Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: garyf@mehlville.ncsa.uiuc.edu (Gary Faulkner) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Mortal Sins?? Message-ID: Date: 25 Oct 89 08:00:10 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: NCSA - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Lines: 45 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu I have a rather simple question, but first some (probably necessary) background. My wife and I have recently begun a travel towards an ever increasing personal relationship with our Lord. She having had been raised catholic and myself converting, and having decided that a return to the type of church and fellowship which the original Christians were forming would be beneficial, we have decided that the catholic church does not represent even the majority of our beliefs. (deep breath... sorry for the run-on sentence) Anyway, the change is much bigger for her than for me, and she has asked questions about why the catholic church teaches things, and for the most part I have been able to show a lack of true biblical support for those which we did not believe in. (Please, no flames here, for those christians who get the fellowship and spiritual growth they need from RC, I am truly thankful to God for your success; it just doesn't do that for us). The biggest question which she has asked that I did not know the answer to is about the (7?) mortal sins. Any RC's out there want to give some insight into what they are (neither one of us can even remember them), what is meant by mortal - does it imply that you cannot be forgiven these sins, even through the payment Christ made on the cross? We believe that as sinners we will always sin, and have sinned much in the past, but that through our faith, knowing the Lord died for us individually on Calvary, and our Love of the Lord, we have accepted the payment he made for those sins. Most of all, what is the biblical support for the concept of mortal sins? Thanks to anyone who can respond. Gary Faulkner National Center for Supercomputing Applications - University of Illinois Internet: garyf@mehlville.ncsa.uiuc.edu ["R.C. teaching distinguishes between mortal and venial sin. The former are against the final end of the law, the love of God, and, being deliberate and grave, are worthy of eternal damnation. The latter, though serious, do not destroy the relationship with God." (Van Harvey, "A Handbook of Theological Terms") Both can be forgiven. However until you confess it and are forgiven (or desire to), a mortal sin leaves you in a far more serious situation than a venial sin. I'm reluctant to say anything more than this, since I'm sure the Catholics in this group will give you a better answer. I was reluctant to let this misunderstanding implied here go by without any comment, to avoid premature responses from the Protestants in the group. --clh]