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blasphimey, blasphemy, how ever you spell it
Is blasphemy an unforgivable sin?
for example: if you joke with your friends and say i am the god of the sun, would that be blashphemy and is it unforgivable
for example: if you joke with your friends and say i am the god of the sun, would that be blashphemy and is it unforgivable
Comments
As for the sample comment, its not necessarily blasphemy, just heretical..lol. I think as a joke its fine, I just would abstain from such comments, just in case it can be taken the wrong way or if somebody over hears it and gets ideas..etc.
Somebody please correct me for my benefit and the benefit of others
please keep me and my many weaknesses in your prayers
your sister in Christ
I think you're getting confused with these verses:
Luke 12:10
“And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.
Mark 3:29
but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”
Matthew 12:31
Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is defined as continual rejection of the work of the Holy Spirit in you (repentance) EVEN UNTO DEATH. This makes perfect sense because if you think about it, if someone does not repent (which is the work of the Holy Spirit) until he dies he will obviously not be forgiven, right? However, no matter what the person does in his lifetime, if he repents then he has listened to the Holy Spirit and will be forgiven.
thanks and please pray for my weakness
Please pray for me
-sister in Christ
I do think it is a sin. I do think it is taking the Lord's name in vain. But it seems to me that it is not the same as blasphemy, and certainly is not a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It seems to me that to blaspheme is to do more than use the Lord's name in vain, but it is to abuse and slander God in some way.
Now to jokingly say 'I am the god of Rock' or something like that does not seem to me to be either taking the Lord's name in vain, or blaspheming, though it is the sort of language I would not feel comfortable using myself. But saying that Eric Clapton is God seems to me to be taking things beyond what is appropriate, and for a Christian would be verging on sin, because we know the True God, and Eric Clapton is not him.
You do not seem to be rejecting the work of the Holy Spirit, you do not seem to me abusing or slandering God, on the contrary you seem to be concerned that you might have sinned. Do not allow Satan to tempt you to despair. Simply ask the Lord to forgive you for any bad or foolish language, ask for the grace to watch your speech better, and mention your concerns to your FoC. You have not committed an unforgivable sin, since you are clearly concerned that you may have offended God. But for the sake of your conscience do not make any jokes in the future which woud cause you to repent later.
May the Lord grant you peace
Father Peter
Romans 11
23 And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
Why would speaking something bad about the Holy Spirit be worse than speaking bad about Jesus? I can assure you blasphemy against the spirit is not a single sin.. there is no sin than can not be forgiven...
If blasphemy against the Spirit is what I think you think then St Paul will not go to heaven.. because he was rejecting jesus and persecuting His church because he did not believe in Him.. but He repented and believed..
And there were even pharisees who condenmed jesus to death and later repented as said in acts I think.
Also Jesus prayed Father forgive them on the cross to those people who were crucifying him who were those who mocked Jesus and did not believe in Him.. in fact that good thief on the cross was one of those who mocked jesus with the bad thief.. but later he repented and confessed ..Mark 15:32 unless there were more than two people who were crucified with him.. but I think not.
The following is from the pope from his book many years with the peoples questions part one : Biblical Questions
[ 13 ]
THE BLASPHEMY AGAINST
THE HOLY SPIRIT
Question:
The verse that says "Therefore I say to you, every sin and
blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy
against the Spirit will not be forgiven " (Matt. 12:31)
alarm me very much. Sometimes I think that I
committed the sin of blasphemy so I fall into despair.
Please explain the meaning of the blasphemy against the
Holy Spirit? And how is that there is no forgiveness
either in this age or in the age to come? How does this
unforgiveness coincide with the mercy of God and His
many promises?
Answer:
All your fears are temptations from the devil to make you fall
into despair so be comforted.
As for the meaning of the blasphemy against the Spirit and
the sin that is without forgiveness, this, with the grace of
God I shall explain to you.
The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not the unbelief in
the Holy Spirit or His Divinity or His work and it is not
42
insulting of the Holy Spirit. If the atheists believe, God forgives
them for their unbelief and their mockery of God and His Holy
Spirit. All those who followed Macedonius in his heresy and his
denial of the Divinity of the Holy Spirit, when repented the church
accepted, them and forgave them.
What then is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? And why
there is no forgiveness for it?
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. If the matter is so, that brings up a question:
43
What is the relation between lack of repentance and the
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
Obviously, a person cannot repent without the work of the Spirit
in him. For the Holy Spirit will reprove the world of sin (John
16:8) and lead the person in the spiritual life and encourage him.
He is the power that aids in every good work.
Without the communion of the Holy Spirit, no one can
accomplish any spiritual work.
So the refusal of the communion of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 13:14)
absolutely can not produce any good. For all the works of
righteousness the apostle had put under the title "fruit of the
Spirit" (GaL 5:22). That person without any fruit will be cut
down and thrown into the fire (Matt. 3:10) & (John 15:4-5).
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:
44
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 that 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.
Now we need to answer the last part of the question.
How this unforgiveness coincides with the mercy of God?
God is always ready to forgive and nothing prevents His
forgiveness, but the important thing is that the person repents to
deserve forgiveness.
If the person refuses repentance, God waits for his repentance till
the uttermost breath of his life, as happened with the thief at the
Lord's right hand. If the person refuses to repent all his life and
refuses the work of the Spirit in him till the time of his death then
he not God-blessed be His name would be responsible for the
perishing of his soul.
that is not related to the Holy Spirit at all
u just quoted sayedna al baba so i think your post is great! ;)
it's not off-topic, it's clarifying what blasphemy is.
your post and father peter's post and the other great posts show that deaconmark123 was not blaspheming against the Holy Spirit and is therefore NOT going to hell.
i think jokes with your friends are fine, as long as they know about you and your true beliefs and your jokes are not ways to avoid real discussions about religion
:)
much, this helped me understand so much because now I know the devil has been
doing this to me. Lately I have been drifting off from church, I stopped learning hymns, reading the bible, reading the agpeya, committing all types of sin that take
me away from God and church, so now I am trying to kill the thorn bush before it strangles the sowers seeds. And sorry to ask so many questions but also how do you repent, I know probably many people have beat me to asking this, but it is benificial for
me to have asked it.
Once again sorry and please pray for me and my journey throught spiritual struggle.
please pray for us too in our weaknesses, as we who have posted answers to you are also tempted in many ways and often fall. (i say this about myself, maybe the others are all v holy!)
i think the question you were initially asking was the question many of us ask, 'how can i be sure i'm not going to hell?' i.e. 'what is the minimum i need to do to be sure of salvation?'
wisely, this is a question the coptic orthodox church, like many churches, chooses not to answer. you may find short cuts to salvation elsewhere, but these are the sorts of things that saint paul was warning about in romans 6 when he discusses the desire of some in the church to 'go on sinning that grace may increase'.
so, why is there no answer to this question? it is because it is the wrong question!
instead, we should say 'what shall we do to please the Lord who has made Himself such a great sacrifice for us?'
now you have realised there was a motive behind your question, (it is the same whenever this question is asked), and that is neglect of the spiritual life. so you can now ask the second question, and, indeed, you have already realised some of the things you need to do to put that right.
first and foremost, anyone who has become far from God (here i am widening the discussion to include anyone struggling with this, this is not specifically just for deacon mark) should come in true repentance to Him, being very honest, saying 'i don't feel like being a Christian any more, it's all too hard and there seems to be no reward for all this goodness i try to do except a growing desire to beat up my enemies instead of pray for them'. ask God to show himself to you, and make a promise that you will not give up on yourself, as Jesus did not give up on you, instead 'taking on the nature of a servant.....obedient unto death' (philippians 2). then read the Bible and find out WHY it's worth living for God. start in philipians 2 or romans or the gospels. you can also learn a lot by going to church, but i am emphasizing the importance of personal devotions (Bible, agpeya, spiritual songs etc) because it's very easy to look holy and correct in church but to be empty inside. true worshipers worship in spirit and in Truth (john 4), God does not judge by appearances.
then ask God to send you His Holy Spirit to convict you of the wrong you have done and think of Jesus' wounds on the way to the cross that are a result of your sin. here the 'fraction to the son for anytime' is very useful. if anyone wants, i can find a link to it, or maybe someone else already has this. ask Him for forgiveness and a new life.
then (after you have been serious with God) go to your father of confession and tell him of your sins and your sincere desire to do good. take his advice! it will be tough! but don't worry about that, God is just using him to train you in the faith (hebrews 12:7).
if you don't have a father of confession or are not a Christian, do the first two steps and then pray for God to guide you to a church. check they live what they preach and then take their advice about your spiritual life. this website has lots of links and it should not be too hard to find a coptic church near you.
it is really worthwhile living for God, spreading a message of peace and forgiveness and knowing God's peace day by day are just some of the blessings to be found.
may God Himself continue to guide and feed us as we try to do His will.
Sorry again, Pray for the Peace of the world and FOR GLOBAL WARMING TO END