"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. -- Matthew 5: 13 (ESV)
Sometimes the hubris on the Christo-political right is just too arrogant and unbiblical to ignore. The above link is to the latest hit piece on Charisma News, which is now nothing more than a propaganda arm of the White House pretending to be a Christian endeavor. The author, Larry Tomczak, is an idolater of America and a shill for the Republican Party. The problem is he pretends to do it all for a Christian cause in in doing so leads countless others to worship at the altar of Sodom, which is this country. Despite the delusional wishes of the Tomczaks of the world, this country is not Israel and we were not meant to be a theocracy. The Bible is undeniably clear that we are to be pilgrims and sojourners through America with our true citizenship being in heaven. We are to represent Christ to the fallen culture, not fix the fallen culture by forcing pagans to behave better. But Tomczak is an adherent of the New Apostolic Reformation, as is most of the Charisma crowd. As such, he falsely believes and teaches the fundamentals of the Seven Mountain Mandate. This errant belief is that Christians must conquer seven cultural mountains in order to facilitate the second coming of Jesus Christ and one of those mountains is government. So every four years, this crowd rallies around an imperfect man, from a party that could care less about the cause of Christ and pretend that he is God's chosen vessel for a time such as this. How far down the rabbit hole of delusion are they willing to go? In 2012 they accepted a Mormon, which is a satanic cult that believes Jesus and Satan were spirit brothers founded by an insurgent pedophile, as the choice God wanted. Fast forward four years and they now have backed a man who is clearly morally bankrupt. A man who bragged about moving on married women like a b*tch, grabbing women by their genitals, thrice married, thrice adulterous, and the record just goes on forever. This is allegedly now the choice of God. He has been called the new King Cyrus and a modern day Elijah by people who apparently never pick up their bibles. As we said all election season long, the lesser of two evils is still evil. God did not support this evil. He did not ensure this evil won. He allowed it to happen through His permissive will but that could just as easily be judgment. But to Larry Tomczak, Donald Trump is the messiah for this modern day Sodom that he adores so much. So he took pen to paper again this week to prop up his messiah in the withering face of righteous criticism. Because however he starts from a place of pre-determination, Tomczak uses the Bible to try and prove his point and in doing so misses the entire point as usual. We do not approach the Bible to force it to say what we want beloved but rather to hear from God. Tomczak focuses on the key verse and gives us five properties of salt and then misapplies them, trying to protect his new messiah. Let us reason together:
1) Preservative -- "Jesus Christ calls us to preserve morality and stop corruption in our culture. Pastors and God's people cannot be passive. Standing up to opposition, we have an assignment no matter how disrespectful those we face may be. Salt does irritate wounds. Think of hate spewing celebrities and protestors wounded by sin. At the same time, we need caution so our actions don't unnecessarily grate on people because we're obnoxious." -- Larry Tomczak
Of the five characteristics of salt, this is probably the best suited for what God was trying to say in the key verse. The problem is that Tomczak wrongly applies it. Because Tomczak admits to being a culture warrior and believes that Christians are supposed to take over the seven mountains, he misconstrues this verse to mean that we are to change the pagan culture we live in. There is no redeeming the culture of the world. The Bible does not promise a great end times revival; only and end times apostasy. The only thing we can do is present the Gospel so that some may come out of the culture before Christ's return. One of my simple tests of false doctrines is to apply it to other countries and see if it still stands up and this one would not. Is Mr. Tomczak actually suggesting that the underground church in China ought to be actively trying to change the totalitarian culture around it? I guess the Christian Iraqis facing beheading are just not salty enough. No beloved, just no.
What God is actually saying is that the way we affect an unsalted culture is by being salty ourselves. In our lives. In our actions. This is not a call to change the world but rather to change the church. When the world sees the church behaving as rank hypocrites then the church has lost its saltiness. It is of no use then for the world. For example, when the church says to love your fellow man but then supports actions that ban people from this country -- the world sees nothing but unsalted hypocrisy. Pastors and God's people should not be passive but again he misses the point. It is within our own lives we must not be passive. We must not give the devil a foothold. We must take a bold stance on sin within our own camp. We must not allow the absurdly false doctrines that now erode our church to continue. The primary spiritual guide for our new president has made five million dollars by stealing from the sheep of the Lord. That is something we should stand against and thus be salt again. But look at the staggering disconnect within this one stream of thought. Tomczak calls those he disagrees with "disrespectful." If you dare to protest you are "wounded by sin." If you are a celebrity using your public platform to speak out, you are "spewing hate." But then in the same breath he warns that Christians need to be careful to not be obnoxious? Yeah, too late Larry.
2) Source of Flavor -- "Just as salt adds flavor to food, we are called to do likewise in the midst of an insipid world. Don't let appearances fool you as many defiant demonstrators and detractors are broken and bitter and need to witness another way. We may be the only Bible that onlookers ever read." -- Larry Tomczak
Once again a ridiculous disconnect on display. So we might be the only Bible someone reads and in the same breath you attack those who you disagree with as being "defiant"; "broken and bitter?" So what do they see when they see you Larry? They see a rank hypocrite. They see someone who does not mind casting his purported Savior aside for his new messiah of Sodom. Someone who talks a good game about love but obvious hates anyone who disagrees with him. They see a political hack disguised as a Christian. They see you very well Larry.
3) Make One Thirsty -- "Jesus said, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink' (John 7:37). He went on to describe the spirit-filled life wherein obedient followers radiate His love to a darkened world." -- Larry Tomczak
Interesting but not entirely accurate. Here is the context of the verses he cites:
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. -- John 7: 37-39 (ESV)
Tomczak omitted the most crucial part of these verses which is that he who believes in Christ will have rivers of living water flowing from them. The point here is the Gospel, not to conform culture to your whims. It is interesting here that to Larry Tomczak this is a call to radiate the love of Christ to a darkened world. I wonder what he thinks of the following quote then from earlier in this very article he wrote:
"Nasty, vulgar women; subsidized anarchists; and lawless legislators are only the beginning." -- Larry Tomczak
Can't you just feel the love of Christ radiating from him? Unfortunately, he would continue:
4) Uplifts -- "Salt has a unique quality called buoyancy. When something has enough salt, it lifts objects and people up. Surrounded by people who are living with heavy burdens, what a golden opportunity we have each day to lift people up by expressing love rather than disdain." -- Larry Tomczak
Are you kidding me? Does Larry Tomczak even re-read what he writes for consistency sake? This is perhaps one of the most abrasive, ugliest and arrogant articles I have read recently and he thinks that as a salty Christian he must lift people up with love instead of disdain? Seriously? He has called people who disagree with him every name under the sun in this article. He has marginalized them, mocked them and derided them. There was no love in this article whatsoever. Just the blinding arrogance of a man who assumed his premise was right and then ripped a Bible verse horribly out of context to manipulate his carnal beliefs into having the appearance of piety.
