Question about denying the Holy Ghost

[LDSGator]

A former bishop (sweetest old man I ever met, by the way) once told me that if you are worried about having committed an “unforgivable” sin, you almost certainly haven’t committed an unforgivable sin. 

[Vort]

20 minutes ago, LDSGator said:

A former bishop (sweetest old man I ever met, by the way) once told me that if you are worried about having committed an “unforgivable” sin, you almost certainly haven’t committed an unforgivable sin. 

Interesting that Sherem was concerned exactly about this. I happen to agree most strongly with your former bishop: The fact alone that you are afraid that you have committed the unpardonable sin must mean that you have not committed the unpardonable sin. But it might mean that you have spiritually wounded yourself (and perhaps others) in a grave manner, as was the case with Sherem. For that matter, this is not unlike Alma's experience.

[LDSGator]

19 minutes ago, Vort said:

Interesting that Sherem was concerned exactly about this. I happen to agree most strongly with your former bishop: The fact alone that you are afraid that you have committed the unpardonable sin must mean that you have not committed the unpardonable sin. But it might mean that you have spiritually wounded yourself (and perhaps others) in a grave manner, as was the case with Sherem. For that matter, this is not unlike Alma's experience.

All good points. 

[laronius]

Of course murder is spoken of in similar terms but we generally don't put that in the same category.

[Just_A_Guy]

20 hours ago, laronius said:

Of course murder is spoken of in similar terms but we generally don't put that in the same category.

This may be irrelevant, but just occurred to me and seems worthy of exploration:

Murder was much gorier, more physically laborious, and took longer to complete (ie, more opportunity for a change of heart/backing out) in scriptural times when the firearm hadn’t been invented yet.  

[Carborendum]

1 hour ago, Just_A_Guy said:

Murder was much gorier, more physically laborious, and took longer to complete (ie, more opportunity for a change of heart/backing out) in scriptural times when the firearm hadn’t been invented yet.  

I'm not so certain.  An arrow or bolt or sling & stone can be almost as fast (on a perceptible level).

Did you see that recent video of the convenience store customer who took down the robber?  He shot the guy 7 times and the robber simply wouldn't die.  One of the shots was in the head.  Still alive.

The hero had to go to his car to get another magazine to hold the robber until the police came.

Edited August 21, 2023 by Carborendum

[Traveler]

 

More and more, I am of the mind that we exercise agency to determine what laws and covenants we will keep or break.  I think there may be some ambiguity concerning what an exercise of agency is.  For example, I do not believe we exercise agency to sin and then when suffering under the consequences we change our minds and regret our exercise of agency.  I am of the mind that the exercise of agency results in exactly what it is we intended.

I do not believe G-d send anyone anywhere that they do not chose (or want) to go – especially when it comes to heaven and the various glories (mansions) or outer darkness.  I am of the mind we end up exactly where we determine by the exercise of our agency.  We as individuals are the only force active to determine our salvation – that G-d makes salvation available to all – so has G-d made the possibly that we reject salvation or elements of it.

The one very strange thing about agency is the exercise of our agency to align our will outside of ourselves to align with G-d’s will.  Who exercised His agency to sacrifice things that perhaps of personal value to Him so that we can have agency – not just for ourselves but that others have agency as well.

 

The Traveler

[JohnsonJones]

On 8/21/2023 at 1:13 PM, Just_A_Guy said:

This may be irrelevant, but just occurred to me and seems worthy of exploration:

Murder was much gorier, more physically laborious, and took longer to complete (ie, more opportunity for a change of heart/backing out) in scriptural times when the firearm hadn’t been invented yet.  

Same methods of murder that existed then still exist today.   They are still used today as well.  Then, with guns and other items we have created even MORE ways to kill or murder someone. 

I'm not sure if I would say that someone who killed another person with a club (baseball bat, hammer, big stick) was necessarily more guilty of murder than someone who shot and killed someone with a gun or blew them up with explosives (the explosives may actually be even more gory than with the club). 

Under the law I think both would be charged with murder of some sort, though other charges that also are filed may be related to HOW they killed them.