But Jesus did die. And His death done obediently has accomplished so much. This includes how "through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil" (in
Hebrews 2:14-15).
So, Jesus was not only playing dead. And He was reaching the source of the problem, not merely superficially fighting.
Christ may have been called to die, but we are called to live. Live! When Paul said “I am crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” he was referring to crucifying his
sin nature, not all of the rest of him!
Matthew 22:35-38 said:
And He said to them, “When I sent you out without money belt and bag and sandals, you did not lack anything, did you?” They said, “No, nothing.” And He said to them, “But now, whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword is to sell his cloak and buy . For I tell you that this which is written must be fulfilled in Me: ‘’; for that which refers to Me has fulfillment.” They said, “Lord, look, here are two swords.” And He said to them, “It is enough.”
We are called to use the mechanisms of the world, the purse, bag, and sword, after Christ’s death, to further the proclaimation of the Gospel. It is not a sin to slaughter a dragon and post a warning sign in front of a snake pit. I already posted Ephesians 6, so I’m not sure what more to tell you. How are we supposed to proclaim the Gospel if we are all dead? We must live, proclaim the Gospel, and fight evil to the last!
I think of how Christian wives can win a disobedient husband "without a word", we have in
1 Peter 3:1-4. And Jesus said His disciples would not fight because His kingdom is not of this world.
This is not a marriage relationship we’re talking about here. This is the world, this is the internet, and these people have done wrong. I mean, you might be able to talk nice to a forum owner and get back online in some instances, but I don’t think this is one of them. And even if one could do that, does a Christian really want to hang out in a Discord server with a satanic priest? I think not.
There is a subtle difference between using worldly mechanisms and fighting for said mechanisms (the latter is what unbelievers do). I’m pretty confident that exposing this server is just using the mechanism of public social media for God’s glory and honor, it’s not about taking worldly positions just for the sake of taking them. We are called to expose and push back evil, not attack platforms and people.
People who I actually talk to on Discord are in my deep private inner circle of Internet counsel. I’ve engaged in personal evangelism on there too, offered personal counsel to those suffering, and talked with some of my closest Christian friends there. The massive servers, however, to an extent, really do violence to that concept, filled with junk messages and lies posted by unbelievers. It’s like a firehose of low-level communication that’s too difficult to sort through. This means that getting banned from a Discord server can be like “ah whatever, no big deal” or it can be a deep personal hurt similar to losing a friend IRL multiplied by about 15 or 40. The latter should be respected in my view.
So, here is my general counsel for Christian Discord use:
1. If you don’t need to be on a server, don’t be on a server. Go through your server list and purge regularly. Prioritize getting off large unbeliever servers and stay on smaller Christian ones.
2. Keep notifications, especially server notifications, turned off at all times.
3. Force yourself to use the computer for Discord and not your tablet or phone. This will help you give the person or people you’re dealing with your undivided attention when you are on to talk or text. It also gives Discord itself less personal information that it can use to track your conversations and link them to your real life identity.
4. Know that while Discord is private, it’s not encrypted. Your only real privacy is the anonymity of your screen name and the fact that most people don’t know how to hack in to expose all of the pages so they can view them. Do not exchange legal or financial information there for any reason.
When posting a server or forum, I think actually asking oneself the question “How would I feel if I was banned from this place?” is actually a good regular reflection. If you would write it off with “ah whatever, no big deal” it may be time to stop wasting your time. On the other hand, if you’re very very personally invested, it may be time to diversify the platforms you are using to talk with these people or take the conversation offline. If you’re square in the middle of those two extremes, you might want to try becoming a moderator for the server or forum yourself - after all, a not-invested moderator is a lazy and violent one that bans people because it’s no big deal, whereas a very personally invested moderator won’t ban anyone because “Nooooooooo! My friend!”
A balance of feeling, generally speaking, is required. From a ministry perspective, it’s not about the platforms (which are worldly goals) but about the people who use them, protecting them from harm, engaging in discipline if necessary, and treating them with courtesy and respect. (For the most part, anyway - this place is called Christian Forums so defending this platform is defending Christian proclamation of truth on the internet because said truth is bound up with the label.) When a platform owner is not doing this, they are engaging in evil, aka “despicable deeds of darkness”, and that darkness needs to face the Light of truth. It’s about pointing unbelievers to the Gospel and edifying the believers in Christ at that point.
I do not regret my actions in exposing the corruption of that unbeliever forum long ago, for it allowed me to present the Gospel to some unbelievers who badly needed to hear it. It is important to take a stand for the Gospel in light of Ephesians 6, and this can be done so on the internet without resorting to worldly conquest. There’s a difference between exposing corruption and evil (a Christian response) and engaging in DDoS attacks, which would be the worldly conquest response here. We are NOT called to mount those kinds of attacks in the name of Christ, and besides, they are illegal and unbiblical on that basis with Romans 13. I would encourage you to not confuse worldly conquest with spiritual warfare.
