Would God forgive a murderer who refuses to turn himself in?

[Rebekka]

I think if you are truely sorry, then that genuine sorrow would lead to one owning up. Not necessarily turning yourself in, but caring for the responsibilities of the victim, otherwise, neglecting to do so would mean being in perpetual sin, ie unable to obtain the state of grace because the sin continues.

There is a difference between repenting and feeling guilty.

I think if you cannot forgive yourself, due to the consequences and loose ends, it is a very strong signal that the requirements for repentence have not been met. Otherwise, it just smacks of protestant relativism.

I agree with this. I think that if you truly repent your sin, you want to try to make it right again. In case of murder, the life of the victim is lost, so the least you can do is turn yourself in. I think you'd want to turn yourself in, because you would want justice to be done.

(If the punishment for your crime were be harsher than the crime itself, things would be different - say, if you would get the death penalty for theft. But we're talking about murder here, and most western countries don't have the death penalty anyway, and even when you do have the death penalty, a life for a life is proportionate - it is just, even if it isn't merciful.)

 

[stivvy]

I understand about the priest telling you what to do or not do situation. But God's law and justice cannot be avoided. There are many different opinions even amoungst clergy about how they would react and what advice, if any, they would give.

So I still stand by my statement that by not taking the responsibility and public being accountable for murder, you risk having innocent blood on your hands and wasted money and efforts and anguished minds of detectives that feel they failed a family and a victim because you are still on the loose.

Do you understand the continual sin occurring if you do not? Sure, you may have been forgiven for the act of murder you did, but the sins perpetulating afterwards will have to be answered for too.