Sin versus Error

Sin versus Error

1 It is essential that error be not confused with sin, and it is this distinction which makes salvation possible. ²For error can be corrected and the wrong made right, but sin, were it possible, would be irreversible. ³The belief in sin is necessarily based on the firm conviction that minds, not bodies, can attack. ⁴And thus the mind is guilty, and will forever so remain unless a mind not part of it can give it absolution. ⁵Sin calls for punishment, as error for correction. ⁶And the belief that punishment is correction is clearly insane.

2 Sin is not error, for sin entails an arrogance which the idea of error lacks. ²To sin would be to violate reality and to succeed. ³Sin is the proclamation that attack is real and guilt is justified. ⁴It assumes the Son of God is guilty, and has thus succeeded in losing his innocence and making of himself what God created not. ⁵Thus is creation seen as not eternal; the will of God open to opposition and defeat. ⁶Sin is the “grand illusion” underlying all the ego’s grandiosity, for by it God Himself is changed and rendered incomplete.

3 The Son of God can be mistaken; he can deceive himself; he can even turn the power of his mind against himself. ²But he cannot sin. ³There is nothing he can do that would really change his reality in any way, or make him really guilty. ⁴That is what sin would do, for such is its purpose. ⁵Yet for all the wild insanity inherent in the whole idea of sin, it is impossible. ⁶For the wages of sin is death, and how can the immortal die?

4 A major tenet in the ego’s insane religion is that sin is not error but truth, and it is innocence that would deceive. ²Purity is seen as arrogance, and the acceptance of the self as sinful is perceived as holiness. ³And it is this doctrine that replaces the reality of the Son of God as his Father created him and willed that he be forever. ⁴Is this humility? ⁵Or is it rather an attempt to wrest creation away from truth and keep it separate?

5 Any attempt to reinterpret sin as error is wholly indefensible to the ego. ²The idea of sin is wholly sacrosanct in its thought system, and quite unapproachable except through reverence. ³It is the most “holy” concept in the ego’s system; lovely and powerful, wholly true, and necessarily protected with every defense at its disposal. ⁴For here lies its “best” defense, which all the others serve. ⁵Here is its armor, its protection, and the fundamental purpose of the special relationship in its interpretation.

6 It can indeed be said the ego made its world on sin. ²Only in such a world could everything be upside down. ³This is the strange illusion which makes the clouds of guilt seem heavy and impenetrable. ⁴The solidness this world’s foundation seems to have is found in this. ⁵For sin has changed creation from an idea of God to an ideal the ego wants: a world it rules, made up of bodies, mindless, and capable of complete corruption and decay.

7 If this is a mistake, it can be undone easily by truth. ²Any mistake can be corrected, if truth be left to judge it. ³But if the mistake is given the status of the truth, to what can it be brought? ⁴The “holiness” of sin is kept in place by just this strange device. ⁵As truth, it is inviolate, and everything is brought to it for judgment. ⁶As a mistake, it must be brought to truth. ⁷It is impossible to have faith in sin, for sin is faithlessness. ⁸But it is possible to have faith that a mistake can be corrected.

8 There is no stone in all the ego’s citadel more heavily defended than the idea that sin is real, the natural expression of what the Son of God has made himself to be and what he is. ²To the ego, this is no mistake. ³For this is its reality; this is the “truth” from which escape will always be impossible. ⁴This is his past, his present, and his future. ⁵For he has somehow managed to corrupt his Father and change His Mind completely.

9 Mourn then the death of God, Whom sin has killed! ²And this would be the ego’s wish, which in its madness it thinks it has accomplished. ³Would you not rather that all this be nothing more than a mistake, entirely correctable and so easily escaped from that its whole correction is like walking through a mist into the sunlight? ⁴For that is all it is. ⁵Perhaps you would be tempted to agree with the ego that it is far better to be sinful than mistaken. ⁶But think you carefully before you allow yourself to make this choice. ⁷Approach it not lightly, for it is the choice of hell or Heaven.

[CE T-19.II]

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You can make mistakes, but you cannot make yourself sinful. Error is correctable; sin would mean that you had actually changed what God created, destroyed your innocence, made guilt real, and permanently separated yourself from God. ACIM says this is impossible. Salvation therefore depends on recognizing what seems like sin as error—a mistaken use of mind that calls for correction and forgiveness, not punishment.

“The Son of God can be mistaken… But he cannot sin.”

Sin versus error

redefining salvation at its root.

If sin is real, salvation must somehow deal with real guilt.

If error is real only as a mistaken perception, salvation consists in correction.

ontological innocence.

Original Innocense

God created the Son innocent.

Therefore innocence belongs to the Son’s being.

Behavior within the dream cannot rewrite creation.

The ego does not merely believe in sin reluctantly.

It needs sin.

“the most ‘holy’ concept in the ego’s system.”

“the ego made its world on sin.”

Sin as an attack on God

The chapter keeps pushing the concept of sin to its logical conclusion.

If sin were real, then the Son would have:

1. changed himself,
2. corrupted creation,
3. opposed God successfully,
4. made God’s will incomplete.

That is why the language becomes so dramatic:

“Mourn then the death of God, Whom sin has killed!”