I too am a native-born American speaker of English. But I must admit that the knowledge I have of the perfect tense comes from studying biblical Greek. In the c

I too am a native-born American speaker of English. But I must admit that the knowledge I have of the perfect tense comes from studying biblical Greek. In the case of Koine Greek (and ancient Greek generally I would think) the perfect does include the idea of a past action that still applies to the present. For example, "I have been forgiven" means that I am still forgiven.