If your book isn’t a buzz, it’s not the Bible.
CAN I DAMN MYSELF BY ACCIDENT?
Unforgivable Sin: Part 1
Introduction
The question simmering in the mind of many Saints is, “Have I committed the Unforgivable Sin?”
Because of it’s structure, this is a compound question of two parts.
1) Have I tripped over Eternal Damnation by accident?
2) “What is the unforgivable sin?”
THIS POST IS AN ATTEMPT TO ADDRESS, “CAN I ACCIDENTALLY COMMIT THE UNFORGIVABLE SIN?”
A short version for what I am told are Medium readers who only want to graze.
The question is irrelevant for Righteous saints.
In John 3:16 Jesus offered you Eternal Life. His Reputation depends on Him keeping His Promise.
HE WILL NOT LET YOU BREAK HIS PROMISE. HE DID NOT SET YOU UP TO FAIL.
A long version for those who wish to chew the cud.
Background reading
The text which causes major concern is Matthew 12:32 but it is recommended that you read Matthew12:1–45 to brush up your memory, if necessary.
The organising principle of this post
We live in the era of emogi theology where answers to deep questions are expected to be shorter than the actual question and contain no big words — hence the smiling/frowning face facsimile — but there’s no chance of that here.
IF YOU ARE SEEKING EMOGI THEOLOGY, THIS IS NOT THE PLACE FOR YOU.
THE question: Have I committed the unpardonable sin in ignorance?
Preachers make valiant efforts to explain this but my experience is that they are trying to use their own logic or pass it off to commentators. But the best commentary about the Bible is the Bible so, in this exercise, an attempt is made to let the Bible speak for Itself.
Establish your mindset — get in the mood
Before starting, it would be a good idea to watch this 3.5 minute presentation by Jeff A. Benner of “Ancient Hebrew Research Center,” to get a true idea of God’s Character.
If you missed the theme that, “God is good,” go back and watch again. Keep watching till it oozes out of the pores of your skin.
Jeff’s site is well worth a visit for Christians. It is good value and thoroughly recommended.
The mirror question
The prelude to the question to that of the Unforgivable Sin is, “Can someone become a Christian by accident?”
This is another story for another time but there are specific requirements, demanding deliberate acts, to becoming Righteous. It is presumed for this discussion that the worried Saint IS Righteous but not well taught.
[If you are not absolutely certain you are Righteous, have an urgent discussion with your Pastor — NOW! If not sooner!]
THE CHARACTER OF GOD
Just to be sure everyone is on the same page, Yehovah Elohim, the God of the Bible, is the Person in question — NOT the Qu’ran nor any other text.
Actually, to be in a state of mind to have to ask the question, the Saint has not been taught well about the Character and Faithfulness of YHVH — Who means what He says and says what He means.
Who owns the Intellectual Rights of the Bible?
2 Timothy 3:16║All Scripture is given by inspiration (G2315 — theopneustos) of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness(G1343 — dikaiosynē)
G2315 — theopneustos: adjective = literally, God breathed
G1343 — dikaiosynē: noun = the condition acceptable to God
Hang on, the Bible was written so long ago
It surely must be corrupted.
But God protects His Word.
It is written in Isaiah 40:8║“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”
And in Psalm 12:6–7; Combining both Hebrew and Greek meanings and grammar; God will remember His Word forever, and will protect it from all generations; including this one — from inside and outside the church.
║The words of the Lord are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times. You shall keep (H8104 — šāmar) them, O Lord, You shall preserve (H5341 — nāṣar) them from this generation forever (H5769 — ʿôlām).
H8104 — šāmar; verb = to keep, retain, treasure up (in memory), to keep, preserve, protect
Tense: open ended, never ending, → G5442 — phylassō; verb future tense
H5341 — nāṣar; verb = to guard, watch, watch over, keep → G1301 — diatēreō; verb future tense
H5769 — ʿôlām; noun = can’t be seen but always there (i.e. a glow behind a hill) → G165 — aiōn = for ever, an unbroken age, perpetuity of time, eternity.
Nehemiah 9:17, Psalm 103:8, Psalm 145:8, Joel 2:13, Jonah 4:2 all describe YHVH as being, “Slow to anger . . . .”
GOD NEVER FORGETS HIS WORD AND PROTECTS IT FROM EVERYONE — EVEN WILLING BUT UN-GIFTED CHRISTIAN THEOLOGIANS. HE ALWAYS KEEPS HIS REMNANT.
The Hebrew word translated, ‘anger,’ is H639 — ‘ap̄, the noun form of the verb, H599 — ‘ānap̄p̄ = to flare the nostrils, to be angry, to be displeased, to breathe hard.
Boring Grammar (Could things get any worse?)
English grammar has two possibilities, singular and plural, as the number of a noun. Stating the obvious, singular is “one” and plural is “two or more”. But Hebrew has an extra, that is a dual = two (2), leaving plural to be three (3) or more. And not two random objects. They are coupled together in a specific manner. In this case H639 — ‘ap̄ literally means “two nostrils flaring.”
Don’t snooze, there’s more
H639 — ‘ap̄, is generally coupled with TWO clauses along the lines, “gracious and compassionate” + “Slow to anger,” + “rich in loving kindness.” The two peripheral clauses can be coupled with the central to produce a double torque making “Slow to anger” tighter.
Another way to say it is, “gracious and compassionate” is a lever on one side of “slow to anger,” while “abounding in loving kindness” is a lever on the opposite side. It would be unusual if any reader has not used this engineering principle to loosen/tighten a wheel nut when changing a flat tyre.
It can be seen that this amplifies the meaning of God’s Reluctance to act in anger.
But surely HaShem wants to quickly stick it to His enemies?
Not so. He chooses to be patient even with those who choose to be His enemies.
It is written in Nahum 1:2–3║God is jealous, and the YHVH avenges; YHVH avenges and is furious (Hebrew H2534 — ḥēmâ and Greek G2372 — thymos; both = burning anger). YHVH will take vengeance on His adversaries, And He reserves wrath for His enemies; YHVH is slow to anger and great in power, And will not at all acquit the wicked.
He gives them latitude and warnings as they advance toward destruction? “Slow to anger,” seems unambiguous enough to me. However, all the time they are digging their own hole.
IN ALL THE FINAL JUDGEMENT VERSES IN THE BIBLE THERE IS NO CASE WHERE THE JUDGED DENY THEY ARE GUILTY.
The flavour of YHVH’s anger/wrath through ALL Scripture is that it is harnessed and He is reluctant to apply it. He does not flare up and slash out uncontrollably. He exercises orgē (G3709) of punishments in the manner inflicted by magistrates — which is measured where the punishment fits the crime.
So, contrary to the nasty rumours circulated by the naysayers, God is not a grumpy old kill-joy just waiting for you to make a slip. Also, if you haven’t noticed that Jesus was gentle with the lost but brutal with those who thought they could challenge Him, we must be reading different Books. It is written in Psalm 138:6║Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar.
If these, “slow to anger,” texts don’t convince you that He hasn’t set you up to fail, I must be a really, really bad writer.
GOD DEMONSTRATES HIS LONG SUFFERING ALL THROUGH THE SCRIPTURES.
REACHING THE UNFORGIVABLE SIN REQUIRES DETERMINED EFFORT — EVEN FOR HIS ENEMIES.
The evidence against accidental damnation for the Saint is overwhelming.
Only one example is offered here. But don’t believe me. Be skeptical, dig it out yourself. The Church could do with more skeptics.
The principle is one of Metamorphism.
Romans 12:1–2║ I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed (G4964 — syschēmatizō) to this world, but be transformed (G3339 — metamorphoō) by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
G4964 — syschēmatizō = There is a flavour of stress here → do not allow yourself to be a round peg forced into a square hole.
G3339 — metamorphoō = allow yourself to be metamorphosed.
The process is laid out in the Scriptures:-
It is written in Philippians 1:6║being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
When a caterpillar begins to change into a butterfly it cannot resist.
1 John 3:2║Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
It is reassuring to know that I may be a grub now but I’ll spend more time as a beautiful butterfly.
ONCE THE HOLY SPIRIT BEGINS TO REGENERATE A SAINT IT CANNOT BE RESISTED.
ONCE THE HOLY SPIRIT BEGINS HIS WORK HE WILL COMPLETE IT.
How things have changed
Not too far back it was a proverb accepted in Christendom that, “God loves you so much that He will accept you as you are. But He loves you too much to allow you to stay as you are.” (Romans 12:1–2) This has been sliced in two by the modern (small ‘c’)church and the latter part rejected.
One of the Facets of the Character of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Is he a cranky old kill-joy just waiting to zap you whenever he can? Is He the type of Person Who pulls the legs off cockroaches then laughs because they can’t run away? What does the Holy Spirit tell us?
I’m open to correction but identifying the Unforgivable Sin is irrelevant.
What is at issue is the Character of God.
Would He allow His Children to commit an Unforgivable Sin?
How is this congruent with the Eternal Life in, say, John 3:16?
GOD MUST PROTECT HIS PROMISE OR HE IS NOT GOD.
JOHN 3:16 IS THE SIMPLEST CONFIRMATION OF ETERNAL SECURITY.
But there is a limit to God’s Patience. He resorts to discipline when necessary.
How patient is God?
It is written in Matthew 18:21–22║ Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven [ἑβδομηκοντάκις ἑπτά].
The tendency of modern translations is to translate ἑβδομηκοντάκις ἑπτά [hebdomēkontakis hepta] as ‘seventy-seven’ but that is not what is written in the Greek. Imagine if someone owed you 70*$7=$190 but I said $77 is just the same. (Need any more be said?)
But doesn’t this just mean a big number and God forgives ALL sins by ALL people?
Sort of. It is written in Daniel’s Seventy Week Prophecy (Daniel 9:24–27) that there is a Sunset Clause in God’s Patience.
It is written in Daniel 9:24║
“Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.”
Examination of the Scriptures shows that there is a pattern of sevens with regard to time. The English translation of this is weeks; Weeks of days, Weeks of weeks, Weeks of months, Weeks of years, Weeks of Weeks of years; so ἑβδομηκοντάκις ἑπτά (Matthew 18:22) is an actual number — not a metaphor.
Doesn’t that mean that the Saint can pass the limit of God’s Patience?
There are several passages in the Bible that indicate that God forgives and forgets our sin.
It is written in Isaiah 43:25║“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”
It is made evident by the grammar of 1 John 2:1 that the Redeemed are not habitual sinners (that was the old days) but Saints who occasionally commit individual sins.
And it is made evident in 1 John 1:9║If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
“Confess” and “Repent” are synonymous. Furthermore, it is a verb of subjunctive mood, so not all sins are confessed. So this verse may be interpreted in one of two ways.
- Sins confessed → the “if” is interpreted as “because.” It is a confirmation that your conscience is clear ↔ God’s promise. It’s His problem now.(This has been covered in THE IMPORTANCE OF GRAMMAR TO YOUR SOUL )
- Sins left unconfessed → the “if” is interpreted as “if.” It is an instruction to get things right with God.
In 1 John 1:9 John is speaking to Redeemed souls when he mentions “cleansing” so that, when sins are confessed, the Saint is cleansed — blameless. The grammar of 1 John differentiates between sins (one off) and sinning (habitual) in the Greek but the English translation presents them both with the same three Latin letters, s-i-n. This used to cause my brain to hurt until Emanuel led me to a very short course in Greek.
So, when you confess your one-off sin you are clean → the counter is re-set to zero (Isaiah 43:25 mentioned above).
This shows the importance of Short Accounts which is oft misunderstood in the pews. The Saint misses the mark and the Holy Spirit convicts (IF ONLY YOU KNEW YOU WERE NEW), then the Saint Repents immediately because the Holy Spirit has been grieved. It is up to the Saint to respond, a.s.a.p — not to choose later. (1 Corinthians 4:3–6 )
Yehovah makes it clear that everyone, even His enemies, cannot become Damned by accident. It takes effort!
A famous person who was God’s enemy — Pharaoh.
It is written in Exodus 4:21║And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden (Hebrew:H2388 — ḥāzaq or Greek:G4645 — sklērynō) his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
Harden:-
H2388 — ḥāzaq = to make firm, to make rigid, make hard.
Greek (LXX), G4645 — sklērynō = to be hardened, to be set.
The idea is one of Pratley Putty, an epoxy two-part resin where soft components are mixed together and a chemical reaction takes place. The mixture begins as being moldable but progressively becomes more rigid until it is solid.
The Greek Grammar describes it best:-
Speech: Verb = speaks for itself.
Person: 1st Person = God is speaking.
Tense: Aorist = A completed task.
Mood: Subjunctive = it is not certain that it will happen.
Voice: Active = God would do it if it is to be done.
The subjunctive mood means that it is not certain that God will harden Pharaoh’s heart. It will soon be seen that Pharaoh is given many opportunities before it happens.
Stages of Pharaoh’s heart condition
The first five of the 10 Plagues show the progressive stages of Pharaoh hardening his own heart.
• Blood: Pharaoh’s heart “became hard” (Exodus 7:22)
• Frogs: Pharaoh “hardened his own heart” (Exodus 8:15)
• Gnats: Pharaoh’s heart “was hardened” (Exodus 8:19)
• Flies: “Pharaoh hardened his own heart” (Exodus 8:32)
• Livestock die: Pharaoh’s heart “was hard” (Exodus 9:7)
When God, Who knows the hearts of humans, had given enough slack, He took over.
• Boils: “The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (Exodus 9:12)
• Hail: Pharaoh “hardened his own heart” (Exodus 9:34)
• Locusts: God announces that he has “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (Exodus 10:1,10:20)
• Darkness: God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (Exodus 10:27)
• Death of the firstborn: God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart” (Exodus 11:10)
But after the Israelites had gone, the punishment for the Egyptians came. They chased Israel but God protected His Chosen. (Exodus 14:8–14)
GOD DOES NOT ABANDON THE RIGHTEOUS!
John 17 informs us that we are in the hand of BOTH the Father AND the Son,
In this famous sculpture, both are right hands — the Father’s and the Son’s. Are YOU strong enough to get away?
But what about this text?
It is written in Romans 9:14–18║What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
Surely it means that God created Pharaoh in order to kill him so that everyone knows that God is Boss.
BUT DOES IT?
When God says, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion,” He is establishing the Legal Principle that He will forgive whomever He pleases. So Satan, the Accuser (legalist), cannot say, “You can’t be merciful to him, he’s a _ _ _ _.(fill in the blanks)”
Pharaoh had the chance to be redeemed until he became so hard that he would reject anything that God would offer. If Pharaoh had repented, God could also have shown His power using him. But we’ll never know how because there was no repentance.
Conclusion
Identifying the Unforgivable Sin is irrelevant to the Saint because it is written in John 10:27–30║My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”
GOD’S CHARACTER IS WHAT IS ON TRIAL HERE. HE PROMISES ETERNAL LIFE TO THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO BECOME HIS CHILDREN. DESPITE WHAT SATAN TELLS YOU, THE GOD OF THE BIBLE IS FAITHFUL AND DOES NOT SET HIS CHILDREN UP TO FAIL.
The forgoing evidence has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime. If you have seen something you like, I encourage plagiarism. So, always check everything I say first, then please re-cycle, re-brand, re-structure, re-issue, re-label, or re-gurgitate in any manner you please. No need to acknowledge me because the Holy Spirit Who holds the Intellectual Rights.
All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(We all have a plank in our eye. It’s bigger than we think.)
