Joseph Prince tries to hijack the Epistle of Jude...

::::::::

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. - Jude 1: 3-4 (ESV)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fIqZ5sPSEg

I have consistently said that Joseph Prince is the most dangerous preacher alive today. A wolf of the highest order, mangling the Bible and the sheep nearly every time he takes to the pulpit. What makes him so dangerous is twofold. First he mixes the truth with error so smoothly that even many well versed Christians can fall prey if they do not test everything. Secondly, the message is just what itching ears want to hear, without some of the obvious falseness that many mainstream false preachers carry. Who would not want to hear that we no longer have to worry about our sin? Who would not want to hear that God is never angry with you? Who would not want to hear this greasy grace message that tastes so good going down but slowly will kill you? I say kill you and I mean it. It is not hyperbole. It is not exaggeration beloved. Countless people will follow this teaching straight down the broad path that leads only to their own destruction. A gospel that is devoid of sin and repentance is no gospel at all. It is stripped of the power to save anyone. It really is that simple beloved.

The link above is to a 16 minute portion of a sermon from Prince. He usually only provides a small snippet because he wants you to go to his website and purchase the entire message. As usual though, he packs so much wrong into the snippet that it suffices very well to expose him. The key verses today are the same from the message. It is a clever tactic of Prince to finally address these two verses from Jude because they are used correctly to describe the heresy of Joseph Prince. This sermon is a not so obvious attempt to take that accusation out of the hands of those who speak the truth about Prince and use it against them. Before he gets there however, Pastor Prince decides to set the stage by comparing himself to Jesus Christ, using these verses:

And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, "Why does he eatwith tax collectors and sinners?" And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." - Mark 2: 15-17 (ESV)

After reading these verses Prince actually says that when you preach the "real gospel of grace" people will accuse you of the same thing the Pharisees accused Jesus of here - that "he compromises with sinners." Where do we start to unravel this nonsense? First of all, there is no such thing as the real gospel of grace. It is something that Joseph Prince has made up in his own mind. He claims it was divinely given to him by God Himself. That it is a direct revelation from God. It is too bad that Prince did not just flip one chapter back and see this from Mark's Gospel:

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." - Mark 1: 14-15 (ESV)

Beloved, the grace of God is enormous. You and I can do nothing without the grace of God. We would be destined for hell without it. This is the truth that runs through the leaven of Prince's preaching. Whenever someone dares to point out his heresy, he is quick to pretend that they are speaking against the grace of God. That is absurd. What we speak against is the same thing Jude warns us about in the key verses. It is the perversion of the grace of God. This central preaching message from Christ in Mark 1 is the same in all the Gospel accounts - repent. Joseph Prince so hates that word that he once preached it merely means to "consent to be loved."

Putting this aside for a minute, how unseemly is this comparison Prince makes? So anyone who speaks against his false gospel are now Pharisees? Who does that make him? You guessed it; Jesus Christ. For the record, Prince also misses the point. No one accuses Joseph Prince of compromising with sinners! The problem is that he fails to address their sin! He gives them a false fire insurance policy. He tells them not to worry about it! What happens then? These folks will spend their lives as fully churched people who have no real relationship with Christ! Do you want to know how that road ends?

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' - Matthew 7: 21-23 (ESV)

Think how sad this day will be when so many people find out they had been lied to. While we are here I want us to pay close attention to verse 23 because it absolutely eviscerates the preaching premise of Prince's false grace message. What does Jesus call these condemned people as He sends them away? You who practice lawlessness! Wait a minute! Pastor Prince teaches that the law has no place in the life of a believer! He has preached that the Ten Commandments have no place in the life of a believer! If that is truth then Matthew is lying in verse 23. Jesus Himself bemoans in the Gospels why people bother calling Him Lord if they refuse to do what He says!

I am going to briefly leave the sermon review to teach where the error is. Joseph Prince confuses our eternal position in Christ with our temporal condition as a sinner. The grace of God is what will allow us to stand before God covered by the blood. It does not however change that while encased in this flesh, we remain sinners. We do not try and obey the laws of God in order to earn salvation but rather because we have matured to the point that we realize God only has our best interests when He says what we ought not to do. In other words, obedience is not a pursuit of salvation it is the result of it. This is the point that always escapes Prince. Repent is not a dirty word. It is the turning away from sin because now we look at sin differently. When we walked in darkness we did not understand our sin offended God. Now that we know it does, we should desire to not sin. Repent, turn from, our sin. That is not being a legalist. That is not being a Pharisee. That is obeying God because we love Him and do not desire to offend Him.

In the hyper-grace world of Joseph Prince however, nothing offends God. He has taught entire sermons based on the silly notion that God never is upset with us. Committed adultery? Who cares! Certainly not the sugar crusted fairy god that Joseph Prince preaches. Getting back to this sermon however I just want to make some obvious points. First of all, Prince said this:

"The devil does not mind if you preach a compromised Gospel but the moment you preach the gospel of grace all hell breaks loose."

The first half of this statement is absolutely true it is just sad that Prince fails to see it is his gospel that is compromised. That is why the devil does not come against it at all. All hell breaks loose? Where? There are precious few who rightly call out Prince for his heresy. He is internationally known, flies all over the world preaching, and is seen on untold number of media outlets. He has penned bestselling books with such pious titles as "Destined to Reign." Exactly where is the hell breaking loose? Nowhere. He has found very little resistance specifically because his gospel is so compromised. After this however, he references another portion of Jude:

Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion. - Jude 1: 11 (ESV)

Still working off of the false premise that these verses speak about those who speak against his false gospel, Prince wrongly exegetes the way of Cain, claiming it means "my efforts count." This is typical of the types of errors Prince routinely makes because he does not approach the Bible to hear from God. Instead he approaches it as a way to validate his false teachings. The Pulpit Commentary, Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible and the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary all agree that the way of Cain is envy and hatred of what is godly. Cain's anger was at God accepting Abel's offering and not his own. Cain envied the acceptance his brother received and was angry at what God accepted. The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary puts it like this:

"Cain--the murderer: the root of whose sin was hatred and envy of the godly, as it is the sin of these seducers."

Make no mistake beloved. Joseph Prince is a seducer. His gospel is designed to seduce you. It is envious of real Bible teaching. Prince actually mocks that notion in this very sermon claiming children brought up on such teaching are "messed up in the head." His gospel of grace hates what is true biblical teaching. What is acceptable by God. It is the way of Cain. Not content with mangling this however he proceeds to mangle the error of Balaam. Not so much in definition, as he actually gets this one right. Balaam's error was in the love of money. Prince actually sums it up by saying he prostituted his gift to make money for himself. No argument there but look at who is making the argument. Joseph Prince is worth five million dollars. He is in the top ten richest pastors in 2015 according to richestlifestyle.com. The very clip we are reviewing is only designed to make us go to his website and purchase the whole message! He is so blinded by his false gospel and the desire to prop it up though, that he fails to see when he is actually preaching about himself! He has taken his gifts and used them for immodest gain. Just as he walks in the ways of Cain he lives in the error of Balaam. What was interesting was Prince did not broach the subject of Korah's rebellion. Perhaps because when you read the Pulpit Commentary it is summed up as follows:

"It lies in the broader idea of a contemptuous and determined assertion of self against divinely appointed ordinances."

Hmm"contemptuous towards God? Determined assertions contrary to God? Pitting oneself against ordinances that were divinely appointed? Wow. If that is not a working definition of Joseph Prince and his false grace teachings I do not know what is. He routinely dismisses divinely appointed ordinances for his own self created gospel. He walks in the way of Cain, lives in the error of Balaam and as Jude teaches us - he will perish as in Korah's rebellion.

Beloved, there were plenty more errors in this short clip. He astonishingly claims the notion that his grace preaching denies Christ doesn't hold water, referencing the end of the key verses. The point he misses of course is that saying the name of Jesus is irrelevant if you do not preach His entire Gospel. No one ever accuses Prince of actually denouncing Christ. He would not be so sloppy. Instead his teachings denounce Christ. They do not line up with Scripture beloved and that is always our measuring rod. That is what Jude is teaching here. The perversion of grace will lead to a denial or our Lord Jesus Christ and that is exactly what Joseph Prince's teachings do. Remember the Matthew 7 verses! Not all who say "Lord" will enter! Away from me you who practice lawlessness! Prince also stated this:

"How come the Israelites didn't build a golden calf when they left Egypt? How come they didn't build it at the Red Sea? How come they had no desire to build a golden calf until they put themselves under the law?"

What? First of all, God gave them the law. They did not "put themselves under it." Herein lies the warped thinking of Joseph Prince though. Anything having to do with the law is bad. God still gave it! It still provides us with what God wants and what He does not. There is zero biblical indication that they created the golden calf because they were now under the law. In fact, the Bible does tell us why:

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, "Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." - Exodus 32: 1 (ESV)

It had nothing to do with the law but that matters not to Prince. There is no Bible verse he will not twist to prop up his failed and false gospel. Remember, this is a man who preached that the flood was not an act of God's wrath but one of His mercy. You cannot make this stuff up. I will conclude this with a quick look at the repeated theme Prince gave throughout this sermon. That the word "pervert" in the key verse actually means to remove as opposed to dwindle down. To be honest, I will leave the matters of Greek translation to those who know it better than me, although Prince has routinely not understood the languages he professes to in sermons. Instead my point is simply that it does not matter if the word means remove or dwindle down. It still applies to Prince. It is his gospel that perverts the true grace of God into license for sin. You can claim you are not saying that all you want but when you preach that God is never mad and that you can cast aside His law, that is exactly what you are doing. Dwindle down, pervert, or remove. It matters not.

Beloved, beware the honey-laced words of men like Joseph Prince. He claims that he preaches only to point people to Jesus but all of his sermons are about YOU. His bestselling book is about how YOU are destined to reign. Our key verses today from Jude are specifically warning us about men like Joseph Prince who take the grace of God and change it. Whether you want to say remove it, dwindle it, or pervert it. I do not care. It is exactly what Prince traffics in. His gospel walks in the envious way of Cain with hatred towards any real biblical exposition. He uses his false gospel in the error of Balaam, prostituting his gifts for financial gain. His ruin is to come as those in the rebellion of Korah. A contemptuous assertion of self over divine ordinances. This is a very dangerous man. Stay very far away.

Reverend Anthony Wade - May 12, 2015

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.