Posted by Roberta Grimes • July 06, 2024 • 43 Comments
Jesus, The Teachings of Jesus
What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear.
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit. O what needless pain we bear.
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.
Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful, who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer.
– Charles Converse (1832-1918) & Joseph Scriven (1819-1886), from “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” (1865)
The Gospel teachings of Jesus with regard to sin are perfectly clear! And happily, what Jesus said has nothing to do with what Roman Christianity tells us about sin. Of course, we always can continue to ignore what Jesus plainly said. We can assume that all the Christian churches are right, and Jesus came only to die for the notion that we carry the guilt of Adam’s sin, as well as our own manifold sin-guilt. And while God insists that you and I must forgive, of course we cannot expect that God is going to be willing to forgive you and me. Right? So God sent God’s sinless only Son to die in a horrible way to atone to God for your sins and mine. This idea made perfect sense in the Jerusalem of two thousand years ago, when Hebrews were still sacrificing unblemished animals as sin-sacrifices to God in their temples.
But now, of course, we can start to see some pretty big problems with this old Roman Christian teaching. And once we start to see these problems, we really never again can find a way to un-see them:
The plain fact is that you are NOT more loving and more forgiving than God is. And the core dogma of the Roman Emperor Constantine’s version of Christianity, which is the version of Christianity that still in 2024 is practiced by some 2.4 billion people as the world’s most prominent religion, is obviously nonsense! That dogma, which is that Jesus died for our sins, may have made a modicum of sense in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, but clearly it makes no sense at all today.
What did Jesus Himself say about sin? Well, this is somewhat complicated. First of all, remember these caveats:
With these caveats in mind, let’s follow Jesus as He goes about His days and catch some of what He says about sin. Jesus seldom expounded directly on any sin just for its own sake.
The Gospel of John, Chapter 8, verses 2-11 is a famous moment when He dealt with sin.
8 2 Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” 6 They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. 7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. 10 Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”
The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 7, verses 36-50 shows us both that Jesus did have some religious friends, and that He didn’t hesitate to teach them what is really important!
36 Now one of the Pharisees was requesting Him to dine with him, and He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 And there was a woman in the city who was a sinner, an immoral woman; and when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, 38 and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, He would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a great sinner.”40 And Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he replied, “Say it, Teacher.” 41 “A moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So, which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have judged correctly.” 44 Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. 46 You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. 47 For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.” 49 Those who were reclining at the table with Him began to say]to themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” 50 And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Here in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 9, Verses 1-8, is the sort of thing that happens often in the Biblical Gospels, where Jesus uses His forgiveness of sins as an instrumental part of His healing work.
9 Getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over the sea and came to His own city.2 And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.” 3 And some of the scribes said to themselves, “This fellow blasphemes.” 4 And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? 5 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk’? 6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.” 7 And he got up and went home. 8 But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.
And in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 12, Verses 1-8, is one of many examples of Jesus and His disciples easily and often breaking the rigid Sabbath rules.
12 At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.” 3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, 4 how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? 5 Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? 6 But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
The four quotations given above are typical of the ways in which Jesus dismissively handles legalistic sins repeatedly, over and over again throughout all four of the Biblical Gospels. Far from seeing the Hebrews’ notion of sin as the strictly punishable disobedience of many rigid rules, the breaking of which can carry as much as a death sentence immediately inflicted, Jesus sees such old-style sins as only easily pardonable stumblings in nearly all cases. Because nearly all kinds of sin are to Him just minimal transgressions against God’s robustly ascendant and all-powerful law of love! Therefore, they all are now readily forgivable in love.
Jesus says of all these sins against human-made laws and rules only, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you” (MT 7:1-2). Only learn to forgive, and you will be forgiven!
There are just two sins left which Jesus tells us are unpardonable:
Thomas and I debated whether that verse in Luke really does denote for Jesus an unpardonable sin. So then Thomas asked Jesus directly, and Jesus has confirmed for us that, yes, He did indeed mean to tell us that the only unpardonable human sin is to lead a child astray.
So there you have it. Jesus gives us in His four Biblical Gospels, and not at all hidden but just seldom read, this easily understood primer in the fact that you can throw away all the religious guilt associated with the false notion that Jesus died for your sins. That whole bogus teaching that God needed Jesus’s death on the cross for your sins came from others. It never came from Jesus! No, God is infinitely more loving and more forgiving than that. God loves you perfectly, and God forgives you completely. Jesus chose to die and then to rise from the dead just to prove to you that there is no death. And oh, my beautiful darling one, God’s most cherished of all God’s precious children, for you this indeed is a glorious new day!
Hi Roberta,
I really appreciate these posts. It helps point us in the right direction. Please pass on my love and appreciation to Thomas, Jesus and you for all the love and guidance you have given us.
Thanks!
Thomas
Oh my very dear Thomas, of course you know that my Thomas would say that it is really our beautiful and very much-beloved Lord Jesus who really is due all our gratitude! But it does astonish me that all this truth is there, right there in their Bibles and plain to see, and still the churches persist in the lie that Jesus died for our sins. Or needed to.
Dear Roberta,
Thank you for reviewing what Jesus did say, and did not say about God, love, and sin. What a pity that Christian sects spend so much energy lamenting sin and sinners, instead of focusing on love. Love is the primary constituent of God’s own consciousness, and the consciousness that he created for us to exist in His world.
By now, I have read and observed on youtube over 6000 NDE reports. In these reports the individuals experience one or more of: God the Creator of all that is; Jesus, Angels, personal guides, relatives and friends (some of whom who have not even yet passed, but exist in both their materialized and spirit forms). In not one of these reports was sin a topic. During life reviews, the only one to judge the character of our life and thinking was the individual themself. God, Jesus, angels and all others never ever criticize us about our behavior as mortal. Our spirit is pure before we have a life, remains pure as a soul attached to the mortal body, and when detached from the body returns to Heaven as pure.
Our mortal body’s needs and desires lead us to self-centered, foolish, and mean behavior. But the difficulties we experience as mortal provide the opportunities for developing our spiritual qualities, such as forgiveness and love.
Hi Jack,
“Our mortal body’s needs and desires lead us to self-centered, foolish, and mean behavior. But the difficulties we experience as mortal provide the opportunities for developing our spiritual qualities, such as forgiveness and love.”
Couldn’t have said it better. I’ve also been thinking about how we are raised as kids. Kids are so easily influences and their spiritual progress can be sabotaged before they even have a chance.
I witnessed something the other day that left me feeling awful for a little girl who’s mom was completely out of it from alcohol or drugs. It isn’t just this person who is struggling. Before I figured out how to deal with depression, a great fear of mine was to have kids. I knew I wasn’t the person I needed to be at that time.
This reality seems so real. Even knowing the truth I tend to get sucked into it. How do you wake people up? I had hoped that the more people I helped the more they would help others. It doesn’t seemed to have worked at all. I am completely dumbfounded when it comes to helping others see the bigger picture. Then again, I may not be the right person for that job. Though, that has never stopped me from trying. haha
Dear Thomas, What we do in our mortal lives ripples throughout the material world in ways we may not ourselves see, but also ripples into Heaven, because Heaven and Earth are connected.
You can only aim to do what you yourself believe to be right and best, but know that God has it all under control.
God is creative throughout all of eternal existence, and we are not only along for the ride, but are active players, both in our fleeting mortal lives and in our eternal spirit form, forever and ever.
Thanks Jack,
“You can only aim to do what you yourself believe to be right and best, but know that God has it all under control.”
I will definitely repeat this whenever I feel bad or overwhelmed. It will help set my thinking straight.
Appreciate it.
Thomas
Oh my dear Thomas, I know what you mean about the worries of raising children! But I can tell you for certain now, having had three of my own and four grandchildren, that those new tiny bodies to whom I gave birth and my daughter gave birth brought into this world seven amazing and uniquely complex beings who had foe certain been here before. I don’t think I would have believed it if I hadn’t witnessed it.
May I please offer my thoughts?
What happens in a near-death experience (NDE) is not necessarily identically similar to what happens at corporeal death. This is a point Roberta also used to make when she was a regular on her first-born website AfterLifeForums. Much may be similar however and I nowadays readily acknowledge it’s a great introduction to the notion of survival – quite possibly a better intro. than even the simple teachings of Modern Spiritualism, a religion and movement that helped shape my own understanding.
As for mortal life providing (quote) “….opportunities for developing our spiritual qualities, such as forgiveness and love.” I suggest that developing forgiveness and love is a mortal rather than spiritual process. In our natural, spiritual form I’m pretty sure we do not need to forgive anyone anything and in the etheric dimension love is – of course – a given. But to enable us to understand life without them we need to experience both situations, something that may only be possible when living in-the-body.
Mac, thanks for your apt comment. Yes indeed, our mortal personality may benefit (or degenerate) from harsh experiences in living.
In addition, our soul retains the memory of experiences of mortal life (really lives), and the acquired memories contribute to our eternal spiritual character.
No, my dear Mac, NDEs are not death at all. Good point!
My dearly beloved Jack, thank you so much for sharing this! Yes, even though NDEs have nothing to do with death, but they are instead forced OBEs, they can tell us a lot about who and what we really are. Thank you so much for doing all that research! And of course it would make sense, wouldn’t it, that since God is at the highest point of consciousnesses, God is only perfect love?
Thank you always Roberta,
and thank you Jack Hiller….especially about the 6000 NDEs.
I find NDEs so so comforting, I can only imagine what “full entry into heaven is like”….. for that I turn to Emanuel Swedenborg.
Love you both! …..Love Christi Pitliangas
Oh my dear Christi, NDEs are comforting indeed! And that has been their great benefit for many people, because unfortunately Swedenborg’s writings haven’t received such a wide audience.
Christi, Thank you. Jesus bcame to Earth to give oppressed humanity hope that our hard lives are not the whole story, and that Heaven awaits us.
Swedenborg also gave us such hope, as does Roberta now. And the NDE reports now provide a steady flow of insights, and reminders that we came from Heaven and will return.
Some might wonder why God employs a memory block about our true origin, or why mortal life is so hard; I think the simple reason is that if we knew for sure that this life is hard so we may develop our spiritual qualities, then we would not benefit from development under stress–for we would have no stress.
NDEs are a great intro. to the notion of survival but beyond it the guidance of spirit teachers is beneficial.
Why we do not have access to why we’re here in the first place can be debated ad infinitum and it’s great fun to do that but essentially it appears it’s necessary for us to achieve what we came here for…. 😉
Thank you, dear much-beloved Jack, and of course you are right. The amnesia that we accept when we come here is necessary in order for us to take earth-life seriously; but still, it pans me sometimes, when I am counseling widows and the bereaved. I am sorry that it has to be so hard for them!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! You make Jesus’s words easy for me to understand and tell others. I am not very computer capable so could you offer a print only version. I print many of your messages, I can’t help myself. You should use the the song “I see clearly now”.
Hi Myron,
I copied and created a PDF file that you can download.
Here is the link.
https://sharingsomestuff.s3.amazonaws.com/JesusSinBlog.pdf
This is lovely of you, Thomas – Thank you!
Just continue printing what you see on screen, Myron. What else do you need if trying to help others? If anyone needs to read more they can visit this weblog.
Oh my dear wonderful Myron, thank you! You actually made my dear sobersided Thomas grin the first time he saw your comment, and I don’t think I ever have seen him grin before! He wants me to look up your song suggestion, and I wouldn’t be surpriseed if he makes it our frame-verse next week 🙂
Myron, if you have any version of Windows, first use your cursor to copy text you would like to print. Then access access your “Document – Wordpad page and past it there. Document -Wordpad has a menu from which you can direct that what you pasted may be stored or printed. Apple computers have a comparable facility.
That’s Myron’s problem, Jack – he isn’t familiar with the fundamentals so it’s hard for him. It’s easy when you are familiar with the fundamentals of highlighting text then copying and pasting – but it ain’t when you’re not.
No so very different from death and survival. It’s simple once you’ve grasped the fundamentals and all-but unfathomable when you haven’t. I regularly deal with folk struggling to comprehend.
One might reasonably continue asking whether Jesus did actually die and rise from the dead because if Jesus were a mortal then that could not happen – corporeal death is a one way process no matter who experiences it….
If, though, the entity we know as Jesus was not actually a mortal then it might have appeared he had died and later risen from the dead – I can accept that.
Me and Jesus are aces – I have no problem accepting him for what he was and what he is. What I stumble over is what humankind claims….
Dear Mac, let’s be clear: Jesus did in fact die on a cross, then He reanimated His body with a burst of tremendous energy, and He used that body for a day or two before discarding it and using an etheric body for the forty days before He ascended. The evidence is pretty clear, and I have blogged about it several times – just put “Shroud of Turin” into this website’s search bar at the upper right.
May I be clear, dear Roberta, by saying I accept Jesus appeared to have died on the cross. Declaring that he later animated his body, however, does not appeal to my reason, no matter how many times you do it. 😉
It certainly appeared that the Nazarene, Jesus, was a mortal man but we know that mortal man is not able to re-animate his body after the point we refer to as death. The point where the so-called silver cord has fractured freeing the soul/spirit from its former, physical body.
But I have no difficulty at all accepting that an immortal did what you describe. 🙂
My dear Mac, I understand that you find it hard not to have the last word on anything, but on this website I find it very hard to leave people who hunger for truth feeling at all confused. Every Easter I re-tell Jesus’s version of His Easter story, in which He does indeed die completely, and then rise from the dead and reanimate His dead body and briefly wear it for a couple of days before discarding it and using an astral body before ascending forty days later.
Here, for anyone who might be interested, is a link to the blog that I posted in March of this year: https://robertagrimes.com/jesus/jesus-lives. Enjoy!
Dear Roberta
It’s not that I want to have the last word on anything but just as with yourself I like to continue explaining points until there’s nowhere further to go with them. I do try to support and defend what I say though.
I never doubt your total conviction about the subjects you write about and I would never try to deny you your clear joy in “spreading the word”. Those who follow them undoubtedly love what you say and I don’t doubt it’s what THEY need and what you undoubtedly love to give.
I can’t and I wouldn’t anyway challenge most of what you write about because you have a depth and breadth of highly-specialised knowledge that would tie me in knots over details.
But you know my simple approach and you also know the points I raised have merit based on the spiritual values we both shared in the past. My offerings are usually simple because I’m a simple soul.
SUBSCRIPT FROM ROBERTA:
Ran out of comment space in this thread, dear Mac, so I will only say,thank you for proving my point about your needing the last word, dear one. And now, for anyone who has been made to fret at all about Jesus by what you have said here, I would just refer people to my link in the previous comment.
Dearest Roberta,
This blog post really strikes a beautiful chord within –
When you put things this way, that neither Father God nor Jesus the Christ demands punishment for sins, it makes sense that Jesus’ crucifixion was not some kind of sin offering. The Son was not sacrificed to pay for Adam’s sin. Thus all the dark guilt-fear attributed to God in Christianity is bogus.
The truth then, and the point, is in the Resurrection; Jesus was showing us we are eternal beings and He invited us to be with Him in Heaven. How could those who shaped Roman Christianity exchange a loving God for a hard, punitive one?!?
Or as I’m fond of saying: Trust human beings to stuff up a beautiful idea. Actually in this case, they ruined the truth and beauty of Love for generations of people.
And as to the immoral woman (Luke 7; 36 – 50) who washed Jesus feet with her tears and wiped them away with her hair, I am reminded of something I realized once. When a person falls into something ‘bad’ and lives that way for a significant time, he or she really feels guilty and has very low self esteem. This vice could be an addiction, a compulsion or a dishonest way of life. As they hate themselves it is much harder to come to God. They really must hanker for Divine forgiveness and love to be able to seek God while hating themselves so much.
When God loves and forgives a long time sinner, as Jesus did in the case of the woman at His feet, it is completely transformative. This woman must have been grateful beyond words. In a way, only she would really know what true Divine forgiveness-love and resulting human gratitude-love actually was. (Perhaps someone not as desperate would not have felt Divine forgiveness as keenly.) The power and rawness of what she felt must have transformed into the deepest gratitude-love within her. She was witness to the sheer magnitude of God’s forgiveness.
Also Roberta, it is absolutely significant that the one sin that is unforgivable is to lead a child astray. (Luke 17; 1 – 2) There are myriad kinds of sin in this world, but the one that is the most impossible to forgive out of all of them is to lead a child astray. How important are children then? And how important, how vital is it to raise them in what is right and true?!
Hence the implications of how children are treated in this modern world are extremely serious if not dire. 🙏🏼👶❣️
Oh my dear precious Efrem, how lovely it is to see you here!
Ah yes, it is unforgivable to lead a child astray, and it also is unforgivable to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. Someone emailed me and asked me what that meant, to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. I had to tell her that I had no idea! Can you think of what Jesus might have meant by that?
My dear, I won’t attempt to answer such I question. Instead, I might pose a question or two myself:
What if someone truly hates God and is not suffering a mental illness or disorder, but totally despises the Light as a conscious choice. Could this be to blaspheme against the Spirit?
(They would use their lifetime to ruin Creation; perhaps become a false prophet, teacher or guru to lead humans astray…)
Or could someone with total disinterest in human lives be worse than someone who hates? Could this be the unforgivable sin?
(They could callously oppress the populace, send people to die needlessly in war, all from an easy chair at their office desk…etc.. Or they could simply run a financial system that makes people lose hope, become homeless and hungry or become work slaves..)
Roberta, I simply ask questions about what blasphemy against the Spirit is, but I’d love to know the answer.
(I mean, I’ve heard some reports that Adolph Hitler is living happily in the Afterlife and is not languishing in the Outer Darkness- So what do I know?!)
😉🕊❣️🙏🏼
My dear wonderful Efrem, some people have emailed me to ask what blaspheming against the Holy Spirit might be, and I have had to say that, honestly, I have no idea! Just remember, though, that there is no divine judgment, so Jesus likely meant that we will have trouble forgiving ourselves for doing it… whatever it is!
Hi Roberta,
That makes more sense to me. Jesus may have been trying to steer us away from actions that will be much more difficult for us to forgive when the time arises. So those would be considered unpardonable sins that could lead us into the outer darkness when we return home.
quote: “Also Roberta, it is absolutely significant that the one sin that is unforgivable is to lead a child astray. (Luke 17; 1 – 2) There are myriad kinds of sin in this world, but the one that is the most impossible to forgive out of all of them is to lead a child astray. How important are children then? And how important, how vital is it to raise them in what is right and true?! ”
Now which is it – unforgivable or “the one that is the most impossible to forgive out of all”? When you change words you change thrust and even meaning…..
But I do agree that to mislead a child is deplorable and I used to be in mentally agony as an educator when I heard my little lovelies being told the most awful religious nonsense by their teachers.
Thankfully our daughter (in the same school as I) had me to tell her an alternative version after we were back home. She grew up without carrying a headful of rubbish, able to think and choose for herself.
mental agony (not mentally agony – missed that when editing!)
quote: “I mean, I’ve heard some reports that Adolph Hitler is living happily in the Afterlife and is not languishing in the Outer Darkness- So what do I know?!”
Efrem you know as much and as little as the rest of humankind and maybe as much as the so-called channeled advisers of those who claim they DO know more than us!
What has happened to the spirit who manifested as that human nobody in this dimension can have any certainty about – believe anyone who says they DO know at your peril. Whatever that individual is now doing, wherever that spirit is, the usual processes will have taken place albeit processes most of us regular gals and guys will not experience – thank the lord……
But haven’t we been taught we should strive to forgive – in this example, it would mean Adolph Hitler? Even the seemingly unforgivable actions of that mortal, then, we ought to try to understand and forgive – am I right?
I have heard those reports too, dear Mac. Hitler forgave himself, while the concentration camp guards and others who carried out his orders put themselves into the worst Outer Darkness torment, and now it is their victims who are trying to rescue them. It makes for a heck of a set of stories, in any event!
It’s arguable the man Adolf Hitler may have had severe mental problems that led him to be the way he was.
It’s also arguable that at least some of the guards and his henchmen enjoyed what they did.
Others might have hated what they did but were fearful what would happen to them if they did not carry out orders. Were all groups and individuals equally culpable?
Based on the teachings that shape our values in life we should expect that at least some of the many millions of victims might be able to forgive. Some might even try to help those in self-imposed purgatory in the so-called dark regions, unable to face up to what they did or seek forgiveness.
How accurate such accounts are we’ll one day learn. 😉
quote: “unpardonable sins”
There are no such things in reality. The notion exists in our mortal psyches and in the teachings of certain religions and faiths.
quote: “What if someone truly hates God and is not suffering a mental illness or disorder, but totally despises the Light as a conscious choice. Could this be to blaspheme against the Spirit?” Would either have any impact anyway?
God doesn’t react in retaliation even against those who claim to hate such an unknowable entity. Blaspheme against the spirit? what? What on earth would that mean practically? Such notions are solely the province of the human psyche….
Mac, since we are the only ones who ever judge ourselves, I would assume that whatever such blaspheming is, it would be something that we will have a great deal of trouble forgiving ourselves for….
But are we not expected also to forgive ourselves and not just others?
I would think some/many/most of us will need to do that in respect of the many individuals we will come into contact with in our lives towards whom we were harsh. I’m certain that will apply to me anyway!
Perhaps those who are considered blasphemers will consider and then forgive themselves based on the ignorance they – and we – undoubtedly experience living in-the-body?
Just one dictionary definition of blaspheming is ” to speak irreverently about God or sacred things” but, of course, that’s a definition based on human, religious values and teaching. After we make our transition back whence we came I’m not expecting there will be any such nonsense other than – perhaps – for those who cling on to ancient teaching.
One thing I’m confident about is that neither God nor source would consider human ignorance as irreverence.
quote, Roberta: “SUBSCRIPT FROM ROBERTA:
Ran out of comment space in this thread, dear Mac, so I will only say,thank you for proving my point about your needing the last word, dear one. And now, for anyone who has been made to fret at all about Jesus by what you have said here, I would just refer people to my link in the previous comment.”
Oh dear lord as our friend from Portland, OR often used to remark to me…. I have never needed the last word – it’s just that often there’s something more of relevance to be said.
Completely sincerely I do hope nobody here is fretting about anything I’ve ‘said’ but equally sincerely I also hope they will at least acknowledge there are alternative ways to view the same details and they may wonder why that is. If anything were to appeal to their reason I would feel I had done my bit to also “spread the word”.
My best wishes to all your readers.