Satan Thinks Your Tone is Too Aggressive (Of Course He Does)

AD Robles

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March 23, 2022

00:00: Oh yeah, help me make a joyful sound. All right, all right, let's do this.
00:08: I had a video that was, I was planning on releasing it yesterday, and it was fine, here it is right here.
00:16: It's called The Argument About Tone Is From Satan. The Argument About Tone Is From Satan, and it's an okay video.
00:22: Like, the message is good, but I just, I didn't want to release it, and I was thinking it through because it just didn't have enough oomph behind it.
00:30: I was missing something. You know, when I release something, I want it to be good, right? So, you know, I was thinking through what was missing.
00:37: Was it a call to action? Was it some rhetoric? I don't know, but I saw this
00:43: Gab post from Canon Press, and I didn't even watch the video. I haven't even seen the video. I don't even know what it's about, really, but I instantly knew once I read the first sentence here what
00:53: I was missing. Here's what the sentence that I read says. It says, the
00:58: Overton window cannot be moved from inside the window. And man, that spoke to me.
01:05: Man, that's exactly what I was trying to say, but I did not get out, and so here's what my call to action in this video is.
01:13: I want to encourage every adult Christian male to engage the culture and speak about contentious issues in our culture in such a way that'll get church ladies of both genders within Big Eva to start criticizing and questioning your tone.
01:35: Yeah. Yeah, that's it. That's it. Because here's the reality. So here's what
01:42: I was thinking through. Satan is crafty, right? The devil is sneaky, he is shrewd, and he understands that for different groups, for different people, he needs to put out different bait, right?
01:55: He needs to bait the hook differently depending on what is his target fish. So like with progressives, right?
02:02: So with progressives, he can start to question even the sinfulness of obvious sins, right?
02:10: So maybe abortion isn't all that bad. Maybe it's actually a good thing to support abortion, or homosexuality, maybe it's actually necessary for human flourishing.
02:19: And for progressives, they can be convinced about that. That's a lie, obviously, but for the most part, conservative
02:27: Christians, Christians who, I hesitate to even use the word conservative, but Christians who care about their
02:33: Bible and care about God a lot, they're not gonna be fooled by that. And now, that's probably changing these days.
02:39: Sadly, that's something that's in play now with conservative Christian circles. But for the most part, he's still not using that lie for Bible -believing
02:49: Christians. So you gotta remember, his goal is he'll lie in any way to get you to promote sin or to at least tolerate sin and to get as many people to sin as possible.
03:00: And so, for conservatives, I think his lie is slightly different. He doesn't so much attack the, you know, yay, has
03:07: God really said, but what he does instead is he tries to set the parameters of discussion in such a way that'll keep promoting and keep advancing the cause of sin.
03:19: So I think the argument about tone is one way he's done this. I think Satan has tricked many, many
03:25: Christians about tone because when people talk about tone, oftentimes they're talking about, you know, how the person receives what you're saying.
03:35: And so, if Satan can convince a lot of Christians that, you know, if somebody receives what you're saying in a negative way, then it must be wrong.
03:43: It must be negative. It must not be gentle enough. I think that that promotes sin.
03:49: It gets people to shut up. It gets people to not talk because the truth is, if somebody doesn't like what you're saying or doesn't understand what you're saying, the chances of them taking it negatively are pretty high, even if it's very loving.
04:02: Let me give you an example because tone is totally contextual, right? Because, you know, here's an example. So let's take my seven -year -old son, for example.
04:10: Let's say he spills a glass of milk at the dinner table. You know, he's not being careless. He's not doing anything wrong.
04:15: He just spills the milk, right? And let's say my reaction to that is aggressive. Like, what are you doing?
04:22: Like, what are you spilling milk? And I just get real angry with him. I yell. I raise my voice. You know, everyone would recognize that that's totally inappropriate tone, given the situation.
04:31: I mean, there's even a saying of this. Don't cry over spilled milk, right? It's not a big deal, right? But take the same kid, the same age, everything, and the same tone.
04:41: So I use the same tone with him, except this time, instead of spilling a glass of milk, he's about to run into the road, chasing after a ball that went into the road, right?
04:48: And I say, stop right there! And I'm freaking out, right? Now, his reaction to both of those things is probably gonna be pretty similar.
04:57: He's gonna be like very upset. Like, dad, why are you yelling at me? He's not gonna understand. But the thing is, in one instance, it's totally appropriate.
05:03: He's about to run into the road. Who knows what's gonna happen to him? In the other instance, you know, he spilled a glass of milk.
05:09: So his reaction, the way he receives that might be exactly the same, but the reality is that they're totally different and the context is totally different.
05:17: So the tone, depending on the situation, is more or less appropriate. And so I think
05:23: Satan's trick when it comes to tone is getting us to accept the idea that the one who judges the tone, who gets to determine whether or not it's an appropriate tone, is the one receiving the criticism or receiving the tone.
05:36: And that's totally ridiculous. I mean, think about your own life, for example. Like, I have a tendency, when I like the person being criticized,
05:43: I tend to think that there's a tone problem with your critiques of them. And when I don't like the person being criticized,
05:49: I tend to think that the same tone is totally appropriate. I've noticed this in my life. I am not, when
05:55: I have a dog in the fight, so to say, I'm really not in a position to judge tone, right?
06:02: I really am not. And so here's an example of like an extreme case. This guy, Tyler Lee Conway, man, his
06:10: Twitter threads are just, they're just gold. It's comedy.
06:16: It's absolute comedy. His takes are horrendous. So here's him criticizing Daryl Harrison. I think
06:21: Daryl Harrison, I didn't read the whole thread here, but it seems to be criticizing transsexuals and really just cross -dressers.
06:29: You know what I mean? And he's saying, well, this is clown world, right? You think if you put on girl clothes, you're a girl.
06:34: That's ridiculous, right? And here's Tyler Lee Conway's take on that. He says, if statistics show that saying something hurtful to a group of people often creates a stimulus for their suicidal ideation, you continue to repeat the same hurtful statements knowing these statistics, it's safe to say you don't care about their lives.
06:53: And so Tyler here is saying, look, if they get hurt feelings about what you say about their lifestyle, and let's say that the statistics say that sometimes they commit suicide over this, then you don't care about them if you continue to say the same things.
07:08: And that's preposterous, obviously, because people feel suicidal for all kinds of reasons.
07:14: Some of them appropriate, some of them inappropriate. And that's an issue that they have.
07:20: They've got to sort that out. And the reality is that when you engage in hurtful lifestyles regularly, and you're just kind of given over to it, it's really not a surprise, at least in the
07:31: Christian worldview, that sometimes you try to hurt yourself, right? And that's a very sad thing. And that's one reason why every
07:37: Christian should be against these kinds of lifestyles. But Tyler here is saying, well, look, he's receiving that as a negative thing.
07:44: Therefore, it's definitely negative, and you don't care about them. That's preposterous, that's ridiculous. This is an extreme example of what
07:51: I'm talking about. Because the idea that Satan is trying to spread through this kind of talk is keep your mouth shut, because obviously, if you don't, you don't care about those lives.
08:03: And it's like, well, see, I think that's a lie from Satan, because I think Satan is trying to, again, he's baiting the hook with whatever he has to in order to continue promoting sin and trying to get
08:15: Christians who should know better to tolerate sin and to accept it and to soft -pedal it and things like that.
08:22: Here's another example of this as well. This is Dan Darling here, and Tom Buck is quoting
08:29: Vody Bokum. Tom Buck says this from Vody. Here's what I found out about those who complain about tone.
08:36: The tone they don't like is masculine. They don't like strong, direct, and clear communication. This is from Vody Bokum.
08:43: And I think he's exactly on the money. We've seen this in so many different ways, right? Because people that are on our side of the social justice issues or the tyranny issues and things like that, we have all kinds of different tones.
08:58: Like, obviously, I'm a little bit more crazy. I can understand why someone might not wanna watch the 80 Robles YouTube channel.
09:05: We've got John Harris, who's a lot more measured in tone, very different tone than me, but similar opinions.
09:11: And they hate us both equally. I mean, it's just that simple. And they criticize John for his tone regularly, even though John's tone is so measured, so restrained,
09:22: I would say. And those aren't insults, by the way. I appreciate that about John. But they criticize our tone either way.
09:29: So it's really not about tone. It's about the message itself, the content. And so, see, again, this is a lie from Satan.
09:36: So Satan is lying. It's about tone, but really, it's about the content, because here's the reality.
09:42: And I think this is what Vodie Bauckham is getting at. If you were to say, like, let's say, take two examples, right?
09:49: And Tim Keller's asked if homosexuality is a sin. And he starts hemming, and he's been asked this before.
09:56: He starts hemming and hawing, and he'll say something like this. Well, you know, the Bible, you know, the
10:02: Bible seems to indicate that it's not, it doesn't prefer homosexuality, but it says a lot, it's not right, but it says a lot more about greed, a lot more about greed.
10:13: And so, like, and even atheists, when they hear this, are like, Tim, you didn't answer the question. Like, you're hemming and hawing. Basically, there's a certain group of people that apologize for what the
10:21: Bible says. Now, compare that to probably how Vodie would answer, or to how I would answer, or something like this.
10:27: And I were to say something like this. Again, let's just keep it a measured tone, right? And I would say, absolutely, homosexuality is an abomination before God.
10:36: You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. God destroys nations for the sin of homosexuality.
10:43: He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for it, and he will continue to do that until we repent of our sins.
10:48: It's absolutely a sin. Even though I said that in a measured way, the fact that I even used the word sodomy, the fact that I used abomination, these are biblical concepts, right?
11:00: The idea of it being an abomination before God, that's a straight up biblical quote. But people would hear that because it's direct, because it's clear, because it's concise and strong.
11:11: They would hear that as a negative tone. See, because I didn't apologize for it. I didn't say, well, you know, it's not
11:16: God's best for you. And by the way, the Bible doesn't really say much about it, but it says a lot more about lack of hospitality, which is a horrible, horrendous sin.
11:24: And it's like, yeah, like, this is the issue. Vodie Bockham is exactly right.
11:29: Now, Dan Darling, this is so interesting. His response to this, because Tom Buck is saying they don't like strong, direct, clear communication.
11:38: His response to this is Philippians 4. Let your gentleness be evident to all.
11:44: The Lord is near. This is a great verse. But the truth is that in Dan Darling's mind, he's contrasting gentleness with strength, directness, and clarity in communication.
11:56: That is so weird. See, gentleness is not primarily talking about tone in this way.
12:03: Paul speaks of gentleness, and he wasn't a hypocrite, and he says strong things, things that Dan Darling would not approve of if someone said it today.
12:13: Christ, these are the words of Christ, right, from Philippians. He spoke through Paul in the book of Philippians.
12:20: Christ is a gentle man. He's perfectly gentle. And yet, depending on the circumstances, he said some very harsh and strong things that, again,
12:29: Dan Darling would likely not approve of if someone said it today. And with Christ, he gave us a great example because he did this with perfection.
12:38: He knew the right context to deploy the right kind of language. Some contexts, he was very patient and softly spoken, and in other contexts, he blasted you, and he antagonized you intentionally in certain contexts, and yet, he was perfectly gentle.
12:54: So it's so, this is the play that Satan is running on the conservative church, this false law, and it is false, about tone, about tone.
13:07: Here's probably one of the worst tweets I've seen in a long time. This is
13:12: Sam Albury, and from what I understand, Sam Albury is in some capacity part of the gay
13:17: Christian movement, although on the better end of the spectrum, if that makes sense.
13:24: In any case, here's what Sam Albury says. Tone doesn't matter if your content is wrong, and your content doesn't matter if your tone is wrong.
13:36: This is one of the most ridiculous statements I've ever heard, maybe ever, because when he talks about content, what he's talking about is the truth, right?
13:46: So what he's saying is, if your truth is wrong, it doesn't matter if you say it in a nice way, a bad way, a mean way, an aggressive way, a passionate way, a compassionate way, whatever it is, then it doesn't matter because your truth is wrong.
13:58: And then he tries to flip it and says, look, the truth doesn't matter if your tone is wrong.
14:07: If you guys can't see how satanic this is, this is a lie, and it's a satanic lie.
14:13: Now, do I mean that Sam Albury is worshiping Satan and he's intentionally doing this? I have no idea.
14:18: I don't know Sam Albury all that well. I don't know, but what I do know is that he's telling you an untruth here, and this is the exact lie that Satan is pushing in the church right now.
14:28: The truth matters regardless of the subjective tone that you take.
14:34: So even in the situation where I'm yelling at my son, or maybe
14:40: I'm just calmly talking to my son. So let me give you an example. Like when he spills the milk, right?
14:46: He didn't do anything wrong. If he wasn't being careless or whatever, he just spilled the milk.
14:53: Sometimes that happens, right? Would it matter if I screamed at him that he was doing something wrong when he wasn't?
14:59: Or if I said, you know, now, AJ, this is a real problem. You know, you absolutely shouldn't be spilling your milk.
15:05: Like if I said it in a nice way, would that matter if what I was telling him wasn't true? Of course, of course it wouldn't matter because no matter if I say it nicely, look, this is the mean girl mentality.
15:15: Mean girls can, in a very nice way, say something horrible and horrendous, and it doesn't matter what their tone is because the truth of the matter is false, right?
15:25: And so Sam Albury here is saying, look, if your tone is wrong, then the truth makes no difference.
15:33: That's not true. It's just not true. And again, we have to understand that, you know, for us, tone is subjective.
15:40: Look, God will judge your tone, right? And God will judge it perfectly. He knows your motivations.
15:45: He knows why you said it a certain way. He knows how appropriate it was given the situation, but people rarely do.
15:52: Again, it's so subjective. I could hear the same exact tone and it'd be against John Harris or against Kyle Howard, and I would hear the tone differently.
16:01: This is, I mean, think about your, reflect on your own situations. And you know this is true. You judge tone unfairly, which is why
16:08: I don't try to, I try not to judge tone ever. Like online, I just, I rarely, have I ever talked about someone else's tone?
16:15: Why are you taking that tone with me? I've never done it. Now, in my personal life, I have done this. In my personal life, it's very difficult not to do this, where it's like, somebody's criticizing you and you don't like their tone, right?
16:26: But we gotta put this aside because your tone does matter before God.
16:32: But in your personal interactions, like let's leave this aside because here's the reality.
16:39: Anything outside of the Overton window is going to have a tone problem because the
16:45: Overton window shows you what is allowable to say and what's not. What is polite to talk about and what is not?
16:53: And this window is so far left that almost every biblical truth is no longer polite to say in a direct and straightforward way.
17:01: If you're going to put forward biblical truth today, and if it's gonna be in the Overton window, you basically always have to apologize for it.
17:09: God, different people think different things about father -led homes.
17:17: And I tend to fall on the idea that the father's the head of the household, but there's different opinions and it's really not a primary issue.
17:27: And as long as you're apologizing for God's truth, for right now, that's still in the Overton window.
17:33: I don't know how much longer that's gonna be the case. I mean, I don't even think that in the next few years, even if you're apologizing for God's word, it'll be allowable to say on Twitter, right?
17:42: But the point is, we're never gonna shift the Overton window back to the conversations we need to be having so long as our prime directive is to make sure our tone is good.
17:55: And the reality is when Sam Albury says this and people love it and they think that it makes total sense, and this is a lie.
18:02: This is a satanic lie, in my opinion. The truth doesn't matter if your tone is wrong. What are you talking about, right?
18:10: So here's the thing. As long as this is happening in the church, the
18:16: Overton window is gonna continue to go left and left and left and left. The reality is as Christian men, we need to go into every conversation knowing that if we're going to not apologize for God's truth, if we're going to boldly proclaim
18:33: God's truth in a way that doesn't soften it, that uses biblical language and all of that, people are gonna tell you you have a tone problem.
18:42: And we have to be okay with that. In fact, I'm of the opinion that we're so feminized by our culture right now that you need to go into those conversations intentionally to have a tone problem sometimes.
18:54: Because the ditch on that side, like this is the thing. You could be overly aggressive to the point where you're being obnoxious and rude intentionally inappropriately, right?
19:05: Because by the way, being rude intentionally is not necessarily a bad thing. It depends on how appropriate it is, given the circumstance.
19:11: Because listen, Jesus antagonized the Pharisees on purpose. He scandalized them on purpose.
19:18: And he knew it going in and he did it anyway. So bottom line is the ditch over here where you're being inappropriately offensive is so far away from us.
19:29: We're all on this side where we're like trying to mind our language so that we can fit into that Overton window and so that we don't get canceled.
19:36: Like, yes, there's a ditch on either side, but right now we're over here. So leaning this way is not going to likely, we're not likely to fall into that ditch because we're so, we're creatures of our time, man.
19:51: We're so feminized by things that honestly, very few people have to worry about falling into that ditch in my opinion, especially people that are worried about biblical truth, that want to live their lives in a godly way.
20:08: Listen, if you have hatred in your heart, that's something that you need to deal with with God, right?
20:13: But just because people who are engaged in sinful lifestyles or who are trying to promote it or at least tolerate it in the church tell you you have a hateful heart does not mean that you have a hateful heart.
20:26: Look, people online or people in the public square, they're really not in a good position to know if you've got a tone problem.
20:33: You know who is in a good position to know that if, you know, let's just take me for example. You know who's in a good position to know if I have a tone problem?
20:40: My pastor, my pastor who knows me. He's seen me in different circumstances. He's seen me be challenged before by someone.
20:47: He sees how I respond with my family, my kids, my wife. My wife's in a really good position to tell me if I have a tone problem because she sees me every day.
20:54: She knows what I am about, she knows. But people online and people in the public square, they see you when you're engaging in the public square or when you're engaging online or whatever and that's all they see.
21:04: They're really not in the best position to judge your tone because typically it's an emotional situation plus they're only seeing a little sliver.
21:12: I always made me laugh. It's like, 80, you just seem so angry. I'm like, like you see a 20 minute video a day and pretty much
21:22: I'm rarely angry on those videos but yet I'm too angry. You're really not in the best position to tell me that in any case.
21:31: But yeah, so this is the thing, guys. Christian men, we have to not only ignore so much of this tone debate but we need to lean into it because the reality is that if we're going to affect change within the church and in the culture at large, you're going to be told you have a tone problem and if you don't, if you're not told that you have a tone problem, you're probably not doing anything of any value.
21:54: How do you like that? Anyway, I hope you found this video helpful. God bless.