Jesus Calling: A Competent Witness

A response to An Answer to the Critics of Jesus Calling 

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The family of deceased author Sarah Young has published a defense of her Jesus Calling. They identify five criticisms brought against the book, characterizing them as misinformed. For each of the five, the Youngs supply answers to dispel their legitimacy. While their contribution to the discussion deserves full attention, they single out the fifth criticism as a “bizarre” accusation. Given the very limited and often caricatured depiction of occult methodology and experience in common familiarity, the Youngs’ answer to “Criticism #5– Written By Demons” deserves a witness competent to validate or invalidate it.

My name is Doreen Virtue, and prior to God saving me in 2017, I wrote best-selling channeled books that were similar to Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling books. 

I also wrote an app that consisted of channeled messages in the first-person voicing of Jesus giving comforting messages. I prayed before I channeled these messages, and I was confident that it was actually Jesus. People told me that this app and my channeled books gave them comfort and hope. An observer who didn’t know the Bible well would’ve said that these publications were “good fruit.”

I regularly conducted this sort of channeling in front of audiences on stages around the world, delivering messages that were supposedly from audience members’ guardian angels, and even from Jesus. There was nothing abnormal about my behavior when I was channeling. I had my eyes open, I was fully conscious, and I was engaging with people around me. Just like the argument about Sarah Young seeming normal when she channeled her messages, my channeling actions weren’t like those Hollywood movies where I had a crystal ball or went into a trance. My point is that the outside observances of someone’s behavior isn’t a determining factor of what type of spirit that person is communicating with. 

Similarly when I wrote my channeled books and the “Jesus Guidance app,” there were no theatrics involved. I was on a comfortable chair in my home office, and faithfully writing down what I thought I was hearing from Jesus. 

Now, when I look back on those messages, I see that they contradicted what Jesus said in the Bible. We must test the spirits, the Apostle John exhorted in 1 John 4:1. If a spirit doesn’t confess Jesus biblically, then it is the spirit of the antichrist.

The Apostle Paul warned the early church in Corinth that the devil masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). From my experience, as a former channeler, the devil masquerades as Jesus for some people as well. This is why we must compare every jot and tittle to the God-breathed all-sufficient inerrant Holy Bible. 

In the next verse, Paul continues his warning to the Corinthians by explaining that the devil’s servants often appear to be workers of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11:15). This is what I was before God opened my eyes. I didn’t realize that I was channeling a false voice. The voice seemed so comforting and loving. People were comforted by the messages. When they would meet me, they would cry and say that I was an angel sent from God because of my writings. I appeared to be a worker of righteousness. How tragic that I learned that I had actually been a servant of the devil with those writings.

Praise God that he opened my eyes so that I could repent while there was still time, and publicly renounce all of my previous writing. I’ve spent the past eight years apologizing to the public, and asking people to burn or throw away my old channeled writings. I walked away from making millions of dollars a year with those publications, because I wanted nothing to do with false teachings. 

My point is that the devil is crafty and cunning. He looks for compassionate people who sincerely want to help, and he gives them assignments that can seem “Christian,“ but which veer from the Bible. Sarah Young may have been 100% sincere in her desire to share messages from Jesus. But she should have only delivered messages that are actually in our God-breathed Bible. She could have given commentaries on biblical passages, or written comforting devotionals. But she should not have written messages in a first person voice, as if that was Jesus. 

I’m upset that Sarah’s husband and church elders didn’t disciple her and stop the practice before it became the runaway train of deception called Jesus Calling. As someone who was raised in a false gospel church with an unbiblical upbringing about Jesus, I can tell you how deeply it hurts a person to be taught a false version of Jesus. I have righteous anger now toward anyone who portrays Jesus differently than the Bible.

My books were best-sellers, because people want their itching ears tickled. We can’t equate book sales with theological soundness. In fact, books and television shows that are not biblical are usually the most successful from a worldly standpoint. We also can’t equate peoples’ emotional reactions to books, as a barometer of the book’s theological soundness. People raved about my books, and constantly told me how much my books helped them. But I didn’t point them to the True Jesus, so I was not helping them. I was actually hurting them with a false portrayal of Jesus. The same thing is happening with the Jesus Calling books. Comforting someone does not equate to evangelism. Only by telling people about sin, repentance, the reality of hell, and what Jesus did for us on the cross are we helping people. 

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Doreen Virtue holds a Master’s degree in Biblical & Theological Studies with highest honors from Western Seminary (2021), and an MA in Counseling Psychology from Chapman University (1988). Doreen is the author of “How to Avoid New Age & New Thought Deception.” Doreen and her husband are active members of a Baptist church. 

Prior to being saved by God‘s grace and mercy in 2017, Doreen was a psychotherapist specializing in women’s issues, rated in the top 15 most influential living spiritual teachers by Watkins, and the top selling new age author in the world. She was born and raised in new thought churches which she attended for 33 years, before segueing to New Age in 1991.

Before her salvation, Doreen frequently appeared on Oprah, CNN, The View, Coast to Coast and other secular media. After the Holy Spirit convicted her of her sins, while she read Deuteronomy 18:10-12, Doreen repented and gave her life to Jesus as her Lord and Savior. 

Doreen volunteers in discipling women who’ve been saved out of New Age in a private Facebook group. Doreen was a speaker at the Answers in Genesis 2025 women’s conference at the Ark Encounter. She has been featured on American Gospel 3, American Gospel TV, Daily Wire, Moody Radio, Spillover, Christianity Today, Cultish, New York Magazine, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, Servants of Grace, and other Christian media.