> 08.22.2008
Ice Cream Social on Wednesday... More
> 08.22.2008
Man Camp 2008 "Reload" is coming...More
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Saturday
Service—6:00PM
Sunday
Service—9:00AM
Service—10:45AM
Wednesday
Service—7:00PM
Real Life Youth—7:00PM
Royal Rangers & Missionettes—7:00PM
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?
Matthew 12:24-33: 24 Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, ‘This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” 25 But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. 28 But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. 30 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad. 31 “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. 32 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. 33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.
First of all, let’s remember to look at the clear well established truths of the Bible. We cannot deny what we know about the finished work of Jesus because of a few verses that seem less clear. No scripture stands alone. Everything is dependent on each other and all scripture must be understood in the light of all we know about God. That is one of the first approaches we take to any difficult passage — understanding it within the whole. Don’t pull it out and say, “Well, I don’t understand this.” Leave it within the whole of scripture and everything we know about God. This removes certain possibilities from the answer. We can just know to exclude certain interpretations — He definitely doesn’t mean “this” because I can find five or six scriptures that tell me that very, very clearly. All scripture must be understood in light of all we know about God.
Secondly, there are a number of things in scripture that are unclear. If they were essential points of doctrine, God would have no doubt made them very clear to us. Therefore, we know that whatever conclusions we reach about such obscure references will probably have little to contribute to our relationship or walk with God. God is not going to make our salvation dependent on something we can’t even understand or grasp. I say this because this verse and passage is so misunderstood by some that I am told there are many people in insane asylums thinking that they have committed an unpardonable sin and they are living life thinking that God has rejected them, they can’t be forgiven, and it has gone so far that they are crazy today because of it. It’s opened all kinds of doors for demonic spirits to work in their lives out of this fear that they have committed this unpardonable sin. They think, “I can never be right with God. I am doomed to eternity in hell.” I don’t believe that God is doing that.
The word blasphemy simply means “evil speaking or railing.”
Now, to gain understanding of this passage (and virtually all scriptures) you must look at the context, that is, the verses before and after what you don’t understand. The context here is that Jesus had just cast out a demon which kept a person both blind and mute. In responding to that, the Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons. In context with that, Jesus started making these statements. So, when speaking of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, we can see that He is referencing attributing the work of God — which He did — to Satan and saying, “What you did there, that’s the devil.” So that is what He is speaking of. That is the context of this thing called blaspheming the Spirit. Then in verse 33 we see that Jesus indicates that we must see God as either good or evil based upon the things that He does. That’s the tree. Make the tree good or make the tree evil. Decide what’s coming from God and what’s coming from the devil. Many people are confused about what God is doing and what the devil is doing.
It is not uncommon for a person to say something is not God when, in reality, it is. Usually this is done out of ignorance. In this instance, there was an undeniable miracle performed by Jesus (by the Spirit of God) although Jesus was veiled to them. They did not recognize Him as the Son of God.
As a side note, Jesus mentioned blaspheming the Son of Man. He didn’t mention blasphemy or speaking against Jesus as risen Savior and Lord which is revealed to us in this dispensation by the Holy Spirit.
All that is done in the earth is through the power of the Holy Spirit but His primary ministry in this dispensation is to convict the world of sin, righteousness and of judgment (John 16:8). And if one were to resist or to refer to that work of the Spirit of bringing conviction to someone as being of the devil, obviously that would nullify the effects of the work of the Spirit of drawing them to repentance and salvation in their life. It becomes null and void. They could never be forgiven of this — in this age (no new birth) or the age to come (no heaven).
Let’s back up. Let’s remove this passage of scripture from the Bible. Let’s just pretend it’s not even there. Knowing the volume of scripture that we know, what is the one single thing that can keep someone out of heaven? Let me ask it another way. What is the unpardonable sin? What is the one sin that somebody can never be forgiven of? It’s simply rejecting Jesus. That is the same thing. Why? Because it’s the work of the Holy Spirit in someone’s life to reveal Jesus. And if you are saying, as that conviction comes, “That’s not God, that’s evil, or it’s evil to me, I don’t want it,” then you are blaspheming the Spirit. But we have an opportunity in this life to get that right, to receive that work, call the tree good and receive the work of the Holy Spirit – which is going to produce the new birth in our life.This doesn’t need to be a stumbling block to anyone. Let it not be a hindrance. If you desire the Lord, if you have a longing to walk with Him and be with Him and be in heaven, you can be sure, absolutely sure, that you haven’t committed the unpardonable sin. Guaranteed. Because that is the work of the Spirit in your life, the fact that you want Him. Look around us. There are so many people that don’t want Him. God is the reason that you are here being taught and desiring to learn and to grow and to walk with Him. No question about it. You say, “Man, I hope I haven’t committed it.” You haven’t! If you want to be forgiven you can be. The scriptures tell us very plainly, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved…” That’s you and me.
Any person who desires to come to God can. This is a sign that the Holy Spirit is not being blasphemed in your life. The work of the Holy Spirit is to draw people to Jesus, the risen Savior and Lord. He is drawing you to the Lord. No one can accidentally slip into committing a sin that cannot be forgiven. This fact remains, if you have received Jesus, you are saved. If you have not, but will come to God through the Son, you will be forgiven of all sin in your life. There is only one sin that cannot be forgiven – it is the rejection of Jesus. He is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.
Although there are some who refer to things like speaking in tongues as “of the devil” and although this is a part of what the Holy Spirit does in our lives, that work of the Spirit is not a prerequisite of salvation and thus not prohibitive of eternal forgiveness of all sin. At the same time, one should be very cautious of even approaching this type of behavior knowing the level of seriousness that Jesus gave to this matter.