The only way a child can be disobedient is if he knows he is being disobedient. A child has "invincible ignorance" as they have not yet come of age to discern what is right and what is wrong--in God's eyes.
The only way that you or I or anyone would make it into heaven is through God's mercy. None of us is truly righteous. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And we are all imperfect. We need to trust that God will have mercy on us--as sinners and trust in His grace.
The wrath of God is for those who are truly unrepentant. The disobedient. Those whose pride is so great that they don't feel they need God in their lives. Those who don't seek the will of God but rather do their own will.
For them, we can only hope that God's mercy will reach out to them as well.
4 comments:
On a total off chance, I was discussing kosher regulations with someone, and happened across this in Leviticus 5:
“If anyone sins and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands, even though they do not know it, they are guilty and will be held responsible. They are to bring to the priest as a guilt offering a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value. In this way the priest will make atonement for them for the wrong they have committed unintentionally, and they will be forgiven. It is a guilt offering; they have been guilty of wrongdoing against the LORD.”
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus+5&version=NIV
(this quote is from the bottom, but is covered in the entire chapter)
Thoughts?
Hey John,
Thanks so much for commenting on my post. Recently, I have been commenting on Catholic Answers Forums which has been quite the experience. My only comment to that is that some Catholics need to spend more time reading and less time arguing. Anyhow, I’ve been collecting some of my comments and putting them in my blog. I’m planning on putting some of the comments I have in your blog as posts if you don’t mind.
Anyhow, in regards to invincible ignorance, yes, it still is sin. In Catholic teaching, there are two kinds of sin. Venial and Mortal. The venial sin is an offense against God that wounds charity. Mortal sin kills charity and severs our relationship with God. We, in essence, turn and walk away from God.
In regards to Leviticus 5, the ram is an obvious type for Christ. Christ becomes the “unblemished ram” who atones for our sins and the guilt of the sin committed through invincible ignorance is paid for by His blood on the cross. Regardless of invincible ignorance, the only way any one can see the promise of eternal life is through Jesus Christ and all sin (ignorant or otherwise) must be atoned for.
Truly Christ is that sacrifice, I was just pointing out that in this passage the exact same sin offering is required for unknown sin as for known sin (I'm pretty sure at least - see the next chapter) and ignorance isn't an excuse, and so it seems as though you can be disobedient to God without knowing it.
Of course you can use your own comments on my blog as you see fit! You wrote them!
John,
You are correct. It is disobedience and we are forgiven through the Cross. Thank you for the correction.
Dennis
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