No awareness of sin and the trivialization – fatal

Deutsch

Sin and its consequences have disappeared from most people’s minds. Even awareness of this does not guarantee salvation, because confession and forgiveness of sins only concern God.

Forgiveness of sins only after proper confession

As for sin, eradicating awareness of it from people’s minds was a “complete success.” While the Roman Catholic Church maintains it as a tradition that the priest, also a person with sins, can forgive people’s transgressions, the large (former) Protestant churches simply gave sin a different definition. Both would actually be laughable if the situation wasn’t deadly serious in the truest sense of the word.

Sin itself is therefore no longer recognized as such by the majority of people or is classified as a minor matter. The willingness to ask for forgiveness for sins is correspondingly low, and especially at the “right address”.

Survey shows the disaster

The majority of Germans do not think much of the concept of confession and the sins that are absolved from it, according to a result of the INSA study commissioned by “Die Tagespost“.

The “concept” is different

However, a distinction must be made at this point. Confession according to the Gospel occurs exclusively in prayer to God, through Jesus Christ. According to the Catholic concept, a confession is made to the priest. He then decides on absolution and, according to the understanding of this church, God has to follow the priest’s decision. Sounds unbelievable, but it is true(Info).

Big rejection of the “concept”

Accordingly, 44 percent (cumulative) of the Germans surveyed were of the opinion that the remission of sins after confession was bad. In detail, 14 percent consider this to be “rather bad” and 30 percent consider it “very bad”. 18 percent consider confession and remission of sins to be “fairly good” and 8 percent to be “very good”. 20 percent of those surveyed were undecided and 11 percent refrained from answering.
Furthermore, the study found that the popularity of confession and forgiveness of sins decreases as the age of the respondents increases.

The question was: “What do you think of the concept of having one’s sins remitted after confession?”

Among the Catholics surveyed, support for remission of sins after confession was 42 percent. On the other hand, among members of a regional Protestant church the negative attitude was 46 percent, among members of free churches it was 49 percent and among those surveyed without a denomination it was 55 percent.

The statistics are not presented linearly by the magazine, but the explosiveness of the situation can still be seen in the numbers. Confession with subsequent forgiveness of sins clearly has the “flavor” of the Catholic variant, but in principle this process also applies to actual repentance towards God according to the Gospel. But to speak of a “concept” in this context takes a deep look.

Catholic forgiveness of sins ineffective

The fundamental difference to the forgiveness of sins according to the Gospel is the absolute ineffectiveness of the alleged forgiveness of sins by the Catholic priest. He exercises his “office” in the context of arrogance, pride and blasphemy towards God. Even the Pharisees sometimes had a correct answer in their arsenal of legal heresies. Jesus Christ forgave a man his sins. However, the Pharisees did not or did not want to recognize Jesus Christ as the Son of God. In their ignorance they responded accordingly, as inLuke 5:21:
“And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?”
True! Who can forgive sins but God alone? Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh (John 1:1-3, 14) and therefore God incarnate on earth. He, the Creator of all things, formulated the laws. Who else but the Lord of the Laws can forgive the transgression of His statutes? Only God himself and not a self-appointed (would-be) representative. This means that the Catholic priests are definitely disqualified.

Sin trivialized in Protestant terms

The (former) Protestant churches no longer teach sin as the violation of one of God’s laws. They now define sin as the act of man’s turning away from God (Info). The topic is no longer conversion, repentance, asking for forgiveness in prayer, in true faith, but simply baptism. This restores the connection between man and God and everything is fine. There could also be a “pop-up baptism” in passing(Info).

In addition, after baptism, the person is in community with other like-minded people. “Welcome to the club and salvation is assured” (Info).

Whether the person mistakenly turns to the Catholic priest for forgiveness of sins or simply fails to do so because he already has the ticket to the kingdom of heaven in his pocket with a Protestant baptism, in both cases this person is hopelessly lost. Only God can forgive sins!

Immediate forgiveness of sins – Only in true faith

Jesus Christ, in His almost infinite love and grace, forgives sin immediately. But this includes turning back to God in true faith, when people confess Jesus Christ, repent of their sins and ask for forgiveness in prayer. True faith requires that a person recognize sin for what it is, an abomination. Who would walk into the store to steal, knowing that their own brother would be sentenced to death vicariously for it?

Jesus Christ demonstrated law, grace and admonition in a single act. A woman (Mary Magdalene) was caught in adultery. The Pharisees dragged them before Jesus Christ to trap him. How will Jesus Christ react when the law says that the woman should be stoned after such an incident? In this context, Jesus Christ famously said: “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone” (John 8:7). The Pharisees disappeared, leaving Jesus Christ and the woman alone.

John 8:10-11:
“When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”
Jesus Christ showed himself merciful and forgave her sin (transgression of the commandment of adultery) and admonished the woman to desist from sin in the future!

Sin is completely forgotten

Sin literally decides whether you live or die. Sin is much easier to understand than the mainline churches would have us believe. 1. John 3:4
“Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”
Lawlessness is disregard for the law. Which laws? The 10 Commandments(Info).

What is the result of sin? Romans 6:23:
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
So very easy to understand. Anyone who disregards or violates one of God’s commandments is sentenced to death. Compensation is not possible for humans(Works righteousness – Info).

The sinner depends solely on the grace of Jesus Christ and He is more than willing to forgive sins. But to do this, the person must return to him and present all his sins (confess) and ask for forgiveness. This is followed by turning away from the previous sinful life. The sanctification of man begins with the help of the Holy Spirit.

The rude awakening – but then too late

It’s shocking how far people who call themselves Christians are from realizing their sins. Roughly estimated, almost a third turn to the completely wrong “address” (Catholic priest), another almost third think baptism alone is sufficient and another third don’t care about it at all. Their sins will remain until judgment. Even the judgment that was mentioned several times in the Bible has also been pushed out of people’s minds. Ultimately there will be a “moral purification” and then God will be reconciled with all people. What a mistake. There will be a rude awakening, but then it will be far too late. Luke 13:28:
“There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.“

Jesus Christ must be the focus

The justice of God does not allow people whose sins still cling to be declared righteous and to redeem them from certain death (final death). This is precisely why the Father sent His Son to suffer death in our place. In doing so, God has also acquired the right to be able to exercise mercy while maintaining justice. Jesus Christ is therefore the absolute center, John 14:6:

The “concept” of forgiveness of sins after conversion to Jesus Christ, repentance and future life according to God’s will is actually without alternative in this case.

Bible verses from King James Version