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<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve all heard it at one time or another. I probably made this argument a time or two as a Protestant. It runs as follows (I\u2019m loosely but substantially paraphrasing an actual hypothetical scenario that I heard recently from a Reformed Protestant):<\/p>\n
A man who was baptized, thus regenerated, and justified initially \u2014 as Catholics say \u2014 lived to age 80, and on the last day of his life he skipped going to Mass, because he wanted to attend his first Major League baseball game ever, on a Sunday. He had lived a perfect life, according to Catholic moral teaching and rules, up till the time of his death, except for this one thing. He even intended to go to confession after the game, but he died of a heart attack in the ninth inning. According to Catholic teaching on mortal sin he would immediately go to hell. This is contrary to possessing any peace, hope, confidence, or assurance of salvation, and seems to be against the biblical gospel.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This typical picture of the Catholic supposedly going to hell because he committed a mortal sin three hours before he died is grossly caricatured. It\u2019s much more complex than that. Subjectively committed mortal sin has three components in Catholic thinking:<\/p>\n
1) A grave, serious<\/em> matter is involved.<\/p>\n
2) The person has sufficiently or adequately reflected<\/em> upon and has proper knowledge about the sin they are committing.<\/p>\n
3) They must have given a full and deliberate consent<\/em> of their will.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So in this example, the person wasn\u2019t totally lost in sin because they had the resolve to do penance (confession, in order to be absolved by a priest). Therefore, by definition, it was not subjectively mortal sin and they wouldn\u2019t be sent to hell. That\u2019s where the usual misunderstanding lies, and it\u2019s basic. God is just and merciful and no one will go to hell for inadequate reasons, and informed Catholics understand that. Granted there are tens of millions of ignorant ones, just as there are ignorant Protestants. I meet them every week online, telling lies about my supposed beliefs. I fight caricatures on all sides because they help no one.<\/p>\n
But God judges a person\u2019s entire life. This well-known objection is roughly equivalent to a Catholic saying about Protestant \u201cfaith alone\u201d belief, that it means that any Protestant can go sin as much as they want and it\u2019s fine and dandy; they\u2019ll be saved because they did the sinner\u2019s prayer. In other words, it\u2019s collapsed into antinomianism (we\u2019re saved and subject to no rules and laws after that; no sins will endanger our salvation). It doesn\u2019t<\/em> mean that.<\/p>\n
Protestants, including Luther and Calvin, firmly teach that the Christian must<\/em> do good works and not sin, even though they do formally separate good works from justification salvation altogether and categorize them as non-salvific acts classified under a separate category of \u201csanctification.\u201d \u201cCheap grace\u201d is a sinful gross distortion of true Protestant teaching on salvation. In the same manner, these \u201cwhat if\u201d scenarios involving mortal sin are distortions of Catholic teaching.<\/p>\n
When we speak of \u201cobjective mortal sin\u201d we refer to the sin in and of itself. Murder, lust, theft, disrespect of parents, lying, and a number of other sins and failings are serious by their very nature, and mortal (meaning, possibly leading to spiritual death or loss of good graces with God). But \u201csubjective mortal sin\u201d is a deeper analysis that incorporates the three elements above and takes into consideration culpability and the extent of a persons\u2019 awareness and knowledge of what they are doing. It\u2019s similar to the different legal degrees of murder: premeditated vs. crimes of passion, manslaughter, etc. Penalties are less for the person who commits a lesser legal degree of homicide.<\/p>\n
When I replied to the person who came up with the scenario I paraphrased, they modified it, so that the man wasn\u2019t even thinking<\/em> of doing penance and confessing. He knew that he had been the perfect Catholic his whole life, and that God knew that. So my second reply was and is as follows:<\/p>\n
Committing a\u00a0subjectively<\/i>\u00a0mortal\u00a0sin, which places\u00a0one in\u00a0possible danger of possible hellfire<\/i>, not absolutely damned (and God determines all that, not us, nor the Catholic Church), is dependent upon a person giving the full and deliberate consent of their will and sufficiently, adequately reflecting on what they are doing. Otherwise, it\u2019s not mortal sin from their subjective viewpoint, even if the objective thing is a mortal sin (missing Mass for insufficient reason). The person in this scenario was over-excited about the baseball game so that the Mass never even crossed his mind, nor was he consciously sorry or guilty at all. Therefore, this proves that he did not<\/i>\u00a0give the full consent of his will and did\u00a0not<\/i> sufficiently reflect upon what he was doing.<\/p>\n
It follows that he would not be guilty of subjective mortal sin and wouldn\u2019t go to hell (and that\u2019s assuming it\u2019s \u201cautomatic\u201d which is also far too simplistic) if he died in the ninth inning. The Catholic Church would say that he can confess this venial sin directly to God if he wants to do that (confession to a priest is only absolutely necessary<\/i> in cases of subjective mortal sin), and he\u2019s good to go. It takes five minutes, provided he is truly sorry for it when he does<\/i> get past the relatively mindless excitement of the moment and reflect upon it.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s still true that God is merciful and just and takes into account a person\u2019s entire life<\/em>\u00a0and their heart<\/em>, not merely one sin (itself not even fully conscious). So this hypothetical and absolutely classic Protestant criticism fails as a proof of Catholic \u201cweirdness\u201d and implausibility and allegedly unbiblical nature, and it does because it didn\u2019t fully take into account our complete doctrine of mortal and venial sin, which is thoroughly biblical. In other words, it stemmed from a very inadequate knowledge of the thing that it criticizes, and so ends up attacking a straw man; not actual Catholic doctrine.<\/p>\n
But alas, this is how millions of Protestants view the Catholic thoroughly biblical teaching on mortal and venial sins, and this is the sort of pseudo-argument against caricatures that Catholic apologists like myself have to constantly interact with, on a wide variety of topics (please pray for my patience. Thanks!). The Bible teaches a lot about sins in ignorance (Paul referred to his own in his own past life), without fully knowing what one is doing, and God providing considerable leeway for them.<\/p>\n
Further Reading (and Viewing)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
Bible On Mortal & Venial Sin (vs. Anglican Stearns #5)<\/a> [31 passages; my most in-depth article on this topic] [3-20-25]<\/p>\n
VIDEO:\u00a0Can some sins cause you to LOSE your salvation? (Mortal & Venial Sin)<\/a> [with Kenny Burchard at Catholic Bible Highlights<\/em>, 4-5-25]<\/p>\n
Mortal vs. Venial Sin: Biblical?<\/a>\u00a0[1997]<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nMortal & Venial Sin: Strong Biblical Support<\/a>\u00a0[4-1-06]
\n*<\/div>\nDialogue on Mortal & Venial Sin<\/a>\u00a0[4-14-06]<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nMortal and Venial Sin (vs. Calvin #56)<\/a>\u00a0[2012]
\n*<\/div>\n\nMartin Luther and Lutherans on Mortal & Venial Sins<\/a>\u00a0[10-30-17]<\/p>\n
What the Bible Says on Degrees of Sin and Mortal Sin<\/a>\u00a0[National Catholic Register<\/em>, 7-6-18]<\/p>\n
Mortal & Venial Sin: Proof from \u201cUnwitting\u201d Passages<\/a>\u00a0[10-26-21]<\/p>\n
Examination of Conscience: Biblical (Pauline) Evidence<\/a>\u00a0[7-14-08]<\/p>\n
The Bible on Confession & Absolution<\/a>\u00a0[2013]<\/p>\n
Bible: Men & Angels Forgive Sins as Representatives of God<\/a>\u00a0[7-18-14]<\/p>\n
Confession and Absolution Are Biblical<\/a>\u00a0[National Catholic Register<\/em>, 7-31-17]<\/p>\n
Absolution, Sanctification, & Forgiveness: Reply to Calvin #7<\/a>\u00a0[12-19-18]<\/p>\n
John 20:22-23 & Formal Absolution<\/a>\u00a0(vs. Steve Hays) [5-12-20]<\/p>\n
No Confession to Men in the Bible?\u00a0Seriously<\/em>? Read On . . .<\/a>\u00a0[11-19-21]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Mortal Sins: The Basics<\/a> (Joe Heschmeyer, Catholic Answers Magazine<\/em>, 7-10-24)<\/p>\n
How Hard Is It to Commit a Mortal Sin?<\/a> (Joe Heschmeyer, Catholic Answers Magazine<\/em>, 11-28-25)<\/p>\n
Are Some Sins Worse than Others?<\/a> (Joe Heschmeyer, 6-15-23)<\/p>\n
Assessing Mortal Sin<\/a> (Jimmy Akin, 12-13-06)<\/p>\n
Examination of Conscience<\/a> (Catholic Answers Guide)<\/p>\n
Sin: The Debate Between Catholics and Protestants<\/a> (Douglas M. Beaumont, Catholic Answers Magazine<\/em>, 1-3-21)<\/p>\n
*<\/div>\n***<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n\nPractical Matters<\/strong><\/em>:\u00a0 I run the most comprehensive \u201cone-stop\u201d Catholic apologetics site:\u00a0rated #1\u00a0for Christian sites<\/a>\u00a0by leading AI tool, ChatGPT \u2014 endorsed by popular Protestant blogger Adrian Warnock. Perhaps some of my 5,000+ free online articles or\u00a0fifty-six books<\/a>\u00a0have helped you (by God\u2019s grace) to decide to\u00a0become a Catholic<\/a>\u00a0or to\u00a0return to the Catholic Church<\/a>, or better understand some doctrines and\u00a0why<\/em>\u00a0Catholics believe them<\/a>. If you believe\u00a0my\u00a0full-time apostolate<\/a>\u00a0is worth supporting, please seriously consider a much-needed monthly or one-time financial contribution. \u201cThe laborer is worthy of his wages\u201d (1 Tim 5:18, NKJV).<\/div>\n\n\n*<\/div>\nPayPal donations<\/a>\u00a0are the easiest: just send to my email address:\u00a0apologistdave@gmail.com. Here\u2019s also a\u00a0second page to get to PayPal<\/a>. You\u2019ll see the term \u201cCatholic Used Book Service\u201d, which is my old side-business. To learn about the different methods of contributing (including\u00a0Zelle\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0100% tax-deductible donations<\/strong>\u00a0if desired), see my page:\u00a0About Catholic Apologist Dave Armstrong \/ Donation Information<\/a>.<\/div>\n*<\/div>\nYou can support my work a great deal in non-financial ways, if you prefer; by subscribing to, commenting on, liking, and sharing videos from my two\u00a0YouTube<\/em>\u00a0channels,\u00a0Catholic Bible Highlights<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Lux Veritatis<\/em><\/a>, in partnership with Kenny Burchard (see\u00a0my own videos<\/a>), and\/or by signing up to receive notice for new articles on this blog. Just type your email address on the sidebar to the right (scroll down quite a bit), where you see, \u201cSign Me Up!\u201d\u00a0Thanks a million!<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n*<\/div>\n***<\/div>\n*<\/div>\n\nPhoto credit<\/strong>: my 2009 book (Sophia Institute Press).<\/span><\/div>\n*<\/div>\nSummary<\/em>: I tackle the classic Protestant objection to belief in mortal sin: that a person can be perfect their entire life and commit a sin right at the end of it that will send them to hell.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 We\u2019ve all heard it at one time or another. I probably made this argument a time or two as a Protestant. It runs as follows (I\u2019m loosely but substantially paraphrasing an actual hypothetical scenario that I heard recently from a Reformed Protestant): A man who was baptized, thus regenerated, and justified initially \u2014 as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":95327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[1256,1423,1421,19735,19738,1422],"class_list":["post-97036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-salvation-justification","tag-culpability","tag-degrees-of-sin","tag-mortal-sin","tag-sin-in-the-bible","tag-sin-unto-death","tag-venial-sin"],"yoast_head":"\n
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Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \\\"This Rock\\\" (now called \\\"Catholic Answers Magazine\\\"), \\\"Envoy Magazine\\\" (Patrick Madrid), \\\"The Catholic Answer,\\\" \\\"The Coming Home Journal,\\\" \\\"Gilbert Magazine\\\" (American Chesterton Society), and \\\"The Latin Mass.\\\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \\\"The Michigan Catholic\\\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \\\"Catholic Answers Live\\\" (twice), \\\"Faith and Family Live\\\" (Steve Wood), \\\"Kresta in the Afternoon,\\\" \\\"Son Rise Morning Show,\\\" \\\"Catholic Connection\\\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \\\"The Catholics Next Door.\\\" His large and popular website, \\\"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\\\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \\\"index\\\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \\\"Surprised by Truth\\\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \\\"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\\\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \\\"The Catholic Verses\\\" (2004), \\\"The One-Minute Apologist\\\" (2007), \\\"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\\\" (2009), \\\"The Quotable Newman\\\" (editor: 2012), and \\\"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\\\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \\\"The New Catholic Answer Bible\\\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \\\"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\\\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \\\"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\\\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \\\"Quotable Wesley\\\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. 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Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \"This Rock\" (now called \"Catholic Answers Magazine\"), \"Envoy Magazine\" (Patrick Madrid), \"The Catholic Answer,\" \"The Coming Home Journal,\" \"Gilbert Magazine\" (American Chesterton Society), and \"The Latin Mass.\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \"The Michigan Catholic\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \"Envoy Magazine.\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \"Catholic Answers Live\" (twice), \"Faith and Family Live\" (Steve Wood), \"Kresta in the Afternoon,\" \"Son Rise Morning Show,\" \"Catholic Connection\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \"The Catholics Next Door.\" His large and popular website, \"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \"Envoy Magazine.\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \"index\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \"Surprised by Truth\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \"The Catholic Verses\" (2004), \"The One-Minute Apologist\" (2007), \"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\" (2009), \"The Quotable Newman\" (editor: 2012), and \"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \"The New Catholic Answer Bible\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \"Quotable Wesley\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}