What shameless merchandise-making of the Word of God. God is saying no such thing to us beloved for 2016 or any other year. This is a prophecy regarding Israel's deliverance and Edom's destruction. It leads us to the second problem however when one engages in reading nonsense and lies into the text of God. What happens when what Joseph Prince has just promised is not made manifest in the life of someone who believed him? What happens when that healing package is empty? When the family is not well this year? When the protection box does not result in protecting the believer? What happens to their faith? Do they become despondent over a wrongly perceived lack of faith on their part? That they just didn't "enter the land"; whatever that is supposed to mean! Or will they blame God and walk away from the faith? Convinced that it was God who lied to them through the Prophet Obadiah instead of blaming the false prophet, Joseph Prince. Beloved these are no small matters for us today. It is what will lead untold numbers of people to hell. Prince however was not done as he moves from the shameless to the disgusting:
"I want to tell you something that touched my heart. Israel refused to go into the land with Jehovah God. They refused to go into the land with God. So right at the brink they could have entered the land flowing with milk and honey but they refused to enter with God. This is grace. If Israel refused to enter with God, God will turn back in patient grace and accompany them throughout the 38 years of wandering in the wilderness as their traveling companion. That is grace"God says, if you refuse to enter the land with me in unbelief, I will turn around in patient love, condescending grace and I will be with you in all of your difficulties. I'll be with you. - Joseph Prince
This is the subtle deception of Joseph Prince beloved. He has created a false gospel. He approaches the Bible not to hear from God but to proof text his way into propping up his false gospel. In order to do that he has to wrest passages horribly out of context and use them as God did not intend, as we saw with Obadiah. Or he has to turn a blind eye to clear indications of the wrath of God and pretend that somehow they were really about grace. The notion that God turning the people back into the wilderness until they died was an act of grace is not only preposterous it is blind to biblical literacy. Not only does it ignore what the text clearly indicates but it ignores future explanations the Bible provides for what happened:
And the Lord's anger was kindled on that day, and he swore, saying, 'Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me, none except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord.' And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone. - Numbers 32: 10-13 (ESV)
The Lord's anger was kindled because they have not wholly followed Him! Did He turn them back in great love and grace? No beloved. He made them to wander in the wilderness for forty years until every last one of them was dead. Because of the evil they did that day and let us not forget that He originally wanted to wipe them all out in one fell swoop but Moses interceded for them! Let us also not lose sight of the typology involved here. Those who were turned away from the Promised Land due to unbelief died in their unbelief! Only the two who had faith were allowed to enter the Promised Land. It ought to remind us that the way to heaven is narrow and few find it. The many were on the broad path and that only led to their destruction. What an awesome opportunity for a preacher to preach the real Gospel of Jesus Christ! Yet to Joseph Prince, who once preached a flood wiping out the entire earth was an act of love and grace, so apparently is when God makes an entire nation wander aimlessly for forty years until they die. Shameful and despicable to take the truth of the Gospel and deprive it from people who truly need it. Prince now goes for the kill shot:
So church, this year sit back. This is what I saw in the spirit and this is what's going to happen, And God wants you to enjoy this. Remember that everything comes through the cross. This is the year. No longer is your possession there, what God promised is there, and you are over here. The peace you long for is there and you are over here. The provision you want is over there and you are over here. But you will possess your possessions. Own it! Possess it! This is mine! - Joseph Prince
Sit back! God wants you to enjoy this! What? This is what you saw in the spirit? I am not sure what evil spirit Mr. Prince traffics in but we know for a fact this could not have been shown to him by the Holy Spirit because it contradicts His Word! The Bible says that He cannot deny Himself! Own it? Possess it? It is mine? What ear scratching drivel. Beloved we do not want to own this false grace Prince is selling. The end of the 38 years culminates with the death of people who owned it. What we need to possess is the faith of Caleb and Joshua. The faith that leads to the Promised Land. The faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel. Do not fall for this subtle yet dark deception that Joseph Prince deals in. God's wrath is very real and something we should be striving to avoid. Pretending that judgment is "love" and wrath is "grace" is not "vision." It is spiritual blindness.
Reverend Anthony Wade - January 18, 2016
