Christianity had a great influence on history. There are several reasons why. It eventually became popular, it was dealt with when the religion was in its formative stages, and the psychological perspective of those within the religion, as well as the onlookers, caused cultural changes. People could learn from the Christian practices in ancient Rome, regardless of whether or not the individual was faithful to any religion.
During the early-mid 300s, Rome was becoming a Christian population. Rome had started off persecuting Christians, believing falsehoods of the Christian practices. Eventually, although still illegal, Christianity was a more appreciated religion, and a rarely prosecuted one. Until, not only was Christianity made legal, but became the Roman religion. This started the development of the Pope, a highly respected authoritative religious title.
With the emergence of the Pope came someone to answer questions. Many Christians would develop their own ideas of their Christian ideology, which could be adapted, or corrected by the Pope. When new lines of thought emerged, they gave opportunity for clarification as to what were the beliefs of the Roman church.
With that, people did start to question the ramifications of different parts of their beliefs as Christians. The main dispute of the time was forgiveness, how much did their Christ forgive? Some answered this with ‘no, not all sins can be forgiven.’ A good example often used was murder. Some thought that an unforgivable act. Some answered ‘yes, however only once.’ Any act, no matter how heinous, could be forgiven, but only once. Others said all sins can and would be forgiven, if forgiveness was sought after. The Lord has no limits to His mercy. So why is this dispute a rising conflict? And what might be the answer? Even if you are not religious, there is still the question, what is unforgivable?
People must have a goal. Without something to strive for, one must simply go through the motions, never being challenged, never getting a win, even though one is never losing, you are still losing. This is the game of life, why do you do anything without a goal? Well really you don’t. With God as the highest goal in Christianity, there is something that is beyond you. There is always a judge, for there is always something to orientate yourself toward.
We are human. We learn from making mistakes. If we are reaching a goal, then a judge is necessary. If we learn how to reach our goals via mistakes and there is a judge in place, you can be condemned for your mistakes, which is why forgiveness and mercy is key. If there is not this threshold for tolerance from the judge, then there is no room for learning, so Christians choose to think of this as sin and forgiveness of sin. Thus the original dispute, how much of what does Christ forgive? This can be viewed as both opinion and fact. People have their opinions on this matter, and for those who believe in Christ, there is a factual answer, but it is impossible to find the answer, you must figure out what is forgivable for yourself, whether you believe in Christ or not. The least forgivable act committed, is the one you committed, even though you acknowledged that it was a bad enough act that you do not find it forgivable.
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