holy spirit – Protestia

We last wrote about Lucado, who pastors Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas, after he argued ‘Faithful People May Disagree About What The Bible Says About Homosexuality and revealed he started speaking in tongues at the age of 64, just a few years ago.

Now appearing on Glenn Beck’s program to promote his new book, Lucado spends 15 minutes listening to the noted MORMON regale him with stories of the Holy Spirit working in his life over the last few decades and takes at face value these assertions.

For a brief overview of the Mormon views on Jesus and other things, they believe that Jesus was once a regular sinful man who became exalted and turned into a God after doing many good deeds. ‘God the Father’ himself was also once a man on another planet, but because he likewise was such a good Mormon, he was granted the right to become a God over this earth. They believe that they too can become capital ‘G’ Gods of their own planet one day, and in fact, hold that there are millions of Gods. For them, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all and individual separate Gods, and they all have human bodies of flesh- they are not Spirits.
Mormons categorically deny the idea of salvation by grace alone and believe Jesus and Lucifer are ‘spirit brothers.’ They believe the scriptures we have are all corrupted and that’s why they have the new revelation of Joseph Smith.

In the segment, Beck explains that “you will not survive what is coming without the constant companion of the Holy Spirit” and introduces Lucado, who offers “I’m always excited to see you. I admire you, hold you in the highest esteem, and deeply, deeply appreciate you. You’re such a crucial voice in our society…and I’m just happy to be here to see you and to discuss the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit.”

Affirming Beck’s contention that the Holy Spirit “verifies truth”, Lucado says that the two of them “align so closely” in their belief that there needs to be a season of societal renewal, which only comes as a result of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He says Beck is “spot on” on his assertion that he can’t survive without the Holy Spirit and then further affirms:

In the conversation about the Holy Spirit, one of his assignments is it he takes our prayers and presents them before the tribunal of heaven. He takes our groans, our utterings. The apostle Paul said, ‘we do not know that for which we should pray.’ And we really don’t. I mean, do we pray for healing or for heaven? Do we pray for deliverance do we pray for even death if you’re a prisoner, you know? We don’t know exactly how to weather the storms. The power of the Holy Spirit is that he takes when Glenn or Max can’t even utter the right prayer. The Holy Spirit says ‘I take over and I take that prayer, and I take it and present it before the presence of God in heaven, which I find so encouraging, because that reminds me that the real power of prayer doesn’t depend upon the way I pray, or even I who pray, but upon the one who hears the prayer, and that’s what brings strengthen and help to people during tough times.’

Beck shares that “I pray differently than I think a lot of people pray” and that “I’m just talking to him. And, and, you know, it’s a very informal kind of prayer, but I see him as my buddy. Also my sovereign as well.” Lucado chimes in that “I’m so fascinated by your fascination with the Holy Spirit” and encourages him to tell him and the audience more about his experiences with the Holy Spirit working inside of him, because everyone else listening would love to hear it.

Max Lucado, who recently said "Faithful people may disagree about what the Bible says about homosexuality," affirms Mormon Glen Beck's assertions of the Holy Spirit active in his life. See more at https://t.co/dinJnUfdSb pic.twitter.com/HVM5qoLymH
— Protestia (@Protestia) October 11, 2022

Of course, Glenn Beck is not saved at all, but is deceived. Mormons do not believe in the same God that Christians do, and any being living inside of him is not the Holy Spirit, but rather an unholy demon.

For more on Beck, see here:

Glenn Beck Pronounces Himself Saved at Ed Young’s Church, Crowd Riotously Applauds
Billy Graham Said Glenn Beck – a Mormon – Was a Fellow Christian
The Beck Lies: Mormon Leads Prayer to False God at Ted Cruz Campaign Office
Charismania Embraces Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck’s Mormonized Rant Against Christianity

John Hopkins Professor and Liturgist Wayne Koch delivered an opening message with a metaphor to Columbia Presbyterian Church, which is a PCA Church in Columbia, MD on July 25th. During his message, he came up with a terrible metaphor while hitting on all the worst talking points of the pandemic and its effect on our ecclesiology, including hinting that the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus may limit their freedom to worship, explaining that the church is gathered together “because of a vaccine, largely” which he describes as “protection, our assurance” and reiterates that we as Christians should ‘hope’ that the person next to has the vaccine inside of them, in the same way, that we ought to hope the Holy Spirit lives inside of others.

All this notwithstanding that vaccinated people are still catching and drying from COVID, whereas the Holy Spirit has a much higher success rate and assurance, as “Whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”

Are you ready for this morning’s opening metaphor? Prof Koch is up here, so we’re gonna get a metaphor this morning. It takes a minute. Bear with me.
I was thinking about it this morning. We’re so happy to be here and unmasked. All we with unveiled faces, right? And to be together. And we’re watching the Delta variant and all that stuff and worrying a little bit about whether we’re gonna be able to keep this freedom to meet together this week.
And we’re here together and able to be together because of a vaccine, largely, right? That we’ve been vaccinated. And that is our protection, our assurance.
So here’s the metaphor. We actually are here longing for something much more than just getting back to life the way that we remember it. Being able to go on vacation, as some of our members have done, or go to a restaurant. And we have a much bigger problem, don’t we, than the COVID, coronavirus. Our problem is how can we come into the presence of the God who made us who we have sinned against, who we’ve disappointed?
And if you look at the bulletin verse [1 John 4:17], you see the metaphor for the vaccine. We have a much better solution that allows us to be together, and that is the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.
As you look to your right and to your left and you see the person sitting next to you, we hope that that person is vaccinated, but we also hope that they have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, as we have hope that the Holy Spirit dwells in us. And by that Spirit, his love is perfected within us, so that we have confidence in the day of judgment to draw nigh. And that’s what we’ve come to do.

h/t to WokePreacherTV for the vid and transcripts.