Not... all by ourselves. I do still have faith that we'll get help and guidance if we need it. But I think, if we're going to try, we have to believe we can achieve it. You see?
Not... really. I think if we cling to the idea we can do it ourselves, do enough to really make up for having done wrong, we'll not be accepting that God did for us what we can't do for ourselves. 'Tis done.
Then we're obligated to do what we can, with His help, in terms of doing right from now on and trying to fix it if we've done harm, but that's what we ought to have been doing anyway.
Nothing makes wrong not have happened. I don't believe we can make up for it by doing good, since we ought to do all the good we can anyway; I don't know about you but I'm sure I could be doing more, if I tried, so I'm sinning by omission. But we can be forgiven.
But then, why does Hell exist? If we can't atone for ourselves because it's already done?
Sometimes it's past fixing directly, Rahne. Sometimes the people we did wrong to are out of our reach. And the only way is to try and make up for it in other ways.
I... guess I can see your point. But I was raised to believe... there has to be some kind of penance. The bigger the sin... the more you have to do to get that forgiveness.
Well, to put the devil in, I suppose, even if there weren't anyone else.
And I didn't mean that we can't atone for ourselves because it's already done. I mean we can't atone for ourselves, but it's already done; it was done for us because God chose to be merciful when we were helpless. (I understand you might not agree or think I make sense anyway, but I thought I should try to be clearer.)
I know sometimes things can't be fixed. That's why I only said we were supposed to try; I suppose I should have said "if we can."
I probably don't understand Catholic doctrine as well as I ought. I know of doing penance, but wasn't thinking of it. I was taught that doing good was what you were supposed to do anyway, and that if Jesus took on the penalty for your sinning, then the only purpose left to punishment was either to satisfy earthly authority or to help teach us so that we remember to do better. (Sometimes Reverend Craig has sounded as if he thought we were punished by God or nature on earth for our own sins or even those of others, but I think that what he was really talking about then were consequences: some of the things that can't be or aren't fixed.) I think that I must have thought penance was the teaching sort of punishment, and not understood properly.
So what did Reverend Craig teach you you should do when something can't be fixed?
That's... part of it. There's definitely a part that's meant to teach you not to do again whatever you did. But another part, the way I know it, is to "pay" for what you did, for lack of a better way to put it.
He always said if something couldn't be changed, we had to live with it. I suppose unfixable consequences of sins already committed would be one of those.
I don't suppose that's a very satisfying answer; I don't think I have a better one. Though... I believe that being saved by God's grace means both that the corruption and separation from Him is made clean, and those penalties paid, and that we can't and don't have to do that part ourselves (Would you say, you believe He makes it small enough to be possible for a person to do? Or have I still not got it right?) I don't believe, and I think this part we agree on, that that means either that we ought to sin or that we're somehow excused from doing what He wants. And since making reparations to people on earth is part of that but isn't always possible, and since Jesus could take on our punishment vicariously, maybe making reparations vicariously is also possible after a fashion. Or whether that makes sense or not, maybe things we can't make up for directly can tell us what way we are called to do good. They would mean a type of need we maybe know more about than some people, anyway.
I was thinking as I typed, there, and I've not spent enough time thinking on these things lately. I'm not sure whether 'tis sound or not, nor whether 'tis any kind of satisfaction or comfort to you if so.
Actually, now I need to go somewhere and think quietly about things too, probably. I hope the fact you were checking email means I didn't bother you too badly by interrupting that. I just was worried, somehow, that what I'd said had maybe been phrased badly and... I don't know. Left you thinking I was saying atonement and forgiveness weren't possible at all. Which is actually very frightening to type even to deny.
That's the difficult part, though. Living with it.
What I believe on this is... a bit confused, to be honest. I guess it's best put as... whether or not we can actually ever completely atone for what we've done, sometimes we need to believe we can, to keep going. And yeah, we can agree on the part about not being supposed to sin just because we're already saved.
It didn't bother me - this discussion helped me think it over some, after all. And I never thought you were saying forgiveness isn't possible. Just... the way I've always understood it, which is maybe different from the way you were taught, is that it doesn't come for free. You have to work for it - prove you truly want it, I suppose -and the worse the sin, the more work you have to do to make up for it. Which doesn't seem to be what you believe.
I believe we're supposed to work. But that that's... after the fact that it's what you do because you're forgiven, not a way to earn it. And that neglecting to work to do right is a sin itself.
I can't tell whether I'm doing worse by keeping silent as I usually do, or by speaking up since that seems to drive people away. It looks right now like speaking is worse, so now I've posted a public explanation I will be quiet again.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 08:47 pm (UTC)Angelo
no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 09:13 pm (UTC)Then we're obligated to do what we can, with His help, in terms of doing right from now on and trying to fix it if we've done harm, but that's what we ought to have been doing anyway.
Nothing makes wrong not have happened. I don't believe we can make up for it by doing good, since we ought to do all the good we can anyway; I don't know about you but I'm sure I could be doing more, if I tried, so I'm sinning by omission. But we can be forgiven.
Rahne
no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 09:22 pm (UTC)Sometimes it's past fixing directly, Rahne. Sometimes the people we did wrong to are out of our reach. And the only way is to try and make up for it in other ways.
I... guess I can see your point. But I was raised to believe... there has to be some kind of penance. The bigger the sin... the more you have to do to get that forgiveness.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 09:43 pm (UTC)And I didn't mean that we can't atone for ourselves because it's already done. I mean we can't atone for ourselves, but it's already done; it was done for us because God chose to be merciful when we were helpless. (I understand you might not agree or think I make sense anyway, but I thought I should try to be clearer.)
I know sometimes things can't be fixed. That's why I only said we were supposed to try; I suppose I should have said "if we can."
I probably don't understand Catholic doctrine as well as I ought. I know of doing penance, but wasn't thinking of it. I was taught that doing good was what you were supposed to do anyway, and that if Jesus took on the penalty for your sinning, then the only purpose left to punishment was either to satisfy earthly authority or to help teach us so that we remember to do better. (Sometimes Reverend Craig has sounded as if he thought we were punished by God or nature on earth for our own sins or even those of others, but I think that what he was really talking about then were consequences: some of the things that can't be or aren't fixed.) I think that I must have thought penance was the teaching sort of punishment, and not understood properly.
Rahne
no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 09:57 pm (UTC)So what did Reverend Craig teach you you should do when something can't be fixed?
That's... part of it. There's definitely a part that's meant to teach you not to do again whatever you did. But another part, the way I know it, is to "pay" for what you did, for lack of a better way to put it.
There's a lot I still need to pay for.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-16 11:10 pm (UTC)I don't suppose that's a very satisfying answer; I don't think I have a better one. Though... I believe that being saved by God's grace means both that the corruption and separation from Him is made clean, and those penalties paid, and that we can't and don't have to do that part ourselves (Would you say, you believe He makes it small enough to be possible for a person to do? Or have I still not got it right?) I don't believe, and I think this part we agree on, that that means either that we ought to sin or that we're somehow excused from doing what He wants. And since making reparations to people on earth is part of that but isn't always possible, and since Jesus could take on our punishment vicariously, maybe making reparations vicariously is also possible after a fashion. Or whether that makes sense or not, maybe things we can't make up for directly can tell us what way we are called to do good. They would mean a type of need we maybe know more about than some people, anyway.
I was thinking as I typed, there, and I've not spent enough time thinking on these things lately. I'm not sure whether 'tis sound or not, nor whether 'tis any kind of satisfaction or comfort to you if so.
Actually, now I need to go somewhere and think quietly about things too, probably. I hope the fact you were checking email means I didn't bother you too badly by interrupting that. I just was worried, somehow, that what I'd said had maybe been phrased badly and... I don't know. Left you thinking I was saying atonement and forgiveness weren't possible at all. Which is actually very frightening to type even to deny.
Rahne
no subject
Date: 2004-09-17 09:55 am (UTC)What I believe on this is... a bit confused, to be honest. I guess it's best put as... whether or not we can actually ever completely atone for what we've done, sometimes we need to believe we can, to keep going. And yeah, we can agree on the part about not being supposed to sin just because we're already saved.
It didn't bother me - this discussion helped me think it over some, after all. And I never thought you were saying forgiveness isn't possible. Just... the way I've always understood it, which is maybe different from the way you were taught, is that it doesn't come for free. You have to work for it - prove you truly want it, I suppose -and the worse the sin, the more work you have to do to make up for it. Which doesn't seem to be what you believe.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-17 03:18 pm (UTC)I can't tell whether I'm doing worse by keeping silent as I usually do, or by speaking up since that seems to drive people away. It looks right now like speaking is worse, so now I've posted a public explanation I will be quiet again.
Rahne