DEREK PRINCE

Derek Prince

Derek Prince (1915-2003) was an internationally recognized Bible teacher whose daily radio programme Derek Prince Legacy Radio (hosted by author Stephen Mansfield) broadcasts to half the population of the world in various languages.

These languages include English, Arabic, Spanish, Croatian, Russian, Malagasy, Tongan, Samoan and four dialects of Chinese.

Peter Derek Vaughan Prince was probably most noted for his teachings about demons and Christian Zionism. He was best known in Pentecostal circles although his teaching is distinctly non-denominational, a fact that has long been emphasised by his worldwide ministry.

Derek Prince Ministries famously operated under the slogan Reaching the unreached and teaching the untaught. Derek Prince was born in India of British parents and was educated at Eton College and Kings College, Cambridge. He was a scholar of Greek and Latin, although at Cambridge he took Philosophy, specialising in logic and studying under Ludwig Wittgenstein. During this time he had an affair with a married woman in Ireland,resultingin the birth of a son. His MA dissertation was titled The Evolution of Plato's Method of Definition, and won him a fellowship at the age of just 24.

Under the influence of vice-chancellor Charles Raven, Prince refused to bear arms in World War II, and instead joined an ambulance unit. While posted to Scarborough for training, Prince attended a Pentecostal Church and experienced a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ. Out of this encounter he formed two conclusions: first, that Jesus Christ is alive; second, that the Bible is a true, relevant, up-to-date book. These conclusions altered the whole course of his life. After this he was posted to North Africa, where he served in Egypt, the Sudan, and Palestine.

While serving in Palestine, Prince met Lydia Christensen, a Danish woman who ran an orphanage in Ramallah and who had adopted eight girls (six of whom were Jewish). Despite Lydia being 25 years Prince�s senior, they married. Prince strongly supported the establishment of the State of Israel, which he saw as the fulfilling of Biblical prophecy, but he left for the UK with the last British convoy out of Jerusalem.

In the UK, Derek Prince used Speaker�s Corner in Hyde Park, London, to encourage people to join a Pentecostal church he was leading at his home in Notting Hill. In 1957 he and Lydia moved to Kisumu in Kenya, where he became a school principal and adopted a Kenyan baby. He claimed to have been instrumental in raising two people from the dead during this time.

In 1962, the Princes moved to Canada, and from there to a pastorate at Peoples Church in Minneapolis, becoming US citizens. From here they moved to Broadway Tabernacle in Seattle where he ministered along with James A Watt who he had met in Canada. During this time Derek Prince was becoming widely known through his cassette-tape Bible lectures, and he became involved with the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International. This led to a move to Faith Tabernacle in Chicago, and then to Good News Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. As a Pentecostal, Prince believed in the reality of spiritual forces operating the world, and of the power of demons to cause illness and psychological problems.

While in Seattle he was asked to perform an exorcism on a woman, and he came to believe that demons could attack Christians. This was at odds with the more usual Pentecostal view that demons could only affect non-Christians. Prince believed that his deliverance ministry used the power of God to defeat demons.

Prince also believed that the State of Israel was the fulfilment of Biblical prophecy, and that the collapse of the British Empire had been caused by Britain�s failure to support Israel in 1948. He saw Islam as demonically inspired, and shortly before his death stated that he feared the UK might become an Islamic nation.

In 1968 Prince joined the Holy Spirit Teaching Mission (HSTM), which linked him to three other Charismatic Christian pastors living in Ft. Lauderdale: Don Basham, Bob Mumford, and Charles Simpson. The HSTM had been founded by businessman Eldon Purvis; but after the discovery of Purvis�s homosexuality, Prince and the others formed Christian Growth Ministries (CGM).

In 1974, CGM sought to counter what were seen as excesses within the Charismatic movement by emphasising the authority of a few shepherds over their �sheep�. The group was joined by Ern Baxter, and the five men became known as the Fort Lauderdale Five. Their ministry became known as the Shepherding Movement.

CGM�s strong emphasis on submission was controversial. Lydia Prince herself disapproved, and as stories of abuses came out the movement was condemned by Pat Robertson, Kathryn Kuhlman, and the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International. Lydia died in 1975, and when Prince later wanted to marry Ruth Baker, his fellow shepherds forbade him. However, they later gave permission, and Prince was re-married in 1978.

Derek later repented in public over being a member of this group. Derek met the future Ruth Prince in Jerusalem, and based himself there for six months every year. Together they set up a Global Outreach program, which made materials from his ministry freely available for pastors around the world. A missionary named Ross Paterson arranged for his teachings to be broadcast by radio into China, where Prince is known as "Ye Guangming" literally "Clear Light").

Ruth died in 1998, and Derek followed in September 2003. He spent his last days in Jerusalem in the home of his friend Eliyahu Ben-Haim. Derek Prince published dozens of books and recorded over 400 audio teaching sermons. Books which he published include, The Grace of Yielding, The Foundations Series, The Destiny of Israel and the Church, The Last Word on the Middle East, "From Curse to Blessing", and Faith to Live By.

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Pastor Prince's page

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