NCC Supporters Respond to Antinomianism Article

Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009 Posted: 11:03:19AM HKT

Another respondent, Silk, remarked that it is not enough to teach Christians not to sin; that alone will not stop sin. Stillhaventfound agreed, saying that "one difference between New Creation and those critical of them is the route to promoting godliness. NCC believes in preaching grace to transform lives - i.e. the motivation to live for God and the route to transformation is in understanding the greatness of God's grace. Others may believe too much focus on grace destroys our motivation to live godly lives."

One netizen, Stephanie, even said that those who call the "grace" teaching the easy way out "have never experience[d] the grace of God."

Sze Zeng noted that NCC Senior Pastor Joseph Prince emphasised in his book Destined to Reign that he is against sinful living.

In a personal weblog, Stillhaventfound analysed the reasons many Singapore Christians are critical of and misunderstand NCC's teaching but feels that it should be taken as a compliment rather than criticism.

"The charge goes something like this: 'Pastor Prince and New Creation teach that a Christian can sin all they want because grace is always available.' I've heard that charge from many Christians who come from many different Churches in Singapore. Whenever I hear New Creation being accused of antinomianism, I'm both happy and sad. Sad because I know that such an accusation is meant to be a criticism or judgment against the message of New Creation. But I also feel happy, because I know one thing...

"Neither Paul nor Pastor Prince believe that we can sin all we want since grace is always available! Neither of them would encourage Christians to go and sin! Both are against sinning! (Pastor Prince has mentioned many times that he's thoroughly against sinning). However, the important thing to note here is this: The gospel they preach is such that they will be misunderstood as saying such a thing! It's about people misunderstanding your gospel. If you preach a works-centered gospel, no one would mistake you for promoting antinomianism. No one would accuse you of that. But then, that's because you haven't been preaching the true biblical gospel of justification by faith alone. However, if you preach the true biblical gospel of justification by faith alone, then you'll face that charge as Paul did - and as Pastor Prince is facing also. If Pastor Prince and New Creation Church are accused of antinomianism in this way, I actually take it to be a wonderful compliment, not a criticism."

Correction: The article posted Thursday, January 8, incorrectly stated that Rev Peter Koh is Malcolm Loh's former pastor. Loh is actually still a member of Paya Lebar Methodist Church but on sabbatical leave. It also omitted to mention that the article by Rev Koh was plagiarised.

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Edmond Chua
edmond@christianpost.com