14.01 The Unpardonable Sin
14 - The Unpardonable Sin; Section 1 The Savior of the World Series by J. Preston Eby 14. THE UNPARDONABLE SIN THE UNPARDONABLE SIN The evangelist stood with both arms raised, giving emphasis to his impassioned plea. With eyes riveted upon his hearers he urged the question with utmost solemnity, "Did you know there is a sin so great, so devastating in its awfulness, that even the great mercy of God cannot overlook it, and the shed blood of Jesus Christ cannot wash it away? A sin that can never be forgiven - an unpardonable sin! Jesus warned that it could happen. ’Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith so ever they shall blaspheme: but he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost has never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation’ (Mark 3:28-29). Who would commit such a dreadful sin, subject themselves to such an appalling fate - to lose all hope of forgiveness and salvation, to suffer for ever the damnation of hellfire? This, my friends, is the fate that is worse than death itself. Oh, when you reject the love of Jesus and resist the wooing of the Holy Spirit you move ever closer to the possibility that you may commit such a horrendous sin. The scriptures are there, the sin does exist, and it could just conceivably strike you!" I was just a boy at the time I heard these frightening words, and it made a profound impression on me. In fact, at one time I was seized with the terrifying fear that I had committed the unpardonable sin!
What is the unpardonable sin? Is there anyone reading these lines who has committed it, or might be in danger of committing it? The confusion on this subject is due largely to a failure to harmonize all scriptures. Men are so prone to blindly accept any error in either translation or interpretation, even though many other plain statements of the Word of God affirm the exact opposite. We need to search the scriptures prayerfully and reverently, on bended knee beseeching the blessed Holy Spirit of truth for illumination and understanding. With the aid of the anointing we need to weed out the errors and empty imaginings of men. Men are so irresponsible, especially preachers. Altogether too few know how to study. Of the few who do know how, not one in a thousand ever takes the trouble to dig down to rock bottom and consider all the facts. That is hard work. It takes effort. And it also requires a complete sell-out to God to come to the place where the Lord will open one’s mind to grasp the real truth. The cost is too great for all but a very small and inconspicuous remnant. Therefore the masses flit hither, thither, and yon, never taking the trouble to scratch below the surface, knowing neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. The Word, to them, is a sealed book.
Anyone who attempts to explain that which he does not understand can accomplish but one result: the complete and glaring display of his own ignorance. I know very little concerning electricity. The extent of my knowledge of it is just about comprehended in three statements: namely, it bites, to press a button turns on a light, and if the lights go off, one can usually remedy the situation by inserting a new fuse in the proper receptacle, or switching the circuit breaker. Briefly, I am grossly ignorant concerning electrical science. But now, just suppose I took it into my head to write a book on electrical engineering. That book, if ever completed, would be a fanciful tale indeed. If I were possessed of sufficient natural ability, I might be able to make the book interesting from the very fact that it would be ludicrous enough to be entertaining. But woe to the man who would attempt to construct electrical apparatus according to my specifications!
Today men and women who are in greater ignorance of God’s truth than I am of electricity are writing books, and preaching sermons, and teaching scholars, and editing papers on religious topics, that are more misleading and dangerous and undependable than would be my book on electrical engineering. But the horrible feature is, that while no one would think of listening to my electrical delusions, yet the whole Christian church has gone wild and is glorying in, in varying degrees, delusions and misrepresentations and lies which have a direct bearing on their eternal welfare. Only fools are supposed to have license to indulge in foolishness. All reasonable men are supposed to subscribe only to sound and sane and sensible beliefs. Therefore when we can show reasonable men that they have been tricked and led into ignorance and foolish beliefs, even though it maybe a hard blow to their vanity, the only reasonable course is for them to forthwith forsake their folly and come on up to higher ground. And we all, every one of us, have been victimized. We might as well admit it. A few have been awakened, at least to a degree, and have left the defiled and downward way. What are you doing!
Nowhere has there been more ignorance manifested than on this subject of the "unpardonable sin." Too often evangelists and preachers use that term to intimidate people and create a FEAR while they are preaching. Many torture themselves with doubt and anxiety over whether they may have committed this sin. Open your Bible to Matthew 12:22-32. Here we find that Jesus was teaching the people one day. In the crowd about Him were many of the leading theologians and teachers of the Pharisee denomination. Just then there was brought unto Him a poor man possessed with a demon, a man in whose physical life the demon had wrought sad havoc - he was both blind and dumb. And with a word of power, with no incantations, with no repeating a hundred times the command, with none of the methods of the exorcists of that time, the man was instantly and perfectly healed there before them all, "insomuch that the blind and dumb both spoke and saw." When the multitudes saw this miracle they were amazed and exclaimed, "Is not this the son of David?" That is, is not this the promised seed of David, the Messiah? They had been watching Him, and listening to Him, and beholding the wonders that He wrought, and at last in the presence of this wonderful miracle, wrought with absolute authority, simply by the uttering of a word, they cried out with comprehension and joy, "Is not this the son of David - the Messiah!" When the Pharisees heard this, they were filled with jealousy and rage. Here was a manifest miracle of undeniable wonder and power, and the common people were fast drawing the proper inferences from it, and coming to the conclusion that Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Son of David, the Son of the living God. They were acquainted with the messianic prophecy of Isaiah, "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped" (Isaiah 35:5). It was a perpetual fear among the Pharisees and rulers that they might lose their hold on the people and they were willing to do almost anything to keep the people from following Jesus. They were proud of the reputation they had among the people; that fed their pride, supported their power, and filled their purses. Not unlike the religious systems of today! They saw very clearly that if the popularity and power of Jesus continued to rise, their power would be absolutely gone. Upon occasion they said, "What can we do?" for "the world is gone after Him." It was necessary for the Pharisees to account for the wonder that had been wrought in some way. Whatever way they chose, it was necessary that they should acknowledge that there was super-human power; the people were fully persuaded of this and no man could deny it. So the Pharisees proclaimed to the people, "This man casts out demons only by and with the help of Beelzebub, the prince of demons." So terrible was the thing that the rulers had said that Jesus, first of all, refuted by argument what they said. The record states, "And knowing their thoughts, He said to them, Any kingdom that is divided against itself is being brought to desolation and laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will last or continue to stand. And if Satan drives out Satan, he has become divided against himself and disunited; how then will his kingdom last or continue to stand? And if I drive out the demons by the help of Beelzebub, by whose help do your sons (the exorcists of the Jews) drive them out? For this reason they shall be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you before you expected it" (Matthew 12:25-28, Amplified). We now reach those awe-inspiring words with which the paragraph closes. Jesus addresses these stem words to the self-righteous religious leaders of the Jewish nation. For searching solemnity they are unsurpassed in the records of the things Jesus said. We tremble as we read them. Such solemn words as these demand our careful attention for two reasons: first, in order that we may place no untrue emphasis on them; and, secondly, that we may by no means minimize their terrible meaning. We are in danger of making both these mistakes. We may read into them meanings which He never intended; or we may explain away the most solemn words Jesus Christ ever uttered. The only way in which we can hope to understand, is by taking them in the simplest way possible. Our Lord declared, in the words of the King James Bible, "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come" (Matthew 12:31-32).