hola Dougmusr,
there are three kinds of sins in order of importance: The Unforgiveable Sin, Mortal Sins and Venial Sins.
the first two you will go to hell (or in the case of mortal sins there is a possibility of purgatory), venial sins do not result in ****ation... they are sins in which it does not concern a grave matter, it is not committed in full knowledge that what you are doing is sinful, and it is not committed with deliberate and complete consent... if you have enough you might still go to purgatory but that is only temporarily while you are perfected to go to heaven (a sinless state and place).
if you do something grave, intentionally knowing it is a sin, or with deliberate and full consent it is a mortal sin which you must confess for... if you do not you certainly risk purgatory and might still possibly hell... a killer for example who kills deliberately and does not go through the process of confession (including penance) will most likely go to hell...
the Unforgiveable Sin is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit... Jesus Himself said that there is no pardon for this...
Dios te bendiga
Here we see a point at which there is some difference in the teaching of respective Christians groups. The view experessed by Jayda is indeed the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. But it is not just Roman Catholic. There are even some Protestants who speak of the "Seven Deadly Sins". So, the idea that there are big sin and lesser sins is common in many religions and is even present in some parts of Christianity.
For myself, I see all sin (yes, even the litte, venial sins) as sin. Now the whole concept of sin is pretty broad. It embraces the entire gamut of human failure as expressed above. And in scripture there are several different words used to express the concept.
The most general of those words in the New Testament is
hamartia.
hamartia is used in regard to offenses against morals and laws (whether humankind's law or God's law).
hamartia is derived from the classical Greek (people like Homer to Aristotle) word
hamartano and originally meant to miss, as in miss the mark when aiming at a target.
When the Jews, 200 years before the time of Jesus, translated their scriptures from Hebrew into Greek, they also used the word
hamartia as a way to speak about sin. They in particular used
hamartia to translate the Hebrew word
hatta't which was used to describe one who lapses, and they also used
hamartia to translate the Hebrew word
'awon which referred to a conscious deviation from the right way and the concept of rebellion, specifically rebellion against God. Here we see the idea that sin then is something that separates an individual or even a whole nation from God. Who is it then that determines what is sin and what is not sin? The same one who determines what is and what is not the standard of righteousness -- God. God is the yardstick, not humans, not our comparisons with one another as some being not as bad as others. God is the yardstick of what is right and what is wrong.
In the New Testament this concept is further developed. Jesus speaks about the forgiveness of this short-coming in people. But for Jesus sin is not just that which comes from breaking a law or a command, it is anything that falls short of being the person God wants us to be. Yet it is to imperfect people just like this that Jesus comes to bring and announce God's forgiveness.
Another word that is used in the New Testament to talk about sin is the Greek word
adikia. To understand the connotations to this word one must contrast it with
dikaios meaning just or righteous (the
a at the front of a Greek word unfunctioning much like the prefix "un-" does in English) so that
adikia means unrighteous.
Thus, sinners are those who do not do what is right in God's eyes, they fall short of God's standard, they even rebell against God seeking their own way as if their way were the law, the standard of right and wrong; when of course God sets the standard of right and wrong, not us humans.
As such, in my opinion, there really are no big and little sins. Either you are living up to what God desires or you are not. True, some fall far more short of God's view of righteous behavior than others. But when trying to jump the gap between human imperfection and divine perfection, falling short by an inch is as deadly as falling short by a mile. Thus, though human may speak of big and little sins (i.e. big and little misses of the mark God has set for us), both sets of individuals end up having fallen short of God's expectations of righteousness and both miss the mark. And both can be described by the same word -- sinner. And as we have seen above, a sinner is one who is separated from God.
The only good news in this is what I described above of how Jesus came with a message of forgiveness and God's acceptance inspite of our moral failure. That message was that God wanted to be united though we were/are neither perfect nor righteous. In the Gospel accounts, it is those (the scribes and the pharisees and the teachers of the law) who reject Jesus' message and trust in their own righteousness rather than God's gift of forgiveness that are left unforgiven.
As far as the "Unforgivable Sin", this is it. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, doesn't come in cursing God. It comes from walking away from the forgiveness offered to us and trusting in our own righteousness. In other words it isn't by the things we do that Christians (or anyone) gets to heaven. It is a gracious gift of God, and trusting in him to be gracious and forgiving of our falling short of his standard, but still striving to meet it as best as we can, is the key to salvation. Christians believe that means trusting in Jesus, but that part of the discussion is for other parts of this thread, not in answer to the present questions.
