The sin that cannot be forgiven

[yoopersenior]

What is meant by blaspheming against the Holy Spirit?
Why can’t that be forgiven, even with Christ’s having died to forgive all sin?

 

[NPC]

In general, blasphemy is defined by the Catechism as using the name of God, of Jesus Christ, of the Virgin Mary, and of the saints in an offensive way. Paragraph 2148 elaborates on this. If you don’t own a copy of the catechism, it is available on the Vatican website, here.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says this on blasphemy against the Holy Spirit:

1864…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.

I think you might find this link to Pope John Paul II’s encyclical “Dominum et Vivificantem” helpful in answering your question - paragraph 46 specifically addresses the sin of blasphemy against the spirit.

 

[yoopersenior]

Thank you. That clarifies it.

One Pentecostal I knew said it was ridiculing Holy Spirit baptism, and speaking in tongues.

I don’t remember what the Lutherans said.

 

[Hiskid1973]

I’d say it’s rejecting/denying cursing against the Holy Spirit’s call to Jesus’s plan/offer for your salvation…

 

[pollylodges]

In general, blasphemy is defined by the Catechism as using the name of God, of Jesus Christ, of the Virgin Mary, and of the saints in an offensive way. Paragraph 2148 elaborates on this. If you don’t own a copy of the catechism, it is available on the Vatican website, here.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says this on blasphemy against the Holy Spirit:

1864…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.

I think you might find this link to Pope John Paul II’s encyclical “Dominum et Vivificantem” helpful in answering your question - paragraph 46 specifically addresses the sin of blasphemy against the spirit.

I thought it simply meant that if you believe that you do not need or want Gods’ forgivness.

From your reply one would get the impression that simply using Gods’ name in vain would be an unforgivable sin.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

I thought it simply meant that if you believe that you do not need or want Gods’ forgivness.

From your reply one would get the impression that simply using Gods’ name in vain would be an unforgivable sin.

Yikes, I hope that’s not true, 'cause I got a baaad mouth and sometimes, old habits dying hard as they do, certain phrases slip out…

I need to go Confess.

 

[COPLAND_3]

St. Thomas gives the greatest explanation I have ever seen!

Three meanings have been given to the sin against the Holy Ghost. For the earlier doctors, viz. Athanasius (Super Matth. xii, 32), Hilary (Can. xii in Matth.), Ambrose (Super Luc. xii, 10), Jerome (Super Matth. xii), and Chrysostom (Hom. xli in Matth.), say that the sin against the Holy Ghost is literally to utter a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, whether by Holy Spirit we understand the essential name applicable to the whole Trinity, each Person of which is a Spirit and is holy, or the personal name of one of the Persons of the Trinity, in which sense blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is distinct from the blasphemy against the Son of Man (Matthew 12:32), for Christ did certain things in respect of His human nature, by eating, drinking, and such like actions, while He did others in respect of His Godhead, by casting out devils, raising the dead, and the like: which things He did both by the power of His own Godhead and by the operation of the Holy Ghost, of Whom He was full, according to his human nature. Now the Jews began by speaking blasphemy against the Son of Man, when they said (Matthew 11:19) that He was “a glutton . . . a wine drinker,” and a “friend of publicans”: but afterwards they blasphemed against the Holy Ghost, when they ascribed to the prince of devils those works which Christ did by the power of His own Divine Nature and by the operation of the Holy Ghost.

Augustine, however (De Verb. Dom., Serm. lxxi), says that blasphemy or the sin against the Holy Ghost, is final impenitence when, namely, a man perseveres in mortal sin until death, and that it is not confined to utterance by word of mouth, but extends to words in thought and deed, not to one word only, but to many. Now this word, in this sense, is said to be uttered against the Holy Ghost, because it is contrary to the remission of sins, which is the work of the Holy Ghost, Who is the charity both of the Father and of the Son. Nor did Our Lord say this to the Jews, as though they had sinned against the Holy Ghost, since they were not yet guilty of final impenitence, but He warned them, lest by similar utterances they should come to sin against the Holy Ghost: and it is in this sense that we are to understand Mark 3:29-30, where after Our Lord had said: “But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost,” etc. the Evangelist adds, “because they said: He hath an unclean spirit.”

But others understand it differently, and say that the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, is a sin committed against that good which is appropriated to the Holy Ghost: because goodness is appropriated to the Holy Ghost, just a power is appropriated to the Father, and wisdom to the Son. Hence they say that when a man sins through weakness, it is a sin “against the Father”; that when he sins through ignorance, it is a sin “against the Son”; and that when he sins through certain malice, i.e. through the very choosing of evil, as explained above (I-II, 78, 1,3), it is a sin “against the Holy Ghost.”

Now this may happen in two ways. First by reason of the very inclination of a vicious habit which we call malice, and, in this way, to sin through malice is not the same as to sin against the Holy Ghost. On another way it happens that by reason of contempt, that which might have prevented the choosing of evil, is rejected or removed; thus hope is removed by despair, and fear by presumption, and so on, as we shall explain further on (Q 20,21). Now all these things which prevent the choosing of sin are effects of the Holy Ghost in us; so that, in this sense, to sin through malice is to sin against the Holy Ghost.

 

[COPLAND_3]

Here is the rest

According to the various interpretations of the sin against the Holy Ghost, there are various ways in which it may be said that it cannot be forgiven. For if by the sin against the Holy Ghost we understand final impenitence, it is said to be unpardonable, since in no way is it pardoned: because the mortal sin wherein a man perseveres until death will not be forgiven in the life to come, since it was not remitted by repentance in this life.

According to the other two interpretations, it is said to be unpardonable, not as though it is nowise forgiven, but because, considered in itself, it deserves not to be pardoned: and this in two ways. First, as regards the punishment, since he that sins through ignorance or weakness, deserves less punishment, whereas he that sins through certain malice, can offer no excuse in alleviation of his punishment. Likewise those who blasphemed against the Son of Man before His Godhead was revealed, could have some excuse, on account of the weakness of the flesh which they perceived in Him, and hence, they deserved less punishment; whereas those who blasphemed against His very Godhead, by ascribing to the devil the works of the Holy Ghost, had no excuse in diminution of their punishment. Wherefore, according to Chrysostom’s commentary (Hom. xlii in Matth.), the Jews are said not to be forgiven this sin, neither in this world nor in the world to come, because they were punished for it, both in the present life, through the Romans, and in the life to come, in the pains of hell. Thus also Athanasius adduces the example of their forefathers who, first of all, wrangled with Moses on account of the shortage of water and bread; and this the Lord bore with patience, because they were to be excused on account of the weakness of the flesh: but afterwards they sinned more grievously when, by ascribing to an idol the favors bestowed by God Who had brought them out of Egypt, they blasphemed, so to speak, against the Holy Ghost, saying (Exodus 32:4): “These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt.” Therefore the Lord both inflicted temporal punishment on them, since “there were slain on that day about three and twenty thousand men” (Exodus 32:28), and threatened them with punishment in the life to come, saying, (Exodus 32:34): “I, in the day of revenge, will visit this sin . . . of theirs.”

Secondly, this may be understood to refer to the guilt: thus a disease is said to be incurable in respect of the nature of the disease, which removes whatever might be a means of cure, as when it takes away the power of nature, or causes loathing for food and medicine, although God is able to cure such a disease. So too, the sin against the Holy Ghost is said to be unpardonable, by reason of its nature, in so far as it removes those things which are a means towards the pardon of sins. This does not, however, close the way of forgiveness and healing to an all-powerful and merciful God, Who, sometimes, by a miracle, so to speak, restores spiritual health to such men.

 

[Linda_Marie]

You have to read the entire passage and not just the one line on its own.

NAB Matthew 12:22-37

22
Then they brought to him a demoniac who was blind and mute. He cured the mute person so that he could speak and see.
23
All the crowd was astounded, and said, “Could this perhaps be the Son of David?”
24
But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man drives out demons only by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons.”
25
But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and no town or house divided against itself will stand.
26
And if Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself; how, then, will his kingdom stand?
27
And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? Therefore they will be your judges.
28
But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
29
How can anyone enter a strong man’s house and steal his property, unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.
30
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
31
Therefore, I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
32
And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
33
“Either declare the tree good and its fruit is good, or declare the tree rotten and its fruit is rotten, for a tree is known by its fruit.
34
You brood of vipers, how can you say good things when you are evil? For from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.
35
A good person brings forth good out of a store of goodness, but an evil person brings forth evil out of a store of evil.
36
I tell you, on the day of judgment people will render an account for every careless word they speak.
37
By your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

The Pharisees attributed the driving out of demons, the Work of the Holy Spirit, to the power of Beelzebul. Jesus says this is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Jesus then reiterates a previous teaching - ‘by their fruits you shall know them’. A good tree brings forth good fruit as a good person brings forth good words and good works. A rotten tree produces rotten fruit just as an evil person brings forth evil words and evil works.

If you want to determine if something is the work of the Holy Spirit or not, look at the fruits. Do not attribute to evil what is the work of God.

That’s what I get out of it, anyway.

 

[NPC]

I thought it simply meant that if you believe that you do not need or want Gods’ forgivness.

From your reply one would get the impression that simply using Gods’ name in vain would be an unforgivable sin.

Not so. I simply started my post by giving the Church’s teaching on blasphemy in general - which, of course, does include taking God’s name in vain. I addressed the specific teaching of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit afterwards.
As Linda Marie rightly said, that passage from Scripture - as is always the case - must be taken in context. The pharisees were indeed guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit because they attributed the “fruits” of Christ’s ministry to the devil instead of the Holy Spirit.

Christ himself said it: “Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.”

 

[Ron_Conte]

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is nothing else but final impenitance. Whowever commits an actual mortal sin and refuses through the last moment of life to repent from that sin commits blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. For it is to the Holy Spirit that we account the conversion of sinners. If you are still alive, you have not committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (at least, not yet).

Any and all sins without exception can be forgiven in this life:

1. with imperfect contrition (attrition) and Confession,
2. or with perfect contrition alone, if Confession is not available,
3. or (ideally) with both perfect contrition and Confession.

There is no sin that cannot be forgiven in any of the above three ways. There is no sin that is capable of cutting the human person off from the grace for subsequent repentance and forgiveness.

 

[Thankful10]

What is meant by blaspheming against the Holy Spirit?
Why can’t that be forgiven, even with Christ’s having died to forgive all sin?

Blaspheming against the Holy Spirit?
To me blaspheming the Holy Spirit means, among other things, lying to the Holy Spirit.
One way a person can lie to the Holy Spirit is the way Ananias and Sapphira did in (Acts 5:1-11).
A person who has been given the Holy Spirit, has come to know God, and is being led by the Holy Spirit is telling God that he or she love him. When that person deliberately commits a sin he or she is lying to the Holy Spirit. One who knows God and loves God will not sin.
(1 John 3: 3 - 9) “Surely everyone who entertains this hope must purify himself, must try to be as pure as Christ. Any one who sins at all breaks the law, because to sin is to break the law. Now you know that He appeared in order to abolish sin, and that in Him there is no sin; **anyone who lives in God does not sin, and anyone who sins has never seen Him or known Him. ** My children do not let anyone lead you astray; to live a holy life is to be holy just as He is holy; to lead a sinful life is to belong to the Devil, since the Devil was a sinner from the beginning. It was to undo all that the Devil has done that the Son of God appeared. No one who has been begotten by God sins: because God’s seed remains inside him, he cannot sin when he has been begotten by God.”

 

[Mailman]

There are supposed to be three co-equal personages in the Godhead comprising a Trinity - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. But Christ said only the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is an unforgivable sin, not the blasphemy against the Father, or the Son. Doesn’t that tell you there is something wrong with the trinitarian concept of God?

 

[Thankful10]

There are supposed to be three co-equal personages in the Godhead comprising a Trinity - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. But Christ said only the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is an unforgivable sin, not the blasphemy against the Father, or the Son. Doesn’t that tell you there is something wrong with the trinitarian concept of God?

No it tells me that the Holy Spirit has made a home in his people, and if one of those people throws him out of the house to let Satan reside there instead, that is a great insult to God.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

A person who has been given the Holy Spirit, has come to know God, and is being led by the Holy Spirit is telling God that he or she love him. When that person deliberately commits a sin he or she is lying to the Holy Spirit. One who knows God and loves God will not sin.

Even the great saints sinned. Human weakness does not equal lying to the Holy Spirit.

Mailman’s fallacy is one of the great heresies. You won’t convince any decent Catholic of such heresy. You probably can’t even convince good Christians of other denominations.

 

[Thankful10]

Even the great saints sinned. Human weakness does not equal lying to the Holy Spirit.

QUOTE]
It doesn’t? Who told you? Have you read Hebrews? Read the following verses, and also explain what happened to: Ananias and Sapphira did in (Acts 5:1-11).

(Hebrews 10:26-31)** “If, after we have been given knowledge of the truth, we should deliberately commit any sins, then there is no longer any sacrifice for them. There is left only the dreadful prospect of judgment and of the fiery wrath that is to devour your enemies.** Anyone who disregards the Law of Moses is ruthlessly put to death on the word of two witnesses or three; and you may be sure that anyone who tramples on the Son of God, and who treats the blood of the covenant which sanctified him as if it were not holy, and who insults the Spirit of grace, will be condemned to a far severer punishment. We are all aware who it was that said: Vengeance is mine; I will vindicate his people. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

(Hebrews 6: 4) “As for those people who were once brought into the light, and tasted the gift from heaven, and received a share of the Holy Spirit, and appreciated the good message of God and the powers of the world to come and yet in spite of this have fallen away it is impossible for that to be renewed a second time. They cannot be repentant if they have willfully crucified the Son of God and openly mocked Him.”

 

[MonFrere]

Don’t know if this is thoroughly accurate but –

The only sin not forgiven is the one not confessed.

… of course terms need defined and a correct theology needs to be in place; but I think that should cover it.

MonFrere

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

Sailor Kenshin;6043334:

Even the great saints sinned. Human weakness does not equal lying to the Holy Spirit.

QUOTE]
It doesn’t? Who told you? Have you read Hebrews? Read the following verses, and also explain what happened to: Ananias and Sapphira did in (Acts 5:1-11).

(Hebrews 10:26-31)** “If, after we have been given knowledge of the truth, we should deliberately commit any sins, then there is no longer any sacrifice for them. There is left only the dreadful prospect of judgment and of the fiery wrath that is to devour your enemies.**

Anyone who disregards the Law of Moses is ruthlessly put to death on the word of two witnesses or three; and you may be sure that anyone who tramples on the Son of God, and who treats the blood of the covenant which sanctified him as if it were not holy, and who insults the Spirit of grace, will be condemned to a far severer punishment. We are all aware who it was that said: Vengeance is mine; I will vindicate his people. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

(Hebrews 6: 4) “As for those people who were once brought into the light, and tasted the gift from heaven, and received a share of the Holy Spirit, and appreciated the good message of God and the powers of the world to come and yet in spite of this have fallen away it is impossible for that to be renewed a second time. They cannot be repentant if they have willfully crucified the Son of God and openly mocked Him.”

As a Catholic, I do not self-interpret scripture. I have no idea whether yours is the correct one, and the size and color of the font do not add to whatever point you are trying to make.

 

[Thankful10]

Thankful10;6044098:

As a Catholic, I do not self-interpret scripture. I have no idea whether yours is the correct one, and the size and color of the font do not add to whatever point you are trying to make.

So it is OK with Catholics if the Church does not teach what scripture says? Why have a Bible? You may not have said it just that way, but you accept whatever the Church says. Is that right? If that is so then the Churches Catechism must be your bible.

By the way you should read about how often an early Christian went to confession. You will find it was once in a lifetime event.

Did you ever read what Paul said to the Galatians about teaching a different Good News from what he preached?

(Galatians 1:7-9) “Not that there can be more than one Good News; it is merely that some troublemakers among you want to change the Good News of Christ; and let me warn you that if anyone preaches a version of the Good News different from the one we have already preached to you, whether it by ourselves or an angel from heaven, he is to be condemned. I am only repeating what we told you before; if anyone preaches a version of the Good News different from the one you have already heard, he is to be condemned.”
Also I wonder if you ever read the following?
The following is a letter by Saint. Maximus the Confessor and it explains in a very unique way what I have been saying, that people who know God do not sin.

The manner of birth from God within us is two-fold: the one bestows the grace of adoption, which is entirely present in potency in those who are born of God; the other introduces, wholly by active exertion, that grace which deliberately reorients the entire free choice of the one being born of God toward the God who gives birth. The first bears the grace, present in potency through faith alone; but the second, beyond, also engenders in the knower the sublimely divine likeness of the One known, that likeness being effected precisely through knowledge. Therefore the first manner of birth is observed in some because their will, not yet fully detached from its propensity to the flesh, has yet to be wholly endowed with the Spirit by participation in the divine mysteries that are made known through active endeavor. The inclination to sin does not disappear as long as they will it. For the Spirit does not give birth to an unwilling will, but converts the willing will toward deification. (So a person doesn’t stop sinning just because they will not to sin.) Whoever has participated in this deification through cognizance experience is incapable of reverting from right discernment in truth, once he has achieved this in action, to something else besides, which only pretends to be that same discernment. (Once a person comes to know God, through the Holy Spirit, they are incapable of reverting to their sinful ways.) It is like the eye, which, once it has looked upon the sun, cannot mistake it for the moon or any of the other stars in the heavens. With those undergoing the (second mode of) birth, the Holy Spirit takes the whole of their free choice and translates it completely from earth to heaven, and, through the true knowledge acquired by exertion, transfigures the mind with the blessed light rays of our God and Father, such that the mind is deemed another “God,” insofar as in its habitude if experiences, by grace, that which God himself does not experience but “is” in his very essence. With those undergoing this second mode of baptism, their free choice clearly becomes sinless in virtue and knowledge, as they are unable to negate what they have actively discerned through experience. So even if we have the Spirit of adoption, who is himself the Seed for enduring those begotten (through baptism) with the likeness of the Sower, but do not present him with a will cleansed of any inclination or disposition to something else, we therefore, even after being born of water and Spirit (Jn 3:5), willingly sin. But were we to prepare our will with knowledge to receive the operation of these agents-water and Spirit, I mean-then the mystical water would, through our practical life, cleanse our conscience, and the life-giving Spirit would bring about unchanging perfection of the good in us through knowledge acquired in experience. Precisely for that reason he leaves, to each of us who are still able to sin, the sheer desire to surrender our whole selves willing to the Spirit.

St. Maximus the Confessor

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

I am a Catholic, obedient (within my poor human limits) to the Magisterium. I have neither the scholarship nor the context to interpret Scripture on my own.

This is the very essence of obedience.

And please let me remind you that the Church pre-dates the Bible.