Sin, what is and what isn't.

Their are many sins that are obvious. If we consider the origin of the concept, in my opinion the determination of what is a sin is easy.

The Word of God leaves open no loopholes, that right there proves it wasn't written by politicians. The things proscribed are spelled out. However, many people, and I used to be one of them so I know, try to justify or rationalize their sinful ways. When single, when sinning with many women, I would justify it to myself by saying and truthfully so. I never lied to get a woman to yield to what I wanted, I didn't have to. Not only was that naive of me, it was downright dumb.

The hardest part of my salvation is throwing away the memories of my past life, (guilt) I believe this is so for others as well. My Pastor and rightfully so tells me to keep reading the Word and pray for help. He asked me a question one time when I was talking about the biggest sticking point in my spiritual growth, guilt. He asked: "Are you greater or smarter than God?" My answer was "of course not". He then said: "Have you repented of all your sins and do you strive daily not to repeat those sins?" I said: "Yes" He then said: "If you have done so, those sins are gone from the mind of God, He does not need your guilt ringing in His ears to remind Him of things you have repented of and are no longer of interest to Him." (The others were quotes, this and the next one are paraphrases, as I am not certain of his exact wording.) Further he said: "God only desires your heart to be turned to Him and for you to give your best effort, we all fall short of God's Grace. In a way, your guilt is a sin, in that you do not trust that God has forgotten your past life as He promised in His Word to do."

Since this conversation, it has been much easier for me to put the sins of my past life behind me, though I still remember them. I am getting better daily regarding the guilt associated with them. I use these memories only to help others as best I can, when I can.

Now then, it has been said that the only unforgivable sin is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. I believe that to be true, but what about suicide? In essence it is a premeditated murder of yourself and there is no opportunity to repent of that sin. You cannot pre-repent. My personal take on that is it would depend on the circumstances. A man puts a gun to his head and puts his brains on the wall for one of his children to come home from school and find him, died not only in sin, but a coward. People may say, well he had no choice, he was so far in debt, or he was ill, or he was about to get fired, all of these are earthly concepts and are rationalizations of a terrible sin. A soldier that throws his body over a grenade to save his comrades has upheld Christ's highest acclaim to man: "No greater love hath any many, that he lay down his life for another."- John 15:13. I believe that man will be first online at Heaven's gate, yet he committed suicide. Why? Because he chose to follow Christ's highest praise to any man. This is not getting into to gray areas, in the Bible there are none. You either follow the Word or you don't. I believe anyone who dies to save another, has upheld the highest values of Christianity, not because I say so, but because Jesus the Christ says so. That is the difference between a rationalization and following the Word.

So, what do you think and why? Please no one-liners here. This thread requires discussion, not a hit and run.

Yep, you got that right! Politicians were left out of the loop on that one! LOL!

But seriously, I can relate to that...Our past sins, if allowed by the enemy, will keep us in condemnation. It will prevent us from moving forward with Christ and keep us in our past.

You have touched on an area that I do struggle with. I have not planted my feet firmly on the ground concerning suicide because the essence of it is premeditated murder. Then we have "Thou shall not kill." I agree, you cannot pre-repent.

The 2 circumstances you presented are on total opposite sides of the planet. As the second man laid down his life for another and the first man lacked the trust and faith in God to pull him from his circumstance. So, I completely agree with what you presented concerning but is it considered blasphemy? I don't believe it to be, because the unforgiveable sin is one that is committed against the Holy Spirit.

Sin is a dead work, if the person is saved, I believe the person's act of sucidie will be burned as wood, hay and stubble and no reward given. If the person is unsaved, then their destination is sure to be the lake of fire. But this is also my area of struggle, OSAS.

Now I know we all sin every day, however if we have given our hearts to God as we should do, my understanding is that we would be punished only for a willful sin. We are none perfect and all fall short of the glory of the Lord. Passive sins of omission or misjudgments, mistakes honestly made I would think fall into this category. In my opinion, suicide would fall into a willfully sinful act that you could never repent of.

I live daily with a terminal illness, Multiple Sclerosis that has gone from relapsing/remitting to secondary progressive within the last two years. I may have 5 minutes, 5 days, 5 years or 20 years, neither I, nor any doctor on earth knows, only God. When I gave my life to the Lord I have not since worried about it. General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, put this subject best in my mind, he said: "Captain, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me." Rest assured however, no matter how bad the pain gets, I will live with it, I will not willfully take away God's prerogative to determine when that day may be. I am also a partially service-connected disabled veteran and deal with pain from those injuries every waking day of my life.

Think about that phrase, "every waking day". Every day we wake up, we have another chance to do something good for someone else, and to find a way if we have not already to serve the Lord.

** A side note, somewhat off topic, but I feel this is needed to show my possible personal prejudice on this matter. Now I also try to be perfectly honest, and I must emphasize this only applies to me and is strictly my opinion. Were I to kill myself I would look upon it as quitting, which is something I have never done, I celebrated the 35th anniversary of my 20th birthday last December, so I am way too old to change that now.

God Bless all here, I had a bad night last night, so I am going to try and get a little nap, but I'll check in later today or tomorrow.

I have never given thought to I guess a "two types" of sin. A willful sin and passive sins. I would have to ponder that one for a while. My first thought would be to say that we should know when we are sinning either willfully or even passively. I would not even know what would even be considered a passive sin. Not saying it isn't so, I just have to ponder that one.

I can understand those bad nights. Though my condition is not terminal, I live with chronic back pain that at times knocks me down for days to weeks at a time. Yes, taking one's own life is quitting, I agree. But pain and other "alterations" to our physical well being something changes the thought process. I know it does for time to time with me. But the foundation upon which our faith is built upon is stronger and we pull through each and everytime.

I am glad to have you aboard...I pray your nap is restful.

I probably used the wrong word, another wonderful side effect of advancing MS.

What I mean is this. If you commit the sin of adultery for instance, even many,many times. At some point you accept Christ and repent of, renounce and turn away from such sin, never to return to said sin. Now then I am of the firm belief that neither man, nor woman can accidentally commit adultery. (There was a case recently where a twin brother, in essence raped his sister-in-law. That might have been adultery in addition to rape on his part, but not on hers. At some point during the act, she realized who it was and started screaming bloody murder, he still did not stop until he had accomplished his mission.) Past a situation like that though, what I was referring to was the sins we each commit every day, and I believe that true Christians just do so, because we are not perfect. I do believe that once we believe the Word and have accepted Christ, he looks to our hearts for the answers. That is why I strive so hard for that clean heart He asked of me, I'll never make it, but I strive for it daily.

The Last Rebel Soldier wrote:I probably used the wrong word, another wonderful side effect of advancing MS.

What I mean is this. If you commit the sin of adultery for instance, even many,many times. At some point you accept Christ and repent of, renounce and turn away from such sin, never to return to said sin. Now then I am of the firm belief that neither man, nor woman can accidentally commit adultery. (There was a case recently where a twin brother, in essence raped his sister-in-law. That might have been adultery in addition to rape on his part, but not on hers. At some point during the act, she realized who it was and started screaming bloody murder, he still did not stop until he had accomplished his mission.) Past a situation like that though, what I was referring to was the sins we each commit every day, and I believe that true Christians just do so, because we are not perfect. I do believe that once we believe the Word and have accepted Christ, he looks to our hearts for the answers. That is why I strive so hard for that clean heart He asked of me, I'll never make it, but I strive for it daily.

Oh yeah, I agree. The criminal is completely at fault not the victim of the crime...She would not be held accountable for the sin of adultery...

Our heart is covered over with the Lamb's blood...No we are not perfect, all we can do is strive toward perfection.