Revenant Threshold, we’ve now turned the question back to you. Why do you think that murder is the greatest sin in Christianity? I’m sorry to do this, but this is what happens when someone asks a question of the form “Why is X true?” and we show that X is not true. Why would you ask this question? What made you think that murder is the greatest sin in Christianity? As we’ve shown from several perspectives, it’s not considered the greatest sin in Christianity. So what made you think this? It’s not sufficient just to quote one person who claims to be a Christian and who says that murder is the greatest sin, since the most that does is to show that one Christian thinks that murder is the greatest sin. It’s also not sufficient to quote many people over a long time each of whom has claimed that murder is the worst sin if most of those people didn’t claim to be Christians. The most that this would show is that many people over the ages thought that murder was the worst sin, but it wouldn’t have much to do with Christianity.
Fair enough. I guess I got the idea from pro-lifers, both in the news and in debates on this board; that killing is a very bad thing no matter the circumstances - whether in war or with the death penalty. If this board can be used as an adequate sampling of Christians, how many threads have there been on abortion (an issue i’d hope you agree where one side is almost totally Christian) as opposed to taking the Lord’s name in vain, or worshipping graven images? Plus there doesn’t seem to be as much opposition to any other sins legally from Christian organisation as abortion; I would have assumed that if there were something worse sin-wise more emphasis would be put on that. I think my question would have been better as “Why is killing innocents the biggest sin in Christianity”, but unfortunetly I didn’t think of that at the time.
This is the first I’ve heard that “killing” or “murder” is the biggest sin in the Bible.
My understanding is that all sin is equal, but not all sins have the same Earthly consequences.
May I add that questions phrased the way this thread’s question is phrased bug me? The question should be, “Is killing the worst sin in Christianity and if so, why?”
Both sides are almost totally Christian, as a natural consequence of the fact that this country as a whole is almost totally Christian. This message board is not a representative cross-section of the country; there are a lot more atheists and members of non-Christian religions here than in society at large.
Good point.
Wow, I really screwed up this question. Apologies, everyone. If a mod could change the title to Mahaloth’s suggestion that’d be great.
Hmmm…I do recall from some Christian religions, (take that for what you will) that there IS actually one unforgiveable sin.
Not murder, but “denying the Lord your God.” (Quotes are mine, not from a direct source, but rather from how it was told to me. Dunno if this qualifies, or is even in fact part of ‘official’ Christian doctrine to anyone.)
Since the Bible doesn’t support the pro-lifers’ position, I’m not sure that you should be using them as a reference point for matters relating to the Bible/Christianity.
Murder (with some varying definition as to what constututes “murder”) is the biggest sin in pretty much every religion and every culture. There’s nothing especially Christian about it.
Actually, I think it’s sort of implied that if you love your neighbor, you won’t kill him.
And shame on you dairy farmers for watering down your milk before you take it to market!
It seems to me that in the debate on abortion, the side that is against allowing abortions claims explicitly that their position is supported by most Christians, while the side that is for allowing abortions doesn’t usually make that claim, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that the anti-abortion side actually is supported by a larger proportion of Christians. Rather, like many conservative causes, there is an agreement among conservatives that non-Christian conservatives will keep their mouths shut when Christian conservatives claim that a particular position is the “Christian” position in order to make it appear that conservatives are more unified in their positions than they actually actually are.
Similarly, Christian liberals generally try not to make a big deal of their Christian faith when they advocate a liberal position so as to not irritate non-Christian liberals. Indeed, they go out of their way to make it clear that their positions are not a matter solely of their faith. Similarly, non-Christian liberals tend to say that liberalism allows many religious beliefs. In any case, if you actually took standard American political speeches about abortion at face value, you would think that Christians are more concerned about murder than non-Christians.
What this means is that conservatives tend to sound more unified than they actually are. Just from listening to a standard conservative stump speech, one would think that nearly all conservatives are Christians, but this isn’t so. Similarly, liberals tend to sound like they have vaguer religious beliefs than they actually do. This is more from an agreement among liberals that one doesn’t attack other liberals’ religious beliefs in a political speech than a lack of religious beliefs.
Please also note that being in favor of the death penalty is generally a conservative position and being againt the death penalty is generally a liberal position. Since conservative speeches will thus tend to both be for the death penalty and use Christian language, while liberal speeches will thus tend to both against the death penalty and will tend to not use Christian language, this makes it sound like there is some connection between support for the death penalty and Christian belief. So on this issue of the death penalty, if you actually took standard American political speeches at face value, you would think that Christians are less concerned about murder than non-Christians.
Someone is now going to say that the standard American liberal and conservative positions are arbitrary conglomerations of political beliefs that no liberal and no conservative completely believes in. I think that’s correct. The political positions that we in the U.S. call liberal and conservative are not completely consistent political positions that all follow from a single value system. They are compromises that liberals and conservatives have agreed to because they realize that they can’t get anybody elected if people were only to vote for someone who agrees with them in everything.
I wonder how these religions would regard St. Peter, then? He denied Jesus three times before the cock crew.
See Matt: 12;31
It is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit that is not forgiven.
Since it is The love of God, for Man that becomes the Holy Spirit, and is made flesh in Jesus, it is this love that saves us. Denial of that love is the act of man that denies the grace of God.
Much that men do is evil. It is the nature of man to die in sin, and be destroyed. Only the love of God can change that, and if you will not be loved, you are lost by your own blasphemy.
Tris
I googled “worst sin” and got as many different answers as in this thread.
I don’t disagree.
Just like I wouldn’t disagree if some a wisenheimer said that it pretty much implies * “Don’t let thy horrific stewpot offend thy neighbor” or pretty much implies * “Keep thy yard clean of all debris lest it blow in they neighbor’s yard” … FTR I think it means all of that:
However what it doesn’t mean in the context of the OP and what I (pretty clearly I though I say) is:
Killing is the biggest sin in Christianity… it says Christianity’s A-1 rule is loving and honoring God and B is the “golden rule” …nothing about killing
I am not sure whether you are disagreeing or not just thought i’d say that…
Because it means that there is one less person for the church to extract money from.
If I remember my good Roman Catholic upbringing in the 1950s, this is close. But it’s not quite “denial” – it’s called “despair.”
All sins can be forgiven by God, as long as one accepts God and accepts forgiveness. Despair (in this context) is the denial that God can or will forgive the sin.
It’s a biggie for two reasons:
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The sinner judges whether the sin can or will be forgiven. That judgement is reserved to God alone.
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The sinner believes that he can, in effect, do something so big that God can’t undo it, thus placing himself above God.
As I recall, we were taught that the ultimate sin of Judas was not the betrayal of Jesus, but that Judas committed suicide rather than repenting and asking forgiveness.
Final rejection or denial of God is the sin most Christians who believe this are referring to. Basically, any sin is forgiveable except dying without Christ. You can’t “get saved” after you die, so to speak.
My WAG on this is that modern christianity views murder as the biggest because the giving and taking of life is considered solely the domain of God. To take someones life of your own accord (and outside biblical guidelines) is to equate yourself with God.
Apparently it’s not, if you’re killing fags. Cite. (first bullet point)
C’mon now. These people are hardly representative of Christians. Based on the times that Shirley Phelps Roper (?) has called into the Ron and Fez show on XM, their position has gone from “Fags are going to hell”, to “Everybody except for our clan is going to hell.” She said that there are 2 kinds of people in the world: Fags, and fag enablers. Apparently, anybody that doesn’t stand on street corners waving signs condemning homosexuals is going to hell. She’s pretty much admitted that they don’t bother with evangelizing, because they know nobody outside their (huge) family is going to join them. But they’re smart enough to stop short of actually doing anything way across the legal line (i.e. killing themselves or directly advocating murder), so they satisfy themselves with merely dancing on graves of homosexuals.
Anyway, I’m not trying to derail the thread. Just point out that one insane family’s opinion is irrelevant.