Rhetorical Analysis Of Ephesians 6: 10-20

In Jonathan Edwards Sermon he uses scare tactics to force people to convert to Christianity or burn in hell for internally. This strategy is intended to manipulate public opinion about a particular issue by arousing fear or alarm. One strategy is using scare tactics explaining the anger and wrath of god that is what expressed by hell. “And the reason why they do not go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, in not then very angry with the; as angry as he is with many miserable creatures now tormented in hell, who their feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath.” He explains the ones who are in gods congregation are at ease with his wrath but the many more who sin daily are now burring eternally in hell.

Silencing the enemy is a very fitting title for this book. It is fitting because the author, Robert Gay, explains how God suppresses the devices of the adversary through the praise and worship of His people. Although the term “spiritual warfare” is not found in scripture, Paul expounds on the concept throughout the New Testament. He encourages the saints to “Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”. This scripture informs us that we are in a battle, a battle that has been raging since the beginning of time. It is not a battle that one can see with the naked eye. Nor is it a battle that is fought with natural weapons. It is a battle that is fought in the spirit world. Our methods of

The training regimen awakens a sense of esprit de corps the group spirit shared by those in the same group. Paul's battle with Himmelstoss shows a brighter side of warfare, which is comradeship that develops in death-defying situations. The value for comradeship is appreciated more in the field when the men depend on each other to survive.

The earth has the power to protect and shelter soldiers when they hide in trenches or in holes made by shells. Earth proves to be a match for the man-made weapons that seek to kill men; for, even though Earth cannot fight back, it can protect Paul and his friends. Notice how Paul uses words like "thy" and "grantest" – it 's as though he 's reciting an old prayer. You could argue that he 's praying to the only power that can help him.

After each death more and more of Paul’s humanity becomes lost, and he fears that in peacetime he will be without purpose because he knows little of the world beyond the war. A month before the war would come to an end for all

Paul feels as though his family has lied to him because they said he would be a hero and it would be so great because he would be protecting his nation but then he goes and has to see people being blown to pieces.“…at that time even one’s parents were ready with the word ‘coward’; no one had the vaguest idea what we were in for. The wisest were just poor and simple people. They knew the war to be a misfortune, whereas those who were better off, and should have been able to see more clearly what the consequences would be, were beside themselves with joy” (11). Their families do not understand what his going on there. But then, Paul gets out there and there are men losing legs and arms.

War has brainwashed soldiers and people to always believe and obey what they are told. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul killed a French soldier, an enemy, and tries to deal with the guilt gained by the traumatic event. Paul says, “ I did not want to kill you. If you jumped in here again, I would not do it, if you would be sensible too. But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response… But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me… Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us.” (Document B) Paul is regretting killing the French soldier as he realized he is exactly like him and his friends. Soldiers are trained if an enemy approaches without hesitation to go and kill, and Paul

Jonathan Edwards read a 6 hour long sermon talking about God’s wrath. Edwards is trying to emphasize how powerful God is and that people should fear him. The people listening to the sermon started to get emotional and frightened. They wanted to worship God and not provoke him in any way. Edwards tried to help people and give them advice on how not to go to Hell. People were fearful of the devil and did not want to feel the fiery gates of Hell. Edwards uses different types of language devices to help get his point across.

Guided by the ideas of patriotism and honor from their old schoolmaster Kantorek, Paul, and his classmates enlisted in the German Army (11-12). But after returning from battle, Paul explains,”… in our hearts we trusted them…. The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces,”(12-13). Through the first encounter of warfare, Paul learns that war was nothing he expected and that he was set on a path that would lead to destruction. As a part of the younger generation, Paul looked up to the authority figures of the older generation as his guidance to the future. But in contrast, the first death shattered his belief, and because of it, Paul believed that most of the older generation is incapable of teaching them. Consequentially, Paul must turn towards the younger generation and his survival instincts to concentrate on war as he enters a hopeless

For Paul and his fellow comrades to survive the gruesomeness of the front, Paul comments how “[e]very conceivable method of parade-ground soldiering is used to become hard, suspicious, pitiless vicious, tough”(26). The gruesome training shows how Paul is changing. His original young and happy self has ceased to exist as he reflects on the training imposed on him. Later on though, Paul

But even this maturity could not save him from the jaws of death. Before the war, Paul was a scholar who had ambitions and hopes for success in life. Unfortunately, war quenched that desire for success as revealed in the book when he returned home for a short stay. Paul's self confidence and sense of belonging in society was gone. He no longer shared any interest in his books, felt melancholic most of the time, and do not have the same outlook towards life as others did. Even though Paul tried very hard at concealing his inner emotions and to stage a bold front, it is not very difficult for the reader to see that a psychological battle was taking place inside him. "I ought to have never come here. Out there I was indifferent and often hopeless-I will never be able to be so again." Paul reveals that his trip home made him realize the destructive effects war had on his character and he regretted going home.

Paul is using images of armor which was something that Ephesians knew what it was and were able to relate to (Philips, 185). Paul uses various parts of armor as symbolism for how to use what God has given us to be strong. Paul urges the Ephesians to believe that with these different tools that people can be strong in the Lord and resist what the devil is tempting with. Within each verse Paul is showing how Christians are able to stand up against Satan with the tools that God has equipped us with. (Anders, Ephesians 6:10).

When considering verse 6, the use of ἁρπαγμός is at the heart of the debate. ἁρπαγμός is the masculine, accusative, singular noun that can be translated as “robbery (KJV)” or “thing to be grasped (ESV)”. How it is translated is dependent largely upon two choices, active or passive voice and negative or positive connotation. When considering the active voice, one can look to the, nominative, masculine, singular relative pronoun ὃς which is linked to the present participle verb ὑπάρχων, which is also nominative, masculine and singular. Taken this way, the verb is active and the clause is casual, which means it can be translated as robbed or something to be grasped.

Ephesians 6:10 – 13 introduces the reader to the imagery of a battle that is to be fought. Paul gives the command to the believer to stand his ground against the onslaught. With this command he also provides the means by which to do so successfully, while at the same time pinpointing the enemy that they will face. As a start, Paul highlights the fact that believers should find their strength in God. Snodgrass (1996) explains that “Paul had prayed [Eph 1:19] that the readers would know the greatness of God’s work; now he exhorts them to use this power” (p. 338). Consequently, the believer should not only find his strength in Him but also don the full armor that has been given to them by God himself. Clothed in His armor, the believer will be able to stand against the enemy.

c) Paul finishes his speech encouraging them to use faith as their main weapon. (verse 16)