The "Full Knowledge" Required for Mortal Sin

[John_Hiner]

So if you do something which you have full knowledge of as sinnful, but afterwards you are very regretful of it and repent will God forgive you?

Laudetur Iesus Christus.

I am not sure I understand your question. He has made provision for us to be recovered from our sins. But it is significantly more than forgiveness.

Can you say something more about what you want to know?

Pax Christi nobiscum.

John Hiner

 

[Neil_Anthony]

So if you do something which you have full knowledge of as sinnful, but afterwards you are very regretful of it and repent will God forgive you?

Yes, God will forgive you. “Full knowledge” comes up in determining which sins are mortal and which are venial - a mortal sin results in the loss of salvation, venial sins do not. Any sin can be forgiven if you repent.

(For Catholics, we’re required to go to confession to repent of a mortal sin).

 

[PJM]

=kennerbabe09;5394443]So if you do something which you have full knowledge of as sinnful, but afterwards you are very regretful of it and repent will God forgive you?

Please read 1 John 5: 16-17 and Jn. 20:21-22, and then Mt. 16:19

Three steps are necessary

True repentance

A Commitment to conversion to with God’s grace, not repeat the sin

Confession of the sin{s}

Love and prayers

 

[John_Hiner]

Yes, God will forgive you. “Full knowledge” comes up in determining which sins are mortal and which are venial - a mortal sin results in the loss of salvation, venial sins do not. Any sin can be forgiven if you repent. . .

Laudetur Iesus Christus.

This issue of being forgiven and the state of grace is a difficult one:

But as to what thy Sweetness has added in thy letters, namely that thou wilt continue to be urgent with me till I write that it has been revealed to me that thy sins are forgiven, thou hast demanded a difficult, nay even an unprofitable thing; difficult indeed, because I am unworthy of having a revelation made to me; but unprofitable, because thou oughtest not to become secure about thy sins, except when in the last day of thy life thou shall be able no longer to bewail them. But, until that day comes, thou oughtest, ever suspicious and ever fearful, to be afraid of faults, and wash them with daily tears. Assuredly the apostle Paul had already ascended into the third heaven, had also been caught up into Paradise, and heard secret words which it was not lawful for a man to speak (2Co 12,2, &c)., and yet, still fearful, he said, I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, while preaching to others, I myself should become a castaway (1Co 9,27). One who is caught up into heaven still fears; and shall one whose conversation is still on earth desire already not to fear? Consider, most sweet daughter, that security is wont to be the mother of carelessness. Thou oughtest not, then, in this life to have security, whereby thou mayest be rendered careless. For it is written, Happy is the man that is always afraid (Pr 28,14). And again it is written, Serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice unto him with trembling (Ps 2,11). In short, then, it must needs be that in the time of this life trembling possess your soul, to the end that it may hereafter rejoice without end through the joy of security. May Almighty God fill your soul with the grace of His Holy Spirit, and, after the tears which you daily shed in prayer, bring you to eternal joys. (St. Pope Gregory the Great, Epistle XXV, to Gregoria, 20725.)

A pleasing illustration of this attitude is found in the reply of St. Joan of Arc to a question posed as a trap by her ecclesiastical judges: “Asked if she knew that she was in God’s grace, she replied: ‘If I am not, may it please God to put me in it; if I am, may it please God to keep me there.’” (1997 Catechism of the Catholic Church 2005)

One of the points separating the, “separated brethren,” is their desire for certainty about the forgiveness of sins.

Pax Christi nobiscum.

John Hiner

 

[kennerbabe09]

Laudetur Iesus Christus.

I am not sure I understand your question. He has made provision for us to be recovered from our sins. But it is significantly more than forgiveness.

Can you say something more about what you want to know?

Pax Christi nobiscum.

John Hiner

well my friend who goes to church with me recently had sex with her boyfriend knowing it was sinnful and she regrets is a lot is afraid that God isnt going to forgive her for doing something she knows was wrong…

 

[John_Hiner]

well my friend who goes to church with me recently had sex with her boyfriend knowing it was sinnful and she regrets is a lot is afraid that God isnt going to forgive her for doing something she knows was wrong…

Laudetur Iesus Christus. (May Jesus Christ be praised.)

Dear “Kennerbabe:”

It is difficult to understand these issues of sin and forgiveness. It takes time and effort to think them through. So, it might be useful to try and think them through slowly and carefully, one little step at a time, to try and understand what is going on and why God acts as He does.

To begin this, I would ask, “Why does your friend regret what she did?” By this I do not mean a personal history of what makes her feel unpleasant sensations about it, but what makes it bad – How is it contrary to what God wants? What damage does it do? How does it really do this damage?

This is important, because God does not make things into sins. Rather, they really are sins; that is, there really is something about them which means that they will not work. This is one of the reasons that God hates sin, because sin makes things not work.

Do you or your friend have any ideas about these things in connection with the decision your friend made and what she did?

One has to understand these things, before one can understand how forgiveness works and whether God will forgive.

Wish your friend well from me. Tell her there is hope, but there is work to do before the hope can be realized.

Spiritus Sapientiae nobiscum. ([May the] Spirit of Wisdom [be] with us.)

John Hiner

 

[MetalMark]

I have a question, would “full knowledge” require not just knowing what you are doing is wrong but also knowing that it will kill grace in your soul and put you in hell if you do not have the sin absolved through confession?

 

[John_Hiner]

I have a question, would “full knowledge” require not just knowing what you are doing is wrong but also knowing that it will kill grace in your soul and put you in hell if you do not have the sin absolved through confession?

Laudetur Iesus Christus.

The short and fair answer to this is, “No.”

However, this raises a separate question in my mind. What are we trying to discover in this discussion? Is this an effort to lower the standards of Christ to the lowest possible standard? Or is it an attempt to waive them all together?

The law of Heaven is written in the hearts of all men. Failing to obey it is culpable – because it does not work. These laws are not arbitrary. God is not a tyrant. The reason certain behaviors exclude one from Heaven is because they do not work. They make one incompatible with the holy ones, God, the Holy Angels, and the Saints. The tests are not, “technical hoops.” They are real and demanding requirements for eternal life and eternal peace.

Consider Anne Rice’s novels about vampires. A primary theme of the series is the inability and lack of endurance for eternal life. The characters in them are extraordinary in many ways, but even their slightest vices disable them from living more than a few hundred years. They come to hate living. This seems a logical extension of the consequences of vice.

People who call others, “blockheads,” or who dispose of their first spouses are unfit for eternal life – they cannot stand to live with people for a fraction of this lifetime, let alone for endless ages in the new earth. They must repent of these defects at a very deep level to become fit for Heaven.

It is demeaning to God to act as though His rules are like a child’s game where He can call, “Ally ally in come free,” and everyone wins. That is no way to, “live happily ever after.” The virtues are the skills of eternal life. They are necessary for us to live together in the Kingdom of Heaven. They are not, “technicalities,” that can be waived.

Knowing the rules helps one learn to habitually obey them. This is a great advantage of being a member of the Church established by Christ. One must not only be habitual, but perfect in their practice, if one expects to successfully practice them forever. Heaven admits everyone who can be admitted – but this is a very narrow scope of behaviors, because the eternal standard demands perfection.

Pax Christi nobiscum.

John Hiner