{"id":31435,"date":"2012-01-22T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-23T02:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=31435"},"modified":"2021-01-31T20:42:51","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T02:42:51","slug":"can-a-non-christian-truly-understand-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-non-christian-truly-understand-forgiveness\/","title":{"rendered":"Can a non-Christian truly understand forgiveness?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>I understand that it is impossible for a non-Christian to understand the concept of true forgiveness toward another person. Is that correct?<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>Most spiritual concepts are difficult for non-believers to grasp. Not because the concepts are hard, but because it requires looking at the world from a framework that makes non-believers uncomfortable.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>These things we also speak, not in words which man&#8217;s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For &#8220;who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?&#8221; But we have the mind of Christ<\/em>&#8221; (I Corinthians 2:13-16).<\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>&#8220;For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence<\/em>&#8221; (I Corinthians 1:18-29).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In a sense, non-believers don&#8217;t understand because it is too simple, too straightforward. But the power of the Word is in its simple message. It is not impossible to understand, it is just hard to accept and keep a worldly viewpoint at the same time.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: I understand that it is impossible for a non-Christian to understand the concept of true forgiveness toward another person. Is that correct? Answer: Most spiritual concepts are difficult for non-believers to grasp. Not because the concepts are hard, but because it requires looking at the world from a framework that makes non-believers uncomfortable. &#8220;These&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1571,761],"class_list":["post-31435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-forgiveness","tag-understanding"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23313,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-non-believers-ever-invited-to-assemblies\/","url_meta":{"origin":31435,"position":0},"title":"Were non-believers ever invited to assemblies?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 11, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In the last couple of years, I have come to believe that the assembly is for believers. I haven't seen any examples that non-believers were ever invited to the first of the week assembly. Have you any thoughts on the matter? Thanks. Answer: \"In the Law it is written,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39593,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-choose-the-wrong-church-to-attend-as-a-christian\/","url_meta":{"origin":31435,"position":1},"title":"Can you choose the wrong church to attend as a Christian?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear sirs, I thank you for your site. It has been a great source of information as a new believer. Although I always considered myself a Christian, I never truly understood its true meaning until starting and completing, cover-to-cover for the first time, the Bible last year culminating in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28721,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-natural-man-unable-to-choose-anything-that-is-spiritual\/","url_meta":{"origin":31435,"position":2},"title":"Is the natural man unable to choose anything that is spiritual?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I had someone quote to me I Corinthians 2:14. Does this mean that the natural man will not choose anything that is of a spiritual nature?\u00a0 I believe that we have a free will to choose what we so desire, but if we were all in times past a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24714,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-were-the-laws-regarding-food-changed\/","url_meta":{"origin":31435,"position":3},"title":"Why were the laws regarding food changed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm not sure why Jesus changed the law about what is OK to eat. \u00a0Why did he allow us to eat pork? Answer: To understand why the law changed, you first need to understand why those laws were there in the first place. I would like you to read\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3158,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-even-non-christians-look-down-on-men-with-long-hair\/","url_meta":{"origin":31435,"position":4},"title":"Why do even non-Christians look down on men with long hair?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 31, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why it is that, even among non-Christians, men are looked down on for having long hair? What harm does it do? Nothing. Not one thing at all. I've yet to see one even a slightly logical argument against men having long hair. It could even be said that looking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5001,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-we-have-to-do-penance\/","url_meta":{"origin":31435,"position":5},"title":"Do we have to do penance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do we have to do penance? If we sin and we ask for forgiveness is it enough or do we need someone to give us a penance? Answer: Penance is a Roman Catholic concept which is not found in the Bible. If we stayed with the actual definition of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}