A previous post "Which Sin is Without Pardon?" attracted some discussion and a question from Margaret on the Facebook page @godsreallygoodnews located at https://www.facebook.com/godsreallygoodnews/ .
Margaret wanted to know what was the difference between blaspheming Jesus (which will be pardoned ) versus blaspheming the Holy Spirit (which won't be pardoned during this age or the coming one)?
This post is an attempt to answer Margaret's question.
Firstly, here are the relevant texts from David Bentley Hart's Literal Translation.
Hence I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be excused men, but the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit will not be excused.
[Matt 12 : 31]
And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be excused him; but whoever speaks against the Spirit, the Holy one, it will not be excused him, neither in this age nor in the one that is coming.
[Matt 12 : 32]
But whoever blasphemes against the Spirit, the Holy one, has no excuse throughout the age, but is answerable for a transgression in the Age.
[Mark 3 : 20]
The Background.
Jesus had just healed a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and the Jewish leaders accused Jesus of doing this through the power of an evil spirit. Jesus saw this accusation as an example of slandering or blaspheming the Holy Spirit, which led Him to give the warning quoted in the texts above.
Blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit has many roles including enabling us to believe the gospel and be the "firstfruits" to experience God's salvation during this age of grace.
Salvation during the ages, during the realm of time, depends entirely on the ministry of the Holy Spirit speaking to people, giving them the faith to believe and respond to the gospel, and empowering them to live as faithful disciples.
So a blasphemer of the Holy Spirit, someone who slanders or speaks evil of the Holy Spirit, is clearly someone who is not disposed to this ministry of the Holy Spirit and therefore unqualified to be a member of the saved, justified Body of Christ - those chosen by God to be alive with Christ in the coming age, the Kingdom Age that is often called the Millennium.
These (blasphemers) will answer for their "transgression in the Age" by missing that life, as their pardon awaits the distant consummation of the ages when all creation will be reconciled to God.
Blaspheming Jesus.
While the death and resurrection of Jesus are the essential and only means of salvation and life for all people, it is the ministry of the Holy Spirit that allows believers to experience this salvation and life in the present and coming age.
Blaspheming Jesus, while not a good practice in itself, is completely overridden by the power of the Holy Spirit when God chooses to become involved in a person's life.
A person who has no time for Jesus and his life, death and resurrection, and even slanders and speaks evil against him, will be pardoned after the Holy Spirit gets hold of him/her.
A beautiful illustration of this is the conversion of Saul of Tarsus in Damascus.
On the road to Damascus, Jesus got Saul's attention in a pretty dramatic way, but it wasn't until Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit under the ministry of Ananias that he was changed from the Pharisee Saul, a blasphemer of Jesus and a persecutor of Jesus' followers, to the Apostle Paul, God's chosen instrument to bear His name to the nations.
Clearly, the work of the Holy Spirit trumps all Saul's blaspheming of Jesus and the persecuting of His followers.
Conclusion.
So to me, blaspheming Jesus will be excused when God calls a person into the Body of Christ by the ministry of the Holy Spirit during this age of grace.
But blaspheming the Holy Spirit will not be excused in this age or the next, and shows that a person is not being called to life and service with Christ in the coming kingdom age.
This is the most obvious difference I can see between blaspheming Jesus (which will be pardoned) versus blaspheming the Holy Spirit (which won't be pardoned during this age or the next).
What do you think might be the difference?
PS. An After-thought.
In this exchange with the Jewish leaders Jesus was identifying Himself as the Son of Man even though the thrust of the gospel being proclaimed to the Jewish nation during His ministry was to recognise Him as the Son of God, their long-awaited Messiah.
Although He is both the Son of Man and the Son of God, I wonder if Jesus was making the distinction on this occasion to emphasise His humanity and show that to speak evil against Jesus as a man living among men, as terrible as that might be, was an error that would be forgiven, and hence not comparable to blaspheming or slandering the Spirit of God.
Blessings, Barry
Regular readers will have noted from my posts here, on my personal Facebook page, on my website and on my BLOG that I am not a fan of popular Bible translations without careful checking using literal translations.
Popular translations produced by a single Christian denomination have obvious leanings towards the doctrines promoted by that denomination, and those produced by a team composed of several denominations can be doctrinally bland because of their need to ensure that all team members' doctrinal positions are not violated.
In particular, it's disappointing to see how the NIV has subtly changed its translation of verses that imply God's eventual reconciliation of all in its most recent versions.
Verses like Mark 3 : 28.
[NIV 1984 version] I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them.
[NIV 2011 version] Truly, I tell you, people can be forgiven for all their sins and every slander they utter.
Notice the subtle change from will be forgiven to can be forgiven in the more modern version. There is no translation support for such a change, only a doctrinal one.
In my post "Which Sin is Without Pardon?" I fell into the trap of trying to quote the most recent NIV version for my readers without checking for its accuracy.
The point I was trying to make in that post was centred on verse 29 and I carelessly copied in verse 28 for context, without my usual check against a literal translation.
Apologies to my readers. I am usually more accurate and careful than that.
By the way, most popular translations find it difficult to "doctrinalise" verses that state rather than imply God's eventual reconciliation of all, as that would be too difficult to get past diligent readers.
Verses like ...
This is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.
[1 Timothy 4 : 10]
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Jesus), and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
[Colossians 1 : 19 - 20]
Although the NIV (New International Version) translates these correctly, I am beginning to understand why some people call the NIV the New Incorrect Version.
This especially relates to the consistently incorrect translations regarding age and eternity and their adjectival forms in the New Testament, and Hades and hell throughout the whole Bible.
If you're interested, you can find substantial writings on these on this BLOG, and on my website at https://www.ibtechservices.com.au.
Again apologies for my carelessness in the previous post.
Blessings, Barry
This might seem a strange heading from a blogger who has consistently been saying that God is the Saviour of the world, and offering strong Biblical support for that position.
But it seems that both of these positions are true - God IS going to save the world eventually, but is NOT trying to do so at the moment.
Even though God's long-term objective is to save the whole creation, His short-term objective is to choose a much smaller group, called the Body of Christ, to become co-workers with Him in achieving that long-term goal.
Let me illustrate this scenario with a short Barry story.
My wife and I live in Victoria, the southern most state on the east coast of mainland Australia.
We plan to visit our sons living in Queensland, one in the south of that state about 1600 km (1000 miles) away, and one in the north about 3200 km (2000 miles) from us.
The overall planning for the trip is focused on the trip to the north - time needed, cost, accommodation, etc. This is the long-distance objective - to travel 3200 km to visit our son and his family there.
However, our short-distance objective is to first visit our son and his family who are just 1600 km away.
Once our major planning for the long trip is complete, our focus moves to this more immediate visit and what is needed to get there.
During this current age, God is focused on gathering the Body of Christ - those from the nations who will administer the kingdom with Christ in the coming age, the millennium.
This is the short-term project on the way to the long-term goal of reconciling the whole of creation to Himself.
Before the foundation of the world God had not only decided to save the whole creation (the long-term objective) but that He would choose and use a previously designated group (the short-term objective) through which He would achieve His ultimate goal.
Any readers old enough to remember primary school students in Australia being given a small bottle of milk to drink each morning?
Before the lesson began, the teacher would select a couple of "milk monitors" to collect the tray of milk bottles to distribute to the class at the appropriate time.
... we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Saviour of all people, and especially of those who believe.
[1 Timothy 4 : 10 NIV]
Why especially the believers?
Because they are the milk monitors.
Members of the Body of Christ are those who have been chosen ahead of time to distribute the kingdom goodies so the whole class eventually gets its bottle of milk at the time chosen by the teacher.
(Paraphrased Summary of Ephesians 1 : 3 - 10)
Just as well God is not trying to save the world right now - if He was, He would clearly be a big-time loser as most of the world is estranged from Him at the moment.
But right now is not the end of the story.
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Jesus), and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
[Colossians 1 : 19 - 20 NIV]
Blessings, Barry
