Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan because he had no son? Give to us a possession among our father's brothers. "Moses brought their case before the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, "The daughters of Zelophehad are right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father's brothers and transfer the inheritance of their father to them. And you shall speak to the people of Israel, saying, 'If a man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter. - Numbers 27:4-8 (ESV)
In operating a discernment ministry, we can often be led by the heresy du jour or the obvious distraction of politics in an NAR dominionist dominated church. Sometimes it is good to reset with a good old fashioned sermon review from a known heretic, such as Joseph Prince. A recent sermon clip is posted above. It is not the entire sermon but rather a ten-minute portion of a larger sermon. The clip is sufficient for two reasons. First, his ministry only posts ten-minute fragments to lure you into buying his full sermons and I will not support ministries that hinder the work of the Gospel. Secondly however, he always seems to provide more than enough heresy within the ten-minute segment to comment on. There is no saving this sermon, as you will soon see. Let us reason together once more beloved.
"Now we go to this story and not many believers even know about this story but it is found in Numbers 27. This happened during the time of Moses when they had come out of Egypt. And the bible says there were some women called the daughters of Zelophehad. Their father has just died and the father had no sons. Usually, the sons would take after the father and the first born would receive the double portion of his inheritance but here this man had no sons. Just five daughters and they came to Moses because what happens when you have no son?" - Joseph Prince
Prince then recites the key verses for today quoted above. He absolutely gushes though at the line that says the daughters said, "Give us a possession." He equally gushes at the answer of the Lord - the daughters speak what is right. What Prince does next though is turn this story from a historical narrative into a prescriptive text for you and I. He claims that God loved their faith to ask for the blessing and so rewarded it. Is that what the text reveals? Of course not. Under that pretense what about the faith of the brothers of Zelophehad, who were due this inheritance under Mosaic Law? The bottom line here is that Prince preaches a sugar coated, greasy grace gospel that saves no one but tastes so sweet going down. In pursuit of proving his false gospel as correct, Prince scours the bible for stories such as these that he can rip out of context and warp into his feel-good theology. Does God love faith? Sure but that is not what this story is about. When God says that the daughters are right, He is merely saying that their request was just and reasonable. This is simply from the deceitful heart of Joseph Prince:
"I love what the Lord says about them. They speak what is right. In other words their words give us a possession. Let the possession fall on them. He is so pleased because faith always glorifies God and God always honors faith. Every time you have a good opinion of God. Every time that you pray as if God is hearing you, as if God is answering your prayer - when you have that posture and attitude - God is pleased. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God. It also says that He is a rewarder. He is not a taker! He is not a punisher! Even the angels in the field declared in Luke 2:11 the announcement of the birth of the Savior. Not a judge. Not a lawgiver. A Savior. - Joseph Prince
Where do we begin? The words the daughters spoke did not give them a possession. That sounds eerily like word faith doctrine. They simply inquired about a portion of the law and God agreed with them. Not because of some secret sauce of faith but because what they requested was reasonable and made sense. Do not miss what Prince is selling here. If you want something, ask God and have faith that He will say yes and voila! He will give you what you want. Who is God in that scenario? You are! God is not here to fulfill our will! We have a good opinion of God because of what He has already done on Calvary! Not because we want Him to grant us our blessing wish list. Do not miss this because Prince's theology is so wrong and leads straight to hell. Praying petulantly, as if you fully expect God will answer yes, does not please God. We have faith that He CAN answer yes to anything we ask but like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane - not my will but yours be done. True faith accepts the answer of "no" as an equal blessing to the answer of "yes." Of course Jesus is our Savior but if you think He is not the lawgiver, punisher and judge than you have been seriously misled. Do not fall for the devil-tongued Prince here. He continues:
