The Nature of Sin

[camerong]

I’m having a discussion with a friend of mine who has left Christianity, in part because he says he does not believe in sin. As I understand his argument, he says that if God disliked sin, but created us with the capacity to sin, the fault is God’s, not our own. I can see his argument being similar to a prison which has no locks, and inmates are expected to stay in based on the honor system… when the prisoners escape, of course we can say they chose to do so and are at fault, but clearly there is much culpability on the part of the prison warden for allowing the condition to exist.

I’m certain I’ve heard a good answer to this in the past, and remember specifically going through this, but I’m now coming up blank. Thoughts?

 

[frecklemom]

I am but a measley replier, but will try to answer with what I know.
My 10 year old son asked a simlilar question. He asked the priest, “If God is the shepard, why does try to shepard all the sheep? Why not let them all go free?”
He went on- why aren’t we just free to do what we want? Why is God trying to keep us?
Well, it’s not exactly the same question, but the answer may be helpful.
Father said that God gave us free will because he loved us, and what kind of God would he be if he forced us to love him with good actions? To know true love, one can not be forced to love. He shepards the sheep (who are not fenced in) because he knows what is best for them. You can see this argument can not be compared to a jail situation. People trying to rehabilitate other people are always going to be subject to error, because they are not God. They don’t always know true love, or what is best for others in the divine truth. The honor system with God is always fulfilled on his behalf, and it is our choice to assume.

 

[camerong]

I am but a measley replier, but will try to answer with what I know.
My 10 year old son asked a simlilar question. He asked the priest, “If God is the shepard, why does try to shepard all the sheep? Why not let them all go free?”
He went on- why aren’t we just free to do what we want? Why is God trying to keep us?
Well, it’s not exactly the same question, but the answer may be helpful.
Father said that God gave us free will because he loved us, and what kind of God would he be if he forced us to love him with good actions? To know true love, one can not be forced to love. He shepards the sheep (who are not fenced in) because he knows what is best for them. You can see this argument can not be compared to a jail situation. People trying to rehabilitate other people are always going to be subject to error, because they are not God. They don’t always know true love, or what is best for others in the divine truth. The honor system with God is always fulfilled on his behalf, and it is our choice to assume.

Thank you for your response. There is no such thing as a measly replier!

So perhaps a way to look at it is that sin is, in a way, not really bad in itself–its really somewhat of a natural action of humans–but its bad because it separates us from God. Its not as if we are “punished” for something that comes so naturally to us–which I think is my friend’s concern–but we simply feel the consequences of our chosen separation from God, the separation that comes about from sin. It is not that being sinful is disapproved of because a sinful human is, in himself, an undesirable thing, but because a sinful human is a human who is without God. And the necessity of free will dictates that we be free to chose whether to separate ourselves from God (through sin) or not.

Does that accurately reflect your response?

 

[Haliit]

Sin is a possible consequence of allowing for free-will. God created us with free-will so we may choose whether to love and serve him, or to not. Sin is the latter choice.

 

[manualman]

Your friend seems to want to be a puppet on a string. Ask him if that’s what he REALLY wants!

Evil is like coldness. It is an abstraction that really doesn’t exist by itself. Coldness is a term invented to describe inadequate amounts of heat. Same goes for evil. When God decided NOT to be the cosmic puppetmaster, he allowed us to choose Him or Not choose him. Not choosing Him is what we call evil for purposes of convenience.

 

[Benadam]

World - sin = God + sin

God + sin = world - sin.

This argument requires sin to exist for sin not to exist.