Joseph Prince’s Wrinkle-Free & Stay-Young Teaching – By Rev George Ong (Dated 18 Mar 2022)
Don’t miss Jeff Lai’s 5-minute YouTube video (see below).
(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 on 13 March 2022, 5 days ago, Joseph Prince said; please click here to view excerpts in the 20-second video:
And I like to say it like this, “As Jesus is so are we in this world (1 Jn 4:17b).” He has healthy flesh and bones; I have healthy flesh and bones. I may not look like it. I may not experience it right now. But that’s what I claim and praise the Lord, truth will outlast fact. It’s a fact I feel the pain in my body right now but if I claim the truth that I’m one with Jesus, praise the Lord that pain will have to go away.
If Joseph Prince can, based on 1 John 4:17b, say,
As Jesus is so are we in this world. He has healthy flesh and bones; I have healthy flesh and bones,
what is to stop an off-key preacher or a blind follower of Joseph Prince based on the same text of 1 John 4:17b and following the same faulty pattern of Joseph Prince to say,
As Christ is still single, so are we in this world.
As Christ is holding the universe together, (Heb 1:3 CEV), so are we in this world.
As Christ is God, so are we in this world.
Madness! A whole new heresy could just be churned out, out of such ‘out of context’ teaching by Joseph Prince regarding 1 John 4:17!
I’ve already written an article debunking such ludicrous ‘out of context’ teachings of Joseph Prince on 1 John 4:17.
If you have missed reading it, please click to read:
Joseph Prince also teaches his ‘Name it and Claim it’ Theology in the 13 March 2022 sermon by posturing that if we claim it enough, whatever pain that we are suffering in our body will have to go away (and of course, according to his Health and Wealth Theology, that would include every sickness, including COVID-19, as well). Joseph Prince said,
I may not look like it. I may not experience it right now. But that’s what I claim and praise the Lord, truth will outlast fact. It’s a fact I feel the pain in my body right now but if I claim the truth that I’m one with Jesus, praise the Lord that pain will have to go away.
If such a simplistic ‘Name it and Claim it’ Theology is true, why did about 60,000 believers have to die from COVID-19 (assuming a very conservative estimate of just one percent of believers of about a total of 6 million had died from the disease)?
Each of these 60,000 believers could have followed Joseph Prince’s ‘Name it and Claim it’ magic formula, and the pain or the coronavirus which had afflicted them would simply have gone away. But it didn’t. They passed away from the disease.
And why did my Pastor friend, Pastor David Cheng, Pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Sarawak and another medical doctor friend, Dr Raymond Yuen, who was a fervent and sacrificial Christian in Singapore have to die from the same disease (their deaths were reported in the Singapore and Malaysian Newspapers)?
By the way, to date (as at 16 March 2022, 2 days ago), 986,320 people in Singapore have been infected with COVID-19, reaching close to a million. One million out of 5.4 million which is the population of Singapore is no small percentage. No thinking person can ever deny that many of those who were infected must have included many believers, probably, including Joseph Prince’s own church members, friends and relatives. So what has happened to Joseph Prince’s ‘No virus can come near you’ formula?
Joseph Prince, with his silly ‘No virus can come near you’ and his presumptuous ‘Name it and Claim it’ doctrines, is undoubtedly a charlatan, and yet millions would choose to believe him and blindly follow his teachings.
Let’s hear what Jeff Lai has to say about the ‘Name it and Claim it’ teaching of Joseph Prince.
Please click here to view Jeff Lai’s 5-minute YouTube video.
(Note: The transcript of Jeff Lai’s 5-minute YouTube video is given in the last item of this article.)
I’m sure for those who are Bible-believing Christians, you will come away with disbelief and disgust after listening to Joseph Prince’s wrinkle-free and stay-young teachings in Jeff Lai’s 5-minute YouTube video.
Yet, Joseph Prince’s feel-good teachings that you can be wrinkle-free and always stay young are drawing millions of naive people into his fold.
What’s appalling is not just that there are preachers like Joseph Prince who could utter such theological rubbish.
But what is even more shocking is that there are millions of so-called believers around the world who can be so gullible to fall prey and be hoodwinked by Joseph Prince regarding his wrinkle-free and stay-young teachings.
In his 5-minute YouTube video, Jeff Lai said,
Jesus tells us to “beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Matt 7:15) There are ravenous wolves feeding on victims all across the world. False prophets deceive God’s people and are falsely labeled as ‘Christian’.
(Back to George Ong) Here is an important point to note:
In Matthew 7:15, Jesus is not so much telling us to beware of those television evangelists who aggressively try to get you to donate to their ministry or beware of the Jehovah’s Witness, whom almost every believer knows they are false teachers.
These are not the people Jesus is asking you to beware of. They are simply not deceptive and dangerous enough.
Why?
Jehovah’s Witness people are not cunning wolves because they come undisguised as wolves preaching the clear-cut false doctrine that Jesus is not divine. Even new believers with some basic knowledge of the Christian doctrine will know they are wolves and will stay clear of them.
But Joseph Prince is a cunning and deceptive wolf because he comes disguised in sheep’s clothing that Jesus was talking about in Matthew 7:15. False teachers such as Joseph Prince don’t advertise themselves as purveyors of lies but they disguise themselves as preachers of truth in sheep’s clothing.
They don’t come to us with bright neon signs, announcing: “I am a false teacher.” They come with an appearance of spirituality. They come with the reputation of a best-selling author like Joseph Prince. They are so (such as Joseph Prince) pleasant and nice. They (such as Joseph Prince) have a great sense of humour that draws people to them. Their sermons (such as Joseph Prince’s sermons) are so positive and affirming.
They look innocent and sound incredibly harmless. They have such a warm and attractive personality that it doesn’t occur to anyone that they might, in reality, be false prophets. They claim to be Christ-centred and teach the truth from God’s word.
That’s where many sheep, and horrifyingly, including many shepherds, are so gullible that they are taken in. That’s why Jesus said, “Beware of the false prophets”; be on the lookout.
Wolves coming in sheep’s skin are those who are looking saintly, speaking the right spiritual lingo, but under the cloak of disguise, they covertly destroy the church in her own backyard.
Joseph Prince comes wearing the cloak of the shepherd. He is not the clear-cut cultist or heretic – the Jehovah’s Witness, who does not recognise the divinity of Christ. Prince is not someone who openly and flagrantly teaches false doctrine.
Prince believes in the divinity of Christ and comes talking much about Jesus. He preaches a lot about the cross. His passion is to teach the ‘grace’ (false grace) and love of God. He comes to give a message of grace to a hurting and needy world. He teaches much from the Bible.
Joseph Prince isn’t that foolish to come as a wolf with the characteristic of a clear-cut heretic as that would scare everybody away. He comes undercover in sheep’s clothing. He is so subtle, and he always looks like and acts like a sheep and a shepherd.
False teachers ain’t that stupid. If they come as undisguised wolves, let’s not talk about children, even grown-up adults will run away from them.
False prophets don’t look like false prophets. They look more like well-dressed pastors. A counterfeit hundred-dollar bill that looks different from the real wouldn’t fool anyone. To pass off as real, it would have to look real.
The same is true for false prophets. They’re not going to look like a wicked wolf. They’re going to look more like the caring ministers of the gospel and the entertaining and encouraging preachers of the word.
False teachers aren’t that stupid to give themselves away so easily by coming undisguised as a wolf and telling you everything that is false.
“If you are looking for a false teacher who comes as an undisguised wolf to tell you all the outright lies, you can comb the whole world twice over, and still, you wouldn’t be able to find him.” (George Ong)
“The story of the Little Red Riding Hood aptly illustrates that the false teacher would never come as a devouring wolf to scare you but cleverly disguised as your most loving grandmother in the faith to destroy you.” (George Ong)
A false teacher can appear to be very nice. Yet, all it takes is a ‘really really’ nice preacher with the false grace doctrine that can send you to hell.
Joseph Prince is the very kind of false prophet or ‘shepherd’ that Jesus refers to in Matthew 7:15 as the wolf who comes in sheep’s clothing. He’s the kind Jesus warns us to beware of. Beware of Joseph Prince!
That is why Jesus instructed His disciples to ‘beware’. The word ‘beware’ is used to warn people against real dangers ahead:
“Beware of robbers in this city,”
“Beware of falling trees along this road,”
“Beware of precipice ahead,”
“Beware of dangerous animals in this village,”
“Beware of crocodiles in the river,” etc.
The word ‘beware’ always implies great and real danger. Jesus is not using the word ‘beware’ for nothing. Jesus warns us to “Beware of the false prophets” (Matt 7:15) because He knew the severe and real danger they posed.
Any shepherd or sheep who treats such a severe warning of Jesus with disinterest and indifference is foolishly doing it at his own peril.
The word “beware” (prosechete) is in the present imperative and indicates continuous watching. The word always implies great danger. It is a command by Jesus to beware and be continually on the alert of the false prophets. Friends, it is not a suggestion by Jesus; it is a command of Jesus to beware of false prophets.
Why?
Because they are dangerous (ravenous wolves) and deceptive (sheep’s clothing) (Matt 7:15).
Beware means to be in a continuous state of readiness, to be on guard, to pay constant attention. Constant vigilance is required when it comes to false teachers such as Joseph Prince. You cannot afford to let your guard down.
One must note that Jesus places the responsibility of dealing with the false prophets not only on the Christian pastors and leaders but also on every single member of the church.
Jesus Christ’s “Beware of the false prophets” in Matthew 7:15 is addressed to us all – every single Christian.
If the Church had heeded Christ’s warning, she would not be in the state of doctrinal confusion caused by Joseph Prince’s teachings in which she finds herself today. But when every Christian begins to rise to their rightful role as the Bereans, the tide of false teachings is bound to be stemmed. (Acts 17:11)
False teachings are deceptive in that they must appear to be true, sound and biblical; if they weren’t, how in the world could they deceive?
If error could be discerned instantly, and without any effort, it wouldn’t be a deception. If deception is obvious and noticeable from the start, it wouldn’t be one.
“Error never comes to us as error; error always comes to us as truth.” (George Ong)
“Error disguised with an appearance of truth is what deceives.” (George Ong)
Error gains its entrance into our hearts subtly and stealthily by the front door of truth. It rides on the saddle of truth by first hooking people to it, and when your guard is down, it begins to sneak in error covertly through the side gate without your notice.
That’s the deadly strategy of Joseph Prince who uses truths in God’s word to hook and win over people and then sneakily mixes truths with gross errors. When truths are mixed with gross errors, they are no longer truths as they have been corrupted and tainted.
(Back to Jeff Lai) Please peruse the transcript of Jeff Lai’s 5-minute YouTube video:
Joseph Prince said:
You are 60-year-old, you look at the mirror and say, “Wah got wrinkles already I see you wrinkle free.” Amen.
Jeff Lai said,
The false teaching of Joseph Prince. The teachings of popular preacher, Joseph Prince are spreading across the world, and are even spreading into developing nations. Through his books and online sermons, Joseph Prince has risen to fortune and fame based from his Singaporean church of over 31,000 attendees. Joseph Prince subscribes to the popular ‘Name it and Claim it’ philosophy, also known as the ‘Health and Wealth’ or a ‘Word of Faith’ movement. Though there are many errors found in the preaching and writing of Joseph Prince, we will deal specifically with the ‘Name it and Claim it’ theology.
Countless gurus have promoted this concept of ‘Name it and Claim it.’ Both Christian and non-Christian authors teach that if you want something and focus your thought on it with enough faith, then your wishes will come true.
Other famous so-called Christian teachers promoting this include Kenneth Hagin, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer.
Here’s an excerpt from one of Joseph Prince’s sermons:
You can say things like; you know you look in the mirror and say, “I believe I’m the youngest-looking 40-year-old. I believe I’m the youngest-looking 50-year-old. I believe I’m the youngest-looking 60-year-old.” It’s not chapter and verse all the time. Amen. You look at your body and say, “I believe I have the healthiest 50-year-old body. I have the healthiest”; you can say that. It’s not chapter and verse all the time. “Pastor, can I say it?” Believe, if you believe it, then say it.
Jeff Lai said,
This is against what the scripture teaches. If you desire youth and simply say it, you depend on the power and the will of man, not the power and will of God. Scripture teaches us that we are to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:15) The Bible makes it clear that people do not get what they pray for because they have self-centred desires. “You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your own passions.” (James 4:3)
Joseph Prince said,
Say it if even though you don’t believe it. Say it. You are 60-year-old, you look into the mirror say, “Wah, got wrinkles already. I see you wrinkle-free.” Amen.
Jeff Lai said,
Humans do not have this control over God and reality. It is God who speaks things into existence, not man. It is the word of Christ that moves the universe, not human words. There is no passage in the Bible that tells of humans gaining a youthful appearance by speaking out selfish desires in a mirror.
Joseph Prince said,
“Exercise, no exercise. I just spoke to my body,” she said. “Body, you are slimming down. Every time I look at the mirror, I see you slim.” Amen.
(Joseph Prince, relating a testimony of someone who had positive results of weight loss because she followed Prince’s ‘Name it and Claim it’ Theology.)
Jeff Lai said,
Is this the message of the Bible? No. Can we change reality by saying we are young, wrinkle-free and slim? No.
Joseph Prince tells his church that it is NOT necessary to reference “chapter and verse all the time”. He encourages his church to say and believe and it will come true. He teaches that there is no need to mention God’s truth as you assert your own heart’s desires to be beautiful.
The Bible is full of examples of faithful, godly servants who could not just say it and change their circumstances. Job, Joseph, David, Paul and many others experienced pain and affliction but were unable to say, “I see myself without suffering.”
Often, it is those who are suffering in their financial need that fall prey to these devious prosperity teachings. The teachings of ‘Name it and Claim it,’ bring many under confusion and deception. These false teachers feed off the desperate hopes and dreams of people everywhere. Faithful Christians who hold to the truth of scripture need to be alert to the false claims of such preachers, now being translated across the world.
Jesus warns us of deceptive, high-profile preachers who “devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” (Mk 12:40)
Jesus tells us to “beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Matt 7:15) There are ravenous wolves feeding on victims all across the world. False prophets deceive God’s people and are falsely labeled as ‘Christian’. The ‘Name it and Claim it’ movement misrepresents the true power of God and prayer.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, guard yourself against these teachings and warn your churches. The Apostle Paul teaches that there will be false teachers, deceitful workmen disguising themselves as Apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.
Despite what preachers like Joseph Prince teach, the gospel does not promise that you will be healthy, wealthy or wrinkle-free. The gospel promises rebellious sinners reconciliation with God by the blood of the Saviour Jesus Christ. The Gospel promises suffering with joy and the assurance that those who have given up everything in this world for His sake will receive a hundred times as much in eternity. (Matt 19:29)
Health, wealth and beauty are not for us to speak into reality. These would be wrong desires based on our own passions. True Christians ought to desire the glory of God alone. True Christians want to come to the true knowledge of God through the Bible. True Christians will realise that the false gospel of health and wealth is no gospel at all.
End of Jeff Lai’s 5-minute YouTube video transcript
Rev George Ong