The sin of not believing

[_kairos]

forget pascal's wager, not pascal -he was pretty cool

Be still and know that i am god
Be still and know that i am
Be still and know
Be still
Be


i like the last one

just sayin

k

[_huckelberry]

A question I have is this: if it's a sin not to believe, is it also a sin not to believe correctly? I would argue that it is, because if you believe incorrectly, then compared with the correct way, you don't believe, and hence are in sin.

This would imply that, statistically, almost everyone who lives now, or has ever lived, is a sinner just because they don't believe correctly.

I like Chap's post from earlier in the thread. Christ apparently never said much about professed belief having much to do with salvation. Rather, it was how a person lived and treated others. It was his followers who came along and made the whole "believe or be damned" claims. I was about to wonder why, but then it occurred to me that by asserting primacy of beliefs, a person can usurp power over others by claiming to be the trustee of the body of truth in which all others must believe.

Given most people on Earth have never heard of most deities that others believe in, the system is pretty much rigged against everyone. The idea that God put everything we need on Earth to develop and embrace a correct belief system looks obviously wrongheaded.

Sethbag, My being a believer and you not made me think I should make some sort of reply to this post. However reading through it a couple of times I could not find a single thing in it I disagree with. Having no personal animosity toward you I am thus left only able to say, yup that is about right, or you can say that again..

[_Philo Sofee]

A question I have is this: if it's a sin not to believe, is it also a sin not to believe correctly? I would argue that it is, because if you believe incorrectly, then compared with the correct way, you don't believe, and hence are in sin.

From the link in the OP it seems Willliam Lane also thinks that incorrect belief is a sin.

Second, wholly apart from God’s revelation in nature is the inner witness which the Holy Spirit bears to the great truths of the Gospel, including, I should say, the fact that God exists. Anyone who fails to believe in God by the end of his lifetime does so only by a stubborn resistance to the work of the Holy Spirit in drawing that person to a knowledge of God

Since the Holy Spirit testifies of the "great truths" of the gospel. It appears that anyone who believes incorrectly does so also by a "stubborn resistance to the work of the Holy Spirit". Which would make them morally culpable. So I can only assume that Muslims and eastern religions also believe in their religions because of a "stubborn resistance to the work of the Holy Spirit."

Perhaps I should have titled the thread "The sin of believing incorrectly."

We are taught that the Holy Spirit testifies, but the Bible gives so much more than just this. Not meaning to degrade the idea, but the actual reality and physical contact of God and with God is vastly superior I would propose. Blasphemy perhaps, but the Bible expects us to see it that way based on its myriads of stories of events where God is HERE and ACTING for us in many different kinds of ways. I don't believe the Bible is at all what the church preaches. It is irrelevant which subjects either, whether of God, Jesus, salvation, prophets, etc. what the church teaches is just not what the Bible teaches. Through a careful selection of proof texts we can make the Bible match the church's ideas, but that is just demonstrating that the church doesn't actually believe what the Bible says on its face value of what it teaches. The modern reinterpretation of ours seldom matches the "reality" the Bible depicts as actually happening, as actually meaning. Of course not, it's out of date, a series of put together stories from their limited perspective from the Ancient Near East. All of the "real" contact of God with man has ceased, and we are left with a modern interpretation of the Holy Spirit testifies. With the rather ignorant understanding of how the human brain functions, it is easy to ascribe what it can do to God and call it good. But a little study shows the brain can and does produce absolutely everything Mormonism teaches is from God. It is, I must confess, a most interesting conundrum for us all to ponder.

[_Tchild]

If not believing is a "sin", then I am a sinner who never wants to be forgiven.