BIBLE CHARACTERS

Esau rejected his inheritance. He preferred a mess of pottage. We learn from Hebrews 12:17 that his repentance with tears was not acceptable to God. The most famous man who committed an unpardonable sin was Jesus' disciple, Judas. He lived with the Son of God for more than 3 years and he was under his care. He was constantly in the company of a man with perfect character and manners, a man who never sinned. According to the response of Jesus "Friend, why have you come? (Matthew 26:50) there was friendship between them.

How could he betray Jesus, who knew that he was the Christ, the Son of God? How can someone be 3 years with a person who as said in Hebrews 7:26 he is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and 1 Peter 2:22 who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth and to go secretly to betray him to his enemies to kill him? Even when Jesus revealed in the supper that Judas that he would betray him and "it had been good for that man if he had not been born”, Judas still went to complete his betrayal. After the betrayal he was remorseful, but he was already "the son of perdition” (John 17:12) and had no hope of salvation from God. (Matthew 26:24, Mark 14:21, Luke 22:22, John 13:18).

What is the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost?

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

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

It’s a statement of Jesus in Matthew 12:31-32.

Just earlier in the essay we saw two people who lost their soul despite their late repentance, Esau and Judas. Both characters were very similar, in the sense that the things of the Spirit of the Lord, the things that can’t be seen meant nothing to them. Jezebel was given space to repent. The question is, who committed the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost? The answer is all of them, but I will focus on people who went a step further, people who declared a war against the Spirit of the Lord. I am referring to Jezebel, Jewish chief priests like Caiaphas and Annas and certain Pharisees. Caiaphas and Jezebel are the very definition of the blasphemers against the Holy Ghost. We have to make two approaches. We have to see under what circumstances Jesus made the statement above and what is peculiar about the Holy Spirit, in contrast to God the Father and Jesus.

In Matthew 12:22-24 we read: “Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.” Apparently Jesus was saying that the Pharisees who said that were committing the unpardonable sin. On the surface Jesus seems harsh on them, they expressed a wrong opinion and they were rejected by the Lord, regardless of any future repentance of them. This superficial interpretation has to be excluded. Nobody crosses a red line for God just because he is an atheist or he is against Christianity, just because he has the wrong religious ideas, like Paul before he became God’s most effective apostle. Wrong mentality about spiritual matters, under the influence of evil spirits is something that can be fixed in the future. The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is not interpreted as a direct insult or mockery against it either. Wickedness can be forgiven, and in fact this is the call of Jehovah to all human beings in both Old and New Testament, to repent of their sins and obey his commands. Jesus said “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:33).

There is a kind of wickedness that is a step too far though and woe to the people that commit it according to Jesus himself. It is about people who know who God is, what He is, meaning the truth, the light, the love, the way, and yet they are committed against all those principles and all those perpetual values either because of religious beliefs i.e. being Satan’s foot soldiers like the Amalekites, or because it serves their own selfish purposes.

People with certain authority over the lives of the Israelites saw their authority being in danger with the appearance of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Among them were Caiaphas, and certain Pharisees. They knew perfectly well that Jesus was Christ, the son of God. “But Jesus held his peace, And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said” (Matthew 26:63,64). Jesus was not avoiding the question, he was answering it. Caiaphas knew who Jesus was. “Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy.” His reply was in essence nothing different than the statement of the Pharisees “This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils”. Their statement was directed to the crowds, they wanted to prohibit them from understanding that Jesus was the Son of God or even someone who was sent by God. In the passage their motives are not clear, but from the gospels we know that the Pharisees used the name of God as a tool to enjoy authority over people and also make illicit profit out of them. If, for instance, alleged men of God, knowledgeably exploit the ignorance, naivety and desperation of believers in order to make a profit, it is the very definition of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

The organized war against the manifestation of the fruit and the gifts of the Spirit in the lives of people is the actual meaning of the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. They fight everything God is, and everything that God offers to man, first and foremost freedom of conscience. It is people who intentionally want to extinguish the light and spread the darkness either in their society or in the world. The fruit and gifts of the Spirit are written in Galatians 5:22-23 and Isaiah 11:2.

One final note for Caiaphas. When he was doing theatrics in front of the people who watched him, by rending his clothes, he was in serious violation of God’s law in the Old Testament. “And he that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes” (Leviticus 21:10). He should not under any circumstances rend his clothes (Matthew 26:65).

Lastly I will examine a person that no one in the Bible is associated with the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit more than her. Jezebel was the ruler behind the scenes in the time of the king of Israel Ahab, and she was the mastermind of a war on God. Jezebel was Ahab’s wife. She outlawed the true faith of Israel, sentenced all Lord’s prophets wherever they were found to death and established the worship of a fake Lord in the place of the true Lord. Baal means Lord. It is rather astonishing that we read the following in Revelation 2:20-21:

“Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not”. Even though it is another Jezebel, who lived in the first century, the synonymity is not a coincidence. The original Jezebel of 1 Kings 16 is a type and personification of Babylon, the great whore of the book of Revelation 17, “With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication”. Revelation 2:21 says about the other Jezebel “And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not”. Fornication in this case means devotion to other gods. The message we receive here is that the people who wage a war on mankind, following an agenda to remove their God-given rights and freedoms, or people who purposely victimize others by using God’s name in vain, and do so knowledgeably, are given a certain time to repent. If they don’t, they are on the road of no return to perdition. This is blasphemy that can’t be forgiven. It is a disregard for who and what the true God is, by insolent people. It is the contempt for, or deprivation of people from everything that is good in the Bible, offered to mankind by a graceful God, both spiritual and material.

I will examine the case of another man whom false prophets portray either as a villain or a double minded man who only cared about his position as an officer of the Roman Empire. He is Pontius Pilate and he was neither of the above.

Judas betrayed the son of God, Jesus Christ, with whom he was daily for three years and no sin was found in Him. Pilate had him in front of him for a few minutes and admired him (Matthew 27:14, Mark 15:5), even when Jesus had only uttered two words during the interrogation "Thou sayest”. “Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly” (Matthew 27:13,14). Pilate marveling greatly is not an attitude to be taken for granted for anyone. Another person in his place could possibly not care less.

It is certain that Pontius Pilate knew about Jesus before he even saw him, judging by Cleopas' response "Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?” (Luke 24:18). When Jesus came to Jerusalem and the crowds welcomed him with joy, everyone knew him. Pilate might have heard from others the content of Jesus' sermons. Who would be more interested in learning words of wisdom, justice, and judgment, the likes of which have never been heard before, than a governor who also performed the duties of a judge? "Never man spake like this man.” (John 7:46).

When Jesus stood before Pilate, Pilate saw a man of unprecedented peace and self-control, the exact opposite attitude compared to his enemies who wanted him dead. His peace is even more astonishing for a man who was in danger of being condemned to death. His accusers who were present did not hide their anger and resentment. The kindness in Jesus' look was enough to be admired by Pilate whose first reply was "Art thou the King of the Jews? (Matthew 27:11). Pilate knew the answer already because he was seeing in front of him a man noble in personality and manners. It wasn’t mockery, his instinct drove him to make the question spontaneously. Jesus’ reply “Thou sayest” indicates that Pilate knew the answer by instinct; it was in the affirmative. The high priest Caiaphas had been given the same answer when he asked Jesus if he was the Son of God. Caiaphas and a large proportion of the Pharisees knew that Jesus was the Christ and that he was the Son of God but they wanted to get him out of the way because the glory and power they were enjoying was in danger of being taken away from them.

Pilate judged correctly and exclaimed "I find no fault in this man” (Luke 23:4). From that moment he was determined to save him from the hands of the Jews who wanted him killed. He was not hesitant at all. He had the wisdom to present before the crowd Jesus, a blameless and innocent man, and Barrabas, an insurrectionist, robber and murderer so that the crowd could decide who would be freed for the sake of an annual custom. He set before them the light and the darkness in the hope that they chose light, but they chose darkness instead. He was determined to free Jesus by telling them three times that he is innocent and has done nothing wrong. But the crowd insisted on being convicted.

In John 19:7-12 more information about Pilate and his conscience is revealed to us. When Jewish people told him that Jesus' offense was that he said he was the Son of God, they unwittingly opened Pilate's mind to the possibility that Jesus really was the Son of God. “The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid; And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him” (John 19:7-12). It was the fear of God burdening Pilate’s conscience and it happened twice. Jewish crowds mocked Jesus and wanted him dead without doing anything wrong to them. Later when Pilate was standing before the crowd, and he saw the hopes of saving an innocent man vanishing, he took water, washed his hands and declared "I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it" Matthew 27:24). Whether it was knowledge or ignorance, Pilate's action of washing his hands was the application of a law that God had given to Moses (Deuteronomy 21:6-9). God freed Pilate from the responsibility of crucifying Jesus, and it is verified by other events I will describe below. Even at Jesus' crucifixion, Pilate continued to defend him. Perhaps out of judicial duty, Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. The words he wrote were not a defamation of him, but the truth "Jesus of Nazareth The King of the Jews” (John 19:19). When the chief priests pressured him to change it and write that he said, I am King of the Jews, Pilate resisted (John 19:19-22). Defending Jesus before a hostile crowd in their own land was not an easy thing to do. The crowd was calling for him to be crucified (Luke 23:22).

One may wonder if Peter would have done better in handling the trial of Jesus if he was in Pilate’s place. Peter was the only disciple of Jesus who followed him when he was arrested and taken to the chief priests, unlike the rest who fled. He denied he was associated with Jesus three times. The incident is described in John 18:15-27. Peter sinned, to correct another error he made just before, following Jesus closely. In the incident in the garden he took the sword and cut the ear of the high priest’s servant. It is reasonable enough to conclude that Peter would be in real trouble if he was telling the people who asked him he was Jesus’ disciple.

God doesn’t give protection to his children no matter what. His sheep are expected to practice prudence. Dangers are real and Jesus notified his disciples of the dangers when they would preach the gospel. Peter did the wrong thing by following Jesus closely. The rest of the disciples with the exception of John also did the wrong thing, “And they all forsook him, and fled” (Mark 14:50). John was the disciple that did the right thing, watching the events from a distance. Concluding, Pontius Pilate found himself in a very difficult situation but he showed boldness rather than weakness. There is much evidence especially in the gospel of John that God cared about Pilate and his wife.

In John 19:11, Jesus’ reply to Pilate was a message that the sin he was about to commit or he committed before was not a thing to worry about, he would be forgiven. It is even more clear that God cared about Pilate’s salvation, when he gave a dream to Pilate’s wife. The dream was not given to help derail the chain of events that were about to take place, it was all about helping Pilate take the right decisions defending Jesus’ innocence and help him and his wife alleviate their conscience. “When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him” (Matthew 27:19).

I return to the denial of Jesus by Peter three times. It wasn’t the end. In John 21:15-17, Jesus was healing the soul of Peter because of the trauma of the previous incident by asking him three times if he loved him. He told him three times to feed his sheep, a great honor for Peter to be given the authority of a shepherd from God.