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blasphemy of the holy spirit


SpiritWriter

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What is your interpretation of the unforgivable sin? What do you think "blasphemy of the Holy Spirit" means?

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Do you want the biblical answer or a medical one?

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I found this here, http://www.rapturere...faq/faq307.html

"In Matthew 12, we read that Jesus healed a man of demon possession. The Pharisees, who witnessed this miracle, in essence said that Jesus was able to cast out the demon because He was the ruler of demons. Jesus' reply to them was that they blasphemed the Holy Spirit, for which they could never be forgiven. In other words, by making that statement, they forfeited any further opportunity to receive God's gift of forgiveness and eternal life. To understand what it means to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, it is important to understand the sin in its context.

In Jesus' ministry, his staunchest opponents were the religious leaders of His day. They were called the Pharisees. The Pharisees were not ignorant of the Old Testament Scriptures. In fact, when King Herod sent for them to inquire where the Messiah was to be born, they immediately quoted the exact passage from Micah 5:2 that foretold His birth in Bethlehem (Matthew 1).

Therefore, the Pharisees, with their knowledge of the Old Testament, should have been the first to recognize Jesus for who he was: the Son of God, the Messiah. However, they were proud and self-righteous people who believed that they were saved by keeping the Law and doing good works. Jesus preached that everyone was a sinner who needed to be saved by faith. This set Him against them because He preached a message contrary to what they taught the people.

It is important to understand that this was not a one-time rejection of Jesus Christ, nor was it done in ignorance. The Pharisees knew the prophecies about their Messiah. They were eyewitnesses to Jesus fulfilling them. They stood in the very presence of God incarnate and witnessed miracles that had never been performed in Israel before. However, instead of accepting Him as the Messiah and their Savior from sin, they set out on a campaign to reject Him because their pride got in their way.

When Jesus charged them with blaspheming the Holy Spirit, a period of several months or more had elapsed in Jesus' ministry in which they repeatedly, consciously, and deliberately rejected Christ against solid evidence. In addition, they used their influence as religious leaders to attempt to keep others from accepting Christ. I believe that Jesus charged them with blaspheming the Holy Spirit because He saw that their hearts were so hard and determined to reject Him that this statement gave evidence that they would never repent.

He even used an illustration in this same passage to show how their statement was so foolishly hostile toward Him that it defied logic. How can someone know that he or she has blasphemed the Holy Spirit? I believe that the person who is guilty of this sin will not even realize it in this life. Jesus said that Holy Spirit will "convict the world of sin, of righteousness and judgment" (John 16:8-9).

Those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit are those who consciously and perhaps repeatedly reject Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and are not even concerned about it."

Edited by WoIverine
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Most of the books, that I've consulted on this confusing and confounding scriptural conundrum, claimed that it's the eternal rejection of repentance and salvation. It's one of the only explanations that makes sense to me. Of course, there are a few interpretations. They seem to be in the minority, though.

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Those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit are those who consciously and perhaps repeatedly reject Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and are not even be concerned about it."

This does make pretty good sense. However there are many who have done this very thing and still come around to know Jesus Christ. Paul (or Saul at the time) being the prime example. They live their lives outright defying Christ, and then suddenly out of some radical occurance, they pull a complete 180 and become loving disciples of Christ.

I don't know what that verse means, but it doesn't matter too much to me. I don't follow the possibly doctored scriptures of the bible as absolute fact. I live my life by what I feel to be right. I just don't believe there is an "unforgivable sin" and that's that. If I go to Hell for that, then so be it, but that's what I believe. That's just what feels right.

Example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7dpGWYZMDc

Now if he didn't "blasphemy" the Holy Spirit then I don't know what will. Yet he turned around.

I just don't think God is the type to turn away someone who genuinely repents and wants to have a relationship with him simply because of one sin, no matter how evil...

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Its hard to imagine a forgiving God (and there are plenty of passages about how he will forgive anything) creating a special category of unforgivable sin. People change all the time -- I am certainly not the same person I was even a minute ago, let alone ten years ago -- so this has to be remembered.

Maybe we should read it, then, that the offense is unforgivable but not necessarily the person committing it.

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OP, are you concerned or worried about this scripture? If so, you likely would join a group comprised of millions of Christians throughout the historical record. Many of them went insane. Others embraced atheism after undergoing extreme emotional torment after they feared that they somehow blasphemed during the course of their lives.

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I found this here, http://www.rapturere...faq/faq307.html

"In Matthew 12, we read that Jesus healed a man of demon possession. The Pharisees, who witnessed this miracle, in essence said that Jesus was able to cast out the demon because He was the ruler of demons. Jesus' reply to them was that they blasphemed the Holy Spirit, for which they could never be forgiven. In other words, by making that statement, they forfeited any further opportunity to receive God's gift of forgiveness and eternal life. To understand what it means to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, it is important to understand the sin in its context.

In Jesus' ministry, his staunchest opponents were the religious leaders of His day. They were called the Pharisees. The Pharisees were not ignorant of the Old Testament Scriptures. In fact, when King Herod sent for them to inquire where the Messiah was to be born, they immediately quoted the exact passage from Micah 5:2 that foretold His birth in Bethlehem (Matthew 1).

Therefore, the Pharisees, with their knowledge of the Old Testament, should have been the first to recognize Jesus for who he was: the Son of God, the Messiah. However, they were proud and self-righteous people who believed that they were saved by keeping the Law and doing good works. Jesus preached that everyone was a sinner who needed to be saved by faith. This set Him against them because He preached a message contrary to what they taught the people.

It is important to understand that this was not a one-time rejection of Jesus Christ, nor was it done in ignorance. The Pharisees knew the prophecies about their Messiah. They were eyewitnesses to Jesus fulfilling them. They stood in the very presence of God incarnate and witnessed miracles that had never been performed in Israel before. However, instead of accepting Him as the Messiah and their Savior from sin, they set out on a campaign to reject Him because their pride got in their way.

When Jesus charged them with blaspheming the Holy Spirit, a period of several months or more had elapsed in Jesus' ministry in which they repeatedly, consciously, and deliberately rejected Christ against solid evidence. In addition, they used their influence as religious leaders to attempt to keep others from accepting Christ. I believe that Jesus charged them with blaspheming the Holy Spirit because He saw that their hearts were so hard and determined to reject Him that this statement gave evidence that they would never repent.

He even used an illustration in this same passage to show how their statement was so foolishly hostile toward Him that it defied logic. How can someone know that he or she has blasphemed the Holy Spirit? I believe that the person who is guilty of this sin will not even realize it in this life. Jesus said that Holy Spirit will "convict the world of sin, of righteousness and judgment" (John 16:8-9).

Those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit are those who consciously and perhaps repeatedly reject Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and are not even concerned about it."

This is my understanding as well. It is not a sin that can be mistakenly committed. It is not a sin that can be committed in ignorance. It is a willful rejection of the Holy Spirit even though one believes in Him. I too believe that a person's conscience is "dead" who can do such a thing without any fear or anxiety.
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Maybe we should read it, then, that the offense is unforgivable but not necessarily the person committing it.

Well, that appears to me to be an oxymoron. What are ya gonna do, punish the act itself? The only sensible way is to punish the person for commiting the act.

However contrary to popular belief, God's not in the punishment business, and is much more into correcting an issue as opposed to punishing someone for it. He leads us to do otherwise, it's just that when people refuse to do otherwise, there's nothing left to do but punish.

OP, are you concerned or worried about this scripture? If so, you likely would join a group comprised of millions of Christians throughout the historical record. Many of them went insane. Others embraced atheism after undergoing extreme emotional torment after they feared that they somehow blasphemed during the course of their lives.

Thus the very reason for why I simply take the scriptures for what they are, imperfectly written accounts of past events. I know my God isn't irrational about things and he certainly isn't uncaring, so I'd say that anyone who opens themselves up to Jesus Christ despite any sin will be no different than anyone else who does the same.

It is not a sin that can be mistakenly committed. It is not a sin that can be committed in ignorance. It is a willful rejection of the Holy Spirit even though one believes in Him. I too believe that a person's conscience is "dead" who can do such a thing without any fear or anxiety.

That certainly makes sense, and may well turn out to be so. It all seems to be summed up in my opinion as "anyone who doesn't accept Jesus Christ doesn't accept the Holy Spirt or God himself, and will be punished accordingly." It takes a person with true contempt to know the truth and outright defy God like that, but who knows? All I know and am essentially saying is that no matter what, as long as you accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior and truly repent, then trust me, you're fine.

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I found this here, http://www.rapturere...faq/faq307.html

"In Matthew 12, we read that Jesus healed a man of demon possession. The Pharisees, who witnessed this miracle, in essence said that Jesus was able to cast out the demon because He was the ruler of demons. Jesus' reply to them was that they blasphemed the Holy Spirit, for which they could never be forgiven. In other words, by making that statement, they forfeited any further opportunity to receive God's gift of forgiveness and eternal life. To understand what it means to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, it is important to understand the sin in its context.

In Jesus' ministry, his staunchest opponents were the religious leaders of His day. They were called the Pharisees. The Pharisees were not ignorant of the Old Testament Scriptures. In fact, when King Herod sent for them to inquire where the Messiah was to be born, they immediately quoted the exact passage from Micah 5:2 that foretold His birth in Bethlehem (Matthew 1).

Therefore, the Pharisees, with their knowledge of the Old Testament, should have been the first to recognize Jesus for who he was: the Son of God, the Messiah. However, they were proud and self-righteous people who believed that they were saved by keeping the Law and doing good works. Jesus preached that everyone was a sinner who needed to be saved by faith. This set Him against them because He preached a message contrary to what they taught the people.

It is important to understand that this was not a one-time rejection of Jesus Christ, nor was it done in ignorance. The Pharisees knew the prophecies about their Messiah. They were eyewitnesses to Jesus fulfilling them. They stood in the very presence of God incarnate and witnessed miracles that had never been performed in Israel before. However, instead of accepting Him as the Messiah and their Savior from sin, they set out on a campaign to reject Him because their pride got in their way.

When Jesus charged them with blaspheming the Holy Spirit, a period of several months or more had elapsed in Jesus' ministry in which they repeatedly, consciously, and deliberately rejected Christ against solid evidence. In addition, they used their influence as religious leaders to attempt to keep others from accepting Christ. I believe that Jesus charged them with blaspheming the Holy Spirit because He saw that their hearts were so hard and determined to reject Him that this statement gave evidence that they would never repent.

He even used an illustration in this same passage to show how their statement was so foolishly hostile toward Him that it defied logic. How can someone know that he or she has blasphemed the Holy Spirit? I believe that the person who is guilty of this sin will not even realize it in this life. Jesus said that Holy Spirit will "convict the world of sin, of righteousness and judgment" (John 16:8-9).

Those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit are those who consciously and perhaps repeatedly reject Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and are not even concerned about it."

that line just decribes me :D

seriously i just wanna clear something .. if you reject jesus christ as saviour .. that's considered blapsheme on the holy spirit ?

what's the different between blasphamy on the holy spirit .. and other types of blasphamy ?

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Well, that appears to me to be an oxymoron. What are ya gonna do, punish the act itself? The only sensible way is to punish the person for commiting the act.

What is it with you Christians and punishment? If someone commits an unforgivable sin but then becomes a different person, the sin is never forgiven but the person is. Develop a little compassion.

If a friend steals something from me, I will never forgive the theft, but I can easily forgive the thief if he returns it and apologizes.

However contrary to popular belief, God's not in the punishment business, and is much more into correcting an issue as opposed to punishing someone for it. He leads us to do otherwise, it's just that when people refuse to do otherwise, there's nothing left to do but punish.
I've been told God is omnipotent: he is never without alternatives.
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This is my understanding as well. It is not a sin that can be mistakenly committed. It is not a sin that can be committed in ignorance. It is a willful rejection of the Holy Spirit even though one believes in Him. I too believe that a person's conscience is "dead" who can do such a thing without any fear or anxiety.

I think we have here a hyperbole -- a figure of speech where there is an exaggeration that everyone knows is an exaggeration. In context the usual explanation that it is a deliberate, full-knowledge rejection of God's gift of grace, doesn't work, since the Pharisees didn't reject Jesus' message in that sense at all but only because his message was so at odds with the beliefs they had grown up with.
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what's the different between blasphamy on the holy spirit .. and other types of blasphamy ?

Your blaphemy is toward the Holy Spirit as opposed to anything else...

Kinda no brainer there...

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Lol, but seriously I know what you're getting at KOS. I may be wrong, but there isn't any difference I can see.

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What is it with you Christians and punishment? If someone commits an unforgivable sin but then becomes a different person, the sin is never forgiven but the person is. Develop a little compassion.

If a friend steals something from me, I will never forgive the theft, but I can easily forgive the thief if he returns it and apologizes.

:huh: That's not what I said at all... I have no idea where you got that...

Is it not compassionate to forgive someone and accept them despite whatever they've done?

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Is it not compassionate to forgive someone and accept them despite whatever they've done?

To me that is the very definition of compassion.
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Thanks guys I actually finally get it.. it makes sense now... :) I didnt think I'd get a concrete answer or understanding which was reasonable but I did! :) Thanks again...

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This is a well-known problem verse, of course. The immediate apologetic problem is to reconcile the possible revelation of an "unforgivable sin" with a variety of doctrines about universal redemption of the repentant through Jesus.

My own interest is just historical, if the incident happened, then what's going on? Jesus continues the ministry of John the Baptist, whose central themes are redemption and forgiveness. It makes no sense historically for Jesus to propose an "unforgivable sin" if forgiveness is the point of his efforts. I end up with the same problem as the apologist.

IMO, Jesus is not proposing some kind of "Eleventh Commandment," Thou shalt not blapsheme against the Holy Spirit, but rather he is describing the actions of his hecklers. Although blasphemy covers a variety of activities, one of its specific meanings is to attribute the work of God to another agency. That is, of course, just what the hecklers have done, in spades. They have attributed Jesus' effectiveness as an exorcist to the chief of demons, rather than to God.

Within the repentance-for-redemption theme, then, Jesus is predicting that those blasphemers will not repent, ever. They surely don't "take it back" in the pericope itself. That they might never do so is at the very least the way to bet. "No repentance, no redemption" is fully cnsistent with the Baptist's ministry, and Jesus is at home with prophecy.

It is not the particular sin that is the problem, then, but the particular sinner who will be forever unrepentant that makes the specific act unforgivable. It is entirely consistent with Jewish prophetic formulation for a conditional message (If you don't repent, then X will happen) to be stated unconditionally (X will happen). Sometimes repentance does occur, possibly encouraged by the prophecy, and X doesn't happen. That is precisely what Jonah complains to God about.

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This does make pretty good sense. However there are many who have done this very thing and still come around to know Jesus Christ. Paul (or Saul at the time) being the prime example. They live their lives outright defying Christ, and then suddenly out of some radical occurance, they pull a complete 180 and become loving disciples of Christ.

I don't know what that verse means, but it doesn't matter too much to me. I don't follow the possibly doctored scriptures of the bible as absolute fact. I live my life by what I feel to be right. I just don't believe there is an "unforgivable sin" and that's that. If I go to Hell for that, then so be it, but that's what I believe. That's just what feels right.

Example:

Now if he didn't "blasphemy" the Holy Spirit then I don't know what will. Yet he turned around.

I just don't think God is the type to turn away someone who genuinely repents and wants to have a relationship with him simply because of one sin, no matter how evil...

I understood wolverines description as the continual rejection of the Holy Spirit...

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OP, are you concerned or worried about this scripture? If so, you likely would join a group comprised of millions of Christians throughout the historical record. Many of them went insane. Others embraced atheism after undergoing extreme emotional torment after they feared that they somehow blasphemed during the course of their lives.

Lol no I'm not worried. I love the Holy Spirit and know it knows my heart... Even if I was afraid of accidently commiting this act, which I'm not, I know god would know it was an accident.. but I dont think it is something one could commit accidentally...

Edit: Is that true, that people became athiest because they were afraid of commiting this sin? That sounds really wierd....

Edited by SpiritWriter
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The usual response to this is what has already been said - that "blasphemy of the Holy Spirit" is rejection of Christ and therefore rejection of eternal life. And while I understand that view, perhaps an alternative is worth consideration (this alternative may have been commented on earlier, I admit I have not read every post in this thread). This alternative suggests that "blasphemy against the holy spirit" is far more than just a physical act.

To blaspheme the holy spirit not only requires rejection of God, but actually to reject God while in full knowledge of the truth that God exists and is as described in the gospels. In this sense, the only way one can blaspheme the holy spirit is to physically acknowledge that God (the Christian God) is God, that Jesus is God, and that through the Holy Spirit, God has paved the way for us - BUT, despite KNOWING this, that person has still decided to say "**** that, I know what the truth is supposed to be but I dismiss it anyway".

This is not to be confused with the person who once believed in Jesus, and once believed in his power as God, but has been convinced otherwise and has thus chosen to say this is wrong. Believing and then turning away from belief is different from believing and choosing to reject it while still believing.

I've used a similar term before, but I'll use it again here - "Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit - easier said than done".

~ PA

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PA

The difficulty I have with that exegesis is that it is clear that the hecklers in the pericope have performed a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Whether anybody else could, they have. Whatever BAHS is argued to be in general, it must fit the only specific example presented to us.

Plainly, the hecklers do not know that Jesus is God, nor do they have much reason even to entertain the hypothesis. Exorcisms were a routine feature of First Century primary healthcare. Jesus' style was apparently unusual. He did not always exorcise in the name of a personal spiritual power. For example, invoking Solomon was a popular choice, and we know from Acts that Jesus himself would eventually get some use that way by non-Christian exorcists.

Speaking of Acts. we also know that when Peter cured a cripple in the Temple, what the trial court wanted to know was (4: 7) "By what power or by what name have you done this?" And of course, the very fact that Peter does much the same feat as Jesus, and yet Peter is not God, all by itself indicates that the witnesses to Jesus healing the blind mute cannot be faulted for failing to infer, with certainty no less, that Jesus is their God walking among them.

Anyway, Matthew doesn't say what power Jesus invoked, and it's entirely possible he didn't invoke any. A reasonable person seeing this, who believes that a demon has been exorcized, could wonder what power was invoked silently. Jesus says it's God, when it becomes an issue, but that isn't obvious to any observer.

Moreover, Jesus' hastily improvised argument for why the power couldn't possibly be the prince of demons is plainly fallacious. It is the burden of command that rank-and-file fighters must sometimes be sacrificed in order to win the fight. Supposedly, Christian martyrs sacrificed fighters, themselves, rather than conserve assets to keep their house standing. The explanation of this tactic is that the acceptance of martyrdom increased the long-term staying power of the church, enough to offset the immediate loss of members.

Surely the prince of demons is clever enough to see that, if it is actually true. If a human being can volunteer to die hideously in the belief that doing so serves some higher goal for his team, then a demon might equally well volunteer to accept homelessness for the same reason.

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Webster's New World College Dictionary-

blasphemy: profane or contemptuous speech, writing or action concerning God or anything held as divine.

You would have to really hate the Holy Spirit to be guilty of this.

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It sounds as though maybe the Holy Spirit is the more important of the members of the Trinity, since to blaspheme against it is unforgivable sin, while blaspheming against the Father or the Son is not mentioned.

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It sounds as though maybe the Holy Spirit is the more important of the members of the Trinity, since to blaspheme against it is unforgivable sin, while blaspheming against the Father or the Son is not mentioned.

The Holy Spirit is the lesser of the three members of the Holy Trinity. That's why the Father and Son protects him with this rule. The Holy Spirit is a beautiful spirit. I believe the Holy Spirit is the paranormal "orb."

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