The Son of God:

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

Contrition not enforced by the community is permission.

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bwam wrote:

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

Contrition not enforced by the community is permission.

I'm not sure you actually believe this. I'm guessing you're just trolling.

But if you do believe this, I can tell you all day that you're wrong, but I doubt you'll open your heart and listen to anything I say.

SMH. "Contrition is permission." What a fallacy.

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

I'm not trolling at all. But perhaps I should have said: The appearance of contrition, when left unenforced by the community, is permission. I imagine that sometimes those who sin genuinely repent, and that's great and all, but without a system of accountability imposed upon such a person to verify contrition, the system can and will be abused by those you will fake contrition to avoid punishment. And, as I said earlier, placing someone in such a system of probation is not complete forgiveness.

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Kamchatka wrote:

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

I'm not trolling at all. But perhaps I should have said: The appearance of contrition, when left unenforced by the community, is permission. I imagine that sometimes those who sin genuinely repent, and that's great and all, but without a system of accountability imposed upon such a person to verify contrition, the system can and will be abused by those you will fake contrition to avoid punishment. And, as I said earlier, placing someone in such a system of probation is not complete forgiveness.

There is a system in place. True story here: in the 4th century, after the council of Nicea, there heretic priest, Arius, acted contrite, publicly repented, and was allowed to return to the Church in good faith. Well before too long he was preaching heresy again, so he got excommunicated. Eventually he once again acted contrite, publicly repented, and was allowed to return to the Church. This happened multiple times, but the Church continued to follow God's command to always forgive those who repent.

Well eventually, one time when Arius was to be readmitted to the Church, St. Athanasius was so distraught by all the problems the heretic Arius was causing, he prayed to God, please don't let this happen again. Arius died the very morning he was to be readmitted, he died a horrific death.

The system, for Christians, is that we follow God's command to forgive, and trust in God to deal with dishonest people, like Arius, who are playing games.