What Does It Mean To Blaspheme the Holy Ghost?

Today’s Passage –Mark 1 – 3

(Second Milers also read – Psalms 81 – 85; Proverbs 17

“Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation:” – (Mark 3:28-29)

“Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.” – (Matthew 12:31)

I remember when I was a new believer there were certain passages in the Bible that scared me. On the surface, these verses seemed to contradict what I was being taught in church. Mark 3:28 and 29 are those kind of verses. I used to think that these verses somehow taught that there was a certain sin that I could commit today as a believer that would revoke my salvation. Adding to this problem was the fact that I had no idea what this sin was. What did it mean to blaspheme against the Holy Ghost? For a number of years I just avoided the passage altogether: sort of like hiding a past due bill in a drawer, pretending that it’s not there. Eventually, however, I decided to study the passage out to see what it really was teaching.

As in all Bible study, it is crucial that we look into the context of the passage. In Mark 3, we have the religious leadership of Israel attributing the miracles that Christ was performing to the power of Satan. Basically they were saying that Jesus cast out devils with the power of the devil. Jesus straightened out there false logic by explaining that it made no sense for Satan to divide himself, or attack one of his own. The deeper message from this passage was, however, that Israel’s religious leaders had completely rejected that Jesus was, in fact, the Christ. By stating that Jesus was working for Satan, they totally rejected His lordship as their Messiah, and their God.

The question that I always had about this passage was what did all of this have to do with the Holy Ghost. To understand this, I had to do a little study on the Holy Spirit. Who is He? What Is His ministry all about. I will not give you here all that I discovered, but there are two things about the Holy Ghost that I will share with you, that are critical to answering the question regarding “blasphemy against the Holy Ghost”:

1 The Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost) is God. He is just as much God as the Father is, and Jesus is.

“But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” – (Acts 5:3-4)

2 The Holy Ghost’s ministry on earth today is to bring people to salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” – (John 16:13-14)

The religious leaders in our text rejected their Messiah, Jesus Christ; and thereby rejected the message of the Holy Ghost. The message of the Holy Ghost is Jesus Christ, and when we die rejecting Christ, we die rejecting the message of the Holy Spirit. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit then cannot be a sin that can be committed by a true believer, because a true believer has already received the Message of the Holy Spirit, which is Jesus. However, if a lost person continues to reject the message of salvation, and dies in his sins, he has blasphemed the Holy Ghost by rejecting the gift of salvation that the Holy Spirit offers through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Phil Erickson

Pastor Phil Erickson has been the pastor of Jersey Shore Baptist Church since January of 2002. Having grown up in Ocean County, Pastor Phil has always had a burden for the south Jersey area. After graduating from Bible College in Longview, Texas, he and his family moved to Galloway Township with the vision of digging in and serving the Lord and the people of Atlantic County. Pastor Phil and Cindy Erickson have been married since 1985. They have four children and ten grandchildren. Their oldest son, Phil Jr. and his wife Katelyn are serving the Lord in Egg Harbor Twp., NJ. Their oldest daughter, Melissa, is married to Wesley Clayton who is in the Air Force and is currently stationed in New Mexico. Samantha, their third child, is married to Justin Mears and they are both serving the Lord at the church in Galloway. Hannah, the youngest, is married to Lucas McCollum, and they are also serving here in Galloway. In preparation for ministry, the Lord led him through a variety of educational experiences that have equipped him to serve the Lord and His people. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Georgian Court University, a Bachelor of Biblical Studies in Pastoral Theology from Texas Independent Baptist Seminary (formerly Texas Baptist College), a Master of Religious Education in Bible from West Coast Baptist College, and a Master of Biblical Studies from The Crown College. More recently, he completed a Graduate Certificate in Biblical Counseling and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Veritas Baptist College. He is thankful for these opportunities to study God’s Word more deeply, and counts it a privilege to use whatever knowledge the Lord has given him for the building up of His church. In addition to pastoring, the Lord has given Phil the wonderful privilege of teaching as an adjunct professor at Vision Baptist College in Berlin, NJ and Veritas Baptist College.