PDM sin is simply anything that breaks or goes against God's Moral Law. The reason most don't like the word sin is because most don't want to believe that there is a higher moral code than their own. You see if sin were left up to our definition then the world would be truly chaotic because what one finds wrong may not be wrong to someone else. NAMBLA is a good example of this, they feel that having sex with young boys is ok, and is not rape. A serial killer might find what he does as ok, a child abuser might think that the child deserves it. And on and on. But God is not a God of chaos, a perfect being would have to have a perfect way of doing things, or a perfect law. If that's the case then it's His law and rules that count since He is the creator.

*sigh*

we've been through this. No one is able to live up to Christ's teachings. We are all human, we all "sin" and despite whatever promise of forgiveness you have, you will always "sin" and not be Christlike.

By your definition there are probably 5 Christians in the whole world.

"Real" Christians don't wear a badge, and aren't in the directory.

In my book, anyone who calls themselves a Christian is a Christian. They certainly believe they are. And who are YOU to judge who is or isn't a "real" Christian.

This is interesting to me. I feel accountable in many ways first and foremost to myself and my own moral compass. Indirectly I am accountable to others - society, family, friends - but they do not dictate my moral code, and I do not feel that I make my moral decisions because of them. I make my own decisions based on something I have internalized inside me. If I fail my own moral code, then no doubt I will have failed my family, friends, community, society - but it starts with an inner accountability.

So your next question - why some have no problems hurting others - I can speculate many possible reasons - they were born screwed up, their family screwed them up, or life circumstances might have screwed them up - but if you ask me, what fundamentally has gone awry is that they lack this inner accountability to which I have tried to describe. Trying to make a criminal abide by society's rule by holding him accountable to somebody else is much more empty and fruitless in my opinion than to teach him to account to himself.

How are believers using it exclusively? Repeatedly I have posted that ALL have sinned according to the scriptures. ALL means ALL....believers and non-believers alike. I can readily admit that I have sinned. Getting to a point where you can admit being a sinner is very freeing. Just like when you get rid of a heavy package, unloading sin is getting rid of a heavy burden.

If anything, as a believer, I would not want to be included in the ALL group, but nonetheless I am because I am human.

Blessings,

LL

mbas, while no one is able to live up to Christ's teachings you do have to atleast attempt to. Just because someone calls themselves a Christian doesn't mean that they are. Being a Christian is much more than gracing the local church twice a year and living like hell the rest of the time. Being a Christian is much more than a belief in Jesus. The Bible states that even the demons "know" of God and Jesus, but for some reason they're still headed for hell.

As for judgement, well the both Jesus and the apostles tell us to judge, using the Holy Spirit, if something is sound or not sound. Again if I were a member of a group of like minded individuals but didn't follow their directives, am I really a good member or a hypocrit?

If I say I want to join Greenpeace, but I drive an H2, run my AC 24/7, toss everything in the garbage instead of recycling, and am a generally wasteful person, then who wouldn't judge me? Am I lining up with Greenpeace's standards? Of course not, and I'd probably get a good talking to.

Again if I'm a card carrying PETA memeber but hang out at Longhorns weekly, and wear fur coats, am I a good PETA memeber? No I'm a hypocrit. And that's a large percent of today's Christians in the US. A huge percent never attend a church service, never crack open their Bible, have never even read the Bible through once, can't recite even 5 of the big 10, and mock those who do as "those religious types".

A few years ago we had that comedian with the whole "You might be a redneck if" well you can start your own list of "You might be a Christian Hypocrit if"

I see what you are saying, but I don't see why God has to be the rule-setter. I think that people, collectively as a society, have the ability to set some pretty good rules themselves.

For example, the vast majority of people would agree that having sex with children is wrong. So we make a law against it, and people who break that law are punished. We don't need God to tell us that we should do this. The members of NAMBLA can hold whatever opinion they like, but they aren't likely to get the law changed, and if they break it they will face the consequences.

I'm not saying that all of the Bible's rules are wrong, or bad rules. On the contrary, most of us would agree that theft, murder, rape etc are wrong. Most societies have a set of basic rules with similarities to the Ten Commandments.

But I don't see why these rules have to be 'God-given'.

Well can't everybody accuse everybody in that blame game?
Everybody can point fingers - and say you are too full of yourself to be humble, or you are too uptight, or this or that. Does attending church weekly or going to bible study make you more of a Christian??? I'll bet nobody can universally agree on a single person as a good Christian.

I agree with your last post, though, Believer, in that although I'm not a Christian myself, I do think that those who call themselves Christians but don't make much effort to practice what they preach are hypocrites.

I don't agree with you on a lot of things, but I don't think youre a hypocrite. I respect you for that.

Because Christians are the only people I know of who go on about 'sin'.

The term is used exclusively by Christians ~ as far as I can tell, anyway.