well, my question would be does it matter? i mean you're supposed to be able to pray and ask for salvation and be forgiven and jesus apperantly died for your sins already so you could basically sin all you like and as long as you say 'i believe and please forgive me' at the end and all is well?

I actually looked on line to see what was documented on this topic...Plenty...but what I found that I believe to be the closest to my understanding of sin is:

"The truth is that sin, as defined in the original translations of the Bible, means "to miss the mark." The mark, in this case, is the standard of perfection established by God and evidenced by Jesus. Viewed in that light, it is clear that we are all sinners."

Another misquote and misunderstanding, dude. You assume too much.

That was to caged and not to mentalhealthadvocate.

the post says "for CHRISTIANS" and you are a perfect example of what I was talking about- putting yourself in the middle of things.

Caged -- In simplistic theory, I guess you're right but sin is somthing as Christains that we should avoid and do our best not to participate in. Then for slips, there is prayer, repentance, and yes forgiveness... But Christian values don't say....Go out an have a blast as long as you say I'm sorry when you come home. There is far mor accountability than that.

I also read that there is a difference between "hebrew sin" and "greek sin".

"hebrew sin involves conscious violation of God's commandments" and "greek sin involves a kind of willful unconsciousness, unwillingness to recognize a tragic flaw that in the end brings about the destruction of oneself and others" kind of explains the greek tragedies a bit. I thought that was interesting anyhow.

"both conscious and unconscious aspects are involved in the Christian view of Sin"

hmmmmm?

I guess you either get it our you don't. Easily to look at a relationship and assume that you understand it.
Anyways, Artemis let me use this analogy. God is the light onto our path. God is light, sin is darkness or shadow. So if you put yourself first then God(light) is behind you. This would cast a showdow forward so sin would be infront of you, you are walking into it. If you put God(light) first then you are following God and his light casts the shadow/sin behind you and you are always walking away from it. If you question God then go question God. Ask him first and always others second, Ask God who the others are. Some very lost people out there that will say anything do to their disbeleif for lack of understanding.

artemis, you've put up a discussion on a discussion board and i'm discussing.

To the rest, how is that a misunderstanding and how is there more accountability? where are the lines drawn?

Thanks Scott that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for posting that :) God bless you.

No, sin, if you're a christian, does matter. A christian cannot sin all they want, and then ask for forgiveness and expect all to be well. If you knowingly sin against God and think to yourself, "It's okay. I'll ask for forgiveness later!" That is not okay, nor is it accepted. When a person repents of his or her sin, they must be sincere and truly be sorry for whatever sin or sins were committed. As christians, we know that everyone sins daily because we are human, but there's a difference in sinning daily and maybe not realizing it and sinning when you know you're wrong...doing it even though you know you're going against God, but just don't care. If you don't care and you're not sincere in asking for forgiveness, God knows. He always knows. If any christian wants to know more about this, just let me know and I will try to find the information needed to believe and understand this. I no longer have e-sword, but if nothing else, I can download it again and do some research. It's just a lot easier than searching through the bible for it all. Now, onto the question...

As I said above, we all sin daily because we are humans who are far from perfect. If we were without sin, we would be like Jesus, and so long as we are on this earth, that will never happen. Putting ourselves in the center rather than God? Not necessarily, in my opinion. I mean, sometimes we sin without really even thinking about it or even realizing we're sinning, but we can still be close to God and trying to do our best. God understands that we're all going to sin. The important thing is to remember to repent and ask his forgiveness. That doesn't mean, however, that you can continue doing something you know in your heart is wrong, and expect to be forgiven every time you ask. God knows when we're sincere. Yeah, I already said that, didn't I?

You know, I think most of us probably focus more on our illness rather than the scriptures. I know I do. I know what I'm supposed to do as a christian, but I haven't done the right thing in a long time. Those of us who are ill and christian are taught to pray and be prayed for by our brothers and sisters...to know that God would never place more on us than we can bear without leaving a means of escape...to believe that God is greater than our disease...that we should use our short comings for the good--to help others. Those are a few things that come to mind. It's been so long since I've studied the bible, though, that I know I'm leaving things out.

We can relate to our fellow men and women in that we ALL suffer in some way. None of us have picturesque lives. We all have our short comings. We all need to love and be loved. We have many differences, but many similarities as well. I have a dear friend with diabetes, and while that is very much different from any of my mental disorders, we can relate to each other in that we both have a life long disease which we will have to learn to deal with until our dying day. We both need to take meds to be well. Make sense? I dunno...I feel like I'm rambling. Maybe I'll make more sense later. Right now, I'm highly disappointed in someone and because of something.

I didn't say it before Artemis but thank you for the post. I have often thought about this. We cannot be free from sin or redeem or sin on our own. We know this, only through Christ. A done deal. With BP I have struggled with this as well, had to quit church council, reduce my activity and even miss worship. I love outreach and missions, kinda hard to do right now. I am struggling with the same thing. Distant in prayer, unable to concentrate on scripture. I am all BP all the time it seems. I just thought as typing this though, there is a season for all things, and God uses all things for good. I just always keep in mind He loves me even when I am distant, he is always right here and he knows what I am going through.
Love Scott

What is sin? I don't know if I have figured it out. A wise man once told me to take care of myself first and then all else can fall into place. In my life, I take the bible with a grain of salt. I am Catholic, bash away if you like b/c I don't care what opinion anyone has, it is fine by me and not going to hurt my feelings at all. I live my life the way I want to, without hurting other people. To me, that is what life is all about. A "sin" would be maliciously hurting another person or animal. As far as other beliefs that some Christians hold, that's fine, I just don't live my life to the "book." I am pro-choice, pro-contraception, pro-accepting everyone else's beliefs as just as important as my own. Sin to me is not putting myself first. God isn't here living my life, I am, and my whole belief system is based solely on treating people with respect and dignity and not "casting the first stone." I commend people for living their lives by their certain religious doctrines and for thinking freely to be whatever religion or non-religion there is. I don't think we are meant to live a perfect life. I think we are meant to live the best we can. I hope this is on topic, truthfully I am lacking sleep. Bottom line, sin is what you think sin is, and we all have different ideas on that. My opinion.

What does the bible have to do with Christianity? Are you kidding me? The bible, as christians believe, is the inspired word of God. Christians believe that every single word, though written by men, was given to these men by God himself. It is a book which is meant to be a christian's guide. It tells the christian how to live, how to pray, etc. Christians believe in God and that the son of God is Christ Jesus...who was crucified, rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven. The bible tells that story, among many others. How do you figure it isn't a christian book? Who else was it written for?

JilLxX - i understand your point but i was referring to a case of knowingly committing sin (even with the intention of repenting later) most of your life and then at your deathbed actually feeling remorseful and genuinely asking for repentence?? the whole system falls through! if you had the case of a mass-murderer who saw the error of his ways on the hangman's noose and got repentence, wouldn't the judge, hangman and maybe the society as a whole be committing a sin for killing an innocent (as he is now, being forgiven)....just a few too many holes in the logic for my liking....how about just being a good person out of compassion for others and leaving out all the mystical legal process??