"Webmaster"
"Modern wording for sin thrown in for good measure. Sin:
a) A transgression of a religious or moral law, especially when deliberate.
b) Deliberate disobedience to the known will of God.
c) A condition of estrangement from God resulting from such disobedience.
d) Something regarded as being shameful, deplorable, or utterly wrong.
e) To violate a religious or moral law.
f) To commit an offense or violation."
With respect, some of your "modern" definitions of sin are either imprecise, incorrect or misleading:
a) If someone violates a man made religious law or the religious law of a different religion (Islam for example) is that still sin? How does one legislate morality? (How does one enforce a law prohibiting immoral thoughts for example?) What about those things which are perfectly legal but totally immoral (like selfishness, greed, lust etc. "the "secret" sins"?)
c) The condition of estrangement is not itself sin but rather the effect of sin. The sin being the disobedience which precipitated it. (As in the case of the list of depravities cited by Paul in Rom.1. Paul declares that these are not the causes of God's wrath but the effects! The cause was their refusal to acknowledge and live by the truth, suppressing the truth by holding it in unrighteousness (1:18). Therefore God gave them over to their depraved activities as a result of their wilful unbelief. On judgement day they will be condemned, not for their depraved activities, but rather for their refusal to acknowledge and live by the truth which in turn led them to engage in such depraved activities (Jn.3:14-19,36; 8:24; 2Thes.2:11,12). They will however be punished for engaging in their depraved activities (Matt.16:27; Rom.2:1-16; Rev.20:11-13 - see my previous post.
d) Does this include incest which, like sex, is not wrong per se but only when done under the wrong circumstances and in the wrong context (i.e. outside of monogamous heterosexual marriage), otherwise how was God to populate the Earth from just one couple (Acts 17:26)? But incest is universally regarded (mistakenly) as sinful in any and every case (so much so that many Christians blindly refuse to acknowledge that it even took place at the start of the human race?!)
Rather than trying to update our theological definitions and getting them too imprecise or wrong, let's just leave them as they are and make sure we correctly expound and explain the traditional definitions which are often far more accurate than our modern attempts?
Food for thought?
Yours, in His service,
Simonline