I’m really not impressed with the idea that Jesus forgives or that on Judgment Day all our sins will be accounted for equally. I can understand it might give the believer some immediate comfort but it seems to me totally unethical.
If I wronged you and said you shouldn’t worry because I’ve been forgiven…by someone else…you would probably feel outraged.
Likewise I’m not interested in the idea that another person will present me with a list of my misdeeds at some unspecified time in the future and assess them. I’m an adult and am quite aware when I do something wrong and believe in addressing it in the here and now.
Part of the real issue revolves around self-guilt. This is the true judgement and it’s immediate and “eternal”. Bad deeds we commit have implication for our fellow human beings. It’s from them we have to begin to make peace and also with ourselves. But even so, the deed remains in our conscious minds until we die – this is indeed the living hell.
For me, there is no comfort in the concept that on a final day all my misdeeds will be considered equally. Not all my misdeeds are equally bad – some are far worse than others!
I’m more concerned with my daily relationships with other human beings, how to act with integrity and honesty and, when I mess up, to confront both with the victims of my “sin” and also to reflect on why I did it. Through this act of self-awareness and reflection I strive to overcome my faults.
I appreciate that religions may be attempting to say the same thing, using stories or metaphor, but personally I don’t need this long-winded approach.
I don’t need anyone else to forgive me for my “sins”. No one has the right to take that process away from me because the process itself is the way I grow. Nor do I need the comfort of going through the process but knowing that an external force has already said it’s OK.
Perhaps this was the only way to convince those Bronze Age ethnic groups travelling around the desert but I like to believe we have grown up and can face issues squarely in the face.
The basis of our morals has to be grounded in the relationships we form with living people. This is the only authentic morality we can practise.
YOUR BLOG ON FORGIVENESS IS MOST ARROGANT , UNHELPFUL AND REPRESENTS YOUR LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY AND THE WHOLE CONCEPT OF GOD. YOU SOUNDED VERY CONFUSED AND JUST TELLING READERS YOUR ANTI-GOD FRAME OF MIND. GOD MADE HUMANKIND AND MANIFESTED IN JESUS , THE CHRIST , TO THE WOLRD. JESUS DIED FOR THE SIN OF THE WORLD. SO THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHALL HAVE LIFE IN FULL. THE MAIN TEACHINGS OF JESUS , GOD INCARNATE , IS (a) LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART , MIND AND STRENGTH (b) LOVE THEIR NEIGHBOUR AS THY SELF. THESE TWO SUM UP THE WHOLE LAW. GOD IS LOVE AND LOVE , UNCONDITIONAL LOVE , IS THE SOURCE OF TRUE SATISFACTION.
You are entitled to your opinion as I am mine. Arrogance in my book is claiming you have sole possession of the Truth. Perhaps you can respond with your own blog post pointing out the errors in my understanding of theology!
It’s rather sad and disappointing on Anthony Hubert Cudjoe’s part that he couldn’t provide any rational rebuttal to the article but instead decided to do the typical Christian character attack. Anyone who has given up religion has done so knowing very well what it entails. It is only clear that Anthony knows NOTHING about his religion or his holy book. If he did, he would have given it up long ago.
“”Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my own part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.” – Thomas Paine”
Anthony, could you address the part where a being takes away the sins of a billion people in the past, now and the future? Instead of pouring out a series of indoctrination? Please? It seems to me you have an excuse to go and commit an offense and believe a being somewhere forgave you for your crimes.
SIN IS A RELIGIOUS CONCEPT. IT IS THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW OF GOD. GOD , THE LAW GIVER AND CREATOR OF ALL THINGS HAS THE POWER TO DO AND UNDO , IN ACCORDANCE WITH HIS LAW. FORGIVENESS OF SIN CAN BE GRANTED TO THE SINNER BY GOD , WHOSE LAW IS BROKEN BY THE SINNER. RESTITUTION IS DUE FOR EXAMPLE A PERSON WRONGED. THE OFFENDED DOES NOT HAVE THE CAPACITY TO CURE OR FORGIVE SIN. THE WRONGED MAY ACCEPT OR REFUSE RESTITUTION.
Thanks Anthony, that’s exactly my understanding of the Christian notion of forgiveness too. And that’s what I was arguing against whilst putting. what I believe to be, a more moral notion of forgiveness that is rooted in our relationships with people.