Blessed and Holy: Understanding Them Better Through Exodus 19:1-8 (Credibility - Part 2 of 5)

In defining any words including both blessed and holy, it is important to find a credible source.  Wouldn't you agree?  How do you decide who is credible and who is not?  The second question is a little harder to answer than the first.  There is a clear consensus on the need to discover a credible source otherwise why turn to some sources for your information over others.  Why not settle for the National Enquirer?  Why is it that a Hebrew lexicon or an English dictionary is any better?  What are the conscious criteria?  My sources for credibility are the following: 1) credible appeal, 2) emotional appeal, 3) logical appeal.

Recently, I experienced a situation where my "logical appeal" was spotless and yet it did not appeal to those I was speaking with effectively.  They basically decided not to act.  I was a little frustrated with my failure, so I decided to step back and instead of blaming them for not listening to me, I decided to find out if I had failed in my appeal in any way.  (Keep in mind that you have the advantage of my 20/20 hindsight in realizing that I had made only a very strong logical appeal.)  In any case, I thought maybe I did not effectively address them in terms of their emotions.  So I returned to some ideas I had explored previously on "emotional intelligence", EQ. I found this material helpful in the past and so I returned to it for more insight once again.  This time though I had a little higher "logical intelligence", IQ, than the previous time, so I noticed some things I had previously had not noticed.

Aristotle's rhetoric he spoke of three key means of persuasion.  To transfer his words into English, he spoke of: 1) credibility, 2) emotions, and 3) logic as key parts of persuasion.  It recently dawned on me that this triad could be like another triad that I learned a long time ago in the translation of righteousness, justice, and judgment.  English translators for many years have known that justice is in some contexts the level line of amount and in other contexts it is the vertical and level lines of amount combined and so is translated as judgment.  In their wisdom, they have practiced this for years, but perhaps not as consciously as we could wish.  Perhaps Aristotle was not as conscious as we could wish either when he speaks of his triad.  Could it be that 1) emotions, 2) logic, and 3) credibility are another example of a greater, lesser, greatest triad?  I believe it is.

Think of it this way.  When you desire to find a reliable source for the meaning of holy, would it not be the ideal to find someone is both feels deeply and is very smart.  In other words, they ooze what gives a person credibility.  Just today I read in the book of 2 Samuel about those who are blameless and those who are those who ought to feel shame.  The story is that of Amnon, Tamar, and Absalom.  There is hardly another story filled so much with these emotional appeals.  But these emotional appeals to do not stand alone.  They are accompanied by logic as well.  The story gets its credibility from both helping a person feel deeply as they read it but also see the story very smartly as they see it.  It is a story of relationships with persuasive power.  

[My new writing schedule is this - to begin a piece every day for 5 days and then the following week to try to follow up and finish them.  Thank you for your patience.  Keep in mind that I am writing much behind the scenes to bring out some of it here, but I think it is still valuable.]

In Christ,

Jon