thebeliever

An interesting question is what does it mean for them to repent of something? I cannot know if someone else has fully repented of something. I can know if the Church (read: Bishop) has forgiven them. I can know if they've prayed to God for forgiveness. I can know that they have not repeated that particular action. But I don't know what they are really thinking. I don't know how sincere they were. How would I know if they repented of something?

I think everyone agrees that they are not "eternal sinners". But dealing with the initial question, My answer is yes, it does affect my opinion of them. If I understood correctly, yours and Pam's answer is that it doesn't or shouldn't. (Correct me if I'm wrong...)

Take it easy.

It's like forgiving someone for murdering someone you love. You can forgive them in your heart, but they should still go to jail.

Forgiveness is not the same as regaining what someone lost. I can forgive someone for cheating on me, but does it mean that I should stay with them? Is staying with them the same thing as forgiveness?

You don't have to look down upon me because I have a different opinion. We can have compassion on people who have committed major sins; they can be examples too. They can be completely forgiven by god. But they won't magically regain what they lost in this life.

That is, at the end of their lives they were probably about equal to each other, but at those points in time and for some time after, the son who had never left was much better off.

Right. The prodigal son got a fantastic party and nothing else, while the son who never left inherited everything that his father had.

Fair enough.

I meant to say, in this life they are worse off. In the eternities, it probably doesn't matter.

Fine. Replace my phrase with a particular sin. The person who lies and repents is worse off than the person who never lies. The person who is unchaste and repents is worse off than the person who is never unchaste. The person who steals and repents is worse off than the person who never steals. The person who murders and repents is worse off than the person who never murders.

I was thinking about people who will yell and scream at you compared to people who someone who will ignore you compared to someone who may firmly believe they are right but still listen. Certainly the reactions different - levels of pride. Maybe you wouldn't call that pride? Then it's just an issue of etymology.

The Great King David fell from his exaltation because he had sinned. No amount of repentance, regardless of how sincere he was, could make up for that fact. He had lost his exaltation. D&C 132:39 If I sin all my life and repent when I'm older, I would have lost out on all that I could have had. Perhaps I might have prophet or saved many souls? The person who sins and repents is not on the same ground as someone who never sins in the first place.

The thread is dealing with now in this life, not 100,000 years from now. We all agree with you on this statement.. I think.

So someone is either proud or they aren't? Aren't there levels of pride ? and most people are only proud with certain topics.