What is Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? Is it unbelief. Is there anything a Christian does that could be Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?
Edit: and what is the difference between blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and grieving the Holy Spirit?
Blasphemy means injurious, defamatory or abusive speech and is used with regard to such speech whether directed toward God or humans, though the English word is usually restricted to to irreverent or abusive speech against God.
At Mark 3 (and Matthew 12), Jesus heals a man with a "withered hand" in a Jewish synagogue (apparently in Capernaum), providing solid evidence of God's backing.(see Acts 10:38 whereby Peter says to Cornelius "about Jesus who was from Nazareth, how God anointed him with holy spirit and power, and he went through the land doing good and healing all those oppressed by the Devil, because
God was with him")
But the Jews and Pharisees were totally insensitive to this man's need, only wanting "to accuse" (Mark 3:2) Jesus of violating the Sabbath. Mark 3:4 says of Jesus, that he asks his Jewish audience: "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or do harm, to save a life or to kill ?" But "they kept silent".
At Mark 3:5, it shows how Jesus felt towards their loveless, calloused attitude: "After looking around at them with indignation, being thoroughly grieved at the insensibility of their hearts, he said to the man: "Stretch out your hand". And he stretched out it out, and his hand was restored".
How did the Pharisees respond ? Mark 3:6 says that they "went out and immediately began holding council with party followers of Herod against him, in order to kill him". The Jewish religious leaders were now intent on putting Jesus to death, feeling him as a threat to their "status quo" of control over the Jewish people.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that Jesus was "from God", that he had Jehovah's backing (John 9:33), they wanted him dead. Hence, they blasphemed the holy spirit by willingly and knowingly denying this evidence of the man with a withered hand being healed by God's holy spirit through Jesus.
Then, later, after the some of the Jewish religious leaders (scribes) said that he expelled the demons by means of "Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons" (Mark 3:22), Jesus now tells them: "How can Satan expel Satan ? If a kingdom becomes divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.....If Satan has risen up against himself and has become divided, he cannot stand but is coming to an end".(Mark 3:23, 24, 26)
Jesus now brings it "home", saying: "Truly I say to you that all things will be forgiven the sons of men, no matter what sins they commit and what blasphemies they speak (as against "the Son of man", Jesus, Matt 12:32). But whoever blasphemes against the holy spirit has no forgiveness forever, but is guilty of everlasting sin".(Mark 3:28, 29)
Those, especially the Jewish religious leaders, who saw Jesus heal people (Matt 9:35), resurrect the dead (John 11:43, 44) and yet denied that this was from Jehovah God, became guilty of blaspheming the holy spirit, denying the direct outworking of it, and in the case of Lazarus's resurrection, wanted to kill him and Jesus.(John 11:53) Thus, blasphemy is thus the antithesis (or opposite) to words of worship directed to our Maker, Jehovah God, repudiating the evidence though it is undeniable.
Grieving of the holy spirit is different, for this means to do wrong when you know it, going against the direction of Jehovah's holy spirit and (hopefully) a person's conscience bothers them so as to feel remorse. The apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesian Christians: "They (the world or those who do not know Jehovah God) are in darkness mentally and alienated from the life that belongs to God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the insensitivity of their hearts.....But you did
not learn the Christ to be like this.....You were taught to put away the old personality that conforms to your former course of conduct......And you should continue in your dominant mental attitude, and you should put on the
new personality that was created according to God's will in true righteousness and loyalty".(Eph 4:18, 20, 22, 23)
Paul now says: "Therefore, now that you have put away deceit, each of you speak truth with his neighbor. Be wrathful, but do not sin (by not taking action even against wrongs committed against you making you feel angry, see Ps 4:4, 5 that says to "be agitated, but do not sin. Have your say in your heart, upon your bed, and keep silent. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and
trust in Jehovah").....Let the one who steals steal no more; rather, let him do do hard work.....Let a rotten saying not come out of your mouth, but only what is good for building up.....Also, do not be grieving God's holy spirit (or active force), with which you have been sealed for a day of releasing by ransom".(Eph 4:25, 26, 28-30)
By committing wrong acts and speaking "rotten sayings" when professing to be Christian, though knowing that we should not, we can be guilty of grieving Jehovah's holy spirit. For example, if we are part of the political arena in any form or fashion, we show ourselves to be God's enemy.(see Rev 13:16)
At James 4:4, James wrote: "Adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world (with it politics as well as any other things of the "world") is
enmity with God ? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is making himself an
enemy of God".
