Speaking against the Holy Spirit.

G.J.I

"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."

what exactly does this mean?
may God guide u to Guide me.
George

Minrew

Dear George,

You have asked another wonderful question! :)
This verse seems quite scary, and very harsh indeed...it seems a bit too easy to commit this dangerous sin and it is very alarming.

Luckily for us...His Holiness Pope Shenouda III has answered this and many other questions very well in his book titled: "So Many Years with the Problems of People - Part One: Biblical Questions "
A copy of this can be found at H.H's official website: http://www.copticpope.org


But this is basically what he says ( extracts from the Pope's full answer):
******************************
The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not the insulting of the Holy Spirit.

The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the complete and continuous refusal of any work of the Spirit in the heart which is a life time refusal.
As a result of this refusal, man does not repent and accordingly God does not forgive him.
God in His mercy accepts every repentance and forgives as He said, "The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37) and the saints were correct in their saying: "All that
the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out". [There is no sin without forgiveness except that without repentance].

So if a person dies in his sin without repentance, he will perish as the Lord said "Unless you repent you will all likewise perish " (Luke 13:5). Then non repentance till death is the only sin that is without
forgiveness.

Obviously, a person cannot repent without the work of the Spirit in him.
He who refuses the Spirit, will not repent, and will not bring forth any spiritual fruit. If his refusal of the Spirit is a complete and life long refusal, then he will spend all his life without repentance, without works of righteousness and without fruit of the Spirit, so of course he will perish. This is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It is not that the person grieves the Spirit (Eph. 4:30) or quenches the Spirit (1Thess. 5:19) or resists the Spirit (Acts 7:51) but it is the complete and persistent refusal of the Spirit. So he would not repent and would not have fruits in a righteous life.
Here we are faced with a question:

What if a person refuses all works of the Spirit then turns back and accepts Him and repents?
We say that his repentance and acceptance of the Spirit even just before the end of his life, is an indication that the Spirit of God still works in him and led him to repentance. Then his refusal of the Spirit was not complete and not life long. A case like this is not a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit according to the definition mentioned before. To fall into a sin that has no forgiveness is a form of a war of the devil against us to make us fall into despair which will
destroy us, make us depressed; and that does not help us in any spiritual work.

To the person who asked the question I say: the mere asking of the question is an indication of your concern about eternal fate. This is not blasphemy against the Spirit.
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Hope that helps ;)
God Bless...
Please Pray for me

G.J.I

Minrew
really im reading that book at this moment, i must not have gotten up to that part.
thank u yet again for another gr8 response, God is Surely Guiding u well 2 Guide me.
i guess this rises another question, will one who has done Good his whole life, and repented all his life surely go to the same place as one who lived his life full of sin, and repented at the last moment. (eg the right hand thief)???
may God help to answer this one as well my friend.


pray 4 me the sinner
George
ps r u from australia, and is minrew, male or female name, sorry to ask but its unique

Mark423

My Sunday school teacher gave a lesson answering the very question you asked. He said that regardless of the point in time that a person makes their connection with god that they will all wind up in the same place. The reward is the same in spite of the duration of your spiritual life. A person I know told me of levels in heaven but I doubt he ever visited heaven, so I’m inclined to be skeptical.
-Mark

G.J.I

well we do know there are levels as Jesus said "in my places there are many manshions"
also that whole 7 heaven things, eg paul entered the 3rd heaven.
george
thnx 4 ur reply

Mark423

That’s very fascinating. You’ve grabbed my attention. Where in the bible can I find that?

G.J.I

ill look it up and get bak 2 u...

Mark423

okay, merci :)

Minrew

Hi George....

You asked me whether i am from Australia or not....

What i want to know, is What made you think that i was from Australia?

- Because, YES! I AM!!! I am Australian... (Sydney) - are you? ;)


About "Minrew"... All i'll say is that this is a combination of more than one name!!

...MALE!!


I learn just as much as you do from these forums...i only help where i can by the grace of God.... I really enjoy your questions. Keep up the good work. They are a benefit to ALL OF US and anyone who might have a similar question!

I am the sinner...
Please pray for me...
God Bless

G.J.I

yeh im from sydney too ;D
i go to saint marks church in arncliff
how bout u?
ur finished skool i take by lookin at ur responses...
good ur sydney buddy...
George

Minrew

Hi George,

I go to St. Demiana & St. Athanasius Church in Punchbowl.

My brother and I share this computer, so we just share this user name (instead of logging on and off)...

St. Mark's is a great church, have you ever been to St. Demiana's ???

G.J.I

yeh thats a nice church
so how old r u?
and st marks church is big with the youth...
George

Minrew

Yeah we got a good youth group as well... (but definitely not as big as yours!!! :o

petergergis

Hey George,
It is actually quite pretty simple. Jesus was the Son of God and we know that he is part of the Trinity. However, The Holy Spirit, an entity of the Trinity, is not man. Since Jesus was man, speaking against him, good be forgiven. Remeber our Lord Jesus Christ said forgive your brother 7 Times 70 times. So, in order for Jesus to continue to contain the qualities of a man, any sin against him must be forgiven. Nonetheless, any sin against the Holy Spirit(the entity of entities) may not be forgiven, as this is the ultimate sin. Hope this helps!