Stephen M. Adams wrote:

[...]


>
> Once again, I challenge you to show me where I have said that one can
> attain righteousness without the gospel. Better yet, show me where I
> have said that one can attain righteosness without grace! Or that
> the righteousness is completely self-willed.

Is this righteousness partially self-willed?

[...]

BTW, Steve, part of the problem with these challenges is that what you
say, and what you imply by what you say, are often at odds with one
another (at least, in the estimation of some who read your words). The
same is true of what I write. That's why we enter into these (often
heated) discussions -- to see whether:

1) we really understood what you said,
2) you really understood what you said,
3) we correctly connected the dots between what you said and what
Scripture says, and
4) you correctly connected the dots between what you said and what
Scripture says, and ...

Having read what you wrote in the quoted section above, I think there's
a problem connecting an implication of what you said with what I think
Scripture says. Hence my question, which is diagnostic in intent.

As an example of how difficult this all is, in another thread I asked
the question, "So why do all men everywhere, without fail, choose not to
follow [the] Law?"

Matthew responded with:

> Ah, here is where you reveal another theological bias, or rather, a
> philosophical bias, which happens to _also_ be rooted in Scholasticism,
> namely, empiricism. You seem to believe that if all men fail, then they
> fail by nature. But this IS an empiricist assumption, not a Christian one.

Now this really surprised me. I had to pick my jaw up off my keyboard.
I would have expected Matthew to say, "You seem to believe that _since_
all men fail...". "Since", not "if". So Matthew has left me wondering
if the Orthodox church teaches that there are some unfallen people
around. If so, then how is that reconciled with "for all have sinned"?

Was this just a poor choice of words on Matthew's part, or is this a
piece of Orthodox theology that I'm not familiar with entering the
conversation?

Matthew also surprised me with, "It was the Scholastics who first
floated this _myth_ that theology had to be 'systematic'."

All I can say is, if that's true, then three cheers for the Scholastics!

Jesus took the Pharisees to task for being hypocrites -- their words did
not match their actions; and their lives did not match the Law.
Hypocrisy is just another word for inconsistency. And if inconsistency
between word and deed is bad, isn't it similarly true t