The doctrine of sins against the Holy Spirit

1. Inasmuch as the Holy Spirit has a certain specific relationship with members of the human race obviously there are certain ways in which the third Person of the Trinity can be offended. Remember that the Holy Spirit is God and it is easy for anyone with an old sin nature to specifically offend the third Person of the Trinity. Since the human race is divided into two categories, according to John 3:36, the sins against the Holy Spirit are also divided into two categories. The two categories of John 3:36 are believers and unbelievers. The cross is a divider, an attitude towards the cross divides the human race. Therefore it is quite logical for the scriptures to develop sins against the Holy Spirit which are committed only by unbelievers, and then sins against the Holy Spirit which can only be committed by believers.

2. There are two basic sins which only the unbeliever can commit against the Holy Spirit. The first of these is called blasphemy against the Spirit and it is found in Matthew 12:14-32. The second is called resistance of the Holy Spirit — Acts 7:51 These cannot be committed by a believer, they can only be committed by an unbeliever. Then we have a second category: sins which only the believer can commit against the Holy Spirit. There are three of them: lying to the Spirit — Acts 5:3; quenching the Holy Spirit — 1 Thessalonians 5:19; grieving the Holy Spirit — Ephesians 4:30.

3. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit — Matthew 12:14-32. This is also called the unpardonable sin. It is to ascribe to Jesus Christ the works of Satan during the time when Jesus Christ was on the earth. Actually, there was a span of only about three years when this sin could be committed. During three years when our Lord was presenting Himself as Messiah to Israel and having a specific ministry it was possible for anyone who was an unbeliever who came into contact with Jesus Christ, who saw His miracles, who heard His messages, and who said that He is doing all of this in the power of Beelzebub to commit this sin. When this is a system of rejection the Holy Spirit was involved. This type of rejection of Christ, again, could only be committed during the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, it can’t be committed today. It couldn’t be committed after the resurrection and it couldn’t be committed before Jesus Christ began His public ministry by turning water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana. Actually, it is a sin of rejecting Jesus Christ as saviour and it was committed only by Jewish unbelievers who were reversionistic, who rejected the signs of Messiahship because of their unbelieving souls. It is called the unpardonable sin, and it is ascribing to Jesus Christ power from Satan to perform miracles, power from Satan to give great messages. It is tantamount, then, to rejecting Christ as personal saviour. It is no longer an issue today except that in Matthew 12 it demonstrates that when anyone refuses to believe in Jesus Christ in principle that person has committed a sin against the Holy Spirit.

4. The resistance of the Holy Spirit is any person during the course of human history, from the fall of Adam to the end of the Millennium, rejecting Jesus Christ as saviour. There are a number of passages dealing with it — Acts 7:51. The reason is found also in a number of passages, for example in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “the soulish man receives not the things of the Spirit of God.” One of the functions of God the Holy Spirit in human history is to act as a human spirit when the gospel is presented and to make the gospel clear. resistance of the Holy Spirit is the unbeliever who finally understands the gospel and says no. The unbeliever, again, does not have a human spirit nor any means of understanding spiritual truth and therefore God the Holy Spirit takes whatever gospel is given and makes it perspicuous to the unbeliever. This was first taught in Genesis 6:3 — “And Jehovah [God the Father] said, My Spirit [the Holy Spirit] shall not convince inside of man forever.” In this passage it says that the Holy Spirit would keep striving until the flood. Once the flood came all unbelievers were going to die and they wouldn’t have any more chance. The big thing about that verse is not the fact that they still have 120 years before the flood, it is that God the Holy Spirit as long as you are alive will keep working on the unbeliever. Once he has heard the gospel the Holy Spirit will bring that into focus as long as he lives. Therefore, as long as a person is alive he can be saved. The presentation of the gospel must be true and accurate, that is all. God the Holy Spirit does the rest. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit is so described in John 16:7-11 — no royal family, no special ministry of the Spirit. Verse 8 — “ … He will convince you concerning sin, concerning righteousness, and concerning judgement.” These three are described so that we are not led astray.

Verse 9 — “Concerning sin because they do not believe in me.” The only sin that the Holy Spirit deals with is the sin of rejection of Christ, for that is the issue in the gospel. This is not the multitude of personal sins, that is not the issue. The issue is believing or not believing in Christ.

Verse 10 — “Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer see me.” In other words, once Jesus Christ is ascended He is accepted at the right hand of the Father. He has a perfect righteousness and when you believe in Christ you receive that righteousness and you are acceptable to God the Father. You can get into heaven in spite of what a mess you may be on the earth! So concerning righteousness deals with imputation and justification.

Verse 11 — “Concerning judgement, because the ruler of this world [Satan] has been judged.” He was judged at the cross. And therefore because of these things God the Holy Spirit has the wonderful and glorious ministry of taking gospel information and making it a reality in your soul.

The sin of resisting the Holy Spirit, then, is found in certain passages where rejecting the gospel is resisting the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Notice that it isn’t resisting the one who is witnessing, it is resisting the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 1:18 — “For the preaching of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness; but to us who are saved it is the power of God.” Also 2 Corinthians 4:3,4. Note that this sin of resisting the Holy Spirit can only be committed by the unbeliever and it is tantamount to rejecting Christ as saviour. Therefore it is imperative to remember that whether it is called blasphemy against the Holy Spirit or resisting the Holy Spirit this is simply rejection of Christ as saviour.

5. Sins against the Holy Spirit committed only by believers. Lying to the Holy Spirit is committed by the believer in reversionism. Remember that Annanias and Sapphira were believers, jealous believers. They were jealous of Barnabas who had sold his property in Cyprus and had given all of the money to the church. He didn’t have to but he wanted to. In this case it was a bona fide gift from a believer with enough maturity to know what he was doing. Annanias and Sapphira up to this time were the biggest givers in the Jerusalem church and they were quite proud of it, they were arrogant. There had never been any pressure because they were the biggest givers. Now along comes Barnabas and drops a lot of money into the church and they suddenly have pressure on them which made them very jealous. Because they were jealous of Barnabas under this pressure they were not going to be outdone. They had a big piece of property and under the principle of reversionistic one-upmanship they sold this property and figured how much it would take to make it look a little bit better than Barnabas. So they put just a little bit more than Barnabas had in the coffers. The problem was they said they were giving all of the profits when they were not. It was a lie that they were telling, but it was more than a lie. A lie is a verbal sin. The problem here was that it was also a part of a mental attitude cluster — pride and jealousy. Pride is buried for the moment, jealousy emerges. Therefore they have committed this whole packet of sins which is called lying to the Holy Spirit. Peter asked: “Why hath Satan filled your right lobe?” The filling of the right lobe by Satan is the same as demon influence and it is the last three stages of reversionism. It wasn’t really the telling of the lie itself, it was the attempt to deceive everyone and to take credit to themselves under this system.

6. Grieving the Holy Spirit is a reference to the sins of the reversionistic believer. We must learn to distinguish between the believer out of fellowship while he is advancing to supergrace. He is still positive and he is said to be carnal. But he rebounds and gets back into fellowship very quickly, keeping short accounts, and he never neglects doctrine. That is carnality and is not the same as what we have in grieving the Spirit. When a negative believer gets out of fellowship he stays put of fellowship, it is a part of reversionism — rejection of rebound, along with other doctrines. This is the area of grieving the Holy Spirit. These two are not the same. Grieving the Holy Spirit must be distinguished from carnality, it is the persistent sinfulness of the reversionistic believer, as in Ephesians 4:30,31.

7. Quenching the Holy Spirit — 1 Thessalonians 5:19. This is a sin against the Holy Spirit emphasising the reversionistic believer under the influence of evil and producing human good. It must be remembered that the function of evil in reversionism produces both sinfulness as well as human good. Grieving the Spirit emphasises the sinfulness of the reversionist whereas quenching the Spirit emphasises the human good produced by the reversionist.

Verse 14 — “I order you to keep this commandment unsullied, irreproachable, until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ is the Rapture of the church, not the second advent.

The doctrine of the Rapture of the Church

1. While rapture is defined as the act or fact of being transported, a state of emotional ecstasy, a state of being rapt or carried out of one’s self, it is used here in a technical theological sense of the resurrection of the royal family of God. There is a first resurrection. Jesus Christ is Alpha Company, He has already been raised from the dead and is the only one who has been raised. The Church Age is the age for the calling out of the royal family of God. The resurrection, ascension, and session of Jesus Christ makes Him a third category of royalty. He is royalty by deity, He is royalty by physical birth [son of David], He is royalty by virtue of being seated at the right hand of the Father where He receives the new title, King of kings and Lord of lords. Now He needs a royal family, so the Church Age is the calling out of the royal family. When the royal family is completed we have Bravo Company going up — the Rapture, believers of this dispensation only, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Then we have the Tribulation, the end of the Jewish Age, which is divided into two parts. In this period we have the greatest evangelism in history and at the end of that time we have the second advent, at which time we have the resurrection of believers in the Old Testament. Then at the end of the Millennium we have the resurrection of those believers who died in the Tribulation. The Rapture is the removal of the Church, the royal family of God, from the earth so that we can be prepared by the judgement seat of Christ to return with Christ at the second advent.

2. The doctrine of the imminency of the Rapture. While the second advent cannot occur until certain prophetical events are fulfilled, the Tribulation and all that it contains, the Rapture or resurrection of the Church is imminent, it could occur at any time. 1 Corinthians 1:7 and Titus 2:13 tells us that it could have occurred during the lifetime of Paul. No scripture has to be fulfilled before the Rapture occurs — James 5:8. This means that the Rapture could occur at any time. No one knows the day, no one knows the hour.

3. The promise of the Rapture — John 14:1-3. The Rapture makes it possible for Jesus Christ to keep His promise to the Church.

4. The Rapture or the resurrection. The Rapture gives every member of the royal family of God [every Church Age believer] a resurrection body exactly like that of the Son of God, minus the scars in the hands and the feet — Philippians 3:20,21; 1 Corinthians 15:54-56; 1 John 3:1,2.

5. The principle of confidence in the Rapture. The daily function of GAP [intake of doctrine] produces confidence regarding the Rapture, according to Titus 2:13. To the believer with doctrine in the right lobe the Rapture is a source of comfort in time of bereavement — Philippians 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 4:18. Our old English word “hope” is the Greek word e)lpij and it is used many times in connection with the Rapture. It means confidence rather than hope, and it is used in connection with the Rapture. The Rapture is said to be a living hope in 1 Peter 1:3; it is said to be a blessed hope in Titus 2:13; it is said to be a purifying hope in 1 John 3:3.

6. Characteristics of the Rapture are at least fourfold. a) The Rapture takes the sting out of death — 1 Corinthians 15:54-56; b) The application of the doctrine of the Rapture provides stability for the royal family in phase two — 1 Corinthians 15:58; c) The Rapture removes hysteria and hopelessness in time of bereavement — 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; d) The Rapture is the rendezvous for both the living and dead members of the royal family of God — 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17.

7. The Rapture is a part of ultimate sanctification — Ephesians 5:27. The resurrection or the Rapture is also the means of providing each member of the royal family of God with a body minus the old sin nature. After the Rapture comes the judgement seat of Christ at which all of our human good is burned because there is no place in heaven or in the plan of God for human good once you are in a resurrection body.