II. Sin versus Error

T-19.II.1. It is essential that error be not confused with sin, and it is this distinction that makes salvation possible. ² For error can be corrected, and the wrong made right. ³ But sin, were it possible, would be irreversible. ⁴ The belief in sin is necessarily based on the firm conviction that minds, not bodies, can attack. ⁵ And thus the mind is guilty, and will forever so remain unless a mind not part of it can give it absolution. ⁶ Sin calls for punishment as error for correction, and the belief that punishment is correction is clearly insane.

T-19.II.2. Sin is not an error, for sin entails an arrogance which the idea of error lacks. ² To sin would be to violate reality, and to succeed. ³ Sin is the proclamation that attack is real and guilt is justified. ⁴ It assumes the Son of God is guilty, and has thus succeeded in losing his innocence and making himself what God created not. ⁵ Thus is creation seen as not eternal, and the Will of God open to opposition and defeat. ⁶ Sin is the grand illusion underlying all the ego's grandiosity. ⁷ For by it God Himself is changed, and rendered incomplete.

T-19.II.3. The Son of God can be mistaken; he can deceive himself; he can even turn the power of his mind against himself. ² But he cannot sin. ³ There is nothing he can do that would really change his reality in any way, nor make him really guilty. ⁴ That is what sin would do, for such is its purpose. ⁵ Yet for all the wild insanity inherent in the whole idea of sin, it is impossible. ⁶ For the wages of sin is death, and how can the immortal die?

T-19.II.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. ² Purity is seen as arrogance, and the acceptance of the self as sinful is perceived as holiness. ³ And it is this doctrine that replaces the reality of the Son of God as his Father created him, and willed that he be forever. ⁴ Is this humility? ⁵ Or is it, rather, an attempt to wrest creation away from truth, and keep it separate?

T-19.II.5. Any attempt to reinterpret sin as error is always indefensible to the ego. ² The idea of sin is wholly sacrosanct to its thought system, and quite unapproachable except with reverence and awe. ³ It is the most "holy" concept in the ego's system; lovely and powerful, wholly true, and necessarily protected with every defense at its disposal. ⁴ For here lies its "best" defense, which all the others serve. ⁵ Here is its armor, its protection, and the fundamental purpose of the special relationship in its interpretation.

T-19.II.6. It can indeed be said the ego made its world on sin. ² Only in such a world could everything be upside down. ³ This is the strange illusion that makes the clouds of guilt seem heavy and impenetrable. ⁴ The solidness that this world's foundation seems to have is found in this. ⁵ For 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. ⁶ If this is a mistake, it can be undone easily by truth. ⁷ Any mistake can be corrected, if truth be left to judge it. ⁸ But if the mistake is given the status of truth, to what can it be brought? ⁹ The "holiness" of sin is kept in place by just this strange device. ¹⁰ As truth it is inviolate, and everything is brought to it for judgment. ¹¹ As a mistake, it must be brought to truth. ¹² It is impossible to have faith in sin, for sin is faithlessness. ¹³ Yet it is possible to have faith that a mistake can be corrected.

T-19.II.7. There is no stone in all the ego's embattled citadel that is 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. ² To the ego, this is no mistake. ³ For this is its reality; this is the "truth" from which escape will always be impossible. ⁴ This is his past, his present and his future. ⁵ For he has somehow managed to corrupt his Father, and change His Mind completely. ⁶ Mourn, then, the death of God, Whom sin has killed! ⁷ And this would be the ego's wish, which in its madness it believes it has accomplished.

T-19.II.8. Would 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 sun? ² For that is all it is. ³ Perhaps you would be tempted to agree with the ego that it is far better to be sinful than mistaken. ⁴ Yet think you carefully before you allow yourself to make this choice. ⁵ Approach it not lightly, for it is the choice of hell or Heaven.