2 questions on subjects I don't understand

Daniel9v9 said:

Good questions
I'll try and be as concise as I can:

1. Israel wasn't originally a chosen people, but a chosen man: Abraham (his descendant Jacob was given the name Israel and from him comes the nation). Through him, by grace, God made a promise of salvation for all who believe; that all nations will be blessed through him. Jesus Christ is the culmination of this promise. When Scripture talks about Israel being a chosen people, it really points to that through Israel, all who believe will be forgiven, saved and find adoptionship in God. There are many other layers to this, but this is the main point: God's gracious promise of salvation; a free gift for all who believe.

2. You could think of sin as "faulty" or "not by design". Put short, sin is anything that is contrary to God. God is good and holy, and He is the source of love and all things good. Anything contrary to God and His nature is evil and is sin. This can be difficult to appreciate through mere reasoning as we are bent on sin and rebellion, but all of mankind are evil and only God is good. Because God is good, He punish evil. However, because He is also merciful, He took our punishment for us, by dying for us in the person of Jesus Christ. In other words, God makes us aware of our sins that we may understand the severity of our offenses and learn of God's love and mercy for all who believes in His Son Jesus Christ.

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Serving Zion said:

This is pretty much the result we have, seeing they rejected Messiah (Romans 9:8, Ephesians 2:11-18, especially Ephesians 2:13 as it goes with Matthew 27:25).

Of course, there is still a genetic pool of descendants of Jacob who do not take Jesus to be Messiah, yet found their faith upon teachings of the Hebraic Scriptures. I do not suppose this will continue forever, because there is prophecy yet to be fulfilled that will eventually leave them no option but to receive Him.

Simply, "sin" is by definition, the doing of things which makes us liable for guilt. Take this definition by St. James:

Whoever knows the good he should do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

.. Does this mean that a person who always does the good he knows he should do, will never do any harm? Not necessarily, because innocent mistakes can still happen. But if an innocent mistake is made, then that one is genuinely remorseful.

However, when someone does wrong when they know they should do right, then the harm they have done is condemned by their conscience. It results in a defensiveness or deceit in order that they should escape the condemnation of the truth. This creates a world where people are not fully honest and open about who they are and what they have done.

St. Paul remarks about this: "I was alive once, apart from the law. But, when the command came, sin came alive and I died".

He is describing how a child is free in their conscience because they live innocently. If they do a bad thing, they are still learning of the rules for orderly moral conduct, and people readily forgive them even if they have caused grief, on account of their ignorance and good conscience. Not so when we become grown-ups and we do those things that we know are indeed sinful! Grown-ups are not so easily forgiven! (Hence John 3:3 and Matthew 18:3).

About your partner, it is like this: when a person becomes aware of the good they do and does not do it, then they are choosing to live willingly against their conscience. When it is in fact The Holy Spirit who teaches us the good we should do (eg: sex before marriage), and we choose to live contrary to the morality He has taught us, then we are choosing to disobey The Holy Spirit.

If such a person continues to call themself a Christian and to talk about God as though they are of good Christian specimen, then they are not representing The Holy Spirit in His fullness.

It is not good for a Christian to disobey God. I wonder though whether this is the problem, or whether it is an unhealthy church that rather persecutes and judges you as being inferior, because you are atheist, but not necessarily because you are disobedient to The Holy Spirit. What are your thoughts about that?

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Daniel9v9 said:

Yeah, it can be confusing

The nation of Israel foreshadowed and came with the promise of Christ. The Church, however, is a part of the fulfillment of the promise, through Christ; so the Church is the new Israel. So, the country of Israel today can be understood in two ways:
1. They are chosen by God in the sense that they were given the Torah and the promise of the Messiah.
2. They are not any more chosen than any other country or tribe, for Israel is not understood as a physical country, but a body of believers in Jesus Christ.

Another factor of Israel as a chosen nation has to do with God's self-revelation. It's the amazing and incomprehensible act of God, whereby He revealed himself in humility, born a lowly man of a lowly tribe.

Sin is very difficult to understand on account of it being a spiritual matter and not practical. In other words, I don't think anyone can appreciate the gravity of sin from a purely academic point of view.
However, sin is crucial to everyone, whether we understand it or not. To sin means to willingly rebel against God; to do evil. It may not seem like a big deal, even for Christians, but in reality it's heaping abuse on things we don't understand. Sin is a very severe offense, worthy of a very severe punishment. This ultimate punishment is an eternal separation from God. That is, an existence entirely void of God, who is the source of love, goodness, kindess, mercy, patience and holiness. However, the good news is that believing in Jesus Christ, there will be life and no condemnation. Again, life in Christ is a free gift, by God's grace, apprehended by faith.

This is very wordy, sorry, but I feel it's important to make an effort to establish the severity of sin, in order to get a better understanding of your situation (from the Christian perspective). I think, perhaps, the root of the issue the church is having with your girlfriend, is not so much about whether there is sin or not, but about her (and your) spiritual welfare. The concern is not out of malice or self-righteousnesses, but love. Also, practically speaking, it's not always easy being together with someone when your world views are radically different, and there are many implications that comes out of that, but it's not really for me to judge

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