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Can one ever truly atone?
Today I taught my World Lit class The Book of Ruth. This story is in both the Old and New Testament. In the Old Testament, the word for atonement in Hebrew actually translates as "to placate." The word for atonement in the New Testament translates as "payment." So if we only placate people when we atone and we must make payment for our sins, can we ever truly atone?
Topics:
Abrahamic Religions Atonement Ethical
David Grammer
Gail . 50+
Example: IF God exists, and it is love, and you want to be one-with God, then you must be loving with ALL your heart, ALL your soul, and ALL your mind. This would leave NO (zero) room for fear - which is the mother of anger, guilt, jealosy, hate, moral judgment, violence, etc.
when a person transitions from a fear-based worldview into a love-based worldview, that person walks through his/her fears to the other side, where fear has no meaning - and neither does sin. There is no payment required, other than effort and courage. Repentance and acknowledgement of sin or evil within us takes us away from atonement.
If atonement is to placate - meaning to ease the anger or agitation of - then to placate is to erase the divisions that appear to divide or disrupt that which is without divisions or disruptions.
Jesus didn't use the word "sin". The earliest known texts show him using the koine Greek word Hamartia - which means acting in (spiritual) ignorance causing harm (to self/others). Jesus didn't use the term "repent". Again, in koine Greek, he used the words "metanoeo" and "metamellamai", which mean - change your way of thinking and change your way of emoting - respectively. Jesus actually didn't speak of Hell. He spoke of Gehenna - which was the garbage dump outside of Jerusalem's city gates, where those with wretched lives eek out a horrible existence.
So, according to Jesus, if you have a wretched life (which you do if you see sin in you), then to change that, you merely need to change your way of thinking and emoting. In this way, you will walk away from the consequences of the mistakes that your current way of thinking and emoting (hamartia) has created.
Love =/= fear and can't be at-one with it.
Kate Blake 50+
Reconciliation with those wronged could take many forms: from doing time for the crime in goal; offering sincere regret to those wronged and hoping one might be forgiven even though the action is seldom forgotten. But surely in Christianity one is taught that God is all knowing and all forgiving. So what is all the guilt and carry on about 'sins'? It seems such a harsh term to me.
We all do and say things that hurt others, some more knowingly but often they are niave mistakes. By noting them as harmful we can be more aware not to do similar things in the future .... Surely love and compassion starts with ones self?
If we are consumed by guilt or anxiety we freeze up and often don't learn from our mistakes. These two emotions seem such a waste of energy ot me. But by feeling deep sincere regret, apologising and seeking atonement in our own fashion would be far more effective? Soothing ones soul as said below or cleansing our psychi seems a remarkably healthy action so why wait for situations to occur, make it a regular practice?
After all if God does forgive why can't we?
pat gilbert 50+
Anything otherwise is an apparency.
Random Chance 30+
if there is a god, can it ever atone for abandoning humans?
The answer is no.
Ellen Feig 500+
Fritzie Reisner 100+
Looking in my dictionary under "atone", I find the first definition "to make amends , as for a sin or fault."
I find the second definition: "In the Hebrew Scriptures, man's reconciliation with God after having transgressed the covenant."
So is your question whether people can make amends to those they have hurt in such a way as to make them no longer angry? Or whether they can compensate fully for the hurt they caused? Or does your question relate to whether there can be a reconciliation with God?
I think whether someone can reduce or eliminate someone's anger or compensate a person for what one did depends on what it is that one did and what the other person is like.
How the reconciliation with God works is probably understood differently depending on a person's religious belief and tradition.
Ellen Feig 500+
Leo Taylor
Not an easy task. Please give me your opinion as it has been decades since I have read the book of Ruth. I could break it out, but at the moment the soothing the soul idea occurred to me and I figured I would run with it.
Linda Taylor 50+