Joseph Prince’s tongue-speaking for perfect health rubbish is out of context – By Rev George Ong (Dated 4 May 2024)
Announcement:
The Article I released on 1 May 2024, 3 days ago,
was supposed to be the last this week.
But yesterday, an Ex New Creation Church member
alerted me to a video of Joseph Prince
which I need to contend.
Hence, this Article today.
Excerpt taken from the Article:
But this becomes ridiculous!
I supposed if we follow Joseph Prince’s teaching,
and if we manage to convince the unbelievers,
Mr Ong Ye Kung, the Minister of Health of Singapore
will be reassigned to another ministry,
and all the hospitals and medical clinics
would have to close down
– as all that is needed for perfect health
is just teach people to pray in tongues and prophesy.
I really hope that Mr Ong Ye Kung,
the Singapore Health Minister
and the Singapore PAP Government
will come to know about this
and be informed about this heretic, Joseph Prince,
who speaks rubbish,
doesn’t represent Christianity.
If you have friends who are PAP ministers
or Members of Parliament,
feel free to forward this article to them.
Preface
At the outset, I want to make things clear
to prevent any misunderstanding.
I titled the Article as,
“Joseph Prince’s tongue-speaking
for perfect health rubbish…”
Please note I didn’t say tongue-speaking is rubbish.
But I said,
“Joseph Prince’s tongue-speaking
for perfect health rubbish…”
(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 sermon, Joseph Prince said;
“When you pray in tongues;
Today, I focus on one benefit.
Not about intercession.
The benefit is how it builds up your body
and keep you in a place where you are built up
so that stress, worry, fear, anxiety, panic attacks,
will not have any more leeway
or any more victory over your life.
You can be free from addictions
and you can even be free from physical infirmities.
1 Corinthians 14:4:
‘He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.’
Say edifies.
Today, we say edify in terms,
‘Well, Pastor Prince,
your message today was edifying.’
In other words, morally comforting, morally inspiring, or whatever.
But we don’t think in terms of physical.
But the root word, actually is physical,
referring to a building.
In fact, in the Greek, this word here, in the Greek,
edifies is the word oiko domeo.
Oikos is a house, a building.
Domeo is to build the building.
Dom, domeo
Oikos domeo, to build a house.
Oikos, a house.
Oh well, Pastor Prince, we are not houses.
Hae Hae. We are.
We are temples.
You know which part of you is a temple?
Oh, my spirit, that’s what we’ve been told.
Your spirit is not a temple; your body is the temple.
Look at 1 Corinthians 6:19a
‘Or do you know that your body is the temple…’
Your what? Your body.
Your body is the temple.
Now, I know the Holy Spirit dwells in our spirit.
But doesn’t say your spirit is the temple.
You cannot find in the Bible.
It says your spirit is the temple.
It says your body is the temple.
Your soma in the Greek, your body.
And because the word edify, Oiko domeo means
building, constructing or repairing a house or building.
Which part of your person is the temple, your body?
That means when you pray in tongues,
you’re preparing, you’re building, constructing,
you’re repairing your body.”
Joseph Prince said:
“Today, we say edify in terms,
‘Well, Pastor Prince,
your message today was edifying.’
In other words, morally comforting, morally inspiring, or whatever.
But we don’t think in terms of physical.
But the root word actually is physical,
referring to a building.”
First, we don’t think in terms of the physical
because it’s not in the context of 1 Corinthians 14.
So what if the root word is physical?
The meaning of how a word is used in the text
is finally not determined by the root word
but the context.
This is basic exegesis 101.
I can’t believe this.
When Joseph Prince has failed in basic exegesis,
how to properly exegete a Bible text,
he has the shamelessness
to teach the world about the scriptures.
And the worst is his congregations
have the stupidity and ignorance to believe him.
So let me repeat
– the meaning of how the word is used in the text
is finally not determined by the root word
but the context.
(The root word gives some semblance or idea
of how the word is used.)
So, what is the context of 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14 in general,
and especially 1 Corinthians 14:4 in particular?
Paul said that God has given the body of Christ
with many spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12)
to edify the church.
By the term ‘spiritual gifts’
means that they have do with the spiritual, not physical.
Though the spiritual gift of healing is mentioned,
the bulk of these spiritual gifts
are to edify the spirit-man.
They are to spiritually edify (not physically) the church.
However, these spiritual gifts are to be exercised in love (I Cor 13).
Then Paul zeroed in on 2 spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 14:4:
1 Corinthians 14:4
4 Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves,
but the one who prophesies edifies the church.
What Paul is simply saying is that
one who prays in tongues, edifies or strengthens
or builds up (from the root word, building) himself or herself
spiritually.
It has nothing to do with the physical
or the health of a body.
Please read the larger context of 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14
and tell me where in them
is the word or idea of physical health mentioned
that Joseph Prince tries to cast a wool of deception over us?
Except for the gift of healing,
nothing was mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14
about the fact that we can have perfect health,
which Joseph Prince said:
“When you pray in tongues…
You can be free from addictions
and you can even be free from physical infirmities.”
Second, Joseph Prince has used his same old trick of half-truth
to deceive people again.
Please refer to The Blue Letter Bible as follows:
1 Corinthians 14:4 (KJV)
He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth G3618 himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth G3618 the church.
Strong’s Definitions
οἰκοδομέω oikodoméō, oy-kod-om-eh’-o; from the same as G3619; to be a house-builder, i.e. construct or (figuratively) confirm:—(be in) build(-er, -ing, up), edify, embolden.
Outline of Biblical Usage
I. to build a house, erect a building
A. to build (up from the foundation)
B. to restore by building, to rebuild, repair
II. metaph.
A. to found, establish
B. to promote growth in Christian wisdom, affection, grace, virtue, holiness, blessedness
C. to grow in wisdom and piety
Joseph Prince only shows you the first half – Part I,
but he hides from you the second half – Part II.
It is the second half that talks about the spiritual aspects
which the meaning of the word ‘edifies’ also contains.
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3618/kjv/tr/0-1/
You see how terrible this guy is.
A person who recalcitrantly uses half-truths to deceive people
is no different from a serial liar.
Third, Joseph Prince tries to make the connection
between the root word, which refers to a building
and our bodies, which refers to a temple.
For the sake of logic
(Just from the viewpoint of logic, not Bible exegesis),
his argument is logical
only if the body represents the physical temple.
Physical building – Physical temple!
But does the body represent the physical temple?
No.
The physical temple was torn down in AD 70.
And because we are no longer in the Old Covenant
but under the New,
there is no longer the physical temple.
So, when Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:19
that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit,
it simply means the spiritual presence of the Holy Spirit
dwells in us – in our bodies.
But Joseph Prince’s logic could only stand
when the root word of ‘edifies’
which he says represents the physical building
corresponds to the body which represents the physical temple.
Yet, I have proven
it has nothing to do with physical temple or building,
as the physical temple is no longer in existence.
This shows up his logical flaw.
Another related logical flaw is for Joseph Prince
to equate physical buildings with physical bodies.
Although both are prefaced with the word, ‘physical’,
our bodies are strictly not in the same category as buildings.
Fourth, Joseph Prince has already committed the error
of not interpreting a text in its context
in 1 Corinthians 14:4.
But Joseph Prince exacerbates it further
by using a different text in another context in 1 Corinthians 6:19
(and 1 Corinthians chapter 6
has nothing to do with physical healing or perfect health, too),
which is also foreign to the context in 1 Corinthians 14:4
to interpret the text.
This is what I call parachute exegesis.
Joseph Prince parachutes a foreign text in 1 Corinthians 6:19
into 1 Corinthians 14:4
to try and twist the text to the meaning he wants to
– physical healing or perfect health.
Fifth, when Joseph Prince flashed the text in 1 Corinthians 14:4
1 Corinthians 14:4:
“He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself,
but he who prophesies edifies the church,”
did you notice that
he only talked about the first part of the verse (tongue)
but he was silent on the second part of it (prophesies)?
I will tell you why.
This is because his agenda is on tongues.
But assuming Joseph Prince is right,
can I follow the way he argues
and also say that
just as one who speaks in tongues can have perfect heath.
because he will be free from physical infirmities,
“He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself,” (1 Cor 14:4a)
one who prophesies,
“but he who prophesies edifies the church,” (1 Cor 14:4b)
can also result in the perfect health of the entire church
because the same word ‘edifies’ and its Greek word, is used
in both instances – in both 1 Corinthians 14a and 14b.
Also, in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17,
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
the word, ‘temple’ that Paul referred to
is not the physical building
or individual believers as in 1 Corinthians 6:19,
but the church.
But this becomes ridiculous!
I supposed if we follow Joseph Prince’s teaching,
and if we manage to convince the unbelievers,
Mr Ong Ye Kung, the Minister of Health of Singapore
will be reassigned to another ministry,
and all the hospitals and medical clinics
would have to close down
– as all that is needed for perfect health
is just teach people to pray in tongues and prophesy.
I really hope that Mr Ong Ye Kung,
the Singapore Health Minister
and the Singapore PAP Government
will come to know about this
and be informed about this heretic, Joseph Prince,
who speaks rubbish,
doesn’t represent Christianity.
If you have friends who are PAP ministers
or Members of Parliament,
feel free to forward this article to them.
Sixth, let me quote what Martyn Lloyd-Jones said.
In ‘Exposition of Romans Chapter 9, God’s Sovereign Purpose,’
Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:
“Now this is the most alarming thing
that we can ever realize about ourselves.
Every one of us is subject to prejudice.
There is not one of us that is free from it;
the devil sees to that.
And the prejudices are almost endless in number.
So that when we come to the Scriptures
we come with a prejudiced eye
and we see what we want to see.
That is what the heretics have always done,
is it not?
They (heretics) have always quoted Scripture.
Some of the modem heretics…
take the Scriptures with this prejudiced mind
and understanding,
you can make them prove almost anything you like.
… The Pharisees and those known as the Rabbinical writers
were very fond of using Scripture to serve their own ends.
It is not confined to them
– every heretic has done the same thing
and it is still being done.
… People very often hold a wrong view,
and then they say, ‘Scripture says this’;
but they are quoting a Scripture
which really does not apply to the case.
We should always try to come as little children
and be ready to find that we are wrong.
There is no disgrace in changing our minds
or in saying, ‘I was wrong.’
Why, it is a most wonderful thing to say.
There is a kind of consistency
that is most reprehensible, it is small-minded.
We should be big enough
to confess that we were wrong.
We should not come merely
to substantiate what we have always said and thought.”
What Martyn Lloyd-Jones said
aptly described the heretic, Joseph Prince.
Joseph Prince is the modern Pharisee and heretic,
who comes to the scriptures
already with a preconceived mind,
filled with his abominable grace doctrines.
Then Prince would interpret many verses and passages
not according to the contexts,
but according to his prism of his grace theology.
Joseph Prince is filled with pride
that he wouldn’t admit that he was wrong,
even though what he teaches can be so easily proven
as garbage that is fit for the dumps.
Rev George Ong
Appendix
A Christian may, by the grace of God,
incidentally experience good health
because he speaks in tongues.
Even if this is true,
this cannot be used to teach as a doctrine
– that just because believers speak in tongues,
they will experience good health.