OU DUNATAI hAMARTIAN in 1 John 3:9

Steven Craig Miller scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Wed Oct 20 20:05:08 EDT 1999


To: Kevin Smith,

<< Thus in our present text the focus is squarely upon the fact that 
"whoever is born of God hAMARTIAN OU POIEI." The possibility of exceptions 
to that truth is not denied, but it is incidental to the point. >>

If I understand you correctly, I would basically agree with the major 
thrust of your post (which I didn't  back-quote in full), although I would 
suggest that the possibility of exceptions was indeed denied, since they 
were deemed incidental to the point.

I would suggest the following comparison. The conservative justice, Robert 
H. Bork, in his famous (or infamous) "The Tempting of America: The 
Political Seduction of the Law" (1990:147), wrote:

<< The Constitution states its principles in majestic generalities that we 
know cannot be taken as sweepingly as the words along might suggest. The 
first amendment states that "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the 
freedom of speech," but no one has ever supposed that Congress could not 
make some speech unlawful or that it could not make all speech illegal in 
certain places, at certain times, and under certain circumstances. >>

(A historical note. Just seven years after the First Amendment became part 
of the Constitution, Congress passed a law, which by today's standards 
would seem to be abridging the freedom of speech. This was the Sedition Act 
of 1798. The Sedition Act made it a crime to say or write anything "false, 
scandalous and malicious" against the government, Congress, or the 
President. This Act was aimed directly at newspapers, especially those 
presses owned by people who supported the Whig, or Jeffersonian Republican, 
party.)

When the author of 1 John demands that Christians acknowledge sins and 
petition for forgiveness (1 Jn 1:8; 2:1-2), he appears to be speaking on a 
pastoral level. On the other hand, when he says that Christians do not or 
cannot sin (3:6,9; 5:18), he appears to be making a majestic 
generality.  And so, I would suggest that there is no grammatical 
justification for watering down this majestic generality.

-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller at www.plantnet.com

 From Luther's Large Catechism: "Why, do you think, is the world now so 
full of unfaithfulness, shame, misery, and murder? It is because everyone 
wishes to be his or her own master, be free from all authority, care 
nothing for anyone, and do whatever he or she pleases. So God punishes one 
knave by means of another" (BoC 386.154).



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