Not all sin is the same.

GaveMeJoy said:

I think with horrific abuses of the RC like selling of indulgences, purgatory, intentionally keeping the scriptures from being accessed by the masses, fabricated doctrine on suicide and many other similar issues (list is a thousand years long) the reformers were reactionary and definitely may have gone a bit far, but it’s hard to blame them given the circumstances. However, we can’t base our theological beliefs on what a group of fallible men say, that’s the issue the reformers were fighting against in the first place so we should do it with them. And reformed people do, they often seem like catholics and McArthur is their new Pope. But God is greater than this and his purpose will be accomplished!!!

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I haven't been able to stomach listening to MacArthur for over 40 years.

Bible Highlighter said:

I believe we are born with the stain of the sin of Adam, but if a baby dies, they go to Heaven by Christ's sacrifice because they have not knowingly have broken God's laws.

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Children naturally crave God's Love as He designed us to.

Matthew 18:3
And said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Mark 9:37
“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

Matthew 21:15
But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant,

Matthew 18:3-4
And said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 18:1-4
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

I make my points using scripture. You should try that.

SkyWriting said:

All sins from our birth to our death are forgiven the day we are saved.

The only unforgivable sin is not accepting forgiveness.
"There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.
All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death."

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That is not in scripture ("to our death"). When we come to Christ, only our PAST sins are forgiven.

Bible Highlighter said:

I am saying that we have to do good, and you call that bad. The Bible talks about this. See Isaiah 5:20.

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I never said doing good was bad, as you imagine. We do "good" out of respect for Our Father, and to improve the lives of others, saved or not.

Titus 3:14
And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.

CharismaticLady said:

That is not in scripture ("to our death"). When we come to Christ, only our PAST sins are forgiven.

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God sees our life as one completed event. All sins are forgiven birth to grave.

Mark 11:24
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer,
believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Matthew 6
“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Psalm 139
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. ...

The completed Book Of Revelation proves God has forgiven all your future sins:

Revelation 21:6
And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

Bible Highlighter said:

What is the "sin unto death" in 1 John 5:16-17?

I believe two helpful pieces of Scripture that help to define the "sin unto death" can be found in Ezekiel 18, and Ezekiel 33.

“Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4).

“Therefore you, O son of man, say to the children of your people: `The righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness; nor shall the righteous be able to live because of his righteousness in the day that he sins.’ When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, but he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous works shall be remembered; but because of the iniquity that he has committed, he shall die. Again, when I say to the wicked, `You shall surely die,’ if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right, if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him; he has done what is lawful and right; he shall surely live” (Ezekiel 33:12-16).​

I think a person is able to recognize the “sin unto death” and the “sin not unto death” in the above passages. Granted, I believe confession of sin plays an important part in this, too (1 John 1:9) (Proverbs 28:13) (Luke 18:9-14).

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I believe Numbers 15:22-36 is a better example. Sins that are covered by sacrifice are sins not unto death. Those in this passage are unintentional sins.

There were no sacrifices to cover sins unto death (the willful breaking of a law of God). They were stoned to death.

Bible Highlighter said:

You believe that doing good as a part of salvation is bad, right?

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Salvation is finished when you accept that Jesus died for all your sins.
Good works are a result of your salvation.
The obsolete covenant/promise was that good works provided salvation.
But such back-slid believers can still be saved by grace.

SkyWriting said:

God sees our life as one completed event. All sins are forgiven birth to grave.

Mark 11:24
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer,
believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Matthew 6
“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Psalm 139
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. ...

The completed Book Of Revelation proves God has forgiven all your future sins:

Revelation 21:6
And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

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Any person who has no power over willful sinning does not have the Spirit of Christ in them. And without the Spirit, that person does not belong to Christ. We are either a slave of righteousness, or a slave to sin. We can't be both.

Bible Highlighter said:

I just do not get the impression that is what John was talking about. While I am sure it could be included, I see it as more broad than that. John's epistle focused on obedience vs. disobedience to the Lord and in loving one's brother vs. not loving them.

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1 John 3:4 tells us what this chapter is about. Sins of lawlessness. Those would be willful sins against God's laws. And in our schoolmaster, breakers of the law were stoned to death. Thus, sins unto death.

1 John 1:7 shows a person walking in the light/Spirit, but at the end the blood of Jesus is continuing to cleanse him of sin. What type of sin could we be committing while walking in the Spirit? Unknown sins, unintentionally committed (sins not unto death). Those are called trespasses, and the only type of sin in the Lord's Prayer. Its not saying forgive me of murdering my neighbor's child, as I forgive him for murdering mine.

Bible Highlighter said:

You believe that doing good as a part of salvation is bad, right? Meaning, are you not saying that no believer can do good works as a part of the salvation process? Are you not saying that we are only saved by God's grace even despite if we sin and do evil?

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We will sin and we will do evil. Unless God happens to be walking beside you in Paradise and you are in constant communion with God, you will act in sin, outside of God's direct will. Even Adam failed God with all theses advantages he had.

Romans 5:12
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned

Our only option in this condition is to accept forgiveness.

Mark 11:25
And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

Bible Highlighter said:

Problem is that John does not specifically refer to unintentional sins. You are implying something that John said that he never explicitly stated.

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I can surmise that from 1 John 3:4, and 1 John 5:16-17 and the others such as Leviticus 5:15 regarding the Lord's Prayer.

CharismaticLady said:

What type of sin could we be committing while walking in the Spirit?

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Pride, Neglect, legalism, slothfulness, every sin there is.
"In the Spirit" is the spirit of forgiveness and love.

Mark 11:25
And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

SkyWriting said:

Pride, Neglect, legalism, slothfulness, every sin there is.

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Read the whole verse. It would be something that when we forgive each other, reconciliation results.