Doreen Virtue, Popular New Age Author, Becomes Christian & Renounces New Age Movement

By Steven Bancarz| As a former New Ager myself, this was exciting to see.  Doreen Virtue is a former author that has written roughly 40 New Age books and has produced over a dozen “card decks” used for intuitive readings.  She has been featured in the past on Oprah, CNN, and The View, and is literally a staple author in any New Ager’s bookshelf.

She is undoubtedly one of the most influential figures ever involved in the New Age, and she has recently given her life to Jesus, been baptized, and renounced the New Age movement.  She now considers herself a “born-again Christian” on her website.  This radical change started when she had a vision of Jesus in church on January 7th, 2017 and was finalized by her baptism a month later.

Upbringing and background

Doreen grew up in a home with Christian values, but the churches she was raised in didn’t hold traditional orthodox beliefs.  As she explains, “Since I was a child, I’ve loved Jesus. And I’ve been reading the Bible since I was a child also.  But I had a really different viewpoint of Jesus growing up.  You see, I was raised in the New Thought churches of Unity and Christian Science…When I was growing up I read the Bible, and I would read the positive things of the Bible only because that is what the focus was on.”

With this loose background in Christianity, she began to take interest in psychology, getting her M.A. in counselling psychology and doctorate in the philosophy of psychology, and practicing as a registered psychotherapist. She started into the New Age movement when she was invited to speak at the Whole Life expo in 1995.  Here, she was introduced to incense and crystals and reiki for the first time.

This opened up a whole new world of interest, and she began taking classes and actively studying New Age subjects.  Her favourite subjects of interest were mediumship and psychic development, which she began to practice and incorporate into her work.

In the same year, she had an experience where she believes an angel told her to scream, scaring away people who were about to carjack her before they were able to.  We see a lot of these stories around the world come from both Christians and non-Christians, of supernatural interventions by what seem to be angels.  This led her to research more about angels, and as someone who had a predisposition to supernatural experiences from a young age, her fascination with the New Age and angels continued to lead her down a path of practicing divination involving ‘angels’.

What was her view on Jesus during this time when she was involved in the New Age movement?  For most people in the New Age movement, the view of Jesus is watered down.  Bible verses are cherry-picked from to fashion a politically correct Christ who embraces all faiths.  Jesus is not the exclusive Son of God and only means of salvation, but just another ‘prophet’ and ‘teacher’ here to show us a universal path to enlightenment.  Sin means nothing, the cross means nothing, and the death and resurrection of Jesus ultimately means nothing.  This was certainly true for Doreen.

“Some people said that ‘No, Jesus is the equivalent of Buddha and Krishna and other Ascended Master.’  So this is the direction that I started to see Jesus in.”

When Jesus began to draw her

Things began to change for her in 2015 when she began to do research for her “Loving Words from Jesus” card deck, which would contain Bible verses on the cards. To find out what Jesus really said, she started to read the Gospels front to back and really analyze the words of Jesus.

“My view of Jesus is that he was this warm cuddly bear with no edges, and of course I knew about him tipping the tables in the temple, but to me he was someone who went around aspousing verses like ‘ask and it shall be given’, which he did, but there is so much more to Jesus…I went through the Gospels, and I was really surprised with what I read…Here is what I read that was my wake-up call.  In Matthew 10:32-33, Jesus says ‘Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.  But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before before my Father in heaven.’

When I read that, I thought “Well that’s not very teddy-bear like.”  And then I read the same thing again in the synoptic Gospel of Luke in Luke 9:26, “If anyone is ashamed and my message, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when He returns in His glory and the glory of the Father and the holy angels.”

This ended up convicting her of being inconsistent of her view of Christ, and gave her a new appreciation for the person of Jesus.  She began to go to church, fellowship with other Christians, and volunteer with them, but she still had a foot in the New Age movement as a practicing psychic.

Her experience with Jesus

On January 7th of this year, Doreen had an experience with Jesus while in a church service.  A fellow volunteer was leaving the church and was receiving acknowledgement from the priest at the front of the church.  As she was staring in her direction, Jesus appeared to her:

“And as I was looking at her, all of a sudden the scene changed.  She disappeared, the church disappeared, all of the people disappeared, and there was Jesus right in front of me. Standing there.  Well, floating really.  And He was glowing, and He was glowing so brightly…it was this glow all around Him and especially from his heart, and the glow was this candle-like colour, and this smile on his face.  

And he was looking at me, but it wasn’t a sense of me personally like my ego, it was a sense of everyone that included me, and when I saw him it was a whole different experience than I had ever had in seeing the angels or in any of the work I had done.  This was the most three dimensional experience I have ever seen.  

And I was blown back in my chair.  I don’t know how long it lasted, but all I know is that when he showed up a few things became my knowledge.  I went from believing to knowing that He is real, that he knows who I am, who knows who everyone is.  Not in a judgey way, but in a compassionate ‘I-hope-that-you’ll-do-the-mission’ type of way.

He also is the Son of God.  At that moment I knew that He was not just an Ascended Master.  He was a part of the Trinity, the Holy Trinity of God, Holy Spirit, and Jesus.

And there was this knowingness to really amplify my studies and also to share what I was learning with others.”

What has changed since then

The Bible tells us that we will know a tree by it’s fruit.  It says in the book of James that faith without works is a dead faith, and that such a faith is useless and cannot save us.  Real saving faith is always followed up with works of repentance as the Holy Spirit conforms us to the image of Christ.  The Bible tells us we will see evidence of salvation.

She addresses this in her testimony video.  People have asked her, “How do you know you saw the REAL Jesus?”

“The Word tells us that by their fruits you shall know them, and after seeing Jesus I was completely changed.  I started to read the Bible even more.  I started to volunteer at the church even more.  And I started to give up things that were against the Bible like mediumship, fortune telling, which is predicting.  

I wanted to be completely aligned with God’s will.”

She has told Hay House Publishing that she wants the royalties she has been receiving from her old tarot cards to go to their charity, and that she will be taking her name off them in about a year.

She also shared with them that she can no longer write about anything that isn’t scriptural, wants to take the Ascended Masters books and cards out of print, and will only be writing Christian themed material from here on out.  From publishing dozens of New Age works to refusing to receive royalties and produce anything that is not Christian is a huge shift, especially of an author of this size.

“God says we can only serve one master, God or money, and I trust that God will serve my needs.”

Medium ship, divination, and ‘predictions’ are things of the past for her.  She now prays with people instead of giving them readings.  She is downsizing and simplying her lifestyle to be obedient with Scripture and because her financial situation has changed as a result of this experience with Jesus.

“Sorcery, fortune telling, and divination are forbidden in the Bible.”

Moving forward

Since her baptism, she has been working on a book called Mornings With The Lord which is a daily devotional reading with an encouraging thought for the day from Scripture.  She has been incorporating the Bible into the messages she produces on social media, and is taking a God-based Bible-based approach to her work.

Her emphasis is on the loving, compassionate, non-judgmental hand that the Lord is extending to sinners calling them into relationship with Him.  “ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” – John 3:17

She closed of her testimony video with a prayer of salvation for those listening:

“Dear Jesus of Nazareth, (and we say that to make sure it’s the real Jesus because there are masquerading beings trying to pretend they’re Jesus.)  Dear Jesus of Nazareth, I ask you to come into my heart, and save me.  Save me from all these situations Lord, and help me to save others with your help.  I ask that you come to me Lord and be my Lord and Saviour.  Help me to know what the right path is for my life.  Bring the Holy Spirit to me Lord as my teacher, as my wayshower, as my comforter, and my advocate.  Help me to know what my spiritual gifts are, and how to best use them to serve the Lord, to serve peace, to serve God’s divine love.”

Doreen has agreed to come on to my YouTube channel to discuss more about her testimony and conversion to Christianity. Here is a link to her video outlining her story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKVAzoYkOMY

*There are a few things in her testimony video that do raise a few concerns.  One is that she says she supposes it could be possible, theoretically, to go to God with the use of tarot, even though she has renounced using/producing them in the video.  I obviously disagree, and I think she does as well really, and I hope this opinion becomes refined in her over time.  She mentions she still uses angel cards, but not for divination, and I do believe this is potentially dangerous and should not/need not be added to Scripture. (*Update* She has stopped using angel cards for readings all together).

Another is that the church she is apart of openly ordains gay priests. The Bible is clear on what is unrighteous in the eyes of God, and is just as clear on what the end with be for those who continue to live in willful sin without repentance (Galatians 5:19-21, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, etc).  Should we write off her testimony because of these things? I don’t think so, and here is why.

She just gave her life to the Lord this year.  She was in the New Age/New Thought movement for over 2 decades. She only had her experience with Jesus about 6 and a half months ago.  Growing in the revelation of God and His Word is a process.  Sanctification is a process.  Rewriting the software in our soul is a process. It takes time to develop discernment and to understand the full counsel and witness of God’s Word.  It took me a while to understand God’s love for people including myself, and for others it takes them to understand God’s wrath and future judgement towards the unsaved, and His attitude towards sin as a whole.

For new Christians, we need to extend grace and pray that God will continue to help them grow in knowledge and revelation as they take their first steps in the faith, and not write off their experiences prematurely as they learn the word of God.  This is a big step in the right direction. Let us pray the Lord will continue to do a work in her life, renew her in the spirit of her mind, regenerate her, and help her lead many people into the Kingdom.

Here is my recent interview with her:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dpQQRAsAg8

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