Eschatological Intrusion, Unforgivable Sin and Reprobation

  • People who have severe depression frequently believe that they have committed the “unforgivable sin”.
  • However, the very fact that they are even concerned about it is proof that they cannot have committed it:
    • one of the judgements on a person who has done so is that the Spirit has stopped working in them.
    • they therefore lose all spiritual concern
  • These are the relevant passages of Scripture:

Matt 12:31-32 “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

Mark 3:28-29 “Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”—

Luke 12:10 “And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.

Acts 7:51-54

  1. “You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.
  2. “Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,
  3. “who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”
  4. When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.

1 Tim 1:13 although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

Hebrews 10:26-29

  1. For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
  2. but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
  3. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
  4. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

Hebrews 6:4-6

  1. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,
  2. and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,
  3. if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

I John 5:16-18

  1. If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that.
  2. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.
  3. We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.

When was God’s miraculous presence and power most clearly displayed (post flood)?

  1. plagues in Egypt
  2. miracles in the wilderness
  3. miracles in possessing the land
  4. miraculous works of Elijah & Elisha
  5. works of Jesus
  6. works in the church (esp. of the apostles)

What happened to those who denied the evidence of this unmistakable working of the Spirit?

  1. Pharaoh
  2. Korah & others who rebelled
  3. Jericho and other cities
  4. fire down from heaven on enemies
  5. Jesus warns of “Sin against the Holy Spirit”, and the punishment of Capernaum
  6. Ananias & Sapphira; Hebrews 6; ultimately A.D. 70

Principle: When the power of the “age to come” breaks into this present age, then eschatological judgment is usually also manifested.

  • The more of God’s presence, the greater is this power!
    • Do you really want more of his presence?
    • (YES! because we are his children and have nothing to fear from him)