Today, May 13, at approximately 1020 CST, on his radio program, Glenn Beck got as close as I have ever heard him get to the Truth about God. Beck said that the only thing that matters is not religion, but God. He said we need to stop focusing on religion and start focusing on and trusting in God. With these words, he is so close, yet, sadly, he is still an infinity away from the Truth. The reason he misses the mark is simple. Beck is promoting the ideal behind this popular bumper-sticker:
The problem is that the ideal behind this message is religion, not God. Worse, it is an anti-God religion. Now the question you must answer is this:
“Do you know why this message is anti-God?”
First, I agree with Beck when he says we should not focus on religion and start to focus on God. Jesus said as much when he condemned the Pharisees for focusing on their religion and not on God. The difference is faith. Religion is just a set of rules that men create to try and reach God, and/or justify themselves to God. This is why Jesus condemned the Pharisees: they had created a set of rules that had nothing to do with faith in God. What’s more, their rules were impossible to follow: so much so that they didn’t even follow their own religion. So, when Beck tells us we need to get away from religions, I agree. But this does not then mean that all belief is equal, as Beck seems to imply.
At the same time Beck was telling us to take our focus off religion, he was telling us to find ways for different religions to work together. Beck seems to think that this is true faith, and he miss-quotes Scripture to make his argument. Beck quoted the Scriptures that say “Ye shall know them by their fruits.” Beck said the Westboro Baptist church is a sign of ‘bad’ fruit, and an example of a ‘bad’ church. He then implied that all churches that ‘do good,’ and are into charity are ‘good’ churches. If you have listened long enough, then you know Beck has some notion that there are ‘good’ Muslims, ‘good’ Mormons and ‘good’ Atheists, and that they are all equal in their faith. This is where Beck gets things horribly wrong; it is where he shows he does not understand why that bumper-sticker is anti-God. But first, there is one more thing Beck said that I must address.
Glenn also told his audience that men must start reading the Scriptures. Beck said he believes much of the reason we get things wrong is because people do not know God’s Word, and they do not know it because they do not read it. Again, I agree: we do not know God’s Word because too few of us actually read it. But Beck has fooled himself here again. While he may read Scripture, his religion tells him he can pick and choose what he accepts. You see, Mormons — like Muslims — believe that the Bible has been corrupted, so they look to their books as ‘restoration’ of the original Scriptures. Well, if it is possible to corrupt it, then it is not God’s Word. The One True Living God can protect and preserve His Word — period. So, taking Beck’s advice and looking to Scripture, let us see what Scripture has to say about all religions being of equal value starting with the idea that all religions can ‘do good.’
Jesus said:
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.
If Beck knew his Scriptures, he would know that Isaiah has told us none of us — none of us does anything good:
6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;
And all of us wither like a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Scripture teaches that, to the extent that any of us are righteous or do good works, it is only through the Holy Spirit living within us. But this is the problem: which ‘holy spirit?’ You see, the reason that bumper-sticker is anti-God is because only two of them worship and serve the same God — the Jew and Christian. By definition, the rest are worshiping different gods. So how can the Buddhist ‘do good’ in the eyes of Allah, or the Scientologist do good in the eyes of the Jew, or the Muslim ‘do good’ in the eyes of the Christian? They cannot because their gods tell them they cannot. So, when Beck tells us we are all equal if we all do good and seek God, he is destroying with a message of peace.
Now, where the Jew and Christian are concerned, any animosity between them is actually explained by the Apostle, Paul (Romans 11:28). But Paul also explains this is for the sake of Christ’s Gospel, so that the Gentiles can be grafted into God’s Kingdom through Christ and His crucifixion. But as for anyone who preaches a different Jesus, or a different Gospel, Paul says they are to be accursed (I covered this in my post, “Satan is Speaking Through Glenn Beck”). The Apostle,. John, whom Christ loved, also tells us that anyone who denies Christ, or that Christ and the Father are one is of the spirit of anti-Christ (“The Spirit of Antichrist”). So it is not me who accuses Beck, but Christ, John and Paul who are testifying against Beck and the message he is preaching.
Scriptures teach us that Yahweh is the One True Living God — period. So we cannot ‘accept’ those who worship other gods as ‘equal.’ Scriptures call such people ‘pagans,’ and tell us to keep them at a distance. They are not to be our partners in business, or even close friends, and when we do not listen and take pagans as partners, friends and even spouses, we are still to hold to God’s commands (so that we may bring the pagan to the Lord). This is the Biblical message concerning other gods, and many of the religions in that bumper-sticker have their own version of ‘exclusion’ — especially Islam. This is why the message in the bumper-sticker is anti-God: you can only accept it by ignoring the commands of the One True Living God. Once you start to ignore God’s commands, you have started to create your own religion, and that has already been condemned by God in both the Old Testament and New. In the former through God’s prophets, in the latter, by Christ (God), Himself.
The point here is simple: understanding it well enough to accept it is what most people find difficult. There is one God. The gods in that bumper-sticker are not equal. If you worship the correct one, then your faith is not in vain. If you do not, then your faith and all your works are nothing: they will not help you on judgment day. If you do not believe this, then consider it put another way. If you accept that all religions are equal so long as they claim to believe in God, or because they do good, then you must also accept the message in this bumper-sticker:
Now, do you accept the message in that bumper-sticker? I hope not, but why don’t you? It is because you know the ideologies in that message are not equal. So why would you believe that they are equal in the first bumper-sticker?
Deciding which god you will worship is the most important decision you will ever make. You will have to decide for yourself which you will serve. Beck has told us he has already chosen, and it is not the God of the Bible. As for me, I will end by repeating something someone far smarter than I once said about this whole issue:
Religion is man’s attempt to reach God. Jesus is God’s attempt to reach man.
I choose Christ. I pray you will do the same, as salvation comes only through Him.
The Oil for Your Lamp 
Wow! This is a fantastic post! I have attempted to address the futility of the “coexist” bumper sticker and movement at my own blog, but my post pales in comparison to what you have written here!
That second bumper sticker is actually a coexist of evil “isms.” Truly creepy! It gets the point across though that the “equality” merchants on the left do not regard God and/or goodness. After all, remember the Democratic convention a few years back where they took God out of their platform? Now THAT was creepy too!
Perhaps this is a minor observance, but it always bothered me that the cross of Christianity is “last” in the first coexist sticker. Why is that? Is it just to satisfy the “T” in the word? Why not place it first for the “C” representing Christ? Oh…I see…Islam’s symbol should come first because…um…exactly why? I think it has to do with the mindset of whomever created that sticker. If I had created it (which I would not do anyway), the “T” would have represented the terrorists of radical Islam. Well, that is all beside the ultimate point, which you made so clearly here! GREAT work and thank you!
christinewjc,
thanks for your kind words.
as to the letters: i think the people who first did this were just trying to find symbols closest in appearance to the needed letters.
However, to your point: that they seem to think all these symbols are equal shows that the first image is as evil as the second. It is more effective because it ‘appears’ to have a better message, but as you correctly point out, anything that places God second to anything else is evil — period!
P.S. Regarding Beck. It was better when he just stuck to political issues and how history has revealed the errors of yesteryear; and how now we are regrettably on the road to repeating such errors through the terrible foreign policy of the puppet Ozero and his nasty Marxist/Islamo-Fascist handlers! Once Beck delved into “religion” he has been guilty of leading people astray. It’s a sad state of affairs and when people are not grounded (through proper hermeneutics, Scripture interprets Scripture, true doctrine) in the truth of the Bible, they will fall for any charlatan that comes along and preaches what he pleases – without holding to true doctrine. Sad and dangerous!
Agreed! 100%