Music : Push - Till We Meet Again (Original Mix) (lyrics)
Luke 12:10
Everyone who says something against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But the person who dishonors the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. : (God's Word to the Nations 1995)
"If you bad-mouth the Son of Man out of misunderstanding or ignorance, that can be overlooked. But if you're knowingly attacking God himself, taking aim at the Holy Spirit, that won't be overlooked. (The Message 2003)
Yet those who speak against the Son of Man may be forgiven, but anyone who speaks blasphemies against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. (New Living Testament)
Sometimes, The Gospels make more sense to me when I take the paragraphs and read them backwards. I find sometimes Jesus embeds (thats a geek term for hide) the meaning up front, then supports it afterward. I'm dyslexic in a way, so to get the point that the supporting statements support and not the obvious (mis)leading statement all by itself, I'll read backward when I hit a 'what?' moment.
I'm not "learned" but I am confident biblical Greek grammar supports construct as normal. This way of leading with a conclusion then following with the reasons. If you read all the reasons though, the conclusion seems different than the leading statement by itself.
This paragraph (Luke 12:2-12) seems to be a good example of "read it backward to understand better." First, read the MSG forward, then the backward version below. Note that I've reversed each 'thought' like I do when I hit a moment where the supports seem to topple the first statement.
Luke 12:12-2
12b The Holy Spirit will give you the right words when the time comes.
12a The right words will be there.
11 When they drag you into their meeting places, or into police courts and before judges, don't worry about defending yourselves--what you'll say or how you'll say it.
10b If you're knowingly attacking God himself, taking aim at the Holy Spirit, that won't be overlooked.
10a But If you bad-mouth the Son of Man out of misunderstanding or ignorance, that can be overlooked.
9 But if you pretend you don't know me, do you think I'll defend you before God's angels?
8 "Stand up for me among the people you meet and the Son of Man will stand up for you before all God's angels.
7b So don't be intimidated by all this bully talk. You're worth more than a million canaries.
7a And he pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail--even numbering the hairs on your head!
6 What's the price of two or three pet canaries? Some loose change, right? But God never overlooks a single one.
5 Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life--body and soul--in his hands.
4d There's nothing "they" can do to your soul, your core being.
4c True, they can kill you, but then what can they do?
4b Don't be bluffed into silence or insincerity by the threats of religious bullies.
4a I'm speaking to you as dear friends.
3 You can't whisper one thing in private and preach the opposite in public; the day's coming when those whispers will be repeated all over town.
2c You can't hide behind a religious mask forever; sooner or later the mask will slip and your true face will be known.
2b before long you'll be exposed.
2a You can't keep your true self hidden forever;
(The Message)
When Jesus starts this lesson, it appears the ones hiding behind masks are the pharisees, but when you get to the bottom, it more or less says that the spirit will guide you when and what to say, so don't try to hold in the words. Reading it backward (for me who just gets it slow) Speak out if the spirit says to, if you are sure it's the spirit.
Holding in a word will 1. Get you on the B list (unless your out to replace Christ himself, or something like that...) 2. not work anyway... if someone's out to point fingers, your mouth open or closed is not going to help one bit.
Now that we talked about the big picture, we now look at the subject of this blog. Specifically, the words within this paragraph that say most things are forgiven except the "blasphemy against the Holy Ghost" (Luke 12:10 King James Version). This subject of the unforgivable sin brings up questions about "blasphemy" and "holy ghost" and "against" that consume volumes and still don't answer convincingly exactly what is the unforgivable sin. Did Nicodemus commit such a sin when he seemed to imply that Jesus 'second birth' involved reentering a womb for a second time?
If I name my wireless router 'John-3-8', am I being too irreverent? I pray this will be seen as evangelism, not blasphemy. Maybe someone without internet searching for a free ride will get curious what the verse refers to and look it up. I change the name of my router from time to time (on purpose) to various related verses as a tool of evangelism.
Back to blasphemy of the Holy Ghost: I don't think Nicodemus in his ignorance was condemned eternally just and only because of that impious statement which seems to be irreverent against the Holy Ghost. The passage in The Message above includes the word 'intentionally' in the verse 12 which, whether or not has basis in the original greek, does seem to fit the cause. Just about all non-believers are blaspheming against the spirit if irreverence counts for them. So, to be unforgivable, the perpetrator should be first Christian, or at least understand Christianity well enough to know what crime he is committing. But even then, I don't think that taking the Spirit lightly or using it in ways that are not pious is unforgivable. Maybe I should do more homework tho, to make sure my use of John 3:8 isn't unforgivable.
So, lets look at the other types of blasphemy to try to understand what the 'unforgivable sin' is:
blas⋅phe⋅my (ˈblæsfəmi ; [blas-fuh-mee])
–noun, plural -mies.
1. impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things.
2a. (in Judaism) an act of cursing or reviling God.
2b. (in Judaism) pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton (YHVH) in the original, now forbidden manner instead of using a substitute pronunciation such as Adonai.
3. (in Theology) the crime of assuming to oneself the rights or qualities of God.
4. irreverent behavior toward anything held sacred, priceless, etc.: He uttered blasphemies against life itself.
(Dictionary.com)
We've covered the 1st definition and some aspects of the 4th definition (but I will discuss the non-GOD aspects of the 4th definition.
So, the 2nd form of blasphemy defined by dictionary.com are the Blasphemies of Judaism (old testament?): the act of cursing or reviling God, and the pronunciation of the tetragrammaton (YHVH). Are they unforgivable sins? the 2nd one is definitely not, since it by definition is a sin against the Father, not the spirit. Likewise cursing God or Jesus would be forgivable sins since they do not invoke the spirit. However, the form of blasphemy that includes trying to curse the spirit itself doesn't by definition exclude itself, and to curse the spirit, one must have enough knowledge of the trinity to know about the Spirit. I'm no judge, but I'd steer clear of making curses against or about the Spirit.
The next form of blasphemy, according to the dictionary, is Theological Blasphemy: Trying to take the rights or qualities of God. In this form of Blasphemy is it only speaking of God the father? Investigating further, it would seem that you could commit blasphemy against each part of the trinity or the trinity itself by taking the rights or qualities of them. And again, the sin of claiming to be God the father or son could be forgiven, but claiming the rights or qualities of the spirit is dangerous ground. Ignorance may provide some covering. If I claim to have the authority of God, I would likely be blaspheeming, but not unforgivably. (The better way to say something like this would be to declare my actions by the authority of God and Jesus. That is, there are leaders (people who DO things in the name of Christ) on Earth, but all authority (respect, fear, worship) belongs to Christ and God. If I claimed to be able to heal people because I have the authority of the spirit, that might be an unforgivable sin (The better way to say something like that is that the spirit heals through believers, but never take the credit from the spirit.)
The last form of blasphemy listed at the website is the blasphemy of irreverent behavior. This form of blasphemy is similar to the first and overlaps considerably, but it is much broader in that the 'sacred traditions' need not be divinely inspired. While attending a megachurch last year, my phone range 3.1 minutes into the live televised sermon. It was very clear I had blasphemed the traditions in place there (obey the silence). I consider having your cellphone with you in church a distraction (and therefore something like a 2nd master). Normally I leave my phone in the car, but on this day I had ridden with a friend and I do believe I have committed blasphemy that day, but not against God or the spirit or Jesus, but against those who believe that perfect silence is required while taping is in progress. That is, this was an offront to others, but no sin was committed.
