What Is Mortal Sin ?

[Guest]

jus curious, i wasnt sure

[twf]

Hi. I'm not actually Catholic...yet anway...but this is what mortal sin is as I understand it:

A sin of grave nature (such as adultery, murder, homosexual acts, and many others) that are done with full and willful consent plus an understanding that the sin you are doing (or about to do) is so grave as to lead to spiritual death...yet do it anyway.

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this.

All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death. (1 John 5:16-17, NASB). I once believed in the doctrine of eternal security...but if you look at Scripture as a whole, I see that mortal sin clearly exists (I will be posting on the eternal security thread). Some claim this passage is speaking of sin that leads to physical death, but this does not make sense to me...for the following three reasons:

1) I now see that Scripture as a whole shows that we can willingly leave God's family.

2) In the New Testament epistles, 'death' and 'dead' usually refers to spiritual death, not physical (physical being 'alseep').

3) The last sentence of the passage is: "All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death." Well if this is physical death, isn't that a bit obvious? Of course there is sin that does not cause us to suddenly fall down dead...as we do it all the time. It makes FAR MORE sense if you realize that John is reminding his audience that not all sin leads to a loss of salvation (most, everyday sins, do not...Christ promises He will never cast us out, see Jn 6:37, so logic dictates that we must willfully cast ourselves out if we can leave the body of Christ at all).

[twf]

I should note that while that translation says "a sin that leads to death" the passage apparently can be rendered "sin that leads to death" (there are no articles, like "a" in Greek). Could someone provide the translation from an authorized Catholic Bible perhaps?

[M.SIGGA]

This is exactly my understanding.