Joseph Prince’s Teaching That We Are Not To Confess Our Sins But Our Righteousness Is Deadly (Rev George Ong’s Response to Joseph Prince’s last Sunday sermon about pornography) (Dated 6 Nov 2021)
(This article was also sent to Rev Dr Ngoei Foong Nghian, General Secretary, NCCS office, and for the attention of the Executive Committee Members.)
Yvonne Tan shared a powerful testimony about her 20-year journey with New Creation Church in a previous update dated 22 Oct 2021. Amongst the many things that Yvonne Tan shared is the following:
“Joseph Prince loves to use the example or testimony of how a man who was addicted to pornography would be declaring, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ” even as he watched porn and the Holy Spirit inside him would convict him of his righteousness which is in Christ!!! And slowly but surely, this man will lose his desire to watch porn and he is delivered from his addiction through this way. This teaching is so toxic and dangerous.”
You must understand that this comment was made by someone who attended New Creation Church for 20 long years, so Yvonne certainly knows what she is talking about.
(If you have missed reading Yvonne Tan’s testimony about how she came out of New Creation Church, please click here to read.)
In a weekly sermon on 31 October 2021, last Sunday, Joseph Prince said the following: please click to view the 30-second video.
“‘One day, I listened to Pastor Prince’s sermons where he encourages us to declare our righteousness in Christ, all while trusting the Lord for deliverance from our addictions. At first, it didn’t sit very well with me especially when I said it during and after I watched porn.’ So in other words while he is watching and people are saying, ‘You know you cannot be saying that when you are watching.’”
Joseph Prince then went on to share that this person who gave his testimony was finally delivered from watching pornography. Prince has shared these sorts of testimonies of people smoking and watching pornography many times, and he claimed that these people had been delivered from their addictions because they followed his teaching that while they smoke or watch porn, they are to say, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.”
The other half of the story (or half-truth) he doesn’t tell you is this – have these people continued to smoke and watched porn years after they were so-called delivered? Has Joseph Prince monitored every testimony of people delivered that he had shared over the pulpit, and say 5 years down the road, and confirmed that these same people have indeed been permanently delivered? And if there should be many who have reverted to their previous sins of smoking and watching porn, would Joseph Prince dare to broadcast these over the pulpit? Dream on! He will make sure they are kept under wraps as tightly as possible from the public for fear that his Grace Theology is tarnished and of being revealed as a fraud.
Joseph Prince teaches that when you sin, you are not to confess your sins because every sin has been forgiven at the cross, but you are to confess you are righteous. Such a teaching is not only false but as I shall show you, it is also spiritually destructive.
There is nowhere in the Bible that tells a believer to confess his righteousness instead of his sins when he has sinned except for the weird and false doctrine of Joseph Prince.
If Joseph Prince could show me just one verse in the Bible that explicitly says we are to confess our righteousness and not our sins when we have sinned, I will offer to sponsor him on a free trip anywhere in the world. This same free-trip award is also offered to every of Joseph Prince’s 34,000 supporters and to anyone who can find me a verse that explicitly says that we are to confess our righteousness instead of our sins when we sin.
I am certainly not joking and I’m dead serious about this offer that I’m making. If just 10 of you could find just one explicit verse and all 10 opt to go to Antarctica, the next day, the headlines in the newspapers would be titled, “A silly preacher, George Ong, went bankrupt for offering a foolish deal.”
But this is nothing as compared to what may happen on the Day of Judgement when this headline in the Heavenly Straits Times, a newspaper for the angels may appear, “Millions went to hell all because they have been so foolish to listen to Joseph Prince about a weird doctrine that they are to confess their righteousness instead of their sins, when they sin, without even checking the scriptures to test whether what he taught was true.”
If there isn’t a single verse that explicitly says we are to confess our righteousness instead of our sins when we have sinned, it is pure recklessness on Joseph Prince’s part to teach this doctrine as if it is the gospel truth and deceive the millions to their destruction. The blood of these souls will be on his hands.
The truth is, confessing righteousness instead of our sins when one has sinned isn’t taught by any of the Apostolic Fathers, Reformation Church Fathers, Puritan Church Fathers or Contemporary Church Fathers. If you don’t believe me, ask Joseph Prince to name just one church father who taught this. I’m 101 percent sure he can’t even name one.
Joseph Prince has made big claims that his ‘confessing your righteousness instead of confessing your sins’ teaching has set many people free from their bondage. Come to think of it, if he has discovered such an effective strategy to set people free, why didn’t the early and apostolic church practise it? Instead, they were practising the reverse of what he taught – confessing sins instead of confessing righteousness (1 Jn 1:9).
What is dreadful is, Joseph Prince teaches that whenever believers commit any sin, whether it is the sin of anger, lying, cheating, pornography, robbery, adultery, molest, rape, murder, etc, they are not supposed to confess any of such sins as all these sins have been forgiven at the cross. Instead, they are to confess “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.”
In ‘Grace Revolution’, Pages 290-291, Joseph Prince wrote,
“And when you have sinned, what do you say? That’s the time to say by faith, ‘I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus’” (see 2 Cor 5:21).
Just imagine this tragic scene of a Christian who has embraced Joseph Prince’s teachings, and who is committing the sin of adultery. And knowing that his sin of adultery has been forgiven at the cross (because he had learned that from Joseph Prince that all his future sins, including adultery, have been forgiven), and still in bed with his lover committing the adulterous act, he follows the advice of Joseph Prince, and keeps repeating, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.” After repeating that ‘magic’ phrase several times, he continues to have sex with his lover. After the entire adulterous act is over, he caps it off by shouting one last time, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.”
Just imagine this terrifying scene of a Christian who has embraced Joseph Prince’s teachings, and who is raping a lady. And knowing that his sin of rape has been forgiven at the cross, (because he had learned that from Joseph Prince that all his future sins, including rape, have been forgiven), and still in the act of raping the lady, he follows the advice of Joseph Prince, and keeps repeating, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus” several times. Then he continues to rape the lady. When he has finished the act of raping the lady, he caps it off by shouting one last time, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.”
Just imagine this horrifying scene of a Christian who has embraced Joseph Prince’s teachings, and who had just stabbed someone with a knife to murder him. And knowing that his sin of murder has been forgiven at the cross (because he had learned that from Joseph Prince that all his future sins, including murder, have been forgiven), he follows the advice of Joseph Prince, and keeps repeating, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus,” while he continues to stab the victim until the victim is dead. After committing the sin of murder, this Christian looks over the dead body, and knowing that his sin of murder has been forgiven at the cross, he follows the advice of Joseph Prince, and keeps repeating, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.”
If Joseph Prince’s bizarre doctrine of confessing righteousness instead of sin when one has sinned, can lead to such horrendous outcomes, only a mentally deranged person would choose to follow his grace teachings. Yet, sadly, there are plenty of such people, who have been bought over by his false and destructive teachings.
Joseph Prince would straightaway defend himself, “But George, when I tell everyone to confess their righteousness when they are sinning, I am referring to the sins of smoking, gambling and watching pornography but I don’t mean to also include the sins of adultery, rape, and murder.”
George would say, “Wait a minute, didn’t you say the following in ‘Grace Revolution’, Pages 290-291,
“And when you have sinned, what do you say? That’s the time to say by faith, ‘I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus’” (see 2 Cor 5:21).
Did you qualify what those sins were and were not? Everyone who read what you wrote would have taken that to mean every sin. If you do not mean that they would also include the sins of adultery, rape and murder, why didn’t you make this clear in your quote? You ought to have said,
“And when you have sinned, (except for the sins of adultery, rape and murder plus 10 other exceptions) what do you say? That’s the time to say by faith, ‘I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus’” (see 2 Cor 5:21).
Joseph Prince’s comeback defence would be, “But surely a true and born-again believer won’t commit the sins of adultery, rape and murder?”
George would say, “who says a believer cannot commit such sins as adultery, rape and murder? Have you forgotten about David? Even though David was a man after God’s own heart, he committed both sins of adultery and murder. And Moses, the man whom God gave the law to His Old Covenantal people, was a murderer too.”
The repulsiveness of Joseph Prince is that he will quickly jump at claiming credit and start to trumpet to the world about the testimonies of those who are so-called delivered by his Grace Teaching. But when real cases of those who apply his teaching get into serious problems, he will immediately wash his hands of responsibility from them.
What Joseph Prince has hidden from you are the plenty of other tragic stories of the many who are destroyed by his doctrine.
There are many who have related to me (first-hand stories) about their husbands and sons-in-law, etc, who have committed adultery (and did not repent) and are still worshipping at New Creation Church.
Many have also told me they have witnessed many people from New Creation Church gamble by buying Toto (lottery) on a regular basis.
The fall of Hyflux is another sad story that Joseph Prince hides from you. If you have missed the Hyflux fiasco episode please click here to read: Joseph Prince & The Hyflux Fiasco.
I have already featured this before but I am going to do it again for those who missed this. Please read the tragic story of one who had embraced Joseph Prince’s teachings only to commit adultery and died from drug overdose on Michael Fackerell’s website (Italics):
YOUNG MAN EMBRACES HYPER-GRACE TEACHING, GOES ON DRUGS, DIES OF OVERDOSE
“Hello Michael; I just read the article on Joseph Prince and it moved me because I didn’t know anyone else felt the same as I. My son-in-law began following Ps Prince about 2 years ago. He became very worldly after in-grafting himself into the new GRACE movement, that teaches sin has no consequences anymore because Christ paid for it. He committed adultery and produced a love child from it. He got on drugs all while closely following Ps Prince. I tried to talk to him about the God who he once knew, his reply was, ‘I don’t believe like that anymore.’ This started in 2011 and on Jan. 27, 2013, he overdosed. I tried so many times to tell him about the msg Ps Prince gives is incorrect. I can never have another chance to talk to him, but I thank you for exposing false doctrines to the public. Thank you again and God bless.”
Michael Fackerell: https://www.christian-faith.com/young-man-embraces-hyper-grace-teaching-goes-on-drugs-dies-of-overdose/
It doesn’t help a tiny bit for Joseph Prince to defend himself that he is against sin. He can shout all he wants that he is against sin and that he is not teaching the people to sin – the fact remains his Pseudo grace teachings would lead and have led to that horrible licentious end.
Joseph Prince is too clever to say upfront that you can continue to sin habitually after you have become a Christian as that will blow his cover.
But he craftily says that
all your future sins are automatically forgiven;
there is no confession of sins required after conversion;
when you sin, don’t confess your sins but confess you are righteous;
and that since you are once righteous always righteous, there is nothing you can do to forfeit your salvation even when you are living a lifestyle of sin because you are forever saved;
God is even blind to your sin after you become a Christian;
the Holy Spirit does not convict you of sin; the devil does a better job at that.
Joseph Prince is so deceptive that his teachings are actually giving the people the license to sin, while at the same time, he can craftily claim that he isn’t overtly teaching it. That’s the kind of crafty wolf that you are dealing with.
So, Church, you had better wake up! Shepherds, you had better keep warning the flock about such destructive heresies that are churned out by Joseph Prince!
Rev George Ong