Main Title: Joseph Prince’s preaching on the gospel of love in John 3:16 isn’t preached by Jesus & the apostles – By Rev George Ong (Dated 28 Dec 2022)

 

Sub Title: Joseph Prince’s half & false gospel of believing without repenting would produce false converts

 

Don’t miss what Paul Washer & RC Sproul have to say in this article.

 

Don’t miss the Appendix at the end of the article: A gospel without repentance preached by Joseph Prince is another gospel.

 

Don’t miss the Five Shocking Facts about God’s love in this article in response to Joseph Prince’s Christmas sermon on 25 Dec 2022.

 

A. 1st Shocking Fact:

God’s love is not unconditional.

 

B. 2nd Shocking Fact:

God is only portrayed as a God of love to believers, but there are hardly any verses that express God’s love directly and verbally to unbelievers.

 

C. 3rd Shocking Fact:

Though the gospel was preached by the early church in the book of Acts, the gospel of God’s love was never preached.

 

D. 4th Shocking Fact:

The gospel that was preached by the apostles in Acts was a gospel of God’s wrath, judgement and repentance rather than a gospel of God’s love.

 

E. 5th Shocking Fact:

John 3:16 wasn’t written to unbelievers as a gospel of love, but to believers to keep them in the faith.

 

For starters, many believers have wrongly assumed that the early church and the apostles must have preached the gospel of God’s love to the unbelieving world in the Book of Acts.

 

But the same people will be shocked to know that in the Book of Acts, the word, ‘love’ is not used even once in the preaching of the gospel.

 

In fact, the love of God is never mentioned a single time in the entire book of Acts, comprising 28 chapters.

 

The mercy of God is also not mentioned a single time in Acts.

 

Furthermore, ‘Grace’ is not mentioned too even once in the preaching of the gospel in the Book of Acts.

 

(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, 3 days ago, Joseph Prince said (this also includes what RC Sproul and Paul Washer said);

 

Please click here to view the 6-minute video on what Joseph Prince, RC Sproul and Paul Washer said:

 

Joseph Prince said;

 

“The gift of His Son is the gift of unconditional love and grace.”

 

“And this verse here, John 3:16 says, ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.’ I loved that little word, “so”. It speaks of intensity of love. ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.’”

 

“For God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son that whosoever, are you in the whosoever, believes in Him should not perish in hell, but have everlasting life. And your life begins now right into eternity in heaven with God. And all is required is believe.”

 

“God loves you.” “God loves you. God loves you.” “God loves you.”

 

Joseph Prince said;

 

“The gift of His Son is the gift of unconditional love and grace.”

 

RC Sproul said;

 

“I think there are few things more dangerous than preachers out there preaching that God loves everybody unconditionally.

 

Because the message that is heard by the people who hear that is there are no conditions; I can continue to live just as I’m living in full rebellion against God, and I have nothing to worry about because there aren’t any conditions I have to meet – God loves me unconditionally.

 

Sometimes, we close our eyes to what the Bible says frequently about God’s posture towards the impenitent. God, the Bible tells us, abhors the wicked – that’s strong language. God abhors, detests the wicked who are impenitent.

 

And then people say, ‘Well, God loves the sinner, He just hates the sins.’ But He hasn’t sent the sins to hell; He sends the sinners there. And so, this is very dangerous stuff when we tell people, ‘God loves you unconditionally.’

 

We have to do it from a biblical perspective rather than try to change the biblical character of God. God is angry every day against the wicked, and justly so. And every impenitent sinner is exposed every second to the rage, the fury of God’s wrath as Paul tells us in Romans 1:18 and following.

 

And we want so much to win people to Christ, that we’ll do everything we can to hide from them the reality of the wrath of God. We don’t tell them that every moment that they refuse to repent, that they are heaping up wrath against the day of wrath. But people aren’t afraid of the wrath of God. And it’s because we’re out there telling them, ‘You don’t have to be afraid of God, because God is so nice…’”

 

Joseph Prince said;

 

“God loves you.” “God loves you. God loves you.” “God loves you.”

 

Paul Washer said;

 

“Let’s look at this invitation. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Many times, this is accompanied by an explanation of all that Jesus can do for the person – fix their life, their marriage, their finances, their self-esteem.

 

So, you walk up to what we know about a sinner. He’s self-centred. He’s autonomous. He wants to do his own thing. He has his own dreams and he is in love with himself.

 

So, you walk up to this man and you say, ‘God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.’

 

And he goes, ‘What! God loves me. That’s fantastic! I love me too. Wow, this is wonderful. And you’re even saying that He loves me more than I love me. Now, that sounds impossible. How can anyone have such a great love? And God has a wonderful plan for my life. O, I have a wonderful plan for my life too. And you’re telling me that if I accept this Jesus, He will help me with all my wonderful plans, and I can have my best life now.’

 

‘Yes.’

 

‘Well then, I’ll take a God like that – you got two of them?’

 

Do you see that? They say, ‘Brother Paul, we don’t mean it that way.’ But that’s the way it’s coming out. Now, you’re saying, ‘Paul, you are being very hard, full of satire.’ Yes, I am, I am.

 

But look, everybody is lamenting the fact that this country believes it’s saved, when it’s no more saved than a; it’s as lost as they say in Alabama, ‘It’s a bald and tall grass.’ But no one wants to point to what the problem is.

 

And the problem is even when we preach the gospel correctly, then we go to this thing of how to invite them; it’s not biblical or historical. We get them to jump to a few evangelical hoops and say yes to the appropriate questions. And we pronounced them to be saved.

 

And when they believe that – false religious lie given by a religious authority, then when someone comes later and tries to preach the gospel to them because they are living in the world, they won’t listen. Cause the religious lie has so much power.”   

 

Introduction

 

Joseph Prince is preaching a different God of the Bible as he preaches, predominantly, only a God of love (and grace) to the unbelieving world.

 

He teaches that God’s wrath and righteous judgement are not only inapplicable for believers, but they are not to be preached to the unbelieving world. 

 

As my ensuing arguments will show,

 

Joseph Prince’s twisted gospel teaching, focussing only on God’s love (and grace) to the unbelieving world at the expense of God’s wrath, righteous judgement and the need for sinners to repent,

 

is totally contradictory to what the Lord Jesus, the Apostles, and John the Baptist had taught and exemplified in the scriptures.  

 

As parts of this article could be ‘controversial’ (I don’t think they are, but others may) may I encourage you to be a Berean to do your own study, and come to your own conclusion.

 

A. 1st Shocking Fact:

 

God’s love is not unconditional.

 

If I were to ask the question to believers, what kind of a God do they believe in, I’m sure amongst the many answers would be that God is a God of love to unbelievers.

 

And if I were to ask another question, what kind of gospel would they preach to unbelievers, many would say they would preach the gospel of love.

 

But that’s not what and how the scriptures portray God to unbelievers.

 

And that’s not the way Jesus and the Apostles preach the gospel to the unbelieving world.

 

You might be shocked at what I have just said, but you would need to read the whole article before you prejudge me and my views.

 

Can you imagine the seriousness of the issue when pastors and believers don’t even get this doctrine right?

 

It is often thought by many pastors and believers that the gospel the Church should preach to unbelievers ought to be a gospel of love as God loves them.

 

What is worse is that preachers not only talk about the love of God, but, like Joseph Prince, they go one wrong step further and talk about the unconditional love of God.

 

Joseph Prince said;

 

“The gift of His Son is the gift of unconditional love and grace.”

 

And if we preach the gospel of the unconditional love of God, we would be faced with a barrage of questions from unbelievers, such as:

 

“How can a God of unconditional love cause the massive natural disasters in the many earthquakes and tsunamis that destroy countless and innocent lives?

 

Well, there is one preacher, Joseph Prince, who says it is Satan who caused them, not God. Then why didn’t God stop the devil from causing the massive loss of innocent lives in the first place? You mean Joseph Prince is saying that Satan is more powerful than God that He is too helpless to do anything? If that is the case, then the Christian God must be a pretty weak God!

 

How can a God, who loves the world unconditionally, send people to hell?”

 

Unbelievers have every right to ask these questions.

 

We get ourselves caught because we have given them wrong and incomplete answers in the first place.

 

The unconditional love of God is an unbiblical concept.

 

Every believer has heard of the phrase, ‘the unconditional love of God’.

 

But many aren’t even aware that the phrase, ‘the unconditional love of God,’ or the word, ‘unconditional’ is not even found in the Bible.

 

And neither is the concept of ‘the unconditional love of God’ taught in the Bible.

 

The phrase ‘the unconditional love of God’ is a misleading one, as it gives the idea that God loves everybody without the need for anyone to do anything.

 

Any unbeliever who is told of ‘the unconditional love of God’ will have this conception that no matter what he has done, and no matter how bad he is, he doesn’t need to change as God loves him just as he is – unconditionally.

 

And soon, the word, ‘repentance’ – the need to change according to the terms of God to qualify for His love, begins to be downplayed, and even ignored in our gospel preaching – as Joseph Prince has done.

 

In Joseph Prince’s preaching of the gospel on 25 Dec 2022, Christmas Day, including the sinner’s prayer that he led at the end of his sermon, he didn’t mention the word, ‘repentance’ even once.

 

Furthermore, Joseph Prince said in his sermon all that is required for sinners, not to perish and have everlasting life, is just to believe;

 

“For God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son that whosoever, are you in the whosoever, believes in Him should not perish in hell, but have everlasting life. And your life begins now right into eternity in heaven with God. And all is required is believe.”

 

But this starkly goes against what the Lord Jesus said;

 

Luke 13:3,5 NIV

³ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.  ⁵ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

 

Jesus said it twice to make sure we have no excuse not to preach the other half of the truth that we need to repent if we don’t want to perish (not just to believe in John 3:16 as Joseph Prince preaches.)

 

A half-truth gospel of just believing without repenting that Joseph Prince preaches is a false gospel, and a false gospel would bring forth false converts.

 

Have believers forgotten that the first step for an unbeliever to come to God and be embraced by God’s love is to repent – to change?

 

(For a more detailed discussion of the primacy of repentance for gospel preaching, kindly see the Appendix at the end of this article.)

 

So, how can the unconditional love of God be a tenable doctrine?

 

The Bible never says God’s love is unconditional.

 

Conversely, the Bible declares there are conditions to God’s love.

 

Preachers, such as Joseph Prince, have wrongly preached about the unconditional love of God.

 

If God’s love is unconditional, we would have to throw repentance out the window.

 

If God’s love is unconditional, how can the God of the Bible make us perish if we don’t believe and repent?

 

Many preachers have forgotten that the supposed gospel of love they based on in John 3:16, is also about a God who destroys people and makes them perish:

 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).

 

Why would God destroy people by making them perish?

 

If they don’t meet His condition of love – that they believe in Christ – if not, they will perish.

 

Can you now see that even in John 3:16 – which Joseph Prince used to preach the gospel of love – it is clear that God’s love isn’t unconditional?

 

God’s love is conditional upon whether we would believe in Christ.

 

If we reject Christ, we are rejecting His love, and He will make us perish in hell.

 

There are no verses in the scriptures that say God loves us unconditionally.

 

But there are verses that say God’s love is conditional – God loves those who obey His commandments (Jn 15:10), and God loves those who fear and obey Him (Psa 103:17-18).

 

If God’s love is unconditional, why do we have to repent and place our faith only on one person and one person only, Jesus, in order to be saved?

 

How could God’s love be unconditional if the Christian Faith has always been and will always be uncompromisingly insisting that Jesus is the one and only way to God and heaven?

 

If God didn’t spare the angels and destroyed the entire ancient world of human beings 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)

 

Will sinners who are suffering, not just momentarily, but eternally in hell, ever think or imagine that God loves them and loves them unconditionally?

 

B. 2nd Shocking Fact:

 

God is only portrayed as a God of love to believers, but there are hardly any verses that express God’s love directly and verbally to unbelievers.

 

I have combed through the whole Bible about the love of God, and I have discovered that out of the 31,102 verses, there are hardly any verses about the love of God being expressed directly and verbally to unbelievers.

 

Only two verses need to be clarified and explained: Mark 10:21 and John 3:16.

 

I will show in just a moment that Mark 10:21 (rich ruler) doesn’t qualify.

 

I will later prove that even John 3:16 doesn’t qualify too if we interpret the verse in its context, and if we realise who the Book of John was written to. 

 

Just imagine, out of 31,102 verses, so far, I can’t find any verse that expresses the love of God to unbelievers directly and verbally.

 

If you could find any, kindly let me know.

 

But I am quite sure that even if you can search out such verse/s of what I may miss, there won’t be many.

 

(To be clear, I am not referring to verses which talk about God’s love to believers, love between believers, and the love of believers for unbelievers.

 

There could be verses that mention God’s love to unbelievers, but it is always done in the setting and presence of believers, and never in the presence of, and to unbelievers).

 

Yet, ironically, there are preachers, such as Joseph Prince, who preaches on the gospel of God’s love so frequently and passionately, as if God’s love for the unbelieving world filled the entire scriptures.

 

Let’s talk about Mark 10:17 and Mark 10:21.

 

In Mark 10:17, a rich ruler came asking Jesus about how he could inherit eternal life.

 

Jesus gave him this reply:

 

“Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Mk 10:21).

 

Although Jesus felt a love for the rich ruler, did Jesus tell him He loved him?

 

Although Mark 10:21 did mention that Jesus loved him, did His love for the rich ruler finally save him?

 

Jesus may love him, but did He use the gospel of His love, or the gospel of God’s love, or the gospel of God’s grace to preach to him? 

 

The answer to the above three questions is a resounding ‘No!’

 

Though Jesus loved the rich ruler, He didn’t preach love to Him, but He uses the ‘law’.

 

He uses ‘law’ to preach the gospel – to make the point that if the rich ruler refuses to make Him Lord by giving up his possessions, He can’t be his Saviour.  

 

Jesus uses the ‘law’ to preach the New Covenant gospel of grace:

 

“One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Mk 10:21).

 

Jesus didn’t even use the word, ‘grace’ or say anything about the love or mercy of God.

 

Jesus didn’t tell the rich man as Joseph Prince would say – that the gospel is about the God who loves you unconditionally, and He will prosper you to become very wealthy as Abraham was, once you become a New Covenant believer. 

 

Instead, Jesus used the ‘law’ to expose his hidden sin of the love of wealth.

 

His money was his god, and no one can serve both God and money.

 

It was out of love that Jesus used the ‘law’ to confront the man of his sin (Mk 10:21):

 

Mark 10:21 NIV

²¹ Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

 

Jesus loved the rich man enough to tell him the tough truth that in order to inherit eternal life, he must give up his riches – the sin of his love for riches that is coming between him and God.

 

Do we love sinners enough to confront them of their sins and get them to repent in order to obtain a conversion that is genuine?

 

Or do we deliberately soft-pedal the gospel as Joseph Prince does, by telling them that repentance is just a change of mind, and we stopped telling them that repentance has also to do with the turning away from our sins,

 

in order to make it more palatable for the flesh, and just to get another salvation decision under our belt, which is probably false anyway.

 

One thing that needs to be mentioned is that although Jesus loved the rich ruler, He didn’t tell him that He loved him.

 

In other words, Jesus didn’t directly or verbally express His love to him. 

 

Joseph Prince said;

 

“God loves you.” “God loves you. God loves you.” “God loves you.”

 

Just think – if there are hardly any verses in the Bible that talk about God’s expression of His love to unbelievers, directly and verbally, why is Joseph Prince making God’s love as the main gospel message?

 

The truth is Joseph Prince preaches on the gospel of God’s love mainly because that’s what people want to hear, not because that is the primary or core truth of the scriptures.

 

Many preachers have made the blunder of telling the world that God loves them and pitching it as the key gospel message.

 

I, too, have wrongly used John 3:16 as a text to preach the gospel of God’s love.

 

In our preaching of the gospel to the unbelieving world, we have wrongly focussed on the love of God as our main message.

 

If the love of God is hardly mentioned to unbelievers in the Bible, why are we telling people so much about it?

 

We have fallen into the temptation of telling people what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear.

 

The Bible never/hardly talks about the love of God to the unbelieving world.

 

It is the same in the Old Testament as well as it is in the New.

 

Whenever the Jews talk about the love of God, they never/hardly talk about God’s love to other people.

 

The Old Testament prophets hardly talk about the love of God to the gentile world.

 

They only talk about God’s love to themselves, as the Old Covenant people, but not to others who don’t believe in the Jehovah God.

 

The love of God is only talked about among the Old Covenant people, and not to the non-Jews.

 

The same phenomenon is also noticed in the New Testament. 

 

Believers only talk about the love of God to people who have come to the saving knowledge of Christ.

 

Believers never/hardly talk about the love of God to the unbelieving world, but themselves.

 

They never/hardly speak about God’s love to the unbelieving world.

 

Why is the love of God only talked about among believers, and not to the unbelieving world, both in the Old and the New Testament?

 

The probable reason is that only those who have been set free from their spiritual blindness by God would truly understand the love of God.

 

They would genuinely comprehend the matchless love of Christ that is displayed on the cross of Calvary.

 

The reason is that believers can understand and appreciate the love of God because they have been marvellously saved by the grace and mercy of God. 

 

They now can grasp the length and breadth of God’s love as they were undeserving of being saved in the first place.

 

The trouble is the Church has been teaching about the love of God to unbelievers.

 

Sharing the love of God to unbelievers is like throwing pearls to swine.

 

Not only that, they could use the love of God to ‘attack’ us with questions – why does the God of love cause natural disasters, human suffering, diseases and poverty?

 

Why does a loving God allow massive disasters to cause pain and suffering to the world, and why does He send people to hell?

 

So, the Church has created a problem for herself by telling the world that God loves them unconditionally. 

 

But there isn’t a single time where either Father God or the Lord Jesus directly and verbally says to the unbelieving world that He loves them.

 

Lastly, though I am aware that love can be shown in actions, even if it is not verbally expressed, the point remains that if love for unbelievers is such an important issue that preachers, such as Joseph Prince, have made it out to be, why are there no, or hardly any explicit verses about the expression of God’s love to unbelievers in the Bible?

 

I am also well aware that we are called to love our neighbours and our enemies, and we should.

 

But the fact that God Himself didn’t express His love to unbelievers a single time (perhaps, there are, but I can’t find any, so far) in the entire Bible is a personal discovery for me.

 

God never/hardly says to unbelievers He loves them as He lavishly does to believers.

 

C. 3rd Shocking Fact:

 

Though the gospel was preached by the early church in the book of Acts, the gospel of God’s love was never preached.

 

Many believers have wrongly assumed that the early church and the apostles must have preached the gospel of God’s love to the unbelieving world in the Book of Acts.

 

But the same people will be shocked to know that in the Book of Acts, the word, ‘love’ is not used even once in the preaching of the gospel.

 

In fact, the love of God is never mentioned a single time in the entire book of Acts, comprising 28 chapters.

 

The primary model of gospel preaching adopted in Acts was to lay out the facts of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, to confront listeners of their sins boldly, highlight their need for Him, and His forgiveness of their sins.

 

Then calls for repentance were made. 

 

Preaching God’s unconditional love without the need for true repentance, as Joseph Prince does, is not the biblical model. 

 

The mercy of God is also not mentioned a single time in Acts.

 

‘Grace’ is not mentioned too even once in the preaching of the gospel in the Book of Acts.

 

When the word ‘Grace’ is used, it is a description of the gospel message, and most occurrences of this word apply to those who have already believed – who already have experienced grace (Acts 4:33; 6:8; 11:23; 13:43; 14:3; 14:26; 15:11; 15:40; 18:27; 20:24; 20:32).

 

If you go through every single time when the gospel is preached in the Book of Acts, it is generally characterised by the Apostles boldly confronting the crowd with their sins, and/or the crowd realising their guilt, and/or forgiveness of sins, and/or repentance and/or the coming and final judgement.

 

This does provide a model about how the early church preached the gospel. 

 

The coming and final judgement presupposes that those who reject the gospel will be judged and banished to hell. 

 

In other words, hell rather than heaven (law rather than grace) is used as a motivating factor for true conversions.

 

This is also in line with the approach of Jesus as He Himself preached more about hell than about heaven in the gospels. 

 

If you insist that using hell rather than heaven is a less honourable approach in preaching the gospel, you are also insinuating that Jesus was not honourable in His approach.

  

This biblical approach of preaching the gospel by the apostles in Acts is entirely different and completely the opposite of what Joseph Prince advocates.

 

In ‘Destined To Reign’, Page 233, Joseph Prince wrote;

 

“It is not the preaching of wrath, fiery indignation and judgment that will cause people’s hearts to turn back to God. It is His goodness, grace and mercy.”

 

Joseph Prince pushes the unbiblical view that we must only preach about the goodness, love, mercy and grace of God, as that would lead people to repentance, and that the use of God’s wrath, fiery indignation and judgment are totally out of place.

 

Is Joseph Prince aware that grace was not used a single time in the Apostles’ preaching of the gospel in Acts, and the love and mercy of God were not mentioned a single time in the entire book of Acts?

 

Is Joseph Prince aware that the judgement of God (which implies hell) was used by the Apostles in the preaching of the gospel in Acts to warn the people?

 

If so, why is Joseph Prince pushing the view that only the goodness, love, grace and mercy of God must be preached in the gospel, and the judgement and wrath of God have no place in the gospel? 

 

Many have thought that the gospel must have spread in the Book of Acts because the gospel of God’s love was often preached.

 

They have wrongly assumed that what the contemporary church is doing in preaching the gospel of God’s love is in the tradition of the apostles in the early church.   

 

They have wrongly thought that there is nothing as powerful and effective in winning souls than to tell unbelievers about God’s love.

 

The fact is that the early church grew without them having to mention the love of God a single time in their gospel preaching.

 

Jesus and His apostles never talked or preached about the love of God to unbelievers.

 

In the apostles’ preaching of the gospel to the unbelieving world, neither the love of God, nor the grace of God, nor the mercy of God was mentioned a single time.

 

The Book of Acts is a record of the early church – how the apostles preached the gospel, and how the gospel spread.

 

But the astonishing thing is that not a single verse mentions the love of God.

 

It is totally logical that if the love and grace of God are that crucial to the non-Christian world, then they must at least be mentioned a few times in the apostles’ preaching of the gospel.

 

But the apostles were totally silent about the love and grace of God in their preaching of the gospel. 

 

The love of God was never used in the preaching of the gospel by the early church.

 

Despite not mentioning the love of God in their gospel preaching, multitudes of people came to Christ and the church grew.

 

Without mentioning the love and grace of God in their preaching of the gospel message to unbelievers, the gospel spread to places far and wide.

 

The apostles in Acts have never preached the gospel of God’s love.

 

There could be reasons why these anointed apostolic preachers in the Book of Acts didn’t stress on God’s love, but emphasised on God’s judgement and the peoples’ repentance, instead.

 

This is possibly because they are afraid that that could lead to damaging consequences.

 

If they did, it might have given unbelievers the wrong impression that there is no urgency to repent and turn from their sins, or they may misunderstand God’s love that God will accept them even in their unrepentant state.

 

Unbelievers, hearing God’s love, could be deceived into thinking that they don’t need to repent, as God in His love will accept them as they are.

 

Unbelievers may go away with the false assurance that they don’t have to do anything about their wayward condition to come to God as God is love, thinking that they have become believers when they haven’t.

 

These possible fears of the apostles for not preaching the gospel of God’s love are exactly what has happened to the modern church, which focuses on God’s love as the main message of the gospel.

 

This has resulted in many false believers flooding the church, thinking that they are saved when they aren’t.

 

Joseph Prince, by focussing the gospel message only on God’s love and grace, has also contributed to the undesirable phenomenon of churning out false believers.

 

It is a mistake to make the love of God as the key theme and John 3:16 as the key text of our gospel preaching.

 

We tell the world that God loves them.

 

We focus on the love of God as the main message of the good news to the unbelieving world.

 

But the love of God was not the focus of the apostles in the preaching of the gospel in the Book of Acts.

 

Neither did Jesus ever preach the gospel of love to the unbelieving world. 

 

There isn’t a single time that the love of God was mentioned in the gospel preaching of the apostles in the Book of Acts.

 

Yet, what the contemporary church is doing is they have constantly preached the gospel of love as if it is something she had inherited from apostolic Christianity.

 

Many preachers had wrongly made the issue about the love of God as the biggest priority in the preaching of the gospel when the love of God wasn’t even a minor thrust in the gospel message of the apostles. 

 

Neither did the apostles ever preach on the grace and mercy of God in their presentation of the gospel to unbelievers.

 

Because of the preaching of the apostles, the gospel spread, many came to Christ, and many churches were planted.

 

But they didn’t do it through the message of God’s love.

 

They did it by preaching God’s wrath, judgement, and the need for repentance. 

 

D. 4th Shocking Fact:

 

The gospel that was preached by the apostles in Acts was a gospel of God’s wrath, judgement and repentance rather than a gospel of God’s love.

 

When John the Baptist preached the good news (the word “good news” is found in Luke 3:18), did his message only consist of the positive or the good news of God’s love and God’s grace as Joseph Prince has made it out to be?

 

No.

 

God’s love, God’s grace and God’s mercy that are often preached by Joseph Prince, were not even mentioned by John the Baptist.

 

But the ‘good news’ message of John the Baptist was filled with the ‘bad news’ of God’s judgement and the critical need for repentance (Lk 3:7-18).

 

And John the Baptist’s meaning of repentance isn’t what is taught by Joseph Prince – that repentance is just a change of mind.

 

Repentance, according to John the Baptist, must go beyond the mind to a changed life that is evidenced through fruit or deeds of repentance (Lk 3:11-14).

 

John the Baptist preached the gospel (Lk 3:18), yet the substance of his gospel preaching was filled with the urgency to repent, to avoid God’s wrath and the hellfire judgement of God (Lk 3:8-9, 16-17).

 

Think about this, can the gospel preaching of John the Baptist be considered good news according to the definition of contemporary Christians (Lk 3:7-18)?

 

Unfortunately, no.

 

Probably the only good news in his preaching is that the Messiah will “gather the wheat into His barn” (Lk 3:17).

 

That’s about it.

 

Most of what John the Baptist preached in Luke 3:7-18 could be considered bad news (especially highlighted in red).

 

Luke 3:7-18 NIV

⁷ John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸ Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ⁹ The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” ¹⁰ “What should we do then?” the crowd asked. ¹¹ John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” ¹² Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?” ¹³ “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them. ¹⁴ Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.” ¹⁵ The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. ¹⁶ John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷ His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” ¹⁸ And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.

 

Did John the Baptist preach the good news?

 

Of course, he did:

 

“And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them” (Lk 3:18).

 

But John the Baptist’s preaching of the good news wasn’t filled with God’s love, mercy and grace.

 

On the contrary, it was filled with the ‘bad news’ of deep repentance (Lk 3:10-14), the wrath and judgement of God (Lk 3:7,9) and the fires of hell (Lk 3:9,16,17).

 

John the Baptist preached on ‘the necessity of works’, warning the people that those who do not possess the fruits of repentance would be cast into hell (Lk 3:9).

 

He called his listeners to repentance – that was much more than just mere remorse or a change of mind (taught by Joseph Prince), but a change of lifestyle (Lk 3:8-14).

 

He warned that Christ would one day judge them, and He would separate the wheat from the chaff, and the chaff would be thrown into the fire and burned (Lk 3:17).

 

Similarly, the crucial word that comes from the Lord Jesus’ mouth when He preached the gospel of the kingdom was, “Repent” (Mk 1:14-15).

 

Jesus Himself preached the gospel (Mk 1:14-15; Lk 4:18), yet He never failed to frequently warn sinners of God’s wrath and call them to repentance (Matt 4:17; Matt 5:22, 29-30; Matt 8:11-12; Matt 10:28; Matt 11:20-23; Matt 13:41-42, 49-50; Matt 22:13; Matt 23:33; Matt 24:50-51; Matt 25:30).

 

The apostles preached the gospel in the same way as John the Baptist and Jesus did when they warned of God’s judgement and called sinners to repentance, in order to escape God’s wrath.

 

To Paul, God’s wrath was foundational to the gospel, as he took the trouble to expound on it in the first three chapters of Romans even before he gets to God’s grace and mercy in the following chapters.

 

To Paul, God’s wrath and judgement were an essential part of the gospel and must be preached on:

 

“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 NIV).

 

“This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares” (Rom 2:16 NIV).

 

Paul preached about God’s wrath as the gospel must not only be preached about what we are saved to, but what we are saved or rescued from – God’s wrath:

 

“Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him” (Rom 5:9 NIV)!

 

“and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead – Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath” (1 Thess 1:10 NIV).

 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:

 

“I say, therefore, that if our evangelising and our evangelism is to be scriptural, we must, with Apostle Paul, always and invariably start with this:

 

‘For the wrath of God has been revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men’” (Rom 1:18).

 

Paul never flinches from using a strong message of repentance and judgement in Acts to preach the gospel.

 

In Acts 17:30-31, Paul preached that God commands all people everywhere to repent of idolatry as He has set a day where He will judge the world:

 

Acts 17:29-31 NIV

²⁹ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. ³⁰ In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. ³¹ For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

 

Paul describes his gospel message as repentance toward God and faith in Jesus (Acts 20:21), and that repentance must be demonstrated and proven by their deeds (Acts 26:20):

 

Acts 20:21 NIV

²¹ “I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.”

 

Acts 26:20 NIV

²⁰ “First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds.”

 

The way Paul preached was not any different from how John the Baptist preached.

 

John the Baptist preached about the dire need for the people to prove their repentance by the fruits of their deeds, and so did Paul.

 

Have you noticed, God’s love and grace aren’t even mentioned in John the Baptist’s, the Apostle Paul’s, and the Lord Jesus’ preaching of the gospel, but only God’s wrath, God’s judgement and the critical need for repentance?

 

(Kindly see the Appendix at the end of this article for a more detailed discussion of the crucial need for repentance in gospel preaching.)

 

I hope by now you will never be deceived by Joseph Prince, whose gospel preaching is only characterised by the positive: the grace and love of God; and his refusal to speak about the ‘negative’: the judgement and the wrath of God.

 

I hope by now, we can begin to see the difference between what and how the Apostolic Church preached the gospel and what and how many preachers, such as Joseph Prince, do it.

 

Because of the difference in the way the gospel is preached, no wonder there is such a vast difference between the quality of the church in Acts and the contemporary church.

 

No preacher in the Book of Acts ever said to the audience God loves them in the preaching of the gospel.

 

On the contrary, they warned the audience about the judgement of God that will befall on those who refuse to repent and turn to Him.

 

Don’t you think how the apostles preached the gospel at the start of Christianity in Acts ought to be the pattern for which the gospel is to be preached by us today?

 

But the trouble with many preachers, such as Joseph Prince, is that the message of repentance, judgement and the wrath of God are hardly mentioned in a gospel message.

 

What is perennially heard over and over again in a modern gospel message is the love of God; and worse – the unconditional love of God.

 

What was emphasised (repentance and judgement) in the preaching of the gospel in the early church in Acts is almost absent in the modern gospel.

 

What was totally absent (love and grace of God) in the preaching of the gospel in the early church is given undue prominence by many preachers, such as Joseph Prince.

 

E. 5th Shocking Fact:

 

John 3:16 wasn’t written to unbelievers as a gospel of love, but to believers to keep them in the faith.

 

1. A basic understanding of the Greek language.

 

John 3:16 NIV

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

 

As in English, the Greek language, too, has a past, present and future tense.

 

In the past tense, the Greek language has an advantage over the English language.

 

It has a way to tell whether the past tense happened only once or something that happened repeatedly and continuously.

 

The knowledge of this fact can be significant.

 

For example, if a car travelled from town A to B, in the English language, there is no way to tell whether it happened only once or repeatedly for many times.

 

We can’t tell whether the driver drove the car once from town A to B because he was on a holiday tour on one occasion, or he is doing that repeatedly as he travelled from his home in town A to his workplace in town B. 

 

Take another example: If I tell my friends I had cereal for breakfast, in the English language, one could not tell whether it is done only once or repeatedly on a daily basis.

 

But, we can, in Greek.

 

The past tense that happened only once is called the aorist tense.

 

There is another tense in Greek called the present continuous tense – which means it is an action you are doing not only once, but you go on doing continuously. 

 

With that basic knowledge about the Greek language, let’s examine John 3:16.

 

2. The word, ‘Believe’ is in the present continuous tense.

 

John 3:16 NIV

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

 

Believe

 

Let’s start with the word, ‘believe’.

 

The word ‘believe’ in John 3:16 is in the present continuous tense.

 

It is something that you do not only once, but you go on doing.

 

You do not only believe once, but you go on believing.

 

It is not the belief that you once did that saves you.

 

It is when you go on believing or keep on believing that saves you.

 

It is not just your believing in Christ 10 years ago that saves you.

 

More crucially, are you still believing in Christ?

 

If you aren’t, you have not met the condition of salvation – as the requirement is not just to believe once, but to believe continuously.   

 

If you have believed once and have since stopped believing, then you have turned back on your faith, and have gone back to your state of unbelief.  

 

The belief or faith you have that will finally save is not the faith that you start with, but the faith, or belief, that you finish with.

 

Joseph Prince said;

 

“For God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son that whosoever, are you in the whosoever, believes in Him should not perish in hell, but have everlasting life. And your life begins now right into eternity in heaven with God. And all is required is believe.”

 

Joseph Prince has wrongly taught that once you believe in Christ, your eternal life is assured.

 

But in John 3:16, it is not “whoever believed (past tense) in him,” but “whoever believes (present continuous tense) in him.”

 

In other words, it is not whoever believed 10 years ago; it is whoever goes on believing, or whoever is still believing in Him shall have eternal life.

 

It is not a belief that you had once, but a belief that you keep holding on to.

 

The belief or faith you had in the past won’t save you in the present.  

 

The faith you had yesterday won’t save you today.

 

What saves is an ongoing faith.

 

John was writing not to unbelievers, but to believers to go on believing that Jesus is the Son of God.

 

He is writing to believers not to depart from the faith by letting go of their belief.

 

It is not a belief in the past that you will enjoy eternal life.

 

It is when you go on believing, you will go on having eternal life.

 

The words ‘believe’, ‘believes’ and ‘believing’ in the Book of John appear 66 times (NIV).

 

‘Believe’ is the verb, and ‘faith’ is the noun.

 

John prefers to talk about the verb, ‘believe’ or ‘believing’ rather than the noun, ‘faith’ because believing is something you actively do.

 

Furthermore, believing is not just about believing in some historical facts that Jesus died on the cross, and He rose again.

 

More importantly, it is about a belief that possesses the confidence and trust in the person of Christ.

 

It is a belief that never ceases and goes on believing (present continuous tense).

 

Just as ‘believe’ is the verb and ‘faith’ is the noun, ‘faith’ and ‘faithfulness’ are the same word.

 

In other words, if you have faith in Christ, you will be faithful to Him.

 

Faith in Christ is not just the first and one step you took 10 years ago when you received Christ into your life.

 

Faith is a continuous journey of trust and obedience in Christ.

 

Faith is not just accepting the truth of God’s word once in your life, but faith is to be faithful to the truth, and to keep holding on to the truth.

 

Holding on to your faith or keep on believing in Christ is key because there are those who didn’t, and have shipwrecked their faith – and they will forfeit the eternal life they once had.

 

3. The word, ‘Gave’ & ‘Loved’ is in the past tense – aorist tense – meaning it only happened once.

 

John 3:16 NIV

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

 

Gave

 

Next, let’s focus on the word ‘gave’.

 

The word ‘gave’ is in the aorist tense.

 

This means God only gave His Son to the world once, and He did not give His Son continuously, or go on giving Him.

 

It happened only once.

 

Loved

 

As it is with ‘gave’, the word, ‘loved’ is also in the aorist tense.

 

The aorist tense is an event that happened only once in the past.

 

The present continuous tense is one that keeps on occurring.

 

But the word, ‘loved’ is in the aorist tense, and not in the present continuous tense.

 

This means that on one occasion, God once loved the world.

 

God loved the world once when He gave His Son to die on the cross for the sins of the world.

 

But many believers and preachers have wrongly thought God loves the world always and continuously as they treat the word, ‘loved’ as a present continuous tense.

 

The mistake is for many who read John 3:16 as “For God so loves (actual word is ‘loved’) the world.”

 

They have the wrong idea that it is in the present continuous tense – that God is in a continuing love relationship with the world.

 

That is why many preachers and believers have made a mistake by teaching that John 3:16 is proof that God loves everybody in the world all the time.

 

And there wasn’t a time God did not love the world.

 

But that is not what John 3:16 teaches.   

 

What John 3:16 teaches is that is at one point in time in the history of mankind, God loved the world by giving His Son to die on the cross for our sins: “For God so loved the world.”

 

He did not love the world continuously, but once.

 

On the contrary, God is angry with the unbelieving sinners and shows His wrath to them every day:

 

“God is a righteous judge, a God who is angry with sinners every day” (Psa 7:11 ISV).

 

“God is a righteous judge, a God who displays his wrath every day” (Psa 7:11 NIV).

 

“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 NIV).

 

If unbelievers are under God’s wrath every day, how can God be said to love them continuously and always – every day?

 

God can only love them as He would to believers if they have accepted His condition.

 

His love is conditional – conditional upon their belief and faith in Christ.

 

Only then can they experience the love of God, as believers have experienced, as they are now out of His wrath.

 

Furthermore, the word for love in Greek in John 3:16 is ‘agape’, not ‘phileo’ or ‘eros’.

 

‘Eros’ is sexual love.

 

‘Phileo’ is love because you like someone.

 

‘Agape’ is that you love someone by taking a specific action of love even though that person is unlovable.

 

God didn’t ‘eros’ or ‘phileo’ us, but He ‘agape’ us.

 

He didn’t ‘phileo’ us all the time because He likes us.

 

Even though we are unlovable and even unlikable, He took action at a point in time to ‘agape’ us by sending His Son to die for our sake.

 

God didn’t love everybody in the world all the time.

 

If God loves everybody in the world all the time, it is teaching the unbiblical concept of the unconditional love of God.

 

Joseph Prince has been teaching people the wrong thing.

 

Prince has been telling them that God loves them all the time when He did it only once.

 

He has been teaching the wrong doctrine that all we need to have eternal life is just to believe once by saying the sinner’s prayer – when John is saying we need to continue to believe or go on believing in Christ.

 

This means our belief or faith in Christ is not only to be a past event but an ever-present and a future reality too.

 

John 3:16 didn’t say,

 

“For God so loves the world…that whoever believed in him shall…have eternal life.”

 

But it says,

 

“For God so loved (God loved the world once, a past event, not an ongoing event) the world…that whoever believes (to go on believing – to be a present reality, not just a past event) in him shall…have eternal life.”

 

This means God does not continuously love the world, but He loved the world once.

 

And we are not just to believe once, but we are to continue to believe and go on believing in Christ as an ever-present and future reality.

 

There are preachers such as Joseph Prince, who have been preaching about the love (and the unconditional love) of God to unbelievers based on John 3:16.

 

But how can a God who loves people continuously, and worse, unconditionally, makes people perish (the word, ‘perish’ is in John 3:16)?

 

Isn’t it nonsensical for any believer to preach about a God who always loves the world (and unconditionally), and at the same time, He makes them perish by sending them to hell?

 

But if we understand that God only loves the world once, in time past, when He sent His Son to die on the cross, and that He doesn’t love the world continuously, then we can understand why God can make people perish.

 

They will not perish if they accept His one-time act of love in Christ, and His condition of believing in Christ.

 

But for those who refuse to accept God’s condition of love, and they perish, they cannot blame God for not keeping His term of loving them.

 

This is because God only loves them once by sending His Son to die on the cross for their sake, and He didn’t love them continuously.

 

Since God loved the world only once, and He didn’t love them continuously, He can make people perish if they reject His one-time act of love.

 

4. The significance of the words, ‘For’ & ‘So’.

 

For

 

John 3:16 NIV

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

 

Whenever one comes across the word, ‘for’, one should be compelled to ask the question, “What is the word, ‘for’ there for?”

 

It is there for a reason.

 

The word ‘for’ is to connect what goes after the word, with what goes before it.  

 

The word ‘for’ means it is a continuation of what was said before John 3:16.

 

In other words, John 3:16 is connected to John 3:14-15.

 

Many believers know John 3:16 even by heart, but they would have great difficulty in recalling what John 3:14-15 is.

 

So

 

John 3:16 NIV

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

 

There is a common misunderstanding because of the placement of the word, ‘so’ in the English translation of John 3:16:

 

“For God so loved the world…”

 

It gives the wrong impression that God loves the world deeply or to a deep degree, or He loves the world greatly or to a great intensity:

 

“For God so loved the world…”

 

But in the Greek language, it should be translated as

 

“For so God loved the world.”

(Note the word, ‘so’ comes before the word, ‘God’.)

 

Hence, the word, ‘so,’ does not mean so deeply or so greatly, as Joseph Prince teaches, as he has once again interpreted a verse out of its context when he said (Joseph Prince has once again confirmed himself to be a serial hypocrite);

 

“And this verse here, John 3:16 says, ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son’ I loved that little word, “so”. It speaks of intensity of love. ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son.’

 

John 3:16 does not mean God loves the world intensely as Joseph Prince has made out to be.

 

Rather, it means,

‘(so) in the same way’

or ‘this is how God (so) did it’

or ‘thus (so) this is the way (God loved the world)’

or ‘even so (that’s how God loved the world)’. 

 

The following translations to John 3:16 translate it correctly: 

 

“For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16 CSB).

 

“God loved the world this way: He gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life” (Jn 3:16 GW).

 

“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16 HCSB).

 

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his uniquely existing Son so that everyone who believes in him would not be lost but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16 ISV).

 

“For in this way God loved the world, so that he gave his one and only Son, in order that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life” (Jn 3:16 LEB).

 

“For this is how God loved the world: he gave his one and only Son that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16 MOUNCE).

 

“God loved the world this way: He gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life” (Jn 3:16 NOG).

 

“For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16 NET).

 

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16 NLT).

 

So, if correctly translated, the word, ‘so’ has nothing to do with the intensity of God’s love for the world.

 

As it is the word, ‘for’, the word, ‘so’ in John 3:16 has a connection to what goes on previously in John 3:14-15:

 

John 3:14-15 NIV

¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

 

Just as what happened in John 3:14-15, even so, in the same way, this has happened in John 3:16.

 

Just as Moses did in John 3:14-15, in the same way, this is how God loved the world in John 3:16.

 

In other words, the first occasion that God loved the world was in John 3:14-15, and that’s the same way He loved the world on the second occasion in John 3:16.

 

That’s how the word ‘so’ in John 3:16 ought to be understood.

 

5. The contexts to John 3:16 are John 3:14-15 & Numbers 21:4-9 & these three texts are interconnected – the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New.

 

We must then ask the question – what is the first occasion that God did in John 3:14-15?

 

Numbers 21:4-9 gives the story of what is put in summary form in John 3:14-15:

 

Numbers 21:4-9 NIV

⁴ They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; ⁵ they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” ⁶ Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. ⁷ The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. ⁸ The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” ⁹ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

 

Instead of gratitude, the Old Covenant people responded in ingratitude against God.

 

They complained about the food.

 

God sent snakes to bite them as a form of punishment, and many of them died. 

 

In response to the prayer of Moses, God asked Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole.

 

Anyone who was bitten by a snake, but who looked at the bronze snake on a pole will live.

 

A crucial point to note is that God did not grant the request of the people to take the snakes away.

 

The snakes would go on biting the people.

 

If those who have been bitten looked on the bronze snake on a pole, they would live.

 

But those who refused to look at the bronze snake will die.

 

God did not remove the threat and reality of death posed by the snakes, but He did provide a way out of death.  

 

Just as God did to the Old Covenant people in John 3:14-15, in the same way, that’s how God loved the world and gave His Son to die on the cross.

 

As Moses lifted up the serpent, so must the Son of man be lifted up (Jn 3:14). 

  

What are the crucial lessons we can draw from the Old Testament episode recorded in John 3:14-15 (and Numbers 21:4-9) and the New Testament in John 3:16?

 

First, the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament.

 

This is an important point as a heresy called Marcionism in the early church has re-emerged again in present-day Christianity in the Pseudo-grace doctrine of Joseph Prince.

 

Joseph Prince will never admit he is teaching such a heresy.

 

Still, the essence of Joseph Prince’s doctrine is to posture such a divide – that the New Testament God is a different God from the Old, as He no longer judges and punishes New Covenant believers.     

 

Joseph Prince teaches that the New Testament God, as opposed the Old, will never get angry with His people and will always be pleased with them. 

 

He is only a God of love to His people, and will never show His wrath even though His people have sinned unrepentantly against Him.

 

The New Testament God is only a God of love, and no longer the ‘harsh’ God as He has been portrayed in the Old Testament.

 

Joseph Prince’s posturing of such a god in the above is false; and let it be etched in your mind that the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New.

 

The God who killed the Old Covenant people for grumbling against Him is the same God who loved the world and gave His Son in the New Covenant.

 

God loves the Old Covenant people by not removing the snakes in their midst, but by providing a way of escape by looking at the ‘bronze snake’.

 

In the same way, God has provided His Son to be the ‘bronze snake’ to save those who would believe in Him.

 

The God of the New Testament who loves is also the same God who kills in the Old.

 

This means under the New Covenant; we are not only dealing with a God who loves but also a God who kills.

 

Death, which comes by the refusal of people to follow God’s way by looking at the ‘bronze snake’ in the Old Testament in Numbers 21:4-9 (John 3:14-15),

 

is also the same death (they will perish) which applies to people in the New Testament in John 3:16

 

if they refused to believe, and continue to believe (present continuous tense) in Christ.

 

That is why John 3:16 must be taken as a whole together with John 3:14-15.

 

The God of the Old Testament who destroys His people by killing them in John 3:14-15 and Numbers 21:4-9, is the same God in the New Testament, who kills people by making them perish in John 3:16. 

 

The God of the Old Testament, who loves and kills, is the same God of the New Testament, who does the same.

 

Anyone, such as Joseph Prince, who tries to pit the God of the Old Testament as one who kills, against the God of the New Testament as one who loves, but doesn’t kill, is a heretic.

 

This because he is teaching a different God of the Bible.

 

If you take John 3:16 without taking John 3:14-15 into consideration, as what Joseph Prince does, you would be led to teach the false doctrine that the New Testament God is a different God from that of the Old.

 

If one takes John 3:16 and disregards John 3:14-15, one is likely to fall into the error of regarding the New Testament God as only a God of love, and not a God who kills. 

 

This is the error that Joseph Prince teaches as he takes only John 3:16 without any consideration to John 3:14-15.

 

And that’s why Joseph Prince sees the New Testament God as much more loving and kinder than the God of the Old.

 

But that’s not what John is teaching.

 

Remember the word, ‘so’ – He said ‘just so’ or ‘in the same way’ – just as God has dealt with the Old Covenant people, He does the same to His New Covenant people

 

Just as the God of the Old Testament had dealt with them in one way, He does so with His New Covenant people the same way.

 

The God of the Old and the New Testament is one unified God, and not ‘two different gods’, who behave differently that Joseph Prince teaches.

 

When we read John 3:16, we mustn’t forget that it is set in the context of John 3:14-15.

 

They must be read and considered together as John 3:16 and John 3:14-15 are interconnected.

 

Just as God has dealt with the Old Covenant people, He will do the same with us.

 

The way God has dealt with the Old Covenant people is the same way He deals with the New Covenant people today.

 

Those, under the Old Testament, who refused to look at the ‘bronze snake’ will not escape death.

 

In the same way, those who refused to believe in Christ and the New Covenant people, who refused to continue to believe in Christ, will perish.

 

The love of God is not unconditional.

 

It is conditional upon our continual faith, and if we go on believing in Him.

 

So, we mustn’t misunderstand the love of God.

 

It is not the mushy and sentimental love that Joseph Prince has made it out to be.  

 

It is not the unconditional love, and God will still love you just the way you are, even though you are still living in your own unrepentant sins. 

 

The truth is the God, whether He is under the Old or the New Covenant, is one who loves and one who kills.

 

The God, who is patient, is also the God, who punishes.

 

The God, who gives everlasting and abundant life, is also the God who makes people perish eternally. 

 

The God who kills by the sentence of death, and the terrible destiny of eternal punishment, is all wrapped up with the same God of love.

 

So, John 3:16 is not a verse about God loving the world continuously and always and unconditionally. 

 

His love is conditional as He sets out His condition of getting out of death by providing a way out – through the bronze snake in the Old Testament (Jn 3:14-15; Num 21:4-9) and Christ in the New Testament (Jn 3:16).

 

6. John 3:16 isn’t said by Jesus but written by John.

 

Is John 3:16 said by Jesus?

 

Most believers think that John 3:16 is said by Jesus.

 

Is that true?

 

I don’t think so.

 

Jesus was the one who spoke in John 3:14-15, but He wasn’t the one who spoke in John 3:16.

 

So, who was the person who wrote John 3:16?

 

It was the Apostle John.

 

John 3:16 wasn’t said by Jesus, but written by John.

 

First, the NIV renders it correctly as what was said by Jesus is from verses 10-15 – is put in quotation marks.

 

But from verses 16-21, there aren’t quotation marks.

 

This clearly indicates V10-15 was said by Jesus, and V16-21 was written by John:

 

John 3:10-21 NIV

¹⁰ “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? ¹¹ Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. ¹² I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. ¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

 

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 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. ¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

 

John 3:15 is when the conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus ended.

 

When John 3:16 begins, the NIV does not put in quotation marks, as it is John, not Jesus, who wrote it.

 

Second, personal pronouns (‘I’ or ‘you’) were used for most of John 3:10-15 – which indicate that Jesus was talking to Nicodemus.

 

But no personal pronouns were used from John 3:16 onwards right up to John 3:21 – which shows that the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus had ended, and it was John who was writing this passage.    

 

Third, in John 3:15, the tenses used indicate that the cross has not taken place yet, but will be in the future, because Jesus, who was alive was talking to Nicodemus:

 

“that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” (Jn 3:15).

 

But in John 3:16, they are in the past tense as the cross has already taken place because John wrote the Book of John many years after the cross:

 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…” (Jn 3:16).

 

V15 is in the present tense as it was Jesus looking forward to the cross.

 

But V16 is in the past tense as it is looking backwards to the death of Christ, an event which was reported by John. 

 

So, John 3:15 was said by Jesus before he was crucified on the cross, and John 3:16 was written by John after Jesus had died on the cross.

 

The conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus ended in John 3:15.

 

So, Jesus wasn’t the one who talked about the love of God in John 3:16 to an unbeliever – Nicodemus.

 

It was John who wrote John 3:16.

 

Why is the above point important?

 

This is significant given what I have already said that neither Father God nor the Lord Jesus ever said to unbelievers about the love of God.

 

If John 3:16 was spoken by Jesus, He would have been talking about the love of God to Nicodemus, an unbeliever.

 

This would disprove my claim that Jesus never talks about the love of God to unbelievers.

 

But as I’ve shown, He wasn’t the one who spoke those words that were recorded in John 3:16, but it was John who reported it.

 

This proves my earlier contention that Jesus never spoke about God’s love to the unbelieving world.

 

7. John 3:16 wasn’t written to unbelievers but believers.

 

Although John wrote about the love of God in John 3:16, he didn’t write for unbelievers, but believers.

 

The Message of the Book of John, including John 3:16, was not written for unbelievers, but believers.

 

The Book of John was addressed to the believers to prove that Jesus is the Son of God (Jn 20:30-31).

 

Most Bible scholars would agree that two of the four gospels: Mark and Luke, were written to believers, but also with the view of reaching out to unbelievers.

 

But the other two gospels: Matthew and John, were written for believers.  

 

Many believers have made the mistake of using the Book of John to present the gospel to unbelievers. 

 

One key reason is that they have wrongly thought John 3:16 is a great gospel verse for unbelievers.

 

And John 3:16 has coloured their perception of the whole Book of John.

 

But the Book of John was written for believers with the specific purpose in mind. This was stated in John 20:30-31:

 

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

 

John wrote the Book of John for believers so that by the signs and wonders of Jesus, they “may believe” (Jn 20:31) – which is in the present continuous tense – meaning they could go on believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

 

“And that by believing” (Jn 20:31) (present continuous tense) – which means to go on believing, “they may have life” (Jn 20:31) (present continuous tense) – meaning to go on having eternal life. 

 

This is exactly the same as John 3:16 in which “believes” is in the present continuous tense:  “…that whoever believes in him…” (Jn 3:16 NIV).

 

This means believers are not only expected to believe once in time past but continuously, as an ever-present reality.

 

In other words, John wrote the Book of John, not for unbelievers, but believers – to exhort them to go on believing in Christ.

 

That’s the purpose the Book of John was written for:

“Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (Jn 20:30-31 NIV).

 

As in John 3:16, the verbs, ‘believe’, ‘believing’ and ‘have’ in John 20:31, are all in the present continuous tense.

 

The two verbs, ‘believe’ and ‘have’, which are both in the present continuous tense, are linked together.

 

The meaning is not you now have eternal life – but you go on having eternal life if you go on believing.

 

The Book of John was not written to unbelievers, but to believers to go on believing:

 

John 3:16 NIV

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

 

John 3:16 is linked to John 20:31, the purpose for which the Book of John was written.

 

John was saying that he had written the Book of John so that believers may go on believing that Christ is the Son of God so that they can go on having eternal life.

 

John wrote the book not so that unbelievers might start to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

 

He wrote the book so that believers might continue to believe in it.   

 

John’s purpose was that believers continue to believe in Jesus so that they will continue to have eternal life.  

 

8. John wrote the book of John to believers to address a heresy about the divinity of Christ.

 

But why should that be John’s purpose?

 

The background to this is that there is a false teaching that went around during John’s day – that Jesus was not fully God.

 

John was concerned about those believers who may be influenced by the heresy that Jesus was not fully God, and have stopped believing that He is the divine Son of God.

 

Though the false teaching recognises that Jesus has a higher status than humankind, the heresy didn’t accept that Jesus was fully divine.  

 

This is the same teaching that the Jehovah’s Witnesses are deceiving the people with today.

 

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have changed their Bible in John 1:1,

from

‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,’

to

‘In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was a God.”

 

This is the false teaching that Jesus was somewhere between God and man, but Jesus is not fully God.

 

So, John wrote the Book of John to dispel this false teaching and to emphasise that Jesus is fully God.

 

John had to write the book about 60 years after Jesus was crucified and resurrected.

 

This is because false teachings abound, that perhaps, Jesus was not fully man (not addressed in this article) and not fully God (addressed in this article).

 

Believers must have been influenced by the false teaching that Jesus was not the creator, but only a created being.

 

So, John’s purpose for writing the gospel of John was to warn believers not to be taken in by the false teaching that Jesus isn’t fully God and to go on believing in Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God (Jn 20:30-31). That’s the purpose the Book of John was written:

“Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (Jn 20:30-31 NIV).

 

That’s the context that John 3:16 must be set against.

 

John 3:16 is not about the gospel of the love of God to unbelievers, but a message to encourage believers to go on believing in Christ, who is the Messiah, the Son of God.

 

John 3:16 is not the gospel as the key ingredients are missing: repentance and baptism.

 

So, why were these items missing?

 

The reason is that the people John is writing to have repented and been baptised. 

 

They do not need to be told of that again.

 

But what John needs to tell believers is that instead of being led astray by false teaching that Jesus isn’t fully God, they need to go on believing in Christ – that He is the Messiah; that He is the Son of God.

 

It is when they keep on believing in Christ that they would have eternal life and will not perish.  

 

9. The Apostles John & Paul & the Lord Jesus never taught the ‘Once Saved Always Saved’ doctrine.

 

It is because believers have been brought up with the wrong doctrine that we are ‘once saved always saved’, that they begin to read this doctrine into John 3:16.

 

They wrongly read that God is always loving the world, and we only need to believe once.

 

Once we have believed in Christ, our salvation is fully assured – we are ‘once saved always saved’.

 

Instead, they should be reading it correctly – that God loved the world once, but we must keep on believing in Christ, not just once in the past, but as an ever-present reality.

 

The truth is our eternal salvation can be lost if we ever stop believing in Christ, as eternal life is only promised to those who not only believed once in the past but who go on believing in Him.

 

Once believers have stopped believing, they would stop having eternal life, and they like what Paul had said, have shipwrecked their faith.

 

Jesus teaches the same salvation doctrine when He warns that only he who endures to the end will be saved (Matt 24:13).

 

Both Paul and Jesus didn’t teach the ‘once saved always saved’ doctrine taught by Joseph Prince and many others.

 

Jesus didn’t say that he who has believed once in the past by saying the sinner’s prayer 10 years ago will be saved,

but he who endures to the end

 

– and as John has put it

– not he who has believed once in the past,

but only he who goes on believing will go on having eternal life.

 

The Apostles John, Paul and the Lord Jesus are all on the same page with regards to the salvation doctrine.

 

They have never taught the ‘once saved always saved’ doctrine taught by Joseph Prince.

 

10. Missing the message of John 3:16 can have serious consequences for believers.

 

The great and serious mistake is if we keep using John 3:16 as the gospel of love message to unbelievers, we will keep missing that this is a message for believers to go on believing in Christ.

 

Thus, we fail to warn believers that they could lose their salvation if they do not go on believing – that is, they stop believing in Christ.   

 

This is precisely what John has set out to warn believers

– that if they fall for the false teaching that Jesus isn’t fully God (or for any other reasons that contemporary Christians may fall away from),

 

they would have stopped believing in Christ; and if they do, they will not go on to have eternal life, and lose their salvation.

 

Similarly, we are to pay heed to the serious message of Hebrews 2:3 (NASB);

 

“how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”

 

Hebrews 2:3 is not addressed to unbelievers, but believers.

 

Unbelievers couldn’t have been neglecting the salvation they didn’t have in the first place.

 

Only believers can neglect such a great salvation.

 

And if we do, we will not escape the final judgement.

 

So, in the same way, John 3:16 was written not as a gospel message to unbelievers, but as a warning to believers to keep on believing in Christ.  

 

And, if they don’t, they will forfeit their eternal life because eternal life is not in them, but Christ.

 

Only those who continue to remain or abide in Christ will have eternal life.  

Rev George Ong

 

Appendix

 

A Gospel without Repentance Preached by Joseph Prince is Another Gospel.

 

Joseph Prince said in his Christmas sermon on 25 Dec 2022;

 

“… whosoever, believes in Him should not perish in hell, but have everlasting life. And your life begins now right into eternity in heaven with God. And all is required is believe.”

 

Joseph Prince preaches the half-truth gospel when he said all that is required for sinners, not to perish and have everlasting life, is just to believe.

 

Furthermore, in his entire same sermon on 25 Dec 2022, including the sinner’s prayer, repentance wasn’t even mentioned a single time.

 

Joseph Prince, who preaches the half-truth gospel of just believing without repenting, is preaching another gospel and a false gospel.

 

Repentance has always been the foundation of New Testament call to salvation.

 

In the first public evangelism of the New Testament, when Peter gave the salvation call, repentance was at the heart of it:  

 

Acts 2:38 NIV

³⁸ Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

On another 2 occasions in the book of Acts, Peter again preached the gospel of repentance:

 

Acts 3:19 NIV

¹⁹ Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,

 

Acts 5:31 NIV

³¹ God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins.

 

What cannot be missed is that Peter’s invitation to the lost starts with repentance.

 

So, any call to salvation that excludes repentance that Joseph Prince does cannot be called the New Testament gospel.

 

Most importantly, the Lord Jesus commanded that repentance be preached in the Lukan version of the Great Commission:

 

Luke 24:46-47 NIV

⁴⁶ He (Jesus) told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷ and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 

 

Jesus Himself had exemplified it as His preaching of the gospel is characterised by repentance (Matt 4:17; Mk 1:15; Lk 5:32, etc).

 

What this means is repentance is at the heart of the gospel call.

 

So, if we aren’t preaching repentance in our gospel message like Joseph Prince does, we aren’t preaching the gospel that the Apostles preached in the book of Acts.

 

But most severely, we aren’t preaching the gospel that the Lord Jesus Himself has commanded us to preach. 

 

Joseph Prince, by preaching the gospel without repentance, is not preaching the gospel that the Lord Jesus preached – and hence, Prince is preaching another gospel – a false gospel.

 

And a false gospel will lead to false conversions and bring in a whole load of false converts. 

 

Yet, Joseph Prince has the cheek to boast and hit his critics:

 

“Who says I’m a heretic. Just look at the vast numbers of unbelievers that I have led to Christ. How can a heretic lead so many people to Christ? That’s why my church has grown.”

 

Joseph Prince isn’t leading people to Christ as he isn’t preaching the gospel that Jesus preached and what Christ had commanded.

 

By preaching the half-gospel and the false gospel of believing without repenting, Joseph Prince is deceiving the multitudes of people that they are saved when they aren’t – and all the unsaved will be led to their destruction.