Does God Forgive Everyone,

[cheryl]

Okay, I'm going to try and make this really short. lol

What is the catholic view of Christ's universal atonement?

More specifically, when St John said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" Did he mean, God forgives everyone (like we're suppose to forgive even our enemies). If it means, that God offers to forgive our sins provided we have faith or whatever, then the sins of the whole world wouldn't be taken away, unless of course everyone was eventually saved.

I read the portions of the catechism and "Fundamentals of Catholic dogma" that pertains to the atonement but couldn't really find an answer to my question.

Maybe my question assumes a wrong point of view and I need to be asking something else.

[Theoketos]

[quote name='cheryl' post='1700566' date='Nov 13 2008, 10:25 AM']Okay, I'm going to try and make this really short. lol

What is the catholic view of Christ's universal atonement?

More specifically, when St John said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" Did he mean, God forgives everyone (like we're suppose to forgive even our enemies). If it means, that God offers to forgive our sins provided we have faith or whatever, then the sins of the whole world wouldn't be taken away, unless of course everyone was eventually saved.

I read the portions of the catechism and "Fundamentals of Catholic dogma" that pertains to the atonement but couldn't really find an answer to my question.

Maybe my question assumes a wrong point of view and I need to be asking something else. [/quote]

Christ died for our sins as a single perfect sacrifice offering forgiveness for all sins. And God gives sufficient Grace to all in all situations. However, by the Grace of God, we need to freely cooperate with Grace for it to be sufficient. This cooperation is also His Gift.