Forgiveness and Unforgiveness

You Are Not the One to Build, Part 3: God Making Peace with the World Through the Most Notorious Sinners!

Ian Johnson July 13, 2023 0 Comments

Linked text to accompany the third in a series of videos about God’s gifts and callings for people, which he sometimes gives to notorious evildoers. Discusses Moses, King David and Saul of Tarsus, who literally got away with murder. Or did they?

A God who Speaks, Consequences, Discipline or Correction, forgiveness and mercy, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, God is Love, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God was never our enemy, God's rationality, Merit, patience, Reconciliation, Repentance, Restoration of God's Image, Salvation, Sin, The Problem of Evil

Apostle Paul, consequences, criminals, God speaks, God's forgiveness, God's reputation, grace, King David, mercy, Moses, murderers, notorious, patience, Saul of Tarsus, sinners

Anger

Ian Johnson October 12, 2022 0 Comments

I write this post to myself. I was once a very angry man. But I believed I now had anger under control. More recently, I’m not so sure. Manipulative people and manipulative institutions both deliberately goad the anger of those they want to control–anger is a great motivator. The media, celebrities, politicians, organizations and advertisers do the same thing. Other people, though, habitually but unconsciously manipulate by continually rehearsing their angry reveries for others to hear, wishing either to bring their hearers into their angry world or to intimidate by fear of what they might do in anger. And I am weak to all of these ploys. So I present the following study, which consists only of quotations from Scripture about human anger, its causes and antidote.

Changed treatment of each other, Conversation with others, Desire to have our own way, Divisions in the Church, Emotions, Forgive as we forgive, forgiveness and mercy, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, Free will, God is Love, God's purpose for us, His Children, Human Rationality, Injustice and Lawsuits, Language and Speech, patience, Repentance, Restoration of God's Image, Restoration of our Relationships, Salvation, To be his ambassadors, To live in unity

anger, angry, arguments, bitterness, contention, Death and life are in the power of the tongue, discord, gossip, lies, Love, lying, mercy, peace, reconcile, reconciliation, root of bitterness, strife, temper, tongue, whispering, wrath

Paul’s Mourning over those who have Not Repented, 2 Corinthians 12:21

Ian Johnson April 3, 2022 2 Comments

When Paul wrote his second letter to the Corinthians, he feared he would later come to them and find that they had not repented of their underlying mixed motives and attitudes of self-centered worship and sensual focus. The result would be the same strife and disorder he had reproved in his first letter.

Desire to have our own way, Desire to have our own way, Divisions in the Church, Forgetting God, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, God's Other Attributes, Greed, Pride in accomplishments as our own, refusal to repent, Repentance, Salvation, self-serving worship, What is sin?

attitude, attitudes, Corinthians, disorder, immorality, mixed motives, mourning, not repented, Paul, repent, self-centered worship, sensual, sensuality, strife, uncleanness

Repeated sins, repeated repentance and repeated forgiveness in Luke 17:3-4

Ian Johnson October 17, 2021 2 Comments

Jesus uses unforgiveness as the prime example of a stumbling block we can place in the way of a fellow believer, bringing judgment. Therefore he warns us that we must be careful to freely forgive those who come to us expressing repentance for harm they have done to us by missing the mark of either our own, or God’s, expectations for their behavior.

Confession and Repentance, Confession of Sin, Divisions in the Church, Forgive as we forgive, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, Repentance, Restoration of our Relationships, To live in unity

debt, expectations, forgive, forgiveness, miss the mark, my expectations, release, repent, repentance, sin, stumbling block, unforgiveness

Joy in Heaven Over One Sinner Repenting: The Parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost Son

Ian Johnson September 11, 2021 3 Comments

The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coins and the two lost sons, one of them the “Prodigal son,” in Luke 15 show our value to God, God’s search for us, and our returning to him, or not, in repentance, and teach why we should not be judgmental toward those who appear great “sinners.”

Changed treatment of each other, Divisions in the Church, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, Free will, God's purpose for us, His Children, Leaving Our First Love, Merit, Repentance, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Salvation

acceptance, judgmental, lost coin, Lost sheep, lost sons, our value to God, prodigal son, repent, repentance, sons

Debts, debtors and paráptōmata in the Lord’s Prayer and Jesus’ associated saying on mercy towards others’ weaknesses–Matthew 6:12-15 and Mark 11:20-26

Ian Johnson August 12, 2021 2 Comments

In the Lord’s Prayer and the parallel teaching about mercy, Jesus tells us that we are to ask God to release us from the consequences or resulting debts of our sins as we release others from the debts we imagine they owe us. While praying, we are to show mercy upon the flaws (paráptōmata) that led them to sin, because the Father will show us mercy in the same measure.

Confession and Repentance, Divisions in the Church, Forgive as we forgive, forgiveness and mercy, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, Reconciliation, Repentance, Restoration of God's Image, Restoration of our Relationships, To live in unity

by the same measure, debts, flaws, forgiveness, Jesus, Lord's Prayer, mercy, paráptōma, release, sins, unforgiveness

Repentance, Confession and the Textual Variant in James 5:16

Ian Johnson August 9, 2021 3 Comments

James 5:16 occurs in a context dealing with sick Christians and healing. In that context, it teaches that we are to agree with each other about the character flaws in our lives that lead to discrete sins, and pray for each other that these flaws–and the whole person–will be healed. This sensible reading is supported by the Byzantine New Testament text tradition, which is to be preferred for this verse.

A God who Speaks, Confession and Repentance, Confession of Sin, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, God Speaks to Us, God's purpose for us, Is forgiveness of sins the focus of salvation?, Reconciliation, Repentance, Repentance in community, Restoration of God's Image, Restoration of our Relationships, Through others, Through the church, To live in unity

Agree with Each Other, agreement, character flaws, Confess, confession, fault, faults, healing, James 5:16, prayer

Introduction: The Question of Confession

Ian Johnson July 27, 2021 6 Comments

Confession of sin is expression of our full agreement with God about the evil within us that produces acts of disobedience. It is NOT the recitation of a detailed list of wrong acts, which we admit we did but for which we deflect responsibility to God or others. True confession is the beginning of reconciliation and restoration.

Church purpose versus church growth, Confession and Repentance, Confession of Sin, Divisions in the Church, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, In the Church, Meaning of Unity, Purpose of the Church, Repentance, The universal Church and local churches, To live in unity

agreement, confession, confession of sin, Proverbs 28:13-14, reconciliation, restoration, sin, sins

Repentance, in the Weaker Sense, in the Parable of the Two Sons

Ian Johnson June 24, 2021 2 Comments

As the parable of the two sons in Matthew 21:28-32 shows, repentance is merely changing our minds so that we start to do what the Father asks. Repentance does not require remorse, payment of a penalty, or even in all cases a spoken apology, and the forgiveness that it produces cannot be sold.

A God who Speaks, Changed treatment of each other, Divisions in the Church, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, God Speaks to Us, Greed, Parables, Repentance, Salvation, Selling Forgiveness, Through Jesus

authority, Jesus, Jesus' authority, John the Baptist, Matthew 21, Parable of the two sons, Parable of the wicked tenants, selling forgiveness, Temple, Temple cult

The Departure of Organized Christianity from its Roots, Second through Sixth Centuries CE

Ian Johnson December 25, 2020 1 Comment

This is an outline of the second part of my attempt to link early errors of organized Christianity to the state of the modern world–specifically, in this part, by showing the origins and entrance of specific errors before Muhammad which profoundly affected subsequent history. Links will be added as future posts are written.

A God who Speaks, Adoption, Authority Contests, Background Information, Church History, Islamic History and Secular History Interaction, Church purpose versus church growth, Complex unity, Compulsory Christianity, Discipline or Correction, Disputes about words, Disrespecting poor believers, Divisions in the Church, Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, Free will, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, God's sovereignty, God's Voice, Greed, Heresy, Historical Background, Index, Injustice and Lawsuits, Jesus the Son, Leaving Our First Love, Male and female, Marriage, Marriage and Reproduction, Merit, Other Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Peril of Seeking Numbers, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Prophecy, Purpose of the Church, Quarrels, Regeneration, Religious violence and persecution, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Salvation, Sin, Sins versus sin, Site Index Page, Social control and statecraft, Son of Man, The Bible, Through the church, To be in his image, Trinity, Unity, Wars as consequences, What is God's Word, What is sin?

Christian Divisions, Fifth Century Christianity, Fourth Century Christianity, Hellenistic Phiolosophy, heresy, Heresy hunting, Index, Just War Theory, Monotheism, Roman Law, Roman Law and Jurisprudence, Roman Religion, Rome, Second Century Christianity, Sixth Century Christianity, Syncretism, Third Century Christianity

You Are Not the One to Build, Part 3: God Making Peace with the World Through the Most Notorious Sinners!

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Anger

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Paul’s Mourning over those who have Not Repented, 2 Corinthians 12:21

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Repeated sins, repeated repentance and repeated forgiveness in Luke 17:3-4

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Joy in Heaven Over One Sinner Repenting: The Parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost Son

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Debts, debtors and paráptōmata in the Lord’s Prayer and Jesus’ associated saying on mercy towards others’ weaknesses–Matthew 6:12-15 and Mark 11:20-26

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Repentance, Confession and the Textual Variant in James 5:16

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Introduction: The Question of Confession

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Repentance, in the Weaker Sense, in the Parable of the Two Sons

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The Departure of Organized Christianity from its Roots, Second through Sixth Centuries CE

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Forgiveness and Unforgiveness

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