A Biblical Theology of Internet Trolling - AD on FLF Network

Hello there, this is A .D. Robles, and you're listening to A .D. on the Fight, Laugh, Feast Network.

Alright, well, a couple of things today that I was thinking about the other day. But before we get into it, let me just say this.

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I have a couple thoughts that I wanted to bring to the table today. The first one, I was talking to my wife about it last night.

Right before bed, we were talking about all of the insanity in the world and all of this stuff. And it's definitely insane out there, no question about it.

And I was telling her about the video that John Harris put out yesterday about the

Phil Vischer Race in America video. If you remember that video, Phil Vischer makes a case essentially that, you know, there's these inequalities, there's these disparities.

And really the only thing that explains these disparities is the fact that whites hate blacks and want to hold them down.

And John Harris utterly decimates that narrative. Nobody denies that there are some whites that hate blacks.

Nobody denies that there have been racist laws in the past. Nobody denies that stuff. But to pretend like it's a very simple equation, it's just that whites hate blacks.

There is just so much evidence to the contrary that that's why black households have less net worth or whatever than white households.

There's so much evidence to the contrary that it's just you have to be a real – you have to be extremely naive to believe the narrative that Phil Vischer put in that video.

I would suggest you watch it. But at one point, the John Harris video, he starts talking about prison reform, which

John Harris believes in. He believes in prison reform, and I do as well. I'm not one of these guys that thinks that we should, you know, do prison reform because of disparities.

No, I don't think that that's really a consideration for a Christian at all. In fact, I think the only consideration should be what does

God say we should do? And in the video, John Harris said maybe instead of these prison terms, these arbitrary prison terms for thieves or whatever, instead of that, we should take a look at the scripture because the scripture puts forward this restitution -based system where if you steal, you give back with interest essentially.

And this is undeniable. This is indisputable. The Bible says that it should be restitution.

It shouldn't be locking up people in cages, robbing them of their personhood, things like that.

Instead, it should be a dignified kind of a punishment, a dignified restitution where you pay back your debt.

You pay back what you stole. That affirms you as a human being. And not only that, but it also brings harmony back into the situation.

You stole, well, you're going to pay back. And maybe along the way, you'll learn some life skills. And maybe along the way, you'll learn maybe crime doesn't pay, that kind of thing.

But, you see, the thing about that is it's thoroughly biblical. You know, if you read the scripture, you will not find prisons in God's law.

But what you will find is restitution. There's no denying this. You cannot deny this. Okay?

It's thoroughly biblical. But the optics are horrible. The optics are horrible because this is what someone would say if you suggested that in a forum.

They would say, what? You want to bring back slavery? And that's the thing. Because if you start stealing stuff, you're going to have to pay it back.

And if you don't have the money to pay it back, well, you're going to have to work for the person you stole from.

And I could see it working in a variety of different ways. Like they garnish your wages. They take your paycheck until you pay back what you owe.

And that's, you know, that's uncomfortably similar to slavery. And yet it's thoroughly biblical and way better than the prison system.

So the optics are horrible even though it is moral, it is good, it is righteous, it is holy to have a restitution -based system instead of the prison system like we have it right now.

And so here's what you need to do. I was telling my wife this. You have to decide at the outset, am

I going to be concerned with optics or am I going to be concerned with pleasing God? It really is a question of who is your master?

Who is your master? Am I going to serve the mob that decides what things look like or am

I going to serve the God who actually determines what's good versus what's bad? Because here's the thing.

If you start advocating restitution -based punishments for crimes like John Harris did in this video, they're going to call you a neo -confederate.

They're going to call you a racist. They're going to call you a totalitarian. They're going to call you evil and all these things, right?

They're going to say, oh, you want to go back to the Stone Age and stuff like that. And they're going to say, well, you just love slavery.

You want to enslave blacks. And it's like, look, the optics of it are bad, but you need to decide who you serve today.

Do you serve the mob or do you not serve the mob? Do you serve the public opinion on something or do you serve the

God whose standards never change? You need to decide right now because there are probably a thousand things in our culture right now that God commands you to believe and to teach that the optics of it are horrible.

And so you've got a decision to make, Christian. Who do you serve? Who do you serve?

And I would suggest that trying to serve the mob, not only is it impossible because their standards change one day to the next.

Like my wife was saying, what happens if a white woman accuses a black man of sexual assault?

Because we're supposed to believe all women, but at the same time, we're supposed to be on the black side because they're going to, like, what do you do?

And my answer to her was, well, it depends on the day because the mob is fickle. The mob doesn't understand anything.

There's no principles. So maybe today we're believing all women. Maybe tomorrow it's Black Lives Matter. Who knows?

That's the thing. Like, that's why you don't care about the optics. You have to insist on what God says.

So you need to decide right now who do you serve, the optics or the

God of Scripture? Now, let's jump into what I wanted to talk about today, a biblical theology of trolling.

A biblical theology of trolling. Marcus Pittman, troublemaker extraordinaire, posted this comment from KB.

KB is a rapper. He's a rapper. Although, I don't know, I think these days they're calling themselves hip -hop artists.

So, I don't know. I'm not trying to insult you. I know you as rappers. Maybe you're a hip -hop artist. I don't know what you are,

KB, but this is what you said. Unpopular opinion! I think spanking is useful, but barely.

And it depends on the kid. I think there are far more creative and less traumatizing ways to punish your children, especially since many of us don't spank without being vindictive and reactionary.

That is actually not an unpopular opinion, KB. So, this is one example of one of those,

I'm being countercultural, but you're really not. This is the zeitgeist.

This is the spirit of the world here. This is what most people say in our culture. In Christian circles, though, it is unpopular.

So, I'll give him credit for that. But this is an amazing, amazing opinion to have for a

Christian because the Bible says that if you withhold discipline, it's specifically talking about spanking, that you hate your child.

It also says that if you hit him with a rod, he's not going to die. If you hit him with a rod, you will save his soul from hell.

That's a quotation from the Bible. But KB doesn't agree. He says it's barely useful.

So, that's pretty stupid, but why not? I mean, he's a social justice warrior. So, if he's going to change the meaning of justice, why not just change everything?

Who cares? So, that's not really what I wanted to talk about, though. I said something to that effect in a comment, and KB responded and said,

Calm down, young man. He was trying to trigger me, but it didn't work. And I said,

Hey, man, I'm having the time of my life, KB, with a big toothy grin emoticon.

He responded. He said, Trolling is a real rush, right? And I told him, Everything's a rush when it's for the kingdom, my man.

And this is the point of it. There is actually more to this conversation. If you want to check it out, go to Marcus Pittman's Facebook and engage with him.

There's actually a really funny, hilarious little interaction here where he tries to prove some weird point about trolling and how

I'm a troll. But while he does it, he's trolling me, and he admits it.

But it's like a really weird point about how I choose to believe different things.

I don't know. It was a weird thing. Maybe I'll do a video on it some other time. I have no idea. But it was so bizarre.

Maybe he's above my level so much that he's making points that I don't even understand. I don't know. But that's actually not what interests me.

What interests me is this idea of trolling because he couldn't believe that I had said that trolling is a rush when you're doing it for the kingdom of God.

Because from this person's perspective and from Big Eva's perspective, trolling is like the ultimate sin, right?

Trolling is one of the worst things you can do online. And I'm here to tell you, brothers, trolling is not necessarily a sin.

Trolling is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I argue that you can troll for the kingdom of God and you should troll for the kingdom of God.

Now, I've got about nine minutes left in this episode. This requires a little heavy lifting, so let's get into it.

Here's what Wikipedia says the definition of internet troll is. Some of you already know what an internet troll is, but I just figured

I'd bring some official air to this thing. He says this, in internet slang, a troll is a person who starts flame wars or intentionally upsets people on the internet by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off -topic messages in an online community, such as a news group or a forum or a chat room, with the intent of provoking readers into displaying emotional responses and normalizing tangential discussion.

Either for the troll's amusement or a specific gain. So the idea here is that you post something intentionally inflammatory on a chat log or on a blog or in the comment section or stuff like that.

And that's what trolling is. Now, I think the key here—this is something else that I think is important as well.

In the usage section on Wikipedia, this is important to understand. Application of the term troll is subjective.

Some readers may characterize a post as trolling, while others may regard the same post as legitimate contribution to the discussion, even if controversial.

Like any pejorative term, it can be used as an ad hominem attack, suggesting a negative motivation. See, this is the important thing, because one person's troll is another person's great point.

This is a very subjective term. And so when somebody says you shouldn't troll, keep in mind that it's subjective.

Because to some people, if you push back in any amount of power or aggressiveness or assertiveness, even if it's just very light pushback, they will look at it as trolling.

And so don't back down when someone says stop trolling or don't troll or you're just trolling.

Refuse to back down, because here's the key. It's in this last part of the definition here.

Trolling, either for the troll's amusement or for a specific gain.

That's the key right here. Because I would argue that if you're trolling just because you enjoy bothering people or you enjoy seeing people get triggered or you enjoy just the sport of it, just like the idea of bothering someone online.

I would suggest, yeah, maybe you should kind of check your motivations. Because if you're just trolling because you enjoy dividing people and stirring people up, and that's really the extent of it, that could be a problem that you might want to talk to your pastor about.

You might want to talk to your friends about, your family about, just to make sure that you're on the same page. However, this last part, trolling for a specific gain, for a specific reason, for a specific purpose, that definitely is legitimate.

Trolling for a specific purpose, usually to expose the darkness or to draw contrasts out or to push forward the truth as opposed to the false narrative.

That kind of trolling, not only is it legitimate, but I think the kingdom of God, the Christian church should be engaging in that kind of trolling.

I don't say everyone needs to do it. Not for everybody. But there are members of the body of Christ that should be trolling.

I think it's necessary, especially considering the upside -down nature of our world today, of our country today.

And I'm going to offer you three biblical examples of godly, kingdom -driven, gospel -centered, for the glory of God trolling from the

Bible. This is my favorite one, but I'm going to go in order. So my favorite one comes from 1 Kings. This is

Elijah, the prophet, and he is trolling the heck out of the prophets of Baal.

So here's what he says. So he sets up this test, right? He's going to confront the prophets of Baal, and he's going to say, okay, we're going to douse these altars with water, and we're going to call upon our

God. And whoever's God lights a fire from heaven on this altar, that's the real

God. And the prophets of Baal said, sure, let's do it. And so here's what happens.

The prophets of Baal attempt to do this, and of course, it doesn't work because the prophets of Baal are powerless before the

Lord. And so at around noon, Elijah starts to troll them.

Here's what it says. It says, and so it was noon that Elijah mocked them and said, cry aloud, for he's a

God. Either he's meditating or he's busy or on a journey, or perhaps he's sleeping and must be awakened.

So they cried aloud and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances until the blood gushed out of them.

And when midday was passed, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifices, but there was no voice and no one paid attention to them.

So Elijah starts to mock them. He sees these people calling upon their fake

God, and he starts to mock them and says, maybe you should call a little louder. He's probably busy.

Maybe he went on a journey. And they're cutting themselves. I mean, this is a violent scene. They're cutting themselves because that's what they do to get

Baal's attention. He's just like, maybe you should try the leg next time. You know what I mean? That's some serious trolling.

This is trolling for a purpose. This is a godly troll necessary because the prophets of Baal live in the

Upside Down, very similarly to the way the prophets of Wokedom live in the Upside Down, where all of a sudden it becomes morally right to vote for the party of Baal.

Because, you know, they want racial reconciliation. So, yeah, trolling is good, man.

And the best part about this troll with Elijah is that after he trolls them, he sets up his altar.

God calls down fire from heaven, consumes it. And then after the troll, after he laughed in their face, after he trolled them for a few hours, he gathers them up and slaughters them.

That's what I'm talking about. Here's 2 Corinthians. Here's 2 Corinthians, also talking to false prophets.

Ready? Here is what he says to the false prophets. He says, are they

Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am

I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ?

I speak as a fool. I am more in labors, more abundant in stripes, above measure in prisons, more frequently in deaths, more often from the

Jews. Five times I received 40 stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned.

Three times I was shipwrecked. Night and day I've been in deep journeys, often in perils of water, perils of robbers, perils of my own countrymen, perils of the

Gentiles, perils of the city, perils in the wilderness, perils of the sea, perils among false brethren, in weariness, in toil, in sleeplessness.

Often in hunger and thirst and fasting and cold and nakedness, besides other things. What comes upon me daily, my deep concern for all the churches.

Who is weak, but I'm not weak? Who is made to stumble and I don't burn with indignation?

You see, Paul is trolling them. He's like, oh, you're a prophet? How about me?

Oh, oh, you're a minister of Christ? I'm a better one. And let me prove it to you.

And he does. You know, Paul is also famous for telling a bunch of Pharisees to cut their testicles off.

I mean, this is trolling. This is trolling for the kingdom of God. That's absolutely what it is.

Here is Matthew chapter 23. Talking to the Pharisees. You know, they're very serious, man.

They know the law. He even says they know the law. They know the law. And here's what he says.

He says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Because you'll travel land and sea to win one proselytite.

And when he's won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

That's inflammatory. Let's get one thing straight. Let's go back to that internet troll definition.

That is an intentionally inflammatory statement. That's a statement that he wants to rile these people up by saying, yeah, all that effort.

You make one convert, and he is a son of hell. In fact, twice as much a son of hell as you are.

Jesus said all kinds of inflammatory things. You know, if you don't understand that Jesus said things intentionally to rile people up,

I suggest reading the Gospels again. Because Jesus often says something that he knows for a fact will rile them up.

That he could have said in a softer way, but he says it in an inflammatory way. And he doesn't do it just to amuse himself.

He does it for a purpose. And that is something that Christians ought to emulate in Christ.

You understand what I'm saying? We don't just emulate the stuff about Christ that we already like. We have to cultivate and emulate the entirety of Christ's example.

You understand what I'm saying? And I know that there's going to be some internet trolls out there that are going to say, whoa, should we emulate going to the cross?

And I'm like, well, I'm obviously not saying every single thing that he did we have to do.

But he does seem to say take up your cross and follow him.

So there's a lesson there. There's something that we should emulate. There's something that we should emulate in the situation where he made a whip of cords and drove people out of the temple violently.

There's something to it. There's something to it. And we need to consider that and really think about what that is.

So I think that if you look in the Bible, you can see many examples of people trolling.

You see Elijah troll. You see Paul troll. You see the other prophets troll.

And I will say this, that if you don't troll, that's fine.

But keep in mind that there is an aspect of the insanity that we're seeing in this world right now that needs to be mocked mercilessly.

Mocked mercilessly. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

So I think that there is a biblical theology of trolling. Trolling is not necessarily a sin, nor is it necessarily the worst sin that you can imagine committing online.

Not even close. And so while I will always recommend people take care and be careful about how they engage online, of course, tone is something that you should consider in everything that you do because tone, sweetness in speech, increases persuasiveness.

So we can't just ignore those parts of the Bible either. But there's a place for both. There's a place for people that handle things the way

Ezra did, you know, teaching and Irenic and peaceful and that kind of thing. And there's a place to handle things the way

Nehemiah did where he rips your beard out and beats you up. Anyway, I hope you found this podcast helpful.

God bless. Don't forget to tune in next week on Thursday for AD on the

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