Was this error the early roots of what would become Penance within Catholicism?
"In North Africa, according to Tertullian (On Purity 13), lapsed believers would
--dress in rags to show their penance,
--lay prostrate in the outer foyer where the elders would enter,
--and beg for prayer and forgiveness.
Following 1 John 5:16,17 the elders were not to speak to or even pray for such "penitents," but were to let them continue in penance until the Lord somehow showed His mercy to them.
Some of these lapsed believers would eventually give up, figuring they had lost their souls.
Others would spend months, maybe years, in this condition, hoping that God would accept them when they died."
CH101
Guess they forgot about the verse in 1 John 5 BEFORE vs. 16,17.....
And if we know that he hear us,
whatsoever we ask,
we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
1 John 5:15
"In North Africa, according to Tertullian (On Purity 13), lapsed believers would
--dress in rags to show their penance,
--lay prostrate in the outer foyer where the elders would enter,
--and beg for prayer and forgiveness.
Following 1 John 5:16,17 the elders were not to speak to or even pray for such "penitents," but were to let them continue in penance until the Lord somehow showed His mercy to them. Some of these lapsed believers would eventually give up, figuring they had lost their souls.
Others would spend months, maybe years, in this condition, hoping that God would accept them when they died."
CH101
Guess they forgot about the verse in 1 John 5 BEFORE vs. 16,17.....
And if we know that he hear us,
whatsoever we ask,
we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
1 John 5:15