Just a little heads up to one and all. I'm a big-hearted, fair guy and want to give all my opponents a running start. (In horse racing, this is called a handicap, which many of you will Shirley need.)
What I mean by this is that this announcement will give all of you non-reformed (NR) folks a chance to hit the books, the bible or your favorite NR commentaries or whatever to get up to speed on universal (so called) terms in scripture. I've been debating with myself the best strategy to take in tackling this subject, as there are, obviously, several ways to go about this. But it seems that the Lord is leading me in one direction. He has initially put two Johannine passages in mind that strongly support my premise which is: Often universal terms are used in a narrow, limited sense when carefully exegeted and context is considered. And...for good measure, I plan on tossing in a third text by the same apostle, which is a darling of most here -- yet very often misunderstood -- a more robust version of Jn 3:16 by adding more context to it.
This will take a series of posts to accomplish and some time. My inital post will be an introductory primer into Hermeneutics 101, if you will. In it, I will explain some fundamentally important principles I apply when I interpret any given passage and my rationale.
So, hit the books, everyone! I have given y'all fair warning. In fact, I would encourage all NR folks here to do a group study, since multiple heads are usually better than one...although in this case here....