What's Wrong With Jesus Calling?

Jesus Calling and Claims of Extra-Biblical Revelation

Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young, is one of the best-selling devotional books ever. The book is written in the first-person voice of Jesus speaking to the reader. And this isn't merely creative writing.

Young claims to have been given extra-biblical revelation from God. Jesus Calling was written out of a spirit of discontentment. Bible study and prayer were not enough for Young anymore. She wanted a different feeling.

She read an old book entitled God Calling, in which two anonymous women claimed to have received words of God. Following their example, Young sat in a quiet room with pen in hand and asked God to speak to her.

Whatever she sensed He was saying, she wrote it down. These, she claimed, were the words of Jesus, who sounds strangely like a 21st-century American evangelical woman peddling soft pick-me-ups for Lifeway, instead of the Son of God preaching convicting truth.

Scripture Alone and the Problem of New Revelation

Now, Young has said her words were not inspired by God, as only Scripture is. But what does that mean? We're told in 2 Timothy 3 .16 that all Scripture is breathed out by God. What God says, and is written down, is Scripture, and every word is the highest authority.

So Young has either written the words of Jesus, and therefore Scripture, or she hasn't. If she hasn't received a word from the Lord, but claims she has, and made a lot of money off of it, is that not the very picture of a false prophet?

The Sufficiency of Scripture and the Warning Against False Prophets

The Bible is God's sufficient word. We don't need new revelation. Beware these crazy women who claim God has spoken to them apart from Scripture. The Bible calls them liars when we understand the text.