Unpardonable Sin

Sunday, a bunch of us got into it over this whole concept.  A sin which God will not pardon.  A sin which we are not to pray for/over.  A sin completely undefined in the Bible.  So how could any of the arguers be wrong? ;)

John 5:14-17
I Corinthians 5:8-13

One of the first takers jumped in and blurted out that it was suicide.  I turned and commented that the Bible does not even address suicide so how did she manage to come up with that idea, "well, once you are dead, you can not ask for forgiveness - so you are condemned by your sin!"

Really?

So, you as a Christian, can kill yourself and Jesus' death for you was insufficient to cover your act?  So, you are not once saved always saved?  The entirety of the Protestant Movement (if you follow Calvin's theology) was wrong?

Of course, this argument line is wrong the concept of suicide being unforgivable came straight out of Roman Catholicism's flawed theology.  It is unpardonable because you can not confess and be blessed by the local priest.

Never mind that NO priest has ever been able to forgive sin - only Jesus can do that!  The question of any man's blessing being of any value or impact on any other man - is beyond Biblical support.

For my non-Christian readers, you really do have an unpardonable sin - denying the Holy Spirit's witness in your life as to your need of Jesus for Salvation!  No Jesus, no salvation.  Just that simple.

Lots of other ideas were offered up and others shot down those ideas as well, the opportunity ended with no answers.  Even I Corinthians 5:8-13 was brought up but it was just a red herring though.  And, yet, the Bible is quite clear on this subject .....

Matthew 12:22-32

Here, Jesus casts a demon out from a mute and blind man.  He was known in he community as being this way.  People saw the freeing of this man from the demonic cause.  They knew.  Even the Pharisees had to have known!  No community was that large in Israel back then.

How do you deal with the unexplained?  You are the local spiritual authority.  You are respected.  You are sought out for your wisdom.  And you are confronted by the unexplainable and you only have two options - Satan is behind it or God is.

And Satan is more real than God in Israel at that time, you know - that force which has not been heard from in hundreds of years!  So Satan gets all the credit, Jesus is discounted as being a servant of Satan, his works are a fraud therefore.

And in verse 25, Jesus responds:

He tells them flat out that if you see the work of God, then God is in your midst.  (And, they are of the devil.)

Verses 31 and 32, go even further and Jesus flat out says that speaking against the Holy Spirit is the unpardonable sin!  Within the context of the passage, well, we have the mystery solved.

What the Holy Spirit performs - and we attribute to Satan - places us in the realm of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit!

It also means, one must be terribly cautious!

Your only protection would be to have the Holy Spirit's discernment or keep your mouth shut a great deal!  LOL ...

(and for the ultra-critical, there is no such thing as the "Holy Spirit" in the original texts.  it is called "ghost", "breath", "thing", even "it"!  make no mistake, the Spirit of God is real but they had no standard name for it in Judaism.  and it really was not very well understood, except by men such as Daniel, David, Solomon, and any of the prophets - a few others known as Christians whom it now dwells in.