{"id":1169,"date":"2007-07-16T10:28:13","date_gmt":"2007-07-16T17:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2007\/07\/16\/degrees-of-sin\/"},"modified":"2007-07-16T10:29:07","modified_gmt":"2007-07-16T17:29:07","slug":"degrees-of-sin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2007\/07\/16\/degrees-of-sin\/","title":{"rendered":"Degrees of sin"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have heard members of the Church describe sin in degrees of severity. This is most often prevalent in Gospel Doctrine class when we discuss Alma 39. For example, notice these verses:<\/p>\n

>”Know ye not, my son, that these things are an abomination in the sight of the Lord; yea, most abominable above all sins save it be the shedding of innocent blood or denying the Holy Ghost?” (Alma 39:5)<\/p>\n

Here, sexual sin ?\u00a2\u201a\u00c7\u00a8\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 which many members assume is what Alma the Younger was referring to when he said “these things”, and which we have debated before<\/a> ?\u00a2\u201a\u00c7\u00a8\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 is being compared to murdering and denying the Holy Ghost. I have heard it mentioned that sexual sin, therefore, is the third worst type of sin (despite the fact that murder and denying the Holy Ghost could be the same thing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For the purpose of this post, we will assume that the common traditional interpretations of this verse are correct. That is, there are three degrees of severity when it comes to sin: first, denying the Holy Ghost; second, murder; third, sexual sin.<\/p>\n

At the same time, however, God does not accept sin at all. Specifically:<\/p>\n

>”For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance” (D&C 1:31)<\/p>\n

So, I wonder then if there really are degrees of sin. By classifying some sins as more abominable, does Alma suggest that God looks on other sins with some degree of allowance. Does he suggest that God will turn somewhat of a blind eye to the less abominable sins?<\/p>\n

By saying he does not look upon sin with the least degree of allowance, is God saying he views all sin equally?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have heard members of the Church describe sin in degrees of severity. This is most often prevalent in Gospel … Continue reading Degrees of sin<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sinning"],"yoast_head":"\nDegrees of sin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2007\/07\/16\/degrees-of-sin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Degrees of sin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have heard members of the Church describe sin in degrees of severity. 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