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34) likens the Assyrian host under Sennacherib (q.v.) to the trees of some huge forest, to be suddenly cut down by an unseen stroke.
•FORGIVENESS OF SIN one of the constituent parts of justification. In pardoning sin, God absolves the sinner from the condemnation of the law, and that on account of the work of Christ, i.e., he removes the guilt of sin, or the sinner’s actual liability to eternal wrath on account of it. All sins are forgiven freely (Acts 5:31; 13:38; 1 John 1:6-9). The sinner is by this act of grace for ever freed from the guilt and penalty of his sins. This is the peculiar prerogative of God (Psalm 130:4; Mark 2:5). It is offered to all in the gospel. (See JUSTIFICATION.)
•FORNICATION in every form of it was sternly condemned by the Mosaic law (Leviticus 21:9; 19:29; Deuteronomy 22:20, 21, 23-29; 23:18; Exodus 22:16). (See ADULTERY.)
But this word is more frequently used in a symbolical than in its ordinary sense. It frequently means a forsaking of God or a following after idols (Isaiah 1:2; Jeremiah 2:20; Ezekiel 16; Hos. 1:2; 2:1-5; Jeremiah 3:8,9).