Glenn Beck goes off on "religious people"

By Marsha West

"The Doctrine and Covenants 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....'"

Glenn Beck recently threw a hissy fit on his daily radio program over "religious people [who] claim to be followers of Christ" getting upset that he was the featured convocation speaker at Liberty University (LU). Beck accused those who were concerned over a cultist preaching a sermon of "absolutely smearing" LU.

Let's cut to the chase. Glenn Beck is a Mormon in good standing. Mormonism is a theological cult. Thus Beck's not an authentic Christian – period. That some Christians have the temerity to object to a cultist giving a sermon at a Christian university offended Mr. Beck, thus his rant.

In an earlier column I wrote Questioning with boldness: Which is it Glenn, are you a Mormon or a Christian? I provided an in depth examination of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. So I'm not going to spend a lot of time re-examine it here. However, to help you get a handle on what Mormons believe, the following is a snippet of Mormon Christianity from my column. As you will see, what they believe isn't even close to biblical Christianity:

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. [Founder]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..."

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.

Bible believing Christians will understand that historic orthodox Christianity does not hold to any of what Joseph Smith conjured up. There is no way that Glenn Beck is unaware of Smith's beliefs and background. Later in my column I brought to light that,

...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 ... 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. (Source)

For reasons known only to him, Glenn Beck holds the LDS Church in high regard. Consequently, he's deluded. Why do I say that? To put it bluntly, Mormonism is a satanic cult. (Those who wish to research the LDS are invited to visit my website.) LU knows this full well, yet Beck was invited to speak to its students. As I mentioned above, Beck preached a sermon saturated with Mormon theology. Moreover, he shared a valuable artifact – Joseph Smith's pocket watch.

Liberty University Enlightens Us

Following is LU's explanation, in part, for their decision:

We have explained over the decades repeatedly that convocation is an opportunity for students to hear from people of all faiths and from all walks of life. Liberty has also made it clear repeatedly that it does not endorse any statements made by any convocation speaker.

So far so good.

By contrast, our faculty are all required to profess Liberty's statement of faith and to affirm our doctrinal statement. Our students are all required to take many credit hours of theology and Bible courses, regardless of their major. Our students have no question about what Liberty's doctrinal statement is. It is posted publicly for all to see. Our doctrinal statement is our public statement on Mormonism. It is the same statement that Liberty was founded upon and it will never change.

College is about learning. How can you defend what you believe if you don't understand what others believe?

Good point.

I believe our students are stronger in their faith because of our convocation speaker series and the wide diversity of views that they have been privileged to hear in person over the last few decades.

....

By the way, many conservative evangelical leaders who are closer to Beck than me have told me that they believe Beck has had a born again experience recently.

Hold it right there! The "Glenn Beck is saved" rumor has been circulating for several years thanks largely to Wall Builders Founder David Barton, "American evangelicals' favorite historian." If it's true, then why is Beck keeping the good news from his friends and fans? Moreover, if he truly is regenerate then why hasn't he cut all ties to the LDS Church and joined a church where the true gospel of Christ is preached?

LU's explanation continues:

I do not know his heart but our audience knows that he was speaking only for himself and expressing his personal opinions and beliefs, not those of Liberty University or even of Mormonism generally. As Jerry Falwell, Sr., our founder, often used to say about speakers at Liberty who had different views than him, Liberty students are smart enough to eat the fish and spit out the bones! I believe that's as true today as it was in his day.

Are we to assume every student is mature in their faith and has spiritual discernment? Are we to assume that every student who attends a Christian university has been born again and thus saved? Did it not occur to Jerry Falwell, Jr. that some of the students who ate the fish Glenn Beck dished up could have choked on the bones?!

Now, don't get me wrong. Liberty University has the right to invite whoever they wish to speak to its students. But lately they seem to have an affinity for Mormons, as Glenn Beck has spoken at the university twice. In 2010 he delivered the commencement address and received an honorary doctorate degree. Likewise, Mormon Mitt Romney gave the commencement speech in 2012.

A Martyr?

Is it true that Joseph Smith died a martyr, as Glenn Beck declared to LU's students? Not so fast, Glenn! The factual account of what led to Smith's death reveal that he and his brother Hyrum were charged with treason and conspiracy by Illinois authorities whereby they were arrested and imprisoned in a minimum security cell in the Carthage city jail. According to The Martyrdom of Joseph Smith by Eric Johnson:

He and his brother Hyrum Smith were murdered on June 27, 1844, by an armed mob, an event that has prompted Mormons to classify them as martyrs. It has caused others, however, to raise the question whether someone who dies in a gun battle fighting against his enemies can be considered to be a martyr. A close examination of the term reveals that one must meet specific requirements to be considered a martyr, which involve, for example, the reasons why one is put to death and the way one faces such a death. An investigation of the reasons why Smith was murdered and the actions he took to avoid this fate inevitably makes it difficult to maintain that Smith was "like a lamb led to the slaughter." (Source)

Johnson offers several reasons why he believes it is not accurate to classify Smith a martyr which you'll find in his essay under the heading: THE FALLACY OF DEEMING SMITH A MARTYR.

Glenn's Rant

To spare you from having to read Beck's ridiculous rant, I'll post a few quotes from a piece by Erica Ritz:

This is why your churches are dwindling. ... You think you're standing for something, when indeed, you're standing for hate and bigotry. I think Jesus was hanging out with prostitutes and sinners, wasn't he? You won't even listen to a man who says ... 'I challenge you to know your faith, not my faith, your faith so well that you're willing to die for it. Stand with one another.' That frightens you so much? If it does, you might want to consider that you're on the wrong side.

Let's see. "Prophet" Joseph Smith said that "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."

And anyone who rejects Mormon heresy is "standing for hate and bigotry."

More...

I look at every single lover of light and truth as my ally, my friend, my brother. ... I look at everyone who is my enemy as my brother. I don't care what you say; I don't care what you think your belief is; I don't care what your lifestyle is – you're not going to change me. And I invite you to join me, join others of multiple faiths – never asking anyone to change their faith – asking you to strengthen your faith, whatever it is. (Source)

Beck is oblivious to the fact that his truth is NOT biblical Truth. On the contrary, what he's "preaching" to anyone who's willing to listen, and to a captive audience at LU by the way, is ecumenism. This New Age Mormon who professes Christ vociferously urges his followers to join together with other religious faiths and sing We Are the World. If Michael Jackson were alive today, he'd be proud of Glenn.

Partnerships

Glenn claims he's read the Bible several times. Perhaps he has. However, he must have skipped over Paul's teaching in 2 Cor. 6:14-16:

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God.

Unbelievers are in darkness. For this reason believers are not to unite with them in any sort of spiritual enterprise. And those who are in darkness, the unsaved, are not our brothers and sisters. Thus, we are commanded to share the gospel of Christ with them. (1 Cor. 15:1-11)

One last quote from Glenn Beck's hero, Joseph Smith where we learn a bit more of his bizarre and unbiblical understanding of God, which, by his own admission is the view of God Glenn holds as he is, after all, a professing Mormon:

I say, if you were to see him [God] to-day, you would see him like a man in form – like yourselves, in all the person, image, and very form as a man . . . it is necessary that we should understand the character and being of God, and how he came to be so; for I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity, I will refute that idea, and will take away and do away the veil, so that you may see . . . and that he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ himself did. (Source)

Now a bit of wise counsel from Erin Benziger in What If 'My God' Is Bigger than 'Your God'? :

It is sinful pride that leads men into idolatry as they create imaginary gods that suit their own personal needs. It is the same sinful pride that prevents men from bowing low before the True God. It is this pride that refuses to acknowledge one's own inability to offer anything truly "good" and refuses to acknowledge his own sinfulness. Yet it is God Who can, by wonderful, amazing grace, break a man of this pride and bring him to his knees in humility. It is God Who can bring the most stubborn, prideful man to a place of repentance and faith in the Savior, Jesus Christ. May we pray this day and every day that God would use us to proclaim the truth of His Gospel to such men, and may we pray that His Spirit would stir and work within those men to bring them to repentant, saving faith and knowledge of His Son. (Source)

Recommended:

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints/Mormonism – On Solid Resources

New Age Movement – On Solid Rock Resources

Glenn Beck's "pure personal truth," Part 1, Part 2 – Marsha West

© Marsha West