Embracing Glenn Beck’s Blasphemies
By Brannon S. Howse
Although I warned evangelical leaders about Glenn Beck’s rallies, most laughed at me. Yet, Greg West in the Mormon LDS Examiner validated my pre-Beck rally warnings. I told them that partnering with Beck in a spiritual enterprise would send the message that Mormons are Christians, and here’s what West writes about what happened:
[quote] As a Mormon, I have to consider an unintended message throughout Beck’s work, which has culminated in this event. That message is: “Mormons are Christian believers.” Despite nearly two centuries of misrepresentation and religious envy by sectarian Christianity, Beck has achieved the visibility, prominence, and has had the time day after day, week after week, to speak openly and truly about his core beliefs. Those statements of faith have disoriented and confused those who had previously believed the lies about Mormons."
Jim Garlow, a popular and influential pastor who partnered with the Mormon faithful in California to defend traditional marriage, was quoted recently in CNN’s Belief Blog, saying, “I have interviewed persons who have talked specifically with Glenn about his personal salvation—persons extremely well known in Christianity—and they have affirmed (using language evangelicals understand), ‘Glenn is saved....’ He understands receiving Christ as Savior.”
Hallelujah! The light bulb has been switched on after nearly two centuries! Every single member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes that a person must be “born again” and receive Jesus Christ as his Savior and Redeemer. Our holy books teach that salvation comes only in and through the atonement of Christ and that there is no other way a person can be saved….Glenn Beck’s beliefs are mainstream Mormon beliefs. Joseph Smith, the Church’s founder, was a Christian prophet. He was an apostolic witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. [end quote]
Notice that West points out that Beck’s broadcasts about his faith have “disoriented and confused” people who thought Mormonism was not consistent with Christianity. However, Beck, with the help of America’s Christian leaders, has now convinced them that Mormonism and Christianity are compatible.
Beck’s August 2010 events represented a seismic shift within evangelicalism that will go unnoticed by most Christian leaders. Too many Christian leaders and pastors are deficient in understanding the ideas and philosophies that have, and continue to be, the force behind the rushing cultural stream. As a result, members of their own congregations hear no advanced warning of the spiritual undertow nor do they acquire the needed biblical knowledge to keep from being children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting (Ephesians 4:14).
The compromise by evangelical leaders and pastors of uniting with “all faiths” has laid the foundation for untold numbers of self-professing Christians to embrace pluralism and pagan spirituality. The Mormon Church is now rejoicing over the public relations success these undiscerning evangelical leaders have handed the Mormon Church. These pastors should remind themselves of Luke 17:2: “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.”
The New Old News
Glenn Beck not only embraces the pagan spirituality of Mormonism but also cosmic humanism. Mormonism says man can become god, a New Age concept. In this regard, notice what Glenn Beck said on “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace: “There’s nothing that we can do that will solve the problems that we have and keep the peace unless we solve it through God, unless we solve it in being our highest self. Be your higher self.”
Beck used the phrase “higher self” three times in the Chris Wallace interview, and I assure you, no one talks that way unless he or she knows exactly what it means. One New Age website explains:
There are many great words to describe Who or What your highest identity or Self truly is. Below are just a few: Higher Self, I am Presence, I Am That I Am…Cosmic Consciousness, God, Christ, Holy Spirit. And the list goes on….
Notice that “I AM that I AM” is another term here for “higher self.” Picking up the terminology, Beck said, “I Am That I Am is the most powerful phrase in any language as it is the name of god, never use it in vain; use it to create who you want to be. I AM blank.”
I AM is a title that should be reserved for God alone. In Exodus 3:13, God told Moses that when the people of Israel ask for His name he was to tell them, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the Children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” In John 8:58 we read, “Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.’” Used any other way, I AM is blasphemy.
New Age thinking displaces God as the true I AM and replaces Him with people. In the pagan practice of what is called “the law of attraction,” this is clearly implied. In her book The Secret (promoted by Oprah Winfrey), Rhonda Byrne writes:
The law of attraction is the law of creation….You create your life through your thoughts. (p. 15)
There isn’t a single thing that you cannot do with this knowledge. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are, The Secret can give you whatever you want. (p. xi)
With this powerful knowledge, you can completely change every circumstance and event in your entire life….” (p. 17)
That people like Beck on the right and Oprah on the left are proclaiming the “I AM” message is a sign that we are living in the last days. According to Jesus:
And they asked Him, saying, “Master, but when shall these things be? And what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?” And he said, “Take heed that yet be not deceived: for many will come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near; go ye not therefore after them.” (Luke 21:7-8)
Former New Ager and now biblical Christian Ray Yungen points out:
[quote] Notice, “Christ” is italicized in verse 8, meaning that it was not in the original manuscript. The translators of the King James Bible probably thought it awkward that it said “Many shall come saying, I am.” Probably for the sake of clarity and to be consistent with Matthew 24, the translators added the word “Christ.” [end quote]
Did you catch that? Jesus referred to people who say they are God by using the title “I AM.” It is a sign that we are living in the end times. We are also told to run away from the people who say “I AM,” but many of our pastors and Christian leaders did not run from Glenn Beck but ran to join him in a spiritual service and enterprise.
Beck has made unbiblical pronouncements on a variety of points. On one program, for instance, he declared, “Hell is an eternity of regret, not being able to forgive yourself.” Nowhere in the Bible do we see an instruction to “forgive yourself.” That is impossible. Forgiveness comes through the work of Christ as explained in 2 Corinthians 5:15: “He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” Verse 17 then describes what brings peace through repentance of sins and placing faith and trust in the Jesus of the Bible: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Grace and forgiveness is provided to those who repent, so there is no need to believe the lie that you can “forgive yourself” of sins.
Glenn Beck has accomplished what neither Oprah Winfrey nor Shirley McClain could. He used his conservative veneer and doublespeak to co-opt leaders of the Religious Right. As a result, perhaps sooner rather than later, the world will wind up in massive economic, political, and spiritual chaos, and an anti-Christ will call for the religions of the world to unite and embrace his version of spirituality. He will declare that he is not fixated on politics but wants only to bring about peace, unity, faith, hope, charity, stability, freedom, and prosperity under the common god of all religions. This world leader will perform counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders, and those who reject biblical truth will follow him (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12) and embrace his plan.
If I had told you ten years ago that a “conservative” radio and TV personality would have millions of viewers, talk about the spiritual battle being waged in America, be a self-confessed member of a cult, quote New Age phrases, call for Christians and conservatives to look to the “one god,” seek to unite all faiths, and would convince dozens of evangelical pastors and leaders to support him in a spiritual service, you would have said I was writing fiction. Does the fact that this has now happened help clarify the magnitude of the spiritual shift that has occurred through Glenn Beck’s success? The millions who see nothing wrong with the messages of Beck’s August 2010 events reveal that the religious left and the Religious Right will readily be merged into the coming one world religion under the one-world spiritual leader as prophesied in Revelation 17:8.
Embracing Beck’s Blasphemies
In following up his rallies, Glenn Beck shows further why America’s Christian leaders should not have offered their credibility to Beck. On his September 2, 2010 television program he claimed:
"America’s religion. This is it gang; this is all you need to know. There is a God, He’s going to judge us. We should be good to each other, ’cause Daddy’s gonna be pissed in the end if we’re not. That’s it. That’s called a big principle."
This is America’s modern-day Moses? Glenn’s plan for judgment is not what I read in my Bible. Then again, my God is not, as Mormonism teaches, a man of flesh and bone who evolved to become God and to eternally have sex with his goddess wives. My God is a Spirit (John 4:24) and does not appreciate being described in such a vulgar way or being the punch line of a joke. On September 2, 2010, Beck also noted, “We need a Jesus or a Buddha.”
Where is biblical repentance, the depravity of man, the biblical Gospel? Beck’s religion is one of good works based on a false Jesus. If Christian leaders continue endorsing Glenn, then more people are going to follow his “spirituality.” And they will die and go to hell. These Christian leaders need to reconsider their position on Glenn Beck. Even reclaiming America is not more important than the people who are dying and entering eternity unsaved.
Glenn’s New Book of Old Lies
In January 2011, Glenn Beck released his book The Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life, co-authored by psychiatrist Keith Ablow. It is a thoroughgoing promotion of universalism, postmodernism, and pagan spirituality—i.e., the New Age Movement. It could just as well have been written by Oprah Winfrey, and I’m not the only one who sees the similarity. A January 4, 2011 article in The Business Insider featured a title that says it all: “Glenn Beck’s New Year’s Plan Sounds a Lot Like Oprah’s New Network.”
The excuses from various Christian leaders on behalf of Beck for his theology are quite remarkable. Some have said Beck was a “new Christian,” “a baby Christian,” “new brother,” a “little lamb,” or “very close to becoming a Christian.” A friend of mine even emailed a mega-church pastor who publicly supported Glenn Beck’s 8-28 rally to ask him to be careful about embracing Beck and his Black Robe Regiment because of the false theology espoused by Glenn. The pastor replied:
Glenn Beck is a new brother and he is learning and growing and coming to the light day by day as he is being discipled by [name of Christian leader removed]. There was once a day when you and I were in the same place he is now. Be careful that you don’t place a yoke on a little lamb rather than an ox.
Would this pastor say Oprah Winfrey, too, is a baby Christian?
How confusing to the unsaved world and to baby Christians it must be to have Christian leaders make such claims about being a Christian, in light of Beck’s latest book. Many now believe Beck promotes Christianity because Christian leaders have announced that “Glenn is saved.” Teenagers have emailed me and some have talked to me privately at our conferences to say how confused they are by what Christian leaders have said about Beck being saved when they recognize that they have heard Beck promote New Age heresy.
In light of the religious and spiritual proclamations in Beck’s book, you would think Christian leaders would have issued press releases or posted statements on their websites disagreeing with Beck’s pagan spirituality. Not only did that not happen, but many signed up to take part in Beck’s August 2011 rally in Israel in which he again called for all faiths to unite.
Beck and Ablow promote the worldviews of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, New Age authors Robert Pirsig and James Redfied, Buddha, Buddhist teacher Sogyal Rinpoche, Gandhi, and the Gnostic “Gospel of Thomas.” Beck recounts that he read A Course in Miracles by Helen Schucman. Her book is the “Bible” of the New Age Movement (Grave Influence includes a complete chapter on Helen Schucman and the demon she channeled to help her write the book).
To those who know Mormonism, this is not surprising. Tracy, for instance, was a Mormon for 26 years and sent me an email to explain why many Mormons are open to New Age Spirituality:
[quote] It’s not surprising how easy it is for many LDS to get involved in occult practices based on the “power of the priesthood.” For example, energy healing (chakras), cloud-busting, and other mind-power things. My LDS friends and I were always interested in books like The Magic of Believing, Embraced by the Light, and other New Agey kinds of books. I remember seeing Star Wars when I was Mormon and how many of us in the ward (LDS congregation) were comparing the Force to the priesthood power.
Since we believed we were on the godhood track, using the phrase “I AM” in the context Glenn uses it fits in neatly with the power of the priesthood through which worlds are created (according to Mormon doctrine). In fact, Mormonism teaches that God did NOT create the universe ex nihilo, because God can only manipulate and arrange existing matter; he cannot create it. Thus we see, from the LDS perspective, we too can become I AM, through the divine nature within us. [end quote]
On page 79 of their book, Beck and Ablow promote transcendental meditation and Eastern mysticism. And on page 85, we read:
"As you commit to unlocking and bringing forth the truth inside you, don’t be afraid to pray for help. Don’t be reticent to sit with yourself in silence and meditate. Connect with the miracle of spirit, of God, that has lived inside you from long before you were born."
Christian meditation is not about “bringing forth the truth inside of you,” nor is it about contacting the god who has “lived inside you from long before you were born.” This is not biblical, and any Christian who thinks otherwise is at the least biblically illiterate or, worse, a false convert.
On page 132, Beck and Ablow proclaim:
"Pray to whatever higher power you believe in….Praying that God or Nature or the Cosmos or your own internal, immeasurable reservoir of spirit allows you the courage and faith to find and then face the truth…."
In several places, the authors tell readers it really does not matter what religion or religious leader they follow. Beck writes on page 157 that “Finding what worked for me made all the difference. Finding what works for you will do the same.”
On page 74, the reader is instructed to “Just be sure you visit with a minister or therapist from a religion or healing discipline you actually have affinity for, or suspect you might.” On page 236, reincarnation is promoted through the writings of Robert Pirsig’s book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: “…the ‘spirit’ of Chris or the “ghost’ of Chris, then you can say without further translation that the spirit or ghost of Chris is looking for a new body to enter.”
Committed and Knowledgeable
Several Christians have told me Beck does not really know “all that much” about the Mormon faith. But that is not what Beck says. On pages 149-150, his book leaves little doubt that Beck knows exactly what he is into:
"I questioned everything I could think to question about the faith. I went over my doubts again and again with the church bishop. I read everything there was to read on their website and every word of Mormon Doctrine….I went to anti-Mormon literature for hints, but I found most of it to be unfair or just plain wrong. I tried every trick I could think of to find a contradiction. The problem was that I couldn’t. Mormonism seemed to explain the world and my place in it better than any other faith I had looked at."
Beck does not believe in hell, original sin, or that Jesus is the only way:
Page 149—Latter-day Saints do not believe that your chances ever cease, even with death. They end only with the full understanding and denial of truth by your own exercise of real free will. And even then there is no “lake of fire.”
Page 154—As Keith likes to say, “There’s no original sin left in the world. Everyone’s just recycling pain now.”
Page 162—There is no infant delivered evil, out of the womb. There never has been. Not even one….Charles Manson was not born evil. Ted Bundy wasn’t. The BTK killer wasn’t. Hitler wasn’t.
Strange. The Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). The Bible says even babies are born with a sin nature and that we are all conceived in sin: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). Although Glenn would have us believe “People are inherently good” (page 165), Scripture says: “The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
Beck also uses the phrases “Your truth,” “your true path,” or “my truth” at least 23 times. Here are a few examples:
Page 124—“It is never too late to embrace your truth.”
Page 130—“What is your truth whispering?”
Page 161—“Use compassion to stay on the path to your own truth….”
Page 215—“...determination to unearth and embrace my truth.”
Page 216—“The fact that I am always attempting to honor my truth….”
Page 220—“There is only your truth.”
Page 288—“You must use courage and faith to empty the hard drive of your soul and then fill it with your truth.”
Beck promotes the New Age idea that God dwells within all:
Page 57—“The third chapter of Exodus helped me start to understand how crucial it was that my focus be on finding God not just in the seas or the cosmos, but in myself.”
Page 58—“If God is everything and everywhere and inside everyone, then I figured He had to be inside me, too….”
He promotes pantheism and panentheism:
Page 71—“Divine power is still inside you.”
Page 283—“Reach out to people to steady them and enrich them and reflect back to them the light that comes from God inside them.”
Page 254—“You won’t doubt your ability to achieve what you want to achieve in this life because you won’t doubt that God is not only by your side, but inside you.”
Beck and Ablow promote the New Age idea that you need to tap into a positive energy for a successful and happy life:
Page 79—“You have a polestar inside you. It is connected with all the energy in the universe. When you begin to follow that star you align yourself with immeasurable, inexplicable forces that will actually help you manifest your best intentions.”
Page 113—“The current energy that flows in your favor when you stop denying what you have lived through and how it has shaped you and how you must change is the immeasurable force that you can tap into to dramatically improve your existence.”
Page 117—“…you will elicit the same positive energy from others. When you stop pretending to be just fine and start admitting that you have struggled, just as we all have, then spiritual energy will fill you.”
Hear this: Christians need to be watchmen (Ezekiel 33:6) who warn their family and friends about the spiritual deception of people like Glenn Beck, Oprah Winfrey, and a host of others who promote another Jesus and another gospel. Christians also need to be ready to explain to unsaved family and friends why Glenn Beck’s worldview will not lead them to God as their savior but only as their judge. Nowhere in Beck’s book does he mention the biblical Gospel. What he promotes is the same lie foisted on Adam and Eve by Satan in Genesis 3:1-5. Glenn Beck’s seven wonders are lies that will condemn for eternity the souls of millions who believe them.
On numerous occasions, Beck has attacked the Word of God and Christians who seek to be faithful to the World of God. He revealed his deviant ecumenicalism and disdain for the Word of God when he attacked the governor of Alabama for making this biblically solid proclamation: “Anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.”
According to the Alabama Local News:
[quote] Beck said the problem was with the sentiment, not the wording. “A true messenger of Jesus Christ,” he said, “must consider every person a brother or sister. Even Luke Skywalker recognized that Darth Vader was his father,” Beck said. Later, he added, “Governor, you are sadly mistaken about your Christianity.” [end quote]
On his radio program and on his website Beck clearly stated that he wants to have a debate on ecumenicalism:
"Now he knows he can’t say those things and so he says I will choose my words more carefully next time. Well, no. No, don’t choose your words more carefully. Let’s have the dialogue. I don’t want you to live with that idea as being true. Let’s not live in silence. Convince me or I’ll convince you. Let’s have the debate."
I hear people say that we are all God’s children, but that’s only wishful thinking. In John 8:42, Jesus says, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God.” In verse 44, He continues, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” Then in verse 47: “He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”
So when and how can one come to be called a child of God? John 1:12-13 tells us:
"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
Jesus Christ declared in John 14:6 that He is truth, and thus truth is that which is consistent with the character and nature of God. The Bible reflects God’s character and nature, and so it is true. Jesus prayed this in John 17:17 when He said, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
The Bible makes it clear we are in a spiritual, worldview war, and the leader of the opposition is Satan himself. Man serves either God or Satan, and every issue is theological and spiritual. The Apostle Paul calls Satan “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4), and John states in 1 John 5:19 that “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” First Peter 5:8 warns, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
Many people today, though, are being spiritually devoured by the lies of patriotic ecumenicalism which proclaims the falsehood of universalism. Ephesians 5:11 commands all Christians to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” Please think of this chapter as a call to do just that, lest Paul’s question in Galatians 4:16 apply: “Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?”
Copyright 2012 ©Brannon Howse. This content is for Situation Room members and is not to be duplicated in any form or uploaded to other websites without the express written permission of Brannon Howse or his legally authorized representative.
