Matthew Johnson wrote:

> In article <53D8939B-5D53-72B2-BA4B-3C45458919DE@srcbs.org>, Bob Felts says...
>
> >Matthew Johnson wrote:
>
[...]

>
> >> >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.
>
> >> But why is THIS what you turned to? Why did you have to
> >> rush so quickly to such a straw-man?
>
> >Because we've been arguing over the state of man and the
> >nature of salvation for a long time. I don't know how you
> >manage to fit all of your pieces together.
>
> And as long as you insist on this really bad course of action of yours,
> you never will. You must change your ways, or you will remain in darkness
> forever. Start by quitting your foul habit of responding with posts
> bloated with straw-man arguments.
>
> >> And yes, it IS a straw-man. For all the sons of Adam are
> >> living in the fallen state we have inherited, even when,
> >> as with Job and Enoch, they have no personal sin of their
> >> own.
>
> >The only person who ever existed who had "no personal sin
> >of their own" was Jesus Christ.
>
> Wrong. That is not what Scripture says. That is your biased
> interpretation again. You consistently choose the wrong
> choice of the various sense of hAMARTIA (and its cognates)
> in Scripture.
>

So it is your claim that when St. Paul wrote:

Rom 2:12 All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart
from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by
the law.

and

Ro 3:9 What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all; for we have
already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of
sin...

and

Ro 3:23 since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;

Ro 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and
death came through sin,