# Does Jesus forgive ALL sins? Something stinks... **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 30, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jesus-forgive-all-sins-something-stinks/151549 "2003-01-30T05:11:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![X\_Slayer\_ALE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbe5ce/32.png) [@X\_Slayer\_ALE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/X_Slayer_ALE)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jesus-forgive-all-sins-something-stinks/151549/41 "2003-01-30T21:48:28Z")
The tooth fairy gives QUARTERS??! Ive been handing out dollar bills!! DANG! I just wonder how that frikken bunny lays multi-colored eggs. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jesus-forgive-all-sins-something-stinks/151549/42 "2003-01-30T21:48:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astorian \* > \*\*Um… > > Considering that the OP is a self-professed atheist, doesn’t think Jesus was divine, and doesn’t think Heaven exists, he sure seems to spend an inordinate amount of time fretting about whether Jesus is going to let atheists into Heaven, don’t you think?\*\* Well, or he’s just making a reducto ad absurdum (argument from absurdity). It’s where you argue for something by assuming that the reverse of what you’re arguing for is true, then showing that, if it were true, it would lead to a logical contradiction or falsehood. ---
**Author:** ![Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ben)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jesus-forgive-all-sins-something-stinks/151549/43 "2003-01-31T00:51:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Polycarp \* > \*\ ***Ben** – two quick points: (1) I used ‘atheist’ because the OP had made the second, acting-morally-by-his-own-lights man an atheist, not out of any interest in singling them out beyond what the OP had. Sorry if my post sounded hostile to atheism as a result. \*\* Well, it wasn’t so much that it sounded hostile to atheism to me, because I know you’re not hostile to atheists. (Like I said, I doubted that the ideas I voiced were particularly new to you.) It’s just that the phrasing sounded odd, and I wondered why atheists were singled out. If the idea of hostility to atheism had occurred to me, it probably would have been in the context of, “Poly should clarify this lest some nitwit see an affirmation of their beliefs in it.” > [@](#): > > \*\* > (2) I’m not defending the “God judges and condemns you at your death” school of thought – and tried to express as much in the last paragraph of my first post above. \*\* Yes, I understand that. That’s why I asked for the details of what _you_ believe. I’d like to hear you explain your own beliefs, rather than someone else’s. I was particularly interested in your interpretation of the verse from Hebrews, since you had indicated some months before, if I read you correctly, that true Christians who become apostates cannot be forgiven. I was hoping you might explain further. > [@](#): > > \*\* > In general, I tend to agree with you and Erigena (for those of you interested in him, he’s usually listed as John Scotus Erigena or Eriugena – transliteration of the final name varies – and well worth reading.) \*\* And he makes a damn fine blackcurrant drink, too! Seriously, though, do you believe that the enlightenment will take place at the Second Coming. (arg- the question mark doesn’t work on this computer…) And what happens after death, while God waits for someone to come to him. And, for that matter, who in this thread has seen _The Rapture_. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jesus-forgive-all-sins-something-stinks/151549/44 "2003-01-31T01:16:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by samarm \* > \*\*Can someone explain to me the justice in this, as it doesn’t seem to be morally compatible with the teachings of the Bible. \*\* The way I heard the story told is this; 1. Breaking part of the law is the same as breaking the whole of the law. 2. All are sinners and therefore not deserving and justice would be not to reward any of us. 3. God in His, infinite mercy, decided to give us grace. We get salvation in spite of the fact that we don’t deserve it. 4. All that is asked of us to is to receive that grace and mercy. That’s how I heard it told. ---
**Author:** ![jonpluc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/fbc32d/32.png) [@jonpluc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonpluc)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jesus-forgive-all-sins-something-stinks/151549/45 "2003-02-08T07:40:56Z")
On a bumper sticker i saw today Militant Agnostic -I dont know what happens after you die and neither do you. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jesus-forgive-all-sins-something-stinks/151549/46 "2003-02-08T08:00:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by smiling bandit \* > \*\* > [Roman] Catholic: Believes in the primacy of action over thought, and accepts that those who keep God’s word, regardless of belief, may enter the grace of Heaven. Rather likes Buddhist philosophy. > \*\* I believe the catechism calls it something like “seeking enlightenment.” The only way you automatically go to hell, according to the RC church, is if you know God but turn away from him. I don’t really understand the mechanism behind that! Julie ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jesus-forgive-all-sins-something-stinks/151549/47 "2003-02-08T08:08:05Z")
—Can someone explain to me the justice in this, as it doesn’t seem to be morally compatible with the teachings of the Bible.— What are you arguing is injust, the first man being saved, or the second not being saved? I’ve heard people complain that the idea of hell is morally reprehensible, and I agree. But then these same people go an scoff at the idea that Osama Bin Laden or Hitler can avoid hell by reforming (or avoid hell at all, regardless of how or even if there is a how). I can’t for the life of me figure out how someone can reconcile these two views. In my view, morality is about advocating what is right and wrong, and I fully agree with the view that it comes out of love, out of a value for all feeling beings. To me, there is no way to turn such a morality into an isolated “well, an immoral man deserves such and such after the fact, done to his person.” Punishment is about pragmatism, preventing further wrong in a world frought with uncertainty, passions, community outrage, and limited solutions. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jesus-forgive-all-sins-something-stinks/151549.md?page=2)