Soul Survivor

There is a site online where people are being asked to upload a video of them denying the Holy Spirit. They even get a DVD out of it. They believe that by doing this, they are condemning themselves to hell permanently since the Bible says that blaspheming the Holy Spirit is unforgivable.

Here's the catch 22: How is it they trust what this Scripture verse says, but deny the Author?

They think this is the farthest away from God they can get. Thankfully, they are misinterpreting God’s Word, and just announcing that you deny the Holy Spirit doesn't mean that God will stop calling you to Himself. In rejecting Him, they’re at least acknowledging there’s something to reject. Why else would they bother? It’s a start. Furthermore, it doesn't mean it's too late for these kids to repent and acknowledge Jesus as Christ. Although, from personal experience, I know that making a proclamation like this can make it harder later on for these kids to believe they can accept Jesus.

In college, I "sold" my soul for a pack of cigarettes. The guy went through all this pomp and circumstance about it. I didn’t realize until later that I hadn’t done anything permanent or unforgivable. I just wanted a smoke. I did have a problem later on believing that I was still allowed to accept Jesus as my Savior and that that particular sin could be forgiven. But we all deny Jesus until we accept Him. There are no words or video proclamations we can make that can keep God from trying to pull us to Him. The only thing, in my mind, that has a permanent affect on your soul, is dying with or without having acknowledged Jesus as the Son of God. I believe you can't blasphemy Him until you can't accept Him - which would be after you've died.

This site uses the Bible to fuel its purpose, which is pretty strange, if you ask me. The specific verse they use is Mark 3:29 which says "Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin."

This is referring to a response Jesus made to a particular act of the Pharisees who had determined within themselves that Jesus’ miraculous works were being done by the power of Satan rather than the power of God. Because Jesus is God, He knew that these particular men’s rejection of the gospel would continue until their death, thus they would not be able to receive salvation.

One thing that is important to point out is that it was Jesus making this claim, not some random witness. Jesus had divine knowledge of whether or not these men were going to accept Him as their Messiah before they died, that’s why He was able to say this with authority. I, on the other hand, have no idea who will receive salvation and have absolutely no authority and could never say whether or not someone is going to heaven or hell.

The kids making these videos are different from the Pharisees because the Pharisees didn't deny the existence of God or hell. These kids are saying "I'm going to hell, and I'm not scared" because they want to believe that hell doesn't exist and is therefore not something to spend another moment with which to be concerned. The Pharisees were faced with a man performing all these miracles and had to come up with an explanation for it. The only other supernatural thing they knew about was Satan, and since Jesus wasn't like whom they had thought their Messiah would be, they assumed His powers were evil - out of a process of elimination perhaps. When Jesus points out the flaw of this conclusion, they continue to resist that He could be their Messiah.

A lot of kids these days are being taught what to think instead of how to think, so they are not seeing the very obvious error of what they are doing. It's like a sweater with a loose thread. If they notice it and pull at it, they'll find it completely unravels. I would love to see that happen rather than a bunch of kids wearing a tattered old sweater. These people are going to have a strong testimony someday, and I look forward to hearing how God’s grace and forgiveness has transformed them.