Posted on 07/13/2024 11:19:45 AM PDT by rexthecat
Catholics believe that if you make a perfect act of contrition before you die, you'll go to heaven. My question is, would this apply to Adolph Hitler?? And if yes, how do you think his presence would be perceived?
Is God impotent to forgive Hitler? What about Mao? Stalin? Churchill? FDR? Eisenhower? JFK? LBJ?
"Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"
Did you mean to reply to someone else?
It is only by God’s grace that we are saved. It’s a gift, unrelated to any good deeds we might perform.
“I take “repentance” to mean ask for forgiveness like you really mean it”
True repentance is more than that, it actually means to change; to become a changed person having fully accepted Jesus as Christ and your savior and with your walk with Christ having become “born again” - a new person.
Of course that is what some Christians believe, but what does that have to do with my post?
All it took on Adam and Eve's part was ONE sin, the sin of eating forbidden fruit, something which most of us I daresay, would consider a minor offense.
But this is where James 2 comes in....
James 2:8-11 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
We look as sin as some being more serious than others, like lying not as bad as murder. And there were different penalties for some crimes than others, indicating a more serious offense occurred.
However, the issue with sin is not what the sin is that we commit, but the holy God whose Law we transgress.
The sin is an affront to God, no matter what the particular sin was. And for God, *The wages of sin is death*. Period.
And as far as Hitler or other evil despots or criminals, there but for the grace of God go I.
None of us know what we're capable of given enough opportunity and the right circumstances.
Jesus forgave the thief on the cross who was being crucified for murder and insurrection, no questions asked.
Do I think Hitler did genuinely repent before death? No. But if he did, God saved him. And if God is willing to do it for someone like that, He'll do it for any of us.
I will appreciate your response.
It's actually what God's Word SAYS.
It's what the Holy Spirit inspired to have written down.
If God says it's a gift, then it's a gift.
If HE says it's by grace, then it's by grace.
Ephesians 2:4-10 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Romans 3:21-25 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
Romans 5:15-21 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Hitler would have NEVER made perfect Act of Contrition - he was incapable.
again dumb question
It is your personal, fallible interpretation of God's Word says. There are as many personal interpretations of the Bible as there are Protestant denominations (about 30,000) and they all disagree.
It could not have been expressed any clearer.
It doesn’t need *interpretation* unless you’re trying to make it say something it doesn’t. Like it’s not really a gift or it’s not really grace.
But you are free to disbelieve the clear, concise words of Scripture if you choose.
Repentance consists of having sorrow for our sins because they offend God and honestly acknowledging and confessing those sins to him. It also includes a firm resolution to avoid sin in the future and, if possible, to make reparation in some way to repair or atone for the sins we have committed, either materially to a person we have wronged or through spiritual acts of repentance.
LOL. If Scripture was that clear, there wouldn't be 30,000 denominations (and counting) holding different interpretations, now would there?
Yes. Before. But once the trigger is squeezed the sin is committed. Contrition can not be sought as the person’s brains are disassembled.
If such a one were to have perfect contrition and express it to a priest he might go to Heaven He would leave his shell of evil behind and it would not affect Heaven.
Thank you. I erred. I relied on memory instead of double checking. I will boldly write I doubt Hitler was ignorant of the stain on his soul for what he believed and did. Did he come to realize the 4 last things were upon him have true sorrow for those acts? I don’t know. But however God saw fit to hand him his portion should not make us complacent on our own destiny.
Your description is not quite clear to me, so my comment on the issue is this:
Since the verb translated "to repent" in the inspired Scripture is μετανοέω (met-an-o-eh'-o) meaning "to change one's mind," a change from one point of view to another. On the other hand, the noun μετάνοια (met-an'-oy-ah) means the mental state of a changed point of view from a worse one to a better one.
Both of these are based on the human's status of having awareness of the gospel message that a reasoning omniscient omnipotent superior Entity exists, a Being that is fully able and desirous to completely restore a human from its fatally damaged state with its consequent penalties, to a permanent perfectly operation of one's soul, spirit, and body. In that restored state, one's eternal life will be pleasurably consistent and in communication with the Will of his/her Creator and Counselor.
But take note: this new state of relationship is conditional upon one event with two factors; the first being the sovereignly autonomous decision of the human to once for all time confirm his/her irrevocable irreversible choice to appropriate the gracious unmerited gift offered by the Superior Entity by unreservedly agreeing to become the property of that Entity's sole human manifestation, His Son, whose blood was the price of the human's redemption from the Heavenly Judge's righteous wrath.
To put this in simpler terms, this once-consummated and permanently ratified never-to-be-rescinded transaction takes place instantly upon two concurrent conditions:
Firstly the human executes the single decision for which the mind of the human has undergone the change of viewpoint of being fully persuaded that This Entity Is, and Is able to perform what He has promised, and therefore this person commits him/herself forever into the Entity's care.
Secondly, this Omnipotent Entity confirms and ratifies the transaction, takes up residence with the spiritually regenerated human's mind and spirit as his/her Counselor, and adopts the person as His child and therefore a citizen of His Kingdom whence also a constituent of the Church Of The First-Born, located in the spiritual realm of Heaven.
From thence one embarks on the path of progressive sanctification, one of learning and chastening and application unto spiritual maturity. But that is another issue, separate from the instantaneous effects of repentance that procures the unearned gift of everlasting life.
Thus the non-repetitious change of mind, of looking at things from God's point of view; that is, repentance from falsity, is just the other side of the coin, which is fully committed assurance in Jesus, Redeemer and Lord (commonly called "faith" or "belief").
You can't have one without the other. And having experienced it, one never goes back. Salvation is instantaneous and is received before any change in behavior is reckoned as worthy to the account of the new-born babe-in-Christ. This behavioral modification is not salvific in any respect.
“Yes. Before. But once the trigger is squeezed the sin is committed. “
But tha doesn’t keep you out of heaven.
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