The unforgivable sin-2

ANDREW FULFORD SAID:

“1) What would you say to a professing Christian who feared they had committed this sin?”

One thing he should do is simply compare himself to the test-cases.

Is what he has done analogous to what the Pharisees did (Mt 12:22-32; Mk 3:22-30)?

Obviously not. The Pharisees who committed this sin (and not all Pharisees were guilty of the sin in question) never believed in Jesus. They never accepted his claims. And they accused him of sorcery to deflect the miraculous attestation.

Is this analogous to the situation of a professing believer who fears that he has committed the unforgivable sin? Not in the least.

To begin with, he doesn’t reject the claims of Christ. Even if, at some point in his life he did, he is now a professing Christian. Unless he were a believer, he wouldn’t harbor this anxiety in the first place. He wouldn’t take the sin seriously.

Did the Pharisees who committed this sin fret over the unforgivable sin? Not at all. They felt entirely justified in their repudiation of Christ.

So, if you compare the two, all you end up with is a point-blank contrast.

What about Lk 12:8-12? There are obviously instances in which professing believers deny their faith under duress.

Taken in isolation, they would seem to be guilty of the unforgivable sin.

But in the very same gospel we have a paradigm-case of a believer who denied his Lord on Good Friday (Lk 22).

Was Peter damned? No. He underwent spiritual restoration.

So Lk 12:8-10, considered in the light of Peter’s experience, has something more permanent in mind than a temporary loss of nerve.

Rather, it’s dealing with people play it safe from start to finish. They never make a public commitment to Christ because they’re afraid of persecution, from being socially ostracized to martyred for the faith.

“2) What would you say to someone who feared that because they had said some disparaging comments about what they thought were strange charismatic occurrences?”

There are several issues here:

i) It depends in part, on the prior question of where you come down on the issue of the spiritual gifts. If you don’t think that Pentecostal writers have made a convincing case for apostles, prophets, healers, &c. in the life of the contemporary church, then the relation to the unforgivable sin is moot.

If, by definition, you don’t believe in Pentecostalism, then you don’t believe such individuals are filled or empowered by the Holy Spirit, in which case there is no Holy Spirit within them to blaspheme. Or even if there is, what they are doing has no connection to the indwelling of the Spirit. It’s something they do in spite of the Spirit, and not because of it.

ii) It’s also a mistake to limit yourself to just two alternatives, as if the only way to evaluate a charismatic claim is to either say so-and-so is anointed by the Holy Spirit or else he’s possessed by the devil. There are other options, viz.,

a) S0-and-so may simply be a standard-issue charlatan. It’s all showmanship. You don’t have to be possessed to be a flim-flam man.

b) So-and-so may be sincere, but self-deluded.

c) Another possibility, if Kurt Koch is correct, is that some men and women inherited a form of mediumistic magic. They may have genuine powers, and those powers may have an occultic origin, but the individual is innocent of their origin. And the individual is not possessed, although his paranormal abilities are something of a family curse.

iii) As you know, the Bible has a lot to say about false prophets, both in the OT and NT.

Now, if a false prophet could silence criticism by playing the card of the unforgivable sin, then he would be immune to criticism.

But that would be a form of spiritual extortion. It would be impossible under such circumstances to ever heed the Scriptural warnings and forewarnings about false prophets in our own experience. We could not obey those admonitions.

So the verses about the unforgivable sin were never meant to immunize a spiritual claimant from honest scrutiny.

Continuing:
HEY SAID:

“What about the scripture that says, ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.’ If we confess the sin against the Holy Spirit, will God forgive us?”

i) Yes, that’s a good Scripture, and it’s one of the things we need to take into account in arriving at a balanced position.

ii) However, the question assumes that the Christian who appeals to this verse of Scripture was guilty of blaspheming the Spirit in the first place.

My impression is that most folks who are haunted by the fear of having committed this sin have simply misinterpreted the relevant verses. They have misidentified themselves as falling under the scope of the verses in question.

The problem is with their self-classification. They never did what the verses are talking about.

“I've had unforgivable-sin phobia for 5 years now. It's very hard to live with.”

Several steps:

i) The first thing you need to do is to achieve intellectual clarity. To think correctly about what the Bible actually teaches on this subject. I hope what I’ve said thus far facilitates that process.

ii) You should then embrace a passage like the one you quoted (1 Jn 1:9). Claim that promise. Personalize that promise. That verse has your name on it. Sign your name under that promise.

iii) Ignore your feelings. Make your head lead your heart. Start with head-knowledge. A correct knowledge of what the Bible teaches. Don’t let the heart lead the head. Not when you’re suffering from spiritual depression or emotional oppression.

You need to wean yourself of your phobia. It doesn’t necessarily happen overnight. Rather, you wean yourself of this phobia by doing several things:

a) Starve it. Neglect it. Ignore it. Consciously put it out of your mind.

b) Replace it in your thoughts with the promises of Scripture (1 Jn 9). Memorize Bible verses that stress the believer’s assurance of salvation.

c) Memorize hymns that stress the believer’s assurance of salvation. Sing them to yourself.

d) Read edifying Christian literature. Poetry. Stuff by John Piper. Christian biographies.

e) Spend time with upbeat Christian friends.

f) You may need to change churches. Maybe you’re in the wrong church. Even if it’s doctrinally sound, you may feel beaten down all the time.

g) Tell the devil to go to hell! :-)

iv) Spiritual depression can also have natural aggravating factors. Some people have a melancholic disposition. Some people have suffered personal loss. Some people are depressed by a dreary climate. There are also differences in national character.

Make allowance for natural factors. Don’t attribute everything to personal failings. No one gets through life without his share of discouragements. Don’t spiritualize everything, as if every regret or setback or foreboding is a black mark against your faith and sanctification. Life in a fallen world is a bruising experience. Look ahead.