Glenn Beck's "Seven Wonders"—A Book Review

Paul Derengowski, ThM

Radio and television host Glenn Beck, along with psychiatrist Keith Ablow,has turned author again to bring us what he believes will not only help people achieve their highest “human potential,” but transform people into law-abiding, caring, sensitive individuals worthy to be temples of God.  Yet, as one reads through this latest tome, the real wonder will be how many will actually fall for what amounts to a cross section of Beck’s Mormon worldview coupled with Ablow’s New Age philosophy.  Given Beck’s popularity, especially among naïve Evangelical Christians, the casualty list could be high should they fail to see the warning signs pointed out in this review and rebuttal.

The book itself is 289 pages in length and consists of an alternating monologue, as Beck and Ablow take turns writing on what they consider are the Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life, should one recognize and re-order one’s life as prescribed by Beck and Ablow.  The main theme, though, centers around Beck’s early life tragedies and personal failures—a mother’s suicide and Beck’s drug addiction, alcoholism, and eventually divorce from his first wife—and his eventual rise to stardom and success that he is currently enjoying.  Finding courage, faith, truth, compassion, friendship, family, and common sense are the seven wonders that allegedly will lead one to overcome the doldrums of life and achieve that which was “meant to be.”  Sadly, though, the way both Beck and Ablow redefine each of those “wonders” is in stark contradiction to Christian beliefs; a faith that they hope their readership will by default grant them the benefit of the doubt, but upon further consideration is anything but Christian.

Introducing Glenn Beck

The first 36 pages set the stage for introduction of Seven Wonders to be discussed throughout the remainder of the book.  Those pages deal with Glenn Beck’s life prior to his rise to fame, beginning with a testimony by Mormon pal, Pat Gray.  According to Gray, “No one is more sincere, no one loses more sleep, no one spends more time praying for, and worrying about, the state of the union, and trying to figure out how to wake people up to the situation we face than Glenn does.”¹  That is high praise, given that Gray must assume omniscience for himself in order for the statement to be true.  Nevertheless, Gray then gives praise where he thinks praise is really due, and that is to Mormonism, when he claims, “Only once Glenn opened up and became honest, genuine, and real…and combined it all with something you’ll read about later in the book, his faith, did the windows of Heaven open up for him.”²  This is similar to the praise lofted upon the Mormon Church by former apostle Bruce McConkie when he wrote, “There is no salvation outside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,”³and would be consistent with Beck’s later comments about Mormonism, which stem from a reading of McConkie’s volume on Mormon beliefs.

Keith Ablow wraps up the introductory remarks by engaging in what will amount to an amalgam of New Age gibberish about power being unleashed by discovering one’s “inner truth,” “personal transformation,” “human potential,” and “to lead us to the best in ourselves,” which is actually God within.  After all, we are “the temple of God,” and “If you are honest with yourself and open-minded enough to accept that there are powers at work beyond those that we can document in medical journals, then you might just find that your first life-changing moment has already occurred.”⁴  Of course, neither Gray, Ablow, or Beck get too deeply into any kind of discussion of just what God, truth, and “human potential” actually mean.  In fact, later on Ablow will become quite relative in his theological pronouncements, which will fit right in with Beck’s Mormon theological relativism.  But for now, Ablow is simply setting the table and hoping that no one will take note of just how shallow and repetitive his commentary is.

The Wonder of Courage

The first half of the discussion about courage deals with Beck’s allusions to “free agency,” self-forgiveness, and God’s love.  Unfortunately, Beck is being coy in his allusions, since he doesn’t divulge just what he means by any of those terms.  He simply takes his audience for granted, once again, by assuming that they are already in agreement with what he is talking about, when if they really understood what he meant, stemming from his Mormon background, they would  shy away from him.  For free agency in Mormonism is tied directly to its belief about a pre-existent world where God and Satan battled it out over who the savior of humanity would be.  God wanted mankind to choose whether he wanted to be redeemed or not, and Satan simply wanted to save everyone.  This idea, though, has its historical roots in Epicureanism, which would be the forerunner of hedonism, Pelagianism, and eventually Arminianism.  Mankind allegedly has a “free will,” and unless he always exercises it, then God is responsible for evil and sin.  Hence, fallen man is capable of holding God at bay until he decides to accept whatever offer God might have to redeem him.  God, in other words, must seek man’s permission to save him; otherwise God is a tyrannical puppet master.  It takes courage to recognize this, along with self-forgiveness, and an understanding that only a God of love will allow a person go to hell of his own volition.

Ablow exacerbates the delusion of just what courage is by launching into a discussion about courage by making it analogous to going on a long journey; a long journey to find God within.  “Finding the courage inside you is finding God.  And God helps clear the way for your purest and best intentions,” argues Ablow.⁵  “It exists as part of us,” he continues, “but it is not of our flesh and blood.  It is an inexplicable, higher power inside us.”⁶  Finally, “Fear and doubt are signs that you are being tested, that it is time to begin to unlock—one step, one act, once day at a time—the God-given reservoir of personal power inside you.”⁷  As mentioned previously, Ablow is nebulous when defining just who God is when he writes concerning those moments in life when courage is tested, that “They are the moments when you are being tapped on the shoulder by God or Fate or Love or whatever force in the universe that speaks to you and gives your existence meaning.”⁸

Are Beck and Ablow courageous?  Absolutely.  For who could possibly write about man’s being in full control of his destiny and then blasphemously equate God with fate and an agnostic “higher power,” and not have courage.  Unfortunately, though, such courage is misleading and deceptive, and hardly a wonder worth writing about.  For ultimately it leads to idolatrous behavior by leaving the human being under the assumption that if he will simply take matters into his own hands, then God will honor such action, even if it means that God has been subordinated to the will of man.  This is not to say that man is to sit by like a toadstool and irresponsibly do nothing with his life.  What it is to say is that God is ultimately in control, and that if man is to exercise courage, even during the worst of times, that courage must be in accord with the plan and purpose of God, as man subordinates his will to Him.  Anything short of that is idolatrous, much like Beck’s Mormonism and Ablow’s quasi-New Ageism are idolatrous.

The Wonder of Faith

The subject of faith proceeds under the pretext of Glenn Beck’s search for God—within.  Citing Exodus 3, Glenn attempts to equate his personal experience of finding God with that of Moses, when Yahweh Elohim confronted Moses in the burning bush experience out in the wilderness after Moses had been threatened with death while in Egypt.  Beck even goes so far as to provide a horrible rendering of God’s name found in Exodus 3:14, which is commonly rendered, “I AM WHO I AM,” indicating God’s infinite self-sufficiency as God.  Beck, without referential support, gives an alternate rendering that is consistent with his Mormon worldview, which sees God as someone who eternally progressed—or in this case is still, progressing—unto Godhood, as “He Who Is Ever Becoming What He Is.”  Beck sees Moses as connected to God through the experience, which Beck tenuously applies to his own personal experiences and that especially after he meets Tania, his next wife.  “The challenges you face in life are not accidents; they are hurdles you must clear on the path to your true self—to honor the part of you that is connected to God, that is destined for love and happiness and success,” writes Beck.  And when that faulty bit of exegetical analysis is unconvincing, Beck then resorts to twisting a passage from the New Testament, John 16:32, to fit his fancy, by equating his sinful, drug-laden past with that of what Jesus, who was about to experience at the cross the sins of world, as God the Father forsook him.  Clearly Beck’s scripture twisting is an indication that whatever “faith” he had was not from God.

Ablow does nothing to clarify the “Wonder” of the faith topic.  In fact, he offers the following convoluted description of faith that would make the most ardent New Ager proud.  He asserts,

“Faith is, ultimately, the belief that you are never truly empty and that your life is never—even amid adversity—without meaning, mission, and consequence.  It is the certain knowledge that there is order to the universe that embraces you, just as it does everyone and everything else.  There is a healing force that elevates and energizes those who keep their hearts open, even amid distress, staying committed to a journey to become what they were always meant to be.”⁹

So, in Ablow’s definition faith is belief (which is redundant and irrational), faith is knowledge, and faith is a “healing force.”  Later in the same chapter he will claim that “Divine power is still inside you” and that to “please, please have faith that the path has always been there,” which assumes, given his predilection that all humans possess a “spark of the divine,” or as Mormonism asserts, all people are “gods in embryo,” that one must merely have faith in oneself, which is once again, irrational.  But, to put it more bluntly, Ablow affirms that, “You have a polestar inside you.  It is connected with all the energy in the universe.  When you begin to follow that star you align yourself with immeasurable, inexplicable forces that will actually help you manifest your best intentions.”¹⁰  Strangely enough, instead of demonstrating from a biblical perspective that humans are divine and all they need to do is become “connected” with their “polestar,” he alludes to the Book of Mormon and Gnosticism as the authoritative sources for his assertions.  Wow, what a big surprise, given that Mormonism is infused with Gnostic ideology, and so is much of the New Age psychobabble that Ablow has bought into.  And it doesn’t take faith to see it; all it takes is to pay attention where he and Beck are coming from.

The Wonder of Truth

It almost seems anti-climactic to be talking about Truth as the third “wonder,” given that if what Beck and Ablow were really saying is true, this ought to be the first subject.  For without truth, nothing is meaningful, much less can one improve one’s life.  Nevertheless, they have chosen to leave truth out of the equation until over 100 pages have been expended talking nonsense.  To add insult to injury, when Beck and Ablow speak of truth, they don’t do it within the context of that which is either biblical or coheres with what is real, even though both continue to bring biblical themes into the discussion.  Instead, they relativize the truth by making it some kind of abstract concept which has its basis in the human being.  Truth is “my truth,” which is a common theme that runs throughout the book, it’s not something that begins and ends with a personal God, who can be known, and has objectively revealed the truth, both in His Word (John 17:17) and especially in His Son (John 14:6 cf. 1:14).

“I was on the run from my truth.  I was in denial of my truth,” writes Beck, as if truth was as an intrinsic part of his nature.¹¹  Such denial ultimately sets one apart from one’s “best self,” which Beck concludes is separating one from God.¹²  One’s “best self” is God?  In Beck’s mind it would be, particularly when one is of the worldview which sees all things eternal and pre-existent, as Mormons do, and as already noted, all sentient beings are already “God’s children” as little “gods in embryo,” on a journey back to their “Father.”  And one of the communicative mediums that God uses to help his children overcome their denial and get in touch with their truth is dreams.  “Dreams are important,” claims Beck.  “They’re messages from God.  When you ignore them or resist them or are kept from pursuing them, you are cut to the core of your being.  Inevitably you then inflict injuries on others, too.”¹³  The silver lining is to realize that “The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable,” which is reminiscent of the Mormon storyline leading back to the alleged pre-existence of all mankind, where God has sent all his children to earth to be tested, and if they pass the test, which includes the necessity of sinning against God and then overcoming through self-perfection, then one can return to the fold and go on to become “like God” as gods and goddesses themselves.¹⁴  Indeed, the truth will set a person free, but it will make a person miserable first.

Ablow does absolutely nothing to clarify or correct Becks’ maiming of the truth principle.  Instead, he continues the assault upon it by further propagating the relativistic worldview of Beck, and then throws in a few more of his New Age concepts and terms to remove any doubt that he does not advocate a biblical worldview either.  “The power of truth is inside you, waiting for you to discover it, even if you have been running from it for a lifetime” [emphasis his].¹⁵  Really?  That’s not what God says.  God says that prior to spiritual regeneration all people are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1) and suppressors of the truth (Rom. 1:18).  “Stop moving blindly ahead and start moving closer to your truth.”¹⁶  Why would the blind want to move toward his truth, when it is that kind of “truth” which is causing the blindness in the first place?  “Courage and faith pave the way to embrace the truth you have been wasting energy resisting.  And when you do embrace it, you will be cleansed and transformed by it.”¹⁷  We’ve already seen what Ablow meant by courage and faith, so if those perverse concepts are what is necessary to embrace “the truth,” meaning one’s personal idea of truth, then just what has a person gained by exercising them?  And as far as cleansing and transformation are concerned, the Bible makes it quite clear that cleansing and transformation are acts of God, exclusively; not some self-indulgent attempt on the part of the blind to cleanse and transform themselves.  “Pray to Whatever Higher Power You Believe In.”¹⁸  This crowning comment says it all when it comes to exposing Ablow’s relativistic understanding of the truth.  In his mind, the God of Scripture is not the exclusive source of revelatory truth, so just pray to whatever suits one’s fancy.  Such is a far cry from the words of Jesus who instructed that when one prayed one should begin with “Our Father who art in heaven.”  To Jesus the Father was not a “Whatever,” but a person.  A person that neither Ablow, nor Beck, know regenerately, which is why we see all these untruths being made in the name of “the truth.”

The Wonder of Compassion

In this chapter Beck’s prejudicial bias comes into full view in support of the influence Mormonism has had upon him, as well as what he would like to see upon the reader.  After spending a few pages discussing his overcoming personal hatred, he launches into a series of pro-Mormon comments that would warm the bosom of any temple recommend carrying missionary.

“Latter-day Saints do not believe that your chances ever cease, even with death.  They end only with full understanding and denial of truth by your own exercise of real free will.  And even then there is no ‘lake of fire.’  There is just the Hell that is realizing that you could have been with your loved ones and your Heavenly Father and His Son, but you’re not.  That is far worse than any ‘lake of fire.’”¹⁹

“My eldest daughter, Mary, who has always had a spiritual gift, said, ‘I just feel so warm inside’ [after visiting the Mormon Church].²⁰

“The next time there, I took Thomas Jefferson’s advice: I questioned everything I could think to question about the faith.  I went over my doubts again and again with the church bishop.  I read everything there was to read on their website and every word of Mormon Doctrine.  I treated Mormonism as if it were a hostile witness.  For a while I went to the anti-Mormon literature for hints, but I found most of it to be unfair or just plain wrong.  I tried every trick I could think of to find a contradiction.

“The problem was that I couldn’t.  Mormonism seemed to explain the world and my place in it better than any other faith I had looked at.  It answered many spiritual questions that had gone unanswered for me for my entire life.  It seemed to work for me as a unique individual, looking to keep the hard drive of my soul clean.  Free of anything that didn’t truly have pristine code and might corrupt the rest of the software.  For me.

“You’ll notice that I’ve written the words for me a few times.  That’s not because my thesaurus isn’t close by; it’s because each of us has to find the particular lens that focuses his or her spiritual vision, and for me that seemed to be Mormonism.”²¹

“God is your spiritual daddy.  He’s the source of the immeasurable, indomitable power that waits inside you—no matter how long you have wandered in search of it, no matter how lost you think you are.  That’s the truth.”²²

“That’s why we must never forsake one another.  We must have compassion for others and for ourselves.  Because I am quite literally your brother, and you are quite literally my brothers and sisters.”²³

“My life changed after I understood and accepted the atonement.”²⁴

Space precludes a rebuttal of each of these statements, but suffice it to say that in this chapter Beck uses the subject of compassion to promote his Mormon belief system, and then blatantly misrepresents the truth about being unable to find any contradictions in Mormonism, especially when so many Mormons have problems even with McConkie’s statements in Mormon Doctrine concerning racism (first edition), the Mormon Church being a sole salvific entity, or even God the Father’s sexual tryst with his daughter Mary to conceive Jesus.

Ablow echoes the Mormon mantra in several places as well, starting with the idea of “free agency.”  To him, “No one ends up destroying himself or anyone else out of the blue—out of real free choice, true agency.”²⁵  Most Mormon adherents could not have stated it as well, even though as already noted, the whole idea of absolute “agency” is born out of paganism, not from Christianity and the Bible.  “Charles Manson was not born evil.  Ted Bundy wasn’t.  The BTK killer wasn’t.  Hitler wasn’t” opines Albow.²⁶  This is consistent with a previous comment Beck had made, and then attributed to Ablow, when he argued that, “when you strip everything else away, there really is no one to hate.  As Keith likes to say, ‘There’s no original sin left in the world.  Everyone’s just recycling pain now,’”²⁷as well as, ““People are inherently good.”²⁸  Unfortunately, the Bible makes it quite clear that “The wicked are estranged from the womb; These who speak lies go astray from birth” (Ps. 58:3), and King David confessed that, “I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” (Ps. 51:5).  Also the Bible makes it crystal clear that, “There is none righteous, not even one” (Rom. 2:10) and that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

For whatever reason Beck and Ablow included compassion on their list of “wonders,” one thing that seems evident is their dislike for the biblical message of original sin, since that undermines their human potential message and leaves man at the mercy of God, rather than the other way around.  Free Agency is a sacred cow in Mormonism and no one dare interfere with it, lest one be accused of proclaiming a “soul-destroying doctrine” like salvation by grace²⁹or to be in league with Satan, as he wars with the Latter-day Saints to convince them of his force or freedom plans which excludes their works unto redemption and exaltation.³⁰  Therefore, compassion has nothing to do with increasing the human potential as it does with lashing out at the biblical message that mankind’s nature is totally fallen, and that aside from God’s direct intervention of redemption, then the only potential a human can look forward to is a trip into the Lake of Fire for rebelling against God, which began in the Garden of Eden when Adam believed the lie that if he would simply disobey God, he had the potential to be God.

The Wonder of Friendship

The Bible has much to say on the subject of friendship.  Generally the idea revolves around the peaceful co-existence of two persons who find each other trustworthy.  Proverbs 17:17 tells us, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”  Yet, friendship can be very subjective, and a person must be careful of not only who he trusts as a friend, but the number of those claiming to be a friend, mainly because of ulterior motives.  Proverbs 19:4 makes this clear by stating, “Wealth adds many friends, but a poor man is separated from his friend.”

The two chapters dealing with friendship by Beck and Ablow are very much like the preceding chapters dealing with faith, compassion, and truth in the sense that it is very self-centered, shallow, and non-Christian.  Aside from some rehashed memories of Beck’s early life, he really offers nothing of substance to make the reader believe that friendship is the “wonder” that he thinks that it is.  Instead we see comments like, “Looking back, I now realize that the periods during which I believed I was surrounded by the most friends were also periods when I was furthest from my truth,”³¹which merely reflects the narcissistic and relative view of truth that he has demonstrated thus far.

Ablow’s view of friendship is nothing new either, meaning that he describes it using the same kind of New Age drivel that he has used previously, and will continue to use later, on other subjects.  For example, “The force of friendship, then, is no less a miracle of nature than the wind or the force of gravity or fusion.  It is energy from God meant to help you live a powerful life.”³²  Friendship is a miracle, as well as “energy from God”?  Does that mean that when the President of Iran (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) and the President of Venezuela (Hugo Chavez) embraced in an act of unity and “friendship,” they were also demonstrating a miraculous energy from God as well?³³Or how about, “Finding true friends in life has much in common with finding your true path.”³⁴  Does that mean that one is finding God too, since Ablow and Beck see truth as within, where God is at, and hence to follow one’s “true path” one is not only discovering God, but “true friends” as well?  After all, “A person with no genuine friends cannot walk their path toward truth,”³⁵and ultimately since we are our own truth path, then we also must be our only “genuine friend” as well, unless others are willing to acknowledge that we are God, in which case they are genuine too.  What absolute, blithering nonsense.  With “friends” like Beck and Ablow, is it any “wonder” there is so much confusion in the world?

The Wonder of Family

Another idol of Mormonism is the exaltation of the human family.  Whole ceremonies have been borrowed and developed to try and prove that depending on whom one is married to, by whom performs the marriage ritual, and where the marriage takes place, the family can exist beyond death in a realm where continued propagation can carry on forever.  Mormon authors Eric Shuster and Charles Sale make this clear by writing, “The family is a sacred entity in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints…A family can be exalted in heaven and endure forever in the eternities.  The key purpose of the Church is to assist families in achieving this goal.  The Church’s organization, leadership, programs, and activities are all directed toward achieving this end.”³⁶  Given Glenn Beck’s allegiance to Mormon thought, and Keith Ablow not far behind, it comes as no surprise that they would make their sixth “wonder” revolve around the idea of family.

“We want you to become what you were meant to be from the beginning of time,” claims Beck.³⁷  This is an odd statement coming from Beck, given that his Mormon background does not allow for a beginning of anything, let alone time.  The reason being that Mormonism teaches that all things have eternally existed in one form or another.  There is no beginning to anything, therefore.  All things simply change form or have been reshaped by the hands of “Heavenly Father” as he took pre-existing matter and made it into the universe and its elements we currently witness.  Beck’s comment is also odd in the sense that for anything or anyone meant to be, something implies a transcendent decision-maker that is guiding all things according to its sovereign will.  Clearly such a notion contradicts what we’ve seen before, in that Mormonism espouses an unbridled “Free Agency” or will for all sentient beings.  It is a “birthright,” and no one can take that away from them.  So, just how an outside entity can impose meaning upon subsequent free will beings, whether in or out of a family setting, is a conundrum that Beck has created, and really has no answer.  Finally, Beck makes a particularly strange comment when discussing the purpose of his father and mother, and his assistance to help his father understand their “evolving relationship” he states, “I am my father’s son and my father’s father.”³⁸  What?  Glenn Beck is his father’s father?  It is difficult to understand just what he is talking about, but then again, given Beck’s creative and confused mind, one can only assume that this is “his truth” in his world, even though it makes absolutely no sense in the real world.

Ablow keeps up the family worship when his turn arrives.  According to him, “Of all the covenants in your life, those with your wife and your children are the most powerful.”³⁹  Really?  What about one’s covenant with God, Keith?  Oh, that’s right, you are God, Keith.  Nevermind.  Then he states, “Your family relationships are, in fact, bread crumbs leading you to your true path.  They are challenges that help make you the most complete, loving person you can be.”⁴⁰  Is that right?  What about God being the “true path,” and that by abiding by His precepts, one can become the “most complete, loving person you can be”?  Oh, that’s right, you are God, Keith.  Nevermind.  Finally, he argues, “To move decisively forward in the direction God intended us to, to be ready for the moment when we each have the chance to bring ourselves most completely to this life we are living, we must first be willing to understand the lives of our families.”⁴¹  Really?  Did not Jesus say, “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (Jn. 6:44), and that apart from God’s providential drawing, we are all like scattered sheep that are going our own way, which is as far away from God as we can possibly get (Is. 53:6 cf.  Rom. 3:11)?  Oh, that’s right, you are God, Keith.  Nevermind.

The Wonder of Common Sense

Psalms 111:10 states, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praises endures forever.”⁴²  Such instruction is found almost verbatim when Solomon wrote, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Prov. 9:10).  The reason wisdom is brought up here is that when one is speaking about common sense, then one is also speaking about wisdom, and what Beck and Ablow are talking about when it comes to common sense is not what the Bible is talking about.  For biblical wisdom is rooted in the fear, knowledge, and understanding of God, particularly through His revelation.  Proverbs 28:19 warns that, “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained…” or “out of control,” as what was witnessed in Exodus 32:25 when God’s people created the golden calf.  Overall, in order for one to exercise genuine common sense then one must begin to fear the Lord in light of God’s Word, lest one “perish.”⁴³  But, that is a far cry from what Beck and Ablow are prescribing.  Oh, it’s not that they have not included a lot of religiosity in their prescription that they think explains common sense; it’s just that their religious allusions only lead to nonsense, not wisdom.

After spending a few pages attempting to enlighten the reader on what to look for when it comes to common sense, Beck resorts to the “third ear,” or something that his friend Ablow says he learned to develop while becoming a psychiatrist.  The third ear, though, is nothing more than a “gut feeling” one has while listening to the confession or testimony of someone else in an effort to try and discern if that person is being absolutely forthright.  Beck asserts that the third ear is a “gift” from God, but fails to show just where in the biblical text such a gift is even mentioned.  It’s another one of his take the audience for granted moments.  “I literally try to focus on what I am feeling when I am introduced to someone new, or when I am called upon to make a critical decision or take a significant risk.  It might sound odd, but if I can get quiet and focused enough, I can almost always detect what my gut is telling me,” claims Beck.⁴⁴  This, once again, is consistent with his Mormon worldview, since in Mormonism everything is about feelings.  If one has ever spoken with a Mormon missionary, and he begins to talk about the Book of Mormon and the “burning in the bosom” he experienced while reading and praying over it, then one has a pretty good idea of what Glenn Beck is talking about here.  Wisdom, in other words, to Beck is all about these feelings he can tap into.  In fact, according to Beck, “I think you’ll notice something very interesting when you begin to respect your common sense and combine it with faith.  You won’t scare easily.  You won’t doubt your ability to achieve what you want to achieve in this life because you won’t doubt that God is not only by your side, but inside you.”⁴⁵  In other words, when one starts feeling all warm and sure of oneself, then not only is one experiencing wisdom, one is experiencing God—within!  Unfortunate for Beck, though, there is no biblical precedent for his elixir of Mormon and New Age doctrines, meaning that what he is propagating as common sense is really foolishness wrapped up in a warm blanket.

Ablow, as usual, follows up Beck’s ungodly teaching with more of the same by stating that to “Have the courage and faith to bring truth into consciousness allows you to access your God-given common sense.”⁴⁶  Given Ablow’s perverse explanation of just what courage, faith, and truth are, why should anyone assume that common sense is God-given, particularly to those who have rejected what God has prescribed as the means to acquiring common sense (i.e. wisdom), which is Godly fear through a clear vision of His Word?  Nevertheless, Ablow proceeds to give three practical steps to securing his version of common sense, all of which are similar to Beck’s subjective “gut feeling” approach.  “step one: Practice Listening to Your Gut as You Are Listening to People’s Words or Reading the Newspaper or Watching Television or Perusing the Web Throughout the Day.  In order to do this, you need to listen for inner voices inside you.”⁴⁷  “step two: Practice Honoring Some of the Inner Voices You Hear by Speaking Out Loud About Them to at Least One Other Person…don’t resist saying so and using the language of gut feelings.”⁴⁸  step three: Act On Your Gut Feelings a Few Times, Without Fearing That You’re Being Impulsive by Not Processing More ‘Data.’⁴⁹  Perhaps one of the most outlandish statements Ablow makes in respect to the subject is, “You were born with a barometer of truth inside you.”  Really?  God says that fallen man is naturally a suppressor of the truth (Rom. 1:18), as we’ve already seen above, by nature rejects the truth of God, because he considers it foolishness (1 Cor. 2:14), and is futile in his thinking, because his understanding has been darkened by sin’s effect (Eph. 4:17-19).  Therefore, despite all the intuitive credit Ablow wants to bestow upon the human being by making him out to be something greater than he actually is, the reality is he doesn’t possess a “barometer of truth” within, but is in abject rebellion against the truth, and until God reaches out to redeem and heal his rebellious soul, then he will continue on in his self-delusion, thinking that he is better off that he actually is as well.

CONCLUSION

The Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life is not a good book by any stretch of the imagination.  Neither are the Wonders really wondrous, given that they are completely devoid of substantive content, mainly because they are discussed in the context of a fallen human being and his self-effort to correct his ways by following the dictates of a false religion.  Couple that life with the New Age opining of a psychiatrist who equally has no idea what the truth is, and one has a conflicted concoction of faulty ideas and half-baked truths, that if swallowed, will only leave the person more messed up than if he would have simply left this book on the shelf to gather dust.

This book should serve as an illustration, though, of what is involved in the Mormon worldview, and the lengths of deception that those in Mormonism are willing to go to propagate it.  Of course there will be those who will object by saying that the book is only about Glenn Beck’s overcoming a decadent and hopeless life of despair, and that with faith, courage, common sense, and so forth, so can anyone else, if they’ll simply follow the same course.  It really has nothing to do with his Mormon-New Age beliefs, and to assert otherwise is to “bash” him and Mormonism, simply because whomever “hates” him and is a “bigot.”

Nothing could be further from the truth, though, as has been illustrated throughout this review by citing one quote after another from both writers.  Worldviews matter, given that they are the interpretive grids that all facts, fantasies, and falsehoods pass through in order for people to make sense out of the world and then to take further action.  And Glenn Beck’s and Keith Ablow’s worldviews have absolutely nothing to do with the Christian worldview, even though they want to dress up their thoughts and counsel in Christian garb by borrowing and redefining terminology.  Instead, their worldviews have everything to do with undermining the Christian worldview, which further means that they’re undermining the truth.  This book is devoid of the truth.

Therefore, if one is going to read this book, it needs to be read critically.  It needs to be read with a well-defined worldview that knows what the truth is, and is unafraid to condemn falsehood and error.  It needs to be read with a healthy understanding of biblical doctrine going in, lest one be led astray by the emotionalism and humanism that is so much a part of what both Beck and Ablow subscribe to.  Above all, it needs to be read knowing that lies and distortions of the truth are frequently packaged as the truth, and that at times it will take some effort to strip away layer upon layer of façade to finally arrive at the absolute lie beneath all the packaging.  If one will do these things, then one will one not only come away with a better perspective of just what Beck and Ablow are propagating, but will also begin to develop a Christian mind which examines everything carefully, and holds fast to that which is good (1 Thess. 5:21) rather than that which is seemingly “wondrous.”

References