Posted on 09/02/2010 6:59:52 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In the days following Glenn Beck's highly publicized rally in Washington, D.C., conservative Christians have come out expressing their concern not over the increasingly popular broadcaster, but over the apparent confusion among Christ followers.
"There is something very strange going on here. I don't understand the disconnect on the part of Christians," said Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
Americans from across the country converged on the National Mall on Saturday for the "Restoring Honor" rally led by Fox News commentator Beck. Reports indicate that the event drew anywhere from 87,000 to 500,000 people. Beck, a Mormon, was joined by a diverse group of religious leaders – including evangelical Christians – as he called on America to turn back to God.
Mohler, one of the nation’s pre-eminent evangelical theologians, found that Beck's rally cries were resonating with many Christians.
"What concerned me about that event on the mall was not so much Glenn Beck and the politicians in the program; it was the picture of those religious leaders standing together," he said Tuesday on The Janet Mefferd Show.
During Saturday’s three-hour event, over 200 religious leaders stood behind Beck, linking arms at certain points. Dr. Richard Land, a well-known Southern Baptist, and Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church in Maryland were among the conservative Christians standing there.
While Land does not agree with Beck's theology, he told National Public Radio that the event was about a deep concern of Americans that the country has taken "a fundamentally wrong turn and is headed in the wrong direction."
Jim Garlow, pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, Calif., who was also at the event, said the rally was about extolling virtue and honoring God.
And the event was evangelical in tone, he said in a commentary on CNN.
"Despite the pre-rally discussions of Beck’s Mormonism, the rally’s litany of evangelical speakers gave it the Jesus-centeredness of a Billy Graham Crusade. All theological references were clearly evangelical and biblically based," Garlow wrote.
After observing the rally, Mohler came away with a different take and a big concern.
"The bottom line is ... we've been used and we've allowed ourselves to be used at times by politicians and others who co-opted God talk," he said Tuesday on The Janet Mefferd Show.
"We (conservative Christians in America) … have just assumed that because they were using our language, they were talking about the same Gospel or talking about the same understanding of God or talking about the same theological structure and that's just not true," he stressed.
Mohler doesn't disagree on uniting with others on common concerns and moral convictions.
But he underscored the need to "distinguish that from standing together in the faith."
"One of the healthiest things that can happen among conservative Christians is the ability to recognize, to discern the difference between civil religion and authentic Christianity," he explained.
The conservative theologian said he and many other believers agree with Beck on many of his political views. He also expressed appreciation for how Beck identifies "many really horrible and very dangerous liberal ideas."
But "[j]ust to debunk liberal ideas does not give you then the authority to be taken at your word ... to be speaking truth when then you talk about the Gospel," he cautioned.
"We just have to be mature Christians [and say] 'let's look at the Scripture. Let's look at what is being said here. We have a problem."
Continuing, Mohler outlined the fact that Mormons hold to a very different understanding of God than that of Christian theism.
"We're talking about very different deities here," he said. "And I think many Christians just have no idea as they were watching that event."
"How many American Christians who are watching that (rally) and resonating with the call for spiritual revival know that the man who is up there speaking, using words about Gospel and God and all the rest, believes that there was a male and a female deity, that the Godhead is a reproductive pair, that eventually we will be divine ourselves if indeed we follow the path of righteousness?" Mohler added.
Since January, Beck has been working on the themes of faith, hope and charity. He said his aim is to restore history, honor, and "our faith" in the country.
The popular commentator has discussed the Gospel of Jesus Christ repeatedly on his television program, even using evangelical language such as atonement through the shed blood of Christ.
But Mohler commented, "That's bizarre language for a Mormon to be using in this light and to have evangelical Christians affirm that he's talking about the same Gospel we are ... it's the same language but it's not the same Gospel."
What both Mohler and Mefferd believe is happening is spiritual rallying on vague terms.
"When we see some of the talk that has come out of the rally and some of the people associated with the rally, all about God, God, God, I just have really strongly felt that it needs to be a very precise definition when we bring God into the discussion on anything," radio host Mefferd stated.
Mohler described the scenario as having all the cards on the table but turned over so that the faces are not seen.
"You're having the language, but you're not having the definitions here," he noted.
"It really is not so much a concern politically, it's a concern theologically. If we are Christians, we have to understand the name of God is not just some kind of generic noun we can throw around."
While Mohler recognized that some Christians would be irritated listening to his take on Beck and the rally, the theologian hopes they'll be irritated enough to go and look at Scripture.
Amid the theological ambiguity and confusion, Mohler reminded Christians that a revival or spiritual renewal cannot happen without a heart that has known salvation through Jesus Christ.
"You can't have spiritual renewal where biblically speaking there's spiritual deadness," he said. "The reality is we can't biblically believe that they really know the one true and living God unless they know Him through Jesus Christ, our Lord."
Most everyone there was not there as a pastor or politician.
I responded to something someone posted in the thread itself.
Freegards
Then I don't know why you mentioned Governor Palin.
Erm..... I posted #207. It says nothing about Mr. Beck's supposed pretensions of religious leadership.
I suppose you meant a different post, to which I did not pay attention. It's hard to "avoid" something unless you've seen it first.... But hey: anything to change the subject, right?
I suppose it's possible that Mr. Beck has such pretensions. So, for that matter, do some of those garden variety Evangelical leaders. But they're doomed to failure in any case so I'm not going to worry about it.
But back to baptism, and the question you're avoiding.
Does the efficacy of baptism depend on the church under whose authority it is practiced, or does God care more about the intent of the individual who is being baptized?
I didn’t get the impression that it was about the Christian (true) God or the Mormon faith or anyone but “whatever your beliefe system, if it is good and loving and helpful, then practice it like you mean it.”
This was not a “Christians only” event.
"Erm..... I posted #207. It says nothing about Mr. Beck's supposed pretensions of religious leadership. I suppose you meant a different post, to which I did not pay attention. It's hard to "avoid" something unless you've seen it first.... But hey: anything to change the subject, right?"
Weird, why waste all that time and effort when you knew that it was a simple mistake of me saying your post 207 instead of my post to you that was 208?
It is you that is trying to get off the subject of this thread by getting into personal religious beliefs, see post 208 on why Christians would be concerned about Beck becoming America's biggest religious leader.
Because it's better not to guess at your intentions, when I can ask you to clarify instead.
Not that guessing would have helped in this case: ironically, post #208 does not discuss Mr. Beck's supposed pretentions to religious leadership, either.
Post 208 addresses the subject of this thread, and "Mr. Beck's supposed pretentions to religious leadership".
Post 208
"It is the universality that makes this unique. “Mormonism is something that Christianity agrees on. Greek Orthodox, the Vatican, Protestant churches, as diverse as we think they are, they do agree that Mormonism isn’t Christian, but is a different religion of it’s own.”
Christians all have a shared interest in Mormonism whether you do or not."
hear this video and see the tears on the death of the Mormon prophet
________________________________________________
Glenn beck cried over Joey Smith getting his adulterous conman false prophet self killed ???
Did he also cry over the death that Jesus suffered on the Cross for him ???
The utube was the death of the last “president” of the LDS
Oh that one...
oh thats right
there was more than one “mormon prophet”
I always think of the lord Joey Smith...
John MacArthur did? I don’t listen to him that often but now I’ll have to research that. Where should I look?
Funny, you've posted that three times now, and it still says nothing about Mr. Beck's supposed attempt to become a religious leader.
Perhaps it's there in secret code, but I just can't quite spot it.
Or perhaps you're just trying to avoid the question I asked you.
It sure fits the subject of this thread, which is about Christian concerns as it relates to Mormonism and Glenn Beck.
That looks like Glenn Beck making a big Mormon moment on his national radio show, is that what it was?
I would try doing a search on his Grace to You website. I know I read his article on this on Ingrid Schleuter's "Crosstalk" Blog, so you may want to try a search there too.
I guess you can't have a proper debate on the subject without must first nail down the definitions of the words "grace" "faith" and "works."
Regardless of the whole faith, grace, and works business, I suspect that anyone who dies knowing God and truly loving Him will be saved. (When you realize who He is and what He has done/suffered for you, then it is hard not to love Him back). That seems to be the key. I would propose to you that it is impossible to be saved without loving God, but you have to know who He is before you can truly begin to do that. You can't love what you don't know.
Yes, you are quite correct. It is difficult to discuss the Biblical terms, ‘grace,’ ‘faith’ and ‘belief’ with someone not familiar with the Biblical understanding of those words.
The poster I was responding to in that post seemed not to be familiar with those Biblical concepts so I limited my discussion to the difference between belief (even the demons believe) and faith.
No that was a private interview I think
It looks like he is doing his show, not an interview.
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