Do You Have To Confess Sin?

[Lynx]

While considering your original post I missed something very important.

Jesus recognized that the two thieves were very different. One thief hurled insults at him; he blasphemed. Blasphemy is an unforgiveable sin. The other thief repented and received forgiveness from the Lord.
Now the very, very hard part. They both suffered the exact same penalty! This must shake our faith to its foundations.

This is a hard lesson, but it is also repeated many times in the First Testament. David lost four sons for his sin with Bathsheba, even after YHWH’s forgiveness. God forgives our spiritual debts when we trust in him, but the earthly consequences of our actions remain. There remains a physical debt that we still have to pay, even after spiritual redemption.

There is no escape; but there may be hope. The Bible says YHWH desires a “broken and contrite heart” more than any sacrifice. We may yet have the opportunity to mitigate, but not eliminate, our deserved punishment. We can make restitution to those we have harmed. We can seek earthly forgiveness from others through acknowledgement and repentance. We can work to relieve the suffering of others, not as a bargaining chip, but as an act of true sorrow and atonement. We and others will still suffer earthly punishment for our deeds.

Our merciful creator with his all-encompassing grace, may yet deal with us in justice and righteousness, even here on earth.

Yeah. Even after God told David "Bathsheba's baby will not live, because if he survived the enemies of the Lord would use it as a great opportunity to blaspheme" David still fasted and prayed. As David said, who knows if God may let him live after all?

 

[Webers.Home]

.
It's not easy to attain Heaven by means of the Roman Catholic religion. For
example it's believed that when a Catholic leaves this life with just one
un-absolved mortal sin on the books-- just one --they go straight to Hell; no
stopover in a purgatory. If that Catholic perchance had been 100% faithful
in their beliefs and practices for 40 years, it's all for naught just as if they'd
been a pagan the whole time.
_

 

[Seeker47]

.
It's not easy to attain Heaven by means of the Roman Catholic religion. For
example it's believed that when a Catholic leaves this life with just one
un-absolved mortal sin on the books-- just one --they go straight to Hell; no
stopover in a purgatory. If that Catholic perchance had been 100% faithful
in their beliefs and practices for 40 years, it's all for naught just as if they'd
been a pagan the whole time.
_

If my understanding is correct, most protestant denominations reject the concept of purgatory while our Catholic brothers and sisters do not. And I must ask, how this is different from a believer who rejects Christ and then dies, even after 40 years of belief? Do they not also face eternal separation from YHWH? I'm not sure I see the difference.

I do know God deeply loves all his creation and does not willingly loose anyone.