This article is dedicated to evangelical Christians who are incapable of reading and understanding their own Bible.

Notice first off, Jesus did not say, "Father, forgive them, for they KNOW what they do."

The great question evangelicals need to ask themselves is whom were so blessed to have had the glory of having Jesus ask forgiveness?

Type one forgiveness of sin - Ignorance

This sin of simple ignorance makes it easy to forgive those who are totally unaware they have committed a sin.

The immediate "they" who crucified Christ were Roman soldiers who knew nothing of the Jewish religion.  Knew nothing of Biblical teachings telling of the coming of the Messiah. Totally unaware they were crucifying the real Messiah.

A pagan Roman soldier cannot have automatically committed a sin against his own pagan religious beliefs by crucifying someone of another religion, when the other religion is the one demanding the crucifixion and when those soldiers were just following orders anyway.

So indeed, Jesus most certainly asked God to forgive the Roman soldiers who dragged him through the streets to Calvary.

Slightly removed yet still in the same vein, the not-so-immediate "they who knew not what they were doing", were the Roman leaders who sentenced Jesus to crucifixion. 

Certainly Pontius Pilate met and talked to Christ face-to-face, but had so little interaction that he too did not know the true import of his decision.

Not knowing what to do, Pontius Pilate put his decision to a vote with the Jews themselves being the jury, after already being the judge...


And the Jews of the jury gave their verdict...


Certainly then Pontius Pilate can be forgiven for simply following, with no malice intended, the decision of those who were far more knowledgeable and aware of Judaism and of Jesus Christ.

Type two forgiveness of sin - knowledge of sin, but asking forgiveness

This is the sin of a person who knows he has sinned, rejects and recants his sinning ways and faithfully begs forgiveness.

In this black and white story of the crucifixion of Christ, the only possible candidate for forgiveness of sin was Judas. He knew he was sinning against his Messiah, and his heart was heavy with his betrayal, such that he committed suicide instead of ask forgiveness. Suicide is an admission one has screwed up life such that it is not worth living. Judas could have lived happily had he asked Jesus for forgiveness.

What cannot be forgiven

Unforgivable is the man who knowingly commits sin and does not repent or ask forgiveness.

The Jews on the jury Pontius Pilate convened to select Jesus or Barabbas, were aware of Jewish beliefs, knew of the coming Messiah, and  with expressed hatred, knew they were sinning.  They were not asking forgiveness, they were asking for blood.

They cannot have been the intended Jesus on the cross asked his father to bless with forgiveness.

More so, the highly educated Jewish priests who knew what they were doing when they had Jesus arrested could not have been the sinners Jesus asked God to forgive.

The men who killed the first born in Bethlehem, hoping to kill the baby Messiah, thus proving they knew what they were doing, could not be blessed with this petition of forgiveness by Christ of those who knew not.

None of these Jews could attest that "they knew not what they did".

Indeed, a central tenant of Christianity is that the only salvation is through Christ.

The only way to heaven is to acknowledge Christ as the Messiah, Son of God.

By any logical thought on Christian beliefs, all living Jews past Bar Mitzvah age who refuse to ask the loving forgiveness of Jesus Christ are cursed by God with eternal damnation.

Most certainly, they are not God's Chosen People, as they are instead now God's Accursed People.

Evangelical Christians place more faith in the Old Testament teachings of God blessing the Israelites, than in the New Testament teachings of the Great Commission to baptize all men, in all nations, in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost.

Israel, being a country of unrepentant sinners, is in the greatest need of Christianity and of salvation.