I don't think Christian forgiveness means to have the repentance of the offender. Christ forgave those in the act of humiliating and crucifying him.
I think what facilitates forgiveness of others is to love your neighbor as yourself, which is both a feeling we have towards others and treating others the way we wish to be treated. Then o…
I don't think Christian forgiveness means to have the repentance of the offender. Christ forgave those in the act of humiliating and crucifying him.
I think what facilitates forgiveness of others is to love your neighbor as yourself, which is both a feeling we have towards others and treating others the way we wish to be treated. Then our forgiveness is automatic regardless of their repentance.
The Lord's prayer says: "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
As far as justice, I agree God will repay whether in this life, the eternal life, or both, so we don't have to worry about that. However, I do believe we should have jail as a matter of deterrence to keep those who harm others off the street and to deter future criminals.
Lastly, what we think someone else deserves may be wildly wrong. We simply do not have the capacity to judge others even if we wanted to. There are too many variables to make that calculation. God has that capacity.
Why do bad things happen to us? We get what we deserve, other's sins, God's divine inferno of love, bad genes, or being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Ultimately, I think it comes down to the collective sins of humanity.
These are just my opinions, and I am working on internalizing and practicing these ideas.
I agree with AMD. The people who blindly followed the narrative without exercising any critical thinking and now refuse to do a post-mortem are doomed to repeat their mistakes. Further, I think they'd be smart to reexamine any position where they implicitly trust The Science or take their thought-leaders at face value if they believe in truth and that the truth has consequences.
I thought that what I wrote was parallel to your words. I'm still a little rough around the edges, but do know that we are to forgive our enemies, even while they are in attack mode. Like Christ had. Someday, if we remain faithful, we will be privileged to be taught every detail surrounding every question we will have, and we'll have a few for sure!
I don't think Christian forgiveness means to have the repentance of the offender. Christ forgave those in the act of humiliating and crucifying him.
I think what facilitates forgiveness of others is to love your neighbor as yourself, which is both a feeling we have towards others and treating others the way we wish to be treated. Then our forgiveness is automatic regardless of their repentance.
The Lord's prayer says: "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
As far as justice, I agree God will repay whether in this life, the eternal life, or both, so we don't have to worry about that. However, I do believe we should have jail as a matter of deterrence to keep those who harm others off the street and to deter future criminals.
Lastly, what we think someone else deserves may be wildly wrong. We simply do not have the capacity to judge others even if we wanted to. There are too many variables to make that calculation. God has that capacity.
Why do bad things happen to us? We get what we deserve, other's sins, God's divine inferno of love, bad genes, or being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Ultimately, I think it comes down to the collective sins of humanity.
These are just my opinions, and I am working on internalizing and practicing these ideas.
I agree with AMD. The people who blindly followed the narrative without exercising any critical thinking and now refuse to do a post-mortem are doomed to repeat their mistakes. Further, I think they'd be smart to reexamine any position where they implicitly trust The Science or take their thought-leaders at face value if they believe in truth and that the truth has consequences.
Yes, Doug.
I thought that what I wrote was parallel to your words. I'm still a little rough around the edges, but do know that we are to forgive our enemies, even while they are in attack mode. Like Christ had. Someday, if we remain faithful, we will be privileged to be taught every detail surrounding every question we will have, and we'll have a few for sure!
Your friend,
Ray
Sounds great. Thanks.