Paul’s life and ministry teaches us that one of the jobs of Christian men is to occasionally start riots.

What will do that today? Not merely the message of Christ crucified, but the message that our particular sins put Christ on that cross.

But here’s what the secular Bitcoiner and the lukewarm Christian both miss: the same force that demands censorship-resistant money demands censorship-resistant truth. And the same power structure that hates decentralized protocol layers hates decentralized moral authority.

**_The Thesis They Don’t Want You to Connect_**

Nostr and Bitcoin aren’t just tech. They’re theological statements dressed in cryptographic proof.

Bitcoin says your central bank is lying to you about value. Nostr says your platform is lying to you about truth. Christianity says your heart is lying to you about righteousness.

All three are riot-starting because all three reject the same lie: that authority flows from institutions rather than from something higher and immutable.

The State hates Bitcoin because it can’t print it. The Cathedral hates Nostr because it can’t ban you. The World hates the Gospel because it can’t negotiate with it.

**_Why Modern Christianity Lost Its Edge (And What Bitcoin Teaches Us About Finding It)_**

The modern pulpit offers therapeutic reassurance. Paul offered a confrontation that got him stoned, beaten, and run out of cities.

We’ve traded “Repent, for your pride nailed Him there” for “God loves you just as you are.” One empties pews. The other empties consciences. One provokes riots. The other provokes yawns.

Here’s the parallel: Bitcoin didn’t go mainstream by making fiat comfortable. It went viral by making people uncomfortable with fiat’s lies. Every person who understood Bitcoin had to first admit they’d been robbed by inflation. Not “the economy,” but their own central bank, their own government, their own generation’s financial theology.

The gospel works the same way. It doesn’t offer you an upgrade to your existing moral framework. It tells you your framework is the problem. Not “sin in general” but your sin. Not “brokenness” but your pride, your lust, your worship of comfort and safety and social approval.

Effeminate pastors offer a Christ who understands. Paul offered a Christ who was crucified by your specific rebellion and demands your specific repentance.

**_The Protocol Layer of Truth_**

Here’s what Nostr users instinctively understand that churchgoers have forgotten: truth must be costly to suppress.

Bitcoin makes theft costly. Nostr makes censorship costly. Christianity makes sin costly.

When you remove the cost, when you can print money infinitely, ban accounts instantly, or redefine morality democratically, you don’t get freedom. You get tyranny wearing the mask of tolerance.

The same people who told you Bitcoin was for criminals told you Christianity was for the weak. Both were right, in a way. Bitcoin is for people guilty of wanting to exit a fraudulent system. Christianity is for people guilty of needing rescue from themselves.

The question is whether you’re willing to admit the guilt.

**_What Will Start Riots Today_**

Real preaching makes the hearer’s sin so specific, so personal, so unavoidable that they must either repent or silence the preacher. The riots have stopped because we’ve stopped telling men that their lust, their greed, their pride murdered God.

But look at what actually provokes rage today. Insisting Christ is the only way provokes rage. Calling out idolatry by name provokes rage: career worship, sexual autonomy, political tribalism, the gospel of self-actualization. Proclaiming that your choices have eternal consequences provokes rage. Refusing to update moral standards to match cultural consensus provokes rage. Suggesting that some behaviors are objectively wrong, not just “harmful” or “problematic,” provokes rage.

Notice what these share with Bitcoin and Nostr: they all reject relativism. They all claim to be measuring against a standard you didn’t create and can’t change.

Bitcoin: math doesn’t care about your monetary policy. Nostr: cryptographic keys don’t care about your terms of service. Gospel: holiness doesn’t care about your self-image.

_**The Apologetic You Won’t Hear in Church **_

If you’re on Nostr, you already understand something most Christians have forgotten: decentralization is worthless without an unchanging foundation.

Nostr without cryptographic keypairs is just email. Bitcoin without proof-of-work is just PayPal. And Christianity without absolute moral law is just therapy with religious aesthetics.

You can’t have censorship-resistant communication if truth itself is negotiable. You can’t have sound money if value itself is subjective. You can’t have human dignity if morality itself is democratized.

The Bitcoiner who mocks Christianity while praising “don’t trust, verify” hasn’t followed his own logic far enough. Verify against what? Who chose the hash function? Who decided 21 million is the right supply cap?

Someone did. Something did. And you either trust that foundation or you’re just LARPing as decentralized while serving whichever consensus mechanism has the most hash power this week.

**_Why Your Non-Believing Followers Should Care_**

You don’t have to believe in God to notice that the same institutions that hate Bitcoin also hate traditional Christianity. Same language. Same tactics. Same moral framework.

They call it dangerous. They call it extreme. They say it threatens our democracy. They say it’s used by criminals. They say it needs regulation. They say it spreads misinformation.

They call Bitcoin a ponzi. They call masculinity toxic. They call exclusive truth claims violence. Always, the answer is more control, more centralization, more institutional authority, more safety.

The question isn’t whether Christianity is true. Start here: Why do the people who print unlimited money also want unlimited authority over what you’re allowed to believe about sexuality, identity, family, speech, and salvation?

What are they afraid of?

_**The Riots Will Resume**_

When was the last time a sermon made you hate the preacher before it made you hate your sin? When was the last time someone told you that your specific pride, your specific compromise, your specific worship of comfort put the son of God on a cross?

Our fathers in the faith were chased from towns. We’re chased from nothing because we threaten nothing.

But here’s the thing about operating on unstoppable protocols: the message can’t be killed anymore. Not on Nostr. Not in Scripture. Not in the human heart that knows, really knows, it’s guilty.

Bitcoin gave you an exit from financial tyranny. Nostr gave you an exit from information tyranny. The Gospel offers you an exit from the tyranny of yourself.

The first two cost you nothing but attention. The last one costs you everything.

Which is exactly why it starts riots.

The riots have stopped because we’ve stopped preaching a gospel that makes people choose. Decentralized money and decentralized speech are preparing the way for decentralized truth to have its day again. The institutions can feel it coming. Can you?