And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. - Philippians 1:9-11 (ESV)
Today it is Larry Tomczak's turn to carry the Republican Party water for Steven Strang and Charisma News. That means yet another insulting article, demeaning anyone who would dare to vote differently than they command. We are all entitled to our political opinions and leanings but as faux Christian leaders, our responsibility to the gospel overrides that. As the recent devotional highlighting a confession from 300 Evangelical leaders pointed out - this should be about Christ alone and our unity is not political but based upon the finished work of the cross. Not so at Charisma and within the walls of the apostate church however. Today's charlatan, Mr. Tomczak, has decided to call anyone who disagrees with him a useful idiot. I guess that is better than Charisma's previous idiots, Jack Hibbs, Mario Murillo, Greg Locke, and Dr. Michael Brown, who all have said Christians cannot vote for any Democratic candidate. Murillo and Locke went as far as to say that if they did, they would be hell-bound and unredeemable. Beloved, I look forward to the days after the election when Charisma might return to simply platforming spiritual buffoonery and insanely false prophets claiming God told them who was going to win the Super Bowl (we all know God is a Cowboys fan) but until then they will continue to lead Christians down the broad path with pseudo-spiritual and political bullying and someone needs to say, no. So, let us reason once more together through pieces of this inane article linked above. What I am going to focus on however, is how Larry Tomczak absolutely butchers the bible to sell his carnality to you.
"Megan Basham, author of the controversial bestseller "Shepherds for Sale," says that at the end of his life, Frederick Engels (who co-authored "The Communist Manifesto" with Karl Marx) was asked this question: "Who did you most dislike in your promotion of socialism?" Engels answered: "Spurgeon." Engels believed he could use a counterfeit form of Christianity to advance his cause, but Spurgeon, the "prince of preachers," could never be manipulated.
In the Bible, Peter and John were disparaged by certain elite leaders who smeared them as "common" (Acts 4:13), from the Greek idiotes, translated "idiot." The reference is to someone who is stupid, foolish, easily manipulated. Ruthless Russian leaders Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin both used the phrase "useful idiot" to describe sympathizers who blindly supported their radical socialist ideology." - Larry Tomczak
The irony here is staggering. I could get into the carnal irony of using former Russian dictators when you support a candidate that supports modern day Russian dictators but let's try and stick to the scripture references. The argument Tomczak is making is that the use of the word "common" means that they were saying Peter and John were idiots, meaning they were stupid foolish and easily manipulated. The reason why Larry is making this point is to shoehorn his disparaging of Christians who do not vote as he does, as idiots. The problem is that this is not what this text means. The exact verse says that the leaders were astonished at Peter and John's boldness because they knew they were uneducated and comment men. Barnes Commentary sums this up well:
"This word properly denotes "those who live in private, in contradistinction from those who are engaged in public life or in office." As this class of persons is commonly also supposed to be less learned, talented, and refined than those in office, it comes to denote "those who are rude and illiterate." The idea intended to be conveyed here is, that these men had not had opportunities of education (compare Matthew 4:18-21), and had not been accustomed to public speaking, and hence, they were surprised at their boldness." - Barnes Notes on the Bible
So, the key here was that they were surprised at the boldness, which indicates the power of the Holy Spirit working within Peter and John. Not that they were being called idiots. They were astonished that people with no education and experience in public speaking, had such boldness. This highlights how Tomczak and Charisma have utter contempt for their readers. The bible is not a play toy we use to prop up our political arguments.
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