Scalia's death a 'wake up call' from God, Beck says

NEW YORK (Christian Examiner) – Conservative commentator Glenn Beck claims he doesn't know God's plans, but he believes God wants Ted Cruz to be president – enough so that he'd take the life of U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia to make it happen.

Beck was responding to a question on the Glenn Beck Radio from a guest host who was filling in for him while he was away in Boston. Host Pat Gray asked Beck over the phone why God would take Justice Scalia now?

"I think I have an answer for that," Beck said. "It was exactly the same thing I felt when Sandy hit."

Beck then explained how the hurricane allowed the world to see "them" walking on the beach "like two lovers," presumably a reference to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's embrace of President Barack Obama in the wake of the storm. In Beck's mind, the praise offered by Christie for Obama proved his true political leanings.

Now, even though he said he doesn't know God's plan, Beck speculated that God might also have a purpose in the death of Antonin Scalia.

"After I got past the 'thank you,' I thought (speaking for God), 'You're welcome. I just woke the American people up. I took them out of the game show moment and woke enough of them up to say, look at how close your liberty is to being lost," Beck said.

Beck continued:

"You now have lost your liberty. You replace one guy and you now have 5-4 decisions in the other direction. Just with this one guy, you've lost your liberty, so you'd better elect somebody that is going to be somebody on [the court] because for the next 30 years. If you don't, the Constitution as you know it, and Pat, I say this all the time. The Constitution is hanging by a thread. That thread has just been cut and the only way that we survive now is if we have a true constitutionalist."

Cruz, who recently topped New York billionaire Donald Trump for the first time in a national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, has been spoken of in almost messianic language by Beck in South Carolina.

Last week, Beck said America may avoid divine judgment if Cruz is elected.

"Please do not dismiss the peril we are in. Please, do not dismiss – fall to your knees and pray to God to reveal to you what the hour is," Beck told an audience at a Cruz rally in the Palmetto state. "Ask the dear Lord, our dear Lord, to show you who the man is who has the integrity, who has the connection, who will fall to his knees at the Resolute Desk, who before he acts doesn't look to a poll but to the Constitution and the holy Scripture."

Beck said conservatives should "stand with the man I believe was raised for this hour, Ted Cruz."

In January, Beck also said in an interview with Rafael Cruz that "divine providence" was in play when Ted Cruz was born. Rafael Cruz said he believed it to be so because he thought, on multiple occasions, he would be killed by the Castro regime while in Cuba.

Beck is not the first Cruz supporter to claim God's hand was behind the rise of Ted Cruz. Last August, when the 2016 candidates were attending pro-marriage and family events in Iowa, Cruz's Iowa campaign chairman said God is guiding Cruz toward the nation's highest office.

"God raises special men and women to protect his people, and I believe this is one of those moments in time. ... Ted Cruz is that man who God has prepared for this moment in time," Matt Schultz said.