Quote
CovenantInBlood said:
They were in no position to forgive him because he is not around to repent or to be forgiven. His actions clearly demonstrate that he is now awaiting final judgement in hell--we have no right to forgive him.

I've been following this thread with some interest and it has raised some questions in my mind.
Let me press this point a little. Suppose a husband and wife get into an argument and one says something really bad and storms out for an hour or two to cool down. Most likely after a few hours, they will come back together and forgive each other (I assume there will be will repentance). However, while the spouse in the wrong is out, he/she is killed in a car accident. Now, should the remaining spouse never forgive the dead one because it is meaningless? Is it really meaningless?

First of all, I think forgiveness has several aspects. Or, maybe a better way to say it is that when people use the word "forgiveness", they may be attaching a different meaning to it depending on the situation. There seems to be a judicial aspect that many of the people in this thread are arguing for. In that case, I can understand that there may be no basis for forgiveness since the person is already gone. I can also understand in the judicial aspect, that repentance is required by the offending party before forgiveness is granted (party not dead). But, isn't there also a more individual aspect of forgiveness where you forgive the other person their wrongs against you. Maybe it's more of not holding their wrong against you against them then forgiveness. Or, it may be in a sense, not dwelling on the wrong and not letting it anger you or affect the love you have towards the other person. I wonder if a lot of the arguing in this thread is due to a difference in what people are meaning by "forgiveness". In the second aspect, maybe we shouldn't be using the word forgivenes and apply another term to it, but I think that is the definition that the vast majority of people are using for forgiveness. I wish I could explain what I'm trying to say a little better, but hopefully everyone gets my drift.

John