God only forgives a set amount of sins for you

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In The True Spouse of Jesus Christ by Alphonsus de Liguori, he writes “that God has fixed for each person the number of sins he will pardon.” This is Chapter 10, paragraph two and he states that St. Basil , St. Jerome and St. Augustine all taught this doctrine and it is also in the Holy Scriptures.
Can someone please elaborate with evidence?
Thanks
 
Where does the Gospel concept of forgiving “seventy times seven” - i.e., an infinite amount - fit into this?
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
Where does the Gospel concept of forgiving “seventy times seven” - i.e., an infinite amount - fit into this?
Click to expand...
Romans 12:19?

‘Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved; but give place unto wrath, for it is written: Revenge is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.’

Romans 12:19
 
HeWillProvide said:
In The True Spouse of Jesus Christ by Alphonsus de Liguori, he writes “that God has fixed for each person the number of sins he will pardon.” This is Chapter 10, paragraph two and he states that St. Basil , St. Jerome and St. Augustine all taught this doctrine and it is also in the Holy Scriptures.
Can someone please elaborate with evidence?
Thanks
Click to expand...
I would like more cites, especially that bit about holy scripture. :tsktsk:
 
It seems to imply (sorry if this is wrong, it is simply my reading) that the number of sins God will forgive is completed when the person dies, as there seems to be a parallel system between the days of life, the graces received, the talents one has, and the number of sins permitted. After all, so long as one is alive, they still have days, they still can receive grace, they still have their abilities (to a lesser or greater extent), but they can still sin. So long as one is alive, one can also repent.

Maybe I’m reading this wrong, but if I’m not, then it shouldn’t surprise anyone given that 1. God is omnipotent and 2. God is omniscient.
 
Sounds like the sin of presumption the saint is talking about. That forgiveness will be given always before death. This ignores the idea of the virgins who let their lamps go out (sanctifying grace) and the bridegroom came to enter the chamber (heaven). They weren’t ready. The person is flipant about holy matters taking them for granted.

The warning that death will come as a thief in the night is ignored.

And then there is the possibility that someone commits the sin so ofter, they begin to think it isn’t that bad anyway and things maybe it is just a little sin since so many do it.
There heart grows hard which leads to impenitance or not carring, or indifference.

And after a while, confession dosen’t seem so important or necessary that I can put it off for a while and then …

The truth of the matter is, that God’s love is limitless because God is love, but we must pray for forgiveness otherwise it might not be granted. And if the person dosen’t pray for it, it will be granted if another person prays for them, in heaven, or on earth. “…pray for us now and at the hour of our death.” This sounds familiar.
 
You only live for a “set amount of time”, the difference between the number of sins GOD will forgive and the number of days, minutes we each live is directly related.

We do not know when we will die, so we can’t chose to stop sinning at the perfiect time to avoid the next sin before death. But we can sin, and die before we get to confession, and what if that last sin is a mortal sin?

Do you see the frightening way we live? Who plans to die? But who lives a perfect life?

We need to focus our lives as the saints did, in struggling and persevering against sin while anticipating and mediating upon our deaths - we need to plan for our deaths. To understand that it will come. To know that it will be eternal. To mediate on heaven and hell, and make a choice - where would I like to spend eternity ? And if you hopefully chose heaven, then make it a goal and direct your life toward that goal. Do you think for one moment that any saint was “an accident” instead of a purposeful life of love, good works and charity ?

Hell is full of accidents, heaven is full of purposeful lives directed in fullfiling GOD’s desires, commands and wishes.
 
  1. *St. Basil, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine and other fathers, teach, that as God according to the words of Scripture, “Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight” – Wis. 11:21 has fixed for each person the number of the days of his life, and the degrees of health and talent which He will give him, so He has also determined for each the number of sins which He will pardon; and when this number is completed, He will pardon no more. *
  2. St Alphonsus doesn’t say in which works the above saints are supposed to have taught that there are a finite number of sins that God will pardon.
  3. Even if they did say this and St Alphonsus agrees with them this is only their personal opinion. To the best of my knowledge the church doesn’t teach this theory.
If someone can cite an authentic Church document which says that there are a finite number of sins that God will pardon I would like to see it.
 
I saw a really good post about this on another forum…I’m not sure if I’m allowed to link to it, but I’m going to quote the response here:

"I have heard this concept before, and I think as stated in the OP it’s a little too simplistic. From what I understand, it is more a matter of how sin affects the soul. Just like committing venial sin predisposes the soul to commit mortal sin, committing mortal sin predisposes the soul to death. It takes an enormous amount of God’s grace to bring us back to life, to contrition, confession, and faith when one sins mortally. Each mortal sin predisposes the soul to lose the faith God’s grace has given us. Eventually, the sinner can tip the balance and lose their faith entirely.

The concept of “fidelity to grace” is tied to this idea. God gives us grace to avoid sinning when we are tempted. If we don’t remain faithful to that grace, we fall into sin. God does reach out to us, but the more accustomed we become to ignoring God’s grace, the less available that grace is to us. Sinning is like spreading soot all over your soul, and when it gets really black and dirty, we can no longer “see” God’s grace.

Have you ever known someone who had a strong faith, completely believed in God and His church etc. Then, almost overnight they lost their faith, then began blasting God and/or the church? While we cannot read people’s hearts, we can be nearly certain that this loss of faith was the result of the person’s stubborn attachment to mortal sin, and their infidelity to grace. Not all hope is lost for such a person, and God will be eager to forgive them if they turn around, but they are less likely to do so of their own volition. It’s very important to pray for people in these situations because they aren’t praying for themselves, and the prayers of other faithful Catholics can indeed save them.

So, it’s not that God won’t forgive sins any longer after a certain number of them, rather that a certain number of sins will lead the sinner to stop seeking forgiveness."
 
If Alphonsus were living today, he may have done two things, read St. Faustina’s diary, which does not contradict what he is thinking and reworded this in our own language.

God’s mercy is infinite and he desires nothing more than to forgive our sins. However, to ride on God’s coat tail is a sin against his mercy. Once you make that choice, whatever happens after that is a natural consequence for your presumption.

In my opinion, Augustine explains it more clearly than Alphonsus. That’s probably because Alphonsus was a lawyer. Lawyers have a way with language that often makes them difficult to understand. His is saying the same thing as Augustine, but in more complex language.

In any case, all of the saints and great teachers of the spiritual life have taught this. They have simply said it differently. That’s why it’s good to read different spiritual masters until you find one that you understand.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
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