Yahoo! Singapore reports the following:
Video of City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee’s sermon ignites online outrage
[UPDATE on 30 July: Adding details about when Kong could have delivered his sermon]
City Harvest Church founder and senior pastor Kong Hee has found his way in controversy again — this time for a comment he made in what appeared to be a sermon at a church conference held in Australia last year.
In a video posted on YouTube by user anointedforworship on Sunday, Kong, who is accused of criminal breach of trust and misappropriating church building funds, claimed that God apologised to him for his struggles.
“‘Father, Father, why, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me and thrown me to the dogs?'” he was recorded as saying, after relating the experience of Jesus Christ on the cross at his crucifixion and sharing that he identified with that kind of suffering.
“For the first time in eight months, God, I heard Him cry. And he said ‘My son, Kong, thank you. Thank you for going through this. I need you to go through this alone, so that you and City Harvest Church can be the man and the ministry I call it to be. I’m so sorry, but you need to go through this by yourself, to bring a change to your generation,” Kong said.
Applause was heard from the congregation, and Kong continued, “I hear God saying for the first time in eight months, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you’. Waves upon waves of God’s love, the love of the father just saturated me… and I know everything’s going to be all right. Everything is going to be all right.”
Watch the video here:
Kong seems to have delivered the sermon in question at the 2012 C3 Presence Conference, held in Sydney in April last year. This would have happened before the news that he and five other church leaders were being investigated for embezzlement broke in June last year, although it later emerged that investigations by the Commercial Affairs Division (CAD) began in 2010.
According to a blog post dated 7 August 2012 by megachurch watchdog C3 Church Watch, the same excerpt of Kong’s speech was quoted ad verbatim with a link to the official video of his full sermon.
Watch it here:
Reaction to the video was overwhelmingly negative. Since the video excerpt was first uploaded on Sunday, it was thumbed down 750 times, compared to less than 30 thumbs up, and received more than 230 comments, most of them scathing.
Raising particular ire was Kong’s seeming suggestion that God apologised to him for his having to endure the challenges of past months, during which court charges for misappropriation of funds were made against the six accused.
“I thought comparing himself to Jesus was presumptuous,” commented a 24-year-old student who declined to be named. “Saying that he heard God apologising to him for his legal troubles was completely shocking to me.”
“I don’t think there’s anywhere in the Bible that said God said sorry for crucifying His son,” added another Baptist Christian, who did not want to be named. “His (Kong’s) doctrine is all wrong.”
Some City Harvest churchgoers think Kong’s sharing might have been misinterpreted or taken out of context, however.
A 23-year-old worshipper, who attended the church in her younger days and only recently returned, told Yahoo! Singapore the sermon was about how God empathises with Kong’s plight and is reassuring him.
“From a spiritual point of view, and from my own relationship with God, the God that I know and have a relationship with is assuring Kong that He knows the struggles that Kong is going through,” she said. “God is coming from a position of love and assurance. He puts us through fire to purify and to strengthen us, so that we will come forth as gold.”
Tuition teacher Kellyn Low, who also attends the church, added that she hopes secular people don’t get the wrong idea from the video, even though she acknowledged there was cause for misunderstanding, noting that he could have expressed himself better.
“I don’t think that people should interpret it as God saying sorry to Pastor Kong. He just means that he has to go through tests like Jesus did to share his faith with the world,” she said.
Separately, Chew Eng Han, one of the six church leaders currently on trial, announced his exit from the church last month. Chew was a board member and fund manager for the church, who played the leading role in its $100 million investment into Suntec Singapore. He also channelled millions of dollars in church funds into Xtron Productions, the firm that backed Kong’s wife Sun Ho’s music career.
In a series of posts on a blog, Chew, who also withdrew all affiliations his company Business Breakthrough Group Limited had with the church, alluded to disagreements he had with the top brass of its ranks by referring to issues relating to the “manner of conduct of some of (City Harvest’s) pastors and senior leaders”.
Responding to Chew’s exit and accusations, however, the church’s management board said in a statement two days later that following “appropriate reviews” since the Commercial Affairs Division’s investigation, they had “satisfied” themselves that the church’s leadership is upright and honest.
“We wish to reiterate that… we have full trust in the integrity, honesty and spiritual standing of the pastoral leadership of City Harvest Church,” wrote Lee Kiam Hiong, secretary of the church’s management board.
Yahoo! Singapore has contacted City Harvest Church for comment in response to reaction to Kong’s video.
Additional reporting by Melissa Law and Elizabeth Soh
Source: Jeanette Tan, (Additional reporting by Melissa Law and Elizabeth Soh), Yahoo! Newsroom (Singapore), http://sg.news.yahoo.com/video-of-city-harvest-church-founder-kong-hee%E2%80%99s-sermon-ignites-online-outrage-174425261.html, 30/07/2013. (Accessed 31/07/2013.)
We have written the transcript and analysed what Kong Hee said in the above article in an older article here.
C3 Church Watch 
I don’t find anywhere in Scripture God ever saying thank you or sorry to Jesus, or anyone else of lesser nature.
Why the masses are deceived is because of over positivity or putting on colored lenses – especially in religious matters or o in reference to religious institution.
You can see him as a desperate man talking to God. I see him, and many like him(all religious leaders) , basically talking to ” Himself” (god)
And that accounts for the many different “voices” and interpretations of the scriptures from religious leaders.
And why should you believe what I say over an established( highly controversial) religious institution?
Well, take the “Elijah’s challenge”. Call out the Christian God and he will not show up for the simple reason they have failed to understand the obscure/metaphorical writings. Such a personal God does not exist and if pursued(becomes idolatry) will only bring divisions, strives and bloody conflicts in the world( history attested to that).
To continue in the Christian fallacy(which is foolishness) is to destabilize the world and your nation.
The call is to come out of her!(not to do so will result in history repeating itself)
As reported in the Christian Post:
http://www.christianpost.com/news/kong-hees-apology-from-god-taken-out-of-context-says-city-harvest-church-101154/cpf
—————————————————————————————————————
Response comment from a former CHC member and cgl (cell group leader) Ronald Wong…
“Surprised by the reaction of the clip as compared to other controversial clips ever found… It’s as if you touched the finished work of Christ and then…. Scary man…
One savior.
One finished work.
One cross.
One suffered for the salvation of all.
God through the bible allowed the old testament characters to be a typology of Jesus n the finished work. God through the bible sent Jesus to fulfil the Word written in the old testament. The old testament always reveals Jesus and the new testament confirms the old. The bible interprets the bible for consistency. The Father’s love is characterised within these context – that He sent His own Son.
There’s no need for another man to typify Christ. It’s rubbish n heresy once you touch that – no man should draw a parallel of himself n Jesus. We are “in Christ” with Christlikeness BUT we are not Christ to go through the kind of suffering (alone) – and certainly not one involving criminal investigation (considering the clip was before the charges came) which was the context being framed. What did he make of my God?
Looking at the approx 8 minutes sub-context of the whole message which was carefully framed to parallel Jesus on the cross:
You can argue in the word “sorry”. Ok so I take it God is “sympathetic that he is investigated for cbt n falsifying accounts”.
Then let’s look further into “thank you for going through this ALONE (note the tonal emphasis)”.
The clip is not taken out of context – rather, there’s a subliminal context within the legitimate context that was taken out of context by the one delivering it to draw sympathy n emotional buy in of the audience. In leadership studies we call this “the dark side of charismatic leadership” (you can refer authors like Powell, Coleman, Stolt and the biography of Hitler himself) n it has got nothing to do with Christianity. For goodness let the bible interprete the bible.
You can stone me if you like and I won’t give a damn. But this is plain nonsense and I’ve given my opinion.
Nobody is judging/pre-judging the greatest man – just highlighting the subtle message in the legitimate sermon. And this should be viewed from a doctrinal point.
We should not expect deception to be clearly shown in their face. But if satan can deceive eve using legitimate means of God’s word n if he can omit n twist the word in Psalm 91 in the second temptation of Jesus, then we also should be aware n be on our guard.
We should all defend n speak up for the ppl n family we love. But we also need to understand the situation and not blindly pursue a defence just because someone in authority (ren min de sheng yin) sent a message about the meaning of “sorry”. I’ve been there n done that, n the process is extremely painful when you just operate on trust n realise later there’s more than meets the eye.”
Well, it’s nice for God to “thank” Kong “for going through this alone”. Does that mean the others charged are guilty?
So… out of all the misery in the world, the killing, the torture, people shooting children because they demand an education, God chooses to speak to this rich guy and he’s “so sorry” because he’s having a hard time with the legal system?
Just a thought: Maybe it’s not God giving him a hard time, maybe it’s as simple as cause and effect. If your actions give authorities the impression that you are involved in large scale fraud, guess what? They will investigate. Even worse, they’ll prosecute if they have cause to believe you actually did commit a crime.
This guy is nothing more than a snake oil salesman. I have to say I am impressed with his acting/preforming abilities though, but I guess that’s a prerequisite for being able to fleece a room full of impressionable people.
Who knows, if it all goes pear shaped for him he could join Pat Mesiti in trying to teach people how to become millionaires for a small fee?
Why is Kong Hee blaming God. As if God told him to take the money. Man up and take responsibilty and STOP abusing God’s name. For God’s sake!
I think Kong Hee needs to realize that the show is over, the curtain is down and no one is clapping! It’s over!
Have you watched their videos? Despite negative publicities, he is still packing in the house. Not only him, Joseph Prince is doing “raving business” too.
Oh, how very very deep is the deception! Woe to that city which allows such deceptions!
what is this Mickey Mouse [edited]? God said thank you to kong hee? Said sorry to kong hee? Kong hee’s suffering will bring change to this generation ??? Kong hee and the others used 13million from the building fund to invest in xtron knowing full well xtron funds sun ho’s music ” career” and has little income from other means. If this is not CBT and mis use of church money , what is? Then the bonds are redeemed via advance rental agreement in which chc pumps in another 15 million ??!! What ??? Ain’t nobody got time for that !!! JAIL KONG HEE!!
If you feel you have been harmed by a bad investment see John Lawrence Allen – https://c3churchwatch.com/2013/07/31/people-outraged-over-kong-hees-comments/