“You sick twisted freaks,” that’s how Glenn Beck first addressed his radio audience when I began listening to him years ago on the radio. His shtick certainly was an acquired taste, but I soon found myself listening regularly to the Glenn Beck Show in spite of some pretty low brow, sophomoric humor.

Now Beck is a powerful fixture on the Fox News Network, an important voice in the popular culture and has recast himself as a very conservative, albeit spiritually minded leader. Whatever you might think about Beck, you have to acknowledge he didn’t get where he is in life because he’s stupid. Don’t let his quirky, self-deprecating humor fool you.

Many Christian friends of mine are enthralled by Beck. They constantly urge me to watch him. A number of my fellow evangelical colleagues have even appeared on his show and have used the opportunity to make very explicit presentations of the Gospel. For that I am grateful.

CONFLICTED

I was invited last August to attend the Beck rally in Washington D.C., a minister’s prayer meeting the night before and to sit on the podium with other evangelical and religious leaders. I was very conflicted. This was certain to be a huge rally with historic significance. In the end I simply could not go because of the confusion about Beck’s Mormonism.

Beck has done a lot of good for the conservative movement in general and I am thrilled to have him on my side in many of the important issues of our day. His program is a great outlet for ideas and positions I largely agree with, but seeking the truth and courageously speaking it, which Beck regularly exhorts all his views to do, requires that I address the elephant in the room.

Why now? Because it’s an issue we are going to have to come to terms with as a movement before the next national election, otherwise it will be used to divide a resurging conservative movement. This directly touches the matter of Mitt Romney’s candidacy as a Mormon. While I think there is a way Mormons and Christians can work together, it can’t be at the expense of truth.

OUT OF THE CLOSET

For years I have been asked what I think about Beck. I have always privately stated that I love most of what Beck stands for (although he is a bit too libertarian for my tastes), but that I was concerned because he’s a Mormon.

Isn’t that bigoted and hateful? Not at all. To this day I have friends who are Mormons and we get along fine as long as we don’t get into the issues of faith.

My concerns come largely from growing up surrounded by Mormons in Las Vegas, Nevada. Most of America doesn’t realize that the Mormons have a tremendous presence, power and history there. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid is a Mormon from a little town outside of Las Vegas.

Growing up, my neighbors were Mormons and I had fun attending an afterschool program with them at the Mormon church. So I’ve had a lifetime of exposure to Mormonism. Honest Mormons will tell you that Mormonism is definitely not Christian (1). This has become a major point of confusion for many because Beck keeps insisting he’s a Christian.

I haven’t publically commented on Beck until now because I didn’t know if Beck was self-consciously Mormon and wanted to grant him the benefit of the doubt. Another reason is because evangelical leaders I deeply respect said Beck had made a profession of faith in Christ and was a new Christian.

NO MORE WONDERING

I don’t know the condition of Beck’s heart. No one does but God. So all we can do is take what Beck says and writes at face value. Beck released a book in January of 2011, with Keith Ablow, M.D. entitled, The Seven Wonders that Will Change Your Life. In the book Beck pulls back the veil and allows us to peer deeply into his spiritual life. One thing for sure, Beck certainly isn’t a Christian by any biblical or historical standard.

I am not sure exactly what Beck is. The Seven Wonders is a convoluted admixture of conflicting theological assertions, a veritable smorgasbord of Mormon, New Age, and Buddhist doctrines, but with enough mentions of Christ, the atonement and biblical passages, that it will confuse the ill informed (2).

But on the matter of his Mormonism, Beck couldn’t be more clear. He describes a very arduous process of examining many different faiths and then settling on Mormonism. “Mormonism seemed to explain the world and my place in it better than any other faith I had looked at. It answered many spiritual questions that had gone unanswered for me for my entire life.” (p.150) Beck is by no means an accidental Mormon.

Now that Beck has insinuated himself into the theological world in such an overt way he has to own the positions he asserts. Seven Wonders is riddled with dozens of heresies and errors, but I will restrict my remarks to just a few of his most significant errors.

The Nature of God and Man

Beck takes the role of biblical scholar and theologian and asserts a very strange interpretation of the Bible. Beck appeals to the story in the Exodus 3 when God appears to Moses in the burning bush. Moses asked God what was His name. God replied, “I AM WHO I AM.”

Orthodox Christian theology understands this to be a statement of God’s absolute self-sufficiency. As the eternal Creator of the universe, God has and always will eternally exist independently from anything he has created. He has been and always will be the One True God and does not rely on any created thing for his existence.

Beck twists the scriptures to apply Mormonism’s evolutionary doctrine of the nature of God. Beck says that God’s “I AM THAT I AM” means, “He Who Is Ever Becoming What He Is.” (p.58) So Beck’s god is in the perpetual state of becoming himself, whatever that means.

Christian theology asserts God is absolutely perfect and unchanging in all his attributes and being. How can God change? Does he need to be more perfect or more divine? If so, He is not yet fully God. Mormonism rejects the doctrine of the Trinity and other essential Christian doctrines about the nature and attributes of God.

Beck then extrapolates that just as God is evolving to become himself, “That means you, too. Your path is to forever evolve into yourself…” (pp.150, 151) This fits very nicely within Mormonism’s false idea that we are all gods in process.

In fact, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young taught the first man, Adam, is the god of this earth. Adam/God, like all men, is evolving and eventually all Mormon men will become gods and populate their own planets with their celestial wives (3). A simple way they summarize this fallacious Mormon doctrine is, "As man is God once was, and as God is man may be."

Memo to Beck: There is only one true and living God (4), you are not Him, nor will you ever be. He’s the eternal, self-existent creator, you will always be a created being who owes your existence and worship to Him. There are not many gods, as in Mormonism, and certainly not men evolving into gods.

The Person and Work of Christ.

This is another place where Beck is either entirely confused or intentionally deceptive. On pages 147-149 Beck reports an exchange he had at a Mormon Church about the necessity of trusting in Christ to be saved.

Although the Mormon who answered the question rightly affirmed that no one comes to the Father except through Christ, he said it would not be fair for someone to go to the lake of fire if they have not heard the gospel. Their solution is that everyone will get to have the opportunity to trust on Christ after they die.

The obvious problem with this biblically speaking is it’s too late to repent after you die. It is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment. No do-overs, no second or third chances.

That’s exactly why Christ sent the Apostles to proclaim the gospel. If people can wait until they die to repent and believe, then why bother preaching Christ? Won’t they have a better chance of believing when they die after seeing Christ more clearly?

The Church is commanded to preach the gospel and disciple all nations precisely because there is only One Savior for the whole world. While you are alive in this world you can know Christ as your Savor, but after you die, you will only know him as your Judge.

By the way, people are not sent to Hell because they haven’t heard the gospel, they are sent to hell because they are sinners. The fact someone didn’t hear the Gospel does not make one innocent (see Romans 1-3). They are less guilty than people that heard and rejected the Gospel, but guilty nonetheless.

Beck claims on p.155 that he has put his faith in Christ’s atonement for the forgiveness of his sin. According to Beck Christ says, “Look, I’ll satisfy the justice thing. I’ll go down there and take on the sins and stains for everyone who is truly ready can have a clean slate, a real second chance.”

According to Beck, the atonement worked “for me.” Everyone else has to find what “works” for them. This is post-modern, relativistic nonsense. Either the atonement is necessary for the salvation of the world, as the Bible says, or its not.

Beck has destroyed the significance of the cross. We can't get to Heaven simply by being sincere and good. Beck won’t admit that apart from the grace of God that man is incapable of neither sincerity or goodness by God’s standard of absolute perfection.

CONFUSSION REIGNS

You can see why Christians get confused. On one hand, Beck affirms Christ’s atonement takes away his guilt, but on the other hand it isn’t necessary for others to believe in it. Beck is dead wrong and engages in the typical kind of double speak you often get from Mormons.

By the way, Mormon’s believe that Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer, not the second person of the Holy Trinity. Mormons reject orthodox Christology. For them Jesus is not God the Son, the only begotten Son of the Father.

Nowhere in the book was there a mention of God’s grace. The book was aptly located in the “self-help” section of my local bookstore. Beck spends the whole book urging you to look within and find your courage, your faith, and your truth.

But apart from the grace of God men are born in sin and therefore not able to even see their need to repent and believe. The book mocks original sin (p.154) and boldly asserts, “There is no infant delivered evil, out of the womb. There never has been. Not even one.” (p.162)

The denial of original sin destroys the Gospel because both the doctrine of salvation and original sin are based on having a representative head who acts in our behalf. The Bible clearly teaches that by the sin of one man, Adam, all sinned in him. We were literally “in Adam” when he sinned. As our representative head, Adam’s guilt extends to all his seed through natural procreation.

The Good News is Jesus Christ, the faithful second Adam, fulfilled all righteousness and suffered for our sin as our representative head. All who are in Christ, by God’s grace, are supernaturally regenerated. If there is no original sin from Adam, then there is no imputed righteousness from Christ, the Second Adam (5). The Bible teaches and the gospel assumes original sin, Beck denies it.

Character Matters

Here’s the biggest problem I have with Mormons. Mormons, and especially their missionaries, intentionally prey on ill-informed people by falsely identifying themselves as Christians, even though honest Mormons know they reject the essential doctrines of Christianity.

Mormons redefine Christian terms and use them in deceptive ways so that, if you weren’t very well informed, you wouldn’t know they were doing it. They even have a name for the practice; “Lying for the Lord.”

Mormons know if they told people the truth of what they believe up front they would not be able to persuade them to become Mormons. So they present a warm fuzzy, family facade and withhold their strange doctrines, practices and secret rituals until after they have created trust and an emotional bond.

Beck even laments regularly on his TV show that people don’t believe he’s a Christian. Sorry Glenn, but you can’t have it both ways. It’s either Jesus Christ of the Bible or Joseph Smith and the doctrines of Mormonism. If Beck ever renounces his Mormonism, then I will believe he’s become a Christian, in the meantime he sounds just like the rest of the Mormons I’ve known all my life.

ATTITUDE CHECK

I pray God will grant Beck the grace to humble himself and beg God to have mercy on him through Jesus Christ for arrogantly presuming that he is on his way to godhood. This is the absolute height of arrogance and exactly the lie of Satan in the garden: “You shall be as gods!” Mormons accept the demonic doctrine and glory in it.

While I support Mormon’s freedom to believe what they want, they aren’t free from being criticized for their false doctrines and deceitful practices. Beck’s illicit use of the Bible to lend authority to his Christ-denying, man-exalting, graceless, self-help “gospel” is breathtaking. Unfortunately, using his quick wit and self-effacing humor to disarm and deceive will only bring Beck more eternal condemnation.

THE MITT MATTER

This debate also touches the Mitt Romney candidacy as a Mormon. He too, in his December 6, 2007 speech at the Bush Library on religion, tried to obfuscate the differences between Christians and Mormons.

“[Some] would prefer it if I would simply distance myself from my religion, say that it is more a tradition than my personal conviction, or disavow one or another of its precepts. That I will not do. I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers - I will be true to them and to my beliefs… There is one fundamental question about which I often am asked. What do I believe about Jesus Christ? I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind. My church's beliefs about Christ may not all be the same as those of other faiths. Each religion has its own unique doctrines and history. These are not bases for criticism but rather a test of our tolerance. Religious tolerance would be a shallow principle indeed if it were reserved only for faiths with which we agree.”

Romney had the chance to say Mormons have some significant differences in our views about theology, but we can agree on the issues that unite us. That would have been refreshingly honest. But his confession, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind” was very misleading.

Mormons have fundamentally redefined what “Son of God” and “Savior” means. Unless you are well informed about Mormonism you would have thought this was an orthodox Christian confession. Note, he did not and cannot say as a Mormon, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God,” because Romney doesn’t believe it.

Mormons worship a different god, a different Christ, and are “saved” by self-righteousness works on their way to godhood. They are free to believe that and follow their conscience, but they are not free to call it Christian without being called out on it.

The Answer to the Dilemma

Christians and Mormons can work together so long as we respect each other. There are many things we can and should work on together on as co-belligerents. If it weren’t for the major heavy lifting by Mormons in California, Prop 8 never would have passed. For that Mormons deserve much credit. I was glad to defend them when homosexual activists unjustly attacked them.

Christians and Mormons do have much we can agree on in matters of religious liberty and traditional values. We simply have to respectfully disagree on other matters of faith. When we are forced to pretend we agree or when we demand others treat us all as spiritually unified, that’s when the problems arise.

Here’s a formula for success that works: We can be unified as fellow Americans, neighbors and friends and co-belligerents in common cause. That’s enough to unite us as a conservative movement to advance traditional conservative values. We can work together politically for sure, but conducting joint worship services, that’s not possible.

If we are honest and respectful we can work together. We simply need leaders to lead with integrity within their own spheres and who will not distort or minimize our differences.

The fact that evangelicals are so excited about Beck and so willing to overlook his erroneous theological views may be because there is such a lamentable vacuum of leadership for evangelicals. With the deaths of key evangelical cultural leaders D. James Kennedy and Jerry Falwell there’s a profound void. In the meantime, we will pray for God to raise up influential, orthodox and courageous voices for evangelicals.

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1) Mormonism denies many essential Christian doctrines. Mormonism Research Ministry led by Bill McKeever, one of the nations leading Christian experts on Mormonism, has extensive research available online. Explore his rich website to learn the significant doctrinal differences between Christianity and Mormonism. http://mrm.org/ and for a quick side by side comparison chart see http://contenderministries.org/mormonism/comparison.php

2) Rev. Brandon House does a fine job indentifying errors in Beck’s book: http://www.worldviewweekend.com/worldview-tube/video.php?videoid=4430

3) Mormonism Research Ministries; http://mrm.org/adam-god

4) Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter Two: Of God the Holy Trinity. (1) There is but one only, living, and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions; immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him; and withal, most just, and terrible in His judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty. (2) God hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of Himself; and is alone in and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which He hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting His own glory in, by, unto, and upon them. He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things and hath most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them whatsoever Himself pleaseth. In His sight all things are open and manifest, His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to Him contingent, or uncertain. He is most holy in all His counsels, in all His works, and in all His commands. To Him is due from angels and men, and every other creature, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience He is pleased to require of them. (3) In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost: the Father is of none, neither begotten, not proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son.

5) Romans 5:12-21