Rhetoric will not save you. [John 10]

The world is getting interesting, which normally means danger. The current trick is to use rhetorical logic bombs and images to subvert other messages. This involves a green frog, a dead gorilla, and (on the other side) a vegan muslim and Black Lives Matter activist sitting for the national anthem.

Got to love an American election. The Yanks are inventive.

The trouble is that rhetoric will not save you. Yes, rhetoric is a way to move most people, for they respond to emotion not logic: logic (Dialectic in Aristotelian terms) works with those who are educated. But they are all currently diagnosed in childhood by teachers as Asperger’s spectrum because they don’t learn to shut up and let the teacher preach propaganda.

Dialectic won’t save you either. Both can be used. Paul used primarily logic, and Christ used primarily parables: images, memes, the tools of rhetoric. You can see the difference here.

They are tools. But what saves you is Christ.

For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about:

“‘Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish;
for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.’”

As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.

(Acts 13:36-43 ESV)

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

(John 10:1-18 ESV)

What will save your soul, and bring your body back for a second life, incorruptible, without the aches and pains that mean that one has to stretch for a half hour before exercise, is the completed work of Christ. For he was truly God incarnate: though without sin he died on a cross, doubly damned by the legal authorities (and against the Law of Moses they claimed to follow) to pay the just penality for my hatred and greed and jealousy.

This is not corporate. It is not a political movement. It is not progressivism or conservatism or imperial Christendom. It is Christ. In him we live, and for him we will be persecuted to a greater or lesser extent.

And there is no other way to deal with your blood-guilt. The daily sacrifice of Moses no longer occurs at the temple. The deluded mutterings of Mohammed are as much a lie as his life was evil. Buddha and the Hindus and the Noble Stoics may give one some existential comfort, but they will not save you.

Today, choose Christ. And let him guide you. For he indeed is a good Shepherd.