Question and Answer – Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit
Question:
What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? And is every sin considered blasphemy because we do not obey the Spirit? And is there a sin without forgiveness?
Answer:
There is no sin without forgiveness, except that which is without repentance.
Repentance forgives all sins. But the Lord says, “If you do not repent, you will all likewise perish.” And not every sin is blasphemy against the Spirit.
There is a person who (grieves the Spirit), another who (quenches the Spirit), a third who resists the Spirit… and a fourth who blasphemes against the Spirit. So what is this blasphemy?
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the complete and continual rejection of every work of the Holy Spirit in a person, throughout life until death…
And the one who rejects the work of the Spirit until death dies without repentance. For the Holy Spirit is the One who (convicts of sin), and He is the One who urges toward spiritual life. And if a person dies without repentance, he dies perishing without forgiveness.
We say: what if this person repents before his death…?
We answer: this repentance indicates that he was not blaspheming against the Spirit, because he repented by accepting the work of the Spirit within him. Therefore, he did not completely and continually reject the work of the Spirit throughout his life, as proven by his repentance.
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – in El-Keraza Magazine – Year Eight (Issue Fifty-Two) 30-12-1977
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