Following on the heels of my last post concerning Abraham’s bosom and the Place of Torments, there’s some important teachings from the Torah we should review at this point.
When I say the Torah, I’m talking specifically about the Book of Leviticus.
So let’s get down to it.
In Leviticus, do you remember what the 2 main categories of sin were?
They were “unintentional sins” and “intentional sins”.
What can be confusing is that unintentional sins does NOT necessarily mean sins you commit by accident, although in plain English that’s what it sounds like.
For example, stealing money from someone would Biblically speaking be considered an “unintentional sin” even though this is obviously a sin you commit deliberately.
So a better and more accurate way to describe it in modern English would be to say “lesser sins” versus “greater sins”.
Or to be even more precise, “forgivable sins” versus “unforgivable sins”.
By comparison of course there were a lot more forgivable sins than unforgivable sins.
Of course I’m sure we’ve all heard of and are terrified of that one unforgivable sin Yeshua spoke about known as the “blasphemy of the Holy Spirit” and NO I’m not going to get into that topic here.
The big point I want you to understand is that the Levitical sacrificial system only provided forgiveness for unintentional or the lesser sins.
Got it?
Intentional or high-handed sins such as murder or adultery could NOT be atoned for via the Levitical sacrificial system.
Hence, when a person committed an unintentional sin such as stealing something and afterwards if he sincerely repented and then offered up the proper sacrifice per the Levitical procedures, he would be forgiven and die in a righteous state.
As a result, his soul would go to Abraham’s bosom.
On the other hand, if a person committed an unforgivable sin (like murder), since there was no atonement available for such a crime within God’s justice system, that person would die in an unrighteous state and thus upon death, his soul would land in the Place of Torments.
I just studied this in my Torah class and also all the laws were there to teach us what Gods deems as sin and that he wants obedience.
Implication is (it seems), there was-and-is no hope for murderers, under Torah law. However, God spared the life of Cain, after he killed Abel. Surely this was out of mercy – unless it was to make an example of Cain for others to learn from (eg seeing Cain suffer self-torment in this life before eternal-torment in the next)?