The Jesus Calling Books are an

Alarming New Age Deception

by Jeremy James

Thomas Nelson provides a platform for New Age theology

The publisher Thomas Nelson effectively declared war on true Biblical Christianity when it decided to publish and promote the writings of the modern contemplative mystic, Sarah Young, whose popular book, Jesus Calling, has sold several million copies. The following analysis demonstrates just how subversive this book really is.

Approach by this review

A detailed examination of the errors throughout her book would require several hundred pages. Therefore, we have restricted our analysis to a representative set of her ‘devotions’ only, namely those relating to the tenth of each month. 

The impression given throughout her book is that the person speaking is Jesus. The devotions are presented, not as a compilation of her own personal reflections, where an entity called ‘Jesus’ is employed as a literary device, but as actual messages dictated to her by Jesus. While she does not claim that her messages have the same weight as Scripture, each is understood by her to constitute a divine communication. She confirms this in her Introduction when she states:

“...I knew these writings were not inspired as Scripture is, but they were helping me grow closer to God...This practice of listening to God has increased my intimacy with Him more than any other spiritual discipline, so I want to share some of the messages I have received.” [emphasis added]

There is no gentle way to review a book like this. It makes astonishing claims and must therefore be subject to the most rigorous test of authenticity. If it passes the test – were that possible – then we can rejoice, but should it fail then it must be exposed as a dangerous occult concoction that will harm all who trust in it.

The Scripture references provided by Ms Young beneath each of her devotions, usually 2-3 in number, are intended by her to provide “additional depth” or otherwise to support the truth of her message. Tellingly she never gives the actual text of these verses, but we will include them here (from the KJV) to illustrate just how far she actually departs from the Scripture that she refers to.

Comment

These verses of Scripture do not support what Ms Young is saying. Rather they show that this life and the next are entirely different, having two separate treasuries. She makes the one treasury applicable to both, where some of one’s heavenly store may be drawn down in this life “for days of trouble.” This is suspiciously similar to the Roman Catholic ‘treasury of grace’, where believers accumulate merit through their good works, until one day they have earned enough to cancel out all their sins.

This devotion also treats faith or trust as a substance that one can accumulate. This too is false. Some heretical teachings today, such as Word Faith, teach the same error.

Conclusion: This devotion is seriously misleading.

Comment

These verses do not support what Ms Young is saying. Jesus was physically present with Mary and Martha, but no believer today is with Jesus in the same way. Jesus is physically today at the right hand of the Father. He will not return to earth again until the End Time. Before he ascended into heaven, Jesus said he would send “another Comforter”. This was the Holy Spirit, the vicar of Christ on earth, who dwells in every born-again believer. We address our Father in heaven in the name of his wonderful Son by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.

As Psalm 32:8 [above] makes clear, the guidance we receive from our Father is not based on dialogue. Rather the Psalm as a whole is saying that we will know what we ought to do to please Him when we repent of our sins and rejoice in our salvation. How He instructs us (apart from His Holy Word) is not stated here, neither is it revealed anywhere else in Scripture.

Ms Young is seriously confused. By her own admission, her relationship with God is based on a mystical presence or an inner voice that speaks to her, but Scripture never directs the believer to order his relationship with the LORD on that basis.

What is more, Ms Young fails to alert her readers to the dangers of demonic deception. In fact, in presenting her 366 mystical devotions, she never provides evidence of any kind that she herself performed the test of the spirits in 1 John 4:

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” (1 John 4:1-3)

The absence of basic discernment in this book is both inexplicable and inexcusable. John warned that the “spirit of antichrist” is already at work in the world. The “antichrist spirit” does not simply oppose Christ, but wherever possible it also seeks to take his place. This spirit is at its most dangerous when it is offering a beguiling counterfeit of the gospel while leading its victims to perdition.

Conclusion: This devotion is seriously misleading.

Comment

This devotion is saying that God has created a perfect day for each one of us. It is also saying that we should be “responsive” to it, watching out for signs of all that God is doing for our benefit.

The Scripture cited does not support what Ms Young is saying. God’s ways are perfect, but this world is not perfect. It is sin damaged and groaning under the weight of man’s sinful rebellion. Despite the awful condition of the world and man’s fallen state, God graciously condescends to guide all who look to him and trust in him. Even if a person endures suffering along the way, he can be assured that God is watching over him and guiding his steps in ways that he cannot understand.

The suggestion that man will see the perfect hand of God in his life if he lives “in a responsive mode” is not taught in Scripture. Our relationship with God is based on faith and prayer, not on signs of any kind, or on evidence of his involvement in the small details of our personal lives. If the Book of Job teaches anything it teaches that man should never lean on outward evidence of God’s faithfulness and mercy. Faith alone is the foundation for our relationship with God, not his “most tender concern” for the details of our lives.

Conclusion: This devotion is seriously misleading.

Comment

This is an astonishing statement by Ms Young (or her invisible friend), a statement that lies at the very heart of the New Age movement. Sin is treated as a misdemeanor and placed on a par with our mistakes. To say that sin can be “recycled” is to fail utterly to depict its true nature. There is nothing in sin that can be salvaged. It results only in death. And every sin must be paid for in full. Believers are greatly blessed – beyond measure – because Christ has paid our sin debt for us. But he did not use his “transforming grace” to “recycle” it.

To suggest that this is possible is to mock what Christ achieved for each one of us on the cross. Sin is so devastating that it led immediately to the fall of all mankind. By trivializing it in this way, Ms Young is playing right into the hands of the New Age movement, where sin is reduced to karma, an amoral act in an amoral universe, with no absolute implications whatever.

The verses selected by Ms Young to support her ‘devotion’ have no relevance to the point she is making.

Conclusion: This devotion is a grotesque distortion of Biblical truth.

Comment

The Bible never teaches that problems are opportunities. This notion is part of the ‘transformation’ philosophy that permeates the New Age movement, where one’s attitude – a mental disposition – determines one’s success at turning problems into opportunities.

It is significant that the words ‘depend’ or ‘dependence’ do not appear anywhere in the Bible (KJV). Neither does the word ‘intimacy’. Our relationship with the LORD is not based on dependence or intimacy – which are psychological or emotional terms – but on faith and trust. Throughout her book Ms Young replaces a Biblical relationship with God by an emotional, psychological one, where feeling and ‘presence’ become the yardsticks that determine how ‘close’ we are to God.

As she states in her Introduction, she has craved all her life for an “encounter with the Presence of Jesus”.  She doesn’t seem to understand that we will encounter Jesus only when we die or when we are taken up in the Rapture. While we are here on this earth we are awaiting his return, not seeking his Presence. He is with us through the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, but the Bible never teaches that this carries with it a feeling or sensation of any kind. The Word of God feeds our hearts and facilitates our sanctification as we grow in Christ. But this is not enough for Ms Young. As she states in her Introduction: “I knew that God communicated with me through the Bible, but I yearned for more.” This, alas, is the source of all her confusion and her disastrous foray into mysticism. The mystic, for all his experiences and ecstasies, for all his moving encounters with the ‘presence’ of ‘god’, is actually in rebellion against God and His Holy Word. And so is Ms Young.

Conclusion: This devotion is seriously misleading.

Comment

The ‘journey’ concept is common throughout the occult, Freemasonry, and the New Age movement. The outer journey reflects the inner journey, in accordance with the occult principle “as above, so below”. Man is supposedly progressing through a series of stages in his ‘spiritual unfoldment’ as he advances toward his ‘divine goal’.

No one in the Bible was on a spiritual journey of self-discovery. All men are fallen. They are cut off from God by sin and need a Redeemer. There are therefore only two kinds of people on earth today, those who have accepted our Redeemer and those who have not. The Enemy tries to sow confusion by talking about ‘journeys’, as though our works and our ‘life experiences’ somehow contributed to our ‘spiritual unfoldment’. This is the great Satanic lie. Salvation cannot come through works of any kind, or through experiences of any kind, or through a journey of any kind. Salvation is found only in Christ. And once we are born again, we serve our Redeemer with selflessness and joy.

What is meant by “feel the strong grip of My hand holding yours”? Again, feeling is used as a gauge for measuring one’s relationship with Christ. But the Bible never asks us to measure our relationship with Christ or to validate its existence in any way. In fact, we are never asked to use our feelings to validate anything! The Bible talks again and again about knowledge and understanding, not feelings. We believe the Word of God because it is true, not because we feel it is true. Alas, Ms Young is exhorting her readers to seek some kind of mystical contact with Christ, whether through imagination or visualization. But this is dangerous! It is nothing less than an invitation to the fallen angels to supply the supernatural impulse that will feed our emotional need. When imagination or visualization are used in this way, they open a door to the occult.

Once again, the Bible verses mentioned by Ms Young have no application whatever to the bogus spirituality that she is trying to teach.

Conclusion: This devotion is seriously misleading and potentially dangerous.

Comment

The place where the mystic communes with his ‘god’ is often referred to as a “sacred space”. Sometimes a shaman will cleanse his “sacred space” to rid it of demons. New Agers often set aside a “sacred space” for meditation and cleanse it with incense.

Christians do not have a “sacred space” where they commune with their “intimate Friend”. The Bible does not teach this! Neither does it instruct us to relax into a “peaceful Presence”, but Hinduism does, and Buddhism, and the occult literature of the Roman Catholic mystics.

If one reads the reports of the Marian visionaries of Medjugorje, where the so-called Virgin Mary has been “appearing” for over 30 years, one finds the same tender emphasis on love, peace, and presence, the same emotional manipulation, and the same haughty indifference to all that the Bible has said in the matter.

The face behind the Marian apparitions is Satan, who is adept at disguising himself as a benign angel of light. Our earlier paper, Satan in Satin, examines what the Enemy is trying to achieve through his Marian apparitions. He uses “silly women”, as Paul put it, to spread his lies and lead people astray. Cloistered Catholic nuns crave these kinds of experience – mystical meetings with ‘Jesus’ and ‘Mary’ – and Satan will sometimes oblige, especially if his devious ‘messages’ can be used to corrupt sound doctrine. Sadly, as more women crave these experiences, the net of deception is spread even wider.

Conclusion: This devotion is seriously misleading.

Comment

This is a shamelessly New Age perversion of Biblical truth. The King James version of the Bible translates Psalm 119:105 as “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” However, Ms Young does not quote the KJV translation but a Gnostic corruption:  “My Word is a lamp to your feet; My Presence is a Light for your path.”

There is a vast difference between “Thy word is...a light unto my path” and “My Presence is a Light for your path.” What devastation is wrought in the life of any Christian who falls into this trap! God’s Word is God’s Word! It is not a Presence or a mystical communication of any kind.

This poisonous ‘devotion’ is unspeakably dangerous. The reader is being tricked into connecting a mystical presence with God’s Holy Word – the Bible itself! – and then relying on that Presence and its mystical communication for his spiritual instruction and guidance. Her invisible friend even states “As you walk close to Me, saturating your mind with Scripture...”, thus confirming that the continual practice or awareness of this Presence is equivalent to filling one’s mind with Scripture.

This mystical foolishness will destroy many lives in the years ahead and wreak havoc in the church. It is heresy and false teaching of the worst kind!

Even if her readers do not fall completely into this trap, they will likely come away with the impression that the Bible, when it is read, should be studied under the ‘guidance’ of this so-called Presence. The truth of what God is saying will be shrouded in mysticism and the objective meaning of His word – What is God saying? – will be replaced by a subjective distortion, What is God saying to me?

This meditative, mind-emptying way of studying the Bible is already widely practised in lectio divina, a Roman Catholic method of Bible ‘study’ that has won many adherents among evangelicals. It is Gnostic and harmful. By departing from a study method based on reason and replacing it with one based on feeling and intuition, the student is unable to understand what God is actually saying. The meaning of the text changes with each reading, and from person to person, in accordance with subjective factors that have no bearing whatever on the truth and meaning of God’s Word.

Ms Young’s inner guide also refers in this devotion to the power of the Presence to “transform” the individual. But what does that mean? Does it mean sanctification? Hardly, since nothing of this kind is ever mentioned. Instead, the reader is left to gravitate toward the Gnostic view of spiritual transformation that permeates popular culture, which has nothing whatever to do with Biblical justification or sanctification.

Conclusion: This devotion is laced with the Serpent’s venom.

Comment

As stated earlier, Jesus is with each born-again believer through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Toward the close of his ministry, he told his disciples that he was going to his Father but that he would send another Comforter. This is the Holy Spirit who enables us to pray to our Father in the name of his wonderful Son. Christ restored to us the relationship with our Father that mankind lost at the Fall. The Father is all-knowing but He is not in the world or part of the world. He is not a mystical Presence!

To practice the presence of God, as Brother Lawrence taught, and as so many professing Christians teach today, is a very serious spiritual error. Our Father is not ‘present’ with us in the same way that an angel may be present. In fact our Father does not operate in the world in any way that our minds can understand or that any faculty of our being can apprehend.

So who benefits from a teaching based on a supernatural ‘Presence’? Lucifer, of course! He is both part of Creation and present in Creation. Therefore Christians who seek out and respond to a ‘presence’ and strive to communicate with it are being incredibly foolish.

We do not need to strive to find God since the Holy Spirit is already dwelling within each and every born-again believer. Jesus confirmed that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth: “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). Note the words “all truth” – we don’t need angelic instruction of any kind.

Ms Young seems to believe that if this ‘Presence’ is comforting or reassuring in some way then it must be from God. But this is absurd! Satan is quite capable of projecting a soothing persona, as his numerous Marian apparitions attest. The Bible gives one and only one test that must be performed whenever a supernatural presence attempts to communicate with us. This may be found in 1 John 4 (which we have already discussed).

Conclusion: This devotion is seriously misleading.

Comment

The Scripture cited does not support the thoughts expressed in this devotion.

Ms Young’s invisible friend has a “Love-Light” that never dims. This is very similar to the astral intimacy and emotional intensity that are expressed in Sufi poetry by mystics like Rumi and Hafiz, but it is certainly not Biblical. The light that fills the mind and heart of Rumi is that of his guru, Sham-i-Tabriz. That light had a powerful effect on Rumi, a lifelong Muslim, but it was not the light of Christ.

Satan is known as “Lucifer”, the Light Bearer, because he has a false light, a truly brilliant radiance that can overpower the human senses: “Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness” (Ezekiel 28:17). Mystics down the centuries have yearned for this light and been intoxicated by it. The Catholic nuns mentioned in this paper were addicted to this false light, to the intense emotions that it evoked, and to the presence from which it emanated.

There is no difference between the light of the Roman Catholic mystics, the light of the Sufi mystics, the light of the Hindu and Buddhist mystics, and the light described by Ms Young. It is perceived as a “love-light” by our fallen human nature, but it is a false light, the light of the Enemy.

As Christ warned, “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:23)

Conclusion: This devotion is spiritual poison.