What is Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit | Characteristics.

What is blasphemy? What does it mean to blaspheme? To blaspheme is to speak with contempt of God or to be defiantly irreverent. Blasphemy is a verbal or written rebuke of the name, character, work or attributes of God.

Blasphemy was a serious crime in the law that God gave Moses. The Israelites were to worship and obey God. In Leviticus 24: 10-16, a man blasphemed the name of God. For the Hebrews, a name was not just a convenient label. It was a symbolic representation of a person's character. The man in Leviticus who blasphemed the name of God was stoned to death.

Isaiah 36 tells the story of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, and his attempt to demoralize Jerusalem before attacking. After pointing out the many victories of Assyria, he says: "Who of all the gods of these countries has been able to save their lands from me? How, then, can Jehovah deliver Jerusalem from my hand? "(Isaiah 36:20). Sennacherib committed blasphemy by assuming that the God of Israel was equal to the false gods of the surrounding nations.

The king of Judah, Hezekiah, points out this blasphemy in his prayer to God, in which he asks that God release them for the purpose of defending His own honor (Isaiah 37: 4, 17). And that is exactly what God did. Isaiah 37,36-37 explains: "Then the angel of the Lord went out and killed a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria set up camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. "Later, Sennacherib was killed in the temple of his god Nisroc (Isaiah 37:38).

The followers of God are also responsible for making sure that their behavior does not incite others to blaspheme against God. In Romans 2: 17-24, Paul rebukes those who claim to be saved through the law and still live in sin. Using Isaiah 52: 5, Paul tells them: "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you" (verse 24). In 1 Timothy 1:20 Paul explains that he had abandoned two false teachers to Satan to "teach them not to blaspheme"; Therefore, promulgating false doctrines and misleading the people of God is also a form of blasphemy.

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Jesus spoke of a special kind of blasphemy
Blasphemy against the holy spirit - committed by the religious leaders of his time. The situation was that the Pharisees were eyewitnesses to the miracles of Jesus, but they attributed the work of the Holy Spirit to the presence of a demon (Mark 3: 22-30). His representation of the holy as demonic was a deliberate and insulting rejection of God and was unforgivable.

The most significant accusation of blasphemy was one that turned out to be completely false. It was because of the crime of blasphemy that the priests and Pharisees condemned Jesus (Matthew 26:65). They understood that Jesus was claiming to be God. That would be, in truth, a reproach to the character of God, if it were not true. If Jesus were only a man who claims to be God, he would have been a blasphemer. However, as the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus could truly claim deity (Philippians 2: 6).

The fact is that every time we do or say something that gives others a false representation of the glory, holiness, authority and character of God, we commit blasphemy. Every time we misrepresent our position as children of God, we are damaging His reputation. Fortunately, Jesus forgives even the sin of blasphemy. Peter attacked Jesus 'purpose (Matthew 16:22), Paul tried to make others blaspheme (Acts 26: 9-18), and Jesus' own brothers thought he was crazy (Mark 3:21). All repented, and all were forgiven.

What is blasphemy against the holy spirit?
What is the unforgivable sin? blasphemy against the holy spirit. First, all sin can be forgiven, even the seven deadly sins. Now you can rest better. Jesus himself said in Matthew 12.31: "Therefore, I say to you that all sin and all blasphemy will be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven men." If a person truly hears the impulses of the holy spirit and asks for forgiveness, that person is not guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Let's find out more about the second part of the verse below.

Is there a sin that can not be forgiven?
Yes, blasphemy against the holy spirit, is any sin to which a person clings, continually resisting the convicting power of the holy spirit. Keep in mind that there is no specific sin that is unforgivable, such as lying, stealing or killing, but rather a perpetual hardening of the heart and willful sin against God and man (1 Timothy 4: 2, Titus 1:15).

In Acts 7,51 Stephen tells the Pharisees: "Hard and uncircumcised neck of heart and ears! You always resisted the Holy Spirit; like your parents, you do it like that. " In short, the unpardonable sin is any sin for which a person does not want to renounce, confess, or even ask for forgiveness and also does not want to hear more about him from the Holy Spirit.

Any sin for which humanity wants forgiveness is forgivable. However, if we turn our backs on the voice of the Holy Spirit we begin to silence His convictions and eventually we can not hear His power of conviction. This effectively blocks God's work in our lives because we have reached a point where we are unable to respond to the impulses of the Holy Spirit.

What is this sin

Jesus refers to this sin in Matthew 12: 31-32, as well as in the parallel passages of Mark 3: 28-29 and Luke 12:10. We read in Matthew 12: 31-32: "Therefore, I say to you that all sin and blasphemy will be forgiven to men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven to men. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the holy spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the next. "

Also Hebrews 10:29 refers to this sin: "How much more sad punishment will you consider worthy who trampled the son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, ungodly, and despised the spirit of grace."

Although Hebrews 6: 4-6 and 1 John 5:16 do not expressly say that they refer to sin against the Holy Spirit, in fact they refer to this sin. I John 5:16 says, "there is sin unto death." Our reformed fathers understood that this text referred to sin against the Holy Spirit, because they refer to it in the Canons of Dordrecht, Head 5, Rejection of Errors 4, in that same connection. Hebrews 6: 4-6 speaks of those who "were made partakers of the Holy Spirit" and who fell, but says, about the true character of that sin, this: "they crucify the Son of God again for themselves, and they shame him openly".

characteristics
Let us be clear in what is blasphemy against the holy spirit; blasphemy against the holy spirit is not any sin against the holy spirit. Rather: The blasphemy of the spirit is the deliberate denial, rejection and contempt of the saving work of the holy spirit by someone who knows very well that the work is that of the spirit, in fact, it can be, by someone who "has tasted the heavenly gift and has been made a partaker of the holy spirit" (Heb 6: 4)

The sin of blasphemy against the holy spirit has several characteristics. All of the following is true when this sin is committed.

Blasphemy manifested with words
First, it involves speaking certain words that show that one hates the holy spirit and one's work in the church. Blasphemy always manifests itself in words.

Jesus underlined this with his words to the Jews in Matthew 12. Jesus had just healed one who was blind, mute, and possessed by a demon. Responding to this miracle, the Pharisees said: "This does not cast out demons, but by Beelzebub, prince of demons" (v. 24). Jesus' answer in verses 27-28 was: "And if I cast out devils for Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you. "This accusation by the Pharisees that Jesus performed miracles by the power of the devil was his blasphemy against the holy spirit.

They are in the sphere of the covenant, although they are not true members of the covenant
The second characteristic of this sin is that those who commit it are in the sphere of the covenant, even though they are not true members of the covenant. This was true of the Pharisees in their entirety, though not of every Pharisee in particular (Nicodemus was a true disciple of Christ). And this explains why the writer to the Hebrews says that they "were made partakers of the holy spirit" (Hebrews 6: 4), and that they were "sanctified" by "the blood of the covenant" (Hebrews 10:29).

Understood in their contexts, none of these statements in Hebrews can mean that those who crucify the Son of God to themselves again (Hebrews 6: 6), and who despise the Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:29), were regenerated and sanctified interiorly, possessing the grace of salvation. The Word of God says of them that they can not be brought to repentance (Hebrews 6: 6), and that they will experience the vengeance of God and suffer a more painful punishment than death by stoning (Hebrews 10:29, 30).

If these passages teach that the holy spirit worked the grace of salvation in these people, then they also teach that these people lost that grace. This would contradict those passages that teach that God always preserves His grace in His people.

Rather, to understand these passages in Hebrews we must distinguish between the saving work of the spirit of applying the benefits of Christ to the chosen sinner, and the work of the spirit of equipping a person with the gifts necessary to serve the church. The passages in Hebrews speak of those who were members of Christian churches on earth, and who had gifts by which to serve these churches, but who did not receive the graces of salvation. (The same thing happened with King Saul, the reprobate, who received the spirit and lost his spirit: I am SAM 10:10 and I am Sam 16:14).

Because these are in the sphere of the covenant, those who blaspheme against the Spirit have some intellectual knowledge of the spirit, and some experiential knowledge of the power of the spirit. Some of them may have experienced this power by being able to prophesy or speak in tongues. But all of them would have experienced this power in the sense that they understood the gospel intellectually, having "tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come" (Hebrews 6: 5).

We should carefully notice the auxiliary verb that Jesus used in Matthew 12:31. He did not say that this sin "can not" be forgiven. Rather, He said that He "will not be" forgiven. This is a promise. God will not forgive this sin, this promise agrees with the justice of God.

This promise agrees with the justice of God in general, in that the justice of God requires that all sin be punished with an extreme punishment of body and soul. Manifesting both mercy and justice, God sent Christ to bear the punishment for the sins of all the elect. Those for whom Christ did not die (the reprobate) must bear their own guilt and curse. He who blasphemes the spirit manifests as a reprobate. Therefore, from God's point of view, this sin will not be forgiven: God does not forgive anyone's sins for whom Christ did not die.

More specifically, from the point of view of the sinner who blasphemes the holy spirit, this promise accords with the justice of God because of how terrible sin is. No sin is small; all sin is an affront to the holy and majestic Jehovah. But to blaspheme against Him, to do it as one who for a time confessed to believe in the gospel, and to do so with a heart resolutely hardened in unbelief, is very offensive to Jehovah. The wrath of Jehovah will fall upon the men of Tire and Sidon, and of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment; but with greater severity it will fall on those who blaspheme against the holy spirit.

God manifests his wisdom in fulfilling this promise. In his wisdom, the sovereign God allows some men to speak evil against the holy spirit, to manifest that they deserve nothing less than the eternal punishment that he will send upon them. And he governs all things in such a way that it becomes evident that they are hardened in their sin, and that they are being prepared for the destruction for which they were appointed.

There is an impossibility for the children of God to commit this sin
From the fact that this sin will not be forgiven, it follows that the children of God will never commit this sin. The beautiful biblical doctrine of God's preservation of His saints in grace necessarily leads to this conclusion. If "he that began a good work in us, he will do it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil 1,6); and if "we are kept by the power of God, through faith, for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time" (I Pet 1: 5); and if nothing will separate us from the love of Christ (Rom 8:35), then those whom God has chosen from all eternity for salvation in Christ will certainly be brought to that salvation, and will be prevented from committing this sin.

Jesus himself taught this in John 10: 27-29: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life; and they shall never perish, nor shall any one pluck them out of my hand. My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch them from the hand of my Father. "

The Reformed churches and the believers officially confess in the Canons of Dordrecht that it is impossible for the children of God to commit this sin. Having exposed the biblical doctrine of preservation in the fifth head, the fathers at the Synod of Dordt explicitly reject this error:

Error 4: Who teaches that the true believers and regenerated can sin until death or against the holy spirit.

Rejection: Since the same apostle John, after having spoken in the fifth chapter of his first epistle, verses 16 and 17, of those who sin unto death, and having forbidden to pray for them, he immediately adds to this in verse 18 : We know that everyone who is begotten by God does not sin (that is, a sin of that character), but he who is begotten of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him, (I John 5:18) .

However, Satan, the great accuser, attacks some of God's children, tormenting them with the fear that they have committed this sin, that all their religious life on earth must be hypocritical, and that ultimately they will not be saved in the heaven.

The word of God and the gospel of grace provide us with an answer to these assaults of satan.
From the scriptures, we learn that he who hates sin because he wishes to be pleasing to God is a child of God (Matthew 5: 4, 6). We also know that he who hates his sin and turns with true sadness to Jesus Christ finds in Him and in His work all the things necessary for salvation. And such find in Christ the power to live a godly life. Thus we assure our calling and election: "If you do these things, you will never fall" (2 Peter 1:10).

God forgives all sin of which one truly repents. True repentance, being wrought in us by the grace of God, is evidence that one is a child of God. No one to whom Christ gives eternal life will ever perish.