Friday, June 12, 2009

All is not all

There are those outside the sheepfold of Jesus Christ who attack the sinlessness of Mary, perverting very words of Holy Scripture, to wit:

All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God [Romans 3:23]

It not being enough to point out that all cannot be inclusive of every single one, lest one deny the sinlesness of Jesus Christ, who was without sin [Heb 4:15]. Yet even with the clear fact that the biblical "All" is a subset of the common use of "All" which means every single person, they object that Jesus can be excluded because, well, He's Jesus! and that exclusion can't possibly belong to anyone else who is a mere mortal.

Well, that's a lot to read into a text that, in their system, is supposed to be clear on the surface of it! So here's another little example whereby we can see if All is everyone or not (incarnate Godhead excluded):

Consider the battle of Jericho, after the walls came down, the Israelites put all the defeated to death, right? They observed the ban by putting to the sword all living creatures in the city: men and women, young and old, as well as oxen, sheep and asses. [Joshua 6:21] So, did they kill everyone? They were supposed to spare Rahab and her family; on Joshua's orders (Joshua is the Greek of Jesus), everyone was to die, except only the harlot Rahab and all who are in the house with her are to be spared [Joshua 6:17]. So was there an oversight, and putting to the sword all living creatures did they fail to observe Joshua's orders? We see that is not the case, for after the battle they entered and brought out Rahab, with her father, mother, brothers, and all her kin. [6:22-23]

so you see, dear friends, biblically speaking, all is not everyone at all!

1 comment:

  1. Yes, what is intended here is not "all" without exception, but rather "all" without distinction, and this is made clear in the preceding verse, which folks conveniently leave out:

    "For there is no distinction; all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God."

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