Responding to the ridiculous notion that Christians who did not vote a certain way need to repent...

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Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. - Romans 13: 1-2 (ESV)

http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/heres-the-deal/49263-should-people-who-voted-for-president-obama-repent

It continues to sadden me to watch people with a public platform use their bully pulpit to bully other Christians with their warped and distorted political beliefs, wrapped up in false piety and Bible snippets ripped painfully out of context. Such is the case for the above linked article from Larry Tomczak on Charisma News. The end conclusion one should reach from this political hit piece disguised as a Christian article is that Mr. Tomczak needs to spend more time reading his bible and less time watching Fox News. I say that because not only is it biblically illiterate but it is politically devoid of the truth as well.

The premise Tomczak bases this article on is that Christians who did not vote as he did, that is Republican, have not done their due diligence regarding their vote in the previous presidential election and as a result need to actually repent to God. I kid you not. How pathetically absurd is this. First of all, our key verses teach us that it is GOD who decides who is president. That's right Mr. Tomczak. You voted for the other guy but God got the person He wanted for His purposes. Even though you voted for the guy God did not want, I would not be so silly as to claim you need to repent for your vote. Now, this does not make Mr. Obama righteous at all but it removes this nonsensical notion that Christians should have to repent for voting for the man who God ensured would win.

The larger point which Tomczak misses and actually mocks at one point is that neither candidate was righteous. Neither candidate ever is righteous. Perhaps he needs to read Romans 3 to remind himself how God views us without the blood of Christ. The false narrative people like Tomczak set up with this line of reasoning is that there was only one choice in this past election. There was the righteous choice. There was God's choice. And then there was the evil that is Obama. What's the problem with that reasoning? The other guy was a member of a satanic cult! Yes, Larry tries his best to mock the Mormon angle but quite frankly, the fact the Mitt Romney was a Mormon should have disqualified him from any Christian vote. Mormons do not share our beliefs about the deity of Christ. They believe Satan is the brother of Jesus. They believe they all came from another planet. And Romney was not just your average Mormon. He was a direct descendent of one of the 12 founding apostles! He tithes 25% of his enormous wealth to his church. Do not tell me his beliefs would not have influenced how he filled positions and decided policies. By the way, that does not mean Obama was the right choice either. Nope. Neither was God's true choice. Neither cared a lick about the true cause of Jesus Christ. The truth is that we live a fallen society. We live in Sodom. As such, we should not be looking to any man to resolve our problems. Every election ultimately comes down to a choice of the lesser of two evils. The problem is that Larry Tomczak has lost sight of the fact that he is now defending evil.

Then the Bible twisting started. Tomczak compares the first King of Israel, Saul, to Obama. He even has three handy comparison points. The problem of course is he overlooks the fact that Saul was a believer essentially. He was part of the theocracy of Israel. This is an inane comparison; especially from someone who intimates that he believes Obama might actually be Muslim. To prop up his point here, Tomczak actually has the temerity to quote Dick Cheney. The guy that lied us into the Iraq War at a great cost in the blood of American kids but great profit to his Halliburton stock options. This is the guy you use in an alleged Christian article to defend your point? There are still a handful of countries Dick Cheney can no longer travel to without being arrested for international war crimes. Not content to butcher one Biblical story, Tomczak moves on to Hosea:

I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me. - Hosea 5: 15

Apparently, Mr. Tomczak is unaware that Hosea is a picture of the adulterous nation of Israel and the God who keeps redeeming her. He conflates this however with the current state of America. Citing Hosea 5:15 as a referent for America shows a complete illiteracy when it comes to the Bible and a limited or distorted view of American history. America is not Israel. It is not under covenant with God. It never was under covenant with God. This was also never a "Christian" nation; the way Tomczak misrepresents. Were more people of some Christian persuasion in 1776 than today? Of course, but that was true throughout the world! Those who came to America did so to escape religious persecution. They did not want to set up another nation that persecuted because of religion. Many of the founding fathers were deists, who believe in the notion of a higher power but rejected the Christ of the Bible. Some were outright atheists. Thomas Jefferson rewrote the Bible to remove all references to the deity of Jesus Christ. Were we a Christian nation when we slaughtered the Indians? When we practiced slavery? When we exterminated each other in the Civil War? When we had kids working 20 hour days in sweat shops? When we became imperialistic and routinely conquered other countries and annexed them for ourselves while stealing their natural resources? Listen beloved and hear me well. America is still the greatest human experiment in history. It is still the best secular government man has ever offered up. But those are secular arguments. Those are carnal arguments. They are not Christian arguments and they loan us not one shred of righteousness. This is how far Mr. Tomczak is willing to go to prop up his politics:

"In the book of Hosea 4:1, God states that he has a controversy with those claiming to be His followers yet compromising, resulting in the nation's moral decline. He goes on to state, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, I will reject you from being my priest. And because you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children" (Hos. 4:6)."

Are you serious? How many biblical blunders are in this one little paragraph? This is what happens when you try to leverage the Bible to speak for your own political biases. First of all these were not people "claiming to be His followers." That is absurd. These were the people who comprised the nation of Israel. But Tomczak is trying desperately to make American Christians their equivalent. So desperate that apparently now he thinks we ought to be trying to keep the Mosaic Law, since that is what these verses from Hosea reference. Again he tries desperately to mirror the two scenarios but does so deceptively. America does indeed suffer from a moral decline. Israel however was committing idolatry and harlotry with other nations and their fake gods. There is zero comparison. The people of Israel were bound by the law. The people in the church have been set free from it and the people in America think this whole discussion is utter foolishness. Now however, Tomczak goes back to distorting the politics of the situation by asking if we had been thinking any of the following when we cast a vote for Obama:

"I love the hope and change emphasis"

"So many celebrities back this guy"

"Hey, this is our shot at making amends for slavery"

"This guy's so cool; I see his bumper stickers at church"

"Don't believe all that garbage about his Muslim background & socialistic beliefs"

"I don't vote cause God is sovereign"

Wow. The arrogance is staggering. These are the reasons Sean Hannity told Larry Tomczak, why Christians voted for Obama. How belittling. As if people could not evaluate both candidates and come up with Obama as the better choice. As if hope and change are bad reasons to vote for someone. As if only the democrats have celebrities backing their candidate. As if it is OK to mock the history of slavery in this country as Tomczak just did. As if the depth of someone's "coolness" is how someone must have voted. While we are at it Mr. Tomczak, you should be ashamed for even trying to float the debunked notions of Muslim and Socialist. Lastly here, why are you mocking the sovereignty of God? We do not have any Christian imperative to vote. NONE. It is a civic and secular responsibility. Mr. Tomczak then goes on an extended political rant, with several opinions disguised as facts. At the end of the recitation of his Fox News talking points, he states the following:

"Since Jesus taught us to be "fruit inspectors" (Matt 7: 13-21), the time has come to examine the fruit as I pray for this president daily."

We see this tact all the time from critical Christians. After attacking someone they claim to love them. After disparaging them and calling them evil they claim to be praying for them. As if that excuses the behavior, the smears, and the lies. What is more disturbing however is for a man claiming to be Christian who clearly does not mind taking what God said for one reason and lying about it for another reason.

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. - Matt 7: 15-19 (ESV)

I assume Mr. Tomczak meant Matthew 7: 15-20, not 13-21 but I will give him a pass on that. The larger problem is that when you read these verses above are they imploring Christians everywhere to be "fruit inspectors" when it comes to our politicians in this fallen world? Absolutely not. What is this entire section about? False teachers! You know, like people who claim the mantle of Christianity and then misuse the Bible for their own personal motives. We are meant to examine their fruit because it will reveal they are not representing God at all. Their true motives will be found in their rotten fruit as we can see in Mr. Tomczak's conclusion. He launches into a litany of attacks on the president, the majority of which are either opinion disguised as fact, completely debunked by this point, or completely irrelevant to the Christian cause. Now maybe you ascribe to every one of his nuanced, partisan positions. Maybe you think Benghazi is still a viable concern even though the Republican led committee found no truth to any of the accusations leveled against the president and his administration. Maybe you think taking healthcare away from poor people is somehow the true will of God. Remember now, everyone Jesus healed had a pre-existing condition! Maybe you believe the crusades were really just a bunch of guys planting churches. Maybe you hate Al Sharpton and love Benjamin Netanyahu. The point is beloved these would all be your political opinions, even if some were not fact based. They have nothing to do with Christianity. They have nothing to do with the cause of Christ. Just like this article had nothing to do with the cause of Christ. It was a political hit piece wrapped up in bible fragments from someone who apparently has sold his faith for his politics. Tomczak says that we need to repent of any idolatry and I agree because his political party has overshadowed his Christianity. It has become an idol to him and that is plainly evident for all to see. Tomczak finishes by misunderstanding one more verse:

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people mourn. -- Proverbs 29:2

Once again trying to use the bible to prop up your pre-determined causes will be evident when we evaluate your fruit as a false teacher. This verse is presented as if there were two choices. There is no question who Mr. Tomczak feels was the wicked choice. That is why he thinks those who voted for Mr. Obama need to repent. While that is problematic enough, the notion that we would have to repent for the sins of others, the other side is where Tomczak gets into real trouble. The inference is clear. In Larry Tomczak's mind the Mormon was the righteous choice! You know; the guy who follows a religion concocted in the mind of a pedophile that had 33 wives, the youngest being 14 years old! The guy who follows the religion founded by the guy who claims an angel visited him the woods behind his house in upstate New York and gave him golden plates with new scriptures on it. A religion that places the Bible behind the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price. A religion that rewrote entire books in the Bible even though the Bible says they are to be cursed for doing so! This is the righteous choice according to Larry Tomczak. How sad. How very sad.

The truth is this. We live in Sodom. Not Shangri-La. We live in Gomorrah, not Eden. The problem is that the Larry Tomczak's of the world secretly like Sodom. They like living in Sodom. They like the excess and the sin. They like being able to play pious in an amoral society. Whatever the benefit is, they simply cannot let go. Like Lot's wife, they turn back to lovingly gaze upon Sodom and wistfully create fantasies in their hearts. That Sodom wasn't always so bad. That it once had a lot of Christians in it. Heck, it was even righteous once! If only we could go back then to this fairy tale we have created then maybe God will let us keep our sin when He judges the rest of the world. Yeah, revival. That would be great. So instead of preaching the Gospel and trying to save as many as possible out of Sodom, the Tomczak's of the world try to save Sodom instead. They need a premise though that there are evil causes and good causes and if we can just get the right evil person in office then everything would work out fine. The problem is that along the way, you have to call out who you think is evil while keeping a straight face about your side being righteous. Maybe you will even have to lie about the one you have dubbed evil. Maybe you will even have to blame anyone who likes them, supported them, or even voted for them. Then you will have to ask them something so absurd as to repent for it. Never mind that God is sovereign, we can always mock that. Never mind that the Bible doesn't really support it, we can always mangle the verses we need. I mean, who reads this thing anymore anyway right? Never mind that God actually decides who is in office as our key verse teaches us today. Repent? Yes Larry, you should.

Reverend Anthony Wade - April 20, 2015

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.