Somebody told me an interesting thing, though they didn't expound much on it. They asked me if I had ever heard of "beyond repentance" and I said no. They explained that the condenmation or damnation that will be experienced in the after life has nothing to do with the fact the God cannot forgive people for what they have done, but rather, when they see the truth of our Holy God and realize what evil they have done on earth that they will not be able to "look up" or forgive themselves for what they have done, said, ect...
I thought on this, cause it seemed to explain in one of the books of Enoch (I think thats where I read it, forgive me if I'm wrong) what was being talked about the angels, that are cast away for 10000 years until their guilt is consumated. Now I can only assume since that book says "their guilt" that that is what it is, their guilt, they cannot forgive themselves. Anybody heard anything on this or have any insight here?
Hi,
Firstly I think forgiving should be done by God and/or the human that was hurt (by you).
Would be easy saying to God: "Let me in Heaven because I have forgivven my own sins"
And when the Sinner feels so bad after realising the depths of his sins that he is depressed to look up to God I would call that sincere repentance.
The sinner repents. God forgives repenters whatever way they might be looking.
Just my :2c:
Quote from: arcticmonster2003 on August 15, 2008, 07:36:01 AM
Somebody told me an interesting thing, though they didn't expound much on it. They asked me if I had ever heard of "beyond repentance" and I said no. They explained that the condenmation or damnation that will be experienced in the after life has nothing to do with the fact the God cannot forgive people for what they have done, but rather, when they see the truth of our Holy God and realize what evil they have done on earth that they will not be able to "look up" or forgive themselves for what they have done, said, ect...
A Calvinist doctrine based on some passages in Ezekiel where those that God saves after such horrible wickedness are never again able to open their mouths because of their shame at all of the goodness of God. I read a book one time that was published posthumously by a Calvinist divine from Connecticut (1796?) where he defended the Everlasting Gospel and he tied those verses in Ezekiel to "the smoke of their torment will ascend forever and ever" in the book of Revelation. He believed that God would save all, but that in proportion to our wickedness on this earth, we'd probably have ongoing occasional moments of deep grief over our former sins, in proportion to our former wickedness. He was rare for an 18th century UR believer in the U.S. to believe in no afterlife punishments whatsoever, but that's how he reconciled it. At the end of the day, he still believed that our hearts would have some open wounds that God would have to help us through "in the ages to come," when He'd be showing us the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus.
I guess he saw the grace of God as ripping up every scab and scar from our hearts to remove all hardness and that in heaven or on the New Earth that we'd all have the occasional tears over Amazing Grace. And I've known a revelation of infinite love to do that to people. If they were a little slow in catching on about Christ being our righteousness, when we've embraced Him by faith, then they'd just cry and cry for a considerable time afterwards. Months and even years, until they realized that when they confessed that sin was not when God found out about it. That's when they got rid of it! Thankfully, Jesus is our High Priest until 1Corinthians 15:28.