The UNFORGIVEN, who are they and how does it happen?

The Holy Ghost is identified as part of the Trinity..

Matthew 28:19
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Jesus says that all manner of 'sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men' except that one thing which man can do against the Holy Ghost which leaves him 'Unforgiven'. What exactly is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, how do you speak, think, or act in such a way as to bring this one unforgiveable tresspass upon oneself?

Matthew 12:31
Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.

Matthew 12:32
And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

Mark 3:29
But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.

Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is so hardening one's heart against His pleadings that eventually one loses the desire and the ability to respond.

Yes, but I feel it is not so much a gradual hardening that is the blasphemy, but when one reaches a tipping point that you can almost put your finger on that causes a final rejection against the Holy Ghost. A definite point in their spiritual life where they consciously turn away from the Holy Ghost so that person has already reached the point of loss of the desire and the ability to respond. A good example would be Judas, up to the last Christ tried to reach him, and I think up to the point of the betraying kiss he still had a chance. Even he seemed to have grasped what line he had crossed when he threw down the 30 pieces of silver at the priests, but it was too late...

Wasn't Judas case one of a gradual hardening? Satan would be another example. It took a long, long time before he finally passed the point of no return.

It's certainly possible there will be a seminal moment, like there was in Judas' life, and Satan's, but it is not clear to me that this should necessarily be the case. For example, the SOP tells us that a person may not be able to trace the circumstances of their conversion, yet be genuinely converted. Many people can trace these circumstances, probably most. It seems to me the same thing could be true in the other direction.

Well I guess I am one of those that can track the day, the hour, the minute, that something changed, that awakened the spiritual side. Its like a light switch was flicked, and suddenly the scales fall off your eyes and you can see, and understand what once made no sense or was hidden from you, it now is unvieled....

'Justification' is that easy, but 'Sanctification' the transformation by the Holy Spirit is much harder, a daily struggle......

Justification isn't just a one time thing. We need to die (and be reborn) daily. It's by grace through faith each time, so I don't see the difference in difficulty.

If anything, the first time would be the hardest decision I would think, since that's a total change of everything you've known before. After walking with Christ, we know it's a good thing by experience, which would make us more likely to choose to respond to the Holy Spirit, wouldn't it?

'Justification' is more than once....hmmm, can you elaborate a bit more on your understanding of it.......

Sure. Good question.

Off the top of my head, Paul said, "I die daily." If one dies, it is necessary to be made alive, right? Which is to say reborn. Which is to say justified.

Another quick thought is that Rom. 3:26 speaks of God as being "the justifier of him who believes in Jesus." If justification were a one time thing, it would say that God is the justifier of the one who believed (past tense) in Jesus. God continues to justify as we continue to believe, and thus we continue to be justified (since God is justifying us).

Here's another way to see it:



Since pardon and justification are one and the same thing, given that we are pardoned daily, we are justified daily.