Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2:15
We have been approached in the recent past with questions regarding the book Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. It was a book we were familiar with, having read some of it a couple years ago. So when we were approached, we began to research it a little more. What we found was enough to raise concerns. Was this book Biblical? Could Jesus talk to Sarah Young like this? Was it right for her to “yearn for more” like she says in her introduction?
New Age Practices and Concepts
In our research, we came across the book Another Jesus Calling: How False Christs are Entering the Church Through Contemplative Prayer by Warren B. Smith. Warren Smith is a Christian author and speaker whom God rescued out of the New Age. His book The Light That Was Dark: From the New Age to Amazing Grace is his testimony and one we recommend wholeheartedly. (local folks are welcome to borrow either book of Warren Smith’s from us)
This is what he says regarding Jesus Calling:
Having been formerly involved in the New Age movement, I became immediately concerned when I read the book. It was troubling for me to see a number of New Age practices and concepts being presented as completely normal for Christians. Even more troubling, there were no warnings or disclaimers about what was being introduced. By the end of the book, Jesus Calling and its “Jesus” had subtly and not so subtly introduced occult/New Age channeling, spiritual dictation, creative visualization, meditation, divine alchemy, co-creation with God, and practicing the presence like it was everyday fare. (Another Jesus Calling, p. 12-13)
In Another Jesus Calling, Warren B. Smith goes through his concerns not only with Jesus Calling, but the book that inspired Sarah Young to write it – the book, God Calling. In her introduction, she calls this book “a treasure to me”. (*Update: this was only in the first publication, all others have had these references to God Calling erased from them. But the truth about it still remains.) However, God Calling is listed in the Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs as a channeled book.
On page 24 of Another Jesus Calling, Warren says this:
God Calling is a channeled book that was delivered through an occult process known as spiritual dictation. As previously mentioned, I had this book on my bookshelf with all my other New Age/metaphysical books when I was involved in the New Age movement many years ago.
He include a testimony of a woman who initially loved Jesus Calling, but who eventually abandoned it. This is her testimony:
I was given Jesus Calling as a gift from a friend who had previously shared what I was suffering: postpartum depression. She claimed this book would help me, and bring me peace.
I found peace in Sarah Young’s book. Every day’s devotion was a new light for me that invited a new presence in my home; Jesus’ presence. This new “Jesus” presence that I was reading about {seemed} more powerful than the God of the Bible. I remember thinking “This is not the Jesus I know.” I was so enamored and fixed on this peace, and His presence, and the picture of His hand on the cover of the book that I started imagining God (literally) walking by my side everywhere I went. I started putting the devotions above God’s Word and would justify to myself that each devotion was more powerful than reading God’s Word. This peace I thought I had was so convincing and real that I thought I had found a better way to read God’s Word. I remember God’s Holy Spirit speaking to me during these months of false peace by putting this question in my mind – “Is this book above the Bible?” Or “Is this book more important than my Word?”
Once I realized that I had defiled God’s presence with a false book, I understood that the Jesus in Jesus Calling was not the Jesus of Christianity or my fearful God that the Bible talks about, but a God whom I imagined to be my equal. (Another Jesus Calling, p. 126-127)
Not Testing the Spirits
Parts of Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling (in this man’s opinion) are an example of Satan as an “Angel of Light” in modern day shoe leather. The authority of the spirit speaking to her is never challenged, but blindly accepted at face value. The spirit uses “feel good platitudes” to twist the truth of the Bible. Encouraging her to “rest by the wayside” and use “the road less traveled” is a subtle encouragement to take it easy instead of swimming upstream and dealing with the hardships the Bible says Christians will face. As well as alluding to blatant new age/mystic books by the same titles.
Young never questions the authority of this “Jesus spirit” even though God in His Word commanded us to test the spirits we are confronted with in 1 John 4:1 and pray for discernment in James 1:5. We are also warned in 1 Timothy 4:1 that “some will give heed to seducing spirits” in the last days.
All in all – the flattering, “feel good” attitude and Scripture-twisting approach of Young’s “Jesus” bring to mind the same questions and doubts that Satan brought to Eve in the Garden of Eden……….“Yea hath God said?” It is not my intent to pass judgement on the whole book as unscriptural but parts of it definitely are. It concerns me that people in our Christian churches are reading this (and other gateway new age devotional books) with little discernment and without trying of the spirits via comparison to the holy, inerrant Word of God!
Truth and Error
We also asked Ted Byler to read Another Jesus Calling and share his thoughts on Sarah Young’s book, Jesus Calling. Ted is a Bible scholar and the author of The Mystery of Christ in the Revelation. These are what his thoughts were on Jesus Calling:
By her own admission, Sarah Young was motivated to write Jesus Calling after reading the New-Age book, God Calling, using similar techniques of meditation, contemplative prayer, and spiritual dictation that mysticism employs. “I knew that God communicated with me through the Bible, but I yearned for more,” she writes. Like the two human mediums in God Calling, Young wanted to sit, pen in hand, and receive messages directly from Jesus as she communed with God. “Increasingly, I wanted to hear what God had to say to me personally on a given day,” she says. This discontent, or non-sufficiency of the Scriptures, is the basis of her book – the wish for something more, something beyond the Bible. For while she says she believes the Bible is inerrant, she did not find it sufficient to her need.
It is this idea that I find most worrisome about Jesus Calling. The desire for something more has been at the heart of a slew of erroneous beliefs and cults. In her times of contemplative prayer, Young supposedly heard directly from Jesus, and she wrote down what He was saying – in first person, for Jesus was supposedly speaking to her. Here’s a sample: “I want My Body of believers to be radiant with the Light of My Presence. How I grieve when pockets of darkness increasingly dim the Love-Light. Return to Me, your First Love! Gaze at Me in the splendor of holiness, and My Love will once again envelop you in Light…” Is this really Jesus’ wish? Why is it not found in the Bible? Apparently it is a “new revelation.” For although Young says Jesus Calling is simply her own personal messages from Jesus, the fact is inescapable that she has recorded them as a spiritual revelation received by her and given for the benefit of others. It is more than Jesus speaking to her, the book is intended to be Jesus speaking through her to others. And while book sales show that it has been very successful, it is based in a deception that the Scriptures directly warn against (2Cor 11:4; Gal 1:8).
Rather than characterize Jesus Calling as Biblically unsound, I would say it is extremely one-dimensional. Over and over again, the Love of Jesus is emphasized, it is a Love-Light, a warm mist, a Presence, a cocoon of Light, etc. Virtually never is mentioned the NT description of the Christian life as a one of suffering, tribulation, and struggle (2Tim 3:12; Mat 10:34, 16:24). Rather, Young’s messages from Jesus are always soothing and pleasant to the ears, filled with flowery, restful expressions that describe vague spiritualisms and peaceful, relaxing mystical experiences (2Tim 4:3). They do not at all concord with the NT portrayal of the Christian experience in this life, but they do coincide with a yearning for “something more.”
It has been said that the greatest damages the Kingdom of God has suffered since the Apostles committed God’s will for man in the Holy Scriptures has been inflicted by well-intentioned Christians. A mixture of truth and error has been a very successful form of deception in the Devil’s arsenal. The “Jesus” in Jesus Calling implies that the highest form of Christianity is hearing directly from Him and “experiencing His Presence.” This does not concord with the New Testament’s portrayal of the Christian life as one of suffering, self-denial, a battle to overcome (Rev 3:21). Nor does it agree with the fact that the Spirit-taught Scriptures are the Christian’s guide, and they are adequate for every need.
This post is one that is very hard for us to publish. So please remember we post this out of love for our Lord, and great concern that the Bride of Christ remain unspotted from the world.
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If you do nothing else, please take the time to listen to this interview with Warren Smith regarding his concerns with Jesus Calling. It will help you understand better why we have the concern we do!
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You can also purchase Another Jesus Calling and The Light That Was Dark at either Lighthouse Trails Publishing or Amazon.
Truth mixed with error is equivalent to all error, except that it is more innocent-looking and, therefore, more dangerous. God hates such a mixture! Any error, or any truth-and-error mixture, calls for definite exposure and repudiation.
To condone such is to be unfaithful to God and His Word and treacherous to imperiled souls for whom Christ died.
~ Dr. Harry Ironside
(Another Jesus Calling, p. 125)
We believe in the inerrancy and sufficiency of the Scriptures. Jesus said, “Thy Word is truth.” And so we not only believe it, we also base our worldview upon it.