----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, July 24, 2004 4:59
AM
Subject: [TruthTalk] God Hates
Blaspheming
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.
