Arguing Against "equality Of Sin"

[Guest JeffCR07]

Hey phat, or any of the pham, I was looking through the reference section, and I can't seem to find any material for arguing against the Protestant notion of "all sins are equal" and defending the teaching of Mortal and Venial Sins. I may just be being blind, but if it really isn't there, I was wondering if you had any info on it. Thanks a ton!

- Your Brother In Christ, Jeff

[StColette]

Prot : However, the Bible makes no distinction between mortal and venial sins. Though some sins are worse than others, all unrepented, unforgiven sins will keep a soul out of heaven. It simply teaches that "the wage paid by sin is death" (Rom. 6:23, J.B.V.), and that "The man who has sinned, he. . . shall die" (Eze. 18:4, J.B.V.).

Catholic : ** "The Bible makes no distinction between mortal and venial sins?" Read 1 John 5:16-17 "...Every kind of wrongdoing is sin, but not all sin is deadly." Interestingly, John implies that some sins may be forgiven a sinner, because of the prayers of another on his behalf! But not the "deadly" (mortal) kind...so what kind? Perhaps the pardonable (venial) kind.

www.catholicsites.com/beggarking/answer/sins.html

[url="http://www.saintaquinas.com/mortal_sin.html"]Mortal and Venial sins[/url]
another pretty good page

Edited August 18, 2004 by StColette

[StColette]

TEEN Question:
Why are there mortal sins and venial sins? Aren't all sins equal?

Father J's Answer:
Well actually, no, not all sins are equal. Just like not all offenses or things that we do wrong at any stage of our life are equal. If I get mad and kick my dog (which I would never do because I love puppies) it is by no means equal to me getting mad and going out and shooting up my neighborhood. Now, sin is all equal in one sense that they are all offenses against God. But there are different levels of sin. For example, a venial sin is understood through the teachings of the church as a sin that does not forfeit grace, which means you are not automatically in a bunch of trouble (check out the Gospel of Matthew 12:31, “Therefore, I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people”).

However, mortal sin is an action that brings immediate loss of grace. You can see this is in the First Letter of John 5:16-17:
“If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should pray to God and he will give him life. This is only for those whose sin is not deadly. There is such a thing as deadly sin, about which I do not say that you should pray. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly”).


So let’s see what the differences are. If someone commits a venial sin (add your own venial sin here), what happens? Well, according to the teachings of the Catholic Church there are two things that happen. This teaching is called "double consequence." It means that sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life. Or in if you like to look at things in a "glass is half empty" sort of way, sin sets us up for eternal punishment. Every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified with here on earth, or after death in the place we call Purgatory. This purification frees us from what is called the “temporal punishment” (or the kind of punishment that will come to an end, unlike eternal punishment, which goes on forever). These two punishments, or consequences shouldn't be seen as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God, but as following from the very nature of sin. Sin is always wrong and therefore the consequence of sin will always be punishment. Only Grace offers joy. If you look in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1472 you'll see this all written pretty much the same way.

Now, mortal sin, being a bigger deal than a venial sin, has three components and all three have to present in order for a mortal sin to occur. One, it has to be of a “grievous matter.” That means it has to be a big deal, like taking somebody’s life or doing something that can never be changed. Two, there has to have been “sufficient reflection.” That means you had to have thought about it, it doesn’t just happen. You don’t just wake up one morning and say, “Oh my goodness! I’ve created a mortal sin.” The third is that there has to have been “full consent of the will.” This means that you really have to choose to do it. Again, this is the idea that you don’t accidentally fall in to mortal sin. Now the biggest of all the mortal sin is what’s called the sins against the Holy Spirit (we hear about these in the Gospels of Mark 3:29, Matthew 12:32, and Luke 12:10). And there are actually six of them:


Despair of one’s salvation or of God’s mercy means to give up hope on God’s ability to save us. I’m not talking about those times when we will hopeless, I’m talking about those who have totally written God off and there is now way for God to save them.

Presumption of saving oneself without merit is that we think we can make it into heaven without actually doing anything. This is the belief that we can do anything we want and God will still be nice to us.

Resisting the known truth is basically saying that everything in the Bible is a lie.

Envy of the graces received by others is when you spend so much time looking at what other people can do and not use the gifts that He gave you to build his kingdom,

Obstinacy of one’s sins is never admitting that you have committed a sin in your entire life.

Final impenitence means that you never feel sorry for your sins, even if you acknowledge that you have them.

So you see not all sins are equal. But having spoken about sin, let me just remind you not to focus more on sin than you do on God’s mercy. Never look more to the things you’ve done wrong, but to what you can do well to the kingdom of God. Live the best you can, knowing that you are going to make mistakes but know that there is always a God who wants to forgive. And He has forgiven us. All we have to do is live in that forgiveness. If you always try to live your life for God’s goodness, there won’t be any time to sin.

I’ll be praying for you.
Father J

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Lifeteen article [url="http://www.lifeteen.org/DocQandA.asp?Action=View&ID=1167&Presenter=FatherJ"]http://www.lifeteen.org/DocQandA.asp?Actio...esenter=FatherJ[/url]

[phatcatholic]

[quote name='JeffCR07' date='Aug 18 2004, 01:09 AM'] Hey phat, or any of the pham, I was looking through the reference section, and I can't seem to find any material for arguing against the Protestant notion of "all sins are equal" and defending the teaching of Mortal and Venial Sins. I may just be being blind, but if it really isn't there, I was wondering if you had any info on it. Thanks a ton!

- Your Brother In Christ, Jeff [/quote]
jeff,

these articles are from the "Morality and Ethics: Part One" entry
--[url="http://www.cin.org/kc49-3.html"]Kinds of Sin[/url]
--[url="http://ic.net/~erasmus/RAZ278.HTM"]Mortal vs. Venial Sin[/url]
--[url="http://www.cin.org/mateo/9307151.html"]Mortal and Venial Sin in Scripture and the Fathers[/url]
--[url="http://catholicexchange.com/clibrary/document.asp?document_id=89&category_id=83&main_cat_id=42"]Common Sense, Wisdom and Hope: Why Catholics Distinguish Between Mortal and Venial Sin[/url]
--[url="http://cuf.org/nonmemb/mortalsin.pdf"]Mortal and Venial Sin[/url]
--[url="http://www.cin.org/users/james/questions/q126.htm"]The Conditions for Mortal Sin[/url]
--[url="http://www.catholic.org/frz/examen/examen_mortal.htm"]A List of Possibly Mortal Sins[/url]


also, [b]colette[/b], thanks for the links, i'm adding them as we speak

pax christi,
nick

[StColette]

lol no prob phat

[Guest JeffCR07]

lol, sweet thanks guys. I really was just being blind (gimme a break, it was late). Anyways, great stuff colette!

- Your Brother In Christ, Jeff

[StColette]

lol Jeff ty