Roma Downey’s book Box of Butterflies, also TV shows etc.
Feb 21, 2019 11:40:32 GMT -5
fearnot likes this
Post by Cindy on Feb 21, 2019 11:40:32 GMT -5
To Unpack Roma Downey’s Box of Butterflies Is to Discover a Core False Teaching
By Marsha West
New Age, Roman Catholic mystic Roma Downey has a new book to sell. So she has turned to several evangelical luminaries to help promote her book. Check out who the people are who “rave over Roma’s every word.” Names are included as well as a few key words/phrases taken from their glowing testimonials.
But this is not about so-called evangelical leaders who endorse the work of false teachers like Roma. Lois Putnam of Learn to Discern Granny has written a stellar review of Downey’s book Box of Butterflies: Discovering the Unexpected Blessings All Around Us:
Have you ever received a package wrapped in the most attractive paper only to eagerly rip off its wrappings to find something inside you couldn’t have imagined? This is much like Roma Downey’s beautiful new book Box of Butterflies for although its author is sincere and gracious, and its stories are inspirational and hopeful, when fully opened, one will discover a core false teaching that runs throughout its pages. And so, because Scripture reminds us to test all things, this review will attempt to unpack how its author incorporates this teaching throughout the book.
A Review: Box of Butterflies: Howard Books (An Imprint of Simon and Schuster) March 2018
Unpacking Its Foreword
Box of Butterflies begins with a short foreword by the late Della Reese with whom Roma had an extraordinary relationship that began with Della playing “Tess,” Roma’s partner-angel, on the well-known Touched by an Angel series. About Della, Roma wrote, “She has become the first person I call when I need wisdom, and she is a loving teacher and instructor.” (p.36) Such was Della’s influence on Roma that she also became Roma’s surrogate mother, a godmother to Roma’s daughter Reilly, and the officiator at Roma and Mark’s wedding. (p.35) (p.132)
Della was also a pastor of the New Thought “Up Church.” New Thought teaches one that the Bible is just a book containing the sacred writings of any religion. It believes too ” … in God, the living Spirit Almighty; one, indestructible, absolute, and self-existent Cause; and it believes ” …in the incarnation of the Spirit in US, and that all PEOPLE are incarnations of the One Spirit.” Dear reader, this is what Della believed, for Della Reese, along with such men as Eckhart Tolle, and Neale Donald Walsch, are listed among their “Modern Notable Members.” As Christian as Reese’s foreword may seem, Reese’s beliefs are unbiblical.
www.amazon.com/Box-Butterflies-Discovering-Unexpected-Blessings/dp/1501150936
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Thought
Unpacking Its “Introduction”
Mary Oliver
Roma’s “Introduction” begins with Mary Oliver’s poem: “I Have Decided.” Roma writes, “I love the poems of Mary Oliver … there is something about the beauty and honesty of her poems that echoes the prayers of my heart. She reminds me of the simplicity of faith, of how God’s image is reflected in nature all around us, and when we are quiet we can connect to the stillness within ourselves, we can hear him speak.” (p.1)
Here the question must be asked, “What do we know about Mary Oliver’s beliefs?” One answer can be found in “Maria Shriver Interviews Poet Mary Oliver” (Oprah.com) As they discuss “religion” Oliver comments, “I’ve written before that God has ‘so many names.’ To me, it’s all right if you look at a tree, as the Hindus do, and the tree has a spirit. It’s mystery, and mysteries don’t compromise themselves-we’re never gonna know. … I like to think of myself as a praise poet.” Shriver queries Oliver as to what this means. Oliver replies, “That I acknowledge my feeling and gratitude for life by praising the world and whoever made all these things.” It’s worth noting too that Oliver often emphasizes paying “careful attention,” and is listed over and over by mindfulness sites as a mindfulness poet.
www.oprah.com/entertainment/maria-shriver-interviews-poet-mary-oliver/1
While Oliver praises the world and whoever made these things, there is but one we are to praise for as Revelation 4:11 declares: “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
Continue reading
whputnam00.blogspot.com/2018/06/a-book-review-to-unpack-roma-downeys.html
posted with permission:
bereanresearch.org/to-unpack-roma-downeys-box-of-butterflies-is-to-discover-a-core-false-teaching/
See more articles about Roma Downey: bereanresearch.org/?s=roma+downey&submit=Search
See more articles about her here too: christianresearchnetwork.org/?s=roma+downey
An Excerpt from another article:
But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. – 1 Corinthians 5:11
Roma Downey and her husband Mark Burnett present themselves as Christians. They are professing Roman Catholics, yet they have no problem embracing and engaging in New Age and occultic practices. Downey, a graduate of the new age University of Santa Monica, teamed up with the well-known television psychic, John Edward, to produce a children’s prayer and meditation CD and book, where she prayed the entire Rosary while her and Edward “explored its power.” According to the Amazon description,
This book explores the power of the rosary as a tool to bring focused energy and creative thought into your everyday life. For many people, their daily lives are a dark place with an even darker future, and John Edward shares how his belief in the power of prayer alone can help to illuminate a path for each individual to follow…
Why would Warren, a Southern Baptist pastor of one the largest churches in the country, be so quick to endorse such a blatantly false teacher? Does Warren agree with her views on new age spirituality? Does he believe Roman Catholicism to be a valid expression of Christianity? His repeated partnerships with false teachers should undoubtedly disqualify him from the pastorate, yet he’s lauded as one of the greatest evangelical teachers of today (2 Corinthians 11:14). The spiritual venom he injects into all of his followers with every bite of false teaching he promotes serves to self-promote while bringing swift destruction (2 Peter 2:1) to himself, and to those who grovel after him.
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. – 2 Timothy 4:3-4
pulpitandpen.org/2016/08/09/rick-warren-to-emcee-roman-catholic-mystic-roma-downeys-hollywood-award-ceremony/
See: Touched by an Angel - Let Us Reason Ministries www.letusreason.org/curent1.htm
Roma Downey Promotes New Age Doctrine (God “In” Everyone & Everything)—Christian Leaders Say Nothing
First she’s there; now she’s gone, or is she? New Age sympathizer Roma Downey was scheduled to speak at the National Religious Broadcaster’s 2019 convention, Proclaim 19. Sharing the docket with her are highly popular evangelical names like John MacArthur, Rick Warren, Greg Laurie, and Kirk Cameron. Lighthouse Trails reported on the story with the release of Greg Reid’s booklet, Butterfly Illusions (which unveils the strong New Age messages in Roma Downey’s new book, Box of Butterflies).
Shortly after the release of the booklet, Lighthouse Trails learned that Roma Downey’s name (along with her husband Mark Burnett) had been removed from the speakers list for Proclaim 19. Calls to the NRB office in Washington, DC by Lighthouse Trails editors provided no answers as to why Downey’s name was gone other than being told “it has not yet been decided” if she will be speaking there. As has been the “normal” protocol for Christian leaders when they get challenged, there is just dead silence from NRB as well as from the evangelical figures who are involved. But new information about Roma Downey’s beliefs will hopefully prompt NRB and Christian leaders to be responsible and do the right thing.
God “In” Everyone and Everything?
The crux of the New Age is not Ouija boards and Tarot cards but rather is the foundational belief that God is “in” everyone and “in” everything. It is the prevailing doctrine throughout all New Age teachings as well as the root of mystical meditation. To believe that God is in everyone and in everything is to ultimately reject the Cross (whether one realizes that or not). If God is in everyone, then there would have been no reason for Jesus Christ to go to the Cross as a substitute for humanity’s sins because we would already be divine and not need a Savior. That is why one prominent New Age leader quoted his “God” as saying, “the era of the Single Savior is over”1 (because we are all Saviors). It would stand to reason that Christian teachers and pastors who profess to know God’s Word and His ways would easily recognize the contrast between New Age spirituality and biblical Christianity. But in the case of Roma Downey and today’s Christian leaders, this is not so.
For many years now, Roma Downey has consistently and publicly shown herself to be strongly aligned with the New Age. Her long-time spiritual mentor was New Age/New Thought pastor and teacher Della Reese whom Downey considered to be a mother figure. Downey then attended and, in 2010, graduated from the University of Santa Monica (one of the most popular New Age schools in the world). And she favorably quotes the school’s New Age leader and founder, the late John-Roger2 (who claimed he was inhabited by the “mystical traveler consciousness”). Shortly after her graduation from USM, Downey came on the evangelical Christian scene (calling herself a devout Catholic), producing Bible-story movies and being wholeheartedly welcomed by numerous Christian celebrities (see some photo examples below) including Rick Warren, David Jeremiah, Greg Laurie, Samuel Rodriguez (she wrote the foreword to his 2017 book, Be Light), and Joel Osteen. And now, most recently, her open-armed welcome to speak at Proclaim 19 with John MacArthur, Rick Warren, Greg Laurie, and Kirk Cameron.
Christian Leaders Say Nothing
Until concern was issued by Lighthouse Trails and others, none of the men listed above had any apparent problem with being associated with Roma Downey. But do they even know or care about what she believes? Or have they just benefited from their association with her and ignored what she really stands for? (After all, she has gained the affection and following of millions and millions of people since her Touched by an Angel days—those associating with her would clearly glean from her substantial popularity.) On this point (i.e., the motives of the leaders), we can only speculate. But on the issue of Roma Downey’s New Age beliefs, we can know this for sure. For example, on two different interviews, one in 2012 (during the making of The Bible series) and one in April 2018, Downey stated that she believes God is “in” everyone and everything. (See videos below.) And as Greg Reid shows in his booklet Butterfly Illusions, Downey’s new book Box of Butterflies echoes this same message that God is in everyone by stating that separation is an illusion.3 Reid confronts Christian leaders (many of whom gave their hearty endorsements for Box of Butterflies) for not being more discerning and also for not correcting Roma Downey and her husband about their New Age beliefs and showing them that such beliefs are the antithesis of the message of the Bible and the Gospel, and the two absolutely cannot mix or be joined together. (We must interject here that recently Greg Reid had the opportunity to hand Roma Downey a copy of Warren B. Smith’s biography The Light That Was Dark: From the New Age to Amazing Grace—can Christian leaders say they have done even half that much to point Roma Downey in the right direction?)
In Warren Smith’s own booklet, Be Still and Know That You Are Not God (God is NOT in Everyone and Everything), Smith states:
Our Spiritual Adversary would have everyone believe that we are all “one” because God is “in” everyone and everything. Using every promotional means possible—including a creative and ingenious perversion of quantum physics—he is attempting to convince the world and the church that while Jesus was Christ, so is everyone. And while Jesus was God, so is everyone else. To underscore this heretical New Age doctrine of God and Christ “in” everyone, he would have us further believe that nothing of any significance happened on the Cross of Calvary. However, the Bible makes it very clear that something extremely wonderful and overwhelmingly significant did happen on the Cross of Calvary. For it was on that Cross that Jesus Christ died to save the world as He defeated sin (1 John 2:2), death (2 Timothy 1:10), and the Devil himself (Hebrews 2:14). As the one and only Christ, He is our Rock (1 Corinthians 10:1-4), He is our Foundation (1 Corinthians 3:11), and in every sense of the word He is the Saviour of the world (1 John 4:14).
The tragedy about this situation between Roma Downey and Christian leaders is that the leaders are using Roma Downey, Roma Downey is using the leaders, and our Adversary is using them both—and countless naïve and undiscerning Christians are buying into the whole thing.
Is Roma Downey going to be speaking at Proclaim 19? We don’t know. NRB is saying nothing about the removal of her name except the unofficial comment to Lighthouse Trails that “it has not yet been decided.” We urge NRB as well as John MacArthur, Greg Laurie, Kirk Cameron, and the other leaders to do the right thing—to speak the truth in love to Roma Downey about the dangers of her New Age beliefs that directly contradict the teachings of Jesus Christ.
To see videos continue here: www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=28991
By Marsha West
New Age, Roman Catholic mystic Roma Downey has a new book to sell. So she has turned to several evangelical luminaries to help promote her book. Check out who the people are who “rave over Roma’s every word.” Names are included as well as a few key words/phrases taken from their glowing testimonials.
But this is not about so-called evangelical leaders who endorse the work of false teachers like Roma. Lois Putnam of Learn to Discern Granny has written a stellar review of Downey’s book Box of Butterflies: Discovering the Unexpected Blessings All Around Us:
Have you ever received a package wrapped in the most attractive paper only to eagerly rip off its wrappings to find something inside you couldn’t have imagined? This is much like Roma Downey’s beautiful new book Box of Butterflies for although its author is sincere and gracious, and its stories are inspirational and hopeful, when fully opened, one will discover a core false teaching that runs throughout its pages. And so, because Scripture reminds us to test all things, this review will attempt to unpack how its author incorporates this teaching throughout the book.
A Review: Box of Butterflies: Howard Books (An Imprint of Simon and Schuster) March 2018
Unpacking Its Foreword
Box of Butterflies begins with a short foreword by the late Della Reese with whom Roma had an extraordinary relationship that began with Della playing “Tess,” Roma’s partner-angel, on the well-known Touched by an Angel series. About Della, Roma wrote, “She has become the first person I call when I need wisdom, and she is a loving teacher and instructor.” (p.36) Such was Della’s influence on Roma that she also became Roma’s surrogate mother, a godmother to Roma’s daughter Reilly, and the officiator at Roma and Mark’s wedding. (p.35) (p.132)
Della was also a pastor of the New Thought “Up Church.” New Thought teaches one that the Bible is just a book containing the sacred writings of any religion. It believes too ” … in God, the living Spirit Almighty; one, indestructible, absolute, and self-existent Cause; and it believes ” …in the incarnation of the Spirit in US, and that all PEOPLE are incarnations of the One Spirit.” Dear reader, this is what Della believed, for Della Reese, along with such men as Eckhart Tolle, and Neale Donald Walsch, are listed among their “Modern Notable Members.” As Christian as Reese’s foreword may seem, Reese’s beliefs are unbiblical.
www.amazon.com/Box-Butterflies-Discovering-Unexpected-Blessings/dp/1501150936
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Thought
Unpacking Its “Introduction”
Mary Oliver
Roma’s “Introduction” begins with Mary Oliver’s poem: “I Have Decided.” Roma writes, “I love the poems of Mary Oliver … there is something about the beauty and honesty of her poems that echoes the prayers of my heart. She reminds me of the simplicity of faith, of how God’s image is reflected in nature all around us, and when we are quiet we can connect to the stillness within ourselves, we can hear him speak.” (p.1)
Here the question must be asked, “What do we know about Mary Oliver’s beliefs?” One answer can be found in “Maria Shriver Interviews Poet Mary Oliver” (Oprah.com) As they discuss “religion” Oliver comments, “I’ve written before that God has ‘so many names.’ To me, it’s all right if you look at a tree, as the Hindus do, and the tree has a spirit. It’s mystery, and mysteries don’t compromise themselves-we’re never gonna know. … I like to think of myself as a praise poet.” Shriver queries Oliver as to what this means. Oliver replies, “That I acknowledge my feeling and gratitude for life by praising the world and whoever made all these things.” It’s worth noting too that Oliver often emphasizes paying “careful attention,” and is listed over and over by mindfulness sites as a mindfulness poet.
www.oprah.com/entertainment/maria-shriver-interviews-poet-mary-oliver/1
While Oliver praises the world and whoever made these things, there is but one we are to praise for as Revelation 4:11 declares: “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
Continue reading
whputnam00.blogspot.com/2018/06/a-book-review-to-unpack-roma-downeys.html
posted with permission:
bereanresearch.org/to-unpack-roma-downeys-box-of-butterflies-is-to-discover-a-core-false-teaching/
See more articles about Roma Downey: bereanresearch.org/?s=roma+downey&submit=Search
See more articles about her here too: christianresearchnetwork.org/?s=roma+downey
An Excerpt from another article:
But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. – 1 Corinthians 5:11
Roma Downey and her husband Mark Burnett present themselves as Christians. They are professing Roman Catholics, yet they have no problem embracing and engaging in New Age and occultic practices. Downey, a graduate of the new age University of Santa Monica, teamed up with the well-known television psychic, John Edward, to produce a children’s prayer and meditation CD and book, where she prayed the entire Rosary while her and Edward “explored its power.” According to the Amazon description,
This book explores the power of the rosary as a tool to bring focused energy and creative thought into your everyday life. For many people, their daily lives are a dark place with an even darker future, and John Edward shares how his belief in the power of prayer alone can help to illuminate a path for each individual to follow…
Why would Warren, a Southern Baptist pastor of one the largest churches in the country, be so quick to endorse such a blatantly false teacher? Does Warren agree with her views on new age spirituality? Does he believe Roman Catholicism to be a valid expression of Christianity? His repeated partnerships with false teachers should undoubtedly disqualify him from the pastorate, yet he’s lauded as one of the greatest evangelical teachers of today (2 Corinthians 11:14). The spiritual venom he injects into all of his followers with every bite of false teaching he promotes serves to self-promote while bringing swift destruction (2 Peter 2:1) to himself, and to those who grovel after him.
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. – 2 Timothy 4:3-4
pulpitandpen.org/2016/08/09/rick-warren-to-emcee-roman-catholic-mystic-roma-downeys-hollywood-award-ceremony/
See: Touched by an Angel - Let Us Reason Ministries www.letusreason.org/curent1.htm
Roma Downey Promotes New Age Doctrine (God “In” Everyone & Everything)—Christian Leaders Say Nothing
First she’s there; now she’s gone, or is she? New Age sympathizer Roma Downey was scheduled to speak at the National Religious Broadcaster’s 2019 convention, Proclaim 19. Sharing the docket with her are highly popular evangelical names like John MacArthur, Rick Warren, Greg Laurie, and Kirk Cameron. Lighthouse Trails reported on the story with the release of Greg Reid’s booklet, Butterfly Illusions (which unveils the strong New Age messages in Roma Downey’s new book, Box of Butterflies).
Shortly after the release of the booklet, Lighthouse Trails learned that Roma Downey’s name (along with her husband Mark Burnett) had been removed from the speakers list for Proclaim 19. Calls to the NRB office in Washington, DC by Lighthouse Trails editors provided no answers as to why Downey’s name was gone other than being told “it has not yet been decided” if she will be speaking there. As has been the “normal” protocol for Christian leaders when they get challenged, there is just dead silence from NRB as well as from the evangelical figures who are involved. But new information about Roma Downey’s beliefs will hopefully prompt NRB and Christian leaders to be responsible and do the right thing.
God “In” Everyone and Everything?
The crux of the New Age is not Ouija boards and Tarot cards but rather is the foundational belief that God is “in” everyone and “in” everything. It is the prevailing doctrine throughout all New Age teachings as well as the root of mystical meditation. To believe that God is in everyone and in everything is to ultimately reject the Cross (whether one realizes that or not). If God is in everyone, then there would have been no reason for Jesus Christ to go to the Cross as a substitute for humanity’s sins because we would already be divine and not need a Savior. That is why one prominent New Age leader quoted his “God” as saying, “the era of the Single Savior is over”1 (because we are all Saviors). It would stand to reason that Christian teachers and pastors who profess to know God’s Word and His ways would easily recognize the contrast between New Age spirituality and biblical Christianity. But in the case of Roma Downey and today’s Christian leaders, this is not so.
For many years now, Roma Downey has consistently and publicly shown herself to be strongly aligned with the New Age. Her long-time spiritual mentor was New Age/New Thought pastor and teacher Della Reese whom Downey considered to be a mother figure. Downey then attended and, in 2010, graduated from the University of Santa Monica (one of the most popular New Age schools in the world). And she favorably quotes the school’s New Age leader and founder, the late John-Roger2 (who claimed he was inhabited by the “mystical traveler consciousness”). Shortly after her graduation from USM, Downey came on the evangelical Christian scene (calling herself a devout Catholic), producing Bible-story movies and being wholeheartedly welcomed by numerous Christian celebrities (see some photo examples below) including Rick Warren, David Jeremiah, Greg Laurie, Samuel Rodriguez (she wrote the foreword to his 2017 book, Be Light), and Joel Osteen. And now, most recently, her open-armed welcome to speak at Proclaim 19 with John MacArthur, Rick Warren, Greg Laurie, and Kirk Cameron.
Christian Leaders Say Nothing
Until concern was issued by Lighthouse Trails and others, none of the men listed above had any apparent problem with being associated with Roma Downey. But do they even know or care about what she believes? Or have they just benefited from their association with her and ignored what she really stands for? (After all, she has gained the affection and following of millions and millions of people since her Touched by an Angel days—those associating with her would clearly glean from her substantial popularity.) On this point (i.e., the motives of the leaders), we can only speculate. But on the issue of Roma Downey’s New Age beliefs, we can know this for sure. For example, on two different interviews, one in 2012 (during the making of The Bible series) and one in April 2018, Downey stated that she believes God is “in” everyone and everything. (See videos below.) And as Greg Reid shows in his booklet Butterfly Illusions, Downey’s new book Box of Butterflies echoes this same message that God is in everyone by stating that separation is an illusion.3 Reid confronts Christian leaders (many of whom gave their hearty endorsements for Box of Butterflies) for not being more discerning and also for not correcting Roma Downey and her husband about their New Age beliefs and showing them that such beliefs are the antithesis of the message of the Bible and the Gospel, and the two absolutely cannot mix or be joined together. (We must interject here that recently Greg Reid had the opportunity to hand Roma Downey a copy of Warren B. Smith’s biography The Light That Was Dark: From the New Age to Amazing Grace—can Christian leaders say they have done even half that much to point Roma Downey in the right direction?)
In Warren Smith’s own booklet, Be Still and Know That You Are Not God (God is NOT in Everyone and Everything), Smith states:
Our Spiritual Adversary would have everyone believe that we are all “one” because God is “in” everyone and everything. Using every promotional means possible—including a creative and ingenious perversion of quantum physics—he is attempting to convince the world and the church that while Jesus was Christ, so is everyone. And while Jesus was God, so is everyone else. To underscore this heretical New Age doctrine of God and Christ “in” everyone, he would have us further believe that nothing of any significance happened on the Cross of Calvary. However, the Bible makes it very clear that something extremely wonderful and overwhelmingly significant did happen on the Cross of Calvary. For it was on that Cross that Jesus Christ died to save the world as He defeated sin (1 John 2:2), death (2 Timothy 1:10), and the Devil himself (Hebrews 2:14). As the one and only Christ, He is our Rock (1 Corinthians 10:1-4), He is our Foundation (1 Corinthians 3:11), and in every sense of the word He is the Saviour of the world (1 John 4:14).
The tragedy about this situation between Roma Downey and Christian leaders is that the leaders are using Roma Downey, Roma Downey is using the leaders, and our Adversary is using them both—and countless naïve and undiscerning Christians are buying into the whole thing.
Is Roma Downey going to be speaking at Proclaim 19? We don’t know. NRB is saying nothing about the removal of her name except the unofficial comment to Lighthouse Trails that “it has not yet been decided.” We urge NRB as well as John MacArthur, Greg Laurie, Kirk Cameron, and the other leaders to do the right thing—to speak the truth in love to Roma Downey about the dangers of her New Age beliefs that directly contradict the teachings of Jesus Christ.
To see videos continue here: www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=28991
!!
