Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 3
David calls the idea that future sins are “pre-forgiven” a “terrible doctrine” and ties it to losing “any sense of repentance”; how does his example of being told not to pray “forgive us our debts” expose a different underlying view of God and of ongoing sin?
Another way to ask: David says the idea that future sins are already forgiven can kill real repentance. How does the advice not to pray “forgive us our debts” show a different view of God and of ongoing sin?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
In the speaker’s example, telling Christians not to ask forgiveness assumes salvation is mainly a completed legal transaction and that ongoing confession is unnecessary; David argues this dulls repentance and contradicts Jesus’s own pattern of prayer. His view assumes God expects daily humility, real accountability, and lived reconciliation.
- He recounts being taught: “every sin you’re ever going to commit… is already pre-forgiven,” which he calls “false doctrine… terrible doctrine.”
- He connects it to repentance: “So you have no sense of repentance.”
- Example: after he prayed the Lord’s Prayer, others told him, “you don’t have to ask forgiveness of your sins. That was already done.”
- He counters with Jesus’s instruction: “Jesus said, pray this way,” including “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”
- Early Christian practice reinforces it: they prayed the Lord’s Prayer “three times a day,” taking it “very seriously.”
- His underlying view of God includes ongoing mercy with real conditions: God forgives “over and over… if we’re repentant,” and “if you don’t forgive others, I’m not going to forgive yours.”