Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: berylg@mentorg.com (Beryl Gray @ APD x ) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Unforgiveable Sins Message-ID: Date: 1 Apr 91 07:30:43 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: engr Lines: 41 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Eva writes: > > I have a question for this group that has been > bothering me for a while. I was taught in my religious > studies that certain sins were unforgivable -- murder, > suicide, etc. Can a person be forgiven for a past > suicide attempt, or is this person damned to hell? > Thanks > And our gentle moderator responds: >[I think I can safely speak for Christians as a whole on this one. No >sin is unforgiveable... ... The one issue here is a passage (Mat 12:32) that refers to a >sin against the Holy Spirit which is said to be unforgivable. There >is no concensus as to what this sin might be. But I think most >Christians take it to be an attitude whose very nature would prevent >someone from repenting in the first place. --clh] I attended a seminar once on coping with the aftermath of suicide. The speaker pointed out that suicide is _not_ the unforgivable sin. The "unforgivable sin" is blaspheming the Holy Spirit. And what, they asked, is blaspheming the Holy Spirit? Walter Martin used to answer this question by refering to the context (always a good idea!). In Matthew 19, the issue was Jesus healing on the sabbath. The Pharisees (who were eyewitnesses) attributed the miracles to Beelzebul, the ruler of demons. So apparently the "unfor- givable sin" is to be an eyewitness of a miracle performed by the incarnate Jesus, then attribute the power behind the miracle to demons. Since we were born too late to be eyewitnesses, we are not subject to falling into that sin. Q.E.D. -- Buford Beryl Gray - Mentor Graphics Corp., Advanced Products Division "Humor is a knife and what it cuts off doesn't grow back right away..."