Marsha West
Questioning with boldness: Which is it Glenn, are you a Mormon or a Christian? Part 1
By Marsha West
This article needs to be written. I have to admit that I hate doing it because I've been a Glenn Beck supporter for well over a year now. But, alas, my support has waned. Like millions of others I tune in to watch the megastar's TV show almost nightly, listen to his radio broadcast on occasion, and I've bought a couple of his books.
Beck has urged his supporters to "question with boldness" and now many of them do.
Day after day Mr. Beck sheds light on what's going on under our noses in the White House and in the hallowed halls of Congress. He strives to get people to think out of the box.
One thing's for sure. Glenn Beck has done a stellar job of exposing all the leftist radicals who have positions of influence in high places. On both his shows he examines progressivism/liberalism/Marxism and has shown us the damage this wordview has wrought on our country. For all this I am grateful.
A few words to describe Glenn are: Fearless...patriot...conversant...clever...droll...entertaining...sincere...transparent...teacher. His use of the blackboard is brilliant! No doubt many Americans have learned from his teaching.
We feel better knowing that he's got our backs.
Now, here's the but I've been leading up to. Glenn's passing himself off as a Christian. For months now he's been talkin' religion, more specifically Christianity. Which is odd because he was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day (LDS) a.k.a. Mormonism. Beck is a member in good standing in the LDS Church, yet his focus is not on Mormonism but on Christianity. Mostly he uses Christian terminology, which is misleading. It would seem that Beck is a Christian. But how can that be? Mormons deny the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. Mormon beliefs do not line up with Scripture yet they insist on calling themselves Christian when they clearly are not.
MORMONISM
What many people are unaware of is that the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, went on the attack against Christianity. Smith proclaimed that all of Christianity is an "abomination in God's sight!"
According to an article on Mormonism, "Mormon's Attack on Christianity,"
"there was 'unusual excitement on the subject of religion' in the area where he lived. He stated that the churches involved were the Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches. Because the young Smith was not sure as to which church he should join, he decided to go to some nearby woods (known today by Mormons as the "sacred grove") and pray about the matter. Little did anyone realize that one of the most vicious assaults on biblical Christianity would be launched when this teen-age boy would return out of those woods.
"Smith claimed that while he was praying in the grove he had been visited by both God the Father and Jesus Christ. When he asked these personages which church he should join, he claimed he was told to join none of them, "for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight" (Joseph Smith History 1:19)." http://www.mission.org/jesuspeople/mormatak.htm
The second LDS President Brigham Young said of Christians, "The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God" (Journal of Discourses 8:171). http://www.mission.org/jesuspeople/mormatak.htm
The third LDS President John Taylor said of Christians, "We talk about Christianity, but it is a perfect pack of nonsense...the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century" (Journal of Discourses 6:167). http://www.mission.org/jesuspeople/mormatak.htm
The article continues...
"The Doctrine and Covenants (1:30) leaves no doubt about the Mormon teaching of exclusivity when it says the LDS Church is, 'the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased....'"
LDS Christianity outright denies the Trinity which is an essential of biblical Christianity. So LDS Christianity and orthodox Christianity do not believe in the same God. Mormon Christianity teaches that there are many gods who are overseers of other planets. The god of planet Earth, the one they call Elohim, was just a man with a body of flesh and bones who progressed to godhood and was rewarded with his own planet. Joseph Smith taught, "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens. That is the great secret... [Y]ou have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you..." http://mrm.org/god-of-mormonism
Brigham Young believed in a plurality of gods: "How many Gods there are, I do not know. But there never was a time when there were not Gods..." (Journal of Discourses 7:333).
Mormons believe that after death they will become gods and will be rewarded with their own planet. Thereafter they will spend eternity with their many wives (polygamy) producing offspring to populate their planet. Traditional Christianity says that God is not a man. (Numbers 23:19) Mormon Christianity teaches that man first existed as spirits in heaven. Biblical Christianity says that the physical body comes before the spiritual. (1 Cor 15:46)
And LDS Christianity teaches this humdinger: Jesus and Lucifer are spirit children of God, which makes them spirit brothers.
From Bill McKeever's article, The Relationship Between Jesus and Lucifer in a Mormon Context:
In essence, Lucifer is not only the brother of Jesus, but he is also the brother of all mankind. This connection has been made many times by LDS leadership when discussing the LDS doctrine of the 'war in heaven.'
"Our Father said, 'Whom shall I send?' (Abraham 3:27). Two of our brothers offered to help. Our oldest brother, Jesus Christ, who was then called Jehovah, said, 'Here am I, send me'....Satan, who was called Lucifer, also came, saying, 'Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor' (Moses 4:1)." (Gospel Principles, chapter 3)
"In the grand council called to ratify the Father's plan, a great difference arose. The majority, led by the First Born of the Father, our Elder Brother, Jesus the Christ, was ready to accept the plan with all its conditions. The minority, led by Lucifer, a 'son of the morning,' feared the isolation and the pains and ills of earth. For them Lucifer proposed that they should be sent to earth, but that provisions should be made by which they would suffer no pain and would not have to make any sacrifices. All of them would be returned with earthly bodies irrespective of their works on earth. This latter plan seemed desirable that one-third of those present favored it, in direct opposition of God's plan. Lucifer and his followers were thrown out of the council, and as opponents of God's plan, became the devil and his angels, who strive ever to tempt men to disobey the laws of God." (John A. Widtsoe, Joseph Smith — Seeker After Truth, pp.156-157)
The Bible clearly teaches in John's gospel and in Paul's letter to the Colossians that Jesus is the Creator of all things, including Lucifer.
Again, it was Joseph Smith and subsequent Mormon hierarchy that attacked Christianity. The truth is, Joseph Smith's religion, which he made up out of whole cloth, is an abomination to God!
It seems weird to me that Glenn Beck spends oodles of time gathering dirt on leftist radicals and that he digs deep to get the skinny on President Obama but has neglected to do some deep digging on LDS founder Joseph Smith. His church's so-called prophet was a charlatan, a polygamist, an adulterer, and he was up to his eyeballs in the occult as was his father. There's plenty of evidence on the web for inquiring minds that want to know the truth about Mormonism's founder. (See links below.)
Now to my point, which is why I no longer trust Glenn Beck. Back in July the Beckster gave the gospel on his television program to the amazement of many evangelicals. This left some of us wondering if he was actually a Christian. To make sure he got it right he admitted calling Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention to have him explain the gospel message so that he could contrast it with President Obama's "collective salvation," which was the premise of his show that night. But our hopes were dashed when he didn't reject Mormonism's false gospel for the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Further, on August 18 he put the pedal to the metal and went full throttle into Mormon revisionist history. I was stunned when he told his audience that Native Americans were descended from an ancient civilization that existed on this continent in pre-historic and Biblical times! He said "This civilization had large cities and a very advanced culture, including a writing system and higher religious thought."
Glenn went to his trusty blackboard to demonstrate what he claimed were similarities between ancient Native American earthen structures and Egyptian pyramids and said that Hebrew artifacts have turned up in Native American archaeological sites. To lend credibility to his claims he named scientists and archeologists. Who are these so-called experts? Mormons!
There's not one scintilla of evidence that the civilization Joseph Smith wrote about ever existed. Yet it was presented by Beck as "historical fact." Worse, he accused the scholarly community of engaging in a cover up! Mainstream archeologists, with no ax to grind (pun intended) have thoroughly debunked these ridiculous claims!
Space does not permit me to go into the Bat Creek Stone, a six-inch artifact that was unearthed in East Tennessee in 1889, that Beck spoke of on that same show. Here is the segment on video http://www.worldviewweekend.com/worldview-times/article.php?articleid=6429 Slide the bar to 1.50 minutes to hear him discuss the stone.
You ask, "Why would Glenn bring pseudo-history up?" Because,
"The entire Mormon belief system is built on the idea that one of the twelve tribes of Israel came to North America in the years before Christ. They settled here, and developed these "advanced civilizations." Because of this, Christ, when He finished his work with the Apostles, actually came to America to share the "gospel" with this lost tribe. This visit, along with the "true gospel," was recorded on golden tablets, which laid buried until the angel Moroni told Joseph Smith where to find them. The reason for the angel's revelation? Christianity had become apostate, and all of their creeds were corrupt, and all of their followers were deceived. Therefore, it fell to Smith not to "reform" the Christian church, but to "restore" it. http://bakersfieldchurch.blogspot.com/2010/08/glenn-becks-mormon-infomercial.html
"GLENN BECK'S DIVINE DESTINY"
The following is an excerpt from an article written by Brannon Howse, Following Glenn Beck's Divine Destiny or God's Word. Brannon hopes serious Christians will not attend the program on August 27:
The Apostle Paul warns Christians against uniting with unbelievers in spiritual endeavors in 2 Corinthians 6:14 where we read, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?" In verse 16 Paul declares that Christians must be spiritually separate from non-believers. Remember Paul is talking about being spiritually separate. "Glenn Beck's Divine Destiny" program at the Kennedy Center on Friday evening August 27, 2010 has been specifically described by organizers as "a unique spiritual event."
While I applaud and agree with many of Glenn Beck's conservative and constitutional views, that does not give me or any other Bible-believing Christian justification to compromise Biblical truth by spiritually joining Beck in an event, that according this his own website, will include an evening in which "nationally-known religious figures from all faiths will unite...." The website continues "The audience for the event will be overwhelmingly made up of pastors, ministers and clergy..." The event is also described as an evening "that will help heal your soul." This event is clearly a spiritual event with Glenn declaring on a video on his website that the hymn Eternal Father Strong to Save "is the message of 8/27." The problem is that as a Mormon, Glenn's definition of God the Father is not the same as that described by Jesus Christ Himself in the Bible. Glenn says, "I have been reaching out to the biggest names in faith for the last year...I have met with the biggest leaders of faith in the country privately and I have asked them to help me put differences aside and to reach out with one another so we can remind people to get down on their knees for our brethren's shield in our dangerous hour."
Christians that want to be committed to Biblical truth cannot "put aside" the cross and Gospel of Jesus Christ nor the supremacy of Scripture by spiritually uniting with those that proclaim another Jesus, another gospel and declare the cross foolishness."
Part 2 coming up!
Copyright by Marsha West, 2010. All rights reserved.
Research Mormonism:
On Solid Rock Resources — Articles and books
http://www.emailbrigade.com/301.html
The Madness of Mormonism: A Prophet Named Joseph Smith Jr. — By
Dr. Stanford E. Murrell
http://www.sounddoctrine.net/stanford/Cults%20The%20Madness%20of%20Mormonism.pdf
Historical Issues — By Mormon Research Ministry
http://mrm.org/history
The Not So Mormon Soteriology of Glenn Beck — By Mormon Research Ministry
http://mrm.org/glenn-beck-soteriology
Glenn Beck Are You Really A Mormon? — Wretched TV with Todd Friel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNj84BX3QFM&feature=player_embedded
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5VQxe2Khzk&feature=related
Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiYnwc9tR4g&feature=related
© Marsha West
August 25, 2010
This article needs to be written. I have to admit that I hate doing it because I've been a Glenn Beck supporter for well over a year now. But, alas, my support has waned. Like millions of others I tune in to watch the megastar's TV show almost nightly, listen to his radio broadcast on occasion, and I've bought a couple of his books.
Beck has urged his supporters to "question with boldness" and now many of them do.
Day after day Mr. Beck sheds light on what's going on under our noses in the White House and in the hallowed halls of Congress. He strives to get people to think out of the box.
One thing's for sure. Glenn Beck has done a stellar job of exposing all the leftist radicals who have positions of influence in high places. On both his shows he examines progressivism/liberalism/Marxism and has shown us the damage this wordview has wrought on our country. For all this I am grateful.
A few words to describe Glenn are: Fearless...patriot...conversant...clever...droll...entertaining...sincere...transparent...teacher. His use of the blackboard is brilliant! No doubt many Americans have learned from his teaching.
We feel better knowing that he's got our backs.
Now, here's the but I've been leading up to. Glenn's passing himself off as a Christian. For months now he's been talkin' religion, more specifically Christianity. Which is odd because he was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day (LDS) a.k.a. Mormonism. Beck is a member in good standing in the LDS Church, yet his focus is not on Mormonism but on Christianity. Mostly he uses Christian terminology, which is misleading. It would seem that Beck is a Christian. But how can that be? Mormons deny the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. Mormon beliefs do not line up with Scripture yet they insist on calling themselves Christian when they clearly are not.
MORMONISM
What many people are unaware of is that the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, went on the attack against Christianity. Smith proclaimed that all of Christianity is an "abomination in God's sight!"
According to an article on Mormonism, "Mormon's Attack on Christianity,"
"there was 'unusual excitement on the subject of religion' in the area where he lived. He stated that the churches involved were the Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches. Because the young Smith was not sure as to which church he should join, he decided to go to some nearby woods (known today by Mormons as the "sacred grove") and pray about the matter. Little did anyone realize that one of the most vicious assaults on biblical Christianity would be launched when this teen-age boy would return out of those woods.
"Smith claimed that while he was praying in the grove he had been visited by both God the Father and Jesus Christ. When he asked these personages which church he should join, he claimed he was told to join none of them, "for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight" (Joseph Smith History 1:19)." http://www.mission.org/jesuspeople/mormatak.htm
The second LDS President Brigham Young said of Christians, "The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God" (Journal of Discourses 8:171). http://www.mission.org/jesuspeople/mormatak.htm
The third LDS President John Taylor said of Christians, "We talk about Christianity, but it is a perfect pack of nonsense...the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century" (Journal of Discourses 6:167). http://www.mission.org/jesuspeople/mormatak.htm
The article continues...
"The Doctrine and Covenants (1:30) leaves no doubt about the Mormon teaching of exclusivity when it says the LDS Church is, 'the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased....'"
LDS Christianity outright denies the Trinity which is an essential of biblical Christianity. So LDS Christianity and orthodox Christianity do not believe in the same God. Mormon Christianity teaches that there are many gods who are overseers of other planets. The god of planet Earth, the one they call Elohim, was just a man with a body of flesh and bones who progressed to godhood and was rewarded with his own planet. Joseph Smith taught, "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens. That is the great secret... [Y]ou have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you..." http://mrm.org/god-of-mormonism
Brigham Young believed in a plurality of gods: "How many Gods there are, I do not know. But there never was a time when there were not Gods..." (Journal of Discourses 7:333).
Mormons believe that after death they will become gods and will be rewarded with their own planet. Thereafter they will spend eternity with their many wives (polygamy) producing offspring to populate their planet. Traditional Christianity says that God is not a man. (Numbers 23:19) Mormon Christianity teaches that man first existed as spirits in heaven. Biblical Christianity says that the physical body comes before the spiritual. (1 Cor 15:46)
And LDS Christianity teaches this humdinger: Jesus and Lucifer are spirit children of God, which makes them spirit brothers.
From Bill McKeever's article, The Relationship Between Jesus and Lucifer in a Mormon Context:
In essence, Lucifer is not only the brother of Jesus, but he is also the brother of all mankind. This connection has been made many times by LDS leadership when discussing the LDS doctrine of the 'war in heaven.'
"Our Father said, 'Whom shall I send?' (Abraham 3:27). Two of our brothers offered to help. Our oldest brother, Jesus Christ, who was then called Jehovah, said, 'Here am I, send me'....Satan, who was called Lucifer, also came, saying, 'Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor' (Moses 4:1)." (Gospel Principles, chapter 3)
"In the grand council called to ratify the Father's plan, a great difference arose. The majority, led by the First Born of the Father, our Elder Brother, Jesus the Christ, was ready to accept the plan with all its conditions. The minority, led by Lucifer, a 'son of the morning,' feared the isolation and the pains and ills of earth. For them Lucifer proposed that they should be sent to earth, but that provisions should be made by which they would suffer no pain and would not have to make any sacrifices. All of them would be returned with earthly bodies irrespective of their works on earth. This latter plan seemed desirable that one-third of those present favored it, in direct opposition of God's plan. Lucifer and his followers were thrown out of the council, and as opponents of God's plan, became the devil and his angels, who strive ever to tempt men to disobey the laws of God." (John A. Widtsoe, Joseph Smith — Seeker After Truth, pp.156-157)
The Bible clearly teaches in John's gospel and in Paul's letter to the Colossians that Jesus is the Creator of all things, including Lucifer.
Again, it was Joseph Smith and subsequent Mormon hierarchy that attacked Christianity. The truth is, Joseph Smith's religion, which he made up out of whole cloth, is an abomination to God!
It seems weird to me that Glenn Beck spends oodles of time gathering dirt on leftist radicals and that he digs deep to get the skinny on President Obama but has neglected to do some deep digging on LDS founder Joseph Smith. His church's so-called prophet was a charlatan, a polygamist, an adulterer, and he was up to his eyeballs in the occult as was his father. There's plenty of evidence on the web for inquiring minds that want to know the truth about Mormonism's founder. (See links below.)
Now to my point, which is why I no longer trust Glenn Beck. Back in July the Beckster gave the gospel on his television program to the amazement of many evangelicals. This left some of us wondering if he was actually a Christian. To make sure he got it right he admitted calling Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention to have him explain the gospel message so that he could contrast it with President Obama's "collective salvation," which was the premise of his show that night. But our hopes were dashed when he didn't reject Mormonism's false gospel for the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Further, on August 18 he put the pedal to the metal and went full throttle into Mormon revisionist history. I was stunned when he told his audience that Native Americans were descended from an ancient civilization that existed on this continent in pre-historic and Biblical times! He said "This civilization had large cities and a very advanced culture, including a writing system and higher religious thought."
Glenn went to his trusty blackboard to demonstrate what he claimed were similarities between ancient Native American earthen structures and Egyptian pyramids and said that Hebrew artifacts have turned up in Native American archaeological sites. To lend credibility to his claims he named scientists and archeologists. Who are these so-called experts? Mormons!
There's not one scintilla of evidence that the civilization Joseph Smith wrote about ever existed. Yet it was presented by Beck as "historical fact." Worse, he accused the scholarly community of engaging in a cover up! Mainstream archeologists, with no ax to grind (pun intended) have thoroughly debunked these ridiculous claims!
Space does not permit me to go into the Bat Creek Stone, a six-inch artifact that was unearthed in East Tennessee in 1889, that Beck spoke of on that same show. Here is the segment on video http://www.worldviewweekend.com/worldview-times/article.php?articleid=6429 Slide the bar to 1.50 minutes to hear him discuss the stone.
You ask, "Why would Glenn bring pseudo-history up?" Because,
"The entire Mormon belief system is built on the idea that one of the twelve tribes of Israel came to North America in the years before Christ. They settled here, and developed these "advanced civilizations." Because of this, Christ, when He finished his work with the Apostles, actually came to America to share the "gospel" with this lost tribe. This visit, along with the "true gospel," was recorded on golden tablets, which laid buried until the angel Moroni told Joseph Smith where to find them. The reason for the angel's revelation? Christianity had become apostate, and all of their creeds were corrupt, and all of their followers were deceived. Therefore, it fell to Smith not to "reform" the Christian church, but to "restore" it. http://bakersfieldchurch.blogspot.com/2010/08/glenn-becks-mormon-infomercial.html
"GLENN BECK'S DIVINE DESTINY"
The following is an excerpt from an article written by Brannon Howse, Following Glenn Beck's Divine Destiny or God's Word. Brannon hopes serious Christians will not attend the program on August 27:
The Apostle Paul warns Christians against uniting with unbelievers in spiritual endeavors in 2 Corinthians 6:14 where we read, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?" In verse 16 Paul declares that Christians must be spiritually separate from non-believers. Remember Paul is talking about being spiritually separate. "Glenn Beck's Divine Destiny" program at the Kennedy Center on Friday evening August 27, 2010 has been specifically described by organizers as "a unique spiritual event."
While I applaud and agree with many of Glenn Beck's conservative and constitutional views, that does not give me or any other Bible-believing Christian justification to compromise Biblical truth by spiritually joining Beck in an event, that according this his own website, will include an evening in which "nationally-known religious figures from all faiths will unite...." The website continues "The audience for the event will be overwhelmingly made up of pastors, ministers and clergy..." The event is also described as an evening "that will help heal your soul." This event is clearly a spiritual event with Glenn declaring on a video on his website that the hymn Eternal Father Strong to Save "is the message of 8/27." The problem is that as a Mormon, Glenn's definition of God the Father is not the same as that described by Jesus Christ Himself in the Bible. Glenn says, "I have been reaching out to the biggest names in faith for the last year...I have met with the biggest leaders of faith in the country privately and I have asked them to help me put differences aside and to reach out with one another so we can remind people to get down on their knees for our brethren's shield in our dangerous hour."
Christians that want to be committed to Biblical truth cannot "put aside" the cross and Gospel of Jesus Christ nor the supremacy of Scripture by spiritually uniting with those that proclaim another Jesus, another gospel and declare the cross foolishness."
Part 2 coming up!
Copyright by Marsha West, 2010. All rights reserved.
Research Mormonism:
On Solid Rock Resources — Articles and books
http://www.emailbrigade.com/301.html
The Madness of Mormonism: A Prophet Named Joseph Smith Jr. — By
Dr. Stanford E. Murrell
http://www.sounddoctrine.net/stanford/Cults%20The%20Madness%20of%20Mormonism.pdf
Historical Issues — By Mormon Research Ministry
http://mrm.org/history
The Not So Mormon Soteriology of Glenn Beck — By Mormon Research Ministry
http://mrm.org/glenn-beck-soteriology
Glenn Beck Are You Really A Mormon? — Wretched TV with Todd Friel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNj84BX3QFM&feature=player_embedded
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5VQxe2Khzk&feature=related
Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiYnwc9tR4g&feature=related
© Marsha West
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
