Tea Party + Religion = Eschatological fulfillment

[abelisle]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130238835

After reading about Glenn Beck's "evangelism crusade"/religious revival meeting(would make Ted Wilson proud), one can see the beginnings of end-time events and I wonder if they know they are part of Biblical prophecy?

How scary is this? Should we be afraid as Adventists? How soon til the persecution begins? Does Beck know about "the mark of the beast"?

Alex

[Woody]

"In God We Trust" has been foundational in our country. I don't see it as something recent.

[Dr. Shane]

I seriously doubt that Ted Wilson is impressed by Glen Beck. Beck is a Mormon. Beck has allied himself with some members of the Religious Right in order to gain political influence. Why would Ted Wilson be impressed by any of that?

[Woody]

Quote:

Why would Ted Wilson be impressed by any of that?

Because it's extremism.

[abelisle]

I was referring to Ted Wilson's focus on revival and reformation in his addresses to the employees at HQ.It seems that's going to be his focus for the global church. Read his comments in the week of prayer issue of the "Adventist Review"

Alex

[Dr. Shane]

Isn't it fair to say Ted Wilson wants to encourage *Adventists* to be enthusiastic about revival and reformation but isn't trying to encourage Sunday-worshiping churches to do anything?

Adventistism is a moderate religion. We are not extremely conservative nor liberal.

[olger]

That seems accurate - about the enthusiasm for revival. It's a rather encouraging message

[bonnie]

That seems accurate - about the enthusiasm for revival. It's a rather encouraging message

[Tallmark]

I'm a fan of the Tea Party. I think their ideals are good. We have to do something to stop this march of madness in our government. This government was based on Christianity. It's when it's taken to the extreme that the problem comes in.

[phkrause]

I'm a fan of the Tea Party. I think their ideals are good. We have to do something to stop this march of madness in our government. This government was based on Christianity. It's when it's taken to the extreme that the problem comes in.

I do agree with you Tallmark that the tea party has very good ideals, but so does the Christian Right, so did the Moral Right, etc. Many groups have good intentions, but than take it to far. We have not seen the extreme so far. It seems to me that its just at its being stages, and maybe the tea party will just be the beginning.

[abelisle]

"Being Glenn Beck" an interesting article in the NYTimes Sunday magazine:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/magazine/03beck-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine

Alex

[SivartM]

I'm a fan of the Tea Party. I think their ideals are good. We have to do something to stop this march of madness in our government. This government was based on Christianity. It's when it's taken to the extreme that the problem comes in.

Actually, it was based on the constitution. And, if we're going to say that the founders' religions were the foundation, both Christianity and Deism.

[Dr. Shane]

The idea of religious liberty is a Christian teaching that the founders understood. Although it took some of the founders quite an effort to convince other founders of it. Today, many evangelical churches have abandoned the doctrine. The is little reason to believe that the Vatican ever entertained the idea of religious liberty. So I doubt that Ted Wilson is encouraging anyone to join forces with the evangelical or Catholic right.

[Gordon1]

I'm a fan of the Tea Party. I think their ideals are good. We have to do something to stop this march of madness in our government. This government was based on Christianity. It's when it's taken to the extreme that the problem comes in.

Hi TM,

It's true that disorder ('madness' and moral decay) pervades government.

But Satan is waiting for us to seek, even demand a do something ! solution.

This is not God's way for 2 reasons:

1) God has a specific plan and foresees everything. He never intended us (those He entrusted with end-time prophecies) to grasp at straws like the general public who panic & demand of Congress do something, do anything! Instead He intends that we (who believe the end-time truths) repent of our lukewarmness and fast and pray and put away our sins, as did Daniel in Chapter 9. Then work to prepare ourselves and others for the end, to stand without a mediator during Jacob's time of trouble.

2) God is not directing us toward a political solution. This is Satan's work, to join morality with civil power (church with state) and bring Old World persecution to the New World (America).

While America's Consitution has Christian underpinnings, it's very misleading (though popular) to claim that the U.S.A. is a Christian nation. This would imply a theocracy, such as that ordained under Moses, where "all the people" with one voice agreed to abide under God's rules and protection. They gave their consent and formed a covenant with God. (Obey and live, rebel and die).

Christ never came to institute political government upon earth. He offered forgiveness and protection (eternal life) to all those who consented to the new covenant, but this was an individual response, not a group speaking with one voice. Since Christ's time believers and non-believers are socially mixed together, so the new covenant cannot be applied to whole societies like America.

Imposition of morality (conscience) regarding our belief in the Creator (first table of the decalogue) is not God's work. God does not impose or force, nor use deception. Such are signs of Satan's work.

[phkrause]

"Being Glenn Beck" an interesting article in the NYTimes Sunday magazine:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/magazine/03beck-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine

Alex

Thanks for the link, it was very informative. This statement has been my thinking of Mr. Beck, "Beck is constantly admitting his weaknesses and failures, which he wields as both a crutch and a shield. “Maybe Glenn’s transparency is what keeps him out of trouble,” says Robert Beath, Beck’s drama teacher at Sehome High School in Bellingham, Wash. Beath, who was fond of Beck as a teenager, said Beck appears to now think that his revelations grant him license. “When he says, ‘I am not perfect,’ he seems to escape accountability for his various points of view. Yet he expects others to be accountable for their point of view without seeming to allow them the ‘I am not perfect’ exception.” That’s where the Winfrey comparison falls apart. You could never imagine her joking about poisoning the speaker of the house or talking about choking the life out of a filmmaker or fantasizing about beating a congressman “to death with a shovel” (as Beck did for Nancy Pelosi, Michael Moore and Charles Rangel, respectively). Beck is divisive." As far as the comparison with O'Reilly and Hannity, I don't think so. I find O'Reilly not to be so self-centered, and as far as Hannity is concerned, Beck is twice the person that Hannity is.

[bonnie]

Quote:

Thanks for the link, it was very informative. This statement has been my thinking of Mr. Beck, "Beck is constantly admitting his weaknesses and failures, which he wields as both a crutch and a shield. “Maybe Glenn’s transparency is what keeps him out of trouble,” says Robert Beath, Beck’s drama teacher at Sehome High School in Bellingham, Wash. Beath, who was fond of Beck as a teenager, said Beck appears to now think that his revelations grant him license. “When he says, ‘I am not perfect,’ he seems to escape accountability for his various points of view.

Doesn't appear from what his detractors say he is escaping accountibility.Crying shame you have a man that would say that.

Quote:

Yet he expects others to be accountable for their point of view without seeming to allow them the ‘I am not perfect’ exception.” That’s where the Winfrey comparison falls apart. You could never imagine her joking about poisoning the speaker of the house or talking about choking the life out of a filmmaker or fantasizing about beating a congressman “to death with a shovel” (as Beck did for Nancy Pelosi, Michael Moore and Charles Rangel, respectively). Beck is divisive." As far as the comparison with O'Reilly and Hannity, I don't think so. I find O'Reilly not to be so self-centered, and as far as Hannity is concerned, Beck is twice the person that Hannity is.

I don't watch or listen to Glenn beck it seems as much as his opposition.I had not heard that so went searching for it.

Found some that sounded like a personal vendetta and then remembered when Rush Limbaugh had a suspected heart attack. Did you happen to catch all the wishes for his death or is it selected concern for what Glenn Beck said.

[bonnie]

Quote:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: You guys see Live and Let Die, the great Bond film with Yaphet Kotto as the bad guy, Mr. Big? In the end they jam a big CO2 pellet in his face and he blew up. I have to tell you, Rush Limbaugh is looking more and more like Mr. Big, and at some point somebody’s going to jam a CO2 pellet into his head and he’s going to explode like a giant blimp. That day may come. Not yet. But we’ll be there to watch. I think he’s Mr. Big, I think Yaphet Kotto. Are you watching, Rush?

Live and Let Die? Matthews is into the Roger Moore Bond films? That explains a lot, actually.

Note too, that Matthews isn’t using the dishonest “some people are saying” dodge here, either. He’s openly wistful for the day it happens, telling Politico’s Jonathan Martin and Washington Post reporter Anne Kornblut that “we’ll be there to watch” when someone offs Rush.

Classy. Really, really classy. Does NBC want to stand behind this standard for its broadcasts?

Is there a double standard at play here

Have to hate the "humor of Beck and love the humor of the left"

Even our president found this to be funny

Sykes, the featured entertainer at the annual press gala, raised right-wing hackles when she likened Limbaugh to a 9/11 hijacker strung out on Oxycontin.

"He just wants the country to fail," Sykes said of Limbaugh. "To me that's treason. He's not saying anything different than what Osama Bin Laden is saying. You might want to look into this, sir, because I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker but he was just so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight. ... Rush Limbaugh, I hope the country fails, I hope his kidneys fail, how about that? He needs a good waterboarding, that's what he needs." (Watch a video clip of Sykes' Limbaugh joke, as well as the full video of Sykes' performance at the WHCD.)

Obama chuckled at the joke during the dinner, but the White House distanced Obama from the remark on Monday. "There are a lot of topics that are better left for serious reflection rather than comedy," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said. "I don't think there is any doubt that 9/11 is one of them." (Watch video clip)

Republicans haven't gotten this worked up about a comedy routine since Stephen Colbert tore President Bush apart at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner. (Limbaugh, for his part, had nothing to say to Sykes in return.)

But did Sykes really go over the line? What do you think?

[bonnie]

Is Chris Mattews divisive or funny with his comments? How about the comedian our president thought humorous

If memory serves me right wasn't there a senator or congressman that wished Sarah Palin had been killed in the plane crash where another politician died.

Now that is hilarous

[Dr. Shane]

Glenn Beck is very humorous. Just like Jon Stewart is. If you like to laugh, both guys are great to watch or listen to. Those that take these guys seriously have issues.

[Guest arnie]

Some here are worried about "tea party involvement with religion". I haven't seen that. People are more worried about "BIG SPENDING" and government control, which we ought to be. This is why people band together for a better way. After all, is this not what our constitution provides?

[jasd]

Quote:

Quote:Shane

Glenn Beck is very humorous. Just like Jon Stewart is. If you like to laugh, both guys are great to watch or listen to. Those that take these guys seriously have issues.

Umm, one who takes Glenn Beck seriously – has issues? [/sigh]

Better we should take Tejas-Turvy seriously, eh?—like, really. [/snark] :-(

[Dr. Shane]

Glenn Beck was actually more humorous before he started to take himself seriously. But he still hits the mark sometimes with some good knee-slappers.

[Dr. Shane]

Some here are worried about "tea party involvement with religion". I haven't seen that.

[bonnie]

Quote:

Quote:Shane

Glenn Beck is very humorous. Just like Jon Stewart is. If you like to laugh, both guys are great to watch or listen to. Those that take these guys seriously have issues.

Umm, one who takes Glenn Beck seriously – has issues? [/sigh]

Better we should take Tejas-Turvy seriously, eh?—like, really. [/snark] :-(

I think referring to Glenn Beck in this way is meant to be dismissive of him in general.At times I have heard some humorous comments but all in all his programming is not about humor.

Many things he has to say are accurate,or at least very close to what SDA's used to believe.He dosen't see "the ending" in the way we do,but the process that will take us down that path is pretty close.

Maybe "the leadership" of the SDA church should be as paasionate as Glenn Beck

[Dr. Shane]

In his serious mode, Glenn Beck is all about the union of church and state. That is scary. He use to say that he would leave politics up to Limbaugh and Hannity. In those days he was a riot. I would often laugh non-stop during his entire three-hour program. Now he takes himself way too seriously and has a following that does the same. I still listen as he still has some good knee-slappers but not like he use to.