New Creation Church pastor Joseph Prince “misrepresented” the biblical teaching about repentance in his new blog, according to a Christian radio host and author.
Dr. Michael Brown, host of the radio program “Line of Fire” and author of books such as “Hyper-Grace: Exposing the Dangers of the Modern Grace Message” and “The Grace Controversy,” pointed to a blog released by Prince regarding the Jewish Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur on Oct. 11.
Prince added that should Christians sin, they have “an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,” who is the “propitiation” for sins.
He further said that Christians should no longer be caught up with the idea of punishing themselves every time they sin, saying this practice is not what biblical repentance is about. He said inflicting self punishment turns repentance into a form of “human work,” which will never atone for sins.
Prince said a person’s sins have been “punished fully” in Christ.
These truths are “life-transforming message,” Brown wrote in an article for Charisma News.
However, Prince’s blog presents a “mixture of beautiful truth with potentially dangerous error” that is found in most hyper-grace teachings, Brown said.
“Now, it does not say that if anyone repents, we have an Advocate with the Father. It says that if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father. The moment a child of God sins, straightaway, his Advocate, Jesus Christ, goes into action to pray for and protect him,” Prince’s blog said.
He added that Prince also “wrongly defined” repentance.
Misrepresenting the message of repentance is “a potantially fatal omission,” Brown said.
He concluded his article with these truths that are vital in a believer’s life: looking to the cross, confessing one’s sins by the power of the Spirit, renouncing those sins and turning away from the sins one renounced.
According to an article from Grace to You, one of the problems of the controversial hyper-grace teaching is that it focuses more on man’s depravity and God’s forgiveness but does not emphasize the power of God’s enabling grace to transform lives.