Q&A Home > J > Judgment / Judgment Day Will every sin not confessed, while on earth, be held against me on judgement day? What if I cannot remember every sin; or intentionally forget them?
If I have a small sin, that I have not confessed; but I try, instead, to please God through my life, will that sin stop me from being saved at the end? Is Judgment Day real? Or is it just a concept or analogy God uses to make us understand in our own human sense? Can one be sure of their salvation? If not, does that mean that one is not saved? Our God is a merciful God. He is not that fierce gladiator waiting for you to forget confessing a sin in order to punish you. David the Prophet says, "If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?" (Ps 130:3; Ps 129 in the Agpeya). God knows the heart of everyone; and knows our weaknesses. We pray each day in the Agpeya book asking the Lord to forgive those sins we have forgotten to confess, "Absolve, forgive and remit, O God our transgressions; those which we have committed willingly and those we have committed unwillingly, those which we committed knowingly and those which we have committed unknowingly, the hidden and the manifest, O Lord forgive us for the sake of Your Holy name".
God erases every sin we confess; and no longer remembers it. However, if you know of a sin and refuse to confess it, why would God erase it?
At the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in His glory, on Judgment Day, we will be judged in order for God to separate the sheep from the goats (Mt 25:31-46). This is not an analogy, but a fact. Our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified for our salvation. Being saved, we should do our utmost not to loose this salvation, and strive to deserve the kingdom of God. This is conditional upon one's faith in our Lord Jesus Christ "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (Jn 3:18), upon baptism "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (Jn 3:5), upon the Mysteries (Jn 6:53-58), and upon our good deeds (Mt 25:31-46).
You can read more about salvation in "Salvation in the Orthodox Faith" by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III.
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