Apostoic

Purpose:

We have encountered some Christians who object to Logic Slap, calling it unkind. Such persons insist that preaching the gospel may never employ techniques like mockery or sarcasm; these are inherently evil. Our purpose herein is not to convince others to employ our methods, but to challenge an a priori commitment, demonstrating it is built upon a sandy foundation.

In broad-strokes our defense shall proceed upon the following lines:

1. To draw your sword against your brother or ally is generally foolish, moreso in times of war.
   1. There is a dragon at the gates. Western Christianity is assailed by leftist woke ideology, and radical Islam. This is a time of intense spiritual warfare.
   2. We are in fact brothers and allies. Your cause is the gospel of Christ, as is ours. We would see His kingdom advance. There is plenty enough work for your sword without turning it upon us.
   3. We will answer to Christ for our tactics. We are grown men, engaged with the enemies of the living God. I do not think He will bat an eye that we have called them “dim-wits” nor “goobers”. He has called them “heathen” and “damned”.
2. Those detractors whom we know personally often relish the work of Ben Shapiro, Mat Walsh, Ann Coulter, and the like. To praise their sarcasm while objecting to ours (which is gentler) is manifestly absurd.
3. God Himself and His prophets and preachers frequently employ sarcasm or mockery both in the narrative and didactic genres of Scripture. Eventually, there exists a preponderance of evidence that scorn is part of the perspective which the living God has toward all other religions, and His indwelling Holy Ghost creates that perspective in the hearts of His people.
4. The Lord is using the work we do to put His word and His ideas about life before the eyes of thousands of people each week… and we are still small and early and inexperienced in this work.
   1. 10% of our viewers are interacting with our content in some way, which is astronomically higher than the 1% which is average for this field. God is good.
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   4. Perhaps when the slain lay heaped about us, and the gore and rage of battle are upon us, it may be moot to discourage us from the fray because we have used Capo Ferro’s style instead of your preference: Bonetti’s.

Definition of Terms:

Definitions provided by dictionary.com: 

1. Sarcasm:
   1. harsh, cutting, or bitter derision, often using irony to point out the deficiencies or failings of someone or something. 
   2. a sharply ironical taunt; sneering or cutting remark. 
   3. mocking, contemptuous, or ironic language intended to convey scorn or insult 
   4. Synonyms as provided by Thesaurus.com: banter, cynicism, derision, mockery, satire, scorn, scoff, sneer
2. Derision:
   1. the act of deriding; mockery; scorn
   2. an object of mockery or scorn
3. Mockery:
   1. ridicule, contempt, or derision
   2. a derisive action or comment
   3. an imitation or pretence, esp a derisive one
   4. a person or thing that is mocked
   5. a person, thing, or action that is inadequate or disappointing
4. Scorn:
   1. open contempt or disdain for a person or thing; derision
   2. an object of contempt or derision
   3. archaic an act or expression signifying contempt

Some may want to mince words, saying that “Sarcasm is sinful, but mocking is not.” or “Scoffing is sinful, but sarcasm is not.” The English language is having none of that. These words in this group are related closely enough to be used interchangeably. Any distinctions you want to make along such lines remain in your own mind and have nothing to do with English.

General Linguistic Markers of Sarcasm

Sarcasm is a form of verbal irony involving a deliberate contrast between literal meaning and intended meaning, often to mock, expose folly, or correct. Recognition relies on pragmatics (contextual use) more than isolated words. Key indicators include:

1. Incongruity or Contrast: A mismatch between what is said and known reality, or between positive language and negative context. Sarcasm often praises something obviously unworthy or states the absurd as obvious.
2. Rhetorical Questions: These frequently signal sarcasm when the answer is self-evident and the intent is to highlight ignorance or presumption. They function as implied assertions through reversal.  One rhetorical question may be ambiguous; a sequence of 20+ (as in Job 38–39) with hyperbolic elements and known incongruity makes the sarcastic intent nearly undeniable.
3. Hyperbole/Exaggeration: Overstatement that underscores the ridiculousness of a position (e.g., magnifying someone’s claim to absurdity).
4. Lexical Cues: Words implying obviousness (“surely,” “of course,” “you know”) paired with implausible content, or mocking repetition.
5. Syntactic Structures: Inverted expectations, such as formal or overly polite phrasing in a confrontational context, or series of questions that build cumulative ridicule.
6. Frequency and Patterning of Verbs: Clusters of imperfect or interrogative forms can indicate ongoing rebuke or mockery (common in prophetic taunts). In Hebrew poetry/prophecy, parallelisms often juxtapose literal and ironic elements.
7. Particles and Discourse Markers: Hebrew terms like ’ak (“surely”) or Greek ara can heighten ironic obviousness. Repetition of verbs or phrases amplifies ridicule.
8. Genre Context: Sarcasm appears more in wisdom literature, prophetic oracles, and polemical dialogues where the goal is exposure of idolatry or hypocrisy (e.g., Elijah in 1 Kings 18:27 uses mocking alternatives to highlight Baal’s impotence).

  Inerrency 

Historical Precedent

Some have accused that we are the first to discover sacred sarcasm in the Scripture: “No other Christians have thought or spoken this way before. Therefore, you are not likely to be correct and should be cautious.” To such notions, we counter with giants from church history.

1. Martin Luther Table Talk— “The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.” 
2. Thomas More Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation— “Some folk have been clearly rid of such pestilent fancies with very full contempt of them, making a cross upon their hearts and bidding the devil avaunt. And sometimes they laugh him to scorn, too, and then turn their mind unto some other matter. And when the devil hath seen that they have set so little by him, after certain essays, made in such times as he thought most fitting, he hath given that temptation quite over. And this he doth not only because the proud spirit cannot endure to be mocked, but also lest, with much tempting the man to the sin to which he could not in conclusion bring him, he should much increase his merit.” 
3. Clive Staples “Jack” Lewis– Presenting the above 2 quotes at the beginning of The Screwtape Letters intends the reader to understand that the book is an extended jeer at his lowliness, the devil.
4. Charles Kirk
   1. Kirk’s exact words were: “I am also going to offer some context and some nuance about the death of George Floyd that no one dares to say out loud. Which is that this guy was a scumbag. Now, does that mean he deserves to die? That’s two totally different things — of course not.”  https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/charlie-kirk-george-floyd/
   2. Referring to his opposition to affirmative action and hiring practices to boost diversity, he said on the same podcast a year later: “If I see a black pilot, I’m going to be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified.” https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdxqnkwerj7o
   3. Three weeks ago, Blake, if we would have said that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative action picks, we would have been called a [rolling r] rrracist. But now they’re coming out and they’re saying it for us. They’re coming out, and they’re saying, “I’m only here because of Affirmative Action.” Yeah, we know. You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charlie_Kirk
5. Tertullian “The master of Sarcasm” https://www.christian-history.org/sarcastic-quotes.html
   1.  In addition, this is said because a controversy over the Scriptures can, clearly, produce no other effect than help to upset either the stomach or the brain. (Prescription Against Heretics 16)
   2. Now then, you dogs, whom the apostle puts outside and who yelp at the God of truth, let us come to your various questions. (Against Marcion II:5)
6. Origen https://www.christian-history.org/sarcastic-quotes.html
   1. I am often led to wonder when I consider the things that are said about Christ, even by those who are earnest in their belief in Him. … But when they come to the title Logos [Word], and repeat that Christ alone is the Word of God, they are not consistent, and do not, as in the case of the other titles [for Jesus], search out what is behind the meaning of the term “Word.” I wonder at the stupidity of the general run of Christians in this matter. I do not mince matters; it is nothing but stupidity. (Commentary on John. Bk. I. Ch. 23.) 
7. Athanasius
   1. While [the Arians], like men sprung from a dunghill, truly “spoke from the earth” [Jn. 3:31], the bishops [of Nicea], not having invented their phrases for themselves, but having testimony from their fathers, wrote as they did. For ancient bishops, of the great Rome and our city [i.e., Alexandria, Egypt, where Athanasius was bishop], some 130 years ago, wrote and censured those who said that the Son was a creature and not consubstantial with the Father. (Synodal Letter to the Bishops of Africa 6)
8. G. K. Chesterton Orthodoxy, Chapter 7
   1. Pride is the downward drag of all things into an easy solemnity. One “settles down” into a sort of selfish seriousness; but one has to rise to a gay self-forgetfulness. A man “falls” into a brown study; he reaches up at a blue sky. Seriousness is not a virtue. It would be a heresy, but a much more sensible heresy, to say that seriousness is a vice. It is really a natural trend or lapse into taking one’s self gravely, because it is the easiest thing to do. It is much easier to write a good Times leading article than a good joke in Punch. For solemnity flows out of men naturally; but laughter is a leap. It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light. Satan fell by the force of gravity.
9. John MacArthur-  Divine sarcasm” in a 2008 sermon on suffering: “So the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said this, “‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” Huh, that’s a pretty straightforward indictment. “‘Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you instruct me.’” Divine sarcasm. “‘Well, you tell me then, Job. You tell me what I should have done. Tell me how to do it better. By the way, where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?’ Tell me if you have understanding.”  https://www.pristinegrace.org/sermons/261481/why-does-god-allow-so-much-suffering-and-evil

Persiflageous Prooftexts

1. Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof,I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you… (Proverbs 1.24-26)
2. And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” (1Ki 18:27 ESV)
3. He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. (Psa 2:4 ESV)
4. All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together. The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!” They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?” He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?” (Isa 44:9-20 ESV)
5. Matthew 12:3 Jesus asks the Pharisees “Have you not read?” Part of the qualifications to become a Pharisee was to recite the entire Old Testament from memory. Of course they’d read. 
6. “At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ ” Luke 13.32 
7. Galatians 5:12 “I wish those [circumcisers] who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!” 
8. “But you, O LORD, laugh at them; You hold all the nations in derision.” Psalm 59.8
9. “Make him [Moab] drunk, because he magnified himself against the LORD, so that Moab shall wallow in his vomit, and he too shall be held in derision. Was not Israel a derision to you? Was he found among thieves, that whenever you spoke of him you wagged your head?” Jeremiah 48.26-27
10. “Thus says the Lord God: “You shall drink your sister’s cup that is deep and large; you shall be laughed at and held in derision, for it contains much;” Ezekiel 23.32 
11. Job 38.1-41.34 God took the best man alive, handed his life over to the power of the devil, and mocked him for complaining about the situation… but that’s not where the story ended.
    1. For Job 38 (God’s Speech to Job): This passage exemplifies sarcasm through a sustained series of rhetorical questions that presuppose negative answers (“No, you were not there”). The questions reduce Job’s complaints to absurdity by contrasting divine omnipotence with human limitation.
    2. Syntactic Evidence: The repeated interrogative structure (“Where were you when…?”, “Have you…?”, “Can you…?”) creates a relentless, probing effect. In Hebrew, these often use interrogative particles (ha- or mi) that expect negation, functioning as strong assertions.
    3. Pragmatic Incongruity: God states the obvious (e.g., Job 38:21 — “You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!”) to mock Job’s претензии to understanding cosmic order. The exaggeration of Job’s “ancient” knowledge highlights presumption.
    4. Contextual Support: This follows Job’s bold challenges to God; the divine response employs irony to humble without destroying, aligning with redemptive purpose.

Syllogisms Supporting Sardonicism