Proof that God Forgives All Sins
April 11th, 2005 | by Dr. Forbush |I have asserted in another blog that God forgives all sins. This is something that makes sense in the context of what Jesus taught. This is something that most liberal Christians that I know believe. This is something that is taught in the Catholic Church.
But, the Internet being what it is a Christian surfaced to denounce my claim as not proven by the Bible. Well, I hadn’t thought that everything needs to be defended by the Bible. Jesus certainly used the Torah and he also reasoned and taught in parables. As Christians following Jesus’ example we should all reason and teach what we understand in the form of parable. Well, at least those who have studied ethics or religion and make an effort to understand what Jesus taught. Jesus is an example of what a Christian leader should do. St. Paul took Jesus’ example and he used what he knew to expand what Jesus taught. St. Paul drew on the not only the teaching of Jesus, but also the Jewish rabbi’s, and Greek philosophers as well. Drawing on what these great men taught to get the message of Christianity out to those who are less initiated is a noble cause.
So, instead of brushing this question off I attempted to answer it. To be totally honest I didn’t answer it on the first try because I was puzzled by the question. I pointed out places where Jesus valued forgiveness, but this didn’t answer the question. If Jesus valued forgiveness it doesn’t mean that God forgives all sins. It only shows that God values the fact that humans should forgive each other. This is a good point that I hadn’t thought about much. I was still operating on the basic tenant that God forgives all sins if you repent. Of course the key is that one must repent to be forgiven. But, where did it say this in the Bible?
Well, in Matthew we read: “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”
This seems rather straightforward. If you forgive those who sin against you then God will forgive your sins.
Even with this quote my Christian Moriarty would not agree that God would forgive all sins. So, I set up a little proof to demonstrate how this implies that God would forgive any sin. First of all we need to look at the “anding” of these three statements.
Assume that there exists one sin that God does not forgive.
and
Assume that a person commits that sin.
and
Assume that he forgives every person that has sinned against him.
Now we can show that this statement is a contradiction of the following text:
“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”
If we have a contradiction between two statements, then one of the statements must be wrong. So, either the assumptions above are wrong or the text is wrong. But, the text can not be wrong, so the statement containing the assumptions above is wrong. Since we are asking for all three of the statements to be true, if one statement is false the entire statement is false.
Well, if statement 3 is wrong - he doesn’t commit the sin, it doesn’t matter. God won’t forgive a sin that hasn’t been committed.
If statement 2 the man doesn’t forgive all the sins against him God won’t forgive his sins. We don’t care about this case, because this is actually the point of the statement. We should all forgive the sins of man against us. It will make our society better, and we’ll get into heaven to boot.
So, statement 1, the first assumption must be wrong. To make statement 1 true we need to operate on it with the NOT operation. This means that the following statement is true:
There does not exist one sin in which God does not forgive.
QED
Well, my Christian friend still doesn’t believe the statement that God forgives all sins. He came up with a way around my proof by saying that it works on a class of forgivable sins, but not on the class of unforgivable sins. So, even though we have no evidence for the existence of any unforgivable sins he postulates that this class exists. Mind you there aren’t any mention of unforgivable sins in the Bible. There isn’t any exception mentioned in Matthew. In fact, the phrase quoted doesn’t mention that God only forgives the type of sin that one would forgive of others, which my Christian friend offered as a weak attempt to defend his position.
So, why would this Christian cling to such a strange idea that God would not forgive some unknown sin? It’s certainly rooted in his beliefs and not in logic or the Bible. But the truth is that God forgives all sins and we should find comfort in that fact.
8 Responses to “Proof that God Forgives All Sins”
By Fence on Apr 11, 2005 | Reply
We were always taught that once you askd for forgiveness, and were actually contrite then no matter your sin it would be forgiven.
By dhunley on Apr 11, 2005 | Reply
Religion!
Now this is the stuff I like to see! A reasoned response to an opposing opinion. I wonder what you think about suicide? Is it a sin and if so can it be forgiven? This is a rhetorical question of course. Please don’t feel obligated to answer…lol. We all have more things than we can do as it is.
Just for you information…using this same type of argument, you can make a darn good case that unless man is more powerful than God…the Bible isn’t necessary. The basic premise is that there are large groups of people that, due to political oppression of one kind or another, who have been denied access to the Bible. Are they doomed to eternal damnation then? Of course…some who say the whole argument is flawed because THEY believe only a select few are going to Heaven anyway.
By Frank Castle on Apr 11, 2005 | Reply
“The basic premise is that there are large groups of people that, due to political oppression of one kind or another, who have been denied access to the Bible. Are they doomed to eternal damnation then?”
This is the response that I have heard from most in regards tho that question:
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
By Fence on Apr 12, 2005 | Reply
“The basic premise is that there are large groups of people that, due to political oppression of one kind or another, who have been denied access to the Bible. Are they doomed to eternal damnation then?”
- Catholic teaching[1] holds that anyone without instruction or knowledge of catholicism can still be saved if they live a good life. So it doesn’t matter that you don’t have access to the bible.
1 - bearing in mind that I’m very much a non-practicing[2] catholic and so don’t really know all the rules, regulations and teachings.
2 - I’d describe myself as being culturally catholic, not religously catholic
By dhunley on Apr 12, 2005 | Reply
Yep,
Makes sense. In fact, if there is a God…it is the only thing that does make sense. I can see the Bible being viewed as a guide. In addition, there is the very real danger that a person can excuse their own behavior, because it seems EVERYBODY IN THE WHOLE BLOODY WORLD can sing ‘For the Bible tells me so!”
Thanks much…sure takes the wind out of some of those never-ending Bible studies doesn’t it?
By Hammertime on Apr 12, 2005 | Reply
Dr.,
You should qualify your statement. “God forgives all sin” is very different from “God forgives all sin for those who meet the requirements”. Maybe, “God can forgive all sin.”
I’m not sure where your commenter gets his ideas. I’m pretty conservative on Bible issues, and I think he’s out there.
David - nice to see that you took me up on the recommendation to visit this site. I seldom do, as its premise is too combative for my tastes. It looks like you are enjoying it!
By dhunley on Apr 14, 2005 | Reply
Hammer,
Indeed I am enjoying it. Good thing too. My goodness…the kind of thinking of some in here has recently killed a person–and there are bigger and better things coming down the pike; organ harvesting, large scale euthanasia (why render aid to the needy when you can just deem their lives not worth living and be done with it?), extensive genetic modification (you think tongue piercing is bad…lol…you just wait), and the continuing determination to dominate and control people (the irony being it’s done for the good of society…what a joke!). Another irony is the use of the Bible to justify that life is not paramount. It’s one thing to use it to say that it is…at least that way if you’re wrong, people are still alive—the other way, people die.
Some may know that this is childish and ignorant, but we fail to address it at our peril; after all, someone was just starved to death as a result of it. Everything IS black and white! If we can’t see this, then we’re just confused by all the smoke. I would like to see you in here more, if for no other reason than to assail MY logic (it’s terrible when you feel almost obligated to do it yourself for them…lol…uh…if I saw any that is :). This is truly what we used to call a target rich area.
Oh I know it won’t change their minds…the evasions, distortions, crank pot postulations, and accusations will continue with their sense of outrage reserved for those who counter kind with kind (after all, didn’t I predict just such?)…but I like to think I do it for those affected and the peripheral members of the Kool-aid colony.
By The Bastard on Apr 14, 2005 | Reply
OK I’m now convinced Hunley is Cao’s husband.