From: jfb@macsch.com (John Baskette)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Lost Salvation
Date: 19 Nov 92 07:22:19 GMT
Organization: MacNeal-Schwendler Corp.

In article <Nov.15.18.23.15.1992.23305@geneva.rutgers.edu> turtle@brahms.udel.edu (Anthony J Collins) writes:
>Can I have the Book Chapter and verse to back up the statement, "It is
>impossible for an Elect Son of God to blaspheme the Holy Spirit".  YOU 
>WILL NOT FIND IT!
>
>Tony

May I add my comments to this thread?

For a good year and a half after I first became a Christian, I was very
worried about this issue.  I thought that I may have committed this sin and
was therefore eternally lost.  I thought that I was I Like Esau who sold 
his birthright for one morsel of meat and who, "when he would have 
inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of 
repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." (Heb 12:17) 

I also once knew a teenager who, in an attempt to free himself from the 
moral strictures to which he felt bound, deliberately tried to blaspheme
the Holy Spirit.  Later, after he repented and turned again to the Lord,
he deeply regretted his attempt and feared that he too was one of those
sons of perdition who desired repentance, but whom the Lord could never
forgive.

No Christians that I knew at the time (or since for that matter) believed
that anyone could be in this situation.  The belief was that "him that 
cometh to me (Jesus) I will in no wise cast out.".  This conclusion I think 
was correct, but many accompanying arguments were not convincing to me at 
the time.  These other arguments were along the lines of re-defining 
blasphemy of the Holy Spirit as being "final rejection of Christ" and 
assertions that once your are saved, your are always saved so it is 
impossible for a Christian to commit this sin.  Since these other 
arguments were not convincing to me, I had a difficult time dealing with 
this fear.

I think that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit was just what it says in the 
text.  The Pharisees called the Holy Spirit through whom Jesus cast out 
demons an unclean spirit.

My deliverance from this terrible doubt came about through a better 
understanding of repentance and faith.  It seems clear to me now 
that no one can repent and believe in Christ apart from the working
of God.  "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent
me draw him" (John 6:44), and "him that cometh to me I will in no wise 
cast out" (John 6:37).  If me or my friend had actually committed an
unpardonable sin, then the Father would not have drawn us to repentance
and faith in Christ.  We can conclude this because we know that Jesus
will not cast out anyone who comes to Him.  He would have to cast us
out if we were guilty of an unpardonable sin.

This is taught in Hebrews 6, "For it is impossible for those who were
once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made
partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and
the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew 
them again to repentance."  Those spoken of here have not necessarily
blasphemed the Holy Spirit, but they have knowingly rejected the gifts
and power of God.  Note that the passage does not say that these 
individuals can repent and cannot be saved.  It says that it is not 
possible for us to renew them to repentance at all.  The same can be 
said of any individual who blasphemes the Holy Spirit.  Their sin is 
unpardonable, therefore they cannot repent and believe, period.

What about my friend who says he really did it?  He repented, therefore
he could not really have done it.  

Mark 3:29 says, "he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath 
never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation; because they 
said, He hath an unclean spirit."  It would seem that one who "hath never 
forgiveness" is eternally damned, not in danger of eternal damnation.  I 
interpret the passage to mean that while the Pharisees did call the spirit
in Christ unclean, it is possible that they did not actually blaspheme the 
Holy Spirit.  They were in danger of doing so, but they may not have 
recognized that it was the Holy Spirit who was in Christ.  

I conclude from these passages that only someone who knowingly and willfully 
blasphemes the Holy Spirit actually commits an unpardonable sin.  
Furthermore, a person who commits this sin will not ever repent and come to 
Christ.  A person who has repented and come to Christ necessarily has not 
committed this sin.  

The Heb. 12:17 passage does not describe someone who is seeking repentance 
but cannot because he is rejected.  Esau was not seeking repentance at all.  
He was seeking his lost birthright.  The earlier verses read, "Follow peace 
with all men . . . lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and 
thereby many be defiled; lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as 
Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. . .".  The root of 
bitterness is a allusion to Deut. 29:18 which speaks of those who turn from 
God and worship idols.  Esau is like Simon Magnus of Acts chapter 8 who 
sought to buy the gift of God with money.  It is not the case that he was 
repentant, he did not find any place of repentance meaning that he did not 
repent.   

Is it impossible for an Elect Son of God to blaspheme the Holy Spirit?  
The answer to that depends on your theology.  My belief is that if Judas 
was able to perform miracles and if the once enlightened of Hebrews Chap. 6 
can fall away and never repent again, then it would seem that just about any 
one who in all other respects appears to be a Christian could one day 
blaspheme the Holy Spirit.  Was such a person never really saved or elect, 
or was the person really saved but lost it through apostasy?  This is a 
different issue than what I have addressed.  I have asked, "Can someone 
desire to be a Christian and repent of sin, but still be damned because of 
a sin God cannot forgive?"  No.  "Can someone commit an unpardonable sin 
and continue to be what to all outward appearances is a 'real' Christian?"  
Again No.

John