Another example of the Bible twisting employed by the master of eisegesis.

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because as he is so also are we in this world. - 1John 4: 17b

I have written extensively about Pastor Joseph Prince. I do so because I honestly feel that he is the most dangerous preacher alive today, luring hundreds of thousands of people down the broad path that leads to destruction. Jesus often taught that he who has ears let him hear. You can listen to a Joel Osteen and hear the dripping heresy, if you truly wanted to hear. You can listen to a Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, or any other number of false teachers and hear so much that is unbiblical; if you truly wanted to hear. What makes Prince dangerous is that he is not always as obvious. He too presents a gospel people want to hear. It obviously scratches itching ears but unless you are grounded in the Word and do the work of a Berean, so may miss the leaven running throughout his sermons.

As I have written before, Prince is the king of eisegesis, which is a fancy term for reading your own bias into the biblical text. Joseph Prince makes no bones about it. He claims divine revelation. He claims God talks directly to him. He claims that God gave him his "gospel of grace" even though the Bible makes clear that any man preaching a different gospel let him be accursed. Thoroughly trained in the word faith heresy by his admitted mentor and renowned heretic, Kenneth Hagin, Prince has created a movement of apostasy unseen before these times. The heresy Prince favors is known as antinomianism. This is another fancy word, simply meaning someone who does not believe the law applies to Christians. That grace covers everything. It is essentially a license to sin. Because Prince feels so passionately about his false gospel, he no longer approaches the Bible to hear from God. Instead, he approaches the Bible to prop up his gospel at all costs. As he has had to go deeper into the biblical texts, he has become more and more sloppy and obvious however. Let us look today at the eisegetical master at work in a sermon entitled, "You Stand Permanently In The Favor of God." It can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0bn6HglNLc

There is a butchering of two different portions of Scripture here to support his false grace message. The first is taken from Romans 5. What was interesting was his own PowerPoint said verses 1-9, yet he only showed verses 1 and 2. I wondered immediately why that was. Here are verses 1 and 2:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. - Romans 5: 1-2 (ESV)

He uses these two verses to support his teaching that the work of the cross covers our past, present and future. This is exactly why he is so dangerous. The work of the cross does cover our sins; past through future. That however is in regard to our eternal position when we stand before Christ for judgment. Prince applies it to us today though. He correctly uses the portion that says we have been justified through faith to show that God has forgiven whatever we did in the past. Next however he uses the portion that reads, "we have peace with God" to explain that this means our present position is one of irrevocable favor with God. Huh? Is that what the Apostle Paul was trying to convey here? Absolutely not. This is the quintessential example of eisegesis. Prince theology says that we never stop being blessed by God. That His favor never ends for us as believers. Heck just look at the title of this sermon! So he approaches Romans 5 looking for a way to support his pre-formed opinions. The full context of Romans 5 however shows this is talking about our eternal sin problem being resolved by Calvary. The peace we now enjoy with God is peace from His wrath; not an all access pass to Temporal Blessing Park. In fact, simply progressing to verse 3 reveals why Prince stopped at verse 2:

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. - Romans 5: 3-5 (ESV)

Sufferings? You will never hear that word escape the lips of Joseph Prince. He once mangled the story of Ananias and Sapphira, pretending they were not saved because God would never punish His children. He once preached that the flood was not an act of wrath but rather, mercy. Similarly, Prince would tell you we are exempt from sufferings because of the work of the cross. Remember - we stand permanently in the favor of God! As if this were not enough however, Prince goes on to say that the portion reading, "we rejoice in hope of the glory of God" means that our future is secured with blessings as well because "hope" always speaks of the future. While it is true that Prince found two verses that deal with a past, present, and future scenario, that does not mean what he reads into the text. The remaining context destroys the transparent arguments Prince was trying to make:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. - Romans 5: 6-9 (ESV)

Beloved, only Joseph Prince can take a set of verses meant to describe the sacrifice God made of His only Son and turn it into a teaching on unrelenting blessings. Only Prince can take a teaching that should be about our eternal position in Christ and make it out to be about temporal blessings here on earth. This is what happens when you approach the Bible with pre-drawn conclusions. To try and further bolster his arguments, he turns to the Genesis story of Joseph. Pastor Prince tries to make the argument that because the Bible says that God prospered Joseph in Potiphar's house, that he was one of these "permanently favored" folks. Moving past the notion however that being sold into slavery by your brothers, serving as a slave, being falsely accused of rape, spending 11 years in prison and an additional two more after being forgotten is not exactly "favored"; Prince crosses the line again when explaining why Joseph resisted the advances of Mrs. Potiphar.

"When you feel called to the higher things you don't go down to the lower things. That's why he was able to say no to Potiphar's wife." - Joseph Prince

Say what? Now it is important to understand what Prince is trying to do here. What he is trying to sell. He is selling the notion that we are always under favor from God. That there is never any rebuke or reproach. He has lifted Joseph up as an example, which is biblically inaccurate but now he must try and defend it. Here is the problem Prince runs into. Joseph did not refuse the advances of Potiphar's wife because she was beneath him. He was a slave and essentially, she was his owner. So what was Joseph really thinking?

And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, "Lie with me." But he refused and said to his master's wife, "Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" - Genesis 39: 7-9 (ESV)

Does this show us that Joseph considered himself to have a higher calling and not want to "go down to lower things?" No beloved. This shows that Joseph was sin conscious. He did not want to sin against God. Keep in mind that he was but a 17 year old boy. Yet he still considered God before he would commit such wickedness. So what is the problem for Prince? That runs opposite to his grace message! Joseph Prince routinely preaches that we should not be sin conscious! As we will soon see, even in this very message he implores his listeners to not even ask if they are pleasing God! So instead of performing sound exegesis of this story he is forced to perform eisegesis to prop up his false gospel. The most egregious Bible mangling was yet to come and is found in our key verse snippet today. I say snippet because it is only part of a verse. Yet it becomes the tag line for this sermon as Prince repeats it over and over again. Prince refers casually to 1John 4:17 and claims that God says that as Jesus is, so are we. Let the Bible mangling begin:

"Stop asking the question, "Am I pleasing God?" Ask the question, "Is Christ at His Father's right hand pleasing to God?" Is it? Yes, well as He is, so are we in this world! Is Christ under God's unclouded favor at the Father's right hand? So are you in this world! Because as He is, so are we in this world. - Joseph Prince

Remember now; Prince is trying to prop up his false gospel. He is trying to sell the notion that we are always under the favor of God. That nothing ever changes our status of being perpetually blessed. He will stop at nothing to convince people of his point. He already used as an example of unlimited favor, a man who was sold into slavery and thrown in prison for 13 years for a crime he did not commit. Now he is going for the kill. If all you did was read the second half of 1John 4:17, then maybe you can get confused but as soon as I see it is a partial verse I start wondering what he is leaving out. Here is the entire context:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannotlove God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. - 1John 4: 7-21 (ESV)

I will give you three guesses what this passage is about and the first two don't count. It is certainly not God promising that no matter what we do here on earth, we are always in the position of Christ, sitting at the right hand of the Father. No. This passage is about love. This passage is about the greatest love ever displayed, when God sent His only Son to die for our sins on an old wooden cross. This passage is about the Gospel. The true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Even when you isolate verse 17, we see why Prince left the first half of the verse out:

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. - 1John 4: 17 (ESV)

First, he left it out because the usage of the word love indicates this verse is not what he claims it to be. Additionally, the first half of the verse destroys the notion that this is a temporal issue at all. It is so we can have confidence on the day of judgment. From the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary:

"because, &c.--The ground of our "confidence" is, "because even as He (Christ) is, we also are in this world" (and He will not, in that day, condemn those who are like Himself), that is, we are righteous as He is righteous, especially in respect to that which is the sum of righteousness, love (1Jo 3:14). Christ IS righteous, and love itself, in heaven: so are we, His members, who are still "in this world." Our oneness with Him even now in His exalted position above (Eph 2:6), so that all that belongs to Him of righteousness, &c., belongs to us also by perfect imputation and progressive impartation, is the ground of our love being perfected so that we can have confidence in the day of judgment. We are in, not of, this world."

Yet what does Prince try to do? He takes half a verse, rips it violently out of context, and creates whole doctrine out of it. Hey you do not have to worry about yourself! Don't ask God if you are pleasing Him because you know Jesus is always pleasing to Him and the Bible says as He is, so are we in this world! Except that is NOT what these verses mean. What's the big deal? First of all, how harmful is it to teach people to not concern themselves with sin and being pleasing to the Father? The main premise still needs to be addressed. Does being a Christian mean that we have unlimited favor from God during this temporal life? Is that what Jesus went to the cross for? Whatever happened to working out your salvation with fear and trembling? Whatever happened to picking up your cross and dying to self? Has Pastor Prince ever read the Book of Job? Can he mangle that story like he did the story of Joseph? Was Peter experiencing the permanent favor of God when he was crucified upside down? Or Paul when he was beheaded? How about the Christians being exterminated in Iraq as we speak? That is how you know you have been sold a false Gospel beloved. If it cannot be preached outside of our shores than it is false, period. There are not different gospels for different countries. There are not different gospels for different socio-economic classes. There is only the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and the false gospels peddled by snake oil salesmen like Joseph Prince.

Do not take that reference lightly. Snake oil was a fake healing remedy sold by quack physicians in the old west. So a snake oil salesman is someone selling something that promises the world but delivers nothing. That is what the greasy grace gospel is. It tastes so good going down but it will kill you in the end. Prince gave two testimonies he claimed to have received as a result of this teaching. The first lady he claims wrote on her diagnosis sheet; "Does Jesus have lumps on His breast? No. Well as He is, so am I in this world." Of course the breast lump disappeared the very next day. The second was a letter from someone suffering from a debilitating knee pain condition. She allegedly wrote Pastor Prince claiming she was healed by simply saying, "Jesus, you don't have any knee pain, therefore neither do I!" Are we starting to see the damage that can be caused here? You cannot speak healing into existence. Are we really so foolish to think that if we commit adultery here on earth that it does not matter to God because Jesus is at the right hand? That somehow because God is pleased with the sinless life His Son led that He automatically is pleased with us as well, no matter how sinful we might be? Are we really that foolish? Do not buy what Joseph Prince is selling beloved. It sounds great and scratches our ears. It promises the world but in the end; it is just snake oil.

Reverend Anthony Wade - September 12, 2014

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.