In today's world, people often hear about God or the Bible on TV, radio, or through acquaintances. Many words from the Holy Scriptures are heard, including the word "sin". Faced with the unknown, we do not know what it is and how new knowledge is applicable to our lives.
To find out the answers to your questions, let's go on an interesting tour of the Bible and the Koran, consider the concept and types of sin, what are the punishments for sin and how to save the soul from eternal suffering.
What is sin?
Sin is a word of Greek origin and literally translates as “miss”, “missing the mark”. God, when creating man, prepared a wonderful plan for all of us, but people did not hit the target, but missed the target. If literally translated from Hebrew, the language in which the Old Testament is written, then the semantic word, which is identical to sin, means “lack”, “lack”. The first people did not have enough trust in God,inner strength, devotion, in order to implement the plan conceived by the Creator regarding the participation of man in the universe.
In legal terms, sin is a violation of the norm, that is, the mandatory rules of conduct. Norms are divided into two types: moral (public) and state.
When we are guests at the table, it is customary not to champ, not to burp food. For this they will not be kicked out or punished, but there are rules that do not allow such actions at the table. In many cases, moral (psychological) condemnation is much harder to bear than official, public.
There are rules of conduct set by the state. For theft, hooliganism, insult, slander, not only condemnation by society can follow, but also large fines, compulsory community service and even imprisonment.
God has established rules of conduct so that people can be happy by following them. But people wanted to live in their own way, and did not want to fulfill the divine norms. This is sin (disobedience, disobedience).
Sin can be committed involuntarily, out of weakness, or consciously and deliberately (lawlessness). These are two types of sin, but for each person will be responsible before God.
If sin is done on purpose, intentionally, then it is lawlessness. In Christian terms, lawlessness is a deliberate violation of the rules of conduct established by God.
Iniquity is a grave form of sin. If, because of his sinful nature, a person does not deliberately commit an offense before God,that iniquity is a sin that can give a person pleasure, and he commits it, knowing the consequences. This is rebellion, disagreement, pride.
How sin came into the world
God created Adam and Eve, having certain views on the first people. One of the important functions that the Creator entrusted to man was to take care of the world that He created in Eden. The Creator placed people in ideal conditions, and gave one commandment (law) that a person should not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In Genesis 2:16, 17 we read:
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying: You shall eat of every tree in the garden, but you shall not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it you will die.
The devil appeared in Eden. He did not want man to have an ideal relationship with God, and therefore began to tempt Eve. He argued that, having tasted the forbidden fruit, people will become like gods and will distinguish what is good and what is evil. It seemed interesting to Adam and Eve: to be God and not depend on anyone is the dream of mankind since ancient times. Eve knew about the prohibition against eating from the tree where the fruit was, and she knew that God told Adam that if they tasted the fruit, they would die. But despite such harsh warnings from God, people showed freedom of choice and wanted to become equal to the Creator.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God, broke the law and sin, through this disobedience came into the world. And at the level of genetics, we are already born sinners.
It can be concluded that sin sits in people from the moment of conception,sits in our cells, veins, blood. In our entire being. Because we are the descendants of Adam and Eve.
The first consequences of sin
When Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise for violating the commandment of God, they had children - Cain and Abel. The eldest son, Cain, was a good farmer, and the youngest, Abel, was a cattle breeder. It happened one day they offered a sacrifice to God. Abel brought the best meat, and Cain brought the best and ripest vegetables and other fruits of the earth.
God liked Abel's offering, but He rejected Cain's. The Creator saw Cain's sad heart and his thoughts, and said to Cain (Genesis 4:7):
if you do good, don't you raise your face? and if you do not do good, then sin lies at the door; he draws you to him, but you dominate him.
Sin is like a magnet that draws people to it so that we do bad things, but we can have power over it. However, Cain could not overcome the sin in his heart. Sinful nature gave birth to envy in Cain, and envy prompted him to kill his own brother. And he fulfilled the intentions of his heart: Cain led his brother into the field and there de alt with Abel.
This was the first consequence of sin - envy and murder.
What are the sins
There are a lot of sinful deeds in life, some of them are rare, while others are part of our nature:
- Envy. "I hate my work colleague, he is happy all the time, and my life is full of problems!" This feeling gnaws at you until you finally pour out all the anger on the person. A prime exampleenvy is the story of Cain and Abel described above.
- Pride. Very often we hear such exclamations “Where is your pride!”, “I also have pride.” In this context, many confuse pride with willpower, firmness. Pride is a terrible sin, and means that at the center of everything a person has his own "I". “I want”, “you have to do it because I want to.”
- Fornication and adultery. Fornication is sexual relations before marriage, adultery is adultery in marriage. Adultery is described in the Old Testament as a grave sin. When God gave Moses commandments on Mount Sinai, one of the commandments was “You shall not commit adultery.”
- Murder. God gives life to man, and only He can take that life away. When one person forcibly takes the life of another person, this is one of the terrible sins of mankind.
- Love of money. The literal translation is "to love silver". A typical sin of the world we live in. Money is important in life, but if it begins to occupy all our thoughts, it leads to slavery and dependence on sin.
- Idolatry. One of the most inconspicuous and barely perceptible sins of modern civilization. If something in our life occupies a dominant position, and not God, then it is an idol. For example, TV, books, money attract us to them, and we spend all the time on them, forgetting to dedicate at least an hour to God during the day.
Hidden sins
People themselves do not notice how sometimes they commit sin. It seems to us that we are doing the right things or actions that are quite normal for a person. Usually such cases are called in modernworld by “natural impulses”, “well, I am who I am”, “this is the kind of person I am”, “it is difficult for me to change, and who among us is without sin.” People are stating the facts, but are unwilling to resist or fight against sin.
Sins also include the following manifestations of our flesh and thoughts, which imperceptibly show up in our lives. Among them are such sins as:
- Angry.
- Quarrelations.
- Hate.
- Deception.
- Slander.
- Foul language.
- Covetousness.
For a part of humanity to commit such sins is the norm, but it should be remembered that the works of the flesh lead to condemnation by God. You need to watch your actions, deeds, tongue and heart.
Before Christ and after
It is logical that if there is a misdemeanor, then punishment will follow. In the Old Testament, the punishment for mortal sin was death. Divination, sexual intercourse with animals, adultery, murder, the use of physical force against one's parents, the sale of a person into slavery, and idolatry were considered mortal sins in those days. The sinner was taken outside the city and thrown down the mountain or stoned to death.
There were sins that God forgave if a person sacrificed an animal. These were mostly sins committed by accident, mistake or ignorance, such as not keeping the commandments. In Leviticus 4:27-28 we read that God allowed in this situation to slaughter a young goat without blemish and sacrifice it. Then the sin of man was forgiven. A sinful person brought a clean animal to the Levite (priest), and the Levite made a sacrifice, andsin was “washed away” by God.
The Lord incarnated in a human body, was born from a woman and died on the cross, shedding blood. He sacrificed himself, was slain instead of a lamb (sheep), so that humanity would have the opportunity to live without sin if people believe and accept God in their lives. And the punishment for mortal sins will not be remembered by God if people accept Jesus Christ and follow the commandments of God.
The wages of sin is death
If a person lives and enjoys life, but does not think about eternal life and does not try to change anything in his sinful nature, then after death he will face the second death - spiritual death. Then God will punish people for their sins with hell, where there will be “gnashing” of teeth and eternal torment. Romans 6:23 reads:
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Everyone dies, as God has decreed, because of our fall into sin. But it is very scary if in eternity we are not waiting for eternal life with Jesus Christ, but torment and pain.
Through the Bible, the Lord tells us that all people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, that is, humanity cannot live in the presence of God if we are sinners. And for sin, God, even in Eden, determined the punishment for man - physical death, pain and suffering. Turning to Adam, the creator tells him that if he does not obey the orders of the Lord, then he will die by death. But physical death is not the worst punishment for sins. It is terrible what awaits people after death.
Sinful life leads people not only to spiritual death, but also physical. The more sin in life, the faster the final can come. According to Scripture, the punishment for sin is hell after physical death. If a person does not come to his senses and does not take the righteous path, he will not accept the Lord into his life.
Spiritual death, or the second death, is God's most important punishment for sin.
Sickness and sin
Man is imperfect, and on the path of life even believing people make mistakes, blunders. What punishments for sins can God use in our earthly life? The most important punishment is death. On rare occasions, however, God uses sickness as a form of punishment. The Creator carries out God's punishment for sins with a disease when he wants to stop a person from rash acts, or so that people think about their behavior in life.
There was a king Hezekiah in Judea who loved God. One day Hezekiah fell ill and the prophets announced that he would not recover. The famous prophet Isaiah came to Hezekiah, he advised the king to prepare a will in order to leave power to his descendants, since his life was running out. But Hezekiah did not hurry, he turned away from him and prayed to God in tears. The Creator heeded the prayer of the king and blessed him with he alth for another fifteen years. This story can be read in 2 Kings 20. Here we see that illness is a consequence of the sinful nature of man. God did not want King Hezekiah to die, but the disease is common to all people, and no one can escape from it.
God does not punish people through sickness, as many people think. “Here I am a sinner, the Lord gavedisease . No. Illness is a manifestation of sin, the sinful body of a person, which we have from the very moment of birth and, accordingly, are initially subject to disease.
In the Bible there are cases when God punishes with diseases for sins. For example, Moses' sister Miriam became covered in leprosy. Miriam rebuked Moses for his wife, and for this she became covered with leprosy, the skin on her face became white as snow. Moses took pity on his sister, and through his prayer God healed Miriam
But in the modern world, God more often uses the punishment for the sins of people - death, and diseases as a test or an opportunity for a person through ailments to see God's healing and believe in the existence of the Creator.
Repentance and salvation
All people are afraid of death, everyone is afraid of dying. But someday everyone must appear before God. Punishment for sins is death, eternal death. But the only way to be forgiven and escape the punishment of sin is Jesus Christ.
The Lord Himself, when He walked the earth, spoke these words (Gospel of John 14:16):
Jesus said to him: I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.
The Lord is the only way to see God. To do this, every person needs to repent and allow the Lord to change the heart and life. And then all sins will be forgiven.
And in the famous verses of the same gospel of John 3:16, 17 we read:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world tojudge the world, but that the world be saved through Him.
God came up with an amazing plan to save humanity. He sacrificed his Son so that each of us would be saved and have eternal life.
Salvation from sin is in the Lord Jesus Christ. By accepting into our lives the good news that God came down to earth and died for our sins, we gain salvation and forgiveness. We may stumble, but God finally forgives us sin, and sin has no more power over us.
In order not to depend on sin and sinful thoughts and live in anticipation of a meeting with God, people need to accept Jesus Christ as a personal savior, let Him into their lives and fully trust the Creator. To do this, a person needs to kneel down and ask God to come into life and change it.
The only thing God will not forgive, according to the Bible, is if a person blasphemes (blasphemes God); if in public he denies Jesus Christ.
Islam about sin and punishment for sin
Islam, like Christianity, also develops the idea of sin. According to the Koran, the most terrible and serious sins are:
- Murder.
- Witchcraft.
- Stopping prayer.
- Do not fast.
- Disobey and disobey your parents.
- Do not perform the obligatory hajj.
- Homosexuality.
- Cheating in marriage.
- False evidence.
- Theft.
- False.
- Hypocrisy.
- Curse your neighbor.
- Dispute.
- Harmingneighbors.
The punishment of Allah for sins in Islam is, but the Almighty forgives all sins, except disbelief, if the believer himself asks for forgiveness. If a person has sinned, then, according to Islam, he just needs to sincerely repent, and then Allah will forgive him.
In Islam, it is believed that Adam's sin does not pass at the genetic level, and each person is responsible only for the actions that he committed during earthly life.
Islam preaches that a person has a freedom of choice, according to which he makes a decision: to have salvation or to live in sin. If a mortal person lives and works honestly, but stumbles and asks forgiveness from Allah, then he will be saved and see Paradise.
