[TruthTalk] God Hates Blaspheming

[Judy Taylor]

I may have unfairly jumped to a conclusion concerning your concept, Slade, thus lumping you into a group in which you do not fit. If this is so, please forgive me. When you wrote, "see the miracles of Yeshua," I was thinking Yeshua would need to be visibly present to be seen working the miracles; that is all. I did not intend to imply that you interpret the passage this way in order to rid yourself and others of the threat. I saw that only as a result of this interpretation of the passage. I certainly do believe miracles still happen; each time a person comes to faith, it is a testimony to the greatest of miracles and demonstrates the ongoing miraculous work of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit.   Why would Jesus need to be seen?. God the Father was not seen when He was doing works through Jesus but at least one man came to him and said "noone could do the works he did unless God was with Him" and this was before the cross. People did not get Born Again until the Spirit was sent at Pentecost.  Being Born Again is a work of the Spirit in a person's heart but it is not a working of Miracles.   Allow me to quote Charles Ryrie from his Study Bible to give you an idea of why I may have prematurely evaluated what you were saying: "Technically, according to the Scribes, blasphemy involved direct and explicit abuse of the divine name. Jesus here teaches that it also may be the reviling of God by attributing the Spirit's work to Satan. The special circumstances involved in this blasphemy cannot be duplicated today; therefore this sin cannot now be committed."    Why look to the scribes for wisdom?  Weren't they the ones who hung out with the Chief Priest and Pharisees all the time? Even the common people knew they didn't speak with authority (Mark 1:22) and most of them didn't recognize Jesus as the Word of God when he was speaking truth right to their face because of the condition of their hearts.   I tend to agree with the Scribes over the limited view of Ryrie: blasphemy is a deliberate abuse of the divine name, a twisting of the identity of Christ, which renders him less than Lord (Yahweh) and Savior, the effect being a denial of the name of Jesus (Yahweh saves). And so the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, as I understand it, is a refusal to yield to the present, personal testimony of the Spirit to the person and work of Jesus Christ. In the Hebrews passage that I mentioned, and you mentioned as well, the preacher includes in his warning these words: "Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has ... insulted the Spirit of grace?" (10.29) What is this insult (which is certainly blasphemous) if it is not the rejection of Jesus Christ, a blatant trampling underfoot the Son of God through counting the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing (in other words, nothing at all) and not the absolute and wondrous life giving miracle that it was?   The insult could be promoting "another Jesus" an anti Christ, in the sense of (in place of) and this is what we are warned against. Israel did it all the time. They followed their own wayward hearts and their own ideas. Being obdurant, stiff necked, and refusing to allow the Spirit through God's Word to lead us into ALL truth is blaspheming the Holy Spirit because there is no other way to be saved.  I wonder if God will be pleased with 400+ different theologies and systems all claiming to lead people to Him.