Glenn Beck, Donald Trump and 'Real Christians': Do Mormons Know Jesus?
Hinckley correctly identified this key difference between Christianity and Mormonism. The "Christ" of historic Christianity is not the "Christ" of Mormonism. The Mormon "Jesus" is a different "Jesus" than the One Christians have worshipped for 2000 years.
The apostle Paul wrote, "For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough." (2 Cor. 11:4)
There is only one Bernie Sanders running for president, and only one Donald Trump. More importantly, there is only one true Jesus Christ. A mythical "Jesus" cannot bring you into God's family, even if you are "living your faith." You see, "living your faith" only becomes a Christian activity when the Christ of your faith is truly the Christ of history. In other words, you have to get God's nature right before you can just launch into "Christian living." The Holy Spirit indwells those who trust the real Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins and for eternal life in heaven. (1 Cor. 6:19)
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If you don't place your faith in the God of Scripture, then "living your faith" won't change the fact that your sins still separate you from God. Only the Jesus of Scripture can bridge the gap between sinful man and a holy God. The real Jesus died on the cross to pay the debt for our sins we could never pay in a million years. Every other deity falls far short of the mark, and has never saved even one soul for eternity.
If your faith is in a "created Jesus" rather than in Christ who is eternally God, then your faith won't be able to save your soul. A created "Jesus" is a mythical "Jesus." And that's what makes this issue a million times more important than which political candidate a "real Christian" chooses to endorse.
Glenn Beck may one day decide to become as specific about "Christ" as Mormon President Gordon Hinckley was when he made his honest declaration nearly 30 years ago: "The traditional Christ of whom they speak is not the Christ of whom I speak." Unlike Beck's approach to this issue, there was not an ounce of fuzziness in President Hinckley's confession of faith.
Hinckley was "living the faith" that had been passed down to him from Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Those two men, who lived 150 years earlier than Hinckley, were the first two presidents of the Mormon organization. And those famous Mormon leaders enjoyed a total of nearly 100 wives between the two of them. Some of Joseph Smith's wives were as young as 14 years of age when they married this man who started the Mormon religion.
The founders of Mormonism obviously lived a much different lifestyle than the apostles of Jesus Christ as revealed in the New Testament. And so it shouldn't surprise us that the "Jesus" of Joseph Smith's doctrine is far different than the Jesus of history and Scripture.
It's time for Glenn Beck to take a public stand regarding the nature of the deity he worships. This will be one of the best ways Glenn can "live his faith," especially now that he has started publicly defining what it means to be a "real Christian." Does Beck endorse the "Jesus" of Joseph Smith and Gordon Hinckley, or the Jesus of historic Christianity and of Scripture?
Political candidates come and go, but as the years roll by, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." (Hebrews 13:8) And only the real Jesus can produce real Christians. Glenn Beck should know that by now, and he should stop blurring the distinction in hopes of attracting a larger radio audience.
