I hate having to do this, but someone has to do it. Today, Beck released his new book, “It IS about Islam.” I bought it first thing this morning and, judging from the index and the things Beck is saying, it appears that Glenn has finally found the truth about Islam. I’ll write more about it after I finish reading his book. But today, while trying to explain the difference between the Muslim and Christian Jesus, Beck intentionally deceived his audience — again. And I do not see the real answer to how and why he is deceiving people in his books index. He exposes the truth, but he does so in a way that hides the part that would not be flattering to his religion or his position toward those who have been trying to explain that the origins of his religion is no different from that of Islam. Well, I have taken the time to learn the differences and similarities, and I think you need to at least be aware of them.
OK, I want to keep this as short as possible, because I want you to read it. It is crucially important that people understand the point of this post. So, let me start by saying Beck is correct when he tells people that Islam has a different Jesus. By this, I mean that Islam changes Who the Bible says Jesus is. The Bible says that Jesus is the Son of God, the Father, yet He is One with the Father — as is the Holy Spirit. Islam denies this. Islam thinks Christians worship three different Gods. They do not. Christians worship one God, Yahweh. It’s just that God exists in three parts: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If it helps, think of it as the Body, Soul and Spirit of God. This is an over simplification, but it a short-hand way of helping those who do not know the doctrine to understand the Trinity.
So, Islam denies that Christ is the Son of God, therefore, it denies that He is God. Islam also denies that Jesus was crucified. Islam teaches that Allah fooled everyone and made it appear that Jesus was on the cross, but it was actually Judas Iscariot. Islam says Jesus was just a prophet, but He will return at the end times to testify against Jews and Christians. He will claim that Allah is God and that He — Jesus — is just a prophet and will then lead a war to behead all those Jews and Christians who refuse to submit to Islam. This is the ‘Muslim Jesus.’
Now here is something I do not think Beck’s book explains. Muhammad received his visions from a Jinn (demon) that seized hold of him while he was in a cave. This Jinn claimed to be the ‘archangel, Gabriel.’ Now, Scripture teaches us about only one Archangel, and it names Him as Michael. Yet, this ‘angel,’ Gabriel, came to Muhammad and told him he was chosen by Allah to ‘restore’ the Bible (i.e. Qur’an — which is literally translated as ‘recitation‘). According to Muhammad, Jews and Christians have perverted the Bible so that the Bible we have now no longer represents the true word of God. So, according to Muhammad, he was chosen to restore the true religion to mankind.
Here is the part that Glenn hides from his audience. He claims that he believes in the Jesus of the Bible, but Mormons do not believe in the same Bible. You see, Joseph Smith was ‘chosen’ by God to restore the true Bible, as well. He was instructed by the angel, ‘Moroni,’ to go to a cave and retrieve the ‘original’ text written on gold tablets. Moroni told Smith that the Bible had been ‘mis-translated’, and that he — Smith — had been chosen to restore the original understanding of the Bible to mankind. Is this starting to sound familiar yet? Well, the similarities continue.
Mormons believe that God came to earth as a man from another planet, and that he put order to the world (not created it). They believe that Jesus and Satan are both brothers, of carnal relations with Adam and — in the case of Jesus — Mary (According to Brigham Young, this is somehow supposed to be explained by a ‘loaner marriage’ between Adam and Mary). Mormons believe that God Jesus and the Holy Spirit are three distinct people. Hence, they reject the Trinity — just like Islam. They also believe that people can become gods, they just have to achieve a high enough state of ‘enlightenment.’ For Mormons, salvation comes by doing ‘good works,’ and the gap between what you do and what salvation requires is covered by Jesus. In other words, Jesus does not ‘pay it all’ for the Mormon, Jesus only covers that portion of the individual’s sin that they could not ‘work’ off. This is why they say Jesus saves by grace — after you do “all you can do.” But here is the problem: none of this is Biblical!
There other things that the Mormons and Muslims share, but some of them can be difficult to accept. Both religions have failed and/or unfulfilled prophecies. They both teach that the living can make atonement for dead relatives. They both teach polygamy. And they both justify pedophilia. Also, they both meet the official definition of a cult.
Regular listeners of the Glenn Beck radio show know that Beck has been referring to the Apostle, Paul. Beck claims to love Paul. Well, the only way this is possible is if he thinks he has the authority to ignore the parts of Paul’s writing that he does not like. It is easy for a Mormon: he simply tells himself that those must be part of the Bible that was ‘mi-translated’ and reads on because, if he accepts that the Scripture exists as it was originally given, then the Mormon (and Muslim) must deal with this passage of Scripture:
Galatians 1:6-9 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Perversion of the Gospel
6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you [a]by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel [b]contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be [c]accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel [d]contrary to what you received, he is to be [e]accursed!
This leaves us with only two more questions we need to answer:
Is the Bible just a myth among other ancient myths?
And is the New Testament reliable?
Both are questions for separate posts, but both have been answered to a high degree of certainty, and both point to the reliability of the Bible — as it exists today! Which means that Beck is acting hypocritically when he tells Muslims they worship a different Jesus, then turns around and tells Christians, who have said the same thing to him, that they are ‘haters.’ What’s more, not only is it hypocritical not to admit that his faith was born in almost identical fashion to that of Islam, but to tell Islam that it worships a god of hate while telling people who cling to the Bible that they are haters… Well, that sorts of smacks of hypocrisy upon hypocrisy, but I also think it may present a glimmer of hope for Beck and other Mormons. If they feel a reason to defend their faith — something Muslims do not — then is suggests that at least some Mormons know or suspect that there are problems with their religion. This is why I pray for all of them — Muslim and Mormon. I pray that Christ — the True Christ — will reveal Himself to them so that they may find the True Jesus and be saved.
ADDENDUM
We have at least one follower of Joseph Smith who has posted a comment, which later disappeared by no act of my own, and who is now suggesting I deleted his comment. This reader is claiming I am teaching falsehoods and lies about Mormon beliefs. I am not. You can find everything I have said on the official site of the LDS church. The hard part is reading through everything they post. They hide a great deal, and much of it is not revealed to new converts until a long time later — after they have been well enough indoctrinated into Mormon belief to accept the rest. But, in the event you question me — which is good — I have found that these web sites are an excellent source of information of the Mormon religion — especially since many of them cite the Mormon documents that support my claims:
Those Who Are Investigating Mormonism
Why Mormonism is Not Christianity
Problems with the Book of Mormon
The Oil for Your Lamp 
Excellent post! You made great points that Islam and Mormonism utilize the same errors of claiming “a new ‘prophet’ writes new ‘scripture’.” This needed to be said.
If I recall correctly, you and I have previously discussed that Beck was better off discussing the historical aspects of radical Islam (there are no moderates – just those who use taqiyya to pretend they are!) and their history with Hitler’s Nazism; rather than also attempting to mix in his false religion and trying to make Mormonism the same as biblical Christianity.
Mormonism is listed under “major cults” in Fritz Ridenour’s book, “So What’s the Difference.” I can share a brief summary here in another comment (if you want me to) and also a brief encounter that I once had with young “elders” from the Mormon church.
christinewjc,
Can you email me directly? Address is in the left hand margin. I think you may need to write a ‘guest blog’ for us, if you’re interested. I just want to chat with you a bit about it off line, so to speak 🙂
Sent the email!
got it and replied 🙂
NOTICE
There was originally a lengthy reply here claiming to refute me on many Mormon beliefs. However, once I started posting the counter to it, it ‘disappeared.’ THIS WAS NOT MY DOING! I did make a few minor errors in my post above, but I can admit to mistakes. I wanted this reply to stay up so I could use it to show how Mormons use deception to hide what they really teach.
My original response to the deleted post — unedited:
OK, there were a few small mistakes in my original post, and I will go back and edit them. For one, Moroni did come to Smith in his bedroom. It was the mythical tablets that were found in the cave — but there is still a cave in this story. If we want to get ugly about it, there is also justification for sex with children, just as there is in Islam. This is historical fact, so our respondent here cannot dispute this one. Nor can he object tot he fact that Smith said you have to have the ‘sacrament,’ by which he meant be polygamous, but then, this is one of many aspects of Smith’s teachings that Mormons have changed to meet our modern society. If it is the word of God or His prophet, you do not and cannot change it, so… That brings us to another ‘mistake.’ Mormons do not say the Bible has been ‘corrupted,’ but that it has been ‘mistranslated’ and that parts have been lost.
The eighth article of the Articles of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints states:
“We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.”
By another name, that is called corrupted, but then, hey 🙂
Here are a few sites that tell you I am not wrong and then site where you can find this information in the Mormon’s holy books (another similarity to Islam — multiple books other than the Bible).
This is the BEST site I found to explain that I am not deceiving you about Mormonism. Search all the links and you’ll see that I am on solid ground in my post.
https://carm.org/mormonism
This one is excellent, as it fully cites and even quotes Smith and the other Mormon holy books.
http://bible-truth.org/MormonismPage.html
Another solid site that tells you where to go to find the original documentation verifying the claims we are making.
http://lifeandtruth.com/2010/07/truth-mormonism/
http://biblebelievers.com/jmelton/Mormons.html
OH! Another similarity between Mormons and Muslims: they are both deliberately ‘deceptive’ about what their religion actually teaches. 🙂
LDS: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Internet
by Matt Slick
LDS, of course, is short for the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints. The LDS church is making a concerted effort to dominate the Internet search engines. As the LDS Church knows, there is a lot of critical material out there. So, Mormon missionaries, Mormon colleges, Mormon blogs, etc., are being urged to write as much as they can on the Internet so that terms, such as LDS, Mormon, Mormonism, Joseph Smith, etc., when searched on will list websites favorable to Mormonism. In other words, they’re trying to flood the Internet with pro-Mormon information. Of course, the problem with this is that the truth will not be told.
The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, the LDS Church, is not Christian. It uses Christian words and Christian ideas, but it changes the meaning of the words and alters those ideas. So, instead of God being the eternal God, the Mormonism God is an exalted man from another planet. Instead of Jesus being the creator of the universe (Col. 1:15-17), Jesus is the product of sexual relations between God and his goddess wife. Of course, when the LDS Church represents itself, it does not represent these “deeper” truths. Instead, they try to appear evangelical all the while hiding beneath the surface these unbiblical and false teachings.
So, Christians need to do the same thing. Christians need to flood the Internet with material defending the truth and exposing the errors of Mormonism. We need to make sure that when the terms, LDS, Mormon, Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints are put into search engines, that a fair representation of information is presented–not just the pro-Mormon propaganda produced by the LDS Church.
On the other hand, this is a good thing because it means the Internet is doing damage to the Mormon church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not want a full disclosure of its history, its altered Scriptures, its false prophecies, the dubious character of Joseph Smith, or the wacko quotes and teachings from so many of its prophets to be exposed on the Internet. So, the LDS Church is now trying to dominate the Internet with pro-Mormon material.
Don’t be misled. When the Mormon missionaries come to your door and tell you that they are the restored church, don’t believe them. All the non-Christian cults say that the truth was lost and that their prophet, person, or organization is the restoration of true Biblical Christianity. But, the truth is they are not restoring anything. They are furthering the lies of the enemy and teaching a false gospel.