How do you know if God has forgiven you?

[Anonymous]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/08/22/christian-vlogger-sam-rader-says-his-wife-and-god-have-forgiven-him-about-his-ashley-madison-account/?tid=trending_strip_5


Christian Vlogger claims that he is cleansed of sins because God has forgiven him for being on AM. How does he know? Sounds very convenient!

[Anonymous]

Catholic raised turned Agnostic here:

the idea of God's forgiveness is that if you are truly sorry for your sins and ask God's forgiveness, he will grant it. Yes it is quite convenient but it only works if you are truly sorry. That is the big question. Is Sam sorry that he did it or sorry that he was caught. Only Sam (and God) know.

[Anonymous]

That guy and his wife are SO Fn annoying!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Catholic raised turned Agnostic here:

the idea of God's forgiveness is that if you are truly sorry for your sins and ask God's forgiveness, he will grant it. Yes it is quite convenient but it only works if you are truly sorry. That is the big question. Is Sam sorry that he did it or sorry that he was caught. Only Sam (and God) know.

I guess that means you can get off the hook for virtually anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catholic raised turned Agnostic here:

the idea of God's forgiveness is that if you are truly sorry for your sins and ask God's forgiveness, he will grant it. Yes it is quite convenient but it only works if you are truly sorry. That is the big question. Is Sam sorry that he did it or sorry that he was caught. Only Sam (and God) know.

I guess that means you can get off the hook for virtually anything.

Yes and no. I don't believe God ever views any of us as truly irredeemable, no matter what kinds of terrible things you've done, if you come to truly regret them and repent, God will forgive you. The trick is that you have to genuinely repent, though. You can go through the motions of praying on it and asking God for forgiveness, but if, in your heart, you don't truly regret what you did (and not just regret that there were consequences, but regret the actions regardless of what flowed from them), God will know that and you won't be forgiven.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catholic raised turned Agnostic here:

the idea of God's forgiveness is that if you are truly sorry for your sins and ask God's forgiveness, he will grant it. Yes it is quite convenient but it only works if you are truly sorry. That is the big question. Is Sam sorry that he did it or sorry that he was caught. Only Sam (and God) know.

I guess that means you can get off the hook for virtually anything.

Yes and no. I don't believe God ever views any of us as truly irredeemable, no matter what kinds of terrible things you've done, if you come to truly regret them and repent, God will forgive you. The trick is that you have to genuinely repent, though. You can go through the motions of praying on it and asking God for forgiveness, but if, in your heart, you don't truly regret what you did (and not just regret that there were consequences, but regret the actions regardless of what flowed from them), God will know that and you won't be forgiven.

This is right, and people forget that there is a second requirement. Jesus said "go and SIN NO MORE." That means, obviously, that in addition to being sorry, the action must stop immediately. And forgiveness does not absolve one of dealing with the consequences of the action.

[Anonymous]

I thought the concept of grace meant that your sins were forgiven, but I haven't been in church a while.

[Anonymous]

Um, he only forgives me. Never others. Duh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catholic raised turned Agnostic here:

the idea of God's forgiveness is that if you are truly sorry for your sins and ask God's forgiveness, he will grant it. Yes it is quite convenient but it only works if you are truly sorry. That is the big question. Is Sam sorry that he did it or sorry that he was caught. Only Sam (and God) know.

I guess that means you can get off the hook for virtually anything.

Yes, as long as you're really, really sorry and God can tell. - and if you believe in God, of course. In fact, people who do bad things are better off believing in god, because then they can be forgiven by God and God's forgiveness is considered the best forgiveness you can get -- it allows you an eternity in heaven.

Being forgiven by people here on earth is only good for as long as they live - if that. Humans sometimes get tired of forgiving people for the same sin over and over again (especially infidelity), but God never does. God will forgive you every time -- as long as you're sincere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catholic raised turned Agnostic here:

the idea of God's forgiveness is that if you are truly sorry for your sins and ask God's forgiveness, he will grant it. Yes it is quite convenient but it only works if you are truly sorry. That is the big question. Is Sam sorry that he did it or sorry that he was caught. Only Sam (and God) know.

I guess that means you can get off the hook for virtually anything.

Yes and no. I don't believe God ever views any of us as truly irredeemable, no matter what kinds of terrible things you've done, if you come to truly regret them and repent, God will forgive you. The trick is that you have to genuinely repent, though. You can go through the motions of praying on it and asking God for forgiveness, but if, in your heart, you don't truly regret what you did (and not just regret that there were consequences, but regret the actions regardless of what flowed from them), God will know that and you won't be forgiven.

This is right, and people forget that there is a second requirement. Jesus said "go and SIN NO MORE." That means, obviously, that in addition to being sorry, the action must stop immediately. And forgiveness does not absolve one of dealing with the consequences of the action.

that's a suggestion, not an order. Jesus knows that the flesh is weak. If people were only forgiven for sin once, heaven would be empty - and for Catholics -- so would the confessionals.

[Anonymous]

I think that God forgives before we forgive ourselves a lot of the time. If we are sincere in our regret, sincere in asking for forgiveness and sincere in truly wanting to do better, God will forgive us. But God is no fool. If you are just flapping your lips saying that you're sorry and really only regretting that you weree caught....nah. That might fool some people, that will never fool God.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catholic raised turned Agnostic here:

the idea of God's forgiveness is that if you are truly sorry for your sins and ask God's forgiveness, he will grant it. Yes it is quite convenient but it only works if you are truly sorry. That is the big question. Is Sam sorry that he did it or sorry that he was caught. Only Sam (and God) know.

I guess that means you can get off the hook for virtually anything.

Yes and no. I don't believe God ever views any of us as truly irredeemable, no matter what kinds of terrible things you've done, if you come to truly regret them and repent, God will forgive you. The trick is that you have to genuinely repent, though. You can go through the motions of praying on it and asking God for forgiveness, but if, in your heart, you don't truly regret what you did (and not just regret that there were consequences, but regret the actions regardless of what flowed from them), God will know that and you won't be forgiven.

This is right, and people forget that there is a second requirement. Jesus said "go and SIN NO MORE." That means, obviously, that in addition to being sorry, the action must stop immediately. And forgiveness does not absolve one of dealing with the consequences of the action.

that's a suggestion, not an order. Jesus knows that the flesh is weak. If people were only forgiven for sin once, heaven would be empty - and for Catholics -- so would the confessionals.

I read it more about intent. Striving to sin no more, or at least striving to stop the particular sins with which you are struggiling. But of course no of us is, or ever could be sinless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Catholic raised turned Agnostic here:

the idea of God's forgiveness is that if you are truly sorry for your sins and ask God's forgiveness, he will grant it. Yes it is quite convenient but it only works if you are truly sorry. That is the big question. Is Sam sorry that he did it or sorry that he was caught. Only Sam (and God) know.

I guess that means you can get off the hook for virtually anything.

Yes and no. I don't believe God ever views any of us as truly irredeemable, no matter what kinds of terrible things you've done, if you come to truly regret them and repent, God will forgive you. The trick is that you have to genuinely repent, though. You can go through the motions of praying on it and asking God for forgiveness, but if, in your heart, you don't truly regret what you did (and not just regret that there were consequences, but regret the actions regardless of what flowed from them), God will know that and you won't be forgiven.

This is right, and people forget that there is a second requirement. Jesus said "go and SIN NO MORE." That means, obviously, that in addition to being sorry, the action must stop immediately. And forgiveness does not absolve one of dealing with the consequences of the action.

that's a suggestion, not an order. Jesus knows that the flesh is weak. If people were only forgiven for sin once, heaven would be empty - and for Catholics -- so would the confessionals.

I read it more about intent. Striving to sin no more, or at least striving to stop the particular sins with which you are struggiling. But of course no of us is, or ever could be sinless.

It's about repentance. Of course none of us will ever be sinless. However, if we're repentant we're actively leading a lifestyle that will strive to turn away from sin. That's what "sin no more" means.

[Anonymous]

Don't you think it's really about personal responsibility? Why do you need God to forgive you for something you did that you know is wrong? Why don't you accept that you did something wrong, and work to be better? Why not forgive yourself and move forward to being a better person?

What exactly do you need God's forgiveness for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't you think it's really about personal responsibility? Why do you need God to forgive you for something you did that you know is wrong? Why don't you accept that you did something wrong, and work to be better? Why not forgive yourself and move forward to being a better person?

What exactly do you need God's forgiveness for?

to get to heaven after you die. Without God's forgiveness, religious people think you can't get into heaven. People who aren't religious don't believe in heaven so they are good just to improve their time on Earth. If there is a god and heaven, they will be surprised when they die!