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A question about sin

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vampirequeen Sat 03-Jan-15 21:55:52

Another thread about blasphemy got me thinking about sin.

Apparently there are two types of sins. The first are against Jesus and are OK because they're forgivable but the second are against the Holy Spirit and those are not forgivable and condemn the sinner to eternal damnation no matter what they do to try to put it right. The Catholic Church says you can be forgiven through confession which goes against the unforgivable bit. The Protestants get round it by saying that to be forgiven and unforgivable sin would be a miracle and as God can do miracles he can forgive you. I find this a bit confusing. Would anyone like to clarify it?

As lying, stealing, murder, adultery, not keeping the Sabbath, coveting your neighbour ass and a myriad of other things are also sins do you get upset about all of them or is there a hierarchy amongst sins?

Do you never, ever tell a white lie to spare someone's feelings? What about Santa? Is he a white lie? Is a white lie less of a sin than any other coloured lie?

Do you never, ever go into a shop, garage, hotel, restaurant or anywhere else that someone is working on the Sabbath? Is it a sin to work on the Sabbath or because it's a rest day? Is it OK to work on the Sabbath if you have a rest day on another day? What about doctors, nurses etc? Are they committing sins for working on a Sabbath?

You may not have coveted your neighbour's ass but have you never fancied his Jag or Land Rover?

St Thomas Aquinas said that despair is a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and therefore can never be forgiven. Seems like I'm buggered then.

This isn't a facetious question btw? There just seem to be so many sins and yet people only seem to get upset about a few of them. What about the Leviticus sins? Do you avoid pork and bacon? Or not wear pearls? It seems that as Christians you don't have to follow the OT rules so why are the Ten Commandments still accepted? And what about the poor guy with the crushed scrotum or chopped off penis who commits a sin by going into a church? I kid you not it's in Deuteronomy 23:1

Didn't Jesus just give three commandments. Love God. Love one another. Love yourself.

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Mishap Sun 04-Jan-15 19:25:03

I am always very wary when someone tells us what god wants - peculiarly, god's views always seem to coincide with the speakers' - and may be the complete opposite of someone else making the same claim.

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Eloethan Sun 04-Jan-15 19:48:42

I saw an African man being interviewed on TV a few weeks ago and he said that the homophobia that is sweeping across parts of Africa is a relatively new phenomenon which has been largely incited by evangelical, mainly American, Christians.

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loopylou Sun 04-Jan-15 19:57:11

Terrifying situation Eloethan for many, many people sad

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granjura Sun 04-Jan-15 19:57:22

I wonder how many were abused by Christian missionaries too?

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absent Sun 04-Jan-15 19:59:44

The bible? A fairly arbitrary collection of human writing, human editing and human translation. It exists in many versions with much repetition and a multitude of differences. I can't read Aramaic, know only a very few words of Hebrew and what Ancient Greek I did know is extremely rusty so I'm always a little sceptical about "what the bible says".

From translations it does appear that there are scores of rules about what you can and cannot eat, sacrifices, diseases, agriculture, animal husbandry, slavery, death, inheritance, idolatry, worship and festivals – among other things. There is very little about sexual matters, although sex – hetero and homo – seems to be a preoccupation among the many sects of Christianity from fundamentalist evangelicals to Catholic cardinals. Weird.

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Grannyknot Sun 04-Jan-15 20:00:11

I like that image jings.

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Galen Sun 04-Jan-15 20:05:39

Well said Jingle

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vampirequeen Sun 04-Jan-15 20:24:23

So if homosexuals are disgusting because it says so in the OT, why is it OK to eat pig meat? Aren't you cherry picking?

And what about these from the OT.

If a man1 is fighting man2 and man1's wife tries to help her husband by squeezing the testicles of man2 then she has to have her hand chopped off. Do you hold with this?

Or that a man with crushed testicles or missing his penis due to injury then he's not allowed in a church?

I started this thread with a genuine interest but the more I research the more bizarre sin becomes.

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