Sigh Part 1
Um, you should revisit a dictionary as to what "persuade" means.
Revisiting:
To persuade: to cause (someone) to do something through reasoning or argument.
"it wasn't easy, but I persuaded him to do the right thing"
Similar: prevail on, talk someone into, coax, convince, make ,get, press someone into, induce, win someone over, bring someone around,,argue someone into, pressure someone into, pressurize someone into, coerce, influence, sway, prompt, inveigle, entice, tempt, lure, cajole, wheedle someone into, get around, blarney, prod someone into, reason someone into, procure, sweet-talk, smooth-talk, soft-soap, twist someone's arm
cause (someone) to believe something, especially after a sustained effort; convince. "he did everything he could to persuade the police that he was the robber"
If anything but the Truth Himself does any of that, I've defeated my own purpose. The truth persuades far better than I could ever hope to.
If I teach a child that 1 plus 1 is equal to 2, then I persuade him to that fact. Persuade does not indicate some sort of trickery.
I'm thinking it's high time you revisit your dictionary. Maybe yours is better than mine...I can present a convincing argument, but the truth of my argument must do all the convincing. When it's me doing the convincing, your conviction can be taken down by a simple ad hom. Happens all the time on this board.
It is "reasoning or argument" (Oxford, btw). Bottom line: if you teach, you persuade. It's what you do.
Again...revisit your dictionary.
Or you can't budge from your presuppositions.
Such a weird answer...why do you avoid what Jesus was saying? "Have this kind of faith...YOU TOO CAN say...Every time you attack me like this, you're proving that it's YOUR presuppositions that are impeding any honest discussion. You do not need to know Greek to see what Jesus was saying. You just have to remove the ubiquitous impotence of the ages.
You mean the ones who know Greek far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far, far better than you? It's funny how I had a multiple email conversation with the man over one verse in scripture, was allowed to reproduce this phrase, and from this phrase you denigrate and disparage the man.
I never have. I disparage the "ubiquitous" argument. He espouses it as has every ubiquitous scholar. The argument is still specious. The man is not a single argument.
And as far as grammar goes, Bob. There is no such thing a "far far far, etc." You can only go so far. The genitive case has a limited, finite number of uses..."in God" in this case would normally include the preposition "
eis," "in", and the sentence would say, "Exete pistin eis ton Theon," only with the Greek letters I am too lazy to reproduce. That was the point Marios the neophyte was making as well. It's not exceptional talent, wisdom or understanding that produces this statement. It's a smattering of basic Greek grammar...in fact...a smattering of linguistics, because in languages where there are cases, like Latin and German, these situations present themselves early in discovery. And your friend acquiesced to the possibility and went with the "ubiquitous interpretation." And THAT is precisely why this discussion is so important, and when it is forced into the domain of ad hominem and cantankerous acrimony, the resultant blather obfuscates the FACT that Jesus is intentionally inviting us to HIS level of performance.