Prince,
Peter Derek V.
(1915–2003)
Bible scholar and author Derek Prince died
in his sleep September 24 in Jerusalem of heart failure following a
prolonged period of declining health. Prince wrote over 45 books,
including Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting and The
Spirit-filled Believer’s Handbook—which have been translated and
distributed worldwide in over 60 languages. He pioneered teaching on such
groundbreaking themes as generational curses, the biblical significance of
Israel and demonology.
Born in Bangalore, India, into a British
military family, Prince was educated at Eton College and Cambridge
University (B.A. and M.A.) in England and later at Hebrew University,
Israel. As a student he was a philosopher and self-proclaimed atheist. He
was elected a fellow at King’s College, Cambridge.
While in the British Medical Corps during
World War II, Prince began to study the Bible as a philosophical work.
Converted through a powerful encounter with Christ, he was baptized in the
Holy Spirit a few days later. Discharged from the army in Jerusalem in
1945, he married Lydia Christensen, founder of a children’s home there.
Upon their marriage, he immediately became father to Lydia’s eight adopted
daughters—six Jewish, one Palestinian Arab, one English. In the late 1950s
the Princes adopted another daughter while he was serving as principal of
a college in Kenya.
In 1963 Prince immigrated to the United
States and pastored a church in Seattle. Stirred by the tragedy of John F.
Kennedy’s assassination, he began to teach Americans how to intercede for
their nation. In 1973 he became one of the founders of Intercessors for
America. His book Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting has
awakened Christians around the world to their responsibility to pray for
their government. Many consider underground translations of the book as
instrumental in the fall of communist regimes in the USSR, East Germany
and Czechoslovakia.
In 1968 he moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida,
and in the early ’70s worked closely with other noted Bible teachers Don
Basham, Ern Baxter, Bob Mumford and Charles Simpson.
Prince’s organization,
Derek Prince Ministries, distributes his work and teaches and trains
missionaries, church leaders and congregations through 12 worldwide
offices. His internationally recognized radio program, Keys to
Successful Living began in 1979 and has been translated into over a
dozen languages. It is estimated that Derek Prince’s teaching of the Bible
has covered more than half the globe.
Lydia Prince died in 1975, and Derek married
Ruth Baker (a single mother to three adopted children) in 1978. Ruth died
in December 1998 in Jerusalem where they had lived since 1981.
Prince taught and ministered on six continents over seven decades. In 2002
he said, “It is my desire—and I believe the Lord’s desire—that this
ministry continue the work God began through me over 60 years ago until
Jesus returns.” He is survived by 11 children and an extended family of
over 150 people. He was 88.
The funeral will be in Jerusalem on Friday,
September 26, with a memorial service to be held in Charlotte, North
Carolina, soon thereafter. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested
that donations be made to the Derek Prince Memorial Fund for the ongoing
work of Derek Prince Ministries (www.DPMusa.org).
