By Brannon S.
Howse
To be "Loving" now
means you embrace ecumenicalism and don't divide on theological and doctrinal
issues for success in the culture war and you embrace a social gospel. Will this
be the message we hear at Glenn Beck's Restoring Love Rally on 7-28-12 in
Dallas?
If you don't agree with Beck's spiritual agenda will that make you a bigot? In 2010 I was quoted in a CNN article on why Christians should not unite in a spiritual enterprise with a New Age Mormon to win the "culture war." Beck talked about the article on his radio program and said, "so now the religious bigotry is there too". I wrote about Beck's comment in a column back in 2010.
Beck's rally will
center on a three day event of "Celebration of Service". I believe Beck is
really pushing a social gospel agenda along with his ecumenicalism. Recently
Beck's website announced his global plan which included a visit to
the Vatican. Therefore, may I suggest Rick Warren
be a keynote speaker at Beck's rally so Warren can talk about his global Peace Plan, the social gospel, and his ecumenicalism. After all, Rick Warren has proven he can work with Muslims so why not a Mormon? After all there are a lot of similarities between Mormons and
Muslims. A few years ago Warren signed the
Yale document that declared that
Christians and Muslims worship the same god. The document declared:
We applaud that A
Common Word Between Us and You stresses so insistently the unique devotion to
one God, Muslims and
Christians do not worship the same god. Glenn Beck, like
Warren, is also pushing a social gospel agenda along with ecumenicalism. Beck's
website states:
"Glenn Beck will
be reaching out to individual organizations, churches, and more across the area
and ask them the question: 'If you had unlimited manpower for one day – what
would you do?'…I have said enough words. It's time for me to help hold up the
arms of community and faith leaders and serve those who are doing the heavy
lifting on healing our nation…It is time to deemphasize the political solution
and first demand real change in ourselves."
So Beck is going
to rally the churches and faith leaders and Beck is going to help hold up the
arms of the faith community?
If Beck is going
to deemphasize the political solution that really only leaves a spiritual
solution and thus the desire to work with the churches. Are you interested in in
the spiritual solutions of
a New Age Mormon? I for
one am not. Christians should not unite with Beck in spiritual enterprise as
declared in Romans 16:17, 2 John 9-11, Ephesians 5:11, and 2 Corinthians 6:14.
Beck's social gospel, ecumenicalism, and global
plan seem very similar to that of Rick Warren. In
the December 20, 2011 Orange County Register it was reported that Rick Warren is
opening the PEACE Center as part of his global PEACE Plan. I believe Warren's PEACE plan is
really a communitarian philosophy of bringing together the church, corporations
and the government for what Warren has called the three-legged stool.
The Irvine woman
is one of about 72,000 people who have benefitted from Saddleback's food pantry
since its 2009 opening, according to Saddleback officials. The pantry is one of
several services that will be part of the church's new PEACE
Center.
The OCR reported:
A permanent
larger, two-story structure is in the planning stages. It will house a free
health clinic, clothing exchange, warehouse and auto-repair shop in addition to
services being offered at the temporary center. So far, $600,000 has been raised
through donations toward the $2 million cost of the
structure.
In the OCR Warren
was quoted as saying:
"This is not for
members of Saddleback but for people in the community," he said. "When the final
building is built, it will be the first thing people see when they come to the
campus. It's not about the church but the hope and love that's in that
building."
Nowhere in the New
Testament Church description of the church do we see the mandate for the
corporate church to focus on social programs for those outside the church. While
this could be a ministry for individuals as a platform for preaching the
Biblical gospel, it is not a function described in the Bible as a calling of the
New Testament Church. The New Testament church is to equip and train its members
for the work of ministry-the preaching of the gospel.
Pastor Jesse
Johnson put it best when he wrote:
There is a very
real danger that has been played out through history repeatedly, that when
churches embrace a vision for combating poverty, evangelism is one of the first
victims of this altered commission…To guard against that, the church is never
commanded to show compassion to the poor as a means for expanding the kingdom.
Simply put, you owe the poor the gospel; Jesus died to purchase for them the
privilege of hearing the testimony of his death and resurrection (1 Tim 2:6).
That is both the most and the least you can give, and Robin Hood ethics do not
overlap with the Great Commission.
The most loving
thing Christians can do is reject the social gospel and preach the Biblical
gospel to a lost world. The most loving things Christians can do is expose false
teachers and their false teaching. While these Biblical mandates may be declared
hateful by those committed to a social gospel, false teaching, and
ecumenicalism, it is not. In Revelation 2:15 God declares his hatred of false
teaching. A hatred for and not rallying around false teaching, the social
gospel, and ecumenicalism is a hallmark of those that love God with all their
heart, soul, mind, and strength.
