CATHOLIC DISBELIEF IN FORGIVENESS AND THE SHODDY REPLACEMENT FOR IT
Forgiveness according to Catholicism is when two people are reconciled and want
to move on together in spite of the fact that at least one did the other wrong.
It is based on the wrongdoer resolving to live a better life and not to repeat
the offence. The faith says God forgives those who are truly turning their lives
around after offending God.
Real forgiveness cannot happen unless you are fully friends with the other
person. It is only you and that person that can become friends. It takes the two
of you. If you beat up a child and are more worried about how it affects God
than the child then no true friendship with the child is possible. The
forgiveness is just a mock up. Catholic teaching is that each person must be
loved less than God.
The forgiveness so eulogised by the Church is really fake forgiveness because
real forgiveness is supposed to be something free and not forced. The motive
behind real is supposed to be basically one of generosity. This is giving a
person what you do not need to give them and what they have not earned. But
Christianity with a forgiving God makes it a duty for you to forgive others.
Jesus said that because God has forgiven you, you have to forgive others in
gratitude to God. His claim that he died so that our sins might be pardoned
makes it worse for then if we do not forgive we are insulting God for he got
their sins paid for. What the Church believes in is not forgiving but in
condoning – condoning is admitting an act was wrong but choosing to reward it as
if it never happened. It gives you a pat on the back for being a baddie while
pretending to condemn your badness! Many philosophers believe there is no
difference between forgiving and condoning full stop. The important thing about
forgiveness is what it does in practice. It does seem that it is Catholic
delusionalism then to say that forgiving and condoning are not the same when
both have the same effect and the same dangers.
The Church holds that we should forgive others for hurting God our friend for
anybody hates our friend hates us for we depend on God for life. The Church says
if we do not forgive others we will not be forgiven. Jesus gave that teaching.
Then why are people who are asked to repent at Church services not reminded to
forgive the sins of the whole world first? Is it not mockery to ask for pardon
and not pardon? The reason is the Church knows it won’t be done for how could
you forgive the likes of Hitler if you believe he had complete freedom of will
and was not programmed when he created an evil character in himself?
Forgiving is an act of love for an enemy. The Church says all good must be done
for God alone. People aren’t good enough for the Church so the Church has to
have to have a God to cherish and love instead. Forgiving them to please God is
only a pretence. It is not done for them so it is only a mimic of forgiveness.
Forgiveness when you believe that God is not the be all and end all but does
come first is still too grudging to be of much value.
The Church says mercy is only for those who will not abuse it and will not be
given if you only want it to do further wrongs. But what if you are the kind of
person who means it at the time and five minutes later is back to square one?
That is what happens so the Church teaching on forgiveness does not really do
any good.
Forgiveness is a form of mercy but mercy and forgiveness do not mean the same
thing. Mercy can mean a person is not forgiven but just granted a punishment
lighter than what they deserve. Or the punishment may be cancelled.
God does not forgive because of our sins but in spite of them. He has to force
himself then to forgive. Charming!
Christians can do you harm. Then they feel guilt and a need for forgiveness. Why
do they look for forgiveness from God? As God comes first going to him for
forgiveness matters more than them going to you. They transfer their guilt for
how they hurt you to God by pretending it was him they hurt not you. This is
appalling. No wonder they soon sin again! No wonder they could still be a danger
to you. You cannot really believe in forgiveness if you have such immature and
irresponsible beliefs.
Jesus said that if you do not forgive everybody else, God will never give you
forgiveness. The Church agrees with this bullying and unsympathetic attitude.
Jesus told the parable about the man who got forgiven a lot of debt and who did
not forgive a man who owed him a little money. He told the story to show the
point that if you are forgiven a lot and can't forgive smaller sins in others
then you are bad in the extreme. You will be treated by God as if you were never
forgiven.
Real forgiveness would not be given to an unrepentant person. That cheapens
forgiveness and denies that the evil done by the person is important. This is
the case whether it is awarded by God or man. A person who repents will not want
to be treated as if his repentance doesn't matter and he will be forgiven
anyway. It is an insult to those who go to great lengths to turn their lives
around.
We believe we should be hated and punished for we deserve it. We seek
forgiveness so that this may not happen and that we may get better than we
deserve. The result is that broken relationships begin to be built up again.
Christians see sin as a break in your relationship with God. The Christian
teaching of love the sinner and hate the sin separates the sin from the sinner.
If we really believe that rubbish we will never be satisfied with the
forgiveness we get from those who believe it. To treat a person as if their sin
is not a mark of their character is to deny that person forgiveness. It is
persons that are forgiven not sins.
Real forgiving is about changing your mind that a person should be punished - by
disapproval, by hatred or by suffering some penalty or two or more of these. It
is not about feelings.
When you feel the desire to see evil befall somebody for having done something
very wrong and it disappears, many people think this is forgiveness. People also
think that if you get over somebody hurting you that is forgiveness as well.
If you are tormented against your will by the desire to see the evil person
suffer and you feel hurt and anger against that person and this feeling
disappears, that is not forgiveness at all. You didn’t consent to those
feelings. They hurt you not the evil person. When you are able to let go, that
is recovery not forgiveness.
The Church takes advantage of the fact that people confuse recovery with
forgiveness to promote itself. It plays on that confusion to make its evil
bullying teaching that forgiveness is necessary for salvation look caring and
kindly. The Church does this to mask its true nature. The doctrine of
forgiveness is about forgiving for God. Not you. Not the person who hurt you. It
bullies those who have been gravely hurt for God says he does not forgive those
who do not forgive others.
Forgiveness has nothing to do with feelings at all.
Forgiveness means that you do not intend to see vengeance visited upon the evil
person any more. You might emotionally want it but it is what you intend that
counts.
Recovery is selfish for it is meant to benefit you and not the other person.
When it is disguised as forgiveness, it is more selfish for deceit is added into the
cake-mix.
Life is too short for bickering and holding grudges. This is worried about the
trouble bickering and grudges cause. It is claiming that if life were longer the
troubles would be more acceptable. You can forgive somebody in the sense that
you refuse to exact justice or revenge on them but still feel seething rage
against them. So it is not failing to forgive that causes the bother but the
anger.
People often say, “I hope whoever has committed this crime gets caught.” This is
incompatible with really forgiving.
Praying for help to forgive somebody only makes the ill-feelings worse because
it is not the right method for dealing with anger feelings and feelings of being
hurt. It is not the real starting point. If you try to keep finding things about
people to like and if you treat them like you like them you are practicing for
liking them. You will end up liking them before you know it. Remember that you
never dislike anybody. You only partly dislike them. See that. That is your
starting point. No religion, no mysticism, just commonsense. Anything else is
like giving a person with flu a massage first instead of Paracetemol. It makes
the problem worse for it's not the right thing to do.
Perhaps forgiving and tolerating are the same thing? No. Some people however mix
them up. They tolerate a sinner and they think that is forgiveness. If you
really forgive you accept the person. Tolerating is putting up with a person not
accepting them.
TEMPORAL PUNISHMENT BY GOD
To forgive is to treat a sin as if it never happened when the sinner repents and
to declare her or him not guilty anymore in your sight. Obviously, you can’t
forgive unless you cancel the punishment that person deserves.
Rome teaches the doctrine of temporal punishment. This is the idea that God
demands you be punished for sin even though he has forgiven you for it. Roman
Catholicism sees temporal punishment as a divine demand for compensation and
penance as paying it (The Question and Answer Catholic Catechism, questions
1382-1400). It is pointed out that it is possible to forgive a person who has
broken your window and still ask him to pay for it (The Catholic Church has the
Answer, pages 32-35). That is true but an all-powerful God does not need
compensation. Rome agrees that he doesn’t but explains that he wants it for it
is good discipline for us. But now she is contradicting her dogma of indulgences
(and that the prayers of the living can earn the release from Purgatory of the
souls who are suffering there to pay for their temporal punishment). An
indulgence is a remission of the debt of temporal punishment. When God just
forgets it like that it isn’t for our sake at all. When God commands
compensation that he has no need of it is for meting out justice. He does not
really forgive for an offence is either forgiven or it is not. The availability
of indulgences does not mean that there is true forgiveness for if there were
there would be no indulgences.
You cannot be saved unless you believe that God pardons sins (Romans 4:5;
Hebrews 11:6) because salvation is mainly about getting forgiven. The Catholic
Church does not genuinely believe in a God of forgiveness but in one who partly
condones sin by imagining that it ought not to be punished as much as it ought
to be instead. This proves that her God sort of blesses sin. The Catholic cannot
be saved until she or he starts to believe in forgiveness which means severance
from the Church and becoming a Protestant.
The Catholic Church declares that though Christ has paid the price for our sins
in full – for his atoning work is infinite in value – it says that God kindly
leaves a bit for us to pay ourselves.
Impossible. It wouldn’t be fair for Jesus to pay for all our sins and then ask
us to partly pay for them ourselves. It would be punishing sin more than it
deserves.
The bit we have to pay by undertaking punishment is called temporal punishment.
Catholics cannot be saved if they believe in temporal punishment for it prevents
sincere belief in the atonement of Christ. They may only think they believe in
the atonement but that is no good. To believe because of a mistake is not
acceptable for you don’t know what you are doing. God will only accept real
faith which is sane faith. He will not bless a vice.
Rome’s god tells us to forgive and won’t do it himself. He has no right to do
this. He expects us to suffer in forgiving while he does not really forgive.
We see that the Catholic has to earn God’s forgiveness – now earning
forgiveness, isn’t that a contradiction? Pardon cannot be deserved. You need
money to buy the prayers and talismans required for gaining indulgences and the
more money you donate to the priest the more forgiveness you get. Catholicism
sells salvation and that is the sin of simony (Acts 10). When Rome says she does
not put pardon up for sale she just means her own twisted and wrong definition
of pardon.
The man Roman Catholicism calls the first pope, Peter, wrote that Jesus died for
us to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18). He could not have written this if we have
temporal punishment to pay. To delay paying it is to risk not paying it at all
and if it is for our good like Catholicism says we are refusing to make
ourselves better people. Moreover, delaying to pay could result in sickness or
disaster befalling us for it has to be paid. We see that to put off paying is a
sin. It is not a perfection so it must be a sin though many Catholics might say
it is not a sin. If we are not paying our debt then the Catholic doctrine that
we can omit this and be really in fellowship with God is false. Jesus could not
have brought us to God if the Catholic doctrines of temporal punishment and
being free from mortal sin are true. It would be a mortal sin to give the thing
you are most sure of, your own life, to God in death with a sin on your soul. It
is degrading the worst thing that can happen to you. It is refusing to make the
best possible sacrifice of it. How could that not be mortal? You have to pay now
and only those who die free from sin, that is babies who are baptised, have any
hope of eternal salvation.
God would not needlessly ask for payment of the debt of temporal punishment when
so much sin has arisen over it. God hates sin. Temporal punishment proves that
the Catholic God is not love.
By the way, notice how the doctrine of temporal punishment forbids pleasure for
we are all sinners.
The Catholic Church must start believing in pardon all the way when it considers
it to be a great thing.
CONCLUSION
Temporal punishment makes no sense and is a denial of the forgiveness of God.
Instead of forgiving, God deems you must still be punished but less.
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BIBLE VERSIONS USED
The Amplified Bible