Joseph Prince’s Prosperity Gospel teaching of a wealth transfer from unbelievers to believers in the end-times is unbiblical – By Rev George Ong (Dated 25 Dec 2022)
Don’t miss:
Item 3 – Another video on Joseph Prince on his imminent Pre-trib rapture doctrine, which contradicts his end-time wealth transfer doctrine.
Item 8 – The video by Michael Brown, titled, ‘Why must we turn every headline into an end-time prophecy’.
(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 (pre-recorded) aired on YouTube on 11 Dec 2022, 2 Sundays ago, Joseph Prince said;
Please click here to view the 3-minute video:
“The Bible says in Proverbs (13:22b), ‘The wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.’ Who is the righteous? You and I. We are the righteous. Look at that. Is that in the Bible? Yes, it’s in Proverbs 13:22. It’s right there. Why is God encouraging us? What is He saying to us? That, there’s a transfer (of wealth) taking place here. The wealth of the sinner; the sinner is tasked with gathering and gathering and working hard, and doing all he can to get a lot of wealth. But God is saying, he’s storing that wealth for who? For the righteous.”
“Has this happened before? Yes. Remember in Exodus 12, the night of the Passover. The Bible says the transfer took place. Years of slaving under the hard task masters of Egypt. For about 400 years, the people of God were afflicted.
The Bible says on the night of the Passover, this happened. The children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing… So that they granted them what they requested. Thus, they plundered the Egyptians (Ex 12:35-36).”
Now, there is no unrighteousness here, people. For 400 years, the people of Israel were afflicted under the Egyptians. All this is actually the backpay, plus interest of all those years of working and slaving, building up all the monuments and statues under the hard whips of the taskmasters. And now, they are receiving their pay with interest. So, there is no injustice here, people.
In fact, God will always make sure that at the end, it will all be restored back to you. Who is the you here? The righteous. And you my friend, you are the righteousness of God in Christ.”
“So, we see that God prospered His people in the end-times. The end-times for them will be the last days in Egypt. Alright, for us, it’s our last days in the world. Something is going to happen in the end-times.
Notice when the transfer took place. Like I said just now, it did not happen in the beginning of the plague, nor in the middle of the plague, but the last of the plagues of the 10 plagues (in Egypt). It was the last. And we believe that we are the generation that’s gonna to see Jesus Christ return.
Alright, we are seeing all the signs right now happening. A global pandemic, a global recession. I mean these plagues and famines have happened down through history. But on a global scale, back-to-back, no.
And another thing, the Bible says wars and rumours of wars. And now we are seeing major power like Russia coming into play. Wars and rumours of wars, rumours of wars, the threats of wars, like China and North Korea. we are living, we are that generation, people. And before the worst happens, the Bible says Jesus will return.”
1. There isn’t a single text in the entire Bible that explicitly teaches that wealth transfer from unbelievers to believers would occur in the generation that lives before Christ’s return.
The teaching about a wealth transfer from unbelievers to believers in the end-times forms a prominent part of the Prosperity Gospel doctrine of Joseph Prince.
The teaching of Joseph Prince is that one day, in the last days, multitudes of New Covenant believers will become very rich as Abraham was, and presumably, many would be turned into millionaires and even billionaires, and all their financial woes will be over.
When something sounds too good to be true, I’m sure you would be wise enough to know that it is usually not the truth.
Let me state categorically at the outset that there is not one verse in both the Old and New Testaments,
which explicitly teaches that there will be an end-time transfer of wealth,
from unbelievers to believers in the last generation of Christians before Jesus’ return.
(I will deal with Proverbs 13:22 in a later section in the ensuing article.)
None of the New Testament writers, such as Paul, Peter, John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, James and Jude, ever mentioned it.
Even Jesus never taught that such a phenomenon would take place.
In fact, on many occasions, Jesus taught on the temptations, dangers and the accumulation of wealth.
Jesus has also imparted to us that instead of taking wealth from unbelievers or sinners which Joseph Prince teaches,
we need to give them without expecting anything in return:
Luke 6:27-30 NIV
27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.
Luke 6:34-35 NIV
34 And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
Jesus exhorts us to love our enemies, who are unbelievers, by doing good to them, and giving to them
without expecting to get anything back in return.
Jesus is teaching about unselfish love,
by not seeking to get anything material back in return because of one’s acts of kindness.
What a difference between what Joseph Prince teaches and what Jesus is exhorting us to do.
Joseph Prince teaches that we will get wealth from unbelievers,
but Jesus urges us to give material goods to them without expecting anything in return.
If wealth transfer is an important issue for the Church,
Jesus would have mentioned it,
and there must be at least one New Testament writer, who must have written on it. But none did.
So, for Joseph Prince to bank our hopes on something that isn’t explicitly taught a single time in both the Old and New Testaments,
is to be deliberately engaged in a false teaching with the sinister aim of deceiving the Church.
What’s worse is this wealth transfer doctrine, may actually tempt some believers to be covetous of the world’s money, and ruin them eternally (1 Tim 6:9-10).
Friends, we need to get our priority right.
Our priority isn’t to get the wealth of unbelievers to be transferred to believers,
but to get the hearts of unbelievers to be transformed to become the children of God’s kingdom.
Our focus mustn’t be to selfishly receive wealth from the lost
but to generously give our time and treasure at winning them over to the cause of Christ.
One very convenient and ‘spiritual’ excuse of Joseph Prince’s justification of such a wealth transfer is that it is not only to benefit individual believers,
but also, to financially support the preaching of the gospel (which Prince mentioned in the 11 Dec 2022 sermon, but not shown on video in this article).
This mere excuse that the wealth transfer from unbelievers to believers, is to help finance the preaching of the gospel as what Joseph Prince teaches,
is clearly out of place from the perspective of New Testament scriptures, as I will shortly show.
2. The propagation of the gospel & Christian ministry ought to be supported by believers, not unbelievers.
Although there isn’t a single scripture text in the entire New Testament that talks about a wealth transfer from unbelievers to believers,
there is at least one text that teaches that the Christian ministry is to be supported by believers, as that would certainly, please God.
Conversely, it is strongly implied that it would be improper to accept the same help from unbelievers:
3 John 5-8 NLT
5 Dear friend, you are being faithful to God when you care for the traveling teachers who pass through, even though they are strangers to you. 6 They have told the church here of your loving friendship. Please continue providing for such teachers in a manner that pleases God. 7 For they are traveling for the Lord, and they accept nothing from people who are not believers. 8 So we ourselves should support them so that we can be their partners as they teach the truth.
Various translations of 3 John 7b are as follows:
without accepting any support from the Gentiles (CEB).
they decided not to accept help from anyone who wasn’t a follower (CEV).
taking nothing of those of the nations (Darby).
accepting nothing from the Gentiles (ESV).
They did not accept any help from people who are not believers (ERV).
without accepting any help from unbelievers (GNT).
accepting no support from non-believers (NRSVA).
and take neither food, clothing, shelter, nor money from those who are not Christians, even though they have preached to them (TLB).
In ‘Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, The Letters of John’, Pages 226-227, regarding 3 John 5-8, John Stott wrote;
“What is here said is that these itinerant evangelists would not (as a matter of policy) seek their support from unbelievers and did not (as a matter of fact) receive their support from them.”
“Christian ministers and teachers certainly have the right to be supported by those who benefit from their service, as Paul several times insisted (especially 1 Cor. 9:1-18; Gal. 6:6; 1 Tim. 5:17-18).
But a Christian congregation supporting its minister is one thing; missionaries begging money from unbelievers is another.”
In ‘the Daily Study Bible, The Letters of John and Jude’, Page 150, regarding 3 John 5-8, William Barclay wrote;
“In the ancient world the “begging friar,” with his wallet, was well known. There is, for instance, a record of a man calling himself “the slave of the Syrian goddess,” who went out begging and claimed that he never came back with fewer than seventy bags of money for his goddess.
But these Christian wandering preachers would take nothing from the Gentiles, even if they would have given it.”
In 3 John 5-8, the Apostle John clearly teaches that support for the Christian ministry must come from fellow believers
and that we should accept nothing from unbelievers.
The Apostle John is rather clear that instead of depending on funds from the unbelieving world, they were to rely on the support from fellow believers.
If believers can’t even financially support the preaching of the gospel,
and that they would have to hope for the wealth transfer to take place from unbelievers to help them in the ministry, as Joseph Prince teaches,
it would be a disgrace to the Church and a shame to the name of God.
From the practical viewpoint, if believers were to receive financial support from unbelievers,
it would open believers to the charge that they are preaching the gospel or ministering to unbelievers for monetary gain.
This has to be scrupulously avoided.
Our task is not to get wealth from the unbelieving world.
Our job is to use the wealth that we already have to aid the preaching of the gospel.
God has already blessed many believers in the first world and some believers in the third world with so much wealth,
and if they aren’t using what they already have to support the cause of the gospel,
and are expecting God to provide the wealth from the unbelieving world,
it just goes to show how selfish they are, and this would certainly be a terrible shame for the Christian community.
Hence, we should be focussing on winning unbelievers by faithfully using the finances we already possess.
Those, such as Joseph Prince, who teach on wealth transfer, are based on the unspoken assumption that there isn’t enough money from the Christian Church to finance the propagation of the gospel – and that’s why the need for the wealth transfer.
Do you believe them?
The truth is there is definitely more than enough money if every believer were to give, and give sacrificially for the sake of the gospel.
Joseph Prince’s justification of the transfer of wealth that is needed to preach the gospel is a mere excuse.
How much would it cost to witness to your neighbour?
It takes nothing except for you to walk over to his house and start sharing the gospel.
Yes, there are areas of gospel preaching that require a lot of money, such as the sending of missionaries.
But don’t we have enough financial resources to draw from the Christian community?
Of course.
Then why do we need such a wealth transfer from unbelievers?
As an example, are you aware that many and even most Christians in Singapore are considered wealthy by global standards.
Just do some research on the millions of people who have a much lower income and a poorer standard of living in the third world as compared to Singaporeans, and you won’t have any excuse not to believe it.
The real issue is not the lack of money but often the lack of workers who are prepared to give up their comfortable lifestyle in the first world to go to the third world as missionaries.
And why must every New Covenant believer (as Joseph Prince teaches that all the righteous qualify) be the beneficiary of such a wealth transfer and be very rich, before any evangelistic work could get done?
If one million of the World’s Christian community were to contribute $200 each, we would raise $200 million for missions.
If another 20,000 richer Christians could donate another $10,000 each, another $200 million would be added.
On top of that, if Joseph Prince were to really have the preaching of the gospel at heart,
and wisely used the $300 million for the propagation of the gospel,
that he used to purchase Star Vista (physical location of New Creation Church),
imagine how much funds could have been released for such a worthy cause.
Get my point?
So why do we need a gigantic transfer of wealth from unbelievers for the preaching of the gospel?
It is ridiculous to suggest that every New Covenant believer would have to be very rich as a result of the wealth transfer, just for the propagation of the gospel to continue and progress.
It’s all an excuse to fatten the purses of believers and further their own extravagant lifestyles.
3. Joseph Prince’s Pre-trib rapture doctrine of imminence and his end-time wealth transfer doctrine contradict.
How many times have I said and proven to you that Joseph Prince is an unrepentant double-talker as he self-contradicts himself many times.
This time, he has done it again! Can you believe it?
Joseph Prince said;
Please click here to view the 15-second video:
“You see the rapture is imminent. No one knows when will happen. The rapture doesn’t wait on Israel coming back as a nation even though it has come back. The rapture doesn’t wait for any event to be fulfilled. The rapture can happen anytime. It can happen afterwards. It can happen tonight. It can happen tomorrow.”
Joseph Prince has always been teaching in the Pre-trib rapture doctrine that Christ’s coming and the rapture is imminent,
in that it can happen any time, even now as you read this article, as there is nothing that needs to precede it.
But when it comes to the doctrine of wealth transfer,
Joseph Prince has categorically stated that it would have to happen first before the Pre-trib rapture and Christ’s coming.
Joseph Prince, by stating that the wealth transfer must take place before Christ’s coming and the Pre-trib rapture,
simply means that the rapture isn’t imminent, in that it cannot happen anytime, or today, or tomorrow, or the next year,
unless the wealth transfer first takes place.
Can you see how self-contradictory Joseph Prince is?
4. Joseph Prince’s comparison between the 10 plagues of Egypt as the end-time of the Israelites and our end-time when wealth transfer will take place, is self-contradictory.
Joseph Prince said;
“So, we see that God prospered His people in the end-times. The end-times for them will be the last days in Egypt. Alright, for us, it’s our last days in the world. Something is going to happen in the end-times.
Notice when the transfer took place. Like I said just now, it did not happen in the beginning of the plague, nor in the middle of the plague, but the last of the plagues of the 10 plagues (in Egypt). It was the last. And we believe that we are the generation that’s gonna to see Jesus Christ return.”
Joseph Prince said that just as it was at the last of the 10 plagues that took place, signifying their ‘end-time’ that the wealth transfer took place in that the Israelites got their silver and gold from the Egyptians,
similarly, New Covenant believers will stand to benefit from the wealth transfer from unbelievers in their end-time before Jesus’ return.
Isn’t Joseph Prince aware that it is common knowledge to Bible teachers that the 10 plagues God had poured on Egypt
are similar, or they have a parallel to the 7 plagues that will be poured out on the world in the end-times?
For details of the above, kindly click on the links below:
https://scripturalthinking.com/plagues-egypt-revelation/
https://www.psalm11918.org/Articles/Topical-Commentary/Exodus-Plagues-Mirrored-in-Revelation.html
https://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/christianity/7-facts-about-seven-plagues-of-revelation.aspx
And when do these 7 plagues in the Book of Revelation take place?
Just immediately before Christ returns to destroy His enemies, judge the world, and before the start of the Millennial Rule of Christ.
If that is the case, Joseph Prince has totally contradicted himself.
This is because according to Joseph Prince’s Pre-trib rapture doctrine,
the Church would have already been raptured and disappeared from the earth
7 years before the occurrence of these 7 plagues in Revelation.
Yet, Joseph Prince said that just as the wealth transfer took place for the Israelites during their 10 plagues,
similarly, the New Covenant Church will benefit from the wealth transfer in their end-times.
By making such a comparison, Joseph Prince has contradicted himself.
If the Church would have already been raptured 7 years before God pours out the 7 plagues on the world (according to Prince’s Pre-trib rapture doctrine),
how could Joseph Prince and those who are bought over by his wealth transfer doctrine,
be around to enjoy the wealth transfer?
On the one hand, Joseph Prince’s Pre-trib rapture doctrine says that the Church won’t be around on earth when the 7 plagues are poured out because she has already been raptured.
On the other hand, Joseph Prince teaches that it is during such times that the transfer of wealth will take place from unbelievers to the Church on earth, (as he compares the end-times of the 10 plagues that fell on the Egyptians with our end-times – the 7 plagues that will fall on earth).
When one after another of Joseph Prince’s doctrines contradict, you know for sure that this guy is simply a serial double-talker who cannot be trusted.
5. There is no justification, whatsoever, that the wealth transfer which happened to the Israelites in Egypt, would logically and automatically happen to New Covenant believers in the end-times.
Joseph Prince isn’t permitted to draw the conclusion that just because the Israelites had a wealth transfer from the Egyptians,
the Church, too, will have theirs from the unbelievers in the end-times.
That would certainly be based on mere presumption, flimsy argumentation and nothing else – and not on biblical facts.
Although Exodus 12:35-36 did say that the Israelites took the silver and gold from the Egyptians,
nothing was stated in the text that a similar wealth transfer would take place for New Covenant believers before the return of Christ.
What Joseph Prince has done is that he has sinfully read his wealth transfer doctrine into the scriptures (Ex 12:35-36), in order to support this doctrine.
6. As compared to the Israelites in Egypt, there is no conceivable justification why a wealth transfer must take place for New Covenant believers in the end-times.
Joseph Prince said;
“Now there is no unrighteousness here, people. For 400 years, the people of Israel were afflicted under the Egyptians. All this is actually the backpay, plus interest of all those years of working and slaving, building up all the monuments and statues under the hard whips of the taskmasters. And now, they are receiving their pay with interest. So, there is no injustice here, people.
In fact, God will always make sure that at the end, it will all be restored back to you. Who is the you here? The righteous. And you my friend, you are the righteousness of God in Christ.”
Joseph Prince himself has said that the Israelites went through 400 years of slavery, and their silver and gold they got from the Egyptians was their back pay of slaving their guts out, plus interest.
Hence, there is no injustice and unrighteousness in such a wealth transfer because God had allowed it.
Let me ask Joseph Prince, what about the New Covenant people whom he says will benefit from another wealth transfer in the end-times?
Have we gone through a similar situation as the Israelites did, or will we ever go through 400 years of slavery and working without pay under the unbelievers?
Not by a stretch of the imagination.
If that is so, where is the justification that New Covenant believers in the end-times will receive wealth from the unbelieving world
without God appearing to be unjust and unrighteous for allowing this transfer?
To just mouth the line that God will make sure that this wealth transfer would be justly and righteously carried out by God in the end-times (which Joseph Prince said in the 11 Dec 2022 sermon but not featured in the video in this article)
is just a mere excuse and a cop out
as there isn’t any conceivable reason how Joseph Prince could ever justify such a wealth transfer in the end-times on God’s behalf.
Imagine, one day, walking to your unbelieving friend to preach the gospel, and assuming that you weren’t aware that he knows about the wealth transfer doctrine.
Just think, how he, as an unbeliever, would react to you?
He would probably say;
“Hey, I don’t want to listen to your gospel preaching ever again. You are probably going to tell me that the gospel is good news.
But you have kept the bad news from me that my wealth will belong to you, guys. And all the sweat and blood that we have worked for to build up our wealth, would end up in the hands of Christians.
I won’t ever believe in such a God who could sanction such an unjustified and unfair way of wealth redistribution.”
You’d probably never get another chance to talk to him about the gospel ever again.
7. Proverbs 13:22.
Proverbs 13:22 NKJV
22 A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
Joseph Prince alludes to Proverbs 13:22 to support his end-time wealth transfer doctrine.
He said that the wealth transfer would take place in the last days before the coming of Christ.
But did Proverbs 13:22 specify the time frame when this transfer would take place?
No.
Did Proverbs 13:22 state that the wealth transfer would take place in the last days?
No.
Despite this, Joseph Prince has the audacity to claim that we are that generation that will see the return of Christ as we are living in the last of the last days,
and hence we would be the same generation that will be the beneficiaries of the wealth transfer.
Furthermore, ‘stored up’ in Proverbs 13:22 may not have the same meaning as ‘transferred’ (wealth transfer):
Proverbs 13:22 NKJV
22 A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous.
It is of interest to note that the same language was adopted in Matthew 6:19-20:
Matthew 6:19-20
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
Could it be that Proverbs 13:22 has the idea that wealth is transient?
That being so, unbelieving sinners, with no eternal future to look forward to, will lose all they have in this life.
The righteous, on the other hand, will possess all the wealth in the world to come, particularly in the Millennial Kingdom (after Christ’s return) – where Jesus says;
Matthew 5:5 NIV
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
If this reading is correct, the transfer is not done before the return of Jesus that Joseph Prince asserts, but after Jesus’ return to set up His Millennial Kingdom on earth.
Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible, states;
“A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children; And the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the righteous.” (Prov 13:22)
There is a sense in which this is profoundly true. Christ said, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” In the earthly sense, the meek usually get skinned out of their possessions; and yet, in the sense of the true “possession of the earth,” it is only the righteous who have it.
So, although Proverbs 13:22 does connote the idea that the money of the sinners is stored up for the righteous,
it does not promise that this will come about to the last generation of believers just before the return of Jesus, as Joseph Prince teaches.
The time of the wealth transfer from the unbelieving world could conceivably happen when Jesus returns after the Tribulation to set up His Millennial Kingdom on earth
– where the meek will inherit (including all the wealth of unbelievers) the earth.
But, again I repeat, there is no New Testament scripture that supports the teaching that such a wealth transfer would take place for the generation of Christians just before Christ’s return.
(The same argument that is used here for Proverbs 13:22, is also generally applicable to Ecclesiastes 2:26, another text which Prince used in the sermon on 11 Dec 2022 to support his wealth transfer doctrine, but not featured in the video in this article.)
8. For Joseph Prince to declare that we are that generation that would witness the return of Jesus and be the beneficiaries of the wealth transfer, is to be imprudently presumptuous.
Joseph Prince said;
“And we believe that we are the generation that’s gonna to see Jesus Christ return.
Alright, we are seeing all the signs right now happening. A global pandemic, a global recession. I mean these plagues and famines have happened down through history. But on a global scale, back-to-back, no.
And another thing, the Bible says wars and rumours of wars. And now we are seeing major power like Russia coming into play. Wars and rumours of wars, rumours of wars, the threats of wars, like China and North Korea; we are living, we are that generation, people. And before the worst happens, the Bible says Jesus will return.”
While COVID-19 has indeed caused much misery to the world at large, and resulted in about 6.6 million deaths, there are other plagues that have wrecked worse consequences.
The 1918 Spanish Flu, for example, had claimed about 30-50 million deaths (estimated).
The war that we have witnessed between Russia and Ukraine, which took about 100,000 lives, pales into the shadows as compared to the two world wars that claimed about 88 million lives.
When people were going through the immense suffering of the Spanish Flu and the massive devastation of the two world wars,
they have more reasons than us to believe that Christ could come anytime at that period of their lives,
and yet Christ didn’t return in their time.
In the 1970-80s, there were Pre-trib rapture teachers who taught that the generation that sees Israel being reborn as a nation will be the generation that sees the second coming of Jesus (Matt 24:34).
Well, Israel was “reborn” in 1948. They believed that a “generation” was 40 years.
So, they calculated that 40 years from 1948 meant that the second coming of Jesus to destroy His enemies and judge the world would occur in 1988.
They then subtracted seven years for the Tribulation, and predicted that a Pre-trib rapture would occur in 1981.
Well, as you might have guessed, they were flatly wrong.
Subsequently, to make up for their mistakes, some decided that maybe the starting point should be 1967, (instead of 1948), when Israel recaptured all of Jerusalem during the Six Day war.
So, even after being burned once, these Pre-trib rapture teachers didn’t learn their lesson and set the date again.
This time, calculating 40 years from 1967, placing the second coming in 2007.
Then subtracting seven years for the Tribulation, they now think the Pre-trib rapture will be in 2000.
Well, wrong again!
I became a Christian in 1967 and I have lived through all that wrong predictions in the 1970-80s,
that we are the generation that would witness the second coming of Christ.
And now Joseph Prince, another Pre-trib teacher, is making the same foolish mistake again,
declaring that we are the generation that would see the return of Christ.
Don’t miss this video by Michael Brown, titled,
‘Why must we turn every headline into an end-time prophecy’,
by clicking on the link below;
https://askdrbrown.org/video/why-must-we-turn-every-headline-into-an-end-time-prophecy
Why is Joseph Prince insisting that we are the last generation before Jesus’ return?
The answer is rather obvious.
This is because Joseph Prince has a hidden agenda, that to make his wealth transfer theology more inviting and alluring to believers so that they would continue to listen to such teachings,
he has to posture that they would be the generation that will witness Jesus’s return,
and hence, the same generation that would be the beneficiaries of the coveted wealth transfer.
9. This isn’t the time to give people the false hope of a wealth transfer but the hour to prepare the Church for the persecutions and sufferings of the end-times that Jesus and John had prophesied.
The Lord Jesus and the Apostle John
never said that the world’s wealth will be transferred to believers in the end-times a single time in the entire New Testament.
Unlike Joseph Prince, the focus of Jesus and John were not on wealth accumulation or wealth transfer in the end-times,
but in warning the Church about the coming persecution.
Why?
So that the Church can prepare believers to endure and to overcome it.
The Lord Jesus said;
Matthew 24:9 NIV
9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me”
Revelation 2:10 NIV
10 “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown”
The Apostle John wrote;
Revelation 6:9-11 NIV
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10 They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” 11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.
Revelation 7:14 NIV
14 I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Revelation 13:9-10 NIV
9 Whoever has ears, let them hear. 10 “If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword they will be killed.” This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.
Revelation 17:5-6 NIV
5 The name written on her forehead was a mystery: babylon the great the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth. 6 I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.
In the end-times, believers will be the most hated people on the earth, and many will be persecuted and even martyred for their faith.
But do not despair because the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit and harvest of souls will be happening at the same time with this global persecution (Acts 2:17).
There will be faithful believers in every nation who will not crumble under persecution, and not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die (Rev 12:11).
Amidst the mass persecution that will come upon believers, the great news is that Prophet Joel (Joel 2:28-32), had prophesied there will be the final climatic and massive outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days.
Yes, the battle is going to be the toughest but the Holy Spirit will cover the suffering and persecuted saints in waves of glory!
And He will be with His people right up until the very end of the age (Matt 28:20).
Yes, many will be persecuted, many will be martyred and many will survive those perilous times.
But whether we live or die, we do everything for the glory of God.
Is it too terrible to die as a martyr? Dying as a martyr not only glorifies God (Jn 21:18-19) but only rushes us quicker to the presence of Christ.
So be encouraged that this climatic revival will come to us right in the midst of the persecution of believers, and at the grand finale of this age.
Hallelujah! Praise be to God!
Lastly, Joseph Prince, by deceiving the Church that she would be the recipient of wealth from the unbelieving world,
instead of teaching and preparing the Church for the end-time persecution,
would cause those who are hoodwinked by his deception to be unprepared for the coming persecution.
Because of such unpreparedness to face persecutions,
how many would deny Christ and put their eternal salvation at great risk, is anybody’s guess.
Rev George Ong