Glenn Beck Mormon/New Ager (Part 2)

In his book, Glenn Beck also acknowledged The Course in Miracles, a New Age bible claimed to be Jesus channeled by Helen Schucman, and “[Elaine] Pagel’s book, The Gnostic Gospels, published when she was thirty five, was an immediate best-seller. Almost single-handedly, it moved the lost Nag Hammadi texts… from the ivory tower into the public square….She presented Gnosticism (a religion of self-knowledge and of deep spiritual experience) as an alternate expression of early Christianity…the forgotten victims and heroes of a class war waged by the politically powerful bishops.”¹⁾James L. Garlow, Peter Jones, Cracking DaVinci’s Code, Victor, 2004, p. 158-159 With Beck search for God, we see the Gnostic view from his statement “The third chapter of Exodus helped me start to understand how crucial it was that my focus be on finding God not just in the seas of the cosmos, but in myself.”²⁾Glenn Beck and Keith Ablow, M.D., The Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life, Threshold Editions-Mercury Radio Arts, A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2011, p.57 This theology is explained as Gnostic by Walter Martin.

[Tom] Wolfe went on to say that the theology of ancient Gnosticism reappeared in the new movements of the 1960s, which taught that at the center of the human soul, “there exists a spark of the light of God….souls who are clear can find that spark within themselves and unite their souls with God’s.”³⁾Walter Martin, Jill Martin Rische, Kurt Van Gorden, The Kingdom of the Occult, Thomas Nelson, 2008, p.190 citing Tom Wolfe Mauve Glove & Madmen, Clutter & Vine, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1976, p.148

“The [sixties] decade’s nursling children of light, conceived in estrangement and weaned on LSD, tutored by Carl Jung and Aleister Crowley, thought they knew what Gnosticism was about if they were learned enough to study it, and some counterculturalists did not shrink from the old Gnostics’ magic or their antinomianism.”⁴⁾Robert S. Ellwood, The 60s Spiritual Awakening: American Religion Moving from Modern to Postmodern, Rutgers University Press, 1994, p. 91 Glenn further identifies his heretical interpretation of God’s name “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14) as “God is everything and everywhere and inside everyone…”Glenn Beck and Keith Ablow, M.D., The Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life, Threshold Editions-Mercury Radio Arts, A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2011, p.58)) How could one get such an interpretation from “I AM THAT I AM”? Beck holds a pantheistic/panentheistic view of God which cannot be found in the Bible; hence he read it into the Bible based on his preconceived New Age beliefs.
Glenn also stated, “One of the books I read at that time was The Celestial Prophecy by James Redfield.”⁵⁾Glenn Beck and Keith Ablow, M.D., The Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life, Threshold Editions-Mercury Radio Arts, A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2011, p. 59 Redfield, a prominent New Age author portrays in this novel a theology of universal purpose that nothing happens by coincidence. When explaining the publication of The Celestial Prophecy in his following book, James Redfield explains his doctrine: “The universe truly seems to be set up as platform for the actualization of our deepest and most heartfelt aspirations. It is a dynamic system propelled by nothing less than the constant flow of small miracles. But there is a catch. The universe is built to respond to our consciousness, but it will give back to us only the level of quality that we put in. Therefore, the process of discovering who we are and what we are here to do and of learning to follow the mysterious coincidences that can guide us is dependent, to a great extent, on our ability to stay positive and to find the silver lining in all events.”⁶⁾James Redfield, The Celestine Vision: Living the New Spiritual Awareness, Warner Books, 1997, p. 10-11 This is the continuous theme presented by Glenn Beck and Keith Ablow in their book. The opening sentence by Keith begins his portion of the book with: “This book did not happen by accident.”⁷⁾Glenn Beck and Keith Ablow, M.D., The Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life, Threshold Editions-Mercury Radio Arts, A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2011, p. 11 “Everything happens for a reason.”⁸⁾Glenn Beck and Keith Ablow, M.D., The Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life, Threshold Editions-Mercury Radio Arts, A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2011, p. 13 “Neither, perhaps, is the fact that you are now reading it.”⁹⁾Glenn Beck and Keith Ablow, M.D., The Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life, Threshold Editions-Mercury Radio Arts, A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2011, p. 17 This is the same flattering theology Rick Warren depicted in the dedication of his book The Purpose Driven Life, saying, “This book is dedicated to you. Before you were born, God planned this moment in your life. It is no accident that your are holding this book. God longs for you to discover the life he created you to live – here on earth, and for eternity.”¹⁰⁾Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan, 2002, dedication page Of such circumstantial based logic, Albert James Dagger asks:

If this is true, then could it be that the book found its way into my hands so that I could warn people about its false teachings? If we follow this line of reasoning then whatever reason we find to apply to a given circumstance or coincidence would be from “god,” regardless of contradiction. This makes “god” double minded. In which case, can it be God?
But such is the New Age god – double minded and subjective when it comes to truth.¹¹⁾Albert James Dagger, “Glenn Beck’s True Philosophy Revealed New-Age Mormonism: A Review on The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life,” Media Spotlight, Vol. 34 – No. 1, Spring 2011

It is this New Age perception of Glenn Beck, influenced by New Age author James Redfield, which ultimately caused him to settle in Mormonism. When Glenn’s best friend Pat wanted to share his faith as a Mormon, Glenn considered all the Mormons that crossed his path in the past as an omen. Common sense would cause one to ask, “What about all the true Christians that crossed his path?” why were they not considered as having been purposely placed in his path? “Precisely because Pat spouted New Age mumbo jumbo like that…”¹²⁾Glenn Beck and Keith Ablow, M.D., The Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life, Threshold Editions-Mercury Radio Arts, A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2011, p. 184 which Glenn already believed he was willing to accept Mormonism because it does not conflict with his New Age beliefs.
Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist, exposes his New Age lean more clearly then Beck does yet acknowledges their views are synonymous as he reminisce of how he and Beck met for the first time being introduced by the producer of a national television talk show. “The television producers – who turn out to have known us pretty well – simply thought we would have something interesting to say to one another about the power unleashed when a person finds his or her inner truth…. We agreed that tapping into a higher power was the single most important ingredient in his [Glenn’s] rebirth and that it was the essential and ultimate key to personal transformation for every single human being on the planet.”¹³⁾Glenn Beck and Keith Ablow, M.D., The Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life, Threshold Editions-Mercury Radio Arts, A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2011, p. 11-12 This shows an interesting influence in Ablow’s ideology. When he mentions “personal transformation for every single human being on the planet,” he has inadvertently referenced Marilyn Ferguson’s New Age text, the Aquarian Conspiracy, which continues with its subtitle, “Personal and Social Transformation in the 1980s.” Considering the authors purpose for their book is to proselytize for the New Age “human potential” movement and their desire to cause “personal and social transformation,” conjoined with Glenn Beck’s participation in Janet Porter’s “May Day 2010” prayer rally event which portrayed heavily Dominionist underpinnings, we see also their goal to dominate with a one world religion by infiltrating Christian churches. Janet Porter lost her radio show from VCY America and Worldview Radio, due to her belief in the heresy of Dominionism being exposed at this event. Beck, being a Mormon felt no chastisement from the Christian community yet continued with his interfaith “Restoring Honor” religious rally on August 28, 2010 joining Protestant Christian leaders with Catholic priests, Jewish rabbis and Islamic imams under the leading of Beck, a Mormon. This was presented as a call for religious folks of all faiths to collaborate their effort in order to preserve our religious freedom. A. J. Dager’s assessment of this event marks the threat, “Also, the LDS teaches that Mormons, as the only true believers, will one day rule the earth (dominion theology of its own sort). So there is more to Beck’s political position than meets the eye of the uniformed.”¹⁴⁾Albert James Dager, “Restoring Honor: Cheers, Jeers, Smears,” Media Spotlight, Fall 2010, Vol. 33 – No. 3, p. 14

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If you liked this article, you may also be interested in Crept In Unawares: Mysticism by Heath Henning is available for purchase here.