Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit - why it is an unforgivable sin. Special mortal sins: blasphemy against the Holy Spirit

- this is a person’s rejection of the obvious action of Divine grace.

Patristic disclosure of the doctrine of the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit

The main patristic interpretations of blasphemy include those of saint, prelate, prelate, venerable, reverend and blessed.

The Archbishop of Alexandria, the great father and teacher of the Church, became especially famous for his fight against Arianism and his firm, unshakable faith. He was the recognized leader of the struggle for Nicene Orthodoxy, for the definitions of the First Ecumenical Council, and left many theological works of an exegetical, apologetic and ascetic nature.

In "Conversations on the Gospel of Matthew" Athanasius I Great first gave a detailed interpretation of the Savior’s teaching about the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit: “The Holy Scriptures proclaim to us that Christ, by ineffable unity, is two-part, namely, Divinity and humanity. For the Word became flesh (). So, Christ Himself calls the Divinity of the Word the Holy Spirit, just as He said to the Samaritan woman: the Spirit is God (), and the humanity of the Word is the Son of Man, for he says: now is the Son of Man glorified (). And the Jews, who always insulted God, fell into deep blasphemy in relation to Christ. Some, tempted by His flesh, by the fact that He was the Son of Man, revered Him as a prophet, and not as God, and called Him a food drinker and a wine drinker (); and He granted them forgiveness; because then only preaching was supposed to begin, and it was inconceivable for the world to believe in God who became man. This is why Christ says: whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, that is, against His body, will be released to him (). For I dare to say that even the most blessed disciples did not have a perfect understanding of His Divinity until the Holy Spirit descended on them on the day of Pentecost; because even after the resurrection, having seen Him, they bowed to Him and began to doubt (), but they were not condemned for this. But those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit, that is, the Divinity of Christ, and say that he will cast out demons about Beelzebub, the prince of demons (), will not be released either in this age or in the next (). It should be noted that Christ did not say: he will not be forgiven the one who blasphemed and repented, but the one who blasphemes, that is, the one who remains in blasphemy. For due repentance resolves all sins. Others, examining what has been said that he who blasphemes the Spirit will not be forgiven either in this age or in the next, say that there are four ways in which the remission of sins is accomplished, and two of them take place here, and two in the next age. Because our memory is not able to remember all the sins whole life In order for a person to repent of them here, our humane Lord, as they say, has prepared two ways of repentance for the unrepentant in the next century. When someone has done good without distinction, or motivated by mercy and compassion for one’s neighbor, or for some other philanthropic motive, then in the next century, during the judgment, this will be weighed, and if there is any advantage in this, then he will be forgiven. And this is the first way. And the second is the following: when someone, possessed by sins, hears what the Lord says: Judge not, lest you be judged, and being afraid, does not condemn anyone for his life, then, as a keeper of the commandment, he will not be condemned, because the All-False One does not forget His commandments. The other two ways of forgiveness take place here. When someone, being in sins, according to the providence of God, is exposed to misfortunes, needs, illnesses - for through this God, in a way unknown to us, cleanses him - and if the tempted one gives thanks, then he receives a reward for gratitude. If he does not give thanks, then he is condemned for the sins for which he suffers punishment, and, moreover, he will be held accountable for ingratitude. Therefore, whoever sins in something before people has many opportunities to receive forgiveness. For whoever sins against one person and does good to another person is justified by the same nature against which he sinned. But blasphemy against the Spirit is unbelief, and there is no other way to receive forgiveness than to become faithful; and the sin of atheism and unbelief will not be forgiven either here or in the next century.”

This interpretation is consistent with another definition of the sin of blasphemy given by the holy father of the Church: “The Lord said this, not making a comparison between blasphemy against the Son and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and not in the sense that the Spirit is greater, and therefore blasphemy against the Spirit has great guilt. Let this not happen! For He previously taught that everything that the Father has belongs to the Son, that the Spirit will receive from the Son and glorify the Son, and that it is not the Spirit who gives the Son, but the Son who gives the Spirit to the disciples, and through the disciples to those who believe in Him. But since the blasphemy in both cases concerns Himself, in one case there is less blasphemy, and in the other much more, then the Lord said this.<… >Both blasphemy concerns the Lord Himself, and He said about Himself - both: Son of Man, and: Spirit, in order to indicate human nature with the first name, and with the word “Spirit” to designate His spiritual, intelligent and true Divinity. For in the meaning of His bodily nature, he attributed the blasphemy, in which forgiveness can be obtained, to the Son of Man, but about the unforgivable blasphemy he declared that it extended to the Spirit, so that by this difference from the bodily nature he could point to His Divinity.”

Saint Athanasius gave another important definition related to blasphemy: “The Council of Nicaea truly serves as a denunciation against all heresy and casts down those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit and call Him a creature.” This definition applied to the teachings of the Semi-Aryan Doukhobors. The Holy Fathers of the Local Council of Alexandria in 362, which was presided over by Saint Athanasius himself, wrote to the Antiochians: “Invite everyone who wants to be at peace with us... as well as those who have retreated from the Arians, accept them as fathers of children... do not demand anything from them more, but only to anathematize the Arian heresy and confess the faith confessed by the holy fathers in Nicaea, and also to anathematize those who claim that the Spirit is a creature and is separated from the essence of Christ. For not to divide the Holy Trinity and not to say that something from It is a creature means truly to retreat from the hated heresy of the Arians. And those who pretend to attribute to themselves the faith confessed at Nicaea and dare to blaspheme the Holy Spirit do no more than deny the Arian heresy in words, but contain it in their hearts.”

Archbishop of Caesarea of ​​Cappadocia, the ecumenical father and teacher of the Church, a fighter against Arianism, for which he was persecuted more than once. He compiled a liturgy that has survived to this day. He is the author of many wonderful theological works.

One of the interpretations of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is given by the saint in the “Rules of a Godly Life”: “Rule 35. Those who see in someone the fruit of the Holy Spirit, everywhere preserving an equal degree of godliness, and do not attribute it to the Holy Spirit, but attribute it to the enemy, - they blaspheme the Holy Spirit Himself.” This rule is complemented by another interpretation: “He blasphemes the Holy Spirit who attributes the actions and fruits of the Holy Spirit to the enemy. Many, often zealous ones, are subjected to this, recklessly calling those who show good zeal vain, falsely accusing them of anger, and falsely attributing many similar things out of crafty suspicions.”

As can be seen from the above quotes, Saint Basil considers blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and slander against a Christian out of envy of the gifts of the Spirit received by him to be a sin. The blasphemy consists in the fact that a person who shows zeal in a godly life, suddenly, based on the mere suspicion of anger and arrogance, begins to be considered vain, and false accusations are brought against him. And if during his ascetic life he received any gift as a reward from the Holy Spirit, then this gift is declared to be the action of demonic power. Even good Christians who try to hastily draw conclusions and conclusions about someone can fall into this terrible sin of blasphemy.

The saint also explains what blasphemy can lead to and who the blasphemer is like: “Blasphemy against the Spirit leads you to evil and illicit concepts. As soon as you spoke about the Spirit, which you should not say, it became clear to you that you had been abandoned by the Spirit. Just as one who closes his eyes has his own darkness within himself, so one who is separated from the Spirit, becoming outside the Enlightener, is enveloped in spiritual blindness.”

The great father and teacher of the Church, Archbishop of Constantinople, the saint left behind a large number of conversations and works of an exegetical nature covering many books Holy Scripture. He became famous for his struggle for the high morality of all Christians, and, first of all, the clergy. The main weapon of this struggle were his sermons, which have also reached us. The saint shortened the rite of the liturgy, and this shortened liturgy is known to us under the name of liturgy.

The saint wrote about blasphemy: “Just as the one who considers the sun dark does not disparage this luminary, but provides clear evidence of his blindness, and just as the one who calls honey bitter does not diminish its sweetness, but reveals his illness, so likewise condemning the works of God... Blasphemy does not humiliate the greatness of God... He who blasphemes inflicts wounds on himself... All torments, both present and future, are insufficient for the soul (blaspheming the Spirit).” “Truly there is no sin worse than blasphemy against the Spirit, there is not even an equal to it. In it there is a multiplication of evils; in it, everything is brought into disorder and entails merciless punishment and unbearable vengeance.”

The most detailed and profound interpretation of the Gospel teaching about blasphemy was given in Discourse 41 from the “Interpretation of St. Matthew the Evangelist,” in which he especially emphasized the knowledge of the Pharisees and lawyers about the Spirit of God and His actions: “So, first let us listen carefully to these words: everyone sin and blasphemy, He says, will be forgiven by man: but whoever blasphemes against the Spirit will not be forgiven by man: and whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven him; and whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the next (vv. 31, 32). What do these words mean? You said a lot about Me, that I am a deceiver, that I am an adversary of God. I will forgive you this and will not demand your punishment if you repent; but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven even to those who repent. How is this possible? After all, this guilt was also forgiven by those who repented. Many of those who spewed blasphemies against the Spirit subsequently believed, and everything was released. What do these words mean? That sin against the Holy Spirit is predominantly unforgivable. Why? Because they did not know who He was; and we have already received sufficient knowledge about the Spirit. So, whatever the prophets said, they spoke according to the inspiration of the Spirit, and in Old Testament everyone had a very clear understanding of Him. So, the words of Christ have this meaning: let you be offended by Me according to the flesh in which I have put on; but can you say about the Spirit that we do not know Him? That is why your blasphemy will be unforgivable, and here and there you will suffer punishment for it. Although many were only punished here, such as, for example, the fornicator who unworthily partook of the Mysteries among the Corinthians, you are both here and there. So, I forgive you everything with which you slandered Me before the cross, even the fact that you want to crucify Me on the cross, and your very unbelief will not be held against you. Those who believed before the cross did not have full faith, therefore He everywhere forbids announcing Himself to anyone before suffering, and on the cross itself He prayed that the Jews would be forgiven their sin. But what you said about the Spirit will not be forgiven you. And that Christ points to the blasphemy that the Jews spoke against Him before the cross, this can be seen from the following: whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven him; and whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be released. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is known to you, and you are not ashamed to reject the obvious truth. If you already say that you don’t know Me, then you undoubtedly know that casting out demons and performing healings is the work of the Holy Spirit. So, you do not only blaspheme Me, but also the Holy Spirit. Therefore, your punishment, both here and there, is inevitable. Some are punished both here and there; others are only here; others only there; and others are neither here nor there. And here and there - like, for example, these very blasphemers of the Holy Spirit. They suffered punishment here too, when they were subject to terrible disasters, after the capture of their city, and there they will suffer the most severe, like the inhabitants of Sodom and many others. There, just like, for example, a rich man who was scorched by flames and did not have even one drop of water. Here, like, for example, the fornicator of Corinth. Neither here nor there - like the apostles, like the prophets, like blessed Job: and their suffering was not a consequence of punishment, but of exploits and struggle."

Let us pay attention to the saint’s thought that the rejection of obvious truth is the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, as well as to the differentiation of punishments that those guilty of this sin will suffer.

The saint emphasized that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit through declaring Him an unclean spirit - Beelzebub - is blasphemy against the very Essence of God, since God is the purest Spirit, and also pointed out main reason the unforgivability of this sin: the visible works that the Holy Spirit does.

Since our Lord Jesus Christ says in the Holy Gospel: all sin and blasphemy will be forgiven by man: but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven by man... neither in this age nor in the next (), then we must investigate and know what kind of blasphemy this is, which happens to the Holy Spirit? There is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit when someone attributes the actions of the Holy Spirit to the devil, as he says (Cr. 273). When someone sees that some Christian brother performs miracles, or has any gift of the Holy Spirit, such as contrition of heart, or tears, or humility, or understanding of divine things, or anything else that the Holy Spirit gives to those who love God - and says that this is the deception of the devil - he blasphemes the Holy Spirit. Also, the one who says that those who are worthy of the influence of the Divine Spirit, as sons of God, and who fulfill the commandments of God and their Father, are deceived by the devil - and this one blasphemes the Holy Spirit acting in them, just as the Jews blasphemed the Son of God when , seeing how the demons were cast out by Christ, they blasphemed with great insolence that He was casting out demons about Beelzebub, the prince of demons. But others, hearing this, do not hear and, seeing this, do not see, and about everything about which Divine Scripture testifies and certifies that it comes from the Holy Spirit and from Divine influence, as if they had lost their temper and rejected all Divine Scripture, and having thrown out all the knowledge given by this Scripture from the mind, the damned do not tremble to say that such actions occur due to intoxication and demons. As if they were unfaithful and complete ignoramuses, not learned in the Divine mysteries, when they hear about the Divine illumination or illumination of the soul and mind, or about contemplation and dispassion, or about humility and tears from the action and grace of the Holy Spirit, immediately, as if not having the strength to endure of the great brilliance and power of these words, the eyes of their souls are darkened more than they are enlightened, and with great insolence they decide that this is from the delusion of demons, and the damned do not tremble either at the judgment of God or at the harm caused to those who hear them. Moreover, they do not hesitate to assert, boldly, that in present times nothing of the kind comes from God in any of the believers; and this is extreme wickedness, more than heresy.”

Giving interpretations of the Gospel texts, Blessed Theophylact, of course, paid attention to fragments related to the doctrine of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Below we present his reasoning.

To the Gospel of Matthew: “Every other sin has at least a small excuse, for example, fornication, theft, for we usually refer to human weakness and therefore deserve some excuse. But when someone sees miracles performed by the Holy Spirit and attributes them to demons, what excuse can he have? Obviously, he knows that they come from the Holy Spirit, but he maliciously blasphemes them - how can he be forgiven? Thus, when the Jews saw that the Lord ate and drank, that He communicated with publicans and harlots and did everything else characteristic of Him as the Son of Man, and then they blamed Him as a poisoner and a wine drinker, then in this they are worthy of apology and in this not Repentance will be required from them, since they were tempted, as it seemed to them, not without reason. But when they saw that He performed miracles, and yet they slandered and blasphemed the Holy Spirit, calling it a demonic work, how will they be forgiven of this sin if they do not repent? So, know that whoever blasphemes the Son of Man, seeing Him living like a man, and calls Him a friend of fornicators, a glutton and a wine drinker because Christ did this, then such a person, if he does not repent, will not give an answer for it, he will receive forgiveness, because under the cover of the flesh he did not imagine God in Him. But whoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit, that is, the spiritual works of Christ, and calls them demonic, unless he repents, will not be forgiven, since he did not have any plausible reason for blasphemy, like, for example, the one who slandered Christ, seeing Him among fornicators and tax collectors. This will not be forgiven him either here or there - but he will be punished both here and there.

Many are punished here only, but not there, like poor Lazarus; others here and there, like the Sodomites and those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit; others are neither here nor there, for example, the apostles, the Forerunner and others.”

To the Gospel of Mark: “What the Lord says here means the following: that people who sin in everything else can still apologize in some way and receive forgiveness through God’s condescension towards human weakness. For example, those who called the Lord a food drinker and a wine drinker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners, will receive forgiveness for this. But when they see that He works undoubted miracles, and yet they blaspheme the Holy Spirit, that is, the working of miracles that come from the Holy Spirit, then how will they receive forgiveness if they do not repent? When they were offended by the flesh of Christ, in this case, even if they did not repent, they will be forgiven as people who were offended, but when they saw Him doing the works of God and still blasphemed, how will they be forgiven if they remain unrepentant?

To the Gospel of Luke: “And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven. This means that whoever speaks blasphemy against Me, in his appearance as a simple Son of Man, eating, drinking, dealing with tax collectors and harlots, whether he repents or does not repent of his blasphemy, he will be forgiven. For to such a person his unbelief is not considered a sin. For what did he see that was conducive to faith? On the contrary, what did he not see worthy of blasphemy? He saw a man treating harlots and spoke blasphemy against him, and therefore sin was not imputed to him. For, naturally, he could think: what kind of Son of God is he who deals with harlots? Therefore, the one who does this, and yet pretends to be the Son of God, he can revile and call him a deceiver.

And whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. These words have such a meaning that anyone, seeing Divine signs and great and extraordinary deeds, does not believe and blasphemes, attributing the actions of the Holy Spirit to Beelzebub, spewing blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and saying that these signs are performed by the evil spirit, and not by God, if he does not repent, he will not be forgiven or forgiven. He who speaks blasphemy against the Son of Man is not charged with sin, and therefore he is forgiven even without repentance, but he who sees the works of the Spirit of God and blasphemes without repentance will not be forgiven, but will be counted as the greatest sin.”

The blessed one draws the main attention to the fact that the sin of blasphemy is punished both in this life and in the future, and without repentance it will never be forgiven.

Summing up the results of the consideration of the main interpretations of the holy fathers and teachers of the Church of the Gospel teaching about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, we can say that they attributed to this mortal sin, subject to eternal condemnation and punishment:

- the sin of godlessness and unbelief,

– the sin of rejecting obvious truth,

– sin of division Holy Trinity through the separation of the Holy Spirit from the essence of Christ and declaring Him a creature and not God,

– the sin of attributing any gifts of a Christian, received for a zealous, God-pleasing life from the Holy Spirit, to the action of demonic forces,

– the sin of declaring the influence of the Divine Spirit on an ascetic who was able to achieve pure contemplative prayer as a demonic delusion or the result of intoxication,

– the sin of attributing to the devil the works and miracles of the Spirit of God that are visible to everyone.

The Holy Fathers, following the Apostle Paul, confirmed that the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit should be anathema. Anyone who commits this sin or accepts false teaching containing it must be excommunicated from the Church until he publicly renounces his errors, that is, brings repentance.

Repentance, according to the teachings of the Orthodox Church, is “one of seven Christian Sacraments established by Jesus Christ. A Christian, sincerely and heartily repenting of his sins and intending to correct his life, with faith in Christ and with hope in His mercies, verbally sets out his sins before the priest, who also verbally absolves him of his sins. With the visible expression of forgiveness by the priest, the penitent is invisibly absolved by Christ Himself and again becomes innocent and sanctified, as after baptism. At first, repentance consisted only of external cleansing sacrifices; later, the prophets began to demand internal change during repentance, in the form of a decision to live better; in the Gospel, repentance is already understood as rebirth, a complete change of being. In apostolic times there were two types of repentance: 1) secret, before the priest, and 2) open, public, before the entire church community,” Bl. Blagovestnik: In 3 books. – M.: Sretensky Monastery Publishing House, 2000. Book. 1. pp. 116-117.

Right there. pp. 276-277.

Blzh.. Interpretation of the Gospel of Luke // Theophylact of Bulgaria, Blzh. Blagovestnik: In 3 books. – M.: Sretensky Monastery Publishing House, 2000. P. 492-493.

We are talking about undoubted ascetics of piety, known to the Church, and not about all persons in general who are called such.

Complete Orthodox Theological encyclopedic Dictionary: In 2 vols. T. 2. – St. Petersburg: Publishing house P.P. Soikina, b. g. S. 1825-1826.

A clergyman's handbook. T. 7. P. 659.

Question: What does blasphemy against God or the holy spirit mean? How to deal with Blasphemous thoughts? Will God forgive insults against him?
(Victoria)

Answer: These are perhaps the most painful questions that Christians ask themselves when faced with difficult trials. It is not always possible to emerge from such trials with ease and/or spiritually intact, which causes especially severe pain to those who survive them. There has probably been a time in the life of every faithful Christian when he asked himself similar questions and did not find an answer to them. And, of course, you are far from alone in your attempts to find an answer to them.

As I understand from the experiences that have befallen me, and also from the experiences of those with whom I have encountered life path As a rule, such questions are asked by people who are faced with blatant injustice. Or with some other horror or misfortune that happened to them or, perhaps, to people dear to them. When this happens to a person, it is quite possible that he will have doubts about God or even anger towards Him. And subsequently, all this taken together can cause pain in such a person that does not go away for many months and years. But it’s even worse when the situation is not corrected and justice is not restored, and when it seems that there is no end to it and that God seems to have turned away, and it seems like you have no hope left.

Unfortunately, all this is usually experienced by people with a sensitive soul, with a heightened sense of justice and a vulnerable heart. However, the most unpleasant thing is that your soul is hurt not only because of what happened or is happening. No, it is doubly painful because it seems as if you, through your own fault, have offended the Spirit of God, cutting yourself off both from Him and from any hope of forgiveness. But is this really true? What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? And is there a biblical basis for concluding that you are beyond forgiveness?

The Bible describes many situations that allow us to understand God's point of view on these issues. Therefore, looking ahead and speaking very briefly, you need to see the most important thing: God makes a significant difference between actions different people who sinned (including with their lips) against Him. And, although in the case of each sin the right of final judgment belongs only to God’s justice and His mercy, such offenses can be divided into two conditional groups.

The first group of offenses includes cases when a person is and acts under the guidance of false expectations instilled in him or inaccurate ideas about God and His plan. Obviously, being incorrectly trained, a person cannot absolutely correctly evaluate either his own actions or God’s. And, accordingly, he cannot act absolutely sinlessly. Finding yourself under pressure in this state unforeseen circumstances, a person can come to extreme despair and even sin against God. But later he may bitterly repent of what he said or did and make every effort not to repeat his sin.

However, it is a completely different matter when, from a certain point in time, a person is correctly aware of God and His purpose, but continues to deliberately sin against God through constant and malicious resistance, while insisting on his “righteousness” (compare Proverbs 14:17, TAM). .

So now we can look at this with some biblical examples.

What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?

The most famous saying, which instills fear of the inevitability of punishment for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, belongs to Jesus Christ. To understand what exactly Jesus called blasphemy against the Spirit, we must consider under what circumstances He said this:

“Then they brought to Him a demon-possessed man, blind and dumb; and he healed him, so that the blind and dumb man began to speak and see. And all the people marveled and said, Is this not the Christ, the son of David? The Pharisees, having heard [this], said: He does not cast out demons except [by the power of] Beelzebub, the prince of demons. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said to them: ...if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then of course the Kingdom of God has come to you... Therefore I say to you: every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven to men, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven to men; if anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; But if anyone speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the next.” (Matthew 12:22-32).

Greek word used by the inspired apostles βλασφημία [blasphemIa], translated in this text as “blasphemy” has the meaning "blasphemy, reproach, blasphemy, slander, reproachful slander" . (See also Mark 3:28, Luke 5:21, John 10:33). For example, in the list of vices given in Colossians 3:8, the same word is translated as “evil speech”, and this is not the same as “foul language”, for which a completely different word is used in the same list - αισχρολογίαν [ayschrologIan], meaningful "foul language, obscene speech, dirty talk".

Those. “blasphemy” is not necessarily “foul language” or “dirty speech.” No, the word translated as “blasphemy” rather means the deliberate attribution of humiliating and disgusting qualities to the object or person against whom the blasphemy is directed. Those. this word refers specifically to the humiliating essence of what was said, but not to the form of words in which this essence is clothed. Consequently, “blasphemy” cannot or should not necessarily be heard in obscene expressions - no, it can be heard in the same way in generally accepted expressions and even quite literary ones.

[An example is the prophet Isaiah, who before the beginning of his ministry was “a man of unclean lips.” From childhood he was dedicated to Jehovah as a member of His people. But, in the language of modern concepts, Isaiah, (before his calling) living “among a people of unclean lips,” simply cursed along with everyone around him. And when a great vision from Jehovah appeared to him, Isaiah was scared to death precisely because of this sinful inclination. However, Jehovah saw much further than the “unclean words” this man uttered. Under this unsightly shell, God saw his kind and sympathetic heart, and without any reproach, he commanded His angel to “cleanse” Isaiah’s lips (Isaiah 6:5-7). And then God called Isaiah to serve as one of the greatest prophets this world has ever known (Isaiah 6:8).

This example helps us understand two comforting things. First, “unclean speech” is not always blasphemy or blasphemy against the Spirit. And secondly, in this example you can see that God's attitude towards a person can be very different from that person's attitude towards himself. After all, first of all, God looks not at how a person behaved, but at what motivates this person and how he relates to his misdeeds.]

Therefore, returning to the words of Christ from Matthew 12:22-32, it becomes obvious that in this case, what Jesus called “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” was deliberate attribution evil spirits works that were done by the power of God. In other words, the power of God was represented accusers Christ as an unclean, demonic force.

For example, if some ignorant pagan had not seen, but heard about the miracles Jesus performed among His people, then, not knowing the subtleties of what was happening, he could have taken seriously the statements of Jesus’ opponents that His miracles were demonic. Moreover, due to his ignorance, such a pagan could himself (following the opponents of Christ) repeat for some time that these miracles are from demons. However, such an opinion would be more likely due to ignorance rather than conscious opposition, as was the case with Jesus' opponents. Because the opponents of Christ saw the manifestation of the power of the Spirit with their own eyes. In this regard, Jesus said that if in the pagan cities “If the powers that were manifested in (Judea) were manifested in Tire and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” . By this He also emphasized the obvious maliciousness of the opposition of His opponents.

So why did Jesus classify this offense as one of the unforgivable sins? To understand this, you need to answer two questions: to whom were these words of His addressed? (1) And for what reason? (2)

First, these words of Christ were addressed to inveterate opponents His activities.

Secondly, the gospel writers report that Jesus' opponents had such an opposing attitude constantly. Yes, Jesus clearly did not fit into their expectations of the Messiah. But the miracles He performed were clearly from God! And everything that He taught was in accordance with the just Spirit of the Scriptures, which they knew from childhood. This was so obvious to everyone involved that each of them had every opportunity to change their misconceptions about God and His purpose. But Jesus' opponents stubbornly rejected all this. In this regard, it is obvious that their opposition clearly reflected evil and ingrained intention deny all obvious facts both from life and from the Scriptures.

Moreover, the entire context of what was described shows that their negative attitude was conscious, and it was based on absolute reluctance to admit being wrong before the Scriptures, as well as pride, hatred and envy of the miracles of Jesus. Indeed, in reality, these miracles revealed the callousness and malice of their hearts.

Indeed, was there no reason to rejoice when Jesus healed incurable diseases, relieving the suffering of unfortunate people who had previously suffered all their lives? Any normal person would be happy for them! But Jesus’ opponents became even more angry, attributing demonic origins to the supernatural power of Jesus, and imaginable and unimaginable sins to Jesus himself (cf. John 9:18,19,24). It was precisely this evil attitude that became the basis of their offensive statements, and it is no coincidence that Jesus called all this nothing less than “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.” Finally, He directly pointed out to them the reason for their behavior:

“Born of vipers! how can you say good things when you are evil? For from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man brings out good things from a good treasure, and evil person out of evil treasure he brings out evil." (Matthew 12:34,35).

Thus, their blasphemous and humiliating speech was not just some random impulse, uttered under the pressure of some horror, sudden misfortune or other gross injustice. No, this was a manifestation of the fierce hatred with which they were filled hearts, and they did not fight to repent and cleanse their hearts of anger. Therefore, they viciously blasphemed what Jesus had done at the moment when they should have rejoiced in just deeds done for the good of man and the glory of God. This is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. This is essentially the same thing that the murmurers did in the days of Moses, when they stubbornly refused to acknowledge all the good things done for them by the Holy Spirit of God (Hebrews 3:16-19).

Don't judge yourself

Unfortunately, reading the words of Christ from Matthew 12:22-35, a repentant person who has sinned against God with his mouth can also accuse himself of the fact that since he accused or insulted the Father of something, then his heart was certainly evil, and he himself “blasphemed the Spirit” and now does not deserve forgiveness. And if you stumbled in something or sinned with your lips, does this mean that God already considers you to have sinned against the Holy Spirit and worthy only of death?

The fact is that the ancient Israelites, who sinned grievously against God, they also thought exactly that way. It seemed to them that after their sins they no longer had a chance for correction or forgiveness. Based on this, they were sure that now they deserved only death. The prophet Ezekiel wrote about this, and it is very remarkable that God answered them:

And you, son of man, tell the house of Israel: you speak such words: “Our trespasses and our sins lie upon us, and from them we melt away: How can we stay alive?“Tell them: As I live, says the Lord Jehovah, I do not want the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn away from his way and live. Convert, leave your wicked ways; and why should you bring yourselves to death, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:10,11,AM)

As can be seen from these words, the very first thing God pointed out to the Israelites through Ezekiel was that they did not know Him fully: after all, Jehovah is a God of life, not death. From these words it follows that for God there are things more important than human misconduct. He has neither the goal nor the desire to necessarily kill every sinner. And if you, having suddenly stumbled, make every effort to seek God’s justice, then you also have hope for forgiveness. God sees not only misdeeds, but also the circumstances that led to them. He also sees the hearts of those who have sinned. And for Him it is much more important how a person ultimately feels about his offense, and whether he has the willingness not to repeat it.

[It should be taken into account that in this article we are talking mainly about sins against God, and not against people. It is clear that sin against people is also a sin against God, but such sins can (and should) be atoned for, for example, by making amends to these people and/or asking them for forgiveness. In the case of sin against God, only the person’s personal relationship with God is affected, and this article is primarily devoted to such cases.]

So just think about what sins Jehovah endured from His ancient people over the centuries. We should reflect on this not in order to think that our sins are not as terrible as the sins of the ancient apostates. No, a person seeking God will not justify himself by the misdeeds of other people ( Galatians 6:5, compare Luke 18:11, Genesis 3:12). When considering the attitude of ancient sinners to their sins, a Christian should first of all think about how merciful God is to all who want to find His favor.

After all, what horrors did His “worshippers” do, having learned this from the corrupt nations that lived around Israel! And what kind of insults did these sinners send at Him! (2 Chronicles 36:16). Yet, over the centuries, God patiently sent prophets to them with the same message: repent and turn from your evil deeds!

And if their persistent sins were not forgiven, then what was the point of sending these messages to them? If their sins were incorrigible, then what is the meaning of the words of the prophet Isaiah, who was also sent to them with the same words:

Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove your evil deeds from before My eyes; stop being evil. Learn to do good; love justice; restore the oppressed; protect the orphan; sort out the widow's case. Come, and let us go to court, says Jehovah. If your sins are like scarlet cloth, everything will become white as snow; if they blush like crimson, everything will be like a wave. If you want and obey, you will enjoy the goodness of the earth. (Isaiah 1:16-19)

You need to pay special attention to these words. The never-changing God seems to still be pointing out that even if your hearts seem hopelessly corrupt and your sins seem as incorrigible as dyed cloth, just “convert” and He will make you purer than white snow. By this, God shows that He Himself - personally - will consider the converted sinner as pure as white snow!

Think about it, if there were no forgiveness upon repentance from the most serious sins, would these words be true? Of course not. That's why don't judge yourself. And, repenting before God, allow Him to forgive you. Whatever happens, every Christian should heed the words of the Apostle Peter: "Humble yourself under strong hand May God exalt you in due time; Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you.”(1 Peter 5:6,7).

After all, by refusing God's forgiveness, we would testify that we consider our judgment on ourselves to be more righteous than God's judgment. And that would be even worse than the offense we committed. Moreover, by doing this we would show that we do not know Him, and would present Him as unrighteous and infinitely cruel. But even the very thoughts that lead to such conclusions are unbearably difficult, and, as the Bible shows, they clearly do not come from God. Therefore, you should not let them dominate you. God sees hearts broken by repentance and wants to help them. After all, as the psalmist wrote, “You do not reject a broken and dejected heart, O God.” (Psalm 50:19, SinP; cf. Isaiah 66:2).

“Will God accept my repentance?”

But, of course, everything discussed above applies to those who have sincerely repented and fully trusted God's judgment, and are also making wholehearted efforts to correct their behavior.

But you ask: is it possible that He will not accept someone’s repentance? Will God accept my repentance?

From the ancient Law we know what sin is. But since in the New Testament era relationship with God depends on actions according to the Spirit of the Law, and not according to the Law itself, we do not need to bother ourselves with an exact list of sins for which there will be no forgiveness. Judgment by the Spirit involves an individual approach to each specific case. We just have to trust God’s mercy and justice and make efforts to repent, stay away from sin and try to know God as best as possible- then we will have no doubts about anything.

As we consider the following examples of God's thinking and His judgments, let us remind ourselves that the Bible only mentions a "book of life" that does not include stubbornly unrepentant sinners. In addition, the Scriptures describe a number of cases where people committed the most terrible sins against Him - sins for which the death penalty should have been imposed - but He forgave them when they repented and even actively helped them.

One of these most blatant sinners against God was the ancient Jewish king Manasseh. He not only introduced himself and ancient people God into depravity and bloody lawlessness, but also into stubborn idolatry, which is perhaps the most serious sin against God (2 Kings 21:1-18). However, later, when Manasseh, being punished by God, was captured by the enemy, he deeply repented and was forgiven by God. Moreover, God even helped him - to such an extent that Manasseh was returned to the royal throne * (2 Chronicles 23:10-13). This is probably one of the best examples the fact that, seeing sincere repentance in the sinner’s heart, Jehovah acts in the spirit - he forgives completely and selflessly. That is, the example of Manasseh’s repentance shows that even his grave sins were not regarded as an unforgivable blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and, in the case sincere repentance, said goodbye.

Therefore, if you repent from the bottom of your heart for what you have done and try to correct your ways, then you have every reason to be confident that God will forgive you and be favorable to you. After all, He wishes only good for you, and if you understand this, then you have no reason to deprive yourself of strength with unbearable anxiety.

[*– True, in the case of Manasseh, Jehovah never canceled the already proclaimed punishment for the entire people, although he delayed the date of its onset (2 Kings 23:26). But this punishment was not canceled, including due to the fact that (unlike Manasseh), most of the people never repented of their blasphemous sins and idolatry - and this is clearly seen from other books of the Bible, for example, from the book of Jeremiah.]

Another example God's forgiveness is the case of David, who was subject to a death sentence for his adultery with Bathsheba and for the murder of her husband. David sincerely repented and the death sentence was canceled, although for some time David still reaped the grave consequences of his sin (2 Samuel 12:13,14). However, the best confirmation that after David's punishment Jehovah did not hatch plans of revenge against him is the fact that David's second child from Bathsheba (Solomon) became the ancestor of Jesus Christ.

Thus, the Scriptures show that God is willing not only to forgive the repentant sinner, but to forgive unselfishly and forever.

Will God forgive Judas Iscariot?

As discussed above, there are sins that are so stubbornly committed that they will never be forgiven. And some Christians who have sinned are worried: what kind of sins are these, repentance for which does not help?

Usually, they remember the example of the sin of Judas Iscariot, about whom Jesus said that “it would have been better for him not to have been born.” From the lips of Christ this sounds like a sentence from God, who saw the heart of this traitor.

In the situation with Iscariot, the only thing that is not clear to many is whether he really repented, and if so, will God forgive Him? But the question is, did he really repent, and did he repent before God? or only before the society on which his life depended? We don't know this because, unlike God, we cannot see what was in his heart.

Therefore, taking into account what was said about Judas by Christ, we cannot add anything more specific. We are not God and cannot make a judgment on Iscariot. After all, only He has the right to do this.

None of us saw or heard with our own eyes everything that Iscariot saw and heard. After all, Judas was taught by Jesus Himself, and he had every chance to soften his heart so as not to sin. By committing betrayal, Judas clearly went against the clearly expressed will of God and against the obvious manifestations of the power of His Spirit. As a Jew, He knew the Scriptures from childhood. And he personally received enlightenment from Jesus and, as confirmation of this, I saw His amazing miracles with my own eyes. Therefore, he simply had to understand who was behind Jesus. Moreover, Judas was with the apostles, who were under the direct tutelage of the Son of God (Acts 1:16,17, John 17:12), and not under the influence of deceit, violence, or gross injustice. Therefore He allowed himself to be deceived (James 1:14).

However, after the betrayal, he seemed to repent of what he had done and came to the Temple, trying to return the thirty pieces of silver for which he had betrayed the Lord. And then he just hanged himself.

And some Christians who have sinned are so tormented by their actions that they try to compare their sin with the sin of Judas, trying to use his example to understand whether God will forgive them and accept their repentance or not. And I must say that this is completely unreasonable. And that's why.

Any sin offends the Spirit of God!

As a result of the training they received from their religious teachers, some Christians try to understand which sins will not be forgiven. They are trying to understand this so as not to repeat these sins or to give themselves the “correct judgment”. But, firstly, such Christians take on the role of Judge. And, secondly, they try to evaluate their actions not according to the Spirit, but as if according to the commandment, forgetting that in the era of serving according to the Spirit there is no special list of sins for which the so-called sins will certainly follow. "second death"! The fact of the matter is that the judgment by the Spirit is the judgment of God by considering the condition hearts a specific person, i.e. in relation to his heart towards the wrongdoings he has committed.

And the most important thing that such Christians still do not understand is that any sin offends the Spirit of God! This can be understood from a number of biblical sayings.

For example, this is seen in the following passage from Hebrews:

For if we, having received the knowledge of the truth, we sin arbitrarily, then there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrible expectation of judgment and the fury of fire, ready to devour opponents. [If] one who rejects the law of Moses, in the presence of two or three witnesses, is without mercy [punished] with death, then how much more severe punishment do you think will be guilty of the one who tramples on the Son of God and does not consider as holy the Blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and Offends the Spirit of Grace? (Hebrews 10:26-29).

Here we should pay special attention to the word translated “willfully [sin]”: in this phrase in the original language the word meant “[sin] voluntarily, voluntarily, willingly " For example, this same word is directly contrasted with acting under duress in 1 Peter 5:2. Thus, such a willing and voluntary action is in direct contrast to actions committed not fully consciously, for example, due to deception in teaching in the congregation (cf. Luke 12:47,48). As the apostle's further words show, such brazen voluntariness, which underlies conscious sin, is considered an “offense” to the Holy Spirit (10:29). This becomes all the more true if such a sin is consciously and willingly repeated by a person again and again.

Moreover, the word translated "offend" in Hebrews 10:29 means " mock, insult, mock " This meaning largely coincides with the meaning of the word βλασφημία [blasfemIa] - “ blasphemy, slander, reproachful slander ».

Thus, the above idea is again confirmed, any sin committed completely “willingly” and out of “good will” can become such a mockery of the Holy Spirit that it in turn can be recognized as “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.” And in the end it can lead to the fact that there will no longer be “a sacrifice for sins” and nothing but a death sentence.

However, here too, biblical examples show serious differences in God's judgment even in relation to those who deliberately sin. This, for example, is shown by the above examples of the conscious and voluntary sins of David and Manasseh, who, having repented, were justified, although they suffered some punishment.

Another example concerns Ananias and Sapphira, who, having sold a house, brought money into the common treasury and decided to hide part of the amount. While they were simply greedy and deceitful, they wanted to appear generous and sincere. And they lied, saying that they gave everything they had. For which they were immediately recognized as having lied against the Holy Spirit, and died - immediately after their voluntary And conscious lies. (Acts 5:1-10). It should be noted that Ananias’ sin lay precisely where only the Holy Spirit could see it - in HEART this man! (Acts 5:3)

Another example concerns a brother in the Corinthian congregation who fell into debauchery to the point where he “slept with his father’s wife.” The very fact that the congregation became “proud” of itself shows that this brother’s sin was also completely conscious And voluntary. For which Paul severely reprimanded the brothers and urged them to no longer consider the sinner a member of their congregation and a brother (1 Corinthians 5:1-5). However, the same Paul in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians wrote that a brother who realized his sin and deeply repented of what he had done should be forgiven and joyfully accepted back into the loving family of the apostolic congregation (2 Corinthians 2:6-11, 7:9- eleven). Moreover, Paul wrote that this forgiveness comes from the name of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:10), and therefore from the Holy Spirit.

Also, the fact that any sin offends the Spirit of God can be seen, for example, from the situation before the flood, when the earth was filled with atrocities. This is how God described what was happening:

And the Lord said: My Spirit will not forever be neglected by people; because they are flesh... And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually... (Genesis 6:3-7)

As can be seen from these words, the sins of people offended the Spirit of God! Moreover, it was precisely what filled them that offended Jehovah. hearts!

What does this mean? The Spirit of God that permeates the entire Universe is the Spirit of Love, Truth and Justice. Permeating the entire Universe, this Spirit permeates every heart, seeing and feeling what is happening in it. It cannot be any other way, because everything created by God is, as it were, a particle of Himself, His immense power and energy, as it is written: “For [being the race of God] in Him we live and move and have our being...” (Acts 17:28,29). Therefore, whenever someone somewhere tramples justice or truth, the Spirit of God feels this “pain” as if “within Himself” and is offended by such actions, because they are contrary to His very Essence. This is why Christians are urged to:

“Put on the new man, created according to God in righteousness and true holiness. Therefore, putting away falsehood, speak the truth every one of you to your neighbor, for we are members of one another. When you are angry, do not sin... and do not give room to the devil... And do not offend the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”(Ephesians 4:24-30).

Particular attention should be paid to the Greek word λυπειτε [lupEite], which is translated in this text as “[not] insult" And in the original language this word carries the meaning “to embarrass, burden, sadden, upset, torment, torment”.

This best proves that, every time people sin, “burden, torment and torment” Spirit of God. Moreover, this happens in the case of any unrighteous behavior, and not just when a person is offended or angry with God out loud because of something he does not understand.

Therefore, remember that He also has feelings and “pain”, which subsides every time when He sees hearts striving for righteousness and repenting of their sins. Remember that Jehovah sees every “movement” of your repentant heart, and it brings incredible joy to His “heart”.

God, as can be seen from all of the above, is incredibly long-suffering and “does not want anyone to perish, but that everyone should come to repentance” . Jehovah greatly appreciates the hearts of people who are ready to admit they were wrong and repent of their misdeeds. And as a result of their sincere repentance, God is ready to forgive them. Therefore, having repented, cast your cares on God and trust in Him. Do not grieve and do not torment yourself or the Spirit of God in the future. And, moreover, do not make your sins conscious from now on, lest you provoke the Spirit of God to such anger that there is no room left for forgiveness (Hebrews 10:26-29). And in this you will be helped by knowledge about His love, and about everything that He did for you and what sacrifices He made.

GOD LOVES YOU!

But what if you continue to be tormented by thoughts that make you blame yourself and think that your sin against God is the most special and the most serious sin you can imagine? What if such thoughts depress you so much that you involuntarily begin to believe that God has cruelly rejected you and doomed you to inevitable death? Try to pray about it. Even the most short prayer will be heard by God, who knows about your need before you ask Him. “...And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7).

If painful thoughts about God persist in you, then most likely you have had a difficult past, or you have been taught an incorrect idea about the personality of God. Remember that this most often occurs as a result of training received from their religious teachers (for example, within the walls of the Watchtower), who attribute their own teachings and deeds to God's influence. Such teaching can become firmly entrenched in the minds of gullible Christians, substituting the commandments and ideas of human congregational leaders for the justice of God. As a result, the problems and difficulties that occur to a person under the influence of such an environment may seem to him as coming from God Himself! It is not surprising that in such a state a person can blame the Almighty Himself.

In such a situation, it is only important to stop in time and think: do you understand everything correctly? Ask yourself: “What does God have to do with it? Does He, in general, have anything to do with this particular situation?” Pray, or ask someone you really trust to talk to you. Be sure to ask yourself logical questions, and try to use them to find out whether God really looks the way you think, or whether this is a consequence of incorrect teaching of your religion or pain that prevents you from living. And be sure to remember what Jacob wrote:

Let no one say, when put to the test, “It is God who tempts me.” God cannot be tempted by evil, and He tempts no one(James 1:13, ESV)

No temptation has befallen you other than that of man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but when you are tempted, He will also give you the way of escape, so that you may be able to bear it.(1 Corinthians 10:13).

God, like no one else, understands the pain of betrayal and He understands the feelings of a person who thinks that God is unfair to him. However, due to the current circumstances, He is innocent of what is happening and will definitely support you so that you can endure this difficult period for you. After all, He understands that all our troubles come from the influence on us from our environment, and partly from ourselves.

But if you still experience painful thoughts, then think about how you would react if someone sinned against you with their lips, but then repented and asked for forgiveness? For example, what if someone insulted you? close person, your own child or little brother (sister)? Would you, despite his repentance and pleas for forgiveness, demand immediate execution for him? To any normal person, even the very thought of this may seem disgusting and blasphemous. After all, true love is not only fair, but also ready to forgive, hoping for the best. And if you, being a sinful person, are ready to act out of love and forgive a repentant sinner, then what grounds are there for thinking that Eternal God act less fairly than you? Are you more just and more merciful than Him?

Also, when you regret what you have done, think about the fact that your pain is caused by your own attitude not only to this sin, but also to to myself. But It's your attitude, not God's.! If the very thought of your own sin, your own untruth is unpleasant to you, then doesn’t the All-Seeing One see and appreciate this? God, Who looks at hearts, knows perfectly well not only what happened and what led to it, but also everything that happens in your heart. And the very fact that you know and love His justice says that you walk in the truth and should listen to the words of the Apostle John:

By this we know that we are from the truth and will calm our hearts before Him, no matter what our hearts condemn us for; for God is greater than our heart and knows everything (1 John 3:19,20, Cassian translation).

Therefore, there is no reason to think that God has turned his back on you forever. As can be seen from all the above examples, God always remains faithful to all whose hearts strive for Him and His justice. And if, despite your past sin, your heart still loves Him and strives for Him, then nothing, no one can ever separate you from His eternal love.

The entire Gospel speaks of forgiveness. This, in fact, is what distinguishes it from many other religions, including the Old Testament. Almost all of them talk in one way or another about sins and responsibility for them, and even the possibility of forgiveness. But only the Gospel makes this forgiveness all-encompassing: the thief on the cross, who probably committed many atrocities and caused people a lot of grief, receives complete forgiveness as soon as he turns to Christ! And the parable of the prodigal son, whom his father not only does not punish, but also accepts as long-awaited, and is the first to run towards him?

And against this background, a warning sounds with sharp dissonance:

“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men; if anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; But if anyone speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the next.”(Matthew 12:31-32; similar in Mark 3:28-29 and Luke 12:10; however, Mark does not mention the Son and speaks generally of “blasphemies”).

We perceive this text through the prism of . It turns out that it is excusable to blaspheme the Son and unforgivable -. What can we say about the Father? And how can this even be if the Father, Son and Spirit are One God?

But in the Gospel, Christ does not speak in dogmatic formulations; He usually responds to the situation that has arisen, to the specific need of this or that person.

The Fathers of the Church spoke quite a lot about this statement, and, which is quite unusual, they spoke almost with one voice.

He formulated his interpretation as follows:

“He blasphemes the Holy Spirit who attributes the actions and fruits of the Holy Spirit to the enemy” (i.e., the devil).

With his characteristic eloquence he explains:

“Just as the one who considers the sun dark does not disparage this luminary, but provides clear evidence of his blindness, and as the one who calls honey bitter does not diminish its sweetness, but reveals his illness, so are those who condemn the works of God... Whoever blasphemes , he inflicts wounds on himself.”

And this interpretation even expands somewhat:

“Whoever says that in modern times it is impossible to receive the Holy Spirit, and whoever blasphemes the actions of the Holy Spirit, saying that such actions are from the devil, introduces a new heresy into the Church of God.”

But before discussing their interpretations, let us return to the Gospel text itself and see in what setting these words were spoken.

Luke places them within a rather long speech, which is devoted, speaking in the most general terms, to the fate of man before God. But Matthew and Mark cite them in connection with a specific situation, it is described in especially detail in Matthew.

Jesus heals the sick, casts out demons from the possessed - in other words, performs miracles that cannot be ignored. But His opponents find their own explanation for this: “He does not cast out demons except by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons.”(Matthew 12:24). Since the demons obey Him, then, in the opinion of these people, He is the most important among them!

Jesus shows the absurdity of their constructions, and concludes His answer with these very words about the unforgivability of blasphemy against the Spirit. And in this context, they can be understood exactly as the Fathers understood: abuse directed against the person of Jesus can still be forgiven, like any human sin. But if people attribute to the devil that which clearly and obviously demonstrates the saving action of God for people in this world, what then can save them?

Let's say a person falls into the water from the side of a sailing ship and drowns. If he vilifies those who are trying to help him and throws a life preserver with the dirtiest words, he can still take advantage of the thrown life preserver and save himself, although he will have to apologize later. But if he hides from the circle itself, swims away, mistaking it for a shark, it means he refuses salvation. All he had to do was drown.

This is how it looked then: it was so important for those Pharisees to prove that they were right that they did not hesitate to declare white as black, God’s as demonic. We were not talking about some subtle theological error, incorrect verbal construction, but about things that were quite clear and unambiguous. One could doubt whether Jesus spoke correctly during his sermon, but it was impossible not to admit that those who were brought to Him sick or brought to Him who were demon-possessed left Him healed, and that this was a great blessing for man.

Miracles confirmed that He was not just talking about the Kingdom of God, but establishing it here and now, and those Pharisees chose to accept all this as the action of the devil, just to remain right in their own eyes.

Accusations of “blasphemy against the Spirit” are often heard in polemics among Christians today. Indeed, such a killer argument! In fact, this accusation usually goes something like this: “I don’t like the way you talk about God.” I think that in most cases this accusation is unfounded.

But when a person suddenly begins to call “delusion” or “possession” or “heresy” something that he does not yet understand, but in which the action of the Spirit can clearly be discerned, I am afraid that he is approaching a very dangerous line.

The main problem is not even that for some particularly impudent words he will later be asked especially strictly (although this is not sweet), but rather that he risks rejecting God’s hand extended to him, if for some reason it seems to him, that it was not stretched there, not then and not in the way that the person himself considered necessary.

What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? With the commandments “do not steal, do not kill, do not commit adultery” everything is clear and without additional explanations. But in order not to fall into the sin of blasphemy against the Spirit, you should know exactly what actions you need to avoid. Unfortunately, many Christians today are not completely sure about this. There is a place in the Gospel that leads to bewilderment and anxiety a great many people who become acquainted with the text of the Holy Scriptures. These are the words of Christ: “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men; if anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; But if anyone speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the next.”(Matthew 12:31–32).

Is it true that God does not forgive this sin?

Anxiety and bewilderment are quite natural here. Anxiety - because we are not talking about some abstract subjects, but about the most important issue in the fate of every person - his fate in eternal life. And the bewilderment is because this Gospel fragment inevitably confronts the thoughtful reader with a number of questions, the answers to which cannot be obtained only from the text of the Gospel.

Why does blasphemy against the Spirit deprive a person of absolutely all chances of salvation, while blasphemy against Christ remains unpunished? After all, both Christ and the Holy Spirit are hypostases of one and the same God the Trinity. Where does this difference in the consequences of blasphemy come from?

Why does God still not forgive blasphemy against the Spirit? After all, Christians are called to forgiveness in order to become like God in this virtue. But it turns out that for some reason God does not forgive everything and not everyone.
And what, finally, is this blasphemy against the Spirit? After all, if everything is so serious, you need to know exactly what exactly God never forgives anyone. Otherwise, having inadvertently blasphemed the Spirit, you will not even know that you have already perished for eternal life. And then you grab it - but it’s too late: there is no forgiveness for you, either in this century or in the future. So what should we do?

These are the questions... Probably every person who read the Gospel asked them to himself in one form or another. However, not everyone was able to answer them. But these questions, as if some kind of semantic dotted line, indicate another huge problem: how to live in a world where the omnipotent God, possessing all possible fullness of blessings, knowledge and power over His creation, suddenly turns out to be able not to forgive some action of a weak, mortal , a morally damaged creature - a person? And how, after this, without skepticism, should one treat the Christian claim that such a God is Love?

You can, of course, push these unresolved questions to the far shelf of consciousness until better times. But it is difficult for a thinking person to live with such an ideological “thorn”. Therefore, it makes sense to try to find answers to them in the patristic heritage of the Church.

Can responsibility for blasphemy against the Spirit be greater than for blasphemy against the Son?

The Church claims that God is one in essence, but three in persons - Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Each Person (hypostasis) of the Most Holy Trinity is God, but They are not three Gods, but a single Divine being. Therefore, insulting each of the Persons equally means that God the Trinity is blasphemed. Of course, any analogy here will be incomplete, but you can try to use at least a comparison that is very limited in meaning. Suppose some hooligan took a can of spray paint and smeared obscene inscriptions on some public building in the city center, for example, the Philharmonic concert hall. Will he be judged by various articles Criminal Code, depending on which wall of the Philharmonic he damaged with his “creativity”? The answer is obvious: this dirty trickster will be convicted for the damage caused to the entire structure, and not to its facade or side wall.

The Three Persons of the Holy Trinity are equally revered by Christians. And responsibility for blasphemy against each hypostasis of the Trinity also cannot be various degrees, because in any case it would be blasphemy. But why then does Christ say: ...if anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; But if anyone speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him either in this age or in the next?

Saint Athanasius the Great answers this exhaustively: “...The Lord said this, not making a comparison between blasphemy against the Son and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and not in the sense that the Spirit is greater, and therefore blasphemy against the Spirit has greater guilt. Let this not happen! ...Both blasphemy concerns the Lord Himself, and He said about Himself - both: Son of Man, and: Spirit, in order to indicate human nature with the first name, and with the word “Spirit” to designate His spiritual, intelligent and true Divinity. For in the meaning of His bodily nature, he attributed the blasphemy, in which forgiveness can be obtained, to the Son of Man, but about the unforgivable blasphemy he declared that it extended to the Spirit, so that by this difference from the bodily nature he could point to His Divinity.”

It turns out that Christ here called blasphemy against the Spirit an insult to His Divinity, and blasphemy against the Son of Man an insult to His humanity.

Conscience. Judas. Nikolay Ge. 1891

Quite often, blasphemy against the Spirit seems to be a kind of guaranteed method of spiritual suicide, when just one abusive phrase addressed to a certain address entails irreversible consequences due to some divine “over-offensiveness”, which does not allow God to forgive the blasphemer, even if, after time, he repents of his thoughtless actions. words. How true is this opinion?

There is such a funny phenomenon in modern popular culture - fan fiction. This is a literary genre in which fans of a literary work, based on it, compose their own continuations of their favorite stories. This genre, frankly speaking, is not for everyone, but there is one very correct principle: in terms of their characteristics, the heroes of fan fiction must exactly correspond to the heroes of the original work or historical prototypes. Violation of this rule is referred to in the genre by the English abbreviation OOS - Out Of Character, which can be translated into Russian as “falling out of character.” Most clear example I once described a similar “loss” English writer G. K. Chesterton: “...It is much more natural to believe in something that is beyond the limits of our reason than in something that does not go beyond these limits, but simply contradicts it. If you tell me that the great Gladstone was haunted in his dying hour by the ghost of Parnell, I would rather be an agnostic and say neither yes nor no. But if you assure me that Gladstone did not take off his hat at Queen Victoria's reception, patted the queen on the back and offered her a cigar, I will strongly object. I won't say it's impossible; I will say it's incredible. I am more confident that this did not happen than that there was no ghost, because the laws of the world that I understand are violated here.”

Thus, OOC is an action that the hero can never perform under any circumstances, otherwise he will simply cease to be himself.

And when it comes to the fact that the God of Christians does not want to forgive the person who blasphemed Him, even if he repents, this looks like a typical example of Out Of Character in an unsuccessful fan fiction, because such an idea of ​​​​God completely contradicts the gospel narrative. Christ is God incarnate, His earthly life gave the world all the completeness of ideas about Divine properties accessible to human perception. It would take quite a long time to list them, but we can say with complete confidence that among them there is no ruthless vindictiveness and rejection of sinners asking for mercy. Even Judas, at the very moment of betrayal, Christ calls His friend. So can such a God really not forgive a repentant blasphemer?

We again find the answer from St. Athanasius the Great: “It should be noted that Christ did not say: he will not be forgiven the one who blasphemed and repented, but the one who blasphemes, that is, the one who remains in blasphemy. For due repentance resolves all sins.” The Church clearly says that there is no sin that cannot be healed by repentance. And blasphemy is not a special exception to this rule. Even in relationships between people, we see the same principle: if a little grandson rashly called his grandmother a “fool” and then came to her to ask for forgiveness, will she drive him away from her, proudly pursing her lips? For God, any blasphemer is like a foolish fool who himself does not really understand what he is doing. And He loves every person immeasurably more than the kindest grandmother loves her grandchildren.

As for the blasphemy against the human nature of Christ, the holy fathers say absolutely amazing things. It turns out that Christ forgives the grossest insults of this kind to His detractors even without repentance on their part!

This is what Saint Theophylact of Bulgaria writes, explaining the words of the Savior: “And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven. This means that whoever speaks blasphemy against Me, in his appearance as a simple Son of Man, eating, drinking, dealing with tax collectors and harlots, whether he repents or does not repent of his blasphemy, he will be forgiven. For to such a person his unbelief is not considered a sin. For what did he see that was conducive to faith? On the contrary, what did he not see worthy of blasphemy? He saw a man treating harlots and spoke blasphemy against him, and therefore sin was not imputed to him. For, naturally, he could think: what kind of Son of God is he who deals with harlots? Therefore, the one who does this, and yet pretends to be the Son of God, he can revile and call him a deceiver.”

“...But when these people see that He works undoubted miracles, and yet they blaspheme the Holy Spirit, that is, the working of miracles that come from the Holy Spirit, then how will they receive forgiveness if they do not repent? When they were offended by the flesh of Christ, in this case, even if they did not repent, they will be forgiven as people who were offended, but when they saw Him doing the works of God and still blasphemed, how will they be forgiven if they remain unrepentant?

The Lord spoke words about blasphemy against the Spirit after the Pharisees accused him of witchcraft: Then they brought to Him a man possessed by a demon, blind and dumb; and he healed him, so that the blind and dumb man began to speak and see. And all the people marveled and said, Is this not the Christ, the son of David? The Pharisees, having heard this, said: He casts out demons only by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons (Matthew 12:22-24). The logic of the detractors of that time is clear: the Pharisees did not want to admit that the power of God was at work in the wandering preacher. But they could not deny the supernatural origin of this power, since Christ performed miracles in front of the people and no one could accuse Him of deception. Therefore, the Pharisees decided to explain these miracles as demonic action. This is what Christ called blasphemy against the Spirit.

Two thousand years have passed since then, Christianity has become the faith of hundreds of millions of people and has largely determined the development of world history. Nowadays, it is unlikely that it would occur to anyone to accuse Christ of making an agreement with the demonic prince. But this does not mean at all that for modern man Christ's warning about blasphemy against the Spirit ceased to be relevant. Today, as at all times, a person can fall into this grave sin and destroy himself forever, remaining unrepentant in it.

The fact is that, by accusing Christ of using demonic power to perform miracles, the Pharisees, to put it mildly, were being dishonest. They knew very well that not even the most powerful magician had ever opened the eyes of a man born blind, healed lepers, and even more so, raised the dead. Such miracles could only be performed by God's power, and this was obvious even to the most implacable opponents of Jesus. And finally, He performs the most amazing, unprecedented and unimaginable miracle - in front of many witnesses, He resurrects the dead Lazarus, who had already lain in the grave for four days! All of Judea was filled with admiring rumors about this event. After all, only God is able to resurrect a stinking four-day corpse. Residents of Jerusalem greet Christ with palm branches and shouts of “Hosanna,” which literally means “Save!” No one doubts that Jesus is the same promised Messiah about whom the prophets spoke, and the most convincing proof of this is the resurrected Lazarus accompanying Christ. But what do the high priests do, before whose eyes all this is happening? They decide to kill Christ, and with Him, Lazarus....

John Chrysostom called blasphemy against the Spirit a shameless rejection of obvious truth, and the decision of the high priests fits this definition most precisely. But, unfortunately, it is precisely this form of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit that is quite accessible to each of us today.

The Raising of Lazarus. Rembrandt. OK. 1630

Christ tells the disciples that the Holy Spirit...will guide you into all truth... (John 16:13). But what is truth? People use this word so often that they have already become accustomed to it and do not particularly bother themselves with searching for its meaning, especially since a great many definitions of truth have accumulated in philosophy, and it can be quite difficult for an unprepared person to understand them.
However, in Christianity this concept has a very specific meaning: truth is God’s creative plan for the world and man. And if a person lives in accordance with this plan, then he stands in the truth. If not, then he is likened to Satan, who refused to participate in the divine plan of creation, and ... did not stand in the truth (John 8:44), turning from a bright angel into an enemy of God and a murderer of people.

Thus, the instruction in all truth given by the Holy Spirit consists in exposing those of our actions that contradict God’s plan for us and the world around us. This happens through the action of conscience, which directly points a person to his inappropriate thoughts, words and actions.

This is where it becomes possible for everyone to blaspheme the Holy Spirit in the form of rejection of obvious truth, when a person, knowing absolutely for sure that he is wrong, still continues to do evil. Saint Theophan the Recluse wrote: “When do people contain truth in untruth? - Then, when they know the truth, and do not fulfill it, when life does not correspond to knowledge; one thing is on their mind and conscience, sometimes in words, and the other in life and deeds, in the feelings of the heart and the mood of the will. ...This untruth increases a hundredfold when someone does something wrong at the very time when his mind and conscience disgust him and does not tell him to do it. This is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, about which the Lord uttered a terrible definition - unforgiveness either in this age or in the future.”

And the point here is not at all about God’s mercy or its absence. We are accustomed to perceiving the word “forgiveness” in the categories of the ethics of interpersonal communication, when it means the removal of guilt, the refusal of the injured party to impose any sanctions against the offender. But among the many meanings of the word “simple” (from which “forgiveness” comes) there are also such as - straight (as opposed to the evil one - curved, like a bow), whole, pure. Therefore, to forgive also means to cleanse, straighten, and most importantly, to restore lost integrity, that is, to heal. And when we talk about forgiveness received from God, it should be understood first of all as healing, cleansing, correction in a person of what was distorted by sin.

So who risks being left with God unhealed, unpurified, uncorrected? The answer to this is as simple as it is sad: one who considers himself healthy, clean and not in need of any correction, even after seeing his dirt, sores and deceit in all their ugliness.

It is difficult to find a person who would claim that he does not strive for truth. But the truth does not always please and warm the soul. Each time, it seems to reveal to us two plans of our existence: how we could live, following God’s plan for us; and - how we really live. And then - through conscience, through reason, through mental pain - we clearly feel where and how we have deviated from the truth. This is the action of the Holy Spirit in every person. And blasphemy against the Spirit is the persistent and constant rejection of such a gracious action, when, in the end, a person simply becomes incapable of repentance. Well-known school wisdom says: repetition is the mother of learning. Repeated and conscious adherence to evil, unfortunately, also brings very definite fruits in the form of complete death of the soul, which becomes unable to distinguish good from evil.

The Lord’s words “it will not be forgiven, neither in this age nor in the next” are not a threat, but a caring warning against this misfortune, which may have its beginning in some very insignificant detail, a tiny moral compromise. In itself, of course, it is not yet that same blasphemy that will not be forgiven either here or in eternity. But each such unscrupulous act, like a snowball, is capable of wrapping around many other, more serious, evil deeds, which, in turn, will also be found with a “worthy” justification. And finally, the moment will come when all the good in a person will be buried under these blocks of arbitrarily created evil, and the skill of rejecting obvious truth will turn into his second nature. Such an unfortunate person will never be able to receive forgiveness and healing from the Spirit of Truth, because the truth itself will become painful and hateful for him. And even the almighty God cannot save the one who hatefully rejects his salvation.

Let us now try to understand what Jesus meant when he spoke about sin against the Holy Spirit. One thing to consider is that Jesus did not speak of the Holy Spirit in the full Christian sense of the term.

This could not be because before the Holy Spirit came upon people in all His power, fullness and light, Pentecost had to come first.

In this case, the expression Holy Spirit must be understood in the light of the Jewish concept of the Holy Spirit.

According to Jewish teaching, the Holy Spirit had two main functions.

1 First, the Holy Spirit brought Divine truth to people.

2 Second, the Holy Spirit enabled people to recognize and understand this truth when they saw it.

And therefore, according to the Jews, people needed the Holy Spirit both in order to find God’s well and in order to know it.

This can be said another way. Man has a given ability to recognize virtue and truth when he sees it.

Now let's take the next step to understand what Jesus meant here.
A person can lose any ability if he refuses to use it. This is true in all areas of life, both physical, spiritual and mental.

If a person stops using a muscle, it atrophies; If a person does not use the knowledge of a foreign language acquired at school, he will soon completely forget what he knew.

This is also true in all areas of perception.

A person can lose all understanding of good music if he listens only to cheap pop music; he may even lose the ability to read good books if he reads only light reading; he may lose the ability to enjoy pure and healthy pleasures if he seeks pleasure in low and dirty things long enough.

And so a person may also lose the ability to recognize virtue and truth when he sees them.

If he closes his eyes and ears to God's path long enough, if he turns his back long enough on the message that God is sending, if he prefers his ideas long enough to the ideas that God is trying to put in his mind, then he eventually comes to the point where that cannot recognize God's truth, beauty, and goodness when it sees them.

In this state, his vices seem to him to be the only virtue, and God's virtue seems to him to be vice and evil.

This is the state the scribes and Pharisees reached.

They for a long time remained blind and deaf to the guiding hand of God and to what the Holy Spirit spoke to them; they persisted in their ways for so long that they could no longer recognize God's truth when they saw it.

They could look at virtue incarnate and call it evil incarnate; they could look at the Son of God and call Him an ally of the devil.

Sin against the Holy Spirit is a rejection of the will of God for so long and so persistently that, in the end, it cannot be recognized even when it is manifested in its entirety.

Why should this sin be unforgivable? How is it so terribly different from other sins?

The answer is simple: when a person reaches this stage, repentance becomes impossible.

If a person cannot recognize virtue and goodness when he sees them, he can no longer desire them. If a person is unable to recognize a vice, he cannot regret it, shame and regret about it and the desire to part with it cannot awaken in him. And whoever cannot, despite all his sins, love good and hate evil, cannot repent; and whoever cannot repent cannot be forgiven, because repentance is the only condition for forgiveness.

Much grief could be avoided if people would realize that he cannot sin against the Holy Spirit who fears that he will sin against Him, because sin against the Holy Spirit is a complete loss of the sense of sin.

And it was precisely to this stage that the scribes and Pharisees reached. They had been willfully blind and deaf to God for so long that they lost the ability to recognize Him when they met Him face to face. It was not God who drove them beyond forgiveness; they excluded themselves. Long years resistance to God brought them to this state.

And this is a terrible warning for us.

We must always look so carefully at God, so that all our days our sensitivity does not become dulled, so that our consciousness does not weaken, our spiritual hearing does not turn into spiritual deafness. Such is the law of life that a person hears only what he listens to and only what he is determined to listen to.

There is a story about a villager who found himself in the office of his city friend, through which the noise of street traffic could be heard.

"Listen!" - he said suddenly. "What's happened?" - asked the citizen. “Grasshopper,” said the villager.

Long years of living in the village tuned him to perceive rural sounds that the ear of a city dweller could not hear at all. And, on the contrary, drop a silver coin here, and the ringing of silver will immediately reach the ears of a businessman earning money, while a villager may never have heard it at all. Only a specialist who has trained himself to hear this can distinguish the voice of each bird in a bird choir. Only a specialist can distinguish between different instruments in an orchestra and catch one false note from the second violin.

Such is the law of life that we hear what we have trained ourselves to hear; we must listen to God every day, so that every day the voice of God does not become weaker and weaker until we cannot hear it at all, but clearer and clearer, it does not become the voice to which our ears are primarily tuned. .