An analysis of Vassula Rydén's Jesus

by Ingerlise Provstgaard (continuation - Part 3 of 4)

        

 

To reject Vassula is to reject me, Jesus Christ!

This totally un-evangelical allegation runs like a threathening undercurrent through all the TLIG books. Do not expect any mercy, neither here nor hereafter, if you will not believe that he who moves Vassula’s hand is the true Jesus. Then you belong to ”Cain’s clan”, and you have taken side against God.

Vassula’s followers try to soften this hard claim by emphasizing that everyone is free to choose whether they want to accept the messages or not. In the introduction to one of the books, Abbé René Laurentin says:

”No one is obliged to follow this particular way. Each person should judge the matter according to his own taste and the fruits that result from it.”

He also says:

”Many Christians are not attracted to private revelations. The Gos­pel or other mes­sages is enough for them. This is their right, for these apparitions are a freely given aid for faith.”

This sounds like healthy Christian talk in agreement with the Bible as well as with the official stand on private revelations taken by the Catholic Church.

BUT – the problem is that it is just not in agreement with what HE says, the one who guides Vassula’s hand and insists on being the final authority and the highest judge.

Through the following examples I shall try to give some documentation for this claim. (Underlinings in the examples are his own.)

 

EXAMPLE 16:

January 8th, 1987:

Vassula has met a sceptical priest (p.17) who believes the writings to be from am evil spirit. She then receives a message for the priest which assures him that it is really HIM, Jesus Christ, who writes through her hand. The message continues:

”I love you, son; understand that by try­ing to stop Vassula, you are unwillingly dam­aging My Church. I am the Lord Jesus Christ whom you love. I know you are doing this in good faith, but so was Saul be­fore I came to tell him that what he believed right was but persecuting Me; you be­lieve that the charisma I, Jesus, gave to My daughter is from evil; believe Me son; do not feel frightened…”

His tone of voice is loving and forbearing. But at this early stage of their relationship he already makes it perfectly clear to all of us that of course you can refuse to believe that he is the true Christ, but at the same time you have to realize that if you do, you are damaging the Church, and you are persecuting him, Jesus Christ.

Along the way his tone of voice as well as the contents of his words get more and more distinct and harsh, accelerating especially throughout the second book (Notebooks 32-58), from which the following examples are taken.

 

EXAMPLE 17:

December 18th, 1989:

”I shall overthrow all these blocks who despise you My angels …My lambs, you who rest My Heart, you who are My predi­lected souls, I shall not see you at­tacked by these Cains, these Cains who are drenched in sin and who never stopped aiming for your throat, My Abels.”

 

EXAMPLE 18:

January 18th, 1991:

”I shall permit your persecutors' defiled hands to strike you and mistreat you openly. (Contradicts ex.17!) …these wounds My child, shall be given to you from within My House and by My Own, they will be given to you from Cain's clan. I will allow them to strike an innocent child, but their gladness shall turn into mourn­ing.”

 

EXAMPLE 19:

July 23rd, 1991:

”Pray My child, pray for those who offend My Holiness and blaspheme My Holy Spirit call­ing My Spirit foolish. Have I not said: ‘…everyone who says a word against the Son of man will be for­given, but no one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will be for­given…’ many of you are condemning My Celestial manifestations and persecuting those whom My Spirit speaks through because you do not believe they come from Me.”

 

EXAMPLE 20:

September 11th, 1991:

”Listen closely to My last words of warning, lis­ten now that there is still time. Read our Messages and stop being scornful or deaf when Heaven speaks. Lower your voices and you will hear Ours. Think twice before you judge; think more than twice before you condemn the Works of the Holy Spirit. I shall not spare anyone who mocks the Holy Spirit, blasphem­ing Him outright… Justice will send them down to the under­world.”

 

EXAMPLE 21:

October 24th, 1991:

”My own people again did not accept Me but treated My Holy Spirit as they pleased, al­lowing the Beast to make war on those I have sent.”

And later on the same date he tells Vassula:

”So if anyone has objected, he has not been objecting to you, but to Me…”

 

EXAMPLE 22:

October 29th, 1991:

”I will come back and they will tremble; they will tremble when they will re­alize Whom they were rejecting all this time… they have aposta­tised…”

 

EXAMPLE 23:

November 13th, 1991:

”In spite of the multiple intercessions of your Holy Mother and in spite of My Warnings, from the time in Fatima to this epoch, none of My Warnings have been respected…”

This statement is simply not true! Many warnings have been heard as well as respected within the Catholic Church, among others the revelations in Fatima in 1917. And in this connection you could point out the very strange fact that his calendar seems to begin with Fatima! There is another example of this on March 4th, 1992, where he says:

”I pronounced warnings since the Time of Fatima to this day”.

The solid warnings of the Gospel about the exact same things are not mentioned at all, and the time span between the Crucifixion and Fatima – those many centuries – seem non-existent.

He continues tearing the nonbelievers apart, quoting their alleged words:

”’Why should we have to be­lieve in mes­sages? Why should we fast since these are not from Him? Why do penance since we are righteous? Why should we believe this frenzied lot? Do not listen for they retail visions and prophecies of their own.’ I tell you truly, when that Day comes it would have been preferable you were never born!”

It goes on and on with threats of blazing fire and destruction.

 

EXAMPLE 24:

March 27th, 1992:

On this day he talks to Vassula about the pain he feels over the fact that the Orthodox Church and the Roman-Catholic Church celebrate Easter at different weeks. All the way through the TLIG books this again and again is pointed out as an issue of vital importance for his flock to be united.

Personally I find it hard to believe that the true Jesus would consider it so enormously important that Easter is celebrated at exactly the same time everywhere. Especially if he is serious about his repeated warnings of “the end-time being near at hand”: we are facing the very last phase, the very last harvesting of souls.

It appears to me comparable with how stupid it would sound if you, watching your ground floor burning, shouted to your kids upstairs that they should take a shower, dress nicely and then come down and get out of the house.

In the message of this date, the lack of such outer unity becomes very close to mortal sin. And the reason why Christians do not enter into this unity – apart from false teachers, rationalists, modernists etc. – is that they refuse to hear, accept and live the messages. He speaks harsh words about persecuting and sinning against the Holy Spirit, and continues:

”I have been giving you signs, but you do not believe in My signs be­cause your voices are drowning My Voice that speaks through My mouth­pieces. The night will soon be with you and many will taste death be­cause you were never grounded in the truth but were based on lies. I come to you through these signs to open your eyes and heal you, yet when I tell you the truth and tell you that it is I, the One whom you say ‘He is your Lord’ that speaks to you, you turn away giving your ear to Satan so that he may use you…”

He carries on for a long time with his accusations and judgment:

”…you pre­ferred the devil…” - ”…you have lost the sense of the lan­guage of My Spirit…” ”…you are like white­washed tombs…” ”…you are in communion with de­mons…” ”…you re­joice in your divi­sion…”

and finally:

”How can you believe you can escape damna­tion? You fail to please Me and your corpses litter the desert you are living in.”

 

 

These examples – and there are many more – give very clear proof that Vassula’s Jesus sets a distinction between saved souls and lost souls in quite a different place than where it is found in the Gospel. To my best knowledge, the Gospel preaches that salvation is believing that Jesus is the Son of God, that he as Christ carried all of our sins on the cross and opened the doors of Heaven to us by doing so.

According to the messages there is much more to it than that: We have to celebrate Easter in the same week all over the world. We have to believe, that he who writes through Vassula’s hand is the Jesus we know from the Bible. We have to accept his right to deprive us of credit, honour and salvation, if we dare question his authenticy, or evaluate his claims. We have to unconditionally trust his many reassuring words and recommendations, and we have to look at the “fruits” of his messages – that people turn to pious lives – and accept them as proof of his identity.

There is no place for sound doubt and necessary scepticism – such attitude only proves that we have hardened our hearts and we are placed automatically in “Cain’s clan” as persecutors of his “Ables, Jacobs, saints, angels, altars, victim souls” and whatever else he names those who believe that he is Jesus. The slightest doubt makes you an enemy, a persecutor and a mocker of the Holy Spirit, because you do not accept “God’s work of today”.

This way of distinguishing between the saved and the damned finds absolutely no support in the Gospel.

A special version of this distinction is found in a long “judgement speech” that he gives on November 15th, 1988:

First the “old Christians” are given a good telling off:

”You are condemning Me… despising Me… at­tacking Me… offending Me… you aban­don Me… reject Me… pierce Me… turn away… shut the door in My Face… hound Me… betray Me” etc. –

they (we) are so wicked, that they ”leave even the demons gaping at your wicked­ness.”

Opposite these apostates he places the “new chosen ones”, those who, like Vassula, were called from the world into his circle, as pure angels.

Would the true Jesus driven by bitter anger spell out all our sins in detail, as if they were new and surprising to him – or us? And would he then, as it happens later in this speech, turn to “the strangers” (the new chosen ones) show them his wounds and tell them something like: “Look what my own people have done to me, are they not pure evil? How wonderful that you are so different, now you are to be my saints instead!” In other words setting off the virtue of “the strangers” at the expense of the old Christians.

I simply cannot believe that he would. And again: the whole distinction rests on whether you believe or do not believe – the messages! Deny that they are from God, and know that you are rejected!

It is easy to understand that Vassula’s friends and spokesmen try to soften the categorical statements of the distinction between the saved and the damned. But they are also being dishonest, because the statements are quite unmistakable.

 

 

A new Heaven and a new Earth

In Vassula’s messages there is much talk about the end of times and the coming new world. As a whole I would say that the descriptions of coming endtimes events are hazy and obscure. They are muddled talk about things which are already in themselves enigmatic.

 

EXAMPLE 25:

May 13th, 1991:

This message is called: “Apocalypse 21 explained”. My main impression of this explanation is that it is far easier to understand the chapter by just reading it in the book of Revelation! Furthermore the message shows clear deviations from the Gospel:

1) We shall become a holy city:

”I shall make out of each one of you a ra­diant city…”.

He also calls his chosen ones “My new Jerusalems”, which is very different from John’s vision of the holy city, the new Jerusalem, “coming down out of heaven”, described as a place, where we shall walk in the light of God and the Lamb.

 

2)We shall also become “transparent as glass” whereas in John’s vision the city itself is described as “clear as crystal”.

 

3)Then he will “renew you entirely” which seems to be short of logic, as we have here passed the time of the wedding, and the bride has already been “clothed with fine linen” (chapter 19). She needs no further “renewal”.

 

4)Through this renewal he will prepare his saved souls “to wed My Holy Spirit”. (You find the same expression on May 13th, 1991 and several other places.)

But surely we are not going to wed the Holy Spirit – that would give us two husbands!

 

In these four examples we meet a Jesus, who reveals the Holy Spirit to us. He reveals him as the all-important person, whom we must never reject as Christians, and as the one to whom we must be connected with close and intimate bonds, and in the end as the one we shall marry!

But surely, the New Testament tells us the opposite: that the Holy Spirit reveals JESUS to us, giving us the opportunity to have a close and intimate relationship with HIM and, by his grace and salvation, one day – undeservedly and unbelievably – to become his bride.

 

EXAMPLE 26:

December 19th, 1990:

This message is an example of his proclamation of “a new heaven and a new earth”. With many quotations from the Scriptures and many gospel-like expressions he talks about the glorious future for the chosen ones – “the remnant”. He will raise them up and transform them into “the builders of My new church”, while the wicked persist in their wickedness ”persecuting you, My prophets and My saints of the end of Times…”.

He promises the saints: ”When you will see the sky dissolve into flames and the elements melt in the heat, know that this is the sign of the beginning of My Promise, and of the New Heavens and the New Earth, the Renewal of My Church, the Revival af your hearts.”

This promise seems in little agreement with the Gospel, especially concerning the chronological order of the events. When – or if – we shall see the sky and the earth in flames, will it be the beginning of the revival of our hearts and the Church?

The many other messages that speak of endtime events are generally blurred and twisted as the one above. Of course he uses a flood of words and expressions which are not strange to people who are familiar with the Bible’s universe. But they are mixed up in such cleverly confused patterns that you have to be highly alert to realize what is actually being said.

This is surely no coincidence! Because in all the confusion you can easily fail to see that there is something extremely important missing in his messages. Something that just cannot be missing, if he is the true Jesus Christ: salvation, death and resurrection.

Instead of salvation, death and resurrection you have an evolution.

Man must “go to school” and let himself be taught by “Wisdom”:

”If you do not learn from Wisdom how then will you be able to live accor­ding to My Law?”

And the teachings are given us through the messages, flowing from Vassula’s hand. We must accept them and live on them, and if we do, we shall be transformed and changed into good new humans who will inhabit the new earth – which again has not become new through destruction and re-creation as the Bible says, but through a kind of transformation. (Also see page 18, 6)

 

 

The crucifixion according to Vassula’s Jesus

On November 9th, 1986, a few months after Vassula’s submission to her new life with the person who claims to be Jesus, she is told to concentrate on the event of his crucifixion, and he tells her in his own words how it happened.

He communicates to her a very detailed and emotional account of his sufferings that holds quite a few statements which are either not found in the Gospel at all or seem in little agreement with its words.

Here are some examples:

1) ”…hitting Me across My face, breaking my nose…”

This is in direct contradiction to John 19,36 (and to Exodus 12,46 and Psalm 34,20)where it says:

“These things occurred (that the soldiers did not break his legs) so that the scripture might be fulfilled, “None of his bones shall be broken.”

 

Note added 2005:

Apparently I am not the only person who by a closer reading has found it suspicious that Jesus would declare that they broke his nose. However, the believers do not fall short of answers and explanations:

In the introduction to TLIG book 4 (notebooks 65-71) Vassula explains that talking about a broken nose is talking about damaged cartilage, not broken bone. She also states that the people who examined the cloth of Torino, confirm that the cloth shows signs of a swelling in the center of the face that could very likely have been caused by a damage of the nose cartilage.

Of course you have to accept this explanation as a possibility, but I am still having difficulties believing that the true Jesus would describe the damage in these unbiblical terms.

In the new Danish translation of the first TLIG book the sentence with the broken nose has been left out completely. I wonder why?!

 

2)”They tied up my feet with ropes…”

A few places in the Gospels could indicate that Jesus was tied up at certain times during the trial proceedings. But it seems unlikely that his feet were tied up, so, as he claims, they had to drag him along by his hair. When he was moved the Gospels say that he was “led”, and in John 19,5 it says that “Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.”

 

3)The words he says to the women on his way to the cross:

”Be blessed, My Blood will wash away all sins of mankind; behold, daughter, the time has come for your salvation.”

The words are different, and with a different message, from the ones we know from Luke 23,28: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children”. And the next verses clearly indicates that he is showing them his compassion with what he knows is going to happen to “the daughters of Jerusalem” when the city meets her future destruction.

It would not be unfair to say that the two statements are quite opposite: Vassula’s Jesus says: “It is time for salvation!” while the Jesus in the Gospel says: “It is time for death and destruction!”

 

4)”The soldiers offered Me wine mixed with gall. I refused it, for deep inside Me I had already the bitterness given to Me by My foes…”

I cannot but wonder, if this was really the reason why he refused it. Was it not because he refused to let his pain be relieved by a drug? Because he willed the full suffering?

 

5)To Maria: ” I am giving You My beloved children to be your children too. You are to be their Mother.”

On February 10th, 1988 he talks more about this. Of course in a certain way Maria is “mother of the Christians”, and of course this is not a strange thing to say into a Catholic tradition. But still, according to John, there can be no doubt that what he says is meant simply for him and Maria:

“When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother: “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.” (John 19, 26-27)

 

6)Finally he says to Vassula: “My Cross cries out for Peace and Love.” (Also p.  EKS.7)

I suppose he wants to say that in return for how much he has done for us, we owe him to live with one another “in peace and love”. Which of course is not untrue! But still, the whole thing is turned upside down. The cross does not cry out for peace and love in return for the sacrifice. But peace and love is pouring out from the cross – the cross is its source.

Between the lines I hear Vassula’s Jesus demand a payment for his sufferings.

I hear the evangelists, Paul and “everybody else” in the Gospel say that more than anything else, Calvary is one hundred percent grace and gift to mankind.

Aside from finding these examples in poor agreement with Scripture, I also consider the tone of voice and the choice of expressions very far from what the evangelists have passed on to us. The many bloody details and the language describing them give the reader – that goes for me anyway – associations to a pub brawl rather than to that most holy and appalling day, whose depths I can only just begin to sense when reading the Gospel.  

Besides, it grates on the ears to hear him repeatedly whine and complain that nobody was there to comfort him – as if that was the worst thing of it all!

”No one was there to console Me…” ”…the bitterness given to Me by My foes…” ”…O daughter, what pain, what agony, what torment of My Soul. Forsaken by My beloved ones, denied by Peter… denied by the rest of My friends, left all alone, abandoned to My foes, I wept, for My soul was filled with sorrows…” ”…I saw no friend… no one was there to con­sole Me…” ”…forsaken by all those who loved Me…”

 - this is how he describes his feelings hanging on the cross.

As a contrast to this – what I would call self-pitying and self-centred – whining, let us look at a couple of verses from the Gospel:

 

Hebrews 12,2-3:

“...looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame... Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.”

 

Isaiah 53,7:

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”

 

1. Peter, 2,23:

“When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.”

 

Maybe Vassula’s Jesus did not utter abuse or threats, but he seems to have regarded the shame indeed! Maybe he did not open his mouth, but through Vassula he now tells me that, while he was giving his life for me, his mind was filled to the brim with all these bitter thoughts and complaints. It was all a facade – outwardly a lamb, but inside a growling self-pitying lion!

How could I ever follow in his steps in the spirit that Peter encourages me to in the same chapter, verse 20-22:

“If you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.”

When reading about the sufferings and deaths of the martyrs and saints of this world, you always hear through it all jubilant notes of life and salvation and heavenly joy.

Through Vassula’s Jesus you hear absolutely none such notes. All you hear is a tired, bitter and disheartened soul. A man “who has grown weary and has lost heart”!

How could he ever be an example for anyone to follow? How could he ever be my Lord, Jesus Christ!