Matthew 12:32
Matthew 12:31-32 (see also Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10; 1st John 5:16)
“Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”
Mark 3:22-30: “The scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebul,’ and ‘He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.’ And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’-- because they were saying, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’”
Question: If according to Mark 3:28, “all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter,” with the one exception of “whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit,” then from where does the atonement for all of the pardonable sins come from, if not from an Unlimited Atonement, being unlimited in scope, extended to all men, both indiscriminately and distributively?
Answer: Otherwise, for the purported non-elect, which have no atonement, and have no Savior, no sin would be pardonable, whether it be a blasphemy against the Son or the Holy Spirit.
Luke 12:10: “‘And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him.’”
Question: Was this an act of chivalry?
One member of The Society of Evangelical Arminians: “A Calvinist view of predestination necessitates that for anyone outside the elect, no sin is ever truly pardonable. Whether a person tells a white lie or blasphemes the Holy Spirit, a reprobate person is outside of God’s grace and can never be forgiven. Thus, for the non-elect, every sin is unpardonable. Alternately, God’s elect would never commit the unpardonable sin because God could not allow it and still save them. For the elect, all sins must be pardonable. The result is that Christ’s warning becomes utterly meaningless. If Jesus was warning people not to commit an act that would place them beyond redemption, then we have to believe it was something that they could really do. I do not claim to have the final answer as to what the unpardonable sin means, but I am certain Christ was not being academic. His warning was real -- and to me, it seems incompatible with a Calvinist view of Scripture.” (SEA, emphasis mine)
Another member of The Society of Evangelical Arminians: “The issue is that God testified by His Son in the last times (Heb. 1:1-2) and we know that the Son sent the Holy Spirit to bear witness to Him (among other things) after His ascension. After the witness of the Holy Spirit, there’s simply nothing left! After we have spurned God’s revelation in the Old Covenant (via prophets, Israel, the Torah, etc.), in the incarnate Son, and, lastly, in the Holy Spirit, there remains no further testimony that God is going to bring for the sake of our forgiveness. My former pastor said it like this: ‘It’s not that the Holy Spirit is the greatest; it’s that He is the latest.’ Jesus’ warning to the Pharisees was that they were on their third strike, having blasphemed both the Father and the Son by rejecting Christ, and well on their way to rejecting the ministry and witness of the Holy Spirit as well. Obviously, this warning is still true for us today, but it’s not about ‘one sin does you in.’ It’s about ongoing rejection of the ministry and testimony of the Spirit, who is God’s final witness to a fallen world.” (SEA)
An example of this is found at Acts 2:36-38: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ--this Jesus whom you crucified. Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”’ So even though they had blasphemed the Son, by crucifying Him, there was still the witness of the Holy Spirit, by which they had received the offer of forgiveness.
John Calvin: “Since the Lord declares that blasphemy against the Spirit is the worst of all sins, it will be well to enquire what He means by this word.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, A Harmony of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke, Vol. II, p.45, emphasis mine)
Agreed.
John Calvin: “It is that when once God’s power has been revealed there is no longer any excuse on the grounds of ignorance for those who reject Him.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, A Harmony of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke, Vol. II, p.45, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “Does some unbeliever curse God? It is as if a blind man came into collision with a wall. But he is not cursing the Spirit unless he has been enlightened by Him and is aware of his ungodly rebellion.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, A Harmony of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke, Vol. II, p.46, emphasis mine)
When Calvin says “enlightened” by the Holy Spirit, he does not mean Regenerated. However, if a person has been “enlightened” and has had God’s power “revealed to them,” then by that alone, don’t they have sufficient ability to repent, believe and be saved? The Calvinist answer is No, because it requires a new heart in order that their choice be rendered irresistible, (Ezekiel 36:26), which seems to work against the Calvinist proposition.
Now watch as Calvinism becomes even more preposterous. According to Calvinism, the Holy Spirit illumes only “the elect” so that they can believe, while at the same time, merely just enlightening the rest so that they are left just shy of believing. So, then, we might as well ask the Calvinist, why would God even bother to enlighten the alleged “non-elect,” if He has no intention of also illuminating them so that they can believe? Wouldn’t that just be God mocking the alleged, Total Inability of the lost? Therefore, isn’t it fair to say that Calvinism turns the love of God into malicious cruelty? Calvinism in no way reflects the indiscriminate love of Christ (Matthew 9:36) who “passes by” no one. (Luke 10:30-37)
John Calvin: “Why is this, but because only they blaspheme against the Spirit who disparage His gifts and power in contradiction to their own understanding? This is the point also of what we read in Mark, that the Pharisees were so severely threatened by Christ because they said that He was endowed with an unclean spirit, thus deliberately and maliciously turning light into darkness.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, A Harmony of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke, Vol. II, p.46, emphasis mine)
According to the Calvinism, the “gifts and power” of the Holy Spirit are election and regeneration. So is this Calvin’s subtle way of suggesting that anyone who disparages Calvinism has blasphemed the Holy Spirit? It would not be surprising at all, to see Calvin interpret it so. To Calvinists, Calvinism is the Gospel, and therefore to disparage Calvinism is to disparage the Gospel, which is also to disparage its author, the Holy Spirit. That is exactly what Calvinists want you to think, and what they have historically taught. You had to know that it would come to this.
John Calvin: “For blasphemy against the Spirit is a certain sign of reprobation. Hence it follows that whoever fall into it have been given a reprobate spirit.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, A Harmony of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke, Vol. II, p.47, emphasis mine)
If by God’s alleged “decree,” He deterministically predestined whatsoever comes to pass, as Calvinism teaches, then what should we learn from this, that God is the One who deterministically predestined that the vast majority of mankind would blaspheme the Holy Spirit? In contrast to Calvinism, to permit the free-will of others is one thing, but in terms of God allegedly, deterministically deciding on someone else’s behalf to commit the unpardonable sin, wouldn’t that be tantamount to God blaspheming His own Spirit?
John Calvin: “In this way God avenges contempt of His grace: He hardens the hearts of the reprobate so that they never desire to repent.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, A Harmony of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke, Vol. II, p.47, emphasis mine)
Question: How is God spurned by those with whom He, allegedly, withheld the only means by which to repent?
Answer: If, instead, they were given ability, say, by the evidence of Christ’s works and the faith-producing Gospel and the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and still rejected God’s offer of salvation, in the greatest gift that He could give, namely His only begotten Son, then you could say that God was spurned. You see, you can only reject what you’ve been offered. If it was never truly offered to you, then you cannot say that you rejected it. Therefore, if the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the rejection of the Holy Spirit, then it stands to reason that you had to have been legitimately offered the Holy Spirit, because again, you cannot reject what you’ve never been offered. Therefore, this sin, the unpardonable sin, stands as evidence that all men are offered the Holy Spirit, made possible by His conviction (John 16:8), made possible by Christ’s draw (John 12:32), and made possible by the Gospel’s power (Romans 1:16), so that if accepted (Revelation 3:20), results in the new birth of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit whereby a person is regenerated so that they can then live the Christian life of walking with Christ in the power and purpose that He has set before them. To illustrate, if Jesus comes knocking on your heart’s door, and you send Him away, then you clearly rejected His offer and spurned God. This is exactly what sets up the case for the unpardonable sin when the Holy Spirit convicts, and beckons to come into our heart, and we say, go away. An offer is made, an offer is rejected, and the Holy Spirit is blasphemed, and that’s the only sin that God will never forgive.
According to Calvinism, God doesn’t offer, but unilaterally implements, “Irresistible Grace.” That too, is not an offer. Therefore, according to Calvinism, who can even commit an unpardonable sin, since the eternally “passed by” are not offered the Holy Spirit, and “the elect” are unilaterally given the Holy Spirit preemptively and unconsciously without choice?
