How to Become a Christian<\/a>.<\/p>\nYour ability to forgive others of their sins against you does reflect whether you will be forgiven by God. “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions<\/em>” (Matthew 6:14-15). God expects us to be consistent. We cannot ask for something that we are not willing to give.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question: Hello, I would like to know what is the penance for adultery. If forgiveness is possible, does the “forgive and you shall be forgiven” apply? Answer: The idea that there are acts of penance done for sins is not taught in the Bible. It is merely a Roman Catholic tradition. See:\u00a0Do we have to…<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[66,1571,766,1599],"class_list":["post-51824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-adultery","tag-forgiveness","tag-penance","tag-roman-catholic-church"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5001,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-we-have-to-do-penance\/","url_meta":{"origin":51824,"position":0},"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 "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37717,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-does-jeremiah-110-relate-to-priests-not-being-able-to-forgive-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":51824,"position":1},"title":"How does Jeremiah 1:10 relate to priests not being able to forgive sins?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: It is my understanding that according to Catholic teaching, it is not the priest who forgives sins in the sacrament of reconciliation. It is Jesus. Also, there are two aspects to confession, or reconciliation as it is called, and that is 1. When we sin, we offend God. 2.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":655,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-adultery-be-forgiven-should-i-tell-my-spouse\/","url_meta":{"origin":51824,"position":2},"title":"Can adultery be forgiven? Should I tell my spouse?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 28, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My husband and I separated because he committed adultery. A few months later I too committed adultery one time because I was stupid and lonely. I am closer to the Lord now and I knew it was and know it is wrong for what I did too. Will He\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32280,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-did-you-get-your-facts-what-you-say-about-roman-catholic-beliefs-doesnt-match-what-i-was-taught\/","url_meta":{"origin":51824,"position":3},"title":"Where did you get your facts? What you say about Roman Catholic beliefs doesn’t match what I was taught.","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, As a fresh convert to Catholicism, I have some questions regarding the information on your site. What I learned directly from my parish priest contradicts several things you state in \"What is wrong with Catholicism?\", particularly at the end of your article. I want to say right now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4999,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/must-i-confess-my-sins-to-a-priest-to-be-forgiven\/","url_meta":{"origin":51824,"position":4},"title":"Must I confess my sins to a priest to be forgiven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was born into a Catholic faith but a non-church going family. I have now and \"always\" had a problem with the Catholic faith saying that we cannot get absolution unless we have confessed our sins to a priest. I have not been to confession in over 40 years.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54363,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-we-know-jesus-forgives-mortal-sins-we-are-traumatized-over\/","url_meta":{"origin":51824,"position":5},"title":"How can we know Jesus forgives mortal sins we are traumatized over?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I'm just enquiring if you can help me. I read comments about sin on your site. My question is: How can we know Jesus forgives mortal sins we are traumatized over? Answer: The Roman Catholic church uses the term \"mortal sins,\" instead of just saying \"sins.\" Even though\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","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\/51824","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=51824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}