If you are afraid you have blasphemed the Holy Spirit.

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Jan 16, 2021
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I read a thread here a while back that posed the question "Are jokes blasphemous?" i.e. in reference to what many refer to as "the unpardonable sin". There are a lot of believers who live in fear of having somehow inadvertently or unintentionally committed this most terrible sin. For a long time, I struggled with this too, because of a couple of things that happened when I was a kid. I wanted to offer some comfort and some admonishment to people who may be struggling with this, or who may need advice on helping those who are.


First, there are some very good reasons for believing that one has not committed any sort of unpardonable sin, if one is worried about having done so. In the most clear passage on this subject, in Matthew 12, we see the following:

"2 Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and unable to speak was brought to Jesus, and He healed him so that the man who was unable to speak talked and could see. 23 And all the crowds were amazed and were saying, “This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.”
25 And knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26 And if Satan is casting out Satan, he has become divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if by Beelzebul I cast out the demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. 28 But if I cast out the demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or, how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first ties up the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.
The Unpardonable Sin
30 The one who is not with Me is against Me; and the one who does not gather with Me scatters.
31 “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.
Words Reveal Character
33 “Either assume the tree to be good as well as its fruit good, or assume the tree to be bad as well as its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, express any good things? For the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart. 35 The good person brings out of his good treasure good things; and the evil person brings out of his evil treasure evil things. 36 But I tell you that for every careless word that people speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgment. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”


The first thing we should note is that Jesus was doing something that the whole crowd agreed was not a trick, but a true spiritual miracle. Nobody, not the standard citizen and not the Pharisees voiced any disbelief concerning Jesus casting out demons. Nobody claimed he was a magician or a con artist. They all believed He was casting out a demon.

The second thing we should note, is that Jesus did not immediately yell "you have committed a sin that can not be forgiven! Now, you will burn in hell for all eternity!!" Instead, Jesus goes into a long philosophical examination of the fallacy of the idea that Satan could cast out himself. The idea that Satan would be interested in, or able to cast out himself is foolish, because in doing so, he would defeat his own agenda. Jesus also pointed out that the children of some of those present had also cast out devils and they would have to be using evil power as well.

The third thing we should note is that Jesus literally gives us the way to know if we have committed this sin, or not. He says "The one who is not with Me is against Me; and the one who does not gather with Me scatters" This is a "black and white" all or nothing statement which, among other things lets us know that the opposite of what He sis saying here, must also be true, i.e. "the one who is with me, is not against me". So, if you believe in Jesus, acknowledge Him as Lord and confess that he was raised from the dead by the power of God, you can in no way possible have committed a sin He will not forgive. Also, Mark 9:40 plays into this when it states "For the one who is not against us is for us"

The next thing we should note is where Jesus begins with the word "therefore" in verse 31. He is using the word therefore, to say "So, because I just stated the previous things, I will bring it home with the following" and then He foes in to say ".....I say to you, every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come." A lot of people are confused by the word blasphemy, because there are varied opinions about what exactly constitutes blasphemy. To some, anything that causes a king or deity to be looked upon lightly or with less than the respectful manner they deserve, is blasphemy. For instance, if a person says God is really a fantasy and anyone who believes in Him is delusional, or if they say something like "The Father, Son and Holy Sprinkler", making fun of the Holy Spirit, they have committed an unforgivable sin. There are a couple of things we must say about this. For one thing, Jesus in this very passage clarifies what he means by blasphemy, both by the context of what the Pharisees said and by using the phrase "but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come" So, the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not making fun of the Holy Spirit, but is instead speaking in defiance against Him, or in rejection of Him as God. it could be argued that speaking against the Holy Spirit could just be something said in unbelief, but as we already stated above, these Pharisees were not ignorant of what they were saying, or of the fact that their accusation was wrong. To further aid us in this argument, we should turn to Acts 17:30 which states "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent" and also in 1 Timothy 1:12-14 which states "I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, 13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus" Paul was saying that among other things, he was a blasphemer but he received mercy BECAUSE he acted in ignorance and unbelief. If the blasphemy he was referring to was some blasphemy other than the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, he would not have said he received mercy, because other forms of blasphemy are forgivable. (And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him) So, ignorance and or unbelief are excuses from being judged guilty of this terrible sin. This leads me to my final point. I honestly do not believe anyone alive now can truly commit this sin, at least not the way the Pharisees did, because in order to do so, one would have to see God's spirit in action and unmistakably so and then willfully reject Him by saying he was actually evil. If this is not true, then everyone who has been told that the power of Christ is evil and has ignorantly believed and repeated this lie, can not be forgiven. That would be quite a lot of people, especially people like Muslims who I personally have heard say things like that, rejecting God's power through Jesus as an evil lie, etc etc. Satanists also believe and or say things to this effect, but I know several former Satanists who have been saved.

Finally, some think that just because Jesus says "But I tell you that for every careless word that people speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgment. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” that this means we can accidentally or ignorantly commit this sin, but in actuality, this is just a statement which verifies the fact that all we say will be judged. So, if I once ignorantly thought the power of Jesus was evil, but then later repented of that idea and confessed Jesus with my mouth, I would be judged innocent of blasphemy, because I stated later that Jesus was Lord! it's not that we can accidentally or unknowingly commit this sin, no, the people who did this were VERY aware of what they were doing and saying, but simply hated God so much that they willfully sinned against him. As the Bible says, "if we willfully sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins". There is no more sacrifice, no more hope for such a person, because they have committed the same sin that Satan and his angels committed, when they openly rebelled against God and were cast out of heaven! They were not ignorant, they were hateful, willful and rebellious and can never repent of what they did. the reason people who commit this sin can not repent, is because they have willfully cut themselves off from the conviction of the Holy Spirit and can no longer see heir need for Jesus! So, if you love and trust in Jesus today, rest assured you have NOT committed this sin!

 

TabinRivCA

Well-known member
Oct 23, 2018
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#2
One story I recently heard along these lines was about a popular faith teacher, back in the day. I forget which one it was but he was healing people, through Jesus' Name of course, and this man was leaving. A man asked him why he was leaving and he said the faith healer was healing people by the power of the devil. A few miles down the road, the fellow was struck dead. That could be related to your topic.