[caww]

murder is never forgiven. You can never ask the dead for forgiveness, and unless you can ask forgiveness from those against whom you have transgressed, there is nowhere left to go except oblivion.

Not quite....I agree with everything except the above. It's true you cannot ask forgiveness of the people who are no longer living. And for certain the accuser of men stands before a Holy God procliming them murderers, but that's where Christ steps in and says to God...Excuse me Father ... I paid for that. So it's not hopeless... for those who have accepted Christ's finished work on their behalf. But those without Christ will indeed pay the penalty.

I know woman who have had abortions and were eaten up with guilt thereafter.....until they came to Christ and knew His forgiveness covered all sin...and that includes murder. That does not mean one moves ahead without the awareness they took the life of their own child. Which sometimes can trouble their hearts...but they do know His forgiveness for that and they are free from the Gods wrath.

The sin can be forgiven but that does not mean the consquences this side of heaven will not be played out, but.."... there is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still."

I cannot imagine what it means to carry the guilt of taking the life of your own child but it must be a terrible weight on ones heart and soul. One gal was able to push that aside until she married and gave brith to her second child. She could not look in that childs face without also seeing the face of the child she never knew....

[MestaMachine]

So then, what is your interpretation of, "Father, forgive them because they know not what they do."?
"They know not what they do" to me, tells me that those who knowingly do these thngs are NOT forgiven. If you KNOW you are doing evil and you CHOOSE it, even Christ will shun you. Christ was a Jew. What I say is from the Hebrew tradition. He knew this and did not stray fom it.