h. Heaven-crying sins (peccata clamantia).
Certain sins cry out to God for public vengeance. The Scripture names as such sins the murder (Gen. 4:10), especially the murder of Christians (Rev. 6:9-10), the withholding of the wages due to the workers (Jam. 5:4), in general the oppression of those who cannot help themselves, whose need therefore cries out to God and calls on God to intervene. This includes the oppression of strangers, widows and orphans, the poor, those languishing in bondage, etc.1667) Chemnitz:1668) In scholis vocant peccata clamantia, eo quod Scriptura dicat, illa peccata, etiam tacentibus hominibus, clamare ad Deum et expetere vindictam. [Google] Chemnitz has.(with reference to Gen. 4:10; 18:20; Ex. 3:7; 22, 23; Jam. 5:4) also the old memorial verse:
Clamitat ad coelum vox sanguinis et Sodomorum,
Vox oppressorum mercesque retenta laborum.
[“To heaven cries the voice of the blood and of the Sodomites, The voice of the oppressed and the withheld wage of the laborers.”] At the same time, we do not lose sight of the fact that unbelief, which is held towards the Savior of the world, is and remains the greatest and most serious sin.1669) We can call it peccatum clamantissimum. Christ rebuked the unbelief of the Pharisees, who wanted to defend the Hosanna at his entry into Jerusalem, with the words: "I tell you that, if these should hold their peace
1666) In Chemnitz, Loci I, 258; Baier-Walther II, 322. Here, biblical examples are also given for the different ways. The non retego culpam is of course meant for the case when calling and duty demands the disclosure of guilt. Otherwise, Prov. 11:13 applies. For information on when publishers and booksellers participate in the sins of others, cf. Der Lutheraner 27, 172 ff.
1667) Cf. scriptural passages like Ex. 22:21-24; Is. 3:14-15; Ex. 3:7-9 etc.
1668) Loci I, 258.<w:t>1669) Jn. 16:9; 15:22
683 ><w:t xml:space="preserve">Actual Sin. [English ed. 571]
the stones would immediately cry out."1670) When dogmatists place peccata non clamantia next to peccata clamantia, they do not want to teach a class of "blameless sins" (as the newer ones do), but rather point out that God, according to his grace and long-suffering, delays his judgment on sin because he wants to leave room for repentance, or because the measure of sins is not yet full according to divine reckoning, Gen. 15:16. As far as Christians in particular are concerned, they thank God that there is peccata non clamantia. On the one hand, they know and experience that even in them there is still an army of sins that truly deserve God's wrath and eternal damnation. On the other hand, they know that these sins no longer cry out to God for vengeance inasmuch as they are daily and abundantly forgiven because they have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, who is justified and the complete propitiation for their sin, so that they pray with confidence of hearing: "Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquity!" Ps. 51:11.