I came across a book today called: Being Christian: Exploring Where You, God and Life Connect. Now normally, even when I was a Christian, books like this didn't attract any attention from me. I'm just not a non-fiction kinda girl. However, I glanced at the back of this book and it listed a few questions that are answered inside the book and the author is assuming the reader would like to have answered. The one that caught my eye was: "Is there any sin that's beyond forgiving?" Of course, having been a Christian most of my life, I knew what this was referring to: "but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin." (Mark 3:29) but I admit, it's a verse that I never really understood and I imagine I'm not alone in that. I think as a Christian, I figured if I stayed away from all blasphemy and never felt anything but benevolence and respect for the Holy Spirit, I'd be safe and at very worst, if I did ever accidentally blasphemy the Holy Spirit, I hoped and believed that God was the kind of God that would understand my intentions and see that I didn't do it on purpose and maybe make an exception. Since it was a verse/question I was never really clear on, I was intrigued and cracked open the table of contents and found the page I needed. This is what I found:
(the following in quotes is the author paraphrasing Jesus' words to make them more clear to the reader - everything in italics is an excerpt from the book)
"I understand why people might say negative things about me personally; I have, after all, presented myself here on earth wearing the cloak of mortality. Some or even many are going to resist me, as I've expected and foretold. If a person doesn't at first believe in me, and speaks ill of me, but then later realizes that I am exactly who I say I am - God incarnate - then I will joyfully forgive that person whey they ask me to forgive their former blasphemies against me. No problem. But once a person has been filled with knowledge of my divinity - once my Spirit has come alive within them - and then they turn against me? That is unforgivable. Anyone filled with the Holy Spirit who then rejects the Spirit has created for themselves a world of hurt from which even I cannot deliver them."
At any rate, you see the point: What Jesus is saying is that you can doubt and even blaspheme against Christ before you accept him as your Savior - but once the Spirit is in you, you'd better not turn against him.
So the short answer to "Is there any sin that's beyond forgiving?" is that there's exactly one: Turning against Christ after you've accepted him. But that's the only such sin. Christ died on the cross for the forgiveness of all our other sins, even the most heinous.
So there you have it - According to Jesus, according to Stephen Arterburn and John Shore, I am beyond hope now. Because I was a Christian and now have turned away, I have blasphemed the Holy Spirit and therefore, regardless of any further actions on my part, for good or evil, I am damned to hell because of this one UNFORGIVABLE sin. I feel I should probably tell the people in my life who are praying for me to stop wasting their words since if God is real and heaven and hell exist, I have a one way, non-refundable ticket down. And this further convinces me that I should NOT raise my children to be Christians but rather, allow them to make their own decisions when they understand all they can about the world and religion, etc and feel competent to make that choice since, I, having been indoctrinated as a child, was made to follow Christ before I really had to chance to make an informed choice - a situation that has now really screwed me over according to this verse. Others, who are raised anything but Christian, can doubt and speak against Christ and believe other things and decide to practice another religion as long as they don't first become a Christian, then ask questions later. However, people who are raised as Christians better be pretty darn sure that they don't believe any of it anymore before turning away because once you do turn, you create a "world of hurt" for yourself that Jesus himself can't save you from and there's no going back.
And that one paragraph: "So the short answer to "Is there any sin that's beyond forgiving?" is that there's exactly one: Turning against Christ after you've accepted him. But that's the only such sin. Christ died on the cross for the forgiveness of all our other sins, even the most heinous."
It so comforts me to know that all the murderers, child molesters, rapists, greedy televangelists, Hitlers, and every other sinner has more hope than I, a good, thinking, kind unbeliever, do of ending up in heaven. I mean, they can all beg forgiveness, even on their death bed and it could be granted to them, while I could spend my entire life, taking care of the people I love, teaching my children to make a difference in the world, doing all sorts of good things with my life, and yet I will still end up in hell because I was once a Christian and now I'm not. Apparently, I can't even change my mind now! I don't believe any of this, but let's say someone came along that convinced me. It wouldn't matter because I've done the unforgivable and it's too late for me. Anyone who believes that we get our morals from God should really question this. According to this belief, I'm already screwed so what motivation do I have to do good? It's not going to earn me anything, I'm not good because I follow Jesus and he says to do good, I no longer have the Spirit so how can I have the fruits of the Spirit? And what you should really ask yourself is "do I really want to follow a God with these sorts of morals?" The kind of morals that say that taking a life, abusing people, being greedy, slaughtering millions - the most heinous sins - are forgivable but going from Christian to non-christian for any reason (including the reason that you've looked into it, thought about it, learned about it and it just doesn't make sense anymore) is SO bad that even God can't forgive you for it.
Now some people reading this might say, "But that's just one way to interpret that verse! I understand it this (less damning, more understanding, looks better for God's reputation) way!" which just leads me to reiterate what I've claimed in conversations with Christians in person, if not on this blog: the Bible is subjective and therefore not a Holy Book or a reliable source of information or guideline for living. If you can take any Bible verse and interpret it 2-100 different ways depending on your upbringing, personal bias, personal experiences, etc., how should I know which interpretation is the right one? Yours? The Pope's? That famous Christian writer? My own?
So stop praying for me. Don't waste your breath. Apparently there is one kind of person that God can no longer save and that's me.
