In this text God tells us that if a prophet comes – and says something that comes to pass, something that is true – but calls us to go after other gods, we are not to listen to him. Even though he says things that are true and right on some subjects, “Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet.”

Glenn Beck is such a man. He is famous through his popular TV program on Fox News and the books he has written. He was the graduation speaker this May at Liberty University. Jerry Falwell, Jr. gave him a Doctor of Humanities degree. Mr. Beck is a patriot who speaks highly of our Constitution and the men who founded our nation. He often gives words of warning, saying our country is getting away from its original principles. He speaks out on the danger of an excessively large and intrusive government.

Mr. Beck is right on these points. As a Christian, and an American, I too respect the Constitution of the United States. Our nation was founded as a place of freedom under God. In spite of its sins, in many ways, America remains the greatest country on earth.

Yet the Bible commands us to reject Glenn Beck as a false prophet. Mr. Beck is a Mormon, subtly calling people to follow the false “god,” false “Christ,” false Scriptures, and false church of Mormonism.

When unwary Baptists and evangelicals listen to him talk about conservative politics, it makes many of them think that Mr. Beck, and Mormons in general, may be fellow soldiers in our country’s cause. When they watch Mr. Beck’s testimony on video, and hear him speak of his life of sin, his later interest in religion, and the peace and happiness he found in his “conversion” to the Mormon church, it causes many of them to think that he has found salvation just as a Baptist or Protestant does. After all, he tells a story, a “testimony” that sounds a lot like that of many Baptists and evangelicals, and he tells it very well, with tears mixed with jokes along the way. His story includes the psychological elements of conversion: sin and unconcern, then unhappiness and frustration, then a period of inquiry and openness, and finally a crisis and release which left him a “changed man,” as he puts it. The fact that his “conversion” was in a Mormon context is glossed over by many who do not think carefully about who Mr. Beck’s “Lord” is. After all, isn’t he a “changed man,” the same as a Christian? Many unwary evangelicals think that Mr. Beck is a converted Christian because he has experienced the psychological events related to conversion – even though the theological elements of his faith are totally wrong. After all, doesn’t he have a story to tell? Hasn’t he found the Lord too?

Thousands of Baptists and evangelicals have been led into the errors of Mormonism through the appeal of Glenn Beck. They have been attracted by Mormonism’s stable church structure (that doesn’t have “church splits” as Baptists do), its emphasis on the family and morality, its support of our country, and its public celebrities like Mitt Romney, Marie Osmond, and Glenn Beck, who advocate conservative politics and seem to have found “the Lord.” Glenn Beck and the Mormons seem to be Christians, seem to be all right – and that is why so many Baptists and evangelicals are becoming Mormons. Studies show that about 300 Baptists each week convert to Mormonism in the state of Texas alone.

My own patriotism is similar to Glenn Beck’s. We both love the Constitution. We both hold basic moral values. But there is a basic difference between Glenn Beck’s Mormon patriotism and that of a Bible-believing Christian. While Bible-believing Christians love our country, and desire what is best for it, we know that God does not have an everlasting covenant with America or its people. The only people with which God has a covenant is the nation Israel, the Jewish people (Genesis 12:1-3). God has a special interest in only one land, the land of Israel. It is there that Jesus was born, ministered, was crucified, and rose again (Acts 1:9-11). It is to Israel that Jesus will return to set up His Kingdom on earth (Zechariah 14:4-5). And it is from Jerusalem that Jesus will rule over the world (Isaiah 2:2-4 and many other verses).

Even though we love America, Bible-believing Christians can only say that the United States has no preferred, special standing in Bible prophecy, in God’s plan for the future. In fact, the United States of America is not mentioned anywhere in Bible prophecy. God has no eternal covenant with the Americans. God’s only earthly covenant is with the Jews. America is in the process of rejecting God as a nation. The slaughter of 52 million babies by abortion gives God a perfect right to judge this country as He has judged other nations of the earth. This judgment could happen slowly or quickly, by conquest, by absorption into another government, by economic collapse, by outright defeat or destruction in war, or by allowing the country to slip into political dictatorship and spiritual darkness. With all the light we have enjoyed in the past, God would certainly be justified in bringing down our nation from its number-one position in the world, reducing it to a backwater area of little importance, or subjecting it to another government, or completely removing it as an active nation, putting our country, its freedoms, its constitution, and even its name out of living existence, remembered only in history books. Look what happened to Babylonia, to Egypt, to Rome, and to Britain! America’s destiny does not look promising! America has been weighed in the balances and found wanting!

Glenn Beck’s Mormon patriotism comes from an entirely different source than the Bible, and takes him down an entirely different road. Mormonism teaches that God does have a special crowning plan and position for our land, a virtual covenant with America. Many people know that the Book of Mormon teaches that Jesus Christ appeared and ministered to the American Indians. But Mormons also believe that the Constitution of the United States was divinely inspired! One of their “scriptures” says,

“And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:77-80).

It is an article of faith of the Mormon church that God’s Kingdom will be established upon the American continent:

“We believe…that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent” (Article of Faith 10, written by their founding “prophet” Joseph Smith, The Articles of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, History of the Church, Volume 4, pp. 535-541).

Joseph Smith was the false “prophet” who founded the Mormon church and added to the Word of God (condemned by Revelation 22:18) by producing the Book of Mormon and other Mormon “scriptures.” In July 1831 he received a “revelation” that the New Jerusalem and a new temple would be built in Independence, Missouri (Doctrine and Covenants 57:1-3). Mormons today, including Glenn Beck, believe that is exactly what will happen. In Mormon teaching, while the United States may go through hard times, God will bring America – and the Mormon church – to the forefront in the end, establishing Zion, the New Jerusalem, the capital of God’s Kingdom, near the center of our country, in the state of Missouri.

It should be clear that the patriotism of the Bible-believing Christian and the patriotism of Glenn Beck come from different sources – and go down very different roads! Yet Glenn Beck’s patriotism makes him seem like a fine fellow to many evangelicals today – and thus makes the Mormon church with its false doctrine seem legitimate rather than the false cult that it is. Many evangelicals think of Mormons as “sort of Christians.” In fact, many of them have actually become Mormons, to such an extent that Baptists and evangelicals, looking for a stable church structure and a strong family emphasis, are the most fruitful “mission field” for Mormonism in our country. But we must remember that God said,

“If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams… saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams”
       (Deuteronomy 13:1-3a).

Glenn Beck appeals to evangelicals through his “conversion testimony.” On the surface it has all the right psychological ingredients – a life of sin, a pilgrimage of inquiry, and a final climax in which he called out to “the Lord,” and becomes a changed man. Beck sprinkles his hour-long video testimony with jokes and tears. Some evangelicals actually consider Beck to be truly born-again because his “testimony” sounds so much like theirs. They overlook the fact that Beck’s tearful call upon “the Lord” occurred in a Mormon baptismal pool, and that “the Lord” to which he turned was very different from the true Lord described in the Bible. Beck gave his video-taped testimony in front of an audience of Mormons. But his true audience was the evangelicals who watch it. That is why Beck did not emphasize the peculiarities of Mormon doctrine, including what they believe about God and Christ. Instead he told a tearful yet humorous story leading to him crying out to “the Lord” and becoming a “new man.” Beck knows his evangelical audience well, and knows that many of them will be deceived into thinking that he and other Mormons are fellow Christians rather than heretical cultists.

But we should not be deceived. The Mormon “god” of Glenn Beck is not the God of the Bible. The Mormon “Christ” of Glenn Beck is not the Jesus Christ of the Bible. Glenn Beck does not believe in the God or the Christ of Scripture, and so cannot be a Christian in any Biblical sense.

The Mormon church teaches a god that is only one of many gods, in a pantheon of thousands of “gods.” Joseph Smith, their “prophet,” said:

“In the beginning, the head of the gods called a council of the gods; and they came together and concocted a plan to create the world and (the) people in it” (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1976, p. 349).

The Mormon church teaches the blasphemous doctrine that Jesus was not conceived through the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, but by ordinary sexual union – between God the Father, a physical man, and the virgin Mary.

“The birth of the Saviour was as natural as are the births of our children; it was the result of natural action. He partook of flesh and blood--was begotten of his Father, as we were of our fathers” (Brigham Young, the second “prophet” of the Mormon church, Journal of Discourses, vol. 8, p. 115).

“When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost... Now, remember from this time forth, and for ever, that Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, pp. 50, 51).

The Mormon “apostle” Ezra Taft Benson taught:

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [the Mormon church] proclaims that Jesus Christ is the Son of God in the most literal sense. The body in which He performed His mission in the flesh was sired by that same Holy Being we worship as God, our Eternal Father” (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 7).

Worst of all, Mormonism teaches that God was once a man who was exalted to godhood, and that devout Mormons can become gods themselves. Joseph Smith wrote,

“God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!...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 take away the veil, so that you may see…He was once a man like us; yea that God himself, the Father dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did” (Smith, ibid., p. 321).

The Mormon Doctrine and Covenants says:

“God is a glorified and perfected man, a personage of flesh and bones” (Doctrine and Covenants, 130:22).

Brigham Young, the second Mormon “prophet,” taught that “God the Father was once a man on another planet” (Brigham Young, Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young, Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1997, p. 29). Joseph Smith said that the mission of Mormons was to become gods themselves:

“Here then, is eternal life--to know the only wise and true God; and you 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” (Smith, ibid., pp. 345-347).

The Mormon teaching of men becoming gods is a Satanic lie! It was first presented by the Devil speaking through the serpent to our first mother Eve in the Garden of Eden, saying to her, “Ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5). The lie the Devil told at the beginning of human history will be repeated at the end of history as we know it, when the Antichrist will “as God [sit] in the temple of God, shewing himself [claiming] that he is God” (II Thessalonians 2:4).

Furthermore, Glenn Beck claims to believe in Jesus Christ. But who is the “Christ” in which he believes? Mormonism teaches that their “Christ” was a polygamist, married to different women at the same time, with whom He had children. According to Mormonism, Christ was married to “the Marys and Martha, whereby he could see his seed” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, pp. 259-260).

Worse yet, the Mormon “Jesus” is Satan’s brother! Glenn Beck himself learned that doctrine before his “conversion,” and believes it today. In his testimony video, he said that shortly before his “conversion,” he was studying a book of Mormon doctrine by the Mormon “apostle” Bruce R. McConkie. In that book McConkie wrote,

“Jesus and Satan are spirit brothers and we were all born as siblings in heaven to them both” (McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 163).

Glenn Beck knew exactly which “Jesus” he was believing in – a false Jesus who is the spirit brother of Satan!

It is clear to anyone who knows the Scriptures that the Mormon “Christ” in whom Glenn Beck believes is not the true Christ. The Mormon “Christ” is a false Christ, against which Jesus warned when He said, “For there shall arise false Christs” (Matthew 24:24). The Mormon “Jesus” is not the Jesus of the Bible, but rather “another Jesus” (II Corinthians 11:4).

Glenn Beck does not believe in the God of the Bible, does not believe in the Christ of the Bible, and therefore does not have the salvation offered in the Bible. He is a false prophet who has confused thousands of people, and has led many to actually become Mormons. But Jesus warned against men like Beck when He said,

“There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets”
       (Matthew 24:24).

Even though Glenn Beck tells an interesting life story, we must part ways with his religion and his so-called conversion testimony, for it has led him to a false “god,” a false “Christ,” and a false salvation. His “testimony” does not describe Biblical conversion. Although Beck is patriotic, we must part ways with him because of what his patriotism really means. And, although Beck tells a story that superficially sounds like a testimony of Christian conversion, we must part ways with him because of what his “conversion” really means.

Should we be open to the religion of Glenn Beck because of his patriotism? Should we open ourselves to the religion of Glenn Beck because of his morality? Should we receive Glenn Beck and his religion because he uses the words “God” and “Jesus Christ”? Should we count Glenn Beck as a born-again Christian because he speaks engagingly of his personal testimony of “conversion”? No, no, a thousand times no! Stand back from Glenn Beck and his religion! Do not be deceived by his conservative politics and his entertaining style! Do not be deceived. Remember that God Himself said in His Word,

“If there arise among you a prophet…saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet”
     (Deuteronomy 13:1-3a).

Every true Christian should obey this verse in God’s Word! Do not be led astray by the alluring words of Glenn Beck. Turn to the one and only Jesus Christ, the real Christ revealed in the Bible, “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
 

Click here to read “Is Glenn Beck Another Martin Luther King?” and

“Is Glenn Beck a Christian?”  Click here to read “Another Jesus.”

(END OF ARTICLE)
You may email Dr. Hymers at rlhymersjr@sbcglobal.net, (Click Here) - or you may
write to him at P.O. Box 15308, Los Angeles, CA 90015. Or phone him at (818)352-0452
 
You can read Dr. Hymers’ sermons each week on the Internet
at www.realconversion.com. Click on “Sermon Manuscripts.”