Hello phil36,
I have decided to focus on this claim, for which you had previously cited Romans 3:9-18 as evidence (see your post #164).
In my responses to you, I was trying to get you to explain what you saw in this passage (and others) which leads you to believe the way you do. I was not able to get you to provide any significant explanation, but I think I know how you are reading this passage, so I will address that.
Here is that passage in full (plus some).
What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written:
There is none righteous, no not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.
Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit;
The poison of asps is under their lips;
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
And the way of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
None of us disagrees with the importance of this passage, but it is how one reads/understands it which is important. I claim that your understanding is amiss because you do not understand how Paul is using it. For example, where it says, "There is none righteous, no not one," you take that as meaning that there are no righteous persons period - they simply don't exist. But God throughout the bible is very clear that such righteous persons do exist and have always existed. Please do the following, read through Psalms 34-37 and Proverbs 10-12. God is continually comparing and contrasting the righteous with the wicked. Also, Jesus in a number of places, like Matt. 5:45, 13:17,49, and 23:37, declares that such righteous persons have always existed. This should then then cause us to ask, what point is Paul trying to make when He makes this quote (for truly righteous people have always existed)?
If you go back and read through those portions of the Psalms as I asked, afterwards also add to it Psalm 143:2. That Psalm says,
Do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no one living is righteous.
Here is one of the very few places that the Psalmist uses the term 'righteous' (as applied to a human) in an elevated sense. It is elevated in that it is being used to indicate that no one is sinless... not that such servants as himself (do notice the term 'servant') never seek after God or never desire to do good, but in this elevated sense no servant does these things perfectly.
You need to try to understand that Paul is using his quote in Romans 3 in this same elevated sense, and he even brackets his quote with verses 3:9 and 23 indicating this elevated usage, but for some reason many people (especially calvinists) miss that.
So I challenge you to rethink what it is you think this passage is saying, for I can assure you, it neither supports or says what you have been taught.
.