Christ says blasphemy against the Holy Ghost will never be forgiven. (Mt 12:31) What kind of sin is this? How do we know if we’ve committed it?
Christ is responding to the Pharisees’ claim that He Himself, as He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, cleansed the lepers, raised the dead, cast out devils, and preached good news to the poor, was in league with and empowered by Satan. (Mt 12:24) They found no evidence of evil in Him, but despised Him for denouncing their hypocrisy and wickedness.
Rather than acknowledge Christ’s godly power and turn to God, the Pharisees chose to sin grossly against plain fact, and publicly accuse Christ of being insane and demon possessed. (Jn 10:20) This kind of blatant disregard for truth, this level of aggravated insult to the divine being, a deliberate choosing of deception and lies in the face of miraculous, divine revelation, is what Christ is describing. (Jn 15:24) It’s in this specific context that Christ recognizes the unforgivable sin. (Mk 3:29-30)
As a person continues to give themselves over to this level of deception and wickedness, they’re giving themselves over to darkness, to Satan himself, to be captured and ensnared by him. (2Ti 2:26) There comes a point of no return, at some level, from which no one will ever recover, where one’s conscience is seared with a hot iron, such that distinguishing between good and evil is no longer possible. (1Ti 4:2)
This isn’t the kind of sin a child of God can commit. (1Jn 3:9) A person who’s committed to this level of wickedness isn’t going to be worried about it; they’ll scoff at the idea that they’re in danger of hell fire. There will be no fear of God in them, no desire to repent and cease from their pride and wickedness (Mk 15:31); God will have given them up, turned them over to their own way (Pr 1:31), and abandoned them in their sin. (Pr 1:28-29)
Regarding “Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost”:
Our ability to reason is a gift from God — a little piece of His very own Holy Spirit. So if we consciously refuse to reason rightly (from sufficient and reliable data to an obvious conclusion) we insult (cast aside, blaspheme) that piece of the Holy Spirit that resides within us. Such a sin is obviously irredeemable because the ability needed for recovery is the very ability that has been willfully discarded.
I think that’s pretty much what you said in the article; yes?
Thank you very much for the comment Gerry.
I found your comment very interesting. I think your summary is similar to what I said, and I agree with it in part, but I see key differences.
From John 15:24, I take it that blaspheming the Holy Ghost is a particularly willful and extreme kind of sin, so I would reserve the term “blasphemy” for such cases. I think your explanation could be applied in less grievous indiscretions, perhaps it could be applied to every single sin, and therefore might fall more under the sense of grieving the Holy Spirit (Ep 4:30), which is certainly forgivable, as all sin grieves Him.
Another thought here is that one need not repent of a sin in order to be forgiven of it (which is what I think you meant by the term “irredeemable,” for I see no other sense in which an actual sin could be “redeemed”, I think this term applies to persons, not actions, e.g. Ga 3:13), since the blood of Christ cleanses believers from all sin. (1Jn 1:7, Col 2:3, etc.) If this were not so it would be impossible to be saved since we don’t even know all of our sin, so we can’t repent of it all.
In a final thought, and this may be mere semantics, I would say that the Holy Spirit does not reside within everyone (Ro 8:9), that He does not partially exist anywhere (He fully exists everywhere), and that those in whom the Spirit resides cannot commit themselves to this degree of sin. I would describe the ability to reason as a grace which God gives to us all, and in this sense agree with you that any and all sin is a failure in good reason.
Thanks again for the thoughtful comment; I enjoyed pondering it and responding. Please feel free to challenge me on any of the above if you like. 🙂
Tim, Gerry,
Pondering: And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
In the context of Only the above verse, does it seem like the Holy Spirit is given pre-eminence over the Son of man?
In Colossians Messiah is shown preeminence: And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
re blashphemy: Ezekiel 20: And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord. {In our day, could describe the normalcy of abortion “rights”.}
Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me.
For when I had brought them into the land, for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering: there also they made their sweet savour, and poured out there their drink offerings.
Tim, interesting and thought provoking subject.
Thank you for sharing.
stephen
I suppose Mt 12:32 (“And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.”) could be received as an elevation of the Spirit above the Son, just as the Father is above the Son. (Jn 14:28) But perhaps this text relates more to function than precedence, due to the way the Spirit is perceived differently than the Son. To speak against the Spirit of God without being able to see and evaluate Him, as one can the Son without seeing Him as divine, seems to imply an outright, deliberate insult to the divine.
The value in pondering these things, to me anyway, is that I often forget to treasure the Spirit in Himself, distinctly. I think we should treasure each expression of the Godhead uniquely and distinctly.
Aristotle says a life span constitutes an age or aion. So He would say one age is Christ’s birth up until he died. He would say A second age would be while Christ was dead. And Aristotle would say A third age would start when Jesus rose from the dead.
“Aion, transliterated aeon, is a period of longer or shorter duration, having a beginning and an end, and complete in itself. Aristotle (peri ouranou, i. 9,15) says: “The period which includes the whole time of one’s life is called the aeon of each one.” Hence it often means the life of a man, as in Homer, where one’s life (aion) is said to leave him or to consume away (Iliad v. 685; Odyssey v. 160).” (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universalism) (Word Studies in the New Testament by Marvin R. Vincent)
Replace the English word Age with the original greek word Aion.
“Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but
anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either
in this age or in the age to come” (Bible, New Testament, Matthew
12:32) THE FIRST AGE began at Jesus’s Birth: The “this age”. THE
SECOND AGE began at Jesus’s Death: “the age to come”. THE THIRD AGE
began at Jesus’s Resurrection: And is the current age and also is the age when blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is forgiven. The Third Age goes on forever. ALL GO TO HEAVEN because blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is forgiven. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the term word for unbelief. ALL GO TO HEAVEN because ALL UNBELIEF IS FORGIVEN. There is no unforgiven sin. Jesus died for ALL. ALL GO TO Heaven. EVEN THE UNBELIEVERS – Christian Universalism
I have said it before. Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ is the devil Satan. I am forgiven by God, Jesus Christ, and his Holy Spirit for saying That. And because I am forgiven I will go to Heaven.
The New Testament of the Bible was originally written in Greek. Greek was the language people spoke when Jesus was on earth and also the language in all that Roman land. So when Jesus spoke greek and used the Greek word aion(age) he would have meant a short amount of time just how it is defined in greek language and would have used it to describe the amount of time from his birth until he died, and the amount of time he was dead, and the time onward from when he rose from the dead. Because that is how the greek word Aion was understood by people back then and Jesus would have wanted to make himself understood.
We know Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is forgiven at the third age because forgiveness was Jesus’s plan, and Jesus’s plan came to fruition at his resurrection. So forgiveness for Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit came to fruition at Jesus’s resurrection.
I was afraid to Blaspheme the Holy Spirit from 1995 when i was 12 years old to 2015. This fear took away my Lucidity. I was not Lucid for 19.5 years to my Pain. In 2015 I learned that that the Bible’s New Testament was originally written in Greek and that the original greek Bible Matthew 12:32 says that Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is forgiven. The Culprit was the english Bible which said it is not forgiven. When i understood how it is that the Greek Bible New Testament Matthew 12:32 says Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit is forgiven My Lucidity returned to Me. I Equate This Lucidity to the Presence of God.
Jesus died for ALL ALL go to Heaven.
Jesus died for You You will go to Heaven.
Jesus died for Me I will go to Heaven.
http://www.ChristianUniversalist.org
http://www.tentmaker.org/testimonials/GaryAmirault.html
Christopher, thank you for sharing the Christian Universalist’s point of view; I’ve heard of people who believe this way, and am glad to finally encounter one willing to try to articulate it.
I think all meaningful theological differences arise from failing to consider the whole of Scripture; this is no exception. For example, consider Christ’s words in the same context in Mark 3:29: “But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.” How can Christian Universalism be contradicted more plainly, than to name a kind of sin that shall NEVER be forgiven of anyone?
Mark’s quote of Christ here doesn’t contradict Matthew 12:32, because Christ never says that after His resurrection all sin will be forgiven of everyone. What He says is: “And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world (age), neither in the world (age) to come.” Christ didn’t say all sin would be forgiven in a third age, but that this particular kind of sin wouldn’t be forgiven in the present age, nor in the coming age. He is silent here about any subsequent age.
Personally, I think it unwise to stake one’s eternity on a casual mis-read of a single text; there are much better ways to deal with our pain and restore lucidity. Aristotle has some good things to say, but he isn’t God.
I encourage you, and everyone else, to integrate the whole of Scripture into your theology. Note down every single text that in any way relates to a given point of view, and try to reconcile them all into a single, coherent position that does no injustice to any text of Scripture. This is the only way to be honest with God’s Word: it’s all relevant to us, given to equip us unto maturity and wholeness. (2Ti 3:16-17) To contradict any of it is to fail to fully understand the Way.
Christopher, each one of us are on a journey, and we are each individually and entirely responsible for our own journey: you won’t die with my beliefs, nor will I with yours. There’s no value in deceiving ourselves, or in allowing others to deceive us. (Ep 4:14) We must each search out the truth and find it for ourselves. I encourage you to give diligence to make your calling and election sure. (2Pe 1:10) There is no other way to be sure of eternity.
I switched from Christian Universal Salvation to Universal Salvation:
Universal Salvation
God is Good. And because God is Good, God makes Heaven. And because God makes Heaven God takes ALL to Heaven because God is Good. And because God is Good God makes Heaven be the Cure. And because God is Good God wants to cure ALL. And because God is God, God will cure ALL. Therefore ALL go to Heaven. Because who wants to keep anybody sick? Since God is Good God does not want to keep anybody sick. So God will cure ALL by taking ALL to Heaven. Heaven is not the ongoing treatment. Heaven is the Cure. God must take ALL to Heaven otherwise God is not Good, and therefore not God. And so this God is a better God than Jesus. Because the Bible causes a lot of Pain. Some might say that then they wont have Jesus to guide them. But they have each other and their parents and the government to guide them. So God is Good ALL go to Heaven.
God is good. Heaven is the cure. ALL go to Heaven.
Thanks again for your comments!
My only thought here is that if our definition of good leads us to reject God’s Son, perhaps we should reconsider our definition. 🙂
I am like Apostle Peter who disowned Jesus Christ and so Blasphemed the Holy Spirit. What is special is that Jesus Christ made a Christian Priest out of Peter even though Peter disowned Jesus Christ. Peter disowned Jesus Christ like I did and then Jesus Christ still took Peter to Heaven just like He will do with ALL unbelievers. Jesus died for ALL ALL go to Heaven. Jesus died for You You will go to Heaven. Jesus died for Me I will go to Heaven.
http://www.ChristianUniversalist.org
A world with Jesus is a different world than a world with a Jesus that is dead which also is different than a world with A Jesus that has been dead and then resurrected.
If You count, You can count three. And I think that Jesus must have been talking about those three.
Three worlds. A world which is there for an age before a new world comes. And I think when Jesus was born the world became a different and better place. And Jesus called it while it was still in existence a “This age”(Matthew 12:32).
When Jesus was crucified dead. The world changed again starting a second age which Jesus predicted would last only 3 days and by him was called “the age to come”(Matthew 12:32).
And when Jesus rose from the dead it happened again. The world changed a third time when Jesus rose from the dead. A third age. A third age where blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is forgiven. And because ALL pastors and articles about Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit say Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit is the technical term word for Unbelief, ALL unbelievers go to Heaven because ALL blasphemy against the Holy Spirit or in other words Unbelief is forgiven. ALL sin is forgiven. There is no unforgiven unforgivable sin. Jesus died for ALL ALL go to Heaven.
Mr. Thayes , I don’t understand what You said. Are You saying that Jesus won’t forgive unbelief and or Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit on Earth nor in Heaven? Earth being “this age”(Bible Matthew 12:32) and Heaven being “the age to come”(Bible Matthew 12:32)?
I think You can not say the World did not change when Jesus rose from the dead.
The greek New Testament text uses the word Aion first before the word age was used by the mistranslators hired by the Roman Government 500 years after Christ was born. Jesus died for ALL ALL go to Heaven is what the Christian Church all ways preached before Rome took over. That’s what I got from http://www.ChristianUniversalist.com and the book being sold on that site which I bought and read. The part about Three ages being Jesus’s birth death and resurrection I came up with on my own. And I did suffer immensely starting in 1995 when I opened the bible the first time for 20 years. Because I was raised Lutheran and baptised as an infant in 1983. And I was confirmed in the Lutheran Church in 1998 after two years of study all the while trying not to blasphemy the Holy Spirit. I eventually did blasphemy the Holy Spirit in 2011 and became Universal Salvationist in 2017-2018. I suffered immensely and I think that suffering has a legitimate role in interpretation of Bible Scripture. So I have to believe Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is forgiven at the third age at Christ’s resurrection. Or I will be damned.
That’s all I have. I am not a theologian or a skilled theologian. I did read the bible once straight through by use of Mp3 Bible. And I see in it lots of juicy wisdom that tells me God will provide for Me And help me out. And I can see some stuff about righteousness being about imparted by grace and not by good works, and repentance being to repent from trying to earn God’s favor through good works and abstenences. I also picked up along the way scripture saying that there is Bible controversy about weather today’s Israel is legitimate or not.
I also have lots of speculations.
All of it is choking me and I am going to faint. That’s why I went to Universal Salvation. But I can’t throw away all the juicy promises. So I return to Jesus.
I churn. And it is painful.
People have each other and their parents and the Government, and that should be enough not to need Magic Promises.
People have each other and their parents and the Government, and that should be enough not to need Juicy Promises.
I asked Jesus to forgive me for switching from Christian Universal Salvation to Universal Salvation. I am Christian again.
Hi Christopher,
I will pray for you. I am so sorry you are in so much pain.
Seek God as best you can; don’t give up and you will find Him, in this life or the next it doesn’t matter.
If we are unwilling to take “no” for an answer, like the Canaanite woman whose daughter Jesus healed (Mt 15:22-28), I believe there is no sin which God will not forgive if we turn to Him, seek His face, and beg Him to deliver us from ourselves. I think if Satan himself did this, he would be forgiven.
Tim
Jesus forgave blasphemy against the Holy Spirit a long time ago when He rose from the dead, and not in the 4th Aion/age when Jesus ascended to Heaven or the 5th Aion/age when Jesus comes back to earth or some latter Aion/age after that because Jesus is Good. Otherwise Jesus is Not Good, and therefore not God. And it is forgiven in the 3rd Aion/age because all that power of bursting the gates of death of ALL deaths must have flowed like water into the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit at that time and forgave it otherwise Jesus is withholding forgiveness, and that is not good. And that would mean Jesus is not good and is holding a grudge and is therefore not God along with his Father and Holy Spirit.
By this reasoning ALL sin must be forgiven, not merely blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
I think we need to ask ourselves, on what basis does God promise to forgive sin in His word. Trying to reason this out on our own, apart from God, is really a way of setting ourselves up as God.
I know by logic that the english translation of Bible Matthew 12:31-32 is false because it caused me lots and lots and lots of pain. And confusion. This would be logical if Jesus was a person who wanted to cause great pain in people confuse them and leave them in hot and heavy limbo. But Jesus is not that Man. Jesus died for You You will go to Heaven. And Jesus is Kind and Gentle.
I know by this logic i put here just now that blasphemy against the holy spirit is forgiven. And that then ALL go to Heaven.
Thayes I was wondering what this means:
“I think we need to ask ourselves, on what basis does God promise to forgive sin in His word. Trying to reason this out on our own, apart from God, is really a way of setting ourselves up as God.” (Thayes)
I was wondering if You could explain it to me?
Thank You
Certainly Christopher!
Rather than creating my own definition of goodness (e.g., what causes me pain or confuses me can’t be good), and then demanding that God conform to my definition (e.g. God can never do anything that causes me pain or confuses me), it is better to assume that God is good and that everything He does is good (e.g. if I feel pain or confusion because of what God does it is because I am broken, not because God is bad), and be honest and humble with Him about my pain and confusion (e.g. tell God I am hurting and confused and ask Him to help me understand, because I trust that He is good and that He loves me), and then try to understand what He does (e.g. by studying ALL of the truth He has already given me, especially looking at verses that seem to contradict my view) and then conforming my definition of goodness to God’s standard of goodness. (by meditating on His ways, all of them, as they are revealed in the Bible and constantly asking Him to change my thinking to align with this.)
This approach takes a LOT more time and effort than making up our own way, but it is the only way to get it right. Any other way is a way of pride and not humility, so most people don’t get it right, even very smart people, because they do not want to humble themselves. God hates pride, but He helps the humble. You don’t have to be smart to get it right, you just need to be humble. We should admit that we cannot know what is good unless God tells us and shows us (because we are finite and sinful and selfish by nature); for only He is perfectly good and all-knowing. He told us to seek and we will find, not because we are smart, but because we are thirsty … and humble in our thirst.
By way of recommendation, I have been thinking a LOT about humility recently, and I encourage you to turn your attention to this subject before trying to grapple with something as complex as blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (which even very educated theologians still argue about). I’d ask you to trust me on this one, that if you are still wanting to know God, change your ways and be aligned with Him you have not committed this sin yet. In my opinion, focusing on understanding and growing in humility will help you a LOT more. Not many people do that, and you could be one of them now. Maybe some of my articles and blogs will help. You can just search for pride/proud and or humble/humility in the search box and you will find a lot of material. My last post is about the Pride of Life! Very challenging, at least to me!
Does that help?
Jesus died for ALL ALL go to Heaven.
Jesus died for You You will go to Heaven.
Jesus died for Me I will go to Heaven.
http://www.ChristianUniversalist.org
Scary that you don’t think we need to repent of our sins to be forgiven and even use 1 John 1:9 to support that. If that’s what you believe then everyone is saved and why would we need to preach the Gospel? So people can believe in a Savior that doesn’t save us from our sins? What do you suppose He saves us From, Hell? No! Don’t you understand that if you serve sin then sin is your master? God is Not mocked whatever a new testament believer sows that will he also reap…. unless he repents. Galatians 6:7,8
Hi Ana,
Thanks so much for your comments! I share your sentiment, and agree that no one can be saved who lives a life of willful sin.
I believe that Christ does save us from sin, not only from its penalty but also from its power. Those who trust Christ will repent of their sin, and this itself is a gift of God. No one who willfully commits sin as a manner of life, who disobeys God as a manner of life, belongs to Him. I expect we agree very much on this.
My point is that the basis of forgiveness is not repentance. Repentance is absolutely necessary in the life of faith, but it is not sufficient. Judas repented, but he was not forgiven. (Mt 27:3)
I believe that the basis of forgiveness is faith in Christ, which is related to, but not the same as repentance. If all of our sins are not covered by the blood of Christ, then none of them are covered, and repentance will not save us. When we trust Christ by faith, repentance is present and on-going, but repentance by itself will get us nowhere; it must be accompanied by regeneration, faith, justification, etc., in order for us to be saved.
Repentance itself is not just being sorry that we have sinned, it is actually a change in the way we believe and think about what we have done and are doing. It isn’t something we can actually do on our own; God must give it to us. (2Ti 2:25)
Please let me know if this helps!
Rgds,
Tim