Thursday, November 28, 2002

    "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" is probably not referring to personal atonement for these reasons:
  1. The sins of the Elect are not forgiven because "they know not what they do."
  2. The word "forgive" does not mean "forgive all sins for all time" whenever it is mentioned in the Bible, or even whenever it is mentioned by Jesus Himself.
    "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" is probably referring to the Romans who were crucifying Jesus for these reasons:
  1. This anecdote is in the context of a group of anecdotes which speak to Jesus being blameless and above the fray.
  2. The Romans who were just doing their job did indeed "not know what they were doing." And indeed they WERE forgiven: the Jewish nation was destroyed while the Roman empire became the Holy Roman Empire.

8:10:44 PM     Comments

© Copyright 2003 Dave Babbitt.

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