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| Error, Though Not Always a Sin, is Always an Evil.
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Chapter 21.—Error, Though
Not Always a Sin, is Always an Evil.
But as to those matters in regard
to which our belief or disbelief, and indeed their truth or
supposed truth or falsity, are of no importance whatever, so far as
attaining the kingdom of God is concerned: to make a mistake in
such matters is not to be looked on as a sin, or at least as a very
small and trifling sin. In short, a mistake in matters of this
kind, whatever its nature and magnitude, does not relate to the way
of approach to God, which is the faith of Christ that “worketh by
love.”1116
For the
“mistake pleasing to parents” in the case of the twin children
was no deviation from this way; nor did the Apostle Peter deviate
from this way, when, thinking that he saw a vision, he so mistook
one thing for another, that, till the angel who delivered him had
departed from him, he did not distinguish the real objects among
which he was moving from the visionary objects of a dream;1117
nor did
the patriarch Jacob deviate from this way, when he believed that
his son, who was really alive, had been slain by a beast.1118
In the
case of these and other false impressions of the same kind, we are
indeed deceived, but our faith in God remains secure. We go astray,
but we do not leave the way that leads us to Him. But yet these
errors, though they are not sinful, are to be reckoned among the
evils of this life which is so far made subject to vanity, that we
receive what is false as if it were true, reject what is true as if
it were false, and cling to what is uncertain as if it were
certain. And although they do not trench upon that true and certain
faith through which we reach eternal blessedness, yet they have
much to do with that misery in which we are now living. And
assuredly, if we were now in the enjoyment of the true and perfect
happiness that lies before us, we should not be subject to any
deception through any sense, whether of body or of
mind.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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