Why warn a person against blaspheming the Holy Spirit if he won’t seek forgiveness anyway?
Question:
I have read the stuff on blasphemy on your site, but I don't read it in the Bible that it says a blasphemous person refuses to come to God. If that is true, why would the passages on blasphemy against the Spirit be in there? If a person won't seek forgiveness why the warning? I am really scared. I know I have said bad things and I should not have. Doesn't "never has forgiveness" mean never?
Answer:
Why was Cain told "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it" (Genesis 4:6-7). Cain killed his brother anyway, so why bother warning him? Of course, the answer is that Cain had a choice and God was warning him against making a tragic mistake.
Why did Jesus tell the Pharisees, "Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation" (Mark 3:28-29)? He said it for much the same reason. Because they attributed the healing to Satan, Jesus was warning them that they were approaching a cliff from which they would not be able to return. In essence, Jesus is telling them (and us) that their denial of the miracle was not from ignorance or overlooking an important fact. They knew the miracle was from God and done by the power of the Holy Spirit, but they purposely were choosing to say it was from Satan because of their hatred of Jesus. They were just a step away from permanently turning their back on God.
Now, look at Jesus' statement: "he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness." This is a statement of fact. It doesn't say why the person doesn't have forgiveness. You assume that it is because God refuses to forgive, but Jesus didn't say that. I have pointed out repeatedly that the Bible says God wants to forgive everyone, no one is excluded.
"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (II Peter 3:9).
Your assumption contradicts what God says is His intention. The reason everyone isn't saved is that everyone doesn't repent of their sins. "Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear" (Isaiah 59:1-2). The problem is on man's side, not God's.
Sadly, I've seen several times people who know what the Bible says and what they need to do to be saved, but who have purposely chosen sin over righteousness. That choice ties my hands in helping them out of sin. "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame" (Hebrews 6:4-6). Notice once again, the problem is with man, not with God refusing to forgive. It is impossible for you or I to convince such a person to come back. They have to choose to repent. And in the case of deliberately, knowingly, purposely saying that what the Holy Spirit does is evil, such a person won't ever change his mind.
Perhaps it would help if you thought about it on human terms. Let's say Joe really hates Sam. Sam is a good man, but Joe decides to go on a campaign to make Sam look bad. Everything Sam does good, Joe attributes it to bad motives. When he can, Joe twists circumstances to make it look like Sam is actually doing evil things. He causes others to doubt Sam's sincerity and drags his reputation through the mud. Joe knows that Sam is a decent man. He can see the good things that he does just as well as the next person. But because of his intense hatred, he purposely twists it all into wickedness. (Sounds like a political campaign, doesn't it.) This is blasphemy.
We aren't talking about thinking a bad thought about the Holy Spirit or saying something bad about the Spirit. This is more on the order of a person who reads the Bible, understands it, but then deliberately chooses to call it an evil book that is corrupting society. When a person does that, how are you going to convince him to live righteously? He declares that the very thing that can save his soul will ruin his and everyone else's soul (and he is doing it intentionally).
Paul was a blasphemer at one time. Not a guy who thought a bad thought once in a while, but a real blasphemer as the Bible defines it. "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief" (I Timothy 1:12-13). Paul could not believe that Jesus was the Christ and so he campaigned to destroy Jesus anyway he could. But because his unbelief came from ignorance, God was able to turn him around. But what about a man who acted like Paul once did but did so knowing the truth? Such a man can't be turned, not because no one wants him to turn but because he is vilifying the very thing that can save him.
So many people are convinced that they are a blasphemer when they are not. So many people decide to tell God He won't save them when God said the opposite. And the answer is so simple:
"But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. "Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord GOD, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live?"" (Ezekiel 18:21-23).
Question:
Thank you for your answer.
If blasphemy against Christ is speaking evil of him out of hatred when you know he is good, then why is blasphemy against the Son of Man forgivable, but not against the Spirit? If someone had called God evil how can they be forgiven? In Matthew chapter 12. why are the words speaks against and blasphemy against used? Are they the same? Would calling God evil be speaking against God and blasphemy against God? I want to believe I am forgiven, but I keep worrying. Do Matthew 12:31-32, Mark 3: 23-29, and Luke 12:10 mean what is written? How can we think it means something else? If I spoke against God, then I spoke against God. I have read on this topic a lot and have talked to people, but I am not completely convinced. I want to know I am saved. I want to stop worrying and stop being scared.
Could you please read this? http://www.biblestudyguide.org/comment/calvin/comm_vol32/htm/xiv.htm Does this make sense to you? It seems to me there is an unforgivable sin.
Answer:
As soon as you use the word "forgivable" you changed what Jesus said. All sins are forgivable, but there is one sin that is never forgiven.
"Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come" (Matthew 12:30-31).
Jesus stated that every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven. Is he saying that God forgives every sin automatically so that everyone goes to heaven? Clearly that isn't true (Revelation 21:8). What he is saying is that the potential is there for men to be forgiven (II Peter 3:9). Not everyone will be forgiven because not everyone is willing to repent of their sins (Luke 13:3). Thus, speaking against Christ can be forgiven when a person turns from his sin. How? "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). A blasphemer of Jesus can be taught by God's word and turn from his blasphemies. Paul is an example of that (I Timothy 1:12-13).
When Jesus said that those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit won't be forgiven, again he is not saying that God refuses to forgive such people. The problem regarding sin is never on God's part, but on man's part (Isaiah 59:1-2). God wants to forgive all people (II Peter 3:9), "all" would include the people who blaspheme the Holy Spirit. The way you've been referring to Matthew 12:30-31 you are saying the Peter is wrong and that God only wants to forgive most people. Jesus' first and second points are the same. Jesus is talking about the potential to be forgiven.
So what is it about blasphemy of the Holy Spirit that removes the potential to be forgiven? It isn't that God refuses to forgive because God states His desire to forgive all people. The problem is on man's side. There is something about blasphemy of the Holy Spirit that means the person never desires to repent from this particular sin. The key again is the Bible, which is the product of the Holy Spirit.
"And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever-- the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you" (John 14:16-17).
"But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me" (John 15:26).
When a person knows that the Bible is true and understands the evidence provided by the Spirit that supports it, but then purposely turns his back on it and vilifies the Spirit and His work, what is there to offer such a person to turn him back to God?
"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame" (Hebrews 6:4-6).
The Spirit's work is to convict the world of sin:
"Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come" (John 16:7-13).
That conviction is done through the teaching the Spirit brought to the world through the apostles. If a person knowingly, purposely, and maliciously turns against the Spirit and His work, then what is left to convict such a person? This is what the Pharisees were dangerously close to doing when they saw an undeniable miracle done by the power of the Holy Spirit and then purposely called it the work of the Devil. There is only one path to salvation. "For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe" (I Corinthians 1:21). The blasphemer of the Holy Spirit will never believe, not because God is preventing him or rejecting him, but because of the purposeful choice that he made.
The very nature of the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit means that the person has chosen to cut off the means God gave to teach him the truth. He won't turn from his sins. "If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death" (I John 5:16-17). Any sin can lead to death when a person refuses to give that sin up. In the case of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, Jesus said that this sinful disease has a 100% death rate because the people who stoop to it never give it up.
The commentary you cited was written by John Calvin. Calvin believed that God's sovereignty was so absolute that all decisions were made before the world began. Therefore, God decided before the world began who would go to heaven and who to hell. Instead of being an impartial judge of mankind, Calvin's view made God into a respecter of particular individuals. Therefore, it fits into Calvin's thinking to see that it is God who refuses to forgive the blasphemer of the Holy Spirit because, to Calvin, God decided the man would blaspheme before the world began. Sadly, Calvin missed the obvious. Jesus was warning people against blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, thus the implication is that people do have a choice. And as I repeatedly pointed out, God's aim is to save everyone even though He knows most people won't be saved (Matthew 7:13-14). This isn't God's fault or a lack of desire on His part. The fault lies with men who refuse to give up sin. And as Jesus pointed out, there is one particular sin that men who do it never give up.
Quit listening to Satan. He is the one whispering that you are too bad, too evil, that God would never accept a person like you. But such lies are to Satan's advantage because it makes you give up.
Why are you refusing to see that God is love? "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:16-17). God is consistent and evenhanded. His desire and goal are to save people from the sins they choose to commit. God won't keep you out of heaven, only the person who refuses to let go of his sins is refused. You've chosen to leave your sins behind. Your sins were washed away in baptism (Acts 22:16) -- all of them, completely, thoroughly. You've started a new life (Romans 6:3-4) free from sin (Romans 6:7). Yes, you had your moments of weakness in the past and you will have struggles in the future (I John 1:8-2:1), but so long as you continue to pick yourself up and run toward Christ, he will always be there waiting to receive you as his own (Hebrews 12:1-3).
