Forgiveness involves the setting right of erring mankind. This must be voluntary of acceptance, or else it is not love. It makes the terrible fate of hell possible to choose, but the Lord would rather that souls be able to choose to embrace the devil forever in hatred and rage at Him, than that they be mere puppets whose love could not be true.
That is a very profound post, HTRN, I have to say.
I believe that we must try and help addicts, because truly they need help.
I also believe that we must try and help them in the proper way.
That way does not involve imprisonment, because the truth of the matter is that the addict is already imprisoned.
They wrapped themselves in the heaviest chains from head to toe, and then they secured them with a massive padlock to which they hold the key in their hand the whole time, but they won’t use it.
The addict must be able to see that the world beyond their chains is so much better than their self imposed prison sentence. it is only at such time that they can truly see that that they will have a chance at unlocking the chains and walking away.
But another sad truth is that there is always the chance that even after doing that, the addict will simply return to his chains and rewrap himself in them and lock them once again.
That is the nature of addiction, and it is very frustrating, especially to those who love an addict.