An analysis of Vassula Rydén's Jesus

by Ingerlise Provstgaard

 

The author: Ingerlise Provstgaard is a writer and lecturer on the dangers of occult practices. She is a member of the board of “Dialogcentret”, a private Christian organisation based in Denmark, which studies sects and New Age phenomena and provides advice to victims of such groups. Ingerlise Provstgaard has written several books and articles in Danish covering the dangers of occult practices (including her own dramatic experience with automatic writing as a young adult), New Age and the misuse of the Bible by some Christian groups. Now a retired teacher, she lives with her husband in Denmark and confesses the Protestant faith. If you wish to contact Ingerlise Provstgaard, you may do so at the following e-mail: iprovstgaard@gmail.com

The booklet:  "An analysis of Vassula Rydén's Jesus" is a 45 page reflection on the True Life in God messages, focusing in particular on the personality of the Jesus presented in the writings. It is very easy to read and goes right to the point. This booklet was first written in 1995 in Danish. In 2005, the author revised it and had it recently translated into English. Mrs Provstgaard has kindly allowed us to reproduce it here. The Danish version of the booklet can be consulted on the Dialogcentret website: http://www.dialogcentret.dk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1409 (scroll down the page). The version in script can also be sent by mail for 50kr. plus postal expenses. There is also a short article on True Life in God in English here: http://www.dialogcentret.dk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1468 (scroll down the page).

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(Part 1 of 4)

Contents:

 

  INTRODUCTION

  WHO IS VASSULA RYDÉN?

  AUTOMATIC WRITING OR HIERATIC WRITING?              

  WHO IS MOVING VASSULA’S HAND?                  

  UNBIBLICAL STATEMENTS AND TENDENCIES   

  OCCULT FEATURES

  TO REJECT Vassula IS TO REJECT ME, JESUS CHRIST

  A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH 

  THE CRUCIFIXION, ACCORDING TO VASSULA’S JESUS

  TWO JESUS’ES 

  ”DO NOT GO AFTER THEM” 

                             

 

Introduction

These days so many spiritual phenomenons pop up in society and even within the churches that you hardly become aware of them before a new one appears. For me, as probably for most people, it would be an impossible task to scrutinise them all. Furthermore, such work often only causes people to choose a for or against position, which leaves us with an unsolved problem and a lack of a thorough testing and judgement of the matter.

When among the many I chose to look closer into the phenomenon of Vassula Rydén, it was due to the fact that I realized she was receiving her messages through a strange handwriting, which is a kind of spiritual contact I have experienced myself back in the sixties.

A person ”from the higher spheres” captured my hand and pen, conquering my life completely. He called himself Jesus of Nazaret, and he told me that I was chosen to be an angel of light on Earth, spreading messages from the divine to the spiritually poor of this world. For a period of three months I was bathing in the presence of a wonderful supernatural being. And I was totally convinced that he was the person he claimed to be.

But through events, about which I much later wrote a book called ”With a guided hand”, it reached its climax in a confrontation where, in the same immaculate handwriting as always, he wrote the words: ”I am the Devil, and I own your soul!” By the grace of God, the unveiling brought about my liberation rather than a breakdown, and by the same grace of God I became able to return to reality and a normal life soon after without having suffered severe mental damage.

Several years later I accidentally read about ”automatic writing”. It was said to be a wellknown occult practice, and I realized that this was what I had been involved in, and it is also what I believe Vassula Rydén is involved in now.

Who is Vassula Rydén?

In the fall of 1993 I read a small article in my Christian newspaper about a woman who was coming to Denmark to share with Danish Christians something she called ”messages from Jesus”. Apparently, she claimed to be receiving these messages from a divine source through a strange handwriting.

This was the first time I heard about Vassula Rydén, and as this article offered only scarce information I decided to look closer into the matter myself. I bought the two first ”True Life in God” books, containing ”notebooks 1-31 and 32-58”, which cover the period from September 1986 till March 1992.

The books contain extracts of her alleged daily conversations with Jesus, who guides her hand so she can write down his own words, in his own handwriting; a handwriting which is very different from her own.

The introductions to these books, and her later book ”My angel Daniel”, give us some facts about her life. She was born in 1942 to Greek parents, who lived in Egypt where she grew up.

There is only little information about her childhood; however, what we are told is of considerable interest when compared with her later spiritual revelations.

As a child she had very vivid dreams about Satan chasing her in the shape of a big black dog, and about Jesus who wanted to attract her and make her his bride. As a teenage girl she frequently saw souls of dead people around her.

In 1966 she married a Swedish civil servant who was working for FAO. They had two sons together. They later divorced, and in 1981 she married Per Rydén, whose job as an international diplomate for many years meant the family had to live in changing homes around the world. She now (2005) lives in Rome where her husband works for the UN.

So her outward life has been that of a diplomate’s wife with all the social obligations that entails. She is also said to be a talented painter and an exellent tennisplayer. A friend of hers states that she was a perfect example of a down-to-earth secular person with a happy and busy life. She was by no means hostile to spiritual questions but her main interests were elsewhere.

With this in mind it is easy to understand her feeling of total astonishment when, one day in 1985, while making a shopping list she suddenly feels her hand moving in a mysterious way and watches it write in a strange handwriting: ”I am your guardian angel, and my name is Daniel”.

She tells us she did not actually get scared – rather, she became deeply fascinated and thrilled with this sudden and unexpected contact with a supernatural dimension. It is quite likely that until that moment she had gone through life with a very limited interest in spiritual things, but, bearing in mind her dreams as a child, it does not seem unreasonable to conclude that she is a person who has always been an open channel to spiritual frequencies, although perhaps without her knowledge.

Through her conversations with the angel Daniel, she is, over the course of a few months, led into a radically changed life, which is totally concentrated on following the guidance and directions given to her in the strange handwriting.

After some time Jesus replaces Daniel, and over the next many years he is the dominant writer. Once in a while though, she communicates with others, such as Yahweh, Maria and the Holy Spirit.

From the beginning of the nineties and up till now (2005), Vassula has published 12 books, containing extracts from these conversations. They have been translated into 40 different languages, and she travels around the world spreading the messages that keep coming to her, through lectures and personal contacts.

On the surface the messages from Vassula seem similar to many other spiritual messages of peace and unity. But underneath runs an undercurrent of something quite different. In this analysis I will try to shed some light on this undercurrent.

I think most people will understand that after an experience like my own, you become very sceptical when you meet similar phenomenons. When, in addition, the person from beyond introduces himself in a strange handwriting as Jesus, it certainly worries me.

In New Age circles there is a very popular activity called channeling. People open their minds to the supernatural dimension and let themselves be dictated messages from above – sometimes by an inner voice, sometimes by writing the automatic handwriting. The messages are about peace and love among all races and nations, and they offer promises of Heaven on earth if we will only follow our spiritual guides. Several other Jesus’es have come forward in this way!

Since the time when Vassula started spreading her messages many people have pointed out the similarities between her writings and this occult technique of channeling via automatic writing.

  

 

Automatic writing or hieratic writing?

”But Vassula’s strange handwriting is not at all automatic writing”, her defenders say. What her hand brings forth is a ”sacred writing” or a ”hieratic writing”, which in their opinion is something quite different. Among others they find support for this opinion from a French Catholic New Age expert and excorcist, Christian Curty (C.C.in the following), who has written a long and learned account on the differences between the two phenomenons.

He gathers his evidence, which he claims to be safe proofs, in some main points that I will quote from and comment on below: 

C.C.:

She often receives a message from an inner voice when she is out and is unable to write it down immediately. When she gets home and starts writing, her handwriting changes from her own to the strange one. This is not automatic writing, he says, because she heard the message first as an inner voice.

My comment:

I too quickly learnt to hear my guide as an inner voice and write the messages down later. There is no difference between my experience and Vassula’s.

 

C.C.:

While writing she can anytime she wants interrupt the dictation to take care of for instance a domestic duty or answering a telephone call. She can leave and come back as she pleases, and she is at all times completely conscious of her surroundings.

My comment:

So could I and so was I. I always knew what was going on around me, I could choose to write, and I could choose not to. You do not lose your senses or fall into a trance during automatic writing. You communicate consciously with an external being. No difference here either.

 

C.C.:

She can receive a kind of ”interior light” without any clearly pronounced words. When she hastens to start writing down this ”insight” Jesus takes over and changes the handwriting into his own ”as if to give the revelation a seal from on high”. And Curty concludes: ”It is thus in no way automatic writing”.

My comment:

Here I can only ask: why on earth not?

 

C.C.:

Sometimes, when she hears a message by an inner voice, she writes it down in her own handwriting. This is what Curty calls sacred, divinely inspired writing, which is by no means automatic writing.

My comment:

Of course her own writing is not automatic writing, but who is dictating her? Who does the inner voice belong to? I was able to do the same thing – there is no difference.

 

C.C.:

Praises the handwriting for its extreme beauty, and he points out that it inspires a great peace in those who read it. ”Truly this Writing is beautiful and can only be good!” he concludes.

My comment:

My strange handwriting was very beautiful too. The letters were greatly shaped and the writing gave an impression of order and peaceful calmness. And yet it ended up forming the words: ”I am the Devil…”

It really makes you wonder how a ”spiritual expert” can state, without hesitation, that if something is beautiful and inserts a feeling of peace it can only come from God.

 

My conclusion on Christian Curty’s proofs is that he proves nothing which differs from my own experience with automatic writing. He claims Vassula’s writing to be quite a different matter, and of course he has the right to defend his opinion. But as proofs, his judgement is pure ”fairy mists”.

It seems that Vassula herself has been confronted with the question of automatic writing, and she did what seems natural for her to do when in some way challenged: she asked Jesus for advice. His answer was that no, it is not automatic writing. In the introduction to one of her books she tells the sceptics how he proved it to her. He dictated a message to her inner ear, and then she wrote it down in her own handwriting. The message ended: ”This is for all those who think that your hand is moved by me without your hearing or understanding that it is I, the Lord, who inspires you. Now let us continue in the way I like it, My Vassula.”

And then his handwriting took over again.

If you examine this performance in the clear light of day and logic, there is absolutely no proof given of the identity of the writer. It is still the same person telling us only in a different way: ”Certainly I am Jesus!” The only thing it proves is that Vassula is able to hear him as well as write in his handwriting.

 

 

Who is moving Vassula’s hand?

When today many Christians talk about Vassula as ”one of the most prominent living prophets” one must assume that they have decided to believe in the godly origin of the messages. She is a true prophet contrary to a false one. She is God’s mouthpiece, a seer who, ”guided word by word by Jesus” as one of her introducers say, calls us to listen to what the Holy Spirit wants us to hear these days.

As a sign of her authenticity they mention her pleasant personality and her godfearing life. She is free, cheerful and modest and she radiates dignity, strength and humility. I have no reason to question these character traits.

Another sign mentioned is the many good fruits that come from her activities. People experience a renewed and more profound faith and they start praying and attending church at a whole new scale. That is a fact too.

I am convinced that she is authentic. She is not a false prophet in my opinion, because a false prophet will prophesy on his own account and for his own benefit. I do not think she is doing that.

But there is a very important thing missing, in fact the most important one, in the many attempts to test and evaluate Vassula’s work, namely the testing of THE SPIRIT. The testing of the person who, in a supernatural way, is telling her – and us – that he is Jesus Christ, the Jesus we know from the Bible.

He is one who comes to us saying: ”I am Christ!” and ”The time is near!” And according to the Scriptures these words should compel any Christian to seek double proof and sound biblical confirmation before believing his words.

Vassula’s personality and godfearing life is no proof of his authenticity, for a person who is not working for her own benefit and who understands herself as a servant of higher and benevolent powers will quite naturally seem, and probably be, confident, free and humble. She will not find it difficult to completely surrender herself to her task. She is authentic, yes. But is he?

Positive outcomes and good fruits are not in themselves enough proof either, because a fervent soul who believes herself to be speaking from supernatural inspiration, will always be like a magnet attracting others and making them follow.

Looking only at the surface and the visible signs, many aspects of the messages and of Vassula’s life and service can appear to be Gods voice and God’s work.

But if it is true that the spiritual world holds two powers and not just one – which I am quite aware is a crucial problem for even many Christians today – most people much too easily leave out the important question: Who is the person writing through Vassula’s hand? Is he really the Jesus we know from the Bible?

Reading through the two TLIG-books from 1991, I tried in 1995 to find the answer to that question, and in 2005 I changed a few things in my script and added some information in the light of the developement of Vassula’s work over the years.

Through examples and comments I have pointed out phrases, words and thoughts that in my view are contradicting his claim to be Jesus Christ. You do not unveil a false spirit by pointing out all that is in agreement with the biblical truths, you do it by throwing light on what contradicts them.

Naturally, with such substantial material it has been difficult to make selections. But I have aimed at finding examples that are not just isolated statements in isolated situations, but which show theological thoughts and tendencies that run through the entire course of events and through the relationship between Vassula and her supernatural guide.

Nothing is meant as an attack on Vassula’s person, I am searching only for the truth about him.