I used to watch Glenn Beck because I agreed with his politics. I remember the first time I watched his show when he was on CNN. I immediately thought to myself, ‘what is this guy doing on CNN? I bet he won’t last long.’ Sure enough, about 5 months later he was on Fox.
Although I knew he is a Mormon, I hung in there with him until I sensed he was using his platform for Mormonism. News pundits are paid to give the news and form opinions on them, and to host roundtables where other people espouse opinions. As long as Beck was doing that, I felt OK to watch him. I really enjoyed his teachings early on at the chalkboard on our political system. He did a great job of referring our thoughts and our hearts back to the founding principles of our nation. Really, the political lessons he gave on TV were magnificent. He also alerted a great many people to the truth of the Twelver Muslim beliefs, and that was valuable too.
But then I sensed he was slipping Mormonism into his show. I was NOT OK with that. He rapidly became a kind of Christian leader that biblical evangelicals gravitated to and I was not OK with that. This article is good: Some evangelicals on defensive over partnering with Glenn Beck, a Mormon:
“A handful of prominent evangelical activists are defending their decision to attend television host Glenn Beck’s conservative rally in Washington this weekend after some Christians complained that evangelicals shouldn’t be partnering with Beck because of his Mormon faith.Video: Glenn Beck rally stirs controversy”There is no need to ‘de-Christianize’ each other over the matter,” wrote Jim Garlow, an influential California pastor, in a five-page memo this week arguing that evangelicals can attend Beck’s rally and partner with the television and radio personality in good conscience.”Glenn Beck is being used by God – mightily,” Garlow wrote in the memo, which was obtained by CNN. “The left loves to slam him and do so viscerally and often with vulgarities. Glenn is not perfect… But his expose on America’s sins is stellar.”
I disagree with the partnering. I disagree with the statement that God is using him. If Beck is not Christian then satan is using him. Those are the only two options. God, or satan. Now, God did use Darius in a mighty way and He has used other pagans for His plan. I’m not saying God can’t use a non-saved person. But Beck’s rise to Christian prominence while not being a Christian makes me wary.
My go-to guy, John MacArthur answered a Mormon issue at a Q&A . He wasn’t addressing Glenn Beck (because it was in 1983) but he is answering a question about what to do if a Mormon comes to your house proselytizing. Here is a partial transcript.
QUESTIONER: Hi, Jesus commanded us to go out and preach the gospel. The question I have this, was Jehovah witnesses or Mormons if they come to your door it says in 2 John not to even let them in…
JOHN: Right.
QUESTIONER: …or to bid them God speed. Are we to do this? Are we to send them away with that or are we to witness to them? Where do we draw the line?
JOHN: Well, when 2 John says if you bid them God speed you become a partaker and their evil deeds. The assumption there is if you encourage them along the way in their work. That’s…that’s what it’s really saying. If they come to you and preach another doctrine and another Christ and you encourage them, God speed, you know, have a good day, nice going fellow, you know, whatever, and you sort of scurry them along in the work and encourage them, then you become a partaker in their evil deeds. You’re an accomplice to their evil deeds.
QUESTIONER: Then we are to confront them.
JOHN: Yeah, I think that…this is the way I would handle…this is the way I handle those people. If they come to the door. I say, “I’m very happy to talk to you if you’d like to hear what I have to say. I do not care to hear what you have to say.”
QUESTIONER: Wow.
JOHN: “Because I know the truth out of the Word of God. But if you’d like to hear what I believe to be the Word of God or if you’d like give me your address I’ll send you some tapes and so forth, but I really am not interested in giving you a platform to articulate heresy and lies.” It doesn’t do you any good. That kind of teaching eats like a gangrene. That kind of thing confuses and creates doubts, and it needs to be confronted. Boy, I remember one time when a guy in our church got into Mormonism, and there were a couple of Mormon…everybody’s a Mormon Bishop of one kind of another I guess, and they were over at his house. And I was so angry at this proselytizing of this guy, that I went over there and I just confronted all of them.”
“And I…I gave them a hell fire damnation message, just to three people. You know, just to…as strongly as I could. I consigned them to eternal damnation for blasphemy. And I mean, they got on their bicycles and you never saw…you don’t normally lay rubber on a bicycle, but they were gone out of there. But the thing…the redeeming thing in my own mind is this, and I wasn’t trying to be unkind. I was trying to startle them. And I think that when we give them a platform and we don’t confront them with a horror of the lies they propound in a sense, we tacitly send them on their way with the God speed. You need to nail them, I think in love, but just in prophetic indignence about the heresy they espouse. That’s what I think. And then remember this, if you do it in love, you may find…now in this case because of the seriousness of it, I really burst out, there are times when…when a cult comes along, I’ll be sensitive to it, and if I see that they’re somewhat vulnerable, if they’re the Bishops or one of those kinds of people, I just go after them.”
And then there was a follow-up question asking what to do if a Mormon wants to join your bible study:
JOHN: …you need to be sensitive if he wants to join your Bible study and you sense there’s a hungry heart. You know, the truth can…the truth can overpower the lie. But if he is firmly entrenched and sees as a way to gain territory, then you’ve got a deal with that. That’s a gangrene. That’s a leaven.”
I see Beck as a person who wants to gain territory, not partner with biblical Christians so as to learn the truth. Therefore the 2 John 1:10-11 verse comes in: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.”
We cannot follow Beck, partner with him, or I believe, even attend his functions, because if a person does not follow Jesus Christ (the Jesus of the bible), then the truth is not in them and they are an antichrist:
“but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.” (1 John 4:3)
“Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.” (2 John 1:7)
Beck sounds almost right. But Charles Spurgeon said that discernment is not just about seeing the difference between right and wrong, but about what is right and what is almost right. Satan is subtle, crafty, and has schemes. Those are words from the bible used to describe him. So satan will wrap the truth in a lie and the lie in some truth.
Though Mormons sound almost right, they do not acknowledge the Jesus of the bible because they believe He is flesh, and that satan is his brother, and therefore that He is a created being. They do not believe Jesus’ work on the cross was enough to cleanse us from our sins but that good works are required as part of salvation also. Mormons believe Jesus came in the flesh but that he was born of ONLY flesh and that God is flesh also. More here on what Mormons believe. More here on “Is Glenn Beck a Christian?” I believe Beck is a false prophet. I feel this because the bible verses above let us know this. Pray for Beck and others like him who are laboring under a false Gospel. Love him as a neighbor. But avoid Glenn Beck as a leader in the faith.
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