Becky, on 20 February 2011 - 03:04 PM, said:
Mark 3.29 - He who blasphemes against the holy spirit, never has forgiveness and is guilty of eternal sin
( source...my bible.....lol)
Jesus said himself - ALL sins can be forgiven... so it looks more of a contradiction when Mark 3.29 says likewise as not all can be forgiven..............the word ALL means -> ALL ...
Jesus even forgave those who denied he was the son of god when he was stationed on the cross - forgive them father they know not what they do
So..............if you believe this is true...and from what it sounds...it is like the biggest sin of all, especially when it says it is not forgiven...
So my question is short and to the point --> Does this mean, all murderers, thieves, rapists ect can be forgiven ...and non believers cannot?
Hi BM,
This is from John Paul II explaining blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, however I do feel at the moment of death repentance may occur in one's own thoughts and I'm sure the good Lord in his Divine Mercy will hear that plea.
John Paul II, Dominum et Vivificantem 46:
Why is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit unforgivable? How should this blasphemy be understood? Saint Thomas Aquinas replies that it is a question of a sin that is "unforgivable by its very nature", insofar as it excludes the elements through which the forgiveness of sin takes place.
According to such an exegesis, "blasphemy" does not properly consist in offending against the Holy Spirit in words; it consists rather in the refusal to accept the salvation which God offers to man through the Holy Spirit, working through the power of the Cross. If man rejects the "convincing concerning sin" which comes from the Holy Spirit and which has the power to save, he also rejects the "coming" of the Counselor—that "coming" which was accomplished in the Paschal Mystery, in union with the redemptive power of Christ's Blood: the Blood which "purifies the conscience from dead works".
We know that the result of such a purification is the forgiveness of sins. Therefore, whoever rejects the Spirit and the Blood remains in "dead works", in sin. And the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit consists precisely in the radical refusal to accept this forgiveness of which he is the intimate giver and which presupposes the genuine conversion which he brings about in the conscience. If Jesus says that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven either in this life or in the next, it is because this "non-forgiveness" is linked, as to its cause, to "non-repentance", in other words to the radical refusal to be converted. This means the refusal to come to the sources of Redemption, which nevertheless remain "always" open in the economy of salvation in which the mission of the Holy Spirit is accomplished. The Spirit has infinite power to draw from these sources: "he will take what is mine", Jesus said. In this way he brings to completion in human souls the work of the Redemption accomplished by Christ, and distributes its fruits. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, then, is the sin committed by the person who claims to have a "right" to persist in evil—in any sin at all—and who thus rejects Redemption. One closes oneself up in sin, thus making impossible one's conversion, and consequently the remission of sins, which one considers not essential or not important for one's life. This is a state of spiritual ruin, because blasphemy against the Holy Spirit does not allow one to escape from one's self-imposed imprisonment and open oneself to the divine sources of the purification of consciences and of the remission of sins."