What exact sins did I commit?

[Eddi]

In the past I’ve done something horrible that I know (and knew then) was wrong. I’m not proud of it indeed it’s totally shameful. I've felt incredibly guilty about it for years now, and I believe that because of this I cannot call myself a "good person", even though I'm now a totally different person than I was when I did those horrible, cruel things to such a kind and gentle soul.

But there’s something I am unsure about: I know what I did was wrong but according to your religion, what exact sins did I commit?

This is what happened:

In 1996 I transferred to a new high school

I was put together with a lad called Gerald and in time we became friends

In 1998 me and a friend who was not as nice as Gerald played an elaborate trick on him because we thought he was naive and gullible:

Basically, we made him believe he was in a society for gifted young people, we called it The Calderdale Design Club - or CDC. I made stuff up using the desktop publishing program on my Windows 95 PC and mailed it to him, through the post.

At its height, we gave him an assessment to complete. We had him designing aeroplanes, writing essays, and gave him all other kinds of exercises to complete. I wrote a biography of a Formula One racing driver who used to be a pilot in the US Navy and made him answer questions about him and spot all the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. He was called Ernst Fibenger. He was supposed to do this assessment under examination conditions but he cheated.

We then broke the news to him that the CDC did not exist. We were going to send him on a mission to find a non-existent house party on a local council estate but thought better of it as we didn't want to jeopardise his personal safety.

This is what happened:

Me: “Do you believe in fairies?”

Him: “No”

Me: “Do you believe in ghosts?”

Him: “No”

Me: “Do you believe in the Loch Ness monster?”

Him: “No”

Me: “Then why did you believe in the CDC?”

He then burst into tears and ran off to the teachers

They were shocked and could hardly believe what had happened

One of them suggested that he should get a certificate for his efforts, but I was adamant that he’d cheated

We went before the Head Teacher but didn’t actually receive any punishment whatsoever for what we had done. Not a single minute's detention.

I later had to go to a meeting where all our mothers (mine, Gerald’s, and the friend’s) were present and it turned out that Gerald cried himself to sleep when he went to bed on the day we told him the CDC wasn’t real. Which was something I could relate to as in the past I too had cried myself to sleep because of awful things people had done to me.

But the thing was, at this meeting I took all the blame, not the friend who wasn’t even there, he was away on a school trip. But his mother told him to stay away from me. Which he didn’t.

This was in 1998 and I was at that school until 1999. After all this happened the atmosphere there was awful and unpleasant. We had to share classes with Gerald and it just felt horrible. I was glad to leave that school.

At that time I disliked him intensely, but looking back he was a lovely, kind, soft person. He was totally benign. A lovely, lovely person. And I feel very bad about what we did to him.

I’ve found him on Facebook and have considered contacting him and apologising for being such a ****. But having seen his profile, he is a more successful human being than I am so he’s probably had the last laugh.

I wish him well and am pleased for him.

So, that’s the story.

Question: What sins would you say I committed against him?

 

[Mindmaster]

But there’s something I am unsure about: I know what I did was wrong but according to your religion, what exact sins did I commit?

Your first sin: Breathing. (According to The Bible, anyway.)

This is because Adam and Eve just couldn't leave that tree alone, and that's your fault... The second you were born.

 

[Harel13]

But there’s something I am unsure about: I know what I did was wrong but according to your religion, what exact sins did I commit?

Since you're Christian now Eddi, wouldn't it be best if you spoke to your local clergy rather than everyone here piling blame on you?

 

[Eddi]

Since you're Christian now Eddi, wouldn't it be best if you spoke to your local clergy rather than everyone here piling blame on you?

Because I don't want to share the awful things I've done with someone I know in the offline world

Also, I find the minister at my church to be quite aloof and distant

 

[Harel13]

Because I don't want to share the awful things I've done with someone I know in the offline world

Also, I find the minister at my church to be quite aloof and distant

I'm sure there are churches/Christian organizations that offer online consultation.

 

[February-Saturday]

I don't believe that we can evaluate these mistakes through consequences, or what you did to him. We can guess what consequences will come from our actions, but we can't truly know them. So in order to act properly, we have to examine our intentions.

From what you describe here, you played the trick on him because he was naive and gullible. The real question is, why? Why did you do it? What was your intention?

It sounds like you wanted a laugh. That's not really a bad intention; there's nothing wrong with a little laughter in our lives. If that was all that was going on, I'd say you didn't do anything wrong.

I will say that you acted without wisdom, or without gnosis. You harmed a part of the same whole that you're a part of because you were too focused on a very narrow slice of it. This slice was not narrowed down to just yourself, but even further to your own short-term amusement.

Gnosticism isn't exactly a casual religion. There's a reason the Gnostics were few in number and claimed that the majority of people could never become Gnostics. It requires absolute devotion to the ultimate goal of salvation, both on a long-term individual level and on a communal one.

This is achieved, in part, through the constant recognition of your own reflection of the whole. Any action that does not play into this ultimate goal is at best viewed as a distraction that's undermining your liberation. Actions that stray too far harm the potential liberation of others, which is even worse.

(This applies to all actions. If you're watching TV, it should be to better understand how you can apply gnostic revelation to your life or it should be to help prevent burnout so you're more effective at applying gnostic revelation to your life. Even eating and bathing are to keep you healthy and efficient at striving towards these goals. Everything has to have salvation as its aim.)

It's very hard to achieve this sort of detached recognition when you're experiencing negative emotions like anger or sadness. Your intention was, essentially, to drag somebody who was further along in the path than you down to your own level for your amusement.

This isn't a "sin," but it is viewed as antithetical to the goals and practices of my religion, and as such it's seen as inefficient or bad in the same way a pocket watch is bad when it's too slow to accurately keep the time. It's incompatible with the broader goals, and could even be seen as self-destructive.

 

[ChristineM]

I don't do sin, i see it as a religious action against a god who doesn't exist except in believers heads.

That is not to say i haven't done wrong, haven't been a bad girl. Because oh boy oh boy, have i just.

 

[ChristineM]

Question: What sins would you say I committed against him?

I would say you deliberately deceived a friend for your own enjoyment. I hope you sincerely apologised.

 

[Nova2216]

Your first sin: Breathing. (According to The Bible, anyway.)

This is because Adam and Eve just couldn't leave that tree alone, and that's your fault... The second you were born.

Original sin is a lie.

(Ezekiel 18:20) - The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.


Ps 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:


You can learn more here.

Apologetics Press

 

[Nova2216]

In the past I’ve done something horrible that I know (and knew then) was wrong. I’m not proud of it indeed it’s totally shameful. I've felt incredibly guilty about it for years now, and I believe that because of this I cannot call myself a "good person", even though I'm now a totally different person than I was when I did those horrible, cruel things to such a kind and gentle soul.

But there’s something I am unsure about: I know what I did was wrong but according to your religion, what exact sins did I commit?

This is what happened:

In 1996 I transferred to a new high school

I was put together with a lad called Gerald and in time we became friends

In 1998 me and a friend who was not as nice as Gerald played an elaborate trick on him because we thought he was naive and gullible:

Basically, we made him believe he was in a society for gifted young people, we called it The Calderdale Design Club - or CDC. I made stuff up using the desktop publishing program on my Windows 95 PC and mailed it to him, through the post.

At its height, we gave him an assessment to complete. We had him designing aeroplanes, writing essays, and gave him all other kinds of exercises to complete. I wrote a biography of a Formula One racing driver who used to be a pilot in the US Navy and made him answer questions about him and spot all the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. He was called Ernst Fibenger. He was supposed to do this assessment under examination conditions but he cheated.

We then broke the news to him that the CDC did not exist. We were going to send him on a mission to find a non-existent house party on a local council estate but thought better of it as we didn't want to jeopardise his personal safety.

This is what happened:

Me: “Do you believe in fairies?”

Him: “No”

Me: “Do you believe in ghosts?”

Him: “No”

Me: “Do you believe in the Loch Ness monster?”

Him: “No”

Me: “Then why did you believe in the CDC?”

He then burst into tears and ran off to the teachers

They were shocked and could hardly believe what had happened

One of them suggested that he should get a certificate for his efforts, but I was adamant that he’d cheated

We went before the Head Teacher but didn’t actually receive any punishment whatsoever for what we had done. Not a single minute's detention.

I later had to go to a meeting where all our mothers (mine, Gerald’s, and the friend’s) were present and it turned out that Gerald cried himself to sleep when he went to bed on the day we told him the CDC wasn’t real. Which was something I could relate to as in the past I too had cried myself to sleep because of awful things people had done to me.

But the thing was, at this meeting I took all the blame, not the friend who wasn’t even there, he was away on a school trip. But his mother told him to stay away from me. Which he didn’t.

This was in 1998 and I was at that school until 1999. After all this happened the atmosphere there was awful and unpleasant. We had to share classes with Gerald and it just felt horrible. I was glad to leave that school.

At that time I disliked him intensely, but looking back he was a lovely, kind, soft person. He was totally benign. A lovely, lovely person. And I feel very bad about what we did to him.

I’ve found him on Facebook and have considered contacting him and apologising for being such a ****. But having seen his profile, he is a more successful human being than I am so he’s probably had the last laugh.

I wish him well and am pleased for him.

So, that’s the story.

Question: What sins would you say I committed against him?

Guilt is a powerful. You need to find a way to deal with it.

I would contact this person regardless of how it turned out.

I wish you well.

**mod edit**

 

[Nova2216]

In the past I’ve done something horrible that I know (and knew then) was wrong. I’m not proud of it indeed it’s totally shameful. I've felt incredibly guilty about it for years now, and I believe that because of this I cannot call myself a "good person", even though I'm now a totally different person than I was when I did those horrible, cruel things to such a kind and gentle soul.

But there’s something I am unsure about: I know what I did was wrong but according to your religion, what exact sins did I commit?

This is what happened:

In 1996 I transferred to a new high school

I was put together with a lad called Gerald and in time we became friends

In 1998 me and a friend who was not as nice as Gerald played an elaborate trick on him because we thought he was naive and gullible:

Basically, we made him believe he was in a society for gifted young people, we called it The Calderdale Design Club - or CDC. I made stuff up using the desktop publishing program on my Windows 95 PC and mailed it to him, through the post.

At its height, we gave him an assessment to complete. We had him designing aeroplanes, writing essays, and gave him all other kinds of exercises to complete. I wrote a biography of a Formula One racing driver who used to be a pilot in the US Navy and made him answer questions about him and spot all the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. He was called Ernst Fibenger. He was supposed to do this assessment under examination conditions but he cheated.

We then broke the news to him that the CDC did not exist. We were going to send him on a mission to find a non-existent house party on a local council estate but thought better of it as we didn't want to jeopardise his personal safety.

This is what happened:

Me: “Do you believe in fairies?”

Him: “No”

Me: “Do you believe in ghosts?”

Him: “No”

Me: “Do you believe in the Loch Ness monster?”

Him: “No”

Me: “Then why did you believe in the CDC?”

He then burst into tears and ran off to the teachers

They were shocked and could hardly believe what had happened

One of them suggested that he should get a certificate for his efforts, but I was adamant that he’d cheated

We went before the Head Teacher but didn’t actually receive any punishment whatsoever for what we had done. Not a single minute's detention.

I later had to go to a meeting where all our mothers (mine, Gerald’s, and the friend’s) were present and it turned out that Gerald cried himself to sleep when he went to bed on the day we told him the CDC wasn’t real. Which was something I could relate to as in the past I too had cried myself to sleep because of awful things people had done to me.

But the thing was, at this meeting I took all the blame, not the friend who wasn’t even there, he was away on a school trip. But his mother told him to stay away from me. Which he didn’t.

This was in 1998 and I was at that school until 1999. After all this happened the atmosphere there was awful and unpleasant. We had to share classes with Gerald and it just felt horrible. I was glad to leave that school.

At that time I disliked him intensely, but looking back he was a lovely, kind, soft person. He was totally benign. A lovely, lovely person. And I feel very bad about what we did to him.

I’ve found him on Facebook and have considered contacting him and apologising for being such a ****. But having seen his profile, he is a more successful human being than I am so he’s probably had the last laugh.

I wish him well and am pleased for him.

So, that’s the story.

Question: What sins would you say I committed against him?

It was all a lie. That is a sin.

Col 3:9 Lie not one to another,...

 

[Stevicus]

In 1998 me and a friend who was not as nice as Gerald played an elaborate trick on him because we thought he was naive and gullible:

Basically, we made him believe he was in a society for gifted young people, we called it The Calderdale Design Club - or CDC. I made stuff up using the desktop publishing program on my Windows 95 PC and mailed it to him, through the post.

At its height, we gave him an assessment to complete. We had him designing aeroplanes, writing essays, and gave him all other kinds of exercises to complete. I wrote a biography of a Formula One racing driver who used to be a pilot in the US Navy and made him answer questions about him and spot all the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. He was called Ernst Fibenger. He was supposed to do this assessment under examination conditions but he cheated.

We then broke the news to him that the CDC did not exist.

I'm not sure what sins you committed (other than lying), but it seems like you put in a great deal of effort to play this joke on one person.

Back in my day, it would just be a matter of surreptitiously taping a "kick me" sign on somebody's back.

 

[Kenny]

Question: What sins would you say I committed against him?

The answer is quite simple if you are a Christian:

Colossians 2:13-15 (TPT)
13 This “realm of death” describes our former state, for we were held in sin’s grasp. But now, we’ve been resurrected out of that “realm of death” never to return, for we are forever alive and forgiven of all our sins!
14 He canceled out every legal violation we had on our record and the old arrest warrant that stood to indict us. He erased it all—our sins, our stained soul—he deleted it all and they cannot be retrieved! Everything we once were in Adam has been placed onto his cross and nailed permanently there as a public display of cancellation.

First, you simple have to accept what Jesus did on the cross as yours. Every violation was nailed to The Cross.

Next:

2 Corinthians 5:17 (TPT)
17 Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new creation. All that is related to the old order has vanished.Behold, everything is fresh and new.

Realize that you are an entirely a new creation. The old Eddi died and now you are a different Eddi.


Third:

Mark 11:25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

Forgive others. And then forgive yourself because Jesus forgave you and you aren't the judge, Jesus is.judge and not you and you don't want to step on the blood He shed by declaring you are the judge and not him.

If you feel impressed to connect with him and just say "I'm really sorry and would like you to forgive me" - do it... it is probably the Holy Spirit moving you to do so. He may end up being the best of a friend.

Last:

Rom 8:1 So now the case is closed. There remains no accusing voice of condemnation against those who are joined in life-union with Jesus, the Anointed

Don't let the accuser of the brethren, Satan, fill your mind with condemnation through accusation. Just remind him that you are forgiven and Jesus presents you faultless. (You may have to do this quite a few times)

 

[Fool]

In the past I’ve done something horrible that I know (and knew then) was wrong. I’m not proud of it indeed it’s totally shameful. I've felt incredibly guilty about it for years now, and I believe that because of this I cannot call myself a "good person", even though I'm now a totally different person than I was when I did those horrible, cruel things to such a kind and gentle soul.

But there’s something I am unsure about: I know what I did was wrong but according to your religion, what exact sins did I commit?

This is what happened:

In 1996 I transferred to a new high school

I was put together with a lad called Gerald and in time we became friends

In 1998 me and a friend who was not as nice as Gerald played an elaborate trick on him because we thought he was naive and gullible:

Basically, we made him believe he was in a society for gifted young people, we called it The Calderdale Design Club - or CDC. I made stuff up using the desktop publishing program on my Windows 95 PC and mailed it to him, through the post.

At its height, we gave him an assessment to complete. We had him designing aeroplanes, writing essays, and gave him all other kinds of exercises to complete. I wrote a biography of a Formula One racing driver who used to be a pilot in the US Navy and made him answer questions about him and spot all the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. He was called Ernst Fibenger. He was supposed to do this assessment under examination conditions but he cheated.

We then broke the news to him that the CDC did not exist. We were going to send him on a mission to find a non-existent house party on a local council estate but thought better of it as we didn't want to jeopardise his personal safety.

This is what happened:

Me: “Do you believe in fairies?”

Him: “No”

Me: “Do you believe in ghosts?”

Him: “No”

Me: “Do you believe in the Loch Ness monster?”

Him: “No”

Me: “Then why did you believe in the CDC?”

He then burst into tears and ran off to the teachers

They were shocked and could hardly believe what had happened

One of them suggested that he should get a certificate for his efforts, but I was adamant that he’d cheated

We went before the Head Teacher but didn’t actually receive any punishment whatsoever for what we had done. Not a single minute's detention.

I later had to go to a meeting where all our mothers (mine, Gerald’s, and the friend’s) were present and it turned out that Gerald cried himself to sleep when he went to bed on the day we told him the CDC wasn’t real. Which was something I could relate to as in the past I too had cried myself to sleep because of awful things people had done to me.

But the thing was, at this meeting I took all the blame, not the friend who wasn’t even there, he was away on a school trip. But his mother told him to stay away from me. Which he didn’t.

This was in 1998 and I was at that school until 1999. After all this happened the atmosphere there was awful and unpleasant. We had to share classes with Gerald and it just felt horrible. I was glad to leave that school.

At that time I disliked him intensely, but looking back he was a lovely, kind, soft person. He was totally benign. A lovely, lovely person. And I feel very bad about what we did to him.

I’ve found him on Facebook and have considered contacting him and apologising for being such a ****. But having seen his profile, he is a more successful human being than I am so he’s probably had the last laugh.

I wish him well and am pleased for him.

So, that’s the story.

Question: What sins would you say I committed against him?

there are two types of service:

service to self, selfishness
service to all as self, selflessness


the sin is the sin of ignorance of the golden rule.

 

[Sw. Vandana Jyothi]

In the past I’ve done something horrible that I know (and knew then) was wrong. I’m not proud of it indeed it’s totally shameful. I've felt incredibly guilty about it for years now

But Eddiji, this is your statement from another post:

However, when I got baptised [sic] earlier this year I renounced all my sins, including this one, and I believe God has forgiven me

You and the rest of us could go on a guilt binge for years listing in forums our previous mistakes one by one, which seems to be your current MO. Mistakes in thought, word or deed are called "sins" in Christianity--a word which, because of how we were taught, pre-loads shame and guilt in us before we've even had a chance to examine the issues; mistakes are called errors in Hinduism and that word, for me, somehow isn't as loaded.

IMHO, you are dealing with two problems here. One is, although God has forgiven you, you have not truly accepted it in full. Those who think or believe God is a separate entity from themselves always need to do an additional step which is to match their Lord's generosity, i.e., offer to and accept forgiveness to themselves.

The second problem, as I see it, is asking yourself a pretty simple question: "If I continually meditate on (ruminate, dredge up, ponder) the dark, how will I reach the Light?" Your history is just that, history. Can't change it, can't redo it so why keep reliving it? The choices you make today are the ones you'll be dealing with "tomorrow." So, as the Bible says, "Go and sin no more!"

 

[Eddi]

the sin is the sin of ignorance of the golden rule.

Yes!

I broke the golden rule

 

[Fool]

Yes!

I broke the golden rule

 

[PureX]

This is not for us to say.

To deal with it properly, you need to uncover why you did this to someone who you claimed was a friend, and determine what you were getting out of it, and what it cost the other person. Then, you need to examine yourself to see if this motive still animates your behavior in any way, today, so that you can own up to it and put a stop to it.

Once you know that you have freed yourself from whatever poison within you motivated this behavior, and you are sure that it no longer influences you, or will, you can consider that change to be your amends.

Personally, I would leave the other fellow be. I doubt he needs or wants your apology.

 

[Katzpur]

In the past I’ve done something horrible that I know (and knew then) was wrong. I’m not proud of it indeed it’s totally shameful. I've felt incredibly guilty about it for years now, and I believe that because of this I cannot call myself a "good person", even though I'm now a totally different person than I was when I did those horrible, cruel things to such a kind and gentle soul.

But there’s something I am unsure about: I know what I did was wrong but according to your religion, what exact sins did I commit?

This is what happened:

In 1996 I transferred to a new high school

I was put together with a lad called Gerald and in time we became friends

In 1998 me and a friend who was not as nice as Gerald played an elaborate trick on him because we thought he was naive and gullible:

Basically, we made him believe he was in a society for gifted young people, we called it The Calderdale Design Club - or CDC. I made stuff up using the desktop publishing program on my Windows 95 PC and mailed it to him, through the post.

At its height, we gave him an assessment to complete. We had him designing aeroplanes, writing essays, and gave him all other kinds of exercises to complete. I wrote a biography of a Formula One racing driver who used to be a pilot in the US Navy and made him answer questions about him and spot all the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. He was called Ernst Fibenger. He was supposed to do this assessment under examination conditions but he cheated.

We then broke the news to him that the CDC did not exist. We were going to send him on a mission to find a non-existent house party on a local council estate but thought better of it as we didn't want to jeopardise his personal safety.

This is what happened:

Me: “Do you believe in fairies?”

Him: “No”

Me: “Do you believe in ghosts?”

Him: “No”

Me: “Do you believe in the Loch Ness monster?”

Him: “No”

Me: “Then why did you believe in the CDC?”

He then burst into tears and ran off to the teachers

They were shocked and could hardly believe what had happened

One of them suggested that he should get a certificate for his efforts, but I was adamant that he’d cheated

We went before the Head Teacher but didn’t actually receive any punishment whatsoever for what we had done. Not a single minute's detention.

I later had to go to a meeting where all our mothers (mine, Gerald’s, and the friend’s) were present and it turned out that Gerald cried himself to sleep when he went to bed on the day we told him the CDC wasn’t real. Which was something I could relate to as in the past I too had cried myself to sleep because of awful things people had done to me.

But the thing was, at this meeting I took all the blame, not the friend who wasn’t even there, he was away on a school trip. But his mother told him to stay away from me. Which he didn’t.

This was in 1998 and I was at that school until 1999. After all this happened the atmosphere there was awful and unpleasant. We had to share classes with Gerald and it just felt horrible. I was glad to leave that school.

At that time I disliked him intensely, but looking back he was a lovely, kind, soft person. He was totally benign. A lovely, lovely person. And I feel very bad about what we did to him.

I’ve found him on Facebook and have considered contacting him and apologising for being such a ****. But having seen his profile, he is a more successful human being than I am so he’s probably had the last laugh.

I wish him well and am pleased for him.

So, that’s the story.

Question: What sins would you say I committed against him?

Interesting story. I'd say there are sins of omission and sins of commission. The one thing I believe Jesus stressed over and over again is that we are to love our neighbor as one's self and to treat other people the way we'd wan to be treated. I'd say it's a sin to disregard this teaching.

 

[dybmh]

Yes!

I broke the golden rule

Looking at the story,the pleasure received was from vain-glory. Showing how the other person was stupid and the rest of you were smart and taking pleasure from that is Vain-Glory. It is the dark side of self-love and self-preservation. Self-love which feeds self-preservation is good and healthy; forming that into harming another to make oneself appear to be more and better is not. However, it seems like it's a part of human nature, if you continue to look in the story, G-d gives people the power to crush this part of our nature. ( Genesis 3:15 )

At this point the event happened. Nothing will ever change it.

From a religious perspective, I recommend using gen 3:15 to empower yourself. Go ahead and feel the guilt, experience it fully, and don't restrain it. Then use that along with Gen 3:15 to crush the desire to take pleasure at another's expense if it ever arises again. This takes the event and turns it into a teaching moment. And that's the best anyone can do religious or not.

Best wishes,