Psalm 19:14
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
Acts 4:13
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
2. Have you ever listened to someone and not fully understood what they are talking about? It is an art to be able to express yourself so that others capture what you are trying to convey in speech. The ability to communicate is one of the most basic things in life and if it is not done in an appropriate way, frustration sets in, a tuning out occurs, and in the end all the words were just wasted energy, and the original intent is lost in translation from the mind to the mouth to the brains.
I recall in a movie from 1983,’Trading Places’, in which there was a man off the street who was enticed to replace the role of an important rich finance broker. When they put him on the spot , on TV, and asked how he would fix the bankrupted finances at hand, since he didn’t know anything about that, he responded by saying let’s talk about simple things and explained how to garden. He responded with something very off topic. His rhetoric had nothing to do with the question (he knew nothing on the matter), but all of the commentators went with it so they said, ‘Oh, how amazing he is’! This man speaks deep things about fertilizers and soils, and now we all understand he is referring to investing reserve funds, etc. What a wise man they all said! It was comical! This shows how unexpected or unclear rhetoric translates into our minds as some form of reality, but it is only an invented illusion on our part to make sense of things unrelated.
Rhetoric : ‘Rhetoric is defined as the art of using language in such a way as to make the desired impression upon the hearer or reader. Generally speaking, rhetoric covered the whole subject of composition, both oral and written. In rhetoric we see the interplay of both grammar and logic’ (online, ref., various). Considering Jesus used a lot of rhetoric (in the positive sense) like in parables to win others to the kingdom of God, we as His followers must learn about that skill of expression. He talked about sewing and reaping but referring to God’s kingdom.
3. Today most people equate rhetoric with the convoluted talk in politics. Here is an article that examines this assessment, but rhetoric is not only used just in politics but in most everything.
https://theconversation.com/us/topics/rhetoric-8995
Notice that the way something is expressed may change the original content, as is done in the intent of political parties, so we should learn about this as word games are designed to convince you of things you may have convictions against. We do as Christians have strong convictions concerning our faith and the standards of God communicated in His Word! But some may get confused!
Often worldly rhetoric can misrepresent information, and it may change your opinion, temporarily, until you discover the errors in what was fed to you. Applying rhetoric to a conversation can either make or break you when sharing your authentic Christian faith. In the Christian faith apologetics is the art of winning others to the faith and we need to be clear, convincing, convicting, and converting! Colossians 4:6 Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
Why do I find the topic of rhetoric important to share with you? Because too many people are deceived by Satanic secret society rhetoric which they call wisdom, replacing darkness for light, and so-called light for darkness, from Lucifer’s confusion and deception! 2 Thessalonians 2:3 ‘Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there comes a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition’. We need to know how to answer these well-versed folks with tricky slogans, chants, or lying statistics. Today the news outlets believe that if you repeat a lie often enough the people will eventually believe it and accept it as truth. That sort of rhetoric is what got Hitler into power! Always with discernment start with this premise of… what lie are they pushing now?
4. The rhetoric of the anti-Christ will deceive many; Daniel 8:23 ‘And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up’. ‘ Dark sentences’ is referring to Satanic rhetoric being disguised as wisdom which many will swallow because they do not have the Lord, nor His Holy Spirit.
In the ‘end of days’’ a flood of lies will prevail like a deluge flood and those without faith, those of the flesh, of the material earth (not spiritual), will buy into the words of the new world order leader, the anti-Christ, but the saints of God will not! Revelation 12:16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. That verse is spiritual rhetoric using nature (earth, water) for illustration.
A war of words always precedes a war in the physical realm and by what we observe today, we know a violent clash between the followers of God and the followers of Satan is coming: a great persecution. We see how this played out through atheistic Communist governments in the past 100 years with over 100 million murdered for not accepting the manifesto rhetoric. It’s already here again!
5. Today many young people, as well as old ones, get sold a false narrative and bad rhetoric with flash quotes on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and mainstream media. Their minds get shaped by the world because they have no Biblical knowledge to compare to or override it with. Christians should be posting things that lead people to God because millions of posts and articles daily mock God with subliminally and/or overtly schemed rhetoric!
For example, a quote: “We must conquer life by living it to the full, and then we can go to meet death with a certain prestige”. Does this sound like something good? Sort of like what Jesus said to live “life abundantly” in John 10:10? We will as Christians face death to be resurrected and exalted through Jesus’ grace, right?
This quote was stated by one of the worst devil worshippers of our century: Aleister Crowley. The context in which he refers here is to live ‘doing as you wilt’, abusing, fornicating, even murdering so you have power and magic on your side!
6. To defend yourself against the deceptive rhetoric of all the evil people in the world we must ask the Lord for the Holy Spirit! John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. We must pray for the Holy Spirit when listening or reading anything.
Quite often we are dumb like sheep, we really don’t know what to say when bad people criticize or attack us for our love for Jesus. But we must remember it is God’s Spirit who will speak through us. Matthew 10:20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
And as in the verse Acts 4:13, we will by the Holy Spirit have powerful words, not our own words, to proclaim Jesus! We will have boldness, and we will not be afraid of the faces nor rhetoric of the people of the world who only speak by the same old preprogramed copied rhetorical fallacies as minions trying to impose worldviews which include evil hierarchies and murder as a solution. We must be preconditioned to God’s word and feed ourselves daily with it.
7. We must always research into who is saying what, and try never repeat quotes by authors, politicians, or even pastors unless they line up with the spirit of love as we know from God’s Holy Scripture’s teachings. We must eliminate from our heads the evil lyrics of certain songs and decipher intensely what is in our heads, or memories, and hearts!
Some people are passionate for certain causes, but unless God is in that cause it would mean that the confused person is just another one of the enemy’s minions! Matthew 12:30 “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” All because a person buys into, or pushes, a pretty rhetoric originated by an unknown source, does not mean that you and I should buy into it. Beware of repetitive narratives, it implies a web of connected agendas behind it and our agenda should only be focused on God’s Kingdom.
I hope you see why I am emphasizing this because we must be sold out to God’s communications because Satan’s crowd are always producing more and more hypocritical liars and deceivers using convincing words. Colossians 2:4
And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.
8. The Bible is extremely relevant to you and me to influence us with God’s word combinations which instill wisdom. People who read the Bible get exposed to almost every facet of life with stories of envy, power struggles, pride, deception, romance, miracles, happiness, purpose, and of all the things that affect all kinds of people no matter the race or culture throughout time. It is the use of words to inspire and motive you and me, so with that, the Bible contains the best rhetoric that exists!
The rhetoric of the Bible includes everything you would need to learn in English grammar, literature, and speech class. Here is a list of expression devices and most all of them are used in scripture: alliteration, allusion, amplification, analogy, anaphora, antanagoge, antimetabole, antiphrasis, antithesis, appositive, enumeratio, epanalepsis, epithet, epizeuxis, hyperbole, litotes, metanoia, metaphor, metonymy, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, parallelism, simile, and understatements.
The Bible has it all! But you do not have to be a well-educated person versed in rhetoric to stand with confidence as a representative child of God. What I am explaining here is all you need is the Bible to educate you. https://billmuehlenberg.com/2007/04/18/rhetoric-the-bible-and-the-believer/
For example: “Elijah’s encounter with the prophets of Baal is a classic example of humorous sarcasm and taunting (1 Kings 18). Verse 27 of course is the highlight: “Is Baal musing, or gone aside (figuratively means to go urinate), on a journey, or asleep?”
9. Satan has hijacked most all of the world’s rhetoric making it demeaning, suggestive, and debasing! His word combinations through media, music, and cultural influences shape, wire, and brainwash, the world’s people into a mindset of animosity against God and His people. For example: Christians are described as bigoted, prejudiced, Bible thumpers, Jesus freaks, and right-wing evangelicals! Always something pertaining to evil or ignorance. It is our job as Christians to discern what words are of God and what are not and expose fallacies with truth.
It is our job to study to know how to use rhetoric in favor of convincing others of God’s love and purpose in our lives. You can do it and rewire your brain, so why not start by memorizing certain verses in the Bible?
Start with Psalm 19:14
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. Let’s pray…
