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Sunday, August 29, 2010

Should You Pray With Glenn Beck?

Radio host Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck has been in the news a lot this past weekend. He hosted a rally with over 300,000 people in Washington, D.C.

I like to listen to Glenn on WOWO Radio in Fort Wayne for about ten minutes each day, then I've usually had enough.

The thing is, Glenn and I agree on many things. He's a conservative libertarian, I'm a conservative libertarian. He's pro-life, I'm pro-life. He's in favor of the tradtional family, I'm in favor of the traditional family.

It's when Glenn starts talking about God that I simply have to shut him off.

Glenn Beck is a Mormon, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In itself, there's nothing really wrong with that. We have freedom of religion and he can be whatever religion he wants to be.

But I am a Christian. I believe in One God, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, undivided and consubstantial, God, "ineffable, inconceivable, invisible, incomprehensible, ever-existing and eternally the same..."

This is not the god of the Mormons. This is not the god to whom Glenn Beck prays. The LDS Church flatly denies the Trinity. They have extricated references to the Holy Trinity from hymns and music they sing. Their denial of the Trinity means their denial of everything that God is: the Eternal, Universal Divine Nature of God the Father Who created all things visible and invisible. To the Mormons, God the Father is god of this planet, but not the Sovereign Lord of all.

Their denial of the Trinity means that they don't believe that Jesus Christ is the embodiment of God, fully human and fully divine. They don't accept that everything of God was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, that all of God walked with His human family, and that God Himself surrendered His life to bring new life to all men.

Their denial of the Trinity means that the Holy Spirit is less than fully God. That means that the energies of God cannot work in the life of the believer through the Mysteries, that the fruit of the Spirit is not the manifestation of the life of God.

To some this may seem like trivia or theological mumbo-jumbo.

In fact, it goes to the kernel of Glenn Beck's movement. Glenn asks his faithful to join him in prayer every morning. He tells his radio audience that we need to get back to God. He said at the 8/28 Rally that America's only hope is to get back to God.

But which god? The LDS Church believes that different worlds have different deities. They think that men in the LDS priesthood will become gods of other worlds. They teach that human life on earth is intended to bring "spirit children" into being from various levels of heaven so that they may become deities of other worlds. They reject almost all aspects of the historic Church claiming that historic Christianity is apostate and that the movement establised by Joseph Smith is the true embodiment of what the Lord intended.

I appreciate Glenn's call to get America back to its roots. His clarion call to return to the Constitution is well made. His efforts to renew American interest in our Founding Fathers are commendable. His challenge to ever encroaching and swelling government intrusion are needed.

But I can't pray with him. I can pray for him, but not with him.

I hope I've made you think.

2 comments:

Brenda P said...

Thank you for your comments. I, too, listen to Glenn Beck, respect and agree with much of what he has said and accomplished over the past 2 years...I used to listen to him when he was here in Tampa, he now gives a much more professional, smooth presentation to his audience. But, as a Christian, I have had an uneasiness about his belief system. What you have said clarifies concerns I have had, but have found difficult to articulate.

Justin said...

I wholeheartedly agree with you. Mormon belief really can't be called 'Christian'.