For a meaningful evaluation on the following texts, I suggest that you read every scripture reference slowly and carefully. If you don’t bother to read the bible, I suggest you don’t bother reading this either.
________________________________________
This book is all about Jesus. It is about His passionate love for you and His desire for you to experience success in your life. But before we go on, let me ask you this question: Do you believe that Jesus is interested in your success? Take a moment to reflect on this. JOSEPH PRINCE UNMERITED FAVOR, Page vii
________________________________________
Does God want us to have material success? Not necessarily. We can say for certain that God definitely wants spiritual success,
“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”” – 1 Peter 1:14-16.
But God definitely does not intend to make every believer wealthy and successful materially (James 4:2-4), but rather knowing that “ But godliness with contentment is great gain”. – 1 Tim 6:6.
The following excerpt from the introduction of Joseph Prince’s book “Unmerited Favor” is totally against the biblical position of contentment with God’s sovereign plan for us, to encourage believers to selfishly anticipate material blessings that were never promised in the bible, and reject every suffering which God could allow for his plan and purpose.
________________________________________
My friend, I am so glad that we have the opportunity to talk about this today because I want you to know that Jesus delights in blessing you. It is His good pleasure to see you blessed in every area of your life! Now, don’t put a limit on His blessings in your life. The blessings of the Lord are not (as some may erroneously believe) just seen in material things. Jesus is infinitely interested in your total well-being. He is interested in your family, career, fulfillment in life, marriage, ministry, and boy, does the list go on! JOSEPH PRINCE UNMERITED FAVOR, page vii
________________________________________
He craftily promised that “blessings of the Lord are not (as some erroneously believe) just seen in material things”. But the fact is, the blessings that he has listed (life, marriage, ministry, and boy does the list goes on!) ARE physical material things! We must never forget that God’s priority in our lives, is to end up in spiritual restoration, to turn from being Sons of disobedience (Ephe 2:2-10), to obedience to him (Col 3:1-17).
God MAY bless you with material well being in accordance to his will, and praise God if he does! But it is NOT his priority to bless you materially. His priority is always spiritual realization, even if it takes for one to lose everything in order to see HEAVENLY VALUES, and not earthly ones (Rom 8:1-11).
________________________________________
When it comes to your desires, hopes and dreams, there is no detail that is too minuscule, minute or insignificant for Jesus. Trust me, if it matters to you, it matters to Him! Even if you went to Him in prayer to remove that small pimple on your nose,
He is not going to look at you and reply mockingly, “Hey buddy, don’t you know that I’ve got a whole universe to run? Come to Me when you have a bigger prayer request.”No way! A thousand times no! Jesus will never ridicule or deride your concerns as petty. He is never dismissive or condescending. He is not like some of your so-called “friends,” who may delight in poking fun at your shortcomings. If it bothers you, it bothers Him. JOSEPH PRINCE UNMERITED FAVOR, page Vii-viii
________________________________________
There is nothing wrong with having ambitions and goals. We all have targets to meet in life. Be it excelling in academic results, winning a singing contest, or climbing a corporate ladder, it was Paul’s exhortation to “rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man” – Ephe 6:7. Was Paul referring to “Effortless Success”? It is hardly so. In fact, we are to work hard to please our employers and in the course of doing so may achieve our career success.
However, what Joseph Prince is promising here, is a Jesus that does not exist in the bible. He is presenting his version of a jesus who has misplaced his priorities to rather care for pimples on your nose, than to help you in your spiritual maturity.
________________________________________
The world’s way to success is based on meritocracy. God’s way to success in the new covenant is in direct contradiction to that,
and is based on His unmerited favor. You can’t earn it. You can’t deserve it. And you certainly can’t merit it. It comes by way of God’s grace and by the power of what was accomplished at Calvary. It goes against the grain of every world system you have ever learned ordepended upon. God’s ways are higher and they always lead to good and abiding success.
My friend, there is no middle road. You cannot mix your own efforts with God’s grace. Choose His unmerited favor and all the glory redounds to Jesus. Every success, opportunity, blessing or breakthrough, be it in your health, family or career — success in every aspect of your life —
comes by His unmerited favor. It is never you! JOSEPH PRINCE UNMERITED FAVOR, Page x-xi
________________________________________
God’s SALVATION (not Success) is based on Grace (unmerited Favor), to save us from Sin and Death (Rom 6:23), not from poverty and sickness. Can you see how he has craftily introduced elements of prosperity gospel into his own gospel? As discussed above, God’s priority is always spiritual reconciliation. But according to Joseph Prince’s gospel, his gospel is always about material well being, to satisfy the flesh.
If what he says here is true, that “God’s ways are higher and they ALWAYS lead to good and abiding success”, then,
1. There should be no believers who are sick and poor. In fact ALL believers should be wealthy and at the pink of health. But is that true?
2. If material well being is contingent upon our faith, what he is really saying is, Christians who are poor and sick has a lack of Faith. This is the cruelest concept to describe Christians who are going through trials and persecution.
3. This principal violates God’s priority, which is “”But godliness with contentment is great gain– 1 Tim 6:6.
4. The truth is, God decides who to bless with riches and health. And those who receives has added responsibility to take care of the poor (who are not defined in the bible for lack of faith) – 1 Tim 6:17-19
________________________________________
Now, let’s stop right here. Doesn’t this list of requirements that you have to fulfill so that God will bless you sound awfully familiar to you? I believe that many of those who insist on these requirements are well-meaning, sincere people. But what they are doing is pointing others back to the old covenant of the law, whether knowingly or unknowingly! That’s how the Law of Moses works. Under the old covenant, God’s blessings were contingent on man’s fulfillment of a list of requirements. But we are no longer under the old covenant of the law. This is not Christianity. The new covenant that we are under today is based completely on the removal of our sins by the blood of Jesus! “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Depending on your own efforts to deserve favor from God is considered “dead works.” It is God’s desire for us to depend wholly on the unmerited favor of Jesus.Just to make it clear, it is not Joseph Prince who is finding fault with the old covenant. God Himself said, “For if that first covenant [the covenant of law] had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second [the covenant of grace].” The Christian life today is not based on what you are doing or not doing. The reality is that the Christian life is not a religion at all. It is about having a relationship based completely on receiving WHAT GOD HIMSELF HAS DONE ON THE CROSS! When you receive completely what Jesus has done for you, your “doing” will flow effortlessly. JOSEPH PRINCE UNMERITED FAVOR, page xi-xii
________________________________________
Firstly, God’s blessings (or Salvation) were NEVER contingent on man’s fulfillment of a list of requirements. When Israel sinned, they were covered under the atonement of the yearly Sacrifices. God gave his commandments, and when an Israelite falls into Sin due to human weakness, their Sins are atoned for under the Mosaic Covenant (Hebrews 9:6-7).
Israel was judged NOT BECAUSE they failed to follow the procedures, but because they SINNED REBELLIOUSLY (it was not unintentionally). And despite their rebelliously sinful lifestyle, they continued to perform the sacrifices under the Law, thinking that they can get atonement for their Sins nevertheless.
That is why in Isaiah 1:13-15, God called them “vain Offerings; the incense of an abomination to me”. It was not because Israel could not follow the procedures, but because they were in REBELLION (2 Kings 17:7-23). That is why in Isaiah 1:16-20, he called for Israel to repent from their Sins, to obey him so that they will eat the good of the land.
Though his misconception, Joseph Prince demonized the Law of God, turning it into an enemy of the gospel, citing that God had found fault with the very Laws that he wrote himself! Heb 8:7 is not about “God finding fault with the Law”, the point is that Jesus Christ is the ultimate completion of the Old Covenant (which was incomplete), to bring spiritual reconciliation to those who repent and follow him.
The fact is that believers even in the Old Testament were not justified by the Law. It was the ISRAELITES who tried to seek justification under the Old Covenant to cover their rebelliousness… and it was through this notion that they think they were “Justified under the Law” which Paul wrote against the idea in Romans Chapter 4.
Under the New Covenant, the same principal applies. Those who are under the Grace are Slaves to Righteousness (Rom 6:15-23) and “ Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him” – 1 John 2:3-6. True believers may fall into Sin UNINTENTIONALLY(Rom 7:21-25), but they will not live REBELLIOUSLY (Heb 6:4-6).
The rest of the book is based on this misconception about Law and Grace, and misplaced view of God’s blessing and prosperity that is relevant to the lives of believers.
________________________________________
My friend, I want to encourage you to begin to see that the world’s model of success is unstable and built upon a foundation that is shakable. It may have the outward appearance of the good life, but it is temporal, and we have all seen for ourselves how the world’s transient wealth can dissipate like smoke and easily slip away like the shifting sands in the desert. It is the presence of the Lord in your life that makes you a success! JOSEPH PRINCE UNMERITED FAVOR, Page 3
________________________________________
He claimed that he is not preaching the prosperity gospel. But everything that he says IS about PROSPERITY.
________________________________________
We need to learn to stop pursuing things and to start pursuing Him. God sees your relationship with Him as the only thing that you need for
every success in your life. I can’t imagine starting in a worse place than Joseph.He was completely naked. He had nothing! No bank accounts,
no educational qualifications, no natural connections with people of influence, nothing. Thank God the Bible records a picture of Joseph
who began with nothing, so that you and I can have hope today. If you think that like Joseph, you have nothing, well, you can start believing in the power of the presence of the Lord in your life. Start looking to Jesus and claim that promise in
that Scripture for yourself!
Let me show you how you can personalize this promise in your life. Insert your name here into God’s promise for you:
“The Lord is with _______ , and I am a successful person.” JOSEPH PRINCE UNMERITED FAVOR, page 3-4
________________________________________
He claim that “we need to learn to stop pursuing things and to start pursuing Him”. But his last line to ask his reader to insert their name on “The lord is with _____ , I am a successful person” IS EXACTLY making his readers to “Pursue Things”!! In fact, when a believer pursues God IN ORDER to get what he wants, then at the end of the day, what he wants is not God, but his own selfish desires! No wonder the bible says that Covetousness is idolatry! (Col 3:5, Ephe 5:5).
________________________________________
Now, read this aloud to yourself. Read it out loud a hundred times if you have to, and begin to see this as your reality. Stick this promise on your mirror, and every morning when you brush
your teeth, remind yourself that today, as you go to work, as you go to school, as you start the day caring for your children at home (or do whatever it is that you need to do), the Lord is with you.
And because He is with you, YOU ARE ALREADY A SUCCESS! When you have Jesus in your life, you are no longer trying to be a success; you ARE a success! JOSEPH PRINCE UNMERITED FAVOR, page 4
________________________________________
As you can read from just merely a few pages from his book, it has nothing short of the prosperity Gospel. In fact, his teachings are based on biased view of the word of God that is out of context. If you are sitting under his ministry or so happen to be listening to him, I urge you to study the word of God and see how his theology is fraudulent and deceptive.
________________________________________
This book is all about Jesus. It is about His passionate love for you and His desire for you to experience success in your life. But before we go on, let me ask you this question: Do you believe that Jesus is interested in your success? Take a moment to reflect on this. JOSEPH PRINCE UNMERITED FAVOR, Page vii
________________________________________
Does God want us to have material success? Not necessarily. We can say for certain that God definitely wants spiritual success,
“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”” – 1 Peter 1:14-16.
But God definitely does not intend to make every believer wealthy and successful materially (James 4:2-4), but rather knowing that “ But godliness with contentment is great gain”. – 1 Tim 6:6.
The following excerpt from the introduction of Joseph Prince’s book “Unmerited Favor” is totally against the biblical position of contentment with God’s sovereign plan for us, to encourage believers to selfishly anticipate material blessings that were never promised in the bible, and reject every suffering which God could allow for his plan and purpose.
________________________________________
My friend, I am so glad that we have the opportunity to talk about this today because I want you to know that Jesus delights in blessing you. It is His good pleasure to see you blessed in every area of your life! Now, don’t put a limit on His blessings in your life. The blessings of the Lord are not (as some may erroneously believe) just seen in material things. Jesus is infinitely interested in your total well-being. He is interested in your family, career, fulfillment in life, marriage, ministry, and boy, does the list go on! JOSEPH PRINCE UNMERITED FAVOR, page vii
________________________________________
He craftily promised that “blessings of the Lord are not (as some erroneously believe) just seen in material things”. But the fact is, the blessings that he has listed (life, marriage, ministry, and boy does the list goes on!) ARE physical material things! We must never forget that God’s priority in our lives, is to end up in spiritual restoration, to turn from being Sons of disobedience (Ephe 2:2-10), to obedience to him (Col 3:1-17).
God MAY bless you with material well being in accordance to his will, and praise God if he does! But it is NOT his priority to bless you materially. His priority is always spiritual realization, even if it takes for one to lose everything in order to see HEAVENLY VALUES, and not earthly ones (Rom 8:1-11).
________________________________________
When it comes to your desires, hopes and dreams, there is no detail that is too minuscule, minute or insignificant for Jesus. Trust me, if it matters to you, it matters to Him! Even if you went to Him in prayer to remove that small pimple on your nose,
He is not going to look at you and reply mockingly, “Hey buddy, don’t you know that I’ve got a whole universe to run? Come to Me when you have a bigger prayer request.”No way! A thousand times no! Jesus will never ridicule or deride your concerns as petty. He is never dismissive or condescending. He is not like some of your so-called “friends,” who may delight in poking fun at your shortcomings. If it bothers you, it bothers Him. JOSEPH PRINCE UNMERITED FAVOR, page Vii-viii
________________________________________
There is nothing wrong with having ambitions and goals. We all have targets to meet in life. Be it excelling in academic results, winning a singing contest, or climbing a corporate ladder, it was Paul’s exhortation to “rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man” – Ephe 6:7. Was Paul referring to “Effortless Success”? It is hardly so. In fact, we are to work hard to please our employers and in the course of doing so may achieve our career success.
However, what Joseph Prince is promising here, is a Jesus that does not exist in the bible. He is presenting his version of a jesus who has misplaced his priorities to rather care for pimples on your nose, than to help you in your spiritual maturity.
________________________________________
The world’s way to success is based on meritocracy. God’s way to success in the new covenant is in direct contradiction to that,
and is based on His unmerited favor. You can’t earn it. You can’t deserve it. And you certainly can’t merit it. It comes by way of God’s grace and by the power of what was accomplished at Calvary. It goes against the grain of every world system you have ever learned ordepended upon. God’s ways are higher and they always lead to good and abiding success.
My friend, there is no middle road. You cannot mix your own efforts with God’s grace. Choose His unmerited favor and all the glory redounds to Jesus. Every success, opportunity, blessing or breakthrough, be it in your health, family or career — success in every aspect of your life —
comes by His unmerited favor. It is never you! JOSEPH PRINCE UNMERITED FAVOR, Page x-xi
________________________________________
God’s SALVATION (not Success) is based on Grace (unmerited Favor), to save us from Sin and Death (Rom 6:23), not from poverty and sickness. Can you see how he has craftily introduced elements of prosperity gospel into his own gospel? As discussed above, God’s priority is always spiritual reconciliation. But according to Joseph Prince’s gospel, his gospel is always about material well being, to satisfy the flesh.
If what he says here is true, that “God’s ways are higher and they ALWAYS lead to good and abiding success”, then,
1. There should be no believers who are sick and poor. In fact ALL believers should be wealthy and at the pink of health. But is that true?
2. If material well being is contingent upon our faith, what he is really saying is, Christians who are poor and sick has a lack of Faith. This is the cruelest concept to describe Christians who are going through trials and persecution.
3. This principal violates God’s priority, which is “”But godliness with contentment is great gain– 1 Tim 6:6.
4. The truth is, God decides who to bless with riches and health. And those who receives has added responsibility to take care of the poor (who are not defined in the bible for lack of faith) – 1 Tim 6:17-19
________________________________________
Now, let’s stop right here. Doesn’t this list of requirements that you have to fulfill so that God will bless you sound awfully familiar to you? I believe that many of those who insist on these requirements are well-meaning, sincere people. But what they are doing is pointing others back to the old covenant of the law, whether knowingly or unknowingly! That’s how the Law of Moses works. Under the old covenant, God’s blessings were contingent on man’s fulfillment of a list of requirements. But we are no longer under the old covenant of the law. This is not Christianity. The new covenant that we are under today is based completely on the removal of our sins by the blood of Jesus! “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Depending on your own efforts to deserve favor from God is considered “dead works.” It is God’s desire for us to depend wholly on the unmerited favor of Jesus.Just to make it clear, it is not Joseph Prince who is finding fault with the old covenant. God Himself said, “For if that first covenant [the covenant of law] had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second [the covenant of grace].” The Christian life today is not based on what you are doing or not doing. The reality is that the Christian life is not a religion at all. It is about having a relationship based completely on receiving WHAT GOD HIMSELF HAS DONE ON THE CROSS! When you receive completely what Jesus has done for you, your “doing” will flow effortlessly. JOSEPH PRINCE UNMERITED FAVOR, page xi-xii
________________________________________
Firstly, God’s blessings (or Salvation) were NEVER contingent on man’s fulfillment of a list of requirements. When Israel sinned, they were covered under the atonement of the yearly Sacrifices. God gave his commandments, and when an Israelite falls into Sin due to human weakness, their Sins are atoned for under the Mosaic Covenant (Hebrews 9:6-7).
Israel was judged NOT BECAUSE they failed to follow the procedures, but because they SINNED REBELLIOUSLY (it was not unintentionally). And despite their rebelliously sinful lifestyle, they continued to perform the sacrifices under the Law, thinking that they can get atonement for their Sins nevertheless.
That is why in Isaiah 1:13-15, God called them “vain Offerings; the incense of an abomination to me”. It was not because Israel could not follow the procedures, but because they were in REBELLION (2 Kings 17:7-23). That is why in Isaiah 1:16-20, he called for Israel to repent from their Sins, to obey him so that they will eat the good of the land.
Though his misconception, Joseph Prince demonized the Law of God, turning it into an enemy of the gospel, citing that God had found fault with the very Laws that he wrote himself! Heb 8:7 is not about “God finding fault with the Law”, the point is that Jesus Christ is the ultimate completion of the Old Covenant (which was incomplete), to bring spiritual reconciliation to those who repent and follow him.
The fact is that believers even in the Old Testament were not justified by the Law. It was the ISRAELITES who tried to seek justification under the Old Covenant to cover their rebelliousness… and it was through this notion that they think they were “Justified under the Law” which Paul wrote against the idea in Romans Chapter 4.
Under the New Covenant, the same principal applies. Those who are under the Grace are Slaves to Righteousness (Rom 6:15-23) and “ Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him” – 1 John 2:3-6. True believers may fall into Sin UNINTENTIONALLY(Rom 7:21-25), but they will not live REBELLIOUSLY (Heb 6:4-6).
The rest of the book is based on this misconception about Law and Grace, and misplaced view of God’s blessing and prosperity that is relevant to the lives of believers.
________________________________________
My friend, I want to encourage you to begin to see that the world’s model of success is unstable and built upon a foundation that is shakable. It may have the outward appearance of the good life, but it is temporal, and we have all seen for ourselves how the world’s transient wealth can dissipate like smoke and easily slip away like the shifting sands in the desert. It is the presence of the Lord in your life that makes you a success! JOSEPH PRINCE UNMERITED FAVOR, Page 3
________________________________________
He claimed that he is not preaching the prosperity gospel. But everything that he says IS about PROSPERITY.
________________________________________
We need to learn to stop pursuing things and to start pursuing Him. God sees your relationship with Him as the only thing that you need for
every success in your life. I can’t imagine starting in a worse place than Joseph.He was completely naked. He had nothing! No bank accounts,
no educational qualifications, no natural connections with people of influence, nothing. Thank God the Bible records a picture of Joseph
who began with nothing, so that you and I can have hope today. If you think that like Joseph, you have nothing, well, you can start believing in the power of the presence of the Lord in your life. Start looking to Jesus and claim that promise in
that Scripture for yourself!
Let me show you how you can personalize this promise in your life. Insert your name here into God’s promise for you:
“The Lord is with _______ , and I am a successful person.” JOSEPH PRINCE UNMERITED FAVOR, page 3-4
________________________________________
He claim that “we need to learn to stop pursuing things and to start pursuing Him”. But his last line to ask his reader to insert their name on “The lord is with _____ , I am a successful person” IS EXACTLY making his readers to “Pursue Things”!! In fact, when a believer pursues God IN ORDER to get what he wants, then at the end of the day, what he wants is not God, but his own selfish desires! No wonder the bible says that Covetousness is idolatry! (Col 3:5, Ephe 5:5).
________________________________________
Now, read this aloud to yourself. Read it out loud a hundred times if you have to, and begin to see this as your reality. Stick this promise on your mirror, and every morning when you brush
your teeth, remind yourself that today, as you go to work, as you go to school, as you start the day caring for your children at home (or do whatever it is that you need to do), the Lord is with you.
And because He is with you, YOU ARE ALREADY A SUCCESS! When you have Jesus in your life, you are no longer trying to be a success; you ARE a success! JOSEPH PRINCE UNMERITED FAVOR, page 4
________________________________________
As you can read from just merely a few pages from his book, it has nothing short of the prosperity Gospel. In fact, his teachings are based on biased view of the word of God that is out of context. If you are sitting under his ministry or so happen to be listening to him, I urge you to study the word of God and see how his theology is fraudulent and deceptive.
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