Mark 3:29
Mark 3:28-30 (see also Matthew 12:32; Luke 12:10; 1st John 5:16)
“Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”-- because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
Luke 12:10: “And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him.”
According to Calvinism, the unpardonable sin can’t apply to Calvinism’s elect, both by definition of eternal Unconditional Election and would otherwise be a violation of “P” for “Persevering Grace” in TULIP. Moreover, it can’t apply to the alleged non-elect either, because the Unpardonable Sin would fail to distinguish itself from every other sin for which the alleged non-elect have neither pardon, nor atonement, nor Savior who died for them. So why issue the warning?
Question: Can the Calvinistically elect ever be able to commit the Unpardonable Sin?
Answer: According to Calvinism, the answer is no.
Question: Can the Calvinistically non-elect ever be able to commit the Unpardonable Sin?
Answer: According to Calvinism, the answer is yes. However, if Jesus didn’t die for the alleged non-elect, then what sin is pardonable, and how does the Unpardonable Sin differentiate itself from every other sin, which is similarly unpardonable, since the alleged non-elect do not have a Savior or an atonement from which a pardon may be derived?
One member of The Society of Evangelical Arminians: “The warning cannot apply to the elect, as they could never commit this sin and end up being unforgiven. So this warning is useless and irrelevant for them. But then the warning must be for the reprobates. But this makes no sense as they have been chosen for damnation and nothing will change that. The warning cannot lead them to Christ, as it is impossible that they come to Christ. So it is useless and irrelevant to them. So the warning, as strong as it is, makes no sense and is completely irrelevant if everything is Calvinistically predestined. This warning only makes sense if people have genuine free will and can choose to commit this sin or not. So the warning, at the same time, shows Calvinism to be false and shows that free will as ordinarily understood (i.e. that we sometimes have and make choices and these choices are up to us) exists. Jesus is saying to people who might make that wrong choice, not to make that choice. But that makes no sense if Calvinism were true and if free will did not exist.”
Calvinist: God foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, which is a necessary consequence of His foreknowledge. The future is known to God because it has been determined by God. If, from all eternity, God knew all things future, then from eternity he must have ordained them. The foreknowledge of God will necessarily infer a decree; for God could not foreknow that things would be, unless He had decreed that they should be. God necessarily knows what He decreed. The decrees of God relate to all things future without exception; whatever is done in time was foreordained before the beginning of time.
Question: If God did not decree what a demon would think next, could He know what a demon would think next?
Answer: Calvinists will reluctantly admit that, no, by their theology, God could not know what a demon might think next, if God did not determine what they would think next. Therefore, by their theology, God determines all 100% of every thought of every demon, throughout the demonic realm, throughout eternity future, without which, God would otherwise have no idea what they might think next. By that theology, there is only one independent thinker in the cosmos, and all creation is the subject upon whom the one independent thinker carries out His own thoughts. That means that the demons are exactly what God gives them to be, according to the thoughts and motives that He unilaterally decrees for them. This is a problem if Calvinist wish to maintain a high view of the morality of God. The demons are the most unholy of all creatures, whereas the Holy Spirit is the most Holy God. But if Calvinists must confess that the unholiest of all creatures get all 100% of their thoughts from God, then what would that say about God?
Question: Is a profession of Calvinism an act of blasphemy against God, and thus, by extension, the Holy Spirit, since the Holy Spirit is intimately involved in all of God’s works?
Answer: Perhaps the Gnostics may have been guilty of this, since they attributed to God the title, “The Author of Sin,” insomuch as God determined everything, that is, both good and evil, spirit and matter. The early Church, pre-Augustine, specifically, Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, both rejected Gnostic Determinism in defense of Free-Will.
Adrian Rogers: “There is a time, I know not when. There is a place, I know not where, which marks the destiny of men, to Heaven or Despair. There’s a line by us not seen, that crosses every path. Tis the hidden boundary, between God’s mercy and God’s wrath. And if you step over that deadline, you will have committed an unpardonable sin. Now what is the unpardonable sin? It is not some moral sin. It is not rape. It is not murder. It is not child molestation. As bad as those are, horrible and wicked as those are, anyone who has done that, can still be saved.” (The Unpardonable Sin)
Adrian Rogers: “What is the ‘blasphemy of the Holy Spirit’? That’s the ‘unpardonable sin’, and we’re going to see in a moment, that it is attributing to the devil, the work of the Spirit of Almighty God. Now this sin, the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, the sin that can never, never, never, never, never be forgiven, is a sin that one may commit, and will commit, knowingly, willfully, with his eyes wide open, and then forever shut.” (The Unpardonable Sin, emphasis mine)
Bruce McLaughlin: “Matthew 12:31, 32 and Mark 3:29, 30 present the ‘unpardonable sin’ of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Attributing, to Satan, Christ’s authenticating miracles, done in the power of the Holy Spirit, is one path to blasphemy. What about attributing Satan’s evil to the Holy Spirit? Is that less heinous than attributing the Holy Spirit’s goodness to Satan? Might that be another path to blasphemy? ... Calvinists may have found another path to blasphemy by attributing all Satan’s evil to God.” (Can God’s Will be Thwarted?, emphasis mine)
The unpardonable sin is generally thought of as attributing the “work of the Holy Spirit” to demons, and it is reasonable that it would work in the reverse as well, that is, by attributing the “work of the demons” to the Holy Spirit, and that’s where things get a bit dicey for Determinism. All that we would need to do, then, is to ask the Calvinist what they believe to be the full scope of the “sovereign decree” and then what role they believe that the Holy Spirit plays in such “divine determinism”? Consider the following series of questions:
1) Do you believe in a “sovereign decree” whereby God has a *total plan* in having eternally decreed whatsoever comes to pass?
2) Now is that a decree for just the big things only, or the big things, little things, and all things in between, so that the “sovereign decree” literally leaves absolutely nothing outside of divine causation?
3) Genesis 1:2 records the the Holy Spirit was involved in creation, in which “the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” Do you think that the Holy Spirit might have also played a role in the “sovereign decree” that you affirm?
4) (Spring trap) Do you believe that the secret, inner thoughts of the demonic realm is inclusive of that “sovereign decree”?
5) Tell me again what you think the Holy Spirit’s role is within the “sovereign decree”?
6) How can you say that He had nothing to do with it? Isn’t the Holy Spirit intimately involved in ALL of God’s works?
Most would agree that by making God into “The Author of Sin,” God is in some way being blasphemed, and which is why most Calvinists wish to fight the charge so hard. So, then, if you think about what role the Holy Spirit might play in a hypothetical “divine determinism,” would Calvinism (or at least its deterministic aspects) likewise constitute a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
