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When the moral fibre of a nation fall’s that nation flounders. Reading The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn, incite full message!
I started to read what you had to say, and then I thought, you say things like you agree with what Pastor Joseph Prince teaches then you go into the “buts” I think you don’t know what you believe. I bless you with the following scripture He who wills to do the will of the father, will know whether the teaching is of God or man. Thank you Jesus for the ministry of Joseph Prince, who gives you the rightful place .
Once saved always once saved is a heresy, no matter who preaches it. An effortless success does not exist, whether success, prosperity, victory, does not come on a golden platter. Those who had success with God in the past, paid a price. In fact many of them failed and latter were restored back to God, that is where grace, love and compassion comes in. Grace is not the licence to sin and live in immorality, it is God’s divine enablement to live a life free of sin and scandal, even if it happens, God knows how to restore His own. This type of effortless success preached by gospel ministers has led many into fraud, drug dealing and other kinds of theft, because to them, God is a loving God who accepts everything.
As stated, I did not read your complete artical, because what I did read, I did not agree with, I will not even continue with this discussion, but bless you with the love of the father, and end by saying I have never been closer to the Father through Jesus and Joseph Prince. Bless you,
I don’t really think Joseph Prince is well understood. I have have been following his teaching for quite sometime. What I Simply understand from his teaching is, nor licensing believers to commit sin neither diminishing the role of moral law in believers’ life rather preaching the ultimate role of Grace in empowering believers to overcome sin.
Very good article brother. Thank you.
It is obvious that you don’t realize that Grace is Jesus, you keep talking like they are 2 separate things. You are just a man like Joseph Prince, noone has all the answers. by the way, on confessing sins in 1John 1:9 I believe it was to the Gnostics however lets take your stand, a believer. what did God say about our sins in Heb 8 I believe he said he will remember them no more! the word repent in 1John 1:9 in the greek is HomoLogio “same as what God says” Ok, so If I sin I am to confess the same God says about my sins, gone forever! and remember God came to the garden to walk in the cool of the day after Adam and Eve sinned! Doesn’t sound like he was angry does it, first question out of God’s mouth was Adam where are you? Not, what the heck did you do you sinful little no good creation I call a man. No Where are you? I want to still walk w you! Becareful not to criticize. A church preaching law has way more hidden sin then a Grace church! 1cor15:56 Learn to get free Brother~
I m writing from Singapore. I would like to share as Prince is from here. Many of my friends attend his church n embraced his teachings. I can tell you all of them r in poverty n bondage. Why ? They believed once saved always saved so they continue to sin believing that God forgives even they do not repent. Dear beloved the right thing is to seek God and ask if his teaching is bringing people to Him or hell. God bless all.
Reverend missed the fact that true interpretation of Scripture is within the context of many factors. Especially Hebrews, James (to the 12 tribes) and Peter. Cultural! Geographical! Traditional! Linguistic! Historic! And Gosh, to properly interpret some passages in Corinthians one even needs to know about idol worship (which is also cultural and traditional for that time and geographic location). #NameDropping is what I see… sandwich style.
Princes Once saved always saved teachings conflict with Kenneth Hagin Sr taught – Dr hagin told stories about Christians that turned their backs on God and went to hell
God himself watches over his cities whom himself has been building from house level. I see joseph prince as one of God’s building engineer whom God passes through to build his house, While I see Joseph M. as one of God watchmen whom God watches his houses that has been turn into cities through, so as the gates of hell shall not see prevail through foxes over.
I really appreciate this article. It has clarified a lot of my confusion with this type of preaching. Thank you. Dr. Jim Richards also preaches this same message but adds visualization techniques, called “Heart Physics.” I followed his teachings for awhile but when some in my church came and told me that his teachings were not biblical I was shocked. I was even willing to leave the church in order to continue following his teachings. However after time in prayer and talking to a trusted friend I was able to see that what others were saying was true. I quickly threw out anything that had to do with his teachings and have been trying to renew my mind in a sound biblical way since. This article has greatly helped me. Thank you
both once saved always saved and hyper-grace are false gospels! im so tired of the lies as apostle paul never taught anything other than what lines up perfectly with the rest of scripture and the words and teachings of Jesus Christ. he did not deliver another gospel! what right has any man to go through scripture and cherry pick to customize his own gospel?! it only produces falsehood and/or confusion with its half-truths and missing scripture. Jesus told His diciples (US) to go forth throughout the world in all nations teaching people whatever He taught us. Jesus knows best bc He is the best. not YOU!
how dare one go changing Jesus’s instructions or casting them out altogether. the root of this is pride. others think they have a better system, better solution, and better gospel message than Gods. prideful and disrespectful is what they are.
the most tell-tale quote from this article:
“There is enough good stuff in this book for new believers and those struggling with guilt to get them on a good foundation, as long as this book is coupled with other books and teachings to bring it balance.”–
then why recommend such a book? its lacking in so much truth and biblical facts. it teaches falsehood. why would anybody recommend such a book to new believers and those struggling with guilt? believers need to stick to the bible. it contains all we need to guide and direct us in our faith walks with Christ.
Hi Bishop Mattera, thanks for the articles. Through your article I can see what most people lacking of about the Grace of God, thank you.
I am from Singapore and listening to Pastor Prince’s sermon every week, plus His teaching everyday. It has blessed me so much and bring me closer in relationship with Jesus and Father God. And the fruits of his teaching is always blooming. All glory to Jesus.
The key point I want to bring up about your comment in your article, grace is no longer grace through work, if you believe that work (keeping the law) can bring your life fruitful, then do it! But make sure to do it perfectly without failure.
I can see you are bless by reading his book, and your eyes are slighty opened now. I pray that God will use you to show His grace to your peoples more n more! Amen 🙂
Wish people treated others like human beings and accepted everyone. At some point of time, we all stopped believing in Santa Claus! I think the world doesn’t need dogmas anymore. People survive though Gods die. The challenge is to be a human being and not a Christian who is saved. Wake up World!!
“Once saved forever saved” applies to believers who walk with and in Christ. If any believer would turn their back (to become unbeliever) from God through Jesus — which I don’t believe any beilever who has been empowered by the grace of God would do — then this promise of salvation simply is voided. It is as simple and tell-it-as-it-is.
I have a couple of observations
(1) I personally would NOT want to be associated with Jonathan Edwards type preaching. His “sinners in the hands of an angry God” idea stands in direct contradiction to what Paul taught in “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself on the Cross” You do not see sermons in Acts where they hit people over the head with the Law Rather they presented Christ and Him Crucified, which seemed to work very effectively. Do we really want to start new believers off with the image of God dangling people over hell, that Edwards liked to use? Jesus seemed to favor the imagery of a Father waiting for a son to come home. Perhaps we should, too.
(2) If our post-salvation forgiveness is contigent upon confessing sins as per the standard interpretation of 1 John 1:9, what about all those things a person does which may be sin but they are not recognized as sin – especially in the case of a new believer who does not know the Bible. Do those sins just linger, since they are not forgiven and therefore not confessed, until the person dies and then the Lord says you cannot enter Heaven due to these unconfessed sins? Does the Holy Spirit come and go many times throughout the day because you alternate between being holy and not holy because your standing with God depends on your confession? Does God alternate between being angry and not angry with us many times throughout the day, for the same reason? Eph 2:6 says we are seated with Him in the Heavenly Realms. Does that not imply a certain constancy of righteousness in God’s sight?
Other than these two points I agree with much of what you said.
Thank you. I enjoyed reading your article and it puts back the moral law nicely within this grace teaching. I can’t say that once saved is always saved to be correct, because as a Christian, we do feel like we fell out of God’s grace when we made a mistake. But is this the same as we are not saved because we have committed a sin? Well what if I suddenly died when I made a sin and I didn’t have the chance to pray and repent? Or the question would be, are we aware of the sin that we did involuntarily? I am not looking for an excuse to sin, but if we are to live righteously by always confessing our sins, we would be more conscious of our sin instead of our saviour. There would be 2 kind of extremes if we believe that repentance is the key to our salvation. One is that person will always pray for forgiveness whenever he sin, which sounded nice, but in this case, he would stop any activity when he sin and immediately pray to repent, including when he work, or sleep, because he has to catch all the sins that he is aware of and those that he is not aware of. I hardly believe he will live a peaceful life by doing this, and he may not be a blessing by doing this. The other kind of extreme would be, if a person sin, he would think, “oh well I might as well sin throughout the day and I will pray later at night for all the sin that I did today”. You see, the point is not about repentance. Yes repentance is important, but the way we see that Jesus loves us and have died for all our sin is more important, I believe you have underline this somehow in the closing of your article. Because when we feel loved, we would respond correctly by repenting, not because we might lose our salvation, but because Jesus have loved us and we want to do the right thing by not sinning anymore. Repentance should be the fruit of our salvation.
Balanced Grace is neutralizing Grace! Only by Radical Grace can a person be radically changed. Jesus Himself is the manifestation of Radical Grace by dying on the cross. How can we now try to “balance” the very essence He died for? By balancing is the same as insulting Jesus!
Althogh I love Joseph Prince, and so,me of my friends swear by him, I have had my own concerns with his teachings on grace. I agree that while the concept of grace is indeed radical in that it is a free gift and reuires no works on our part to be forgiven and saved, there definitely needs to be balance to the teaching. I whole heartedly agree with Bishop Joseph Mattera that If one does not know scripture and adhere to the full gospel he or she can be led astray. I pray that brother Joseph will listen to other bible teachers and bring balance to his teachings.
The gospel of grace [unmerited favor] is true. If you have read Joe’s book your reading comprehension could use a little help. You are obviously an intelligent well qualified man of the church, beloved of Christ, however you have not apprehended that pastor Prince and his supporters understand the moral law of God to be holy, just and good, a representation of God’s perfect standards and character.We know God reiterated the moral law in the new testament and the exhortations contained therin are righteously promoting perfection as the standard to be attained by following such admonition.The law is not the problem: we are, none can keep it perfectly! Jesus became our substitute; Jesus was made our sin, we were made his righteousness ” EVEN AS HE IS, we also ARE in THIS WORLD 1 John 4:17. ” These things have i written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may KNOW that you HAVE ETERNAL LIFE,and ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” 1 John 5:13 verse 14 adds ” And this is the cofidence that we have in him,that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us”. The new testament or covenant is defined in Hebrews 8:10-12 He will put his moral laws into our hearts and mind [NOT WE shalt not kill, lie, steal, idol etc] but HE WILL …. and the conditional clause… “BECAUSE I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities I will REMEMBER NO MORE.” Praise the King of Eternity. A most excellent doctrinal exegesis of how the salvation of sinners is accomplished by God can be googled Holiness, the False and the True by H A Ironside. Most Christians will be surprised to learn that God sanctifies sinners BEFORE he justifies them… read it and all will be made plain. God bless you.
Dearest Mr Mattera, In section 4 above you correctly express Prince’s firm stand on once saved always saved. Your refute of the doctrine of eternal security is cornerstoned with ” the conundrum of scripture that seems to teach both eternal security and that a believer can fall away” Your openess to the fact you are not sure does you credit, because as you correctly assert, it is only a puzzling question or conundrum. The seeming confusion is easily dispersed by understanding sanctification regarding one’s standing with God compared to sanctification concerning our state. The first is “positional”, the latter experimental. The first is sanctification by the blood of Christ, the latter sanctification by the word of God; a life long work. Once again I must recommend googling Holiness, the False and the True by H A Ironside Faith is founded on the Rock, sure and steadfast. Faith that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Bless you my brother in Christ
I have been praying for you to google and read Holiness, the False and the True by H A Ironside. The lord’s counsel is to hear a matter before you may reject it. Ironside’s doctrinal work will bless you beyond imagination
After being raised in the Bible Belt , Finally , I am learning of God’s love and Grace !! I’m no longer afraid of God because I’m not a perfect Christian ,now I understand God’s grace .Pastor Prince does refer to the old testament as well as the New Testament ..it’s a great thing for me to understand the Grace that is upon us ..Positive Words of God being taught more , helps young people and new Christians Willing to Accept Jesus in their heart and want to learn more about the word of our living God !! I say Amen to the teachings of Joesph Prince
Sister Charlene
Repentance always comes with restitution.
the thing i could say to these teaching of grace is to balance it. i do not believe that a certain teaching is the result of your change as a brand new man and at the same time is the result of your prosperity. what i firmly believe is that it is a result of your obedience to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and your intimate internal consecrated relationship with God.constant, deligent,persevered life and seeking him earnestly in prayer and intercession,and seeking him first.
We had in Puerto Rico a man who said he was Jesus. Mr. José Luis de Jesús Miranda. He died some years ago. But he said there were two Gospels: One of Jesus and the other was Paul’s; like two different teachings. He said their teachings were different. So is something like Prince. What I don’t understand is what is he doing in TBN.
Prince is guilty of a whole host of false doctrines, many of which are COMPLETELY embraced by modern evangelicalism.
The author here writes: “I do not get the impression that Prince believes in cheap grace.” I totally disagree; that’s ALL he preaches. But his “once saved, always saved” and “Instant Salvation” beliefs permeate modern Christendom, which, as the author here correctly hints at, is solely based on later teaching, not on Jesus’ pure and clear teachings, which called for obedience, salvation through GOOD DEEDS ALONE and reliance on the love and mercy of God, Who forgives us endlessly (because He has endless mercy, but also calls us to eradicate our sinful ACTS.) And let’s be clear: Who judges our deeds’ worthiness? Not ourselves, not our preachers, not our churches or our neighbors, but God alone.
The Bible tells us that Sins are acts, not THINGS. Sins are what we commit or avoid, not a thing we inherit biologically. It is NOT our inherited destiny to sin perpetually, we must choose NOT to sin (Gen 4:7-8; Ezek. 18) This derails not only Prince but the entire false edifice upon which many evangelical, man-made doctrines are built.
Prince also preaches the gross, unGodly view that God doesn’t “see” OUR continued sinning, but sees “only the Cross of Christ” and IMPUTES this as OUR OWN “righteousness.” He (and others – Joyce Meyers and others have said the same) make Righteousness into a commodity that can be CHEAPLY purchased with an unbiblical “salvation prayer,” which allows us to avoid dong good as a God-ordaiend requirement – something all the Prophets culminating in Jesus make plain. Instantly, to Prince, we’re absolved by guilt for our FUTURE sins. Nonsense.
Jesus says vain words will not save us, and tells us of much is given, much will be required of us, and every parable of his tells us that the works-free wide gate of easy belief is the way that leads to destruction. And the Bible (repeatedly) says only those who DO righteous deeds are those who are counted righteous.
Not just Prince but all of modern Christendom need a radical reformation of its wicked anti-Jesus doctrines, which Prince is only bringing to their logical conclusion.
To the author.
Do not be a fool brother. You would lead new concerts into errors rather affect their salvation. Toy cannot rely on providing over books along with it. Most people won’t read. Your conclusions are wrong in this regard and you will cause as much damage as joseph prince is.
Hi
JP teachings have at least 3 doctrinal errors and are hopelessly dangerous!!!
1) Prosperity- Health and Wealth
2) Hypergrace
3) Gnostism
You are wasting your time doing a theological analysis of his work and other prospeity gospel preaches. Follow the money instead! That is the only way to understand these guys. They are just old fashioned conmen selling religion to make money. There is a special place reserved in hell for Prince and all his fellow preachers.
1 John 1:9 was written for unbelievers. In that chapter when he talks about walking in the light it’s Jesus. He is the light of the world. If we can do everything the ten commandments say than why did we need a savior? God knew it wansnt enough. Jesus fulfilled the law. Jesus is the answer. We all need to quit being self occupied and become Christ occupied!! All we have to do is believe and Jesus handles everything else. Grace means unmerited undeserved favor. Thank you God for your Grace!! In Him we have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sins in accordance with riches of God’s Grace. That he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding Ephesians 1:7-8. We are not forgiven based on our knowledge..catching our sins confessing our sins. If you don’t catch it don’t confess it we’re not forgiven. If that is the basis we never have security. We never have shelom..true peace. We are forgiven based on God’s knowledge of our sins. If God says you’re forgiven..you are forgiven. God blessed you first and obedience is the fruit..Jesus!! It’s all about him. If you rest in Jesus you will never have to worry again. People reading this it was God’s plan all along for His Grace undeserved favor to be lavished upon you and I. Aren’t you thankful that He loves and loved us enough to make a way..Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. He’s all the answer you need. He knows all our sins and had forgiven us past present and future. The more you rest in Him the more incredibly happy and peaceful you’ll be. He took every stripe on His back for you. By His stripes you were healed. That passage is in 2 Peter 2:24. Jesus said believe in Him and everything else falls into place. Thank you Jesus that you loved and love me despite all things. He said to the blind man that told Him that he believed Jesus could heal him. According to your faith let it be done to you. Matthew 9:29. Everyone reading this all you have to do is believe and rest in Jesus. Praise God for His Grace. All that read I pray to be blessed and have eyes open to the only truth and answer we need in Jesus name amen.