Christians: Does Christ really give you the power to forgive? Edit: To the religious as well

[an anarchist]

Forgiveness: the cornerstone of the Christian faith. Jesus Christ offered forgiveness to everyone when He died on that cross… or so my youth pastor would tell a teenage me.

Apparently, Christ can give you the power to forgive others as well.

Is this true, in your eyes, Christian? Have you honestly been able to forgive all that has been done to you? If you haven’t, do you think it is possible through the power of Christ?

I have so much hatred in my heart towards particular people. I dream of them and am angry at them in my dreams. It’s been many years, and I have done all I can to put the past behind me. But the rage lingers on. I do not believe in a Christ, but I wonder if any Christian has experienced the rage I have. Think about your most angriest moments and those who caused them. Have you forgiven those people? Is it truly possible, through Christ?

 

[an anarchist]

Edit: I am expanding this thread to all believers in the metaphysical.

Does your spiritual beliefs give you the power to forgive?

 

[osgart]

No not really. But if forgiveness is going to happen that has a lot to do with the person's repentance and how genuine, and forever permanent that is. Spot me a few eons after repentance, I might be able to forgive. Having said that I believe that if there is eternal life, like I believe, then universal salvation needs to happen, but existence doesn't provide the needed justice to make that happen. We might be stuck with evil forever.

Hypothetically I can live in my imagination what that forgiveness would have to look like. Without justice, and repentance I can't, and shouldn't forgive.

I'd be curious to see how the evil people in the future play out. Is evil permanent and lasting, or does it have a natural end to it. By evil I mean things that are atrocious and obviously repugnant and wrong.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I gave this a really strong go in my early life but was unable to overcome the temptations of entertainments and finally to overcome my own anger. Pride prevented me from accepting personal failure, and I became angry with God. After all life wasn't fair. Anger of course destroys a forgiver.

Forgiving everyone is an extreme lifestyle, so you won't be much of a chum. You will arouse suspicion for behaving strangely. As a forgiver you will be abused (if you aren't assertive), but random people will approach your for odd questions. They'll tell you dark secrets and ask you questions nobody knows the answers to. It used to happen to me, and I was not impressing anyone with my intelligence.

I think its because people feel either uncertain or overconfident. From childhood many are often pressured to act like they understand much, much more than they actually understand. These live as if falling from the sky, like that whale in the Douglass Adams story. Other people live oppositely with far too much certainty and cannot handle any contradictions at all. That's the camp I come from: a confident, relaxed self assuredness feeling like everything must eventually make sense and that truth and lies are totally incompatible, lies being unacceptable. Everything must fit into a consistent framework. These are the two types of extremes you will encounter; but you will not make sense to either group. The forgiver is an alien to all.

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But let me also offer that what Jesus demands may actually be directed to the Jews and not to everyone, and the Jews tend to think he is a little extreme even for them. He says as much: that he is more extreme and demands more. This is what he ironically calls an easy yoke and a light burden. Why he uses this language am not sure, but I think it is an indirect way of advising Jews that anything else will result in the destruction of the Jewish people. Its advice in the Roman empire, so that could be what its about. As a direct statement its obviously not an easy yoke or a light burden, unless you are faced with something much much worse.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

No, I don't believe in forgiveness unless its earned. Christianity didn't help me with that either. It also depends on what you mean by forgiveness, as well, I suppose.

 

[Andrew Stephen]

Peace to all,

To me the logic of born again and saved is from the created failed mortal flesh and the spirit transformed and transfigured in the soul of all beings. All mankind is created mortal becoming Sanctified and then re-Sanctified, from the spirit through the flesh for the soul of the Being becoming immortal and incorruptible to become again re-Sanctified glorified and transfigured from created as mortal. We are created and become and become again through the wondrous mysteries of the Faith of the Baptized Soul and through all the wondrous mysteries of the Faith.

Created mortal and corrupt is the unforgivable state from the spirit through the flesh for the created soul of the being in the Bodies of Adam and Eve. Through Baptism is the first becoming into the sanctified incorruptible and immortal Body from the Immaculate Conception through the Virgin Birth of The Christ. For all mankind, the failed intelligence of created beings is in the internal temptations of choice to defile and fail the first spirit through choice. Choice created love for all mankind. We become received into the Body of the Church of Christ in the New Temple of our own Christ from the Holy Spirit through the flesh for the soul of New Eve from the Body of Mary through our own Christ. Baptism is from the spirit through the flesh for the soul of all mankind as sanctified and is our own personal Epiphany, our own personal manifestation of God in all mankind. We become again into the New Intelligence of Creation as what would Jesus do in all cases of fulfilled faith and morality. What is removed in the New Creation is Choice or any chance of failure or defilement of a failure in Heaven. And through all the wondrous mysteries of the faith in the Body of Christ we become again, re-Sanctified and Confirmed through Atonement in Confession for remittance of sins in hearing the Words of Absolution and forgiven in Penance and Sacrifice of The Host in Communion with Him we become again re-Confirmed sanctified becoming glorified an transfigured into the image of The Creator God for God the Father.

Peace always,
Stephen Andrew

 

[TransmutingSoul]

Forgiveness: the cornerstone of the Christian faith. Jesus Christ offered forgiveness to everyone when He died on that cross… or so my youth pastor would tell a teenage me.

Apparently, Christ can give you the power to forgive others as well.

Is this true, in your eyes, Christian? Have you honestly been able to forgive all that has been done to you? If you haven’t, do you think it is possible through the power of Christ?

I have so much hatred in my heart towards particular people. I dream of them and am angry at them in my dreams. It’s been many years, and I have done all I can to put the past behind me. But the rage lingers on. I do not believe in a Christ, but I wonder if any Christian has experienced the rage I have. Think about your most angriest moments and those who caused them. Have you forgiven those people? Is it truly possible, through Christ?

Yes there power of forgiveness is given by the very life and person of the Messengers and intrinsic to the given Message.

If we live the life asked of us, we can forgive even the greatest enemy.

Very few souls can practice such forgiveness, but there are examples of who have been this forgiving.

I can off Abdul'baha lived such a life.

Regards Tony