[Iscool]

I repeat: In the phrase “all have sinned,” what does the word “all” mean?

Exactly...The word ALL is all-encompassing...It leaves nothing out...There are no qualifiers for ALL...

[SoothingDave]

If "all have sinned" leaves no exceptions possible, of what sin is the 1 hour old infant who dies of a birth defect guilty? What is sin? What does "have sinned" mean?

To me, it means we have consciously chosen to do that which we know is against the will of God.

Society does not imprison small children for accidentally starting fires, nor does it criminally hold culpable the mentally deficient.

Why would anyone imagine a God with less mercy than the common legal system?

[Houghton M.]

Yeah, so Jesus, having not included a qualifier, when he said that it is appointed for “all” men to die, meant that Enoch and Elijah died?

If you’d do a bit of language study, you’d learn that words like all can be used in a general sense to indicate generalities that admit of exceptions. If one really wishes to exclude all exceptions, one says so.

Since “all” was not clarified either by Jesus or by Paul in these two instances, it is left to the interpreter to decide whether it was intended to be exceptionless.

You are entitled to your interpretation, namely, that it is exceptionless.

Just don’t go around claiming that it’s a slam dunk clearcut case.

It’s not.

Our disagreements are over how to interpret. But you insist that there’s no room for interpretation.

There is. Elijah is the name of that space for interpetation.

That’s a slam dunk—it’s a slam dunk that the word “all” leaves room for interpretation. Jesus himself used it in a way that left room for exceptions.

Your quarrel is with Jesus. Go pick a fight with Him.