Someone at church this morning asked me what I thought about the
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. In the course of our conversation,
he and I agreed that God doesn't condemn or forsake people for being mad
at God, for Moses, David, etc., were mad at God sometimes. What went
on in my head (but I didn't say it out loud) was, "What do I think about
the passages concerning blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? I wish they
weren't in the Bible, that's what I think! It seems to me that they've
done more harm than good."
I expressed my problems with the conventional understandings of the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit a while back, in my post here.
If you want to read it, you should also read the comment by "Mike", who
disagreed with me. I still have many of the same questions and
problems that I asked in that post----except that my understanding of
the Greek aorist is different today in that it recognizes more
nuance----but perhaps the conventional understanding I was critiquing is
not so wrong. Maybe Jesus was warning his critics that they should
beware lest their hearts become hardened against God, since, once it
becomes hardened, they are closing the door to God forgiving them
because they most likely will not repent when their hearts are
hardened. I wouldn't make that an absolute, though, for there are times
when God can soften a person's heart. But I myself don't want to find
myself in a place where I am hardened against God, or at the very least
against what is good and right.