Eternal sin

In Christian hamartiology, eternal sin, the unforgivable sin, unpardon sin, or ultimate sin is the sin which will not be forgiven by God. One eternal or unforgivable sin (blasphemy against the Holy Spirit), also known as the sin unto death, is specified in several passages of the Synoptic Gospels, including Mark 3:28–29, Matthew 12:31–32, and Luke 12:10, as well as other New Testament passages including Hebrews 6:4–6, Hebrews 10:26–31, and 1 John 5:16.
The unforgivable sin is interpreted by Christian theologians in various ways, although they generally agree that one who has committed the sin is no longer able to repent, and so one who is fearful that they have committed it has not done so.
Several passages in the New Testament are frequently interpreted as referring to the unforgivable sin:
The teaching of Jacob Arminius defined the unforgivable sin as "the rejection and refusing of Jesus Christ through determined malice and hatred against Christ". However, Arminius differed with Calvin in believing that sin could be committed by believers, a conclusion he reached through his interpretation of Hebrews 6:4–6.
John Wesley, the father of the Methodist tradition, discussed the unforgivable sin in a sermon titled A Call to Backsliders, in which he wrote that "this blasphemy is absolutely unpardonable; and that, consequently, for those who have been guilty of this, God 'will be no more entreated'." A prominent Methodist catechism, "A Catechism on the Christian Religion: The Doctrines of Christianity with Special Emphasis on Wesleyan Concepts" states:
This Wesleyan–Arminian interpretation of the unforgivable sin includes the deliberate labeling of good as evil, as rejecting the conviction of the Holy Spirit, of publicly attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan, and attributing the work of Jesus to Satan. The United Methodist Church, a Methodist connexion, thus teaches:
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also nicknamed Mormons, have a similar understanding of eternal sin. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, said in the King Follett discourse:
Church apostle and later President of the Church, Spencer W. Kimball, stated that "the sin against the Holy Ghost requires such knowledge that it is manifestly impossible for the rank and file [of the church] to commit such a sin".
John Calvin, the founder of the Reformed tradition of Christianity (which includes the Continental Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregationalist and Reformed Anglican denominations) wrote:
The Church Fathers considered additional interpretations other than it being to attribute the Holy Spirit's works to Satan with Augustine of Hippo calling it one of the more difficult passages of Scripture. Thomas Aquinas summarized the Church Fathers' treatments and proposed three possible explanations:
In the context of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, blasphemy against the Spirit is the sin of attributing to Satan what is the work of the Spirit of God, such as when the Pharisees earlier accused Jesus of driving out demons only by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons. The Catholic Encyclopedia cites Matthew 12:22–32; Mark 3:22–30; Luke 12:10 (cf. 11:14–23) and gives one definition of "the unforgivable sin"—or sin against the Holy Ghost—as ″to sin against the Holy Ghost is to confound Him with the spirit of evil, it is to deny, from pure malice, the Divine character of works manifestly Divine.″ The article further states that "sin against the Son of Man" may be forgiven because it is committed against the human person of Christ, which veils the Divine with a "humble and lowly appearance," and therefore such sin is excusable because it is committed through "man's ignorance and misunderstanding."
According to the Catechism of the Council of Trent, referencing Ambrose's Concerning Repentance, the Church believes there is no offence, however serious, that cannot be taken away by Baptism, or absolved from in the Confessional—that no one, however wicked and guilty, may not confidently hope for forgiveness.
Thomas Aquinas lists, or responds to, six sins that go against the Holy Spirit:
Thomas Aquinas explains that the unforgivability of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit means that it removes the entrance to these means of salvation; however, it cannot hinder God in taking away this obstacle by way of a miracle.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that, while no sin is absolutely "unforgivable", some sins represent a deliberate refusal to repent and accept the infinite mercy of God; a person committing such a sin refuses God's forgiveness, which can lead to self-condemnation to Hell. In other words, one damns oneself by final impenitence (refusal to repent), as taught by John Paul II:
The Catechism says that Christ desires "the gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who turns away from sin." As did St Augustine, the Catholic Church today teaches that only dying unrepentant for one's sins is the only unforgivable sin. In Dominum et vivificantem, Pope John Paul II writes "According to such an exegesis, 'blasphemy' does not properly consist in offending against the Holy Spirit in words; it consists rather in the refusal to accept the salvation which God offers to man through the Holy Spirit, working through the power of the Cross", and "If Jesus says that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven either in this life or in the next, it is because this "non-forgiveness" is linked, as to its cause, to "non-repentance," in other words to the radical refusal to be converted. This means the refusal to come to the sources of Redemption, which nevertheless remain "always" open in the economy of salvation in which the mission of the Holy Spirit is accomplished."
The importance of prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17: "pray without ceasing") and humility (Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner") in Christianity is reflected by an Orthodox catechism as follows:
According to Southern Baptist pastor Billy Graham, continuing to reject Jesus is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
A very similar, although not identical, parallel to Matthew 12:31–32 can be found in the Avot of Rabbi Natan:
However, Talmudic sources in several places qualify the above and similar statements and explain it to mean only that repentance is made more difficult because of the severity of such a sin. The Talmud's golden rule is that the gates of repentance are never, ever closed and, to quote Maimonides, "even if one is a heretic his whole life and repents on his dying day, his penitence is accepted."
In the Quran, shirk is an unpardonable sin:
One who persists in shirk without repenting at death is doomed to eternal damnation in Jahannam. Shirk includes polytheism, such as believing Jesus is God or taking rabbis as one's lords in derogation to God.(Quran 9:30)