Alois Alzheimer was the Germain psychiatrist and neurologist who identified for the first time the neurodegenerative disease symptoms that lead to loss of memory which can usually affect older age people. People with this kind of illness go through a gradual process that takes them through a course of partial to total memory loss.
My granny had this infirmity and would always surprise us by the way she would increasingly forget about things and events, forgetting even about us her grandchildren. Since then, medicine has made much progress towards this sickness’ treatment, lowering its effect over those who have it and improving their quality of life, however it still remains without cure.
Reading the Bible, it gives the impression that God suffers from Alzheimer for in the book of Isaiah, in the Old Testament, says that God doesn’t remember our sins. The truth however is that He hasn’t lost or is losing His memory; the truth is that He intentionally wanted and wants to forget our past mistakes to give us the opportunity to live a different and rightful future.
If God who is God acts in this way, why is it that we so easily remember the sins of our brothers and sisters and have difficulty to forgive and forget their failures to enable them to live a different future?
God doesn’t suffer from Alzheimer but refuses to remember something that He has already forgiven. Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God forgave and forgives the sinners and completely forgets their sins. This tremendous vote of confidence frees people up to live a better and healthier future without the ties that hold them to previous failures. God has forgiven us, now is our turn to learn to forgive others!
- For which sins do you still have to ask God for forgiveness?
- Who do you need to forgive?
(The forgetful God, Isaiah 43:25 / the forgiven God, Mathew 18:32-33)
Commissioner Torben Eliason is the Territorial Commander of the Southern Africa Territory.