Jones alone,
will give a knock-out blow and tear all that Joseph Prince said
about his doctrine of work and rest to pieces.
Here is a mouthful.
In ‘An Exposition of Ephesians 4:17 – 5:17, Darkness and Light,’
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:
“But remember that the same Paul who writes,
‘We are his workmanship’,
also says to those who have been saved,
‘Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling’!
In other words, Put away, put off: then put on.
‘We are his workmanship.’
Of course! We cannot do anything until He has made us anew.
But once He has made us anew,
then we are capable of working.
So he says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Justification is by faith only.
Sanctification is not by faith only.
The whole of the Christian life is a life of faith,
but in sanctification, we have to work,
and to work out; to put off, and to put on;
as the Apostle tells us in all these details which he gives us here (listed in Eph 4:22-32).
(George Ong’s interjection:
Joseph Prince claims he believes in sanctification.
He is lying.
If he doesn’t believe that we should work,
as Martyn Lloyd-Jones said,
how can he believe in sanctification, which involves work?
In fact, Joseph Prince defines sanctification as rest,
which is the opposite of what Martyn Lloyd-Jones did.
In a sermon, Joseph Prince said;
“You know when you are resting,
you are actually operating in holiness
You hardly hear that, right or not.
Today, the idea of holiness is strife, strife, work, work, work,
try to please God, try to please God, try to please God.”)
We start, then, by realising that
this is something that we ourselves have to do.
It is not done for us.
We do not just wait passively or relax
and expect it to be accomplished for us.
Not at all! Put off!
Stop doing certain things, says the Apostle.
And I say again,
what a tragedy it is that men and women
should have thought that it was highly spiritual
to deny this plain command and exhortation and teaching of the Scripture!
That other teaching, as I have often pointed out,
really means that the second half of every New Testament epistle
should never have been written at all.
(George Ong’s interjection:
Joseph Prince must answer this question,
if we are not to work,
why is the second half of the Pauline epistles,
which involves the practical outworking
arising from the first half
written then?)
In the case before us,
all the Apostle should have said,
either at the beginning of (Ephesians) chapter 4 or in verse 17,
is just this:
In the light of this doctrine,
all you have to do is to let go, to abide in Christ,
and all will be well;
you will be delivered from all your problems;
it is quite simple;
it is just like lifting up the blinds
and letting the sun come in;
there is no more to be done.
That is all he (Paul) needs have said!
But we notice that the New Testament writers
give about half of their letters to detailed, practical instructions;
they tell people what not to do,
they tell them what to do.
Clearly, these two teachings are quite incompatible.
But the teaching of the Scripture is plainly, Put off!
It is something that we ourselves have to do.
And as I have reminded you,
it is useless to say that we have not the strength.
We have!
If you are a Christian, it is at hand.
God never commands a man to do a thing
without enabling him to do it.
If you and I are born again,
the Spirit of God and of Christ is in us,
the Holy Spirit is in us, the power is there.
And we have to realise this,
and in the strength of divine might and power
we act, we do this thing.”
In ‘An Exposition of Ephesians 4:17 – 5:17, Darkness and Light,’
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:
“The first principle is clear.
The ‘putting off’ is something that the Christian has to do.
It is not something that is done for him.
The exhortation comes to him as a definite command,
‘Put off the old man’!
I begin by stating the requirement negatively.
Putting off the old man is not something that is to be prayed about.
That sounds most unspiritual, does it not?
Imagine a preacher in a Christian pulpit
telling people that they are not to pray about this matter!
But it is essential that we should say that,
because there is a tendency on the part of many people,
whatever the problem is, to say glibly and immediately,
‘We must pray about it!
We must take it to the Lord in prayer.’
It is quite simple, they say, there is nothing to do
but to pray.
Is anything worrying you? Pray about it!
Not at all, says Paul;
you do not pray about this,
you put off the old man;
get on with it!
There is something almost violent about this;
and I think it needs violence,
because there is a great deal of sickly sentimentality
and false piety concerning this matter,
which leads certain people to live a kind of spiritual life ever in the doldrums.
Of course, we need to pray about everything, our whole life should be a life of prayer.
We should pray without ceasing.
What I am saying is that you do not solve this problem by just praying about it.
The Apostle does not say to the Christians in Ephesus,
with regard to this problem, I want you to pray about it.
Far from it. He in fact says,
For these reasons that I have given you,
put off that old man; you do not pray about this,
I am telling you to do it; get on with it and do it.
But what if a believer talks about his lack of strength and power?
The answer to that is, that as a regenerate creature,
a new-born being, he has the power.
If in the New Testament we are commanded to do a thing,
we may rightly expect to receive from the Lord the power to do it,
and therefore, there is no excuse at this point.
… But I must state the force of the Apostle’s word in another negative.
This is not an experience which you receive or which happens to you.
Many Christians are familiar with the teaching
which says that the solution of any and every problem
in the spiritual life is quite simple;
all one has to do is to take it to the Lord and leave it with Him.
He will deliver you.
Let go and let God!
(George Ong’s interjection:
This ‘Let go and let God’ doctrine
is what Joseph Prince teaches.
You can find this in his books and sermons.
Please See Appendix 2 for 2 examples.)
Quite simple! they say, you have simply got to take it to Him;
and then you will have this wonderful experience of deliverance.
That teaching has been propagated for a number of years now,
and there are people who have been trying to practise it.
But they have not been delivered from their troubles.
They may have had temporary deliverance while they were in meetings,
but the trouble comes back again;
and they have gone on trying to let go and to let God!
But, says the Apostle, that is not what is needed,
you must put off the old man yourself.
You do not ask God to take the old man from you,
you put him off!
Surely, we must recognise that this
‘Let go and let God’ teaching
is quite unscriptural.
(George Ong’s interjection:
As revealed by Martyn Lloyd-Jones,
Joseph Prince’s teaching on ‘Let go and let God,’
is unscriptural.
Not only that, it goes against the teachings of Paul.)
If it were true,
this whole section of the Epistle to the Ephesians (written by Paul),
from verse 17 of the fourth chapter
to the end of the Epistle,
should never have been written at all.
The Apostle should not have written these words,
and he should not have gone on to say (in Eph 4:25-28),
Therefore, put away lying;
speak truth every man with his neighbour;
be ye angry and sin not;
neither give place to the devil;
let him that stole, steal no more.
He would not have said these things;
it would have been wrong for him to say them.
Instead, he would have said,
If any of you believers are tempted to steal,
pray about it;
let go, and ask the Lord to deliver you from it!
But he says nothing of the kind.
Instead, he says,
those of you who have been given to stealing,
stop doing it, steal no more,
put off the old man!
Thus, it is obvious that the teaching
which may sound very spiritual
can be utterly unscriptural.
It not only by-passes the Scripture,
it denies the Scripture.
George Ong’s comments:
As Martyn Lloyd-Jones had pointed out,
Joseph Prince’s teaching,
‘Let go and let God,
that we are to rest, so God can work,
and if we work, God won’t work,
which sounds so super spiritual,
is utterly unscriptural
because it by-passed the word of God.
In ‘An Exposition of Ephesians 4:1-16, Christian Unity,’
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:
“The Apostle says that he is beseeching them,
he is urging them, in order to stimulate them.
He does not merely tell them
that all they have to do now,
in the light of the great doctrines,
is just to ‘look to the Lord’.
He could have ended his Epistle quickly at this point
if he had believed such teaching concerning sanctification.
There would have been no need
for three further long chapters (Ephesians chapters 4-6).
He would simply have to write,
‘Well now, in the light of all this,
all you have to do is to look to the Lord
and to let Him live His life in you;
it is quite simple,
you just do nothing,
you look to the Lord
and He will live His own life in you.’
But that is not what the Apostle says;
instead, we read,
‘Therefore, I beseech you that ye walk worthy …’ (Eph 4:1)
The teaching which assures us that
we have nothing to do
but to receive sanctification as a gift,
that is to say, to allow Christ to live His life in us,
by-passes the Scripture,
eliminates whole sections of the Scripture.
(George Ong’s interjection:
That’s precisely what Joseph Prince has done.
His ‘when you rest, God works’ rubbish,
is tantamount to eradicating chunks of scriptures
as stated by Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
Removing passages from the scriptures
is an utterly serious sin,
that would result in the eradicating of your inheritance:
Revelation 22:18-19 NIV
18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll.
19 And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.)
In the three chapters from this point to the end of the Epistle (Ephesians),
you find that the Apostle enters into details.
He says such things as,
‘Let him that stole steal no more’;
he urges us to avoid ‘foolish talking and jesting’.
He goes into details,
he exhorts the Ephesians,
he reprimands them, he commands them,
he appeals to them, he argues with them,
he issues his great imperatives.
He does so because
that is the New Testament teaching of sanctification.”
George Ong’s comments:
While Martyn Lloyd-Jones
said that work is part of sanctification or holiness,
Joseph Prince teaches the reverse
when he said that if we work and don’t rest,
God would not work for us;
and only when we rest or don’t work,
then God will work for us
– which is rubbish.
Again, Joseph Prince has lied
that he believes in sanctification or holiness.)
In ‘An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10-20, The Christian Soldier,’
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:
“There is a popular teaching
-it has been popular for about ninety years
which says that the great trouble with most of us in the Christian life
is that we go on struggling and fighting so much,
and therein lies our error and the great cause of our defeat.
They say,
‘Why is it that people do not listen to the exhortation of the Apostle?’
He says,
‘Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.’
That means, they say, that all we really have to do
is to ‘Let go and let God’ do it for us.
That is the phrase which in so many ways
summarizes the teaching that has been so popular.
Another way they have of expressing it
is the phrase that has been repeated so constantly,
‘Hand it over to the Lord.’
‘It is not your battle, it is His;
hand it over to Him.’
Another saying is:
‘Let Him do it for you;
that is what He is offering to do.’
They say that there is no need for any struggle;
that our mistake is that
we have gone on struggling and striving;
but that is quite unnecessary.
There is no need to struggle,
there is no need to feel any difficulty.
Here is yet another phrase: ‘It is quite simple.’
All you have to do is to stop struggling and hand it over.
And such teachers have used many illustrations
in order to show what they mean.
Here is one, for instance, which has been very popular.
They say that the Christian is like a man in a room.
There is brilliant sunshine outside in the street
but the room is in semi-darkness.
That is because the blinds are drawn,
and here is a man fumbling,
trying to find his way round the room, looking for things.
He cannot see them. What a tragedy!
There is all that brilliant sunshine outside,
but here is a man in semi-darkness and in trouble and confusion.
What is he to do?
Well, they say, it is so simple,
all he has to do is to let up the blinds
and the sunshine will come streaming in,
and all his problems will have gone.
Quite simple? Why go on struggling!
That, to them, means that
he has to go on refusing to struggle and to do battle himself
and to leave it entirely to the Lord;
the Lord will then win the battle for him.
The Christian has nothing to do
but to ‘abide in Christ’;
he himself must not struggle at all;
it will all be done for him.
(George Ong’s interjection:
Most of what Martyn Lloyd-Jones has so far described
amazingly, is precisely what Joseph Prince teaches.
But more is to come.)
… Then they must go on with the process of abiding in the Lord,
and they will find that their whole life will be entirely different.
The stress and strain will have gone,
there will be no more ‘struggle’;
it will be a life of victory,
but on condition that they go on abiding in the Lord.
… Others claim that they have done this,
and that in consequence they find that life has become very simple,
for all they need to do is to go on looking to the Lord and abiding in Him;
and they find that their battles are fought for them.
This teaching obviously demands serious and earnest attention.
There are certain considerations,
I suggest, which show that this teaching
is contrary to the plain teaching of the Scripture itself,
and that is the first test we must apply.
I mean, for instance, that if this teaching is correct,
then the second thing the Apostle tells the Christian to do here
is unnecessary, namely (Ephesians 6),
‘Put on the whole armour of God.’
He repeats the exhortation in verse 13,
‘Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God’,
and he then proceeds to take these pieces and portions of the armour one by one,
in order that we may know how to use them.
My argument is that if the Lord does it all for us
and we have nothing to do
but to abide in Him and look to Him,
then it is needless to tell me to put on this armour.
Yet, it is obvious that the armour
is something that I have to wear and to employ.
So, the erroneous teaching immediately
cuts right out that which the Apostle himself,
couples with this exhortation
to be ‘strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might’.
But that is only one objection of many.
Look at the matter, in the following way:
if the teaching is right which says that we have nothing to do,
and that our mistake is that we have been doing so much;
that we have but to hand it all over to the Lord,
to ‘let go and let God’,
let Him fight our battles for us
so that we do not fight them ourselves
– I say, if that is true,
then it seems to me that all the exhortations in the Scripture,
particularly in the Epistles,
are not only unnecessary but actually wrong.
What are these exhortations?
Here is one for instance in the Epistle of James, chapter 4, verse 7:
‘Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.’
You have to resist him.
It is an exhortation to us to resist the devil.
James does not tell us that we must not resist him,
that all we have to do is to look to the Lord
and He will resist the devil for us.
On the contrary,
James tells us to resist the devil,
and that he will flee from us.
It is an exhortation to do something.
Then take a parallel in the First Epistle of Peter,
in the fifth chapter,
where there is a very clear and specific statement made.
‘Be sober, be vigilant’ – you have to be ‘vigilant’ – ‘because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world’ (1 Peter 5:8–9).
That is an exhortation to us to ‘resist steadfast in the faith.’
Here we have two exhortations,
without going any further,
which come to us
and tell us that we have to be vigilant and observant,
and that we ourselves have to resist the devil.
They urge us to do so with all the care and the energy that we can command.
But there are many others.
Take what the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 8:13
about temptations arising in the flesh from within,
used by the devil and fomented by the devil.
Paul says:
‘For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.’
Notice that you have to do it;
you do it ‘through the Spirit’.
It is not done for you.
The teaching is not,
‘Leave it to the Lord, look to Him, hand it over;
but ‘If you through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body,
you shall live’.
In Philippians 2:12 we have exactly the same teaching:
‘Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.’
Not ‘Hand it over to the Lord’.
‘Work (it) out!’
You and I are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
This is an exhortation to Christian people.
It is not surprising, therefore,
that people are in a state of confusion.
Take, again, those exhortations given to Timothy
in Paul’s Second Epistle to him.
There is a whole series of them.
Having started by telling Timothy to
‘be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus’,
Paul goes on to give him such detailed instructions as,
‘Shun profane and vain babblings’,
‘If a man therefore purge himself from these’
– he has to do it,
it is not done for him
— ‘he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s Use’. ‘Flee also youthful lusts.’
He does not say,
‘Go through this crisis of surrender,
hand yourself over to Christ and look to Him,
He will fight it for you’.
What the Apostle says is,
Take to your heels, flee youthful lusts, make no provision for the flesh!
Everything he tells us in this connection is also an exhortation to us.
He has been telling this young man Timothy precisely the same thing
in his First Epistle in chapter 6, in detailed instructions:
‘Thou, O man of God, flee these (evil) things; follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.’
(George Ong’s interjection:
At this juncture, as you have perused Paul’s teachings
(and more of Paul’s teachings are to come),
there should be enough proof to convince you
that Joseph Prince had lied
when he said that he learned his grace theology
from the Apostle Paul,
as the teachings of Paul and Joseph Prince,
are diametrically opposed to each other.
Joseph Prince’s emphasis on the Pauline epistles
that he is getting New Creation Church
to focus on this year in 2024,
is a hollow call
as Paul contradicts what he teaches.)
These are but random selections.
The Epistles are full of this kind of teaching.
They address men who had been habitual liars.
Do they say,
‘Now look here, my friends,
do not struggle any longer with this tendency to lying;
hand it over to the Lord,
He will take it out of you,
He will do it for you,
all you have to do is to look at Him and to abide in Him.’
No, what the Apostle tells such men
is that they must not lie any longer, must not do this.
Here is a man who has been troubled
by the temptation to steal, the tendency to thieve.
It seems to be in him and a part of him.
What is he to do? Hand it over?
No,
‘Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth’ (Ephesians 4:28).
Then,
‘Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying’ (verse 29).
You do not hand it over,
you have to control yourself,
you have to do this:
‘Grieve not the holy Spirit of God … walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us … But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks’ (Ephesians 4:30 to 5:5).
… Look carefully at these military terms.
I have already referred to one of them in Timothy 6:12:
‘Fight the good fight of faith’.
The Apostle is exhorting Timothy.
Timothy has to ‘fight’.
Timothy’s trouble was that he lost hope very easily;
he became discouraged, and felt that he was weak and could not go on.
He was inclined to ask Paul to come to help him, and to lean on Paul.
But Paul writes back to him:
‘Fight the good fight of faith’.
Pull yourself together, says the Apostle.
‘Be strong … Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.’
That is the picture.
‘No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier’ (2 Timothy 2:3-4).
The whole picture is in military terms.
We are the fighters, soldiers in the army of the living God;
and we are not just ‘to hand it all over’.
We have our part to play,
our battles to fight, as participators in a great battle.
So, the exhortations come to us in this military form.
But not only so.
This erroneous teaching, it seems to me,
is utterly inconsistent
with what the great Apostle says about himself and his own life.
(George Ong’s interjection:
Martyn Lloyd-Jones highlighted the inconsistency
between the grace doctrine taught by Joseph Prince
and that of the Apostle Paul.)
Listen to him in 1 Corinthians 9:26 and 27.
‘I therefore so run.’
He is telling us of the way in which he takes part in this contest.
He is using an illustration of a number of men in a race,
a marathon race, if you like, in the Olympic Games,
in which a number of competitors are running.
The point is that they are running,
they are not spectators sitting back and watching
something being done before them;
they are not like the great crowds
that sit and watch others running.
That is not the picture of Christianity.
Paul is running in the race himself,
so, this is how he puts it:
‘I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I’
– he now turns to the image of a man boxing.
This is not my interpretation;
commentators are agreed about this.
He takes an illustration from the boxing ring;
He (Paul) himself is in the ring
and he is boxing an antagonist.
He is doing it:
it is not being done for him.
He is not looking at somebody in the ring fighting on his behalf;
he is in the ring himself.
‘So, fight I, not as one that beateth the air.’
He wants to beat his man,
he is hitting the man, not the air.
And he says that he does not do these things uncertainly.
‘I keep under my body’,
which being correctly translated means:
‘I beat myself, my body, until I am black and blue.
I beat my body, I keep under my body.’
(George Ong’s interjection:
To be true to his grace theology,
Joseph Prince would have to scream at Paul
for being legalistic for beating his body,
and depending on his own strength for sanctification.)
He is doing it himself,
and it is not an easy thing to do.
There is a struggle involved here.
He is not saying to himself,
‘Well now, I have all these problems within me in the flesh,
rising up and tempting me and getting me down
… Ah, I see there is only one thing to do,
I need not struggle against these things any longer,
all I have to do is to surrender,
to hand them over to the Lord
and let Him do it for me’.
No, no!
‘I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.’
He not only keeps it under, he masters it
—‘brings it into subjection: lest having preached to others, I myself should be a castaway’.
Such is the language which the Apostle Paul uses about himself.
But there is more.
In Philippians 3 we have the well-known words,
‘Not as though I had already attained’
– he has not arrived at the end of his journey.
There are certain things he is looking forward to
—‘that I might know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings … If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection from among the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already prefect’, What then does he do? ‘I follow after …’
Then he goes on to say,
‘But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark’.
That is his picture;
he is pressing with all his might and main towards the mark
—‘for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 3:10-14).
Then he introduces a word of exhortation in verse 16.
‘Nevertheless,’ he says, ‘whereto we have already attained,
let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing!’.
Look to me, he says, I am your leader, follow me in this matter.
‘Let us all be of the same mind’, he says, ‘let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.’
(George Ong’s interjection:
I’m sure by now, you would begin to wonder
that if Joseph Prince is telling the truth
that Paul is his mentor,
why isn’t he following
all that Paul had demonstrated and modelled for him?
As a matter of fact,
Joseph Prince did the opposite of what Paul did.)
Then look at the Apostle at the end of his life.
He is facing death, writing his last letter, the Second Epistle to Timothy.
He looks back at it all and this is what he says:
‘I have fought a good fight.’
But according to the teaching
we are evaluating he should not have done so.
He should have said,
‘The Lord has given me continuous victory,
I have done nothing.
The Lord has sustained me, fought my battles, kept me in peace;
I have just been resting in Him
and looking to Him and all has been well’.
That is not what he says.
(George Ong’s interjection:
Sounds familiar, right, especially
I have just been resting in Him.
Joseph Prince, Li Chi Pai Si Liao (you are doomed).
Li Pua Kang Liao (your cover has been exposed.)
Li One Liao Lah (you are finished)).
‘I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith’.
Note how the Apostle speaks about himself
in all the stages of his Christian life.
He himself lived the kind of life
to which he exhorted all these early Christians, and in each case
he is calling them to fight and to battle
and to press towards the mark,
and to exert themselves.
Moreover, the ultimate logic of the wrong teaching, surely, is this,
that though it sounds wonderful,
as if all is going to be done for us,
in the end, it leaves it all to us,
because the crucial point is our ‘handing it over’
and the ‘abiding’ in that position.
Those who hold to that teaching
are compelled to speak thus for this reason:
Here is a teaching which tells us
that we must ‘let go and let God’,
and ‘hand it over to the Lord’ and then
… Ah yes, but you suddenly find yourself falling into sin
and you say,
‘How is this happening to me?
Has the Lord let me down?
I had handed it all over to Him;
you told me that He would fight the battles.
But I have fallen into sin.
Has the Lord failed, has the Lord let me down?’
Of course, they have to say at once,
‘No, you must not say that;
the Lord can never fail’.
Well then, you ask,
‘How then have I failed?’
‘Ah,’ they say,
‘you did not go on abiding in the Lord.’
So, what matters ultimately is what you do.
It is your abiding in Him that really matters,
for the moment you fail to do that, or stop doing so,
you fall.
You are not being kept;
you have to keep yourself in the Lord,
you have to keep yourself in this place of abiding.
It all comes back to you;
you are left where you were at the beginning,
which is surely a most serious matter.
Here, then, is a teaching which is self-contradictory,
which apparently takes it out of your hands
but in the end, leaves it all in your hands.
It entirely depends upon your maintaining this position of surrender.
George Ong’s comments:
That is how and why Joseph Prince always gets the credit
when someone succeeds
by following his ‘Let go and let God’ formula,
and he would trumpet to the world on the mere pretext
that these successful cases should testify to glorify God,
when it is really to glorify himself.
But when someone fails,
He would abandon ship quickest possible,
as he will not accept responsibility for the failure,
but he would pin it on that person
who did not let go and let God enough.
You remember Olivia Lum, the Founder of Hyflux?
In ‘An exposition of Ephesians 6:10-13, The Christian Warfare,’
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:
“The Christian life, in the first place, is a warfare,
it is a struggle. ‘We wrestle.’
The whole section is designed to impress this fact upon us.
There is no grosser or greater misrepresentation of the Christian message
than that which depicts it as offering us a life of ease
with no battle and no struggle at all.
There are types of holiness teaching that teach just that.
Their slogan is, ‘It is quite easy’.
They say the trouble is that
so many Christian people remain ignorant of this fact,
and therefore, go on fighting and struggling.
That is the essential characteristic
of the teaching of the Cults.
That is why they are always popular.
‘Quite easy! A life of ease!’
(George Ong’s interjection:
From what Martyn Lloyd-Jones said,
Joseph Prince’s easy Christianity, cheap grace
and only-rest-and-no-work Christianity,
is undoubtedly a cult.)
You cannot fit that into this Epistle with its
‘We wrestle!’ ‘Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand.’
The first thing we have to realize
is that the Christian life is a warfare,
that we are strangers in an alien land,
that we are in the enemy’s territory.
We do not live in a vacuum, in a glasshouse.
The teaching which gives the impression
that the pathway to glory is all easy and simple and smooth
is not Christianity, it is not Paul’s Christianity,
it is not New Testament Christianity.
It is the hallmark of the quack remedy always,
that it cures everything so easily!
One dose and there is no more trouble!
(George Ong’s interjection:
I hope you are now convinced
that Joseph Prince’s grace doctrine,
like what Martyn Lloyd-Jones has described,
“is not Christianity, it is not Paul’s Christianity,
it is not New Testament Christianity.”
So, if it is not all that,
what remains to be said,
it is a cult or heresy.)
Secondly, this is a warfare that you and I have to wage.
‘Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.’
You have to be strong.
‘Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand’, ‘and having done all, to stand’, ‘Stand therefore’
– you! It is not only a warfare,
it is a warfare that you and I have to wage.
Let us be clear about this.
There is a teaching which says,
‘Christian people, you have been making a great mistake;
you have been trying to fight this battle;
you must stop doing so’.
It says that there is only one thing to do,
‘Hand it over to the Lord’ and all will be well.
‘Hand it over to the Lord, He will fight for you.’
But you cannot fit that into the teaching we have here.
I do not find the Apostle telling me
to hand it over to the Lord
and that He will fight my battles for me
while I just sit back and enjoy the fruit of His victory.
It is not here!
I have to fight!
Another way in which that teaching is put sometimes is:
‘Let go and let God.’
‘Let go,’ they say, ‘you have been holding on to it,
you have been trying
… Let go, let God.
It is all right, you will have victory.
It is quite simple, no effort is required.’
(George Ong’s interjection:
Let go and let God,
and effortless Christianity,
is exactly what Joseph Prince teaches.)
But surely what we read here is the exact opposite of such teaching.
It is you and I who have to do the fighting.
Thank God, we are given strength and power and the arms,
but we have to do it.
I am given everything I need and I am given the power to use it.
I do not relax and merely look on and reap the fruits of the victory of Another.
No, He makes me more than conqueror;
but it is my battle and I have to wage it.
These are fundamental principles
in connection with the doctrine of sanctification.
And I believe that much of the decline in the Christian Church today
is due to the fact that that other teaching has had such a vogue.
… The teaching of the Bible throughout
is that this world in which we live is a battle-ground,
is a place in which we literally have to fight for our souls,
to fight for our eternal welfare.
… The point I am establishing is that it is not enough just to say,
‘Ah, it is all quite simple;
you just “look to the Lord”
and you will have your victory.’
It is not so!
The New Testament gives us particular instructions.
Any sanctification or holiness teaching
that by-passes the detailed teaching of the New Testament Epistles
is false teaching; it is not biblical teaching.
Ultimately it is some kind of psychology,
the teaching of a cult.
(George Ong’s interjection:
In summary, what Joseph Prince teaches
as described by Martyn Lloyd-Jones
is unbiblical and false teaching
that belong to cults.)
We have to attend to details
because we are told that it is the only way
in which we can withstand the devil.
We must know something about the nature of his attack.
… So he will come to us as one
who wishes to enlighten us in the Scriptures.
Before, he did his utmost, perhaps,
as a ‘roaring lion’ to keep you out of the Christian life altogether;
now he sees that that no longer works with you,
so, he drops all other methods
and comes as an angel of light
who offers to lead you into deeper truths
which no one has ever seen before.
That is what he has always done with all the heretics.”
(George Ong’s interjection:
As a servant of the angel of light, which is the devil,
Joseph Prince offers at least 2 deep truths
that none except him, had seen before,
the ‘God’ spoke to him crap:
that sins need not be confessed to be forgiven,
and one can take the Holy Communion
for youthfulness and beauty.)
… They came as ‘angels of light’
who were going to lead the people straight
into the profundities of the truth;
they were not going to waste their time
in working up slowly to these things,
building them up, treating them first as ‘infants’,
then as ‘babes’, then as ‘young men’ and so on.
They did not do as John did and as Paul always did,
and as the Epistle to the Hebrews does (Hebrews 5:11–14).
By one great leap, they could lead directly to the whole truth!
That is the way in which many heresies have arisen;
that is also how most of the cults have originated.”
George Ong’s concluding comments:
It is a marvel that even though Martyn Lloyd-Jones
have not met Joseph Prince,
he could critique Joseph Prince’s heretical teachings
with pinpoint accuracy.
I believe the Holy Spirit must have given him
the prophetic inkling and insight
into what Joseph Prince is going to teach
after his death many years later.
From what Martyn Lloyd-Jones has taught,
and comparing with Joseph Prince’s teachings,
he has, indeed, revealed Joseph Prince
to be a heretic and a cult leader.
But the worst misdemeanour of Joseph Prince
is that he had lied that Paul was his mentor.
Paul could not be his mentor
given the many contradictions between their teachings.
By now, you should also know
why Joseph Prince is able to pull in the crowds.
It is because of the super feel-good theology
– that I don’t have to do any work but rest.
And the more I rest,
the more God will do the work for me.
Which carnal person wouldn’t want such a good deal?
That is why New Creation Church
has many who buy Toto and 4-D
without having their conscience seared.
Because Joseph Prince has been preaching to them,
all their sins are forgiven,
and God will never get angry with them,
no matter what happen,
even though they can continue to buy Toto and 4-D.
Next, Joseph Prince’s theme for 2024
for New Creation Church
is to emphasise on the Pauline epistles.
With Martyn Lloyd-Jones exposing the vast gulf
between Paul’s teachings and that of Joseph Prince,
what Joseph Prince tried to do for his church this year,
will go down the drain.
Finally, because the teachings of Martyn Lloyd-Jones
and that of Joseph Prince are diametrically opposed,
if you say that Martyn Lloyd-Jones is right
on the teachings that are reflected in this article,
then Joseph Prince has to be wrong.
But if you insist that Joseph Prince is right,
then you are also saying that Martyn Lloyd-Jones is wrong.
No right-minded person would bet that
Joseph Prince is right, and Martyn Lloyd-Jones is wrong,
unless the masses are severely blinded,
which is, sadly, the case.
Rev George Ong
Appendix 1
This Episode Exposes the Real Character of Joseph Prince
In a sermon, Joseph Prince said;
Please click here to view the 20-second video:
“So, I was browsing through and I picked up a book at random
by Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
He did a series on Romans.
It just happened that I picked up this book.
And I flipped it at random as well.
And my eyes fell on this:
How come, Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones
who is an English theologian,
great man of God.”
You would reason,
“Since Joseph Prince openly and publicly quoted Martyn Lloyd-Jones
in his sermon on video and in his book,
and even called him ‘a great man of God’,
Martyn Lloyd-Jones must have endorsed Joseph Prince’s grace teachings.”
And many have been deluded into thinking that such is the case.
Well, Joseph Prince himself is crafty enough
to want to leave that impression in the minds of many.
If you have read about this glowing tribute
that Joseph Prince paid to Martyn Lloyd-Jones,
you would be fooled into thinking
that Martyn Lloyd-Jones
agrees with much of Joseph Prince’s grace theology
and is teaching the same grace doctrine as Joseph Prince does.
But as a matter of fact, the reverse is the truth.
Almost all of what I have featured about Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ teachings
in this article and many previous ones,
go head-on against Joseph Prince’s grace teaching.
Imagine the irony – Joseph Prince,
who calls Martyn Lloyd-Jones ‘a great man of God’
– and yet this ‘great man of God’
has refuted and demolished much of Joseph Prince’s teachings.
Think with me, would any teacher of the word
call a person ‘a great man of God’,
if that great man teaches against the bulk of his teachings?
No way!
Then, why did Joseph Prince
call Martyn Lloyd-Jones ‘a great man of God’?
It’s all a deceptive ploy of Joseph Prince to give the people the impression
that he and Martyn Lloyd-Jones are of the same mind with regards to his grace teaching
– and that would give much credence to him as the Grace Teacher.
I’m sure Joseph Prince would ‘violently’ disagree
with the views of Martyn Lloyd-Jones in this article.
If so, then Joseph Prince must denounce Martyn Lloyd-Jones publicly
as someone he respected.
If Joseph Prince isn’t willing to do that,
that it only shows he is a serial-double-talker.
I had actually confronted Joseph Prince
over this misnomer before several times before on this website.
But till today,
Joseph Prince has remained as quiet as a church mouse.
He is indeed a man with no guts to defend or state his stand.
But when people are so-called healed through his ministry,
he will be the first person to rush forward and claim credit.
This is the kind of man I am unveiling for you.
Appendix 2
Just 2 Examples of the ‘Let go and Let God’ Teaching of Joseph Prince.
In ‘Destined To Reign, Devotional,’
Joseph Prince wrote:
“So let God be the one who builds your career and watches over your financial investments.
Let Him be the one who guards your health, marriage and children.
Don’t worry and stay up late as if you are the source of the increase, or the one who has the power to make things happen and save the situation.
No, God is the one and He says to you,
“My beloved child, throw that care to Me and go to sleep.”
And while you are sleeping, He is working on your situation.
He, who neither slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121:3-4), works the night shift for you as you sleep!
But because we are such doers and performers,
it is hard for us to let go and let God take over.
But when we actually do, casting all our cares, anxieties and worries once and for all into His hands,
we will see how He cares for us affectionately and watchfully. (1 Peter 5:7)
We will see Him taking care of our problems and working things out for good. (Romans 8:28)”
In ‘Destined To Reign, Devotional,’
Joseph Prince wrote:
“Like the lilies of the field, God wants you to let Him take care of providing for your material needs,
instead of you striving to do it yourself.
When you let go and let Him,
you will see Him bless you supernaturally, abundantly and generously!
… Thought For The Day: When you let go and let God,
you will see Him bless you supernaturally, abundantly and generously!”