I post to you today from the country of Belize where I’ve come sharing the gospel. People here seem so open to the message of salvation in Christ. I wish I could stay longer. On to today’s topic…

It seems every time I open YouTube, I get Jonathan Roumie’s face telling me to stop what I’m doing so he can share a scripture with me. Then he goes into the Catholic sign of the cross.

This is disingenuous in that it’s merely a pitch from the “rosary evangelist” to download and install the “Hallow” app, a Catholic contemplative prayer app. This is the same guy who plays Jesus in the wildly popular “Chosen” series. Various aspects in the portrayal of the disciples and Jesus as well as some stuff behind the scenes in the production of the series have come to light, undermining its credibility from a biblical standpoint. I’m not going to go into that here. Suffice to say the series is deceptive and dangerous.

It’s contemplative prayer that is the issue today. The “Hallow” app and the practice of contemplative prayer have wide adoption in both evangelical and Catholic circles. This practice is a rather complicated and unbiblical procedure that has its roots in eastern mysticism and Roman Catholic piety. There are two dangers:

1. The pull towards Roman Catholicism.
2. The unbiblical practice of an eastern meditative approach to prayer that has nothing to do with biblically compliant prayer.

There are many well meaning people who believe they have “cracked the code” for effective prayer. A popular prayer model called “ACTS” is used in many churches today to teach people to pray. I wrote about problems with this model here on this blog site. Then there is contemplative prayer with its origins in Roman Catholicism and eastern mysticism that is widespread in the church and even more popular with the Roumie false Jesus endorsing it. Roumie is also responsible for popularizing the rosary, not only in Roman Catholicism, but with non Catholic Christians as well. The popularity of this guy reminds me of the warning of the real Jesus:

And Jesus began to say to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. Many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He!’ and will mislead many.”

Mark 13:5-6

Why can’t we just follow the instructions for prayer in the Bible? There is a very simple model for prayer from Jesus Himself in the New Testament: The Lord’s Prayer. This prayer and instruction about prayer is in Matthew 6:5-15. We do not need (and should avoid) the esoteric approach to prayer advocated by Jonathan Roumie and the Hallow app.

Stay away from The Chosen, Jonathan Roumie, the Hallow app, and contemplative prayer. The real Jesus gave us the only template for prayer we need. Start there and go to other prayers of the Bible in the old and New Testament. A few examples:

2 Samuel 7

Daniel 9

Nehemiah 1

Habakkuk 3

Ephesians 3:14-21

And more, to include many of the Psalms.

We live in deceptive and dark days in which many are falling away from the truth, enticed by a friendly and sincere people such as Jonathan Roumie and other “Christian” celebrities that have sway with people because of their popularity and good looks. They are instruments of deception. All we need do is keep ourselves aligned with the Word of God and pray as the Lord taught us.

If you want more information about the issues of contemplative prayer, I’d recommend YouTube from Doreen Virtue, a Christian who was big in the New Age movement and has now repented and warns people of the practices and beliefs she used to advocate.