Insulting non-believers

But if the Spotless One could call people a brood of vipers and children of the devil, I guess sinless wrath is technically possible...

I heard this argument used at an abusive and very hypocritical apologetics forum. They'd use it as an excuse to indulge their carnality. Every single opportunity to exercise their cruelty was given on account of this. They had a very cult-like mentality where they gave you the impression they were the only ones who did things right and all the generosity shown by the more fruit-bearing humble Christians was a fraud. They believed it was more humble to believe in biblical errancy because it was more in touch with modern times, using terrible arguments that had adequate resolutions (I assume because if you leave a door open for errancy in scripture, you can give a foothold to reject other parts you don't like more easily), held to a lot of post-modern political views that were not reconcillable with scripture just to appear 'counter cultural', had a lot of rude and impious humor, a very inconsistent standard of criticism when picking others apart, and a disturbing ambition to spread their cancer to the internet at large. The two notable apologists of this community, known as TheologyWeb, were JP Holding of Tektonics and Nick Peters of Deeper Waters. Both were calloused and cruel, hated by all and fiercely loyal to the cult. They always talked about how important the trinity and resurrection were to Christianity but their behavior was repelling to many. They were mostly preaching to the choir, and TWeb had a serious lack of success in gaining converts overall, unlike the more humble, traditional apologists. After suffering mental abuse by the members while desperately seeking help in the midst of spiritual anguish and doubt, I managed to break away from the community. I prayed, at first for vengeance, but then tried to remain humble and ask that the wolves be driven out and those who still had some potential to do good would repent and use their gifts for good, and that the site would disappear in some way or another or be stifled from influencing the rest of the world.

I eventually learned around 2014 that the site, shortly after I left and prayed, had lost their entire decade-long history in a massive hard drive crash with no backups except the most recent ones that year, and everything else had vanished. Several ardent members left the community to pursue other interests, some taking on a more radical disposition or adopting heretical views, a few even abandoning the faith, and that JP and Nick left the site to pursue their own work separately. And while JP and Peters still defend some rather liberal, erroneous postmodern views, they eventually cleaned up a lot of their contributions and work to remove the demeaning and mocking tone it once had. I consider it the work of God in some way. I hope they continue to grow out of their errors and see the light, as all of us should.

When I look back, I realize how little TheologyWeb taught me about theology. They had some very superficial arguments for some of the bigger aspects of the Christian faith I mentioned, like the resurrection, but nothing that hadn't been explained just as well elsewhere, with all the errors and liberal 'scholarship' excised. I am still angry when I remember the things people did and said to me there, and am mad at myself for falling into the snare and becoming addicted to it so as to allow myself to be abused, but it was a hard lesson to learn. A lot of internet apologists are spreading heresy and liberalism, trying to pass it off under a kind of psuedo-orthodoxy, and it's doing a lot of damage when a lot has to be done in this day and age to defend Christianity from an accurate point of view.