Give up sin?

I was thinking.. from what I know, when you go to heaven, your sins and what not are washed away.. once you enter the kingdom, are you unable to sin anymore?

lets think about that for a second. we wake up every single morning and probably commit more sins than we know.. when we go to heaven, would our entire knowledge and experience "how to live" be void? Society is so bend on this 'sin' that I don't think we could or would even want to give it up.

Would we have no memory how to sin? would most people who believe themselves faithful even like to spend an eternity not being able to 'exist' how they did in the physical realm.. just because they're in God's presence?

Honestly, even if I did believe, I wouldn't want to change how I act. Maybe it's because I've never sinned badly enough to land me in the firey depths of hell yet so I can't imagine changing..


perhaps I'm being shallow minded or incredibly naive, so someone shed some more light on this topic.

I think the idea is that upon entering the "next life" you will no longer be as you are now. In fact, your being will be so wholly different from what you are right now that you may not even recognize yourself if you were to compare the two. That's not to say you wont know who you are anymore, you will simply be completely different from what you are right now.

So, theoretically it may be just as impossible for you to sin in the next life as it is for you to become a tiger in this world.

quote:

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That's not to say you wont know who you are anymore, you will simply be completely different from what you are right now.

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would we be conscious of the change, or will it be played off as amnesia and couldn't remember the difference? Because like I said, if people who sin as much as they do now had that taken away from them, it seems like they wouldn't even know how to conduct themselves.


Which also begs the question. If God takes away something you've grown accustomed to, does that impose on one's free will? And isn't that the one thing God can't tamper with?

Honestly I don't know. I do theorize from what I have read in religious texts and heard from various religious gurus, that it's supposed to work something like this:

As you are now, you are nothing but a shadow of your true self. In Christianity, to embrace God's love is to become whole and you are certainly free to choose not to accept it, however this will result in eternal damnation.

With most any modern religion, it would seem that your physical body is more of a hindrance to being your true self. To be human is to struggle. To be dead is to be free.

I've been reading a yogi's interpretation of the Bible and I believe what he would say is that to reach the kingdom of heaven would be to achieve enlightenment (that they are the same thing, you see, he describes enlightenment as god communion) and that once you were in that state of consciousness sin would be as absurd as 2+2=5.

From what I've read, we are all reborn as humans or something close to it until we become enlightened which happens naturally (without meditation) but takes thousands of lifetimes or roughly a million years.

The first thing you have to think about with this question is what kind of sins we're talking about. Remember that almost all sins come from bodily desire and material desire. Since its typically believed by nearly all modern religions that you have no body when you pass into the after life and that you are merely soul you'll have no need to commit sins of bodily desire such as gluttony or any kind of sinful sexual activity. You surely cannot kill a spirit, therefore we can rule out murder.

As far as desire is concerned, some people steal things to get what they want. You want an xbox so you steal it..........there's no need to steal an xbox in heaven, assuming there even is xbox there. I'm pretty sure it will just be provided for you, although I don't think you'll even want one. Just as an example

Every sin that we commit is due to natural human desire in some way. Heaven is depicted as this beautiful paradise, and in my 12 years of Catholic schooling I was taught that when you enter into heaven you will have no desire and no desire to sin because everything will be provided for you. I don't know what behavior you participate in that you find sinful but i can't think of any sin that I would not readily give up to live in such a wonderful place for all eternity. Especially with a God that I find so wonderful, and also of course because it beats having my soul torn apart for all eternity in Hell.

So you may live a sinful life now, but if you repent for those sins before death and try to avoid what sins you can, than hopefully you will be accepted into Heaven where you will no longer have the desire to commit those sins that make up your everyday life now. And in all hopes, I will be there with you.

I think this topic is very close to my thread and question a little while back: What is heaven like?

http://www.captaincynic.com/thread/69828/what-is-heaven-like.htm

What really amazes me about many religious people, is they spend their entire lives devoted to this one goal: to go to this place when they die. But when asked what this place they believe they are going to and WANT to go to is actually like... they dont seem to know. Or even have given it alot of thought.

My original thread where there is almost no discussion on it shows this lack of interest in this magical place that people are wiling to base an entire lifetimes actions trying to get into.

To me it's like spending my life saving up to get into an exclusive club without actually knowing what's inside. Or even tying to find out. And when asked I say, well it's just a really cool club. Ive been told it is and Im sure it is. So Im going to work in the crappiest job I can and save my pennies for when I get there.

I find it really amazing that if you are intending to go someplace for eternity you wouldn't wonder what its like.

And for those who say trying to describe it to a mortal mind is not possible – you forget it has only ever been described BY mortal minds.

And if you say, trying to understand what heaven is like is not worth the effort because as a mortal it is impossible. Then why have you decided you know it's worth living a certain way, without any understanding of what it is you're actually spending your life trying to get into?

Thank you fireangel for being the only religious person so far to have given some kind of interest in where it is we are (well some of us.) destined to go.

I like the responses, but it just seems weird... to me. I know there's some chance that I can't even comprehend the transition from life to death, but just imagining and being consciously aware of giving up sin, that which is a part of every day life seems astonishing.

but the problem I have is the bodily sins and what not.. the mind is the only thing that desires 'sin', not the body.


the point of this thread is to ask could or would people really want to give up and kind of sin. It would be a weird transition to only be able to do good. I guess you could say it's like when your parents give you a toy but you can't play with it.

I think people would readily give up sin if a better, more pleasurable, alternative was in their reach. Most people just grope around for whatever pleasure is closest and most easily attainable but does that mean that these things are the most pleasurable?

Perhaps if people better understood the consequences of committing a sin (and I don't mean sex because if that's a sin then it's barely one and would only have to be given up at the very end of your spiritual journey) they would know that it would in fact be MORE pleasurable to avoid them.

How can sex be a sin? If nobody had sex there'd be no more humanity, that's just stupid. It's how you conduct yourself as a sexual being that's important, by being a respectful partner, being honest, loving and enjoying a 'relationship' that's healthy all round not just sexually.

If you don't respect other people and treat others with contempt then you can't respect yourself or have a healthy sex life.

"How can sex be a sin? If nobody had sex there'd be no more humanity, that's just stupid."

Okay, not a sin but something that would eventually be given up. And what does the continuity of the human race matter if you believe in a soul? Enlightenment would be ecstatic bliss so what would be the point of having sex in that state of mind?

The continuity of the human race is the soul's journey, surely?
How you live your life in this world is just as important if not more than reaching some metaphysical enlightened state of nirvana. A pure soul needs a pure heart and that can only be found through positive relationships with both friends, family and one's environment, that's how I feel anyway.

Good Thread - one of the best to me... subjectively speaking anyways...

Devil - - an angel, like others, created with....

No choice.

Angels - again No choices... merely expressions of different aspects of God's commands and power...

whether His Active Will, which causes things to happen..

or what I was taught was his Passive Will, which allows things to happen.

Satan has a Nature into which he has been created and must rely on... Rebellion...

Even Rebellion has it's uses... The Founding Fathers example

But after there is universal acceptance of a system in peace, like a REAL Democracy... then because we all have a say and a vote and essentially a CHOICE...

No need to violently or openly REBEL... end of the need for that

Just like this, in the advent of total acceptence of the God's rule over us... Satan would no longer be needed to show us potential pitfalls in our own makeup...

Man's Nature is not Rebellion,,, it is Created in the Image of God....

Able to create necessary Rebellion at Will... active or passive..

Man is above the Angels in Choice.... Above the Angels in Creation entirely... That's kind of the reason why Satan Rebelled... even in the Qu'ran and Muslim religous beliefs...

Satan Hates Man for this position second only to God...

Which used to be his position... Lucifers'... which means false light....

God is the True Light.

So are you... just a lesser Light... but a true one nonetheless.

If you died and ended in Heaven... you wouldn't need to rebel.. because for the first time you would not just be in Heaven...
but in Peace... True Peace... a Fair Piece...

I don't think you'd forget... I think you'd remember better... and know more...

maybe everything that God knows in some lesser way...

like now...

I don't think the Pressence of God would have that affect on a soul...

As far as I've been taught, and believed, His Pressence is everywhere NOW...

You're in it NOW...

I think the condition of Peace and Paradise would make it possible for us to make the choice to Stay in Heaven...

Like when we visit our Grandparent... a person who usually has come to terms with who they are and who they are not...

Full of the most interesting simplified answers... who realistically WANTS to leave their loved grandpa?

If he is wise and at peace, grandpa is better than girlfriend for company....!

But every now and again, we all want a woman to scratch our back, or want to cook for HER...

Asking these questions leads you closer step by step to your goal... in life or death ...

It's not guaranteed here in this life... and we can barely count on the preachers to usher in any age of true peace...

Doubt...

Doubt is uncertainty in the context of trust (where it takes the form of distrust), action, decision or belief. It implies challenging some notion of reality in effect, and may involve hesitating to take a relevant action due to concern that one might be mistaken or at fault. The term ' to doubt ' can also mean ' to question one's circumstances and life experience '.

May I say this is maturity you display in figuring a problem that most people run from... what to do in this life that assures the next...

You may have the best of parents...

But this is often produced in one with the worst of parents, who rejects their ways completely...

Many roads to the same goal... to walk a narrow path.

Avoid unanswering Poets I'd say... other than that... keep on trucking like a diesel machine...!

Peace.

lol why avoid unanswering poets?

Something I found interesting which, yet again, comes from this book I've been reading is that Satan is dualism. Satan is the ego and that once it's shed, there will be nothing between you and God.

Sounds like Dr. Phil psycho-(unanswering)-babel to me...

Very poetic though...

Something I by preference would avoid..

It seems that Human kind is given to the path of least resistence....

And even has difficulty taking orders coming from the "self"....

quotes around the word SELF seem to negate its validity while talking about it at the same time...

That's why un-answering poets suck eggs...

They are eloquently avoiding the topic... don't have the answers and pretend to be smarter than the questioner.

Very vulgar to a refined mind of any kind...
usually...

Peace.