And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove (speak against) them.
(Ephesians 5:11)
Are the deceased still among us? How does one deal with living in haunted houses? What does God's word say about ghost busting? All of these questions are scripturally answered in this easy to read booklet.
The articles/teachings free available on this site are an example of the in-depth biblical investigation that goes into every booklet we release.
Test your comprehension with questionnaires, and use as a Bible study for Sunday school, sermons, and small groups. Price: $2.99 (any tax and shipping/handling included). Orders usually ship within 48 hours.
Article Excerpts
To 'hallow' is a verb, so to 'hallow' something is to make it holy, to sanctify it and/or to glorify or magnify it. Now, how is it that God’s name can be sanctified and glorified when it cannot be anything less than holy in the first place? His name is Holy already. Why then did God say:
I will be santified in them that come nigh (near) me. (Leviticus 10:3)
How can it be that His name will be something that He already is? Why Pray "Hallowed Be Thy Name?
To blaspheme simply means to speak against things that one has no authority to speak against because they are directly or indirectly related to God or to the spirit world. The word is used in reference even to the idol goddess Diana in Acts 19:35-37. This usage of the word is constant in every scripture that goes into any detail about blasphemy. In Leviticus 24:10-13, there is the account of two men who strove together (fought). Scripture says that one of them blasphemed the name of the Lord, and cursed, and he was stoned to death. The exact words pronounced by the man who cursed are unknown but they don't need to be revealed to know that, whatever he said, he made the mistake of involving God's name in his cursing. Many don't realize how sinful it is to say such cursings as "G-- d-- you!" God's name and the creatures He made are indirectly related to Him and therefore must not be cursed. The fact that people are no longer being stoned to death for this sin doesn't indicate harmlessness. God's punishment came more swiftly in the Old Testament than in the new because the Old Covenant, also called the 'letter', was a ministry of death and it killed. The Old Testament saints, unlike those of the new, were called to carry out God's condemnation. This is plainly explained in 2 Corinthians 3:6-9. Scripture doesn't reveal whether the man in Leviticus who cursed, repented before his death, but we know that he could have received forgiveness before dying because all manner of sin, including blasphemy, unless it be against the Holy Ghost, is forgivable (Matthew 12:31). Leviticus 24:11 says he blasphemed the name of the Lord, not against the Holy Spirit.
Although Leviticus 24:10-13 doesn't say whether the man who cursed, repented to receive forgiveness, the Bible does say that blasphemies, as long as they are not against the Holy Ghost, can and has been forgiven both in ancient and modern times.
Saul of Tarsus, whose name was later changed to Paul, after his conversion to Christianity, had been a blasphemer, but he received forgiveness for his sins, including his blasphemies (1 Timothy 1:12-13). Therefore, obviously, all blasphemies do not constitute the unpardonable sin. The apostle Paul explained that he not only received mercy and forgiveness from God, but that his salvation also served as a living witness of God's extended mercy towards sinners, which of course includes blasphemers. Paul points out that, his life as Saul, was one so sinful that he was "chief of sinners". If the chief sinner's blasphemies can be forgiven, so can those of the rest.
What then is the blasphemy that God will not pardon? The scriptures that teach on the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost are very few, but they offer all that is needed to understand how not to commit this sin. The two principal passages of scripture cited to instruct on this question are the following:
Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb, and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts and said unto them... 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. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him, but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. (St. Matthew 12:22,24-25,31-32)
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; Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit. (St. Mark 3:28-30)
Its believed by some denominations that one blasphemes against the Holy Ghost and commits the unpardonable sin if he attributes the work of the Holy Spirit to that of devils. This includes the accusation that Jesus cast out devils by the prince of those same devils and/or that he was possessed by an unclean (evil) spirit. But if the case is this simple and straight-forward, many have mistakenly committed the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. However, such a belief is contrary to scripture.
In St. John 7:20-21, the people are said to have accused Jesus of having a devil. They believed Him to be crazy when He spoke of them preparing to kill Him (alluding to His upcoming crucifixion). Nevertheless, there is no mention of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost or of the unpardonable sin. Instead, Jesus goes into further explanation to teach them things they didn't understand. Again in the passage of St. John 8:48-59, twice, the Jews tell Jesus that He has a devil. They are applying natural reasoning to Jesus' spiritual teachings and therefore, come to the conclusion that He is mentally deranged due to possession by a devil. Jesus, speaks no warning about blasphemy against the Holy Ghost and there is no mention of any commitment of the unpardonable sin.
Furthermore, we see in the scriptures the confusion of some of the Christian converts from paganism; a confusion that involved mistakenly attributing a visible manifestation of an evil spirit to one of the Holy Spirit. A most important scripture on this matter says:
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. (1 Corinthians 12:1-3)
Someone who invites spirits to speak through them is said to be a medium and often performs seances in the deception that the disembodied spirits of the deceased will speak a message through them. This is necromancy, a pagan practice with which the converts mentioned in Corinthians were very familiar. It should be known that Gentiles were pagans. Pagans understood that there was a spirit behind every statue of every idol god they worshiped. Although the statue could not speak, being dumb, they knew that the spirit behind it, could, and did. They relied upon sorcerers and other practitioners of magic to summon these spirits to communicate with them and serve as their mediums to the people. Often such demon worship services included spiritual manifestations they often regarded as gifts of the spirit. During voodoo worship services, its not uncommon to see mediums fall into deep trances and speak with other tongues as the evil spirit or spirits associated with the worship, give them the ability to do so.
This is why Paul tells them that he doesn't want them to be ignorant about matters of spiritual manifestations and gifts, and where they come from. He knows their background, and that they used to be "carried away" (deceived) by their mute (dumb) idols. He teaches them to know how to differentiate between a manifestation of the Spirit of God, and one of an unholy spirit. Its clear that he's referring to people speaking messages or prophecies, perhaps in tongues. The problem is that the new converts with a pagan background are ignorant as to how to tell whether the person speaking is doing so under satanic or Godly influence. This is why he tells them essentially, that no matter how authentic the message, prophecy and gift may appear, they were not to accept it automatically as being from the Holy Ghost, but rather they were to examine the wording of the one who spoke. Its common sense to believe that before Paul's clarification to them on this matter, there were some who mistakenly labeled a satanic act of speaking, as a message from the Holy Spirit. Again, Paul makes no mention of the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.
Finally, in Acts 2:13, the people are seen saying that the men that spoke in tongues did so, being full of wine. Acts 2:12 makes it plain that the people were in puzzlement about such a phenomenon. There is no statement regarding blasphemy against the Holy Ghost or the unpardonable sin. Why is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost and the unpardonable sin mentioned in Matthew and Mark, but not in the passages of St. John, 1 Corinthians, and Acts mentioned above?
The answer lies in the fact that the people in St. John, 1 Corinthians, and Acts were in ignorance when they spoke things they should not have. This does not mean they were without spiritual harm because of it, but God did not impute the unpardonable sin, taking into account their genuine misunderstanding. In spite of the many and violent sins that Saul of Tarsus commited, he received mercy and forgiveness when he repented because he did them in ignorance (1 Timothy 1:13). In Romans 5:13 it is said that sin is not imputed where there is no law which means where there is no knowledge of what God's law says. Jesus taught that the servant that knew the Lord's will and didn't do it will be beaten with many stripes, but he that was ignorant of His will would be beaten with few stripes. Again, there is mercy towards the ignorant.
However, the men to whom Jesus spoke warning of the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, were not ignorant of their willful ill intentions and disdain against God's righteousness. This is evidenced in the passage when Jesus says that the mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart (Matthew 12:34). The problem was not their ignorance nor misunderstanding. There was malice in their heart against God which caused them to speak against the work of God who saw no ignorance and no confusion that needed to be cleared up. There was only the need to warn. To blaspheme against the Holy Ghost and commit the unpardonable sin is to willfully and maliciously speak against Him and His work out of the abundance of disdain for Him in one's heart.
Is it reasonable to believe that the men to whom Jesus spoke warning about the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost, actually committed the unforgivable sin? It would be reasonable, but it would also be just as reasonable to say that they didn't commit such sin. After all, although their disobedience to God was willful, they were ignorant of just how much trouble the condition of their heart could get them into as they spoke from the abundance of it. This type of blasphemy isn't seen in the Old Testament and therefore these men would not have been warned of such a sin. Therefore, there is the strong possibility that they stood warned about this for the first time in their lives. It should be noted that Jesus took the time to not only warn, but also to teach, and given the reason Jesus came to teach man, its logical to conclude that what they did bordered on committing the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. Nevertheless, to border on doing something and to do that thing are two different things.
Jesus said:
If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloke for their sin. (St. John 15:22)
A cloke refers to a covering excuse for sin, such as ignorance. Once God teaches a person what is sin against Him, that individual can never again cover himself with the excuse of ignorance. What is more, no one will escape punishment by avoiding God's word in an attempt to retain the excuse of ignorance.
King James Version of The Holy Bible. Iowa Falls: World Bible Publishers, Inc.,
Understanding Blasphemy Of The Holy Ghost Part II
Coming Soon