A Chinese pastor and his wife were slain Aug. 31 at Penglai Christian Church, where Lottie Moon, an icon of Southern Baptist mission work, served in the early 1900s in Penglai, China.
Pastor Qin Jia Ye and his wife Hong En He, both in their 80s, were killed in the church's office on Wednesday.
The suspect -- a 40-year-old former church member -- was arrested within an hour of the early morning incident.
The couple's violent death is a shock to many, both in China and the United States. The church was closed for 49 years after communists came to power at the end of World War II, reopening in 1988 with only 20 people.
Dr. Russell Moore, a professor of Christian theology and ethics for Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky, wrote the following in a guest column for the American Family Association's OneNewsNow:
A Mormon television star stands in front of the Lincoln Memorial and calls American Christians to revival. He assembles some evangelical celebrities to give testimonies, and then preaches a God and country revivalism that leaves the evangelicals cheering that they've heard the gospel, right there in the nation's capital.
The news media pronounces him the new leader of America's Christian conservative movement, and a flock of America's Christian conservatives have no problem with that.
If you'd told me that ten years ago, I would have assumed it was from the pages of an evangelical apocalyptic novel about the end-times. But it's not. It's from this week's headlines. And it is a scandal.
Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, of course, is that Mormon at the center of all this. Beck isn't the problem. He's an entrepreneur, he's brilliant, and, hats off to him, he knows his market. Latter-day Saints have every right to speak, with full religious liberty, in the public square. I'm quite willing to work with Mormons on various issues, as citizens working for the common good. What concerns me here is not what this says about Beck or the "Tea Party" or any other entertainment or political figure. What concerns me is about what this says about the Christian churches in the United States.
Five years ago, on August 29, 2005, a hurricane named Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. The states of Louisiana and Mississippi will never be the same. 1,833 people lost their lives.
"Collective salvation" is what President Obama claims to believe. It's a belief that people are saved as a group instead of individually and is part and parcel of Black Liberation Theology. Here's one way to describe it: “I can't be saved on my own. I have to do my part by cooperating with the group, even sacrificing, to ensure everyone else’s salvation. It is then that we’re all saved together.” (1)
With video clips from Obama's speeches, Glenn Beck explained very well on his daily FOX News Channel program in July how "collective salvation" differs from true Christianity where the individual is saved by grace alone.
A post on the "Talk Wisdom" blog states the following: "Even though Beck is a Mormon (he even acknowledged this during the broadcast) - which is viewed by most born again Christians as a religious offshoot in error of genuine Biblical Christianity - the fact that he DOES have a T.V. show and is able to use it to refute the 'social justice' and 'collective salvation' perversions of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a HUGE advantage in and of itself." (2)
We should note that Beck didn't say that what he was expressing on that program about Christianity completely lines up with all of his beliefs as a Mormon. Beck can say and write many good things, but that doesn't mean that we should embrace his spiritual position or accept him and other Mormons as Christians.
At a quick glance, some of the Articles of Faith of "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" can seem very similar to true Christianity. However, Mormons attach very different meanings to certain words that Christians commonly use, such as atonement. Glenn Beck made a reference to atonement in his commencement address at Liberty University in May. According to Mormonism, only Christ's blood shed in the Garden of Gethsemane atones for personal sin. Mormonism also teaches that through the atonement of Christ and by their good deeds and "holy" living, men can one day become gods, and with their multiplicity of "goddess wives," populate their own planets. (3)
Deception takes many forms. Unless we exercise caution, even "the elect" can be deceived (Matthew 24:24; Mark 13:22). The apostle Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 to "Test all things. Hold fast what is good."
We can get many good things out of Glenn Beck's books as well as his radio and TV programs. But, Beck and all those associated with Mormonism need our prayers that they will someday see the error and reject it. We also need to pray for President Obama and thousands or millions of others who have accepted the "collective salvation" message. Pray that they too will come to the truth. Speaking the truth in (agape) love, not rock throwing, we must follow the instruction of Jude 1:3 to "contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all entrusted to the saints." (NKJV)
On his radio show last week, Brannon Howse of Worldview Matters accused Glenn Beck of “bait and switch” tactics to bring Christians together into a coalition on shared goals and then draw them into Mormonism by using manipulative double language. “He’s setting up a conspiracy theory of hidden truths showing this to be a Mormon Christian country.”
Tensions between Beck and the conservative Christian world surfaced earlier in the week when Beck told Bill O’Reilly that he didn’t think gay marriage would destroy America and in fact, he did care much about it at all.
