Acrimonious wrote:'All' is a frequent target for universalists, and it always boils down to context, which the milkdrinking apostates are infamous for ignoring. It's no surprise that the word 'all' is probably the most commonly-used strawman for any counterarguments to our positions. I would very much like to dissect these sorts of non-arguments for the benefit of CI everywhere; immediate identification of the apostate tricks and subsequent shutdowns would certainly help people without a background in debate. We are told to use Scripture for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16), and I really enjoy that aspect of interpersonal relationships.
I heard Bill make this analogy. It's not verbatim but it goes more or less like this: A cattle farmer sells all his female cows and the contract states that all female cows are to be sold. But in several other places in the contract it states simply "all females". The person buying the cows has no claim on the seller's female family members or female cats and dogs simply because "all females" is used in multiple places within the contract without specifically adding "cows" over and over. One statement clarifying "female cows" is all that is required to understand the context of "females" throughout the contract.