Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Among early Christian writers, there existed differing viewpoints regarding the ethics of deception and dishonesty in certain circumstances. Some argued that lying and dissimulation could be justified for reasons such as saving souls, convincing reluctant candidates to accept ordination, or demonstrating humility by refraining from boasting about one's virtues.
Accordingly Augustine includes two things in the definition of sin; one, pertaining to the substance of a human act, and which is the matter, so to speak, of sin, when he says, word, deed, or desire; the other, pertaining to the nature of evil, and which is the form, as it were, of sin, when he says, contrary to the eternal law.
[11]: 27 The Bible primarily speaks of sin as moral evil rather than natural or metaphysical evil. [11]: 21 The writers of the Bible take the reality of a spiritual world beyond this world and its containment of hostile spiritual forces for granted. While the post-Enlightenment world does not, the "dark spiritual forces" can be seen as "symbols ...
Thus, the Bible describes humanity as connaturally "enslaved to sin" (Romans 6:6; John 8:34). Therefore, in biblical thinking, a freedom from being "enslaved to sin" in order to "live as one ought" must be acquired because "sin" is "the failure to live up to Jesus' commandments to love God and love neighbor." [66]
Ethics in the Bible refers to the system(s) or theory(ies) produced by the study, interpretation, and evaluation of biblical morals (including the moral code, standards, principles, behaviors, conscience, values, rules of conduct, or beliefs concerned with good and evil and right and wrong), that are found in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles.
In the West (differentiating from Eastern Orthodoxy) Christian hamartiology describes sin as an act of offence against God by despising his persons and Christian biblical law, and by injuring others. [5] It is an evil human act, which violates the rational nature of man, as well as God's nature and his eternal law.
One standard of sufficient reason for allowing evil is by asserting that God allows an evil in order to prevent a greater evil or cause a greater good. [141] Pointless evil , then, is an evil that does not meet this standard; it is an evil God permitted where there is no outweighing good or greater evil.
Deliverance is meant to cast out evil spirits (a.k.a. "demons"), helping people overcome negative behaviors, feelings, and experiences through the power of the Holy Spirit. [2] Each event is different, but many include some or all of these significant steps: diagnosis, naming the demon, expulsion, and some form of action taken by the afflicted ...