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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Blasheming the Holy Spirit? | Luke 12:10 | knight_oakes | 152000 | ||
What is blasheming the Holy Spirit and why is it unforgivable? | ||||||
2 | Blasheming the Holy Spirit? | Luke 12:10 | DocTrinsograce | 152001 | ||
I rather like Ra McLaughlin's answer to this question. He writes: In the immediate context of Luke 12:10, there is not much to indicate specifically what Jesus meant by "blasphemy of the Holy Spirit." It seems to be somewhat paired, at least in a rhetorical way, with Luke 12:8-9. Both Luke 12:8-9 and Luke 12:10 speak of those who will be saved versus those who will not be saved. If we see Luke 12:8-9 as a parallel to Luke 12:10, such that Luke 12:10 repeats the same ideas as Luke 12:8-9 with different words, then we might easily come to the idea that to blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to deny Christ before men. The fact that the subject of the second phrase of the first pair ("he who denies me before men...") is conceptually very similar to the subject of the first half of the second pair ("he who speaks a word against the Son of Man...") makes this approach very tempting, as does the correspondence between the predicates of the second half of the first pair ("will be denied before the angels of God") and the second half of the second pair ("it will not be forgiven him"). This intepretation may be further supported by the fact that the Holy Spirit bears witness to Christ, so that to deny Christ is to reject the witness of the Holy Spirit. Though this may seem like a good option at first, there are some problems with it that, in my opinion, are too significant to overcome. It is simply not the case that the sin of denying Christ before men is unforgiveable, neither is the sin of rejecting the witness of the Holy Spirit unforgiveable. The Scriptures provide explicit proof of this in the person of Paul (Acts 8:1-3; 9:1-20). After Paul had denied Christ, implicitly also denying both the works that Christ had done, and the Spirit through whose power he had done them, and also after he had punctuated these denials by persecuting those who confessed Christ, Paul came to faith and was forgiven. Yet, Jesus made it clear that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come (Matt. 12:32). Some respond to this objection by saying that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is limited to final rejection of Christ, not just initial rejection. The problem with this response is that final rejection does not differ from initial rejection in any qualitative or quantitative sense. To all analysis, final rejection is the same sin as initial rejection. The only difference is the coincident death of the person. But a person's death does not alter the nature of his/her sin of rejecting Christ. Further, although we clearly have a similar rhetorical structure between Luke 12:8-9 and Luke 12:10, treating it as such a close literary parallelism that we interpret one by the other is not as helpful as it might first seem. Specifically, to do so is to equate denying Christ with blaphemy of the Holy Spirit, but not with speaking against Christ. It is rather hard to imagine that denying Christ is not a form of speaking against Christ - that's a hair I don't feel comfortable splitting. I would prefer to see the literary similarity as indicating the eternal consequences of our actions on earth, but not as indicating an identity between denying Christ and blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Besides, the actual nature of Hebrew parallelism is that it rarely says the same thing with different words. The typical idea behind what is commonly called "synonymous parallelism" is "A and what's more B." That is, the "parallel" phrase does not say the same thing. Rather, it says something related but different. This would argue against equating "A" (denying Christ) with "B" (blaspheming the Holy Spirit). On the issue of sins that do and don't lead to death, in my estimation Paul and John may be speaking of different kinds of death. Paul is speaking of eternal death as a spiritual state (in contrast to eternal life [Rom. 6:23]). John, however, may be speaking merely of the physical death of the body (cf. James 5:14-16). Also, whereas Paul speaks of sin that leads to death for the unbeliever, John appears to be speaking of sin that leads to death for a "brother," one who short of evidence to the contrary is assumed to be saved. When believers sin, our sins do not lead to spiritual death because we are forgiven in Christ (e.g. Rom. 8:34; 1 John 2:1-2). Even if John is speaking of eternal death, his point may be that Christians ought not to pray for a so-called brothers who reveal that they are truly unsaved and without hope of salvation (i.e. via blasphemy of the Holy Spirit). |
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3 | Again on blaspheming the Holy Spirit? | Luke 12:10 | knight_oakes | 152003 | ||
That still doesn't seem to help, I understand the fact that it is a confussing matter, I myself struggle with this question yet have a confident understanding of the Word of God. How do you practically blasphem the Holy Spirit. I understand that deny the works of the Holy Spirit, and therefore His work within us is a sin and if this remains the case until death then we have never received Christ and therefore cannot be saved. But I'm not sure that that is all it is. If I verbably cursed and attacked the Holy Spirit in a moment of grief,desperation, emotional stress etc.. would this leave me unforgiven and damned (for want of a better word). James |
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4 | Again on blaspheming the Holy Spirit? | Luke 12:10 | DocTrinsograce | 152004 | ||
Dear James, Well, in the context of the passages in question, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit could be defined as attributing His work to the devil. In Him, Doc |
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5 | Again on blaspheming the Holy Spirit? | Luke 12:10 | Wild Olive Shoot | 152009 | ||
How about unbelief? Spurgeon spoke on unbelief as the only sin for which there is no atonement for. “And now to close this point—for I have been already too long—let me remark that you will observe the heinous nature of unbelief in this—that it is the damning sin. There is one sin for which Christ never died; it is the sin against the Holy Ghost. There is one other sin for which Christ never made atonement. Mention every crime in the calendar of evil, and I will show you persons who have found forgiveness for it. But ask me whether the man who died in unbelief can be saved, and I reply there is no atonement for that man. There is an atonement made for the unbelief of a Christian, because it is temporary; but the final unbelief—the unbelief with which men die—never was atoned for. You may turn over this whole Book, and you will find that there is no atonement for the man who died in unbelief; there is no mercy for him. Had he been guilty of every other sin, if he had but believed, he would have been pardoned; but this is the damning exception—he had no faith. Devils seize him! O fiends of the pit, drag him downward to his doom! He is faithless and unbelieving, and such are the tenants for whom hell was built. It is their portion, their prison, they are the chief prisoners, the fetters are marked with their names, and for ever shall they know that, "he that believeth not shall be damned." Spurgeon, Charles. "The Sin of Unbelief." The New Park Street Pulpit. Blue Letter Bible. 18 Apr 2001. 5 Jun 2005. http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/charles_spurgeon/sermons/0003.html I would recommend for anyone to read the sermon in its entirety. WOS. |
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6 | Again on blaspheming the Holy Spirit? | Luke 12:10 | DocTrinsograce | 152011 | ||
Good quote, WOS! I always appreciate Spurgeon! Here is how Albert Barnes paraphrases this passage, "He that speaks against me as a man of Nazareth -- that speaks contemptuously of My humble birth, etc., may be pardoned; but he that reproaches My divine nature, charging me with being in league with Satan, and blaspheming the power of God manifestly displayed 'by Me,' can never obtain forgiveness." The jury is still out on the interpretation of this phrase for me, I guess. In Him, Doc |
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