Blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, The Unforgivable Sin?

[Cardinalsong]

My husband and I were discussing this the other day & he’s so afraid of thinking about it let alone understanding what this exactly means that I thought I would ask you, my CA friends, to help with this passage of scripture, which has always been a little confusing:

Mark 3:28-29
28 Amen I say to you, that all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and the blasphemies wherewith they shall blaspheme: 29 But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, shall never have forgiveness, but shall be guilty of an everlasting sin.

I know part of this pertains to verse 30:

30 Because they said: He hath an unclean spirit.

and even the verses before:

Mark 3:21-25
21 And when his friends had heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him. For they said: He is become mad. 22 And the scribes who were come down from Jerusalem, said: He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of devils he casteth out devils. 23 And after he had called them together, he said to them in parables: How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

So does this mean if you accuse the Holy Spirit as being of Satan then you are blaspheming Him? Or is there more to it then what I understand it to be?

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Equus_Pallidus]

So does this mean if you accuse the Holy Spirit as being of Satan then you are blaspheming Him? Or is there more to it then what I understand it to be?

Any help would be much appreciated.

:bless you:

Good question, Beelzebub is not Satan, but second in command. As far as blaspheming the Holy Spirit, a better answer would be to think of the Church. Jesus handed authority to the Church through Peter, Matthew 16:

*16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades] will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. *

So to Blaspheme the Holy Spirit today is to Blaspheme the Church, that is what you need to know. Respect and obey Church dogma, for if you call it from Satan as many do today, and call the RCC a cult, they blaspheme the Holy Spirit.

But remember Jesus also said “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. So if we do not forgive others, neither are we forgiven, and is an unforgivable sin as well.

 

[nkelly]

Hello, I don’t mean to hijack this thread, but if God’s mercy is infinite, why can’t He forgive blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?

God bless,
Noel.

 

[thistle]

See the Catechism for what the Church teaches on this:

CCC 1864 “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.” There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit. Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss.

 

[richardeekw]

Hello, I don’t mean to hijack this thread, but if God’s mercy is infinite, why can’t He forgive blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?

God bless,
Noel.

Yes nKelly
God’s mercy is infinite and He is every ready to forgive anyone - BUT God is also Just and respects the FREE WILL given to us, to accept or to reject Him.

This is why the Catholic Church does not condemn anyone - even someone committing suiside may at the MERCY and INFINITE LOVE of God seek forgiveness at the final :“Hour of GRACE”: - Only God knows Man’s hearts in the final Judgement.

To “Blaspheme against the Holy Spirit” is to REJECT TOTALLY THE GRACE OF THE GOODNESS OF GOD and so long as one is breathing…one has the opportunity to repent and to accept God’s Love.

 

[slowbutfaithful]

See the Catechism for what the Church teaches on this:

CCC 1864 “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.” There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit. Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss.

The ‘blasphemy’ referred to here doesn’t involve foul language or associating the Holy Spirit with Satan. Rather, it refers to denying to power of the Holy Spirit. The common example of such a sin to deny (refuse to accept) God’s forgiveness for sin – that is, to think that your sin to so aggregious that God could not possibly forgive it. This idea effectively says your sin is bigger/stronger than the Holy Spirit (through whom the Father forgives); that is blasphemy.

 

[Cardinalsong]

See the Catechism for what the Church teaches on this:

CCC 1864 “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.” There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit. Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss.

OK, that makes things a lot clearer. It’s always been something on the back of my mind & I wondered whether I’ve ever comitted this sin.

Makes one see how really REALLY important confession really is!

 

[Cardinalsong]

The ‘blasphemy’ referred to here doesn’t involve foul language or associating the Holy Spirit with Satan. Rather, it refers to denying to power of the Holy Spirit. The common example of such a sin to deny (refuse to accept) God’s forgiveness for sin – that is, to think that your sin to so aggregious that God could not possibly forgive it. This idea effectively says your sin is bigger/stronger than the Holy Spirit (through whom the Father forgives); that is blasphemy.

This elaborates the confession aspect even more. I can’t remember how many times after repenting of my sins wondering if I was forgiven or if God would ever forgive me.

I’m not Catholic yet (that’s a story for another thread that I may or may not start) so I’ve never gone to confession before. I never understood why one would confess to a priest when you could go straight to God yourself. I couldn’t see how a priest could forgive your sins. Of course through all the study, EWTN, CA and help from all of you, I’ve learned that you must confess your sins to one another. I know now it isn’t the priest himself doing the forgiving, but the priest In Persona Christi who forgives, absolves our sins.

 

[The_Confused_1]

The ‘blasphemy’ referred to here doesn’t involve foul language or associating the Holy Spirit with Satan. Rather, it refers to denying to power of the Holy Spirit. The common example of such a sin to deny (refuse to accept) God’s forgiveness for sin – that is, to think that your sin to so aggregious that God could not possibly forgive it. This idea effectively says your sin is bigger/stronger than the Holy Spirit (through whom the Father forgives); that is blasphemy.

Might I add, This is the reason Judas Ecariot might have gone to hell. He committed suicide thinking that his sin was so grave that not even God could forgive him. But someone please correct me if im wrong.

 

[jbuck919]

This is a perpetually difficult passage. Unfortunately, the straightforward explanation, which is usually the correct one, is, again as usual, rather difficult to swallow. It is a tautological way of saying “you are cursed if you curse me.” In other words, if these are truly the words of Jesus, and they probably are because his most difficult sayings are from a text critical point of view most likely to be authentic, he was telling his detractors to go to, well, you know where. I doubt that much more exegesis is needed for this particular passage, though we might not wish it so.

 

[spauline]

might I suggest a possible historical meaning of the sin? Consider the demons who, as are hypothesized to have known the whole Plan of God to Redeem Humanity from the beginning to the end by the power of the Sanctifying Holy Spirit, such that, as Christ told Faustina, “because they KNEW so much,” their sin was unforgivable when they rebelled. How much more so then will the great apostasy at the end of the world be unforgivable, when, after having experienced the fullness of the Gentiles in the coming Age of Peace, humanity will have learned its lesson of all sin and errors and having been granted a sabbath rest from the sin of history, it rebels a second time in apostasy against Mother Church, the world will then no longer have an excuse for its lack of faith, for as with the angels, God will have given to humanity everything that can be tasted short only of the beatific vision in the New Creation itself, and so, at that time, it will be “impossible” for humanity to be reconverted (Hebrews 6), and so the world will be blashpeming the Holy Spirit historically by denying the totality of His Redemption in history, from the Flood all the way to restored Catholic Christendom, saying it was all a waste. Such a sin will be historically such utter blasphemy, it will be “unforgivable.”

 

[Des]

but the priest In Persona Christi who forgives, absolves our sins.

You said that better than some Catholics I know.