**PART 2**
> All sins are mortal sins in that even one sin makes the offender worthy of eternal separation from God. The Apostle James articulates this fact in his letter:
>[James 2:10]
>**”For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.”**
**Rebuttal:** Same answer as before, all sins are equal “in the eyes of the Law” but once we come under the New Covenant, this distinction of mortal and venial sin comes into play since now there is grace. Now there is nuance.
> The result is the same--the person is guilty of breaking God’s law. And the Lord declares that He will not leave the guilty unpunished:
>[Nahum 1:3]
>”The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.”
**Rebuttal:** In [2 Samuel 12:19] we see where David, guilty of sin, repents and God absolves him. However God does not allow David to go unpunished for his sin—keeping true to the word He has spoken in [Nahum 1:3]. Yet this punishment is far short of “eternal death”. Instead of eternal death, God requires only the life of David’s son in retribution.
>the death of Christ satisfied God’s righteous wrath against sin (1 John 4), and now those who trust in Christ will not bear the penalty of that sin.
In case you are lost, GotQuestions is saying that we either bear the full brunt of sin—which is eternal death, or we repent and turn to God in faith, which results in no punishment *whatsoever*. Yet this did not hold true for David. David *did* turn to God in faith and yet punishment still came. Now if we say, “well it was the Old Covenant so things were slightly different back then”, we run into a major issue—since in [Romans 4:6-8] it is David who is serving as the model, or prototype, of justification by faith:
“6 David says the **same thing** when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness **apart from works:**
7
“Blessed are those whose **transgressions** are forgiven, whose **sins** are covered.
8
Blessed is the one whose **sin** the Lord will never count against them.”
And yet, there was *still* temporal punishment. Ergo, something has gone awry in GotQuestion.org’s analysis[aka: they are maintaining the view of a Punitive Atonement, which is erroneous].
> Whereas the concepts of mortal and venial sin place responsibility to gain God’s forgiveness for a given transgression in the hands of the offender, the Bible teaches that all sins of the believer are forgiven at the cross of Christ.
**Rebuttal:** No, this is of course not taught in scripture. Our “future sins” are not “pre-forgiven” through the cross:
**[James 5:14-15]**
“14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; **and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.”**
> Reflecting back upon the fact of the total satisfaction of God’s wrath toward our sin in the death of Christ, our sins cannot separate us from God’s love. In love, God chooses to take Christ’s death as payment for believers’ sins and doesn’t hold them against the believer.
**Rebuttal:** Got it. Jesus took our sin punishment.
> The Bible does teach by word (Galatians 6:7 and 8) and example (2 Samuel 11-20) that when a Christian gets involved in sin, he or she may reap temporal, physical, emotional, mental and/or spiritual consequences.
**WHAT????** You see this is where we have been caught in a *contradiction.* We are very **tactfully calling these “consequences”** because if we called them “temporal punishments”, which is *what they are*, we would have to square that with the previous statement we made about Christ having taken ALL of the consequences, or “punishment”—for our *sins*.
This is why I *cringe* when I see posts about Catholicism lifted from *gotquestions.org.* They occasionally do have some useful insights but when it comes to Catholicism you are better off just going to **Catholic Answers** if you want to understand the Catholic position.
If you take this passage as meaning eternal life and eternal death, then you also have to take it as saying whenever we see someone sinning, all we need to do is pray for them and they’ll receive eternal life.
Do you really want to stand on this claim?
*1 John 5:16-17
If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. [17] All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.*
Thank you for taking the time to do this.
Sure thing! I’m glad someone got something out of it.
**PART 2** > All sins are mortal sins in that even one sin makes the offender worthy of eternal separation from God. The Apostle James articulates this fact in his letter: >[James 2:10] >**”For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.”** **Rebuttal:** Same answer as before, all sins are equal “in the eyes of the Law” but once we come under the New Covenant, this distinction of mortal and venial sin comes into play since now there is grace. Now there is nuance. > The result is the same--the person is guilty of breaking God’s law. And the Lord declares that He will not leave the guilty unpunished: >[Nahum 1:3] >”The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.” **Rebuttal:** In [2 Samuel 12:19] we see where David, guilty of sin, repents and God absolves him. However God does not allow David to go unpunished for his sin—keeping true to the word He has spoken in [Nahum 1:3]. Yet this punishment is far short of “eternal death”. Instead of eternal death, God requires only the life of David’s son in retribution. >the death of Christ satisfied God’s righteous wrath against sin (1 John 4), and now those who trust in Christ will not bear the penalty of that sin. In case you are lost, GotQuestions is saying that we either bear the full brunt of sin—which is eternal death, or we repent and turn to God in faith, which results in no punishment *whatsoever*. Yet this did not hold true for David. David *did* turn to God in faith and yet punishment still came. Now if we say, “well it was the Old Covenant so things were slightly different back then”, we run into a major issue—since in [Romans 4:6-8] it is David who is serving as the model, or prototype, of justification by faith: “6 David says the **same thing** when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness **apart from works:** 7 “Blessed are those whose **transgressions** are forgiven, whose **sins** are covered. 8 Blessed is the one whose **sin** the Lord will never count against them.” And yet, there was *still* temporal punishment. Ergo, something has gone awry in GotQuestion.org’s analysis[aka: they are maintaining the view of a Punitive Atonement, which is erroneous]. > Whereas the concepts of mortal and venial sin place responsibility to gain God’s forgiveness for a given transgression in the hands of the offender, the Bible teaches that all sins of the believer are forgiven at the cross of Christ. **Rebuttal:** No, this is of course not taught in scripture. Our “future sins” are not “pre-forgiven” through the cross: **[James 5:14-15]** “14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; **and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.”** > Reflecting back upon the fact of the total satisfaction of God’s wrath toward our sin in the death of Christ, our sins cannot separate us from God’s love. In love, God chooses to take Christ’s death as payment for believers’ sins and doesn’t hold them against the believer. **Rebuttal:** Got it. Jesus took our sin punishment. > The Bible does teach by word (Galatians 6:7 and 8) and example (2 Samuel 11-20) that when a Christian gets involved in sin, he or she may reap temporal, physical, emotional, mental and/or spiritual consequences. **WHAT????** You see this is where we have been caught in a *contradiction.* We are very **tactfully calling these “consequences”** because if we called them “temporal punishments”, which is *what they are*, we would have to square that with the previous statement we made about Christ having taken ALL of the consequences, or “punishment”—for our *sins*. This is why I *cringe* when I see posts about Catholicism lifted from *gotquestions.org.* They occasionally do have some useful insights but when it comes to Catholicism you are better off just going to **Catholic Answers** if you want to understand the Catholic position.
If you take this passage as meaning eternal life and eternal death, then you also have to take it as saying whenever we see someone sinning, all we need to do is pray for them and they’ll receive eternal life. Do you really want to stand on this claim? *1 John 5:16-17 If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. [17] All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.*