People don't understand forgiveness. Forgiveness is essential to growth.
It is foolish not to forgive, because you prohibit your own growth. You plant a stake in the ground of your soul saying "I will not".
It's Pride preventing someone from moving on and forgiving. The other person may have asked for forgiveness, yet you hold it away from them. Why? What does it benefit you? Is it only so the offender may grovel and writhe in agony that they have not been relieved of their guilt?
Does it make you the better man to lord that over their heads, forever keeping them in anguish? Is it an honest thing to do? Is it a productive thing to do?
Man can be bound in both body and soul. Consequence is about the body. Forgiveness is all about the soul. While the body can be punished by the Law of Cause and Effect, the soul is immortal and cares not for the befores and the afters. The soul is instead bound by guilt.
The body MUST be punished, as the Effect must suit the Cause -- that is God's Law. That is the operant of the Lord's Will.
The soul, however, can close itself off from guilt, and feel nothing except anger and fury over the body, IT'S BODY, being bound for a time. One such as this has no hope, but one that does feel the pangs of guilt has hope.
I wish that no one bears the torment of guilt. It is a sour and crippling thing, far more than the body would ever be able to endure. Should someone ask me for forgiveness, I shall give it freely, because their soul is far more valuable to me than my body. The same should be true for them.
Forgive their soul, punish the body. This is in keeping with God's Law.
This is a hard Truth. This is The Truth. This is the Fruit from Passion of our Lord. That the body bear the burdens of this world so that the soul may soar weightless and without limits.
hmmmm. i had a lengthy response and then accidentally deleted the whole thing.
Suffice it to say that righteous anger, imho, has it's place. I believe the story of the unforgiving servant is about holding others to the same standard.
God does not forgive those who violate his laws and show no contrition.
God does not ask more of us than of himself and does not expect us to be omniscient (know truly another man's heart).
The only way to prove a moral is to show what happens in its absence.
If you are the only bearer of that moral, and everyone else ignores it, then it is really simple to prove the moral. Stop doing things.
When things come crashing down, they will ask "why?"
Before you halt your actions, remind them why the moral is important and why you have efforted so greatly to enforce it despite their apathy. Then, after the lessons are learned, reinforce the moral by getting them to enforce it gradually, so they aren't shocked by the change in their day-to-day. Once the moral is in place, return to how you had enforced it before. Neglecting this last step would turn you into a hypocrite, obviously.
Moral outrage -- anger and chastisement of others for neglecting moral Truths, should be done only when it is clear you are alone in your thinking. Only then will you be free and excused to take the reigns of the argument and speak from a higher station and authority. If there be another who could assist you, then you'd have to work with them before airing grievances so flagrantly.
You must be humble to a fault, but once that fault is strained, be the earthquake that shakes the landscape. It's only natural to do so.
How does this look concerning the topic at hand? Sure, we're all against pedophilia here. But our money still goes towards pedophilia interests, whether we wish to realize it fully or not. When everyone else around you is willfully ignorant of their support of such depravity, we all would feel a need to brazenly chastise them.
But, who then would turn and aid you? If you remain hostile, and unwilling to forgive, how might you grow in numbers? If you maintain hostility and an unwillingness to cooperate with those sinners, then you have sealed fate shut.
In other words, no one will change unless they are given a chance at forgiveness. What point is there in redemption if you cannot be forgiven? Why would a murderer tell you where the body is buried if you will kill them either way? Who would turn against their slave master only to die for the crimes they were instructed to do when they were a slave?
In a room fool of sleepers, with you the only one awake, it might be necessary to shout one other awake to help you with the task. If another were already awake, shouting would not be necessary. Restrain yourself, and have reservations in shouting with a righteous anger, lest you wake those who would lash out at you for having waked them.
Wake one up, by shouting if necessary, and then have them help gently rouse the others from their slumber. This is the only way to ensure you aren't violently attacked after having awakened one from their potential nightmare.
Ah, you are a thinker that is for sure. Much thought given to the efficacy of presentation to protect oneself.
Having given much thought to the line of discussion we are on and running it through my own filters (as we all have them), I realized that I have never fully embraced the point of it all as forgiveness or even love. I could not articulate my dissent from this philosophy very well until today, but realized that I have been articulating my dissent for years.
That is before we discuss forgiveness, we must be dedicated to Truth. For without leading with truth, our desire to resolve emotional pain can trap us into believing something is "true" to increase our comfort.
So if you will only change because you get something out of it, that is self serving. True contrition is the expression of doing the right thing REGARDLESS of your gain. While exploiting someone's selfishness to change behavior may be pragmatic in the short term, it does not change the heart. God will forgive you -- but a person's forgiveness ought not to be the motivator for change.
Moral adherence and benign intent can go hand in hand. The failure to forgive the sociopath will not keep a person out of heaven. However, holding onto grudges over minor misdeeds reveal a selfishness that will certainly keep you from focusing on the big picture, thus moving you away from God.
Again, I assert, the criminal has no entitlement to human forgiveness -- in fact, his willingness to change because it is the morally correct thing to do regardless of his discomfort provides much greater opportunity for spiritual growth and maturity.
I agree with the prior, but I'm not sure if this is directed at my argument.
The way I see it, is if I were in the place of the sinner in question, and I did have the resolve and intent to repent, I would want the opportunity to prove I am sorry and try to fix what I broke.
It's not necessarily infantilizing the sinner when I think that way.
If God were not to grant mercy for even the most grievous of sinners, then there is no hope for the rest of us. Either God embodies pure Love and Mercy, or he doesn't. By closing yourself off from the nature and Will of God, you close yourself off from your own ability to forgive your self.
Ye shall therefore be perfect, as your Father which is in heaven, is perfect. - Matthew 5:48
Ultimately, we are called to forgive because we wish to be forgiven.
Perfection is achieved when one forgives as God does, with the fervor of a parent forgiving their child no matter their sins. Perfection is the understanding that not only should you wish to forgive and be forgiven because of how it might benefit you, but because it pleases God.
Because your actions have offended God, the one who Loves you more than you can possibly imagine. Can you say you Love another while spitting in their eye? Can you say you Love another when you're destroying their children?
Can you say you Love your self if you will not forgive your self? If you refuse to forgive others as you would wish to be forgiven, then you will form a habit in which you'll never forgive your self.
Hell is the place we make for our selves when we believe we are not worthy of God's Love. We prove we are not worthy of God's Love when we refuse to forgive ourselves. God Loves us beyond measure, so the only determining factor in whether or not you shall enter heaven is if you ask God to cast off your burdens. Every person stuck in hell is there because they refuse to forgive themselves for their sins, and so they refuse to ask God to be forgiven.
It naturally extends that someone who closes themselves off from the fact they've done wrong will never ask to be forgiven, and so they will forever writhe trying to hide their face from God in the shadows. The Shame Adam felt in the Garden, when he sought to hide his loins after sinning, is the Shame of Hell, and we are all born into that false belief that we are not worth forgiving, let alone being able to forgive.
The only reason you would hide is because you refuse to admit you've done wrong, not to God who knows all things, but to your self.
Hell is the absence of God, who is the Light. Those who hide in the shadows were not put there by God, but because they are afraid of the Light, and believing foolishly that God would never forgive them. The false god they believe in would punish them, so they must hide to avoid that god's punishment. That is not the True God. It is a charlatan of our own making, given power by our stubbornness, whose author is the Adversary -- those who are ad-verse; against the Word. It is the worship of the Self, and escape from Self punishment, that clouds our view of the True God's infinite Mercy.
The only way to forgive your Self is to forgive others. If you cannot forgive even the slightest of sins done against you, what hope do you have in forgiving your own sins?
Nothing I've said is new or fanciful. Everything I have written extends from what is written right here:
People don't understand forgiveness. Forgiveness is essential to growth.
It is foolish not to forgive, because you prohibit your own growth. You plant a stake in the ground of your soul saying "I will not".
It's Pride preventing someone from moving on and forgiving. The other person may have asked for forgiveness, yet you hold it away from them. Why? What does it benefit you? Is it only so the offender may grovel and writhe in agony that they have not been relieved of their guilt?
Does it make you the better man to lord that over their heads, forever keeping them in anguish? Is it an honest thing to do? Is it a productive thing to do?
Man can be bound in both body and soul. Consequence is about the body. Forgiveness is all about the soul. While the body can be punished by the Law of Cause and Effect, the soul is immortal and cares not for the befores and the afters. The soul is instead bound by guilt.
The body MUST be punished, as the Effect must suit the Cause -- that is God's Law. That is the operant of the Lord's Will.
The soul, however, can close itself off from guilt, and feel nothing except anger and fury over the body, IT'S BODY, being bound for a time. One such as this has no hope, but one that does feel the pangs of guilt has hope.
I wish that no one bears the torment of guilt. It is a sour and crippling thing, far more than the body would ever be able to endure. Should someone ask me for forgiveness, I shall give it freely, because their soul is far more valuable to me than my body. The same should be true for them.
Forgive their soul, punish the body. This is in keeping with God's Law.
This is a hard Truth. This is The Truth. This is the Fruit from Passion of our Lord. That the body bear the burdens of this world so that the soul may soar weightless and without limits.
hmmmm. i had a lengthy response and then accidentally deleted the whole thing.
Suffice it to say that righteous anger, imho, has it's place. I believe the story of the unforgiving servant is about holding others to the same standard.
God does not forgive those who violate his laws and show no contrition.
God does not ask more of us than of himself and does not expect us to be omniscient (know truly another man's heart).
edit: and what is the role of moral outrage?
Moral outrage is nothing without reservation.
The only way to prove a moral is to show what happens in its absence.
If you are the only bearer of that moral, and everyone else ignores it, then it is really simple to prove the moral. Stop doing things.
When things come crashing down, they will ask "why?"
Before you halt your actions, remind them why the moral is important and why you have efforted so greatly to enforce it despite their apathy. Then, after the lessons are learned, reinforce the moral by getting them to enforce it gradually, so they aren't shocked by the change in their day-to-day. Once the moral is in place, return to how you had enforced it before. Neglecting this last step would turn you into a hypocrite, obviously.
Moral outrage -- anger and chastisement of others for neglecting moral Truths, should be done only when it is clear you are alone in your thinking. Only then will you be free and excused to take the reigns of the argument and speak from a higher station and authority. If there be another who could assist you, then you'd have to work with them before airing grievances so flagrantly.
You must be humble to a fault, but once that fault is strained, be the earthquake that shakes the landscape. It's only natural to do so.
How does this look concerning the topic at hand? Sure, we're all against pedophilia here. But our money still goes towards pedophilia interests, whether we wish to realize it fully or not. When everyone else around you is willfully ignorant of their support of such depravity, we all would feel a need to brazenly chastise them.
But, who then would turn and aid you? If you remain hostile, and unwilling to forgive, how might you grow in numbers? If you maintain hostility and an unwillingness to cooperate with those sinners, then you have sealed fate shut.
In other words, no one will change unless they are given a chance at forgiveness. What point is there in redemption if you cannot be forgiven? Why would a murderer tell you where the body is buried if you will kill them either way? Who would turn against their slave master only to die for the crimes they were instructed to do when they were a slave?
In a room fool of sleepers, with you the only one awake, it might be necessary to shout one other awake to help you with the task. If another were already awake, shouting would not be necessary. Restrain yourself, and have reservations in shouting with a righteous anger, lest you wake those who would lash out at you for having waked them.
Wake one up, by shouting if necessary, and then have them help gently rouse the others from their slumber. This is the only way to ensure you aren't violently attacked after having awakened one from their potential nightmare.
Ah, you are a thinker that is for sure. Much thought given to the efficacy of presentation to protect oneself.
Having given much thought to the line of discussion we are on and running it through my own filters (as we all have them), I realized that I have never fully embraced the point of it all as forgiveness or even love. I could not articulate my dissent from this philosophy very well until today, but realized that I have been articulating my dissent for years.
That is before we discuss forgiveness, we must be dedicated to Truth. For without leading with truth, our desire to resolve emotional pain can trap us into believing something is "true" to increase our comfort.
So if you will only change because you get something out of it, that is self serving. True contrition is the expression of doing the right thing REGARDLESS of your gain. While exploiting someone's selfishness to change behavior may be pragmatic in the short term, it does not change the heart. God will forgive you -- but a person's forgiveness ought not to be the motivator for change.
Moral adherence and benign intent can go hand in hand. The failure to forgive the sociopath will not keep a person out of heaven. However, holding onto grudges over minor misdeeds reveal a selfishness that will certainly keep you from focusing on the big picture, thus moving you away from God.
Again, I assert, the criminal has no entitlement to human forgiveness -- in fact, his willingness to change because it is the morally correct thing to do regardless of his discomfort provides much greater opportunity for spiritual growth and maturity.
Quit infantilizing the sinner.
thx for listening.
I agree with the prior, but I'm not sure if this is directed at my argument.
The way I see it, is if I were in the place of the sinner in question, and I did have the resolve and intent to repent, I would want the opportunity to prove I am sorry and try to fix what I broke.
It's not necessarily infantilizing the sinner when I think that way.
If God were not to grant mercy for even the most grievous of sinners, then there is no hope for the rest of us. Either God embodies pure Love and Mercy, or he doesn't. By closing yourself off from the nature and Will of God, you close yourself off from your own ability to forgive your self.
Ultimately, we are called to forgive because we wish to be forgiven.
Perfection is achieved when one forgives as God does, with the fervor of a parent forgiving their child no matter their sins. Perfection is the understanding that not only should you wish to forgive and be forgiven because of how it might benefit you, but because it pleases God.
Because your actions have offended God, the one who Loves you more than you can possibly imagine. Can you say you Love another while spitting in their eye? Can you say you Love another when you're destroying their children?
Can you say you Love your self if you will not forgive your self? If you refuse to forgive others as you would wish to be forgiven, then you will form a habit in which you'll never forgive your self.
Hell is the place we make for our selves when we believe we are not worthy of God's Love. We prove we are not worthy of God's Love when we refuse to forgive ourselves. God Loves us beyond measure, so the only determining factor in whether or not you shall enter heaven is if you ask God to cast off your burdens. Every person stuck in hell is there because they refuse to forgive themselves for their sins, and so they refuse to ask God to be forgiven.
It naturally extends that someone who closes themselves off from the fact they've done wrong will never ask to be forgiven, and so they will forever writhe trying to hide their face from God in the shadows. The Shame Adam felt in the Garden, when he sought to hide his loins after sinning, is the Shame of Hell, and we are all born into that false belief that we are not worth forgiving, let alone being able to forgive.
The only reason you would hide is because you refuse to admit you've done wrong, not to God who knows all things, but to your self.
Hell is the absence of God, who is the Light. Those who hide in the shadows were not put there by God, but because they are afraid of the Light, and believing foolishly that God would never forgive them. The false god they believe in would punish them, so they must hide to avoid that god's punishment. That is not the True God. It is a charlatan of our own making, given power by our stubbornness, whose author is the Adversary -- those who are ad-verse; against the Word. It is the worship of the Self, and escape from Self punishment, that clouds our view of the True God's infinite Mercy.
The only way to forgive your Self is to forgive others. If you cannot forgive even the slightest of sins done against you, what hope do you have in forgiving your own sins?
Nothing I've said is new or fanciful. Everything I have written extends from what is written right here:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+18&version=GNV