Chris Lawson of Spiritual Research Network has posted a compelling online booklet titled Striking Similarities Between God Calling and the Jesus Calling Series. If you have friends or family members who are reading Jesus Calling, this project presented by SRN may be very helpful in pointing out to Jesus Calling readers that Jesus Calling has many similarities to the occultic New Age book, God Calling. Here is the introduction to this online booklet (you can download the entire booklet free from SRN’s website – see link below):
Introduction
Sarah Young’s best-selling 2004 book Jesus Calling and its sequels appear to be sound, biblical devotionals because of their familiar Christian language, occasional orthodox statements, and abundant scripture references. However, a detailed study reveals remarkable parallels with the best-selling 1935 devotional God Calling, a book “replete with denials of biblical teaching.”
A few similarities are apparent at first glance: the text is written as if “Jesus” is speaking directly to the reader, the narrative voice is soothing and reassuring, and the messages are sprinkled with scripture fragments. But beyond the structural parallels, there are considerable overlaps in content—the books share distinctive word choice, phrasing, and ideas throughout.
To establish how closely God Calling and the Jesus Calling series are linked, a detailed comparison is presented here. This booklet is a collection of 270 quotations from eight of Young’s devotionals compared with quotations from God Calling. The quantity and detail of the similarities suggest that God Calling substantially influenced the writing of the Jesus Calling series.
In fact, the original introduction to Jesus Calling explicitly acknowledged an inspirational influence from God Calling. While this acknowledgement was redacted in later editions, the influence remains. The original introduction is presented along with the revised version in Appendix A. Click here to continue reading or to download the entire booklet.
In response to Elizabeth Bennett’s comment, Marie Chapian published a devotional of the same style in 1987, entitled His Thoughts Toward Me. This was prior to Sarah Young’s first book.
To deny or redact the influence of “God Calling” from “Jesus Calling” is disingenuous and either boarders upon or is most definitely plagiarism. While I admire the anonymity of the “authors” of “God Calling” – if it influenced Sarah Young in her writings, it should be named. When I first saw “Jesus Calling” in stores, I was disturbed by the lack of connection made by the author, Sarah Young, to the decades old “God Calling” spiritual companion and took it as an affront to seek personal gain from the works of those who sought to remain anonymous. I finally broke down and purchased one of Sarah Young’s “Jesus Calling” books on sale and was terribly troubled by her introduction that gives absolutely no mention of the A.J. Russell edited book, “God Calling.” While I do not doubt Sarah Young’s personal revelations and walk with Christ, I am troubled by why she would deny or redact the influence of “God Calling” when she goes into great detail in regard to inspiration of “her” book. Dare I say that if A.J. Russell or the anonymous 3 writers of “God Calling” were alive today that they would have the right to quite the plagiarism argument. I will seek to engage Sarah Young’s writings with an open heart, as I read along with it my faithful “God Calling” companion.
There is an author called Marie Chapian who seems to be imitating Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling. These daily devotions are called Talk to Me, Jesus and Walk with Me, Jesus. The author is pretending to be Jesus in these devotions. These devotions are called daily meditations from the heart of God. Very troubling. A neighbor gave me these devotionals.
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