Blasphemychallenge.com

Matthew 12:30
30He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. 31Wherefore 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. 32And 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. 33Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. 34O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 35A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. 36But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 37For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

As my brother had mentioned in his last blog post, Blasphemychallenge.com is here. The scripture from the Book of Matthew is where they are quoting scripture and then apparently attempting to prove that they can do this and not be forgiven.

We are seeing people who think that they can blasphemy the Holy Spirit. There are those that think by refusing, denying, speaking against, etc., the Holy Spirit, you can blasphemy the Holy Spirit.

If you read the context of the scriptures surrounding this passage, it becomes clear to me that there is an apparent understanding that needs to exist prior to the act of blasphemy that needs to occur. As we should be aware, to blasphemy something takes the knowledge and understanding of the thing that is being considered to blasphemy. Therefore, since it seems the majority of these people have not read the Bible, and have not had any apparent understanding or relationship with the Holy Spirit, then how can there be a true understanding of how to then blaspheme the Holy Spirit.

Would you speak about your opinion of a movie before you watched it?
Would you give alot of credence to a person's opinion of a movie if they didn't watch it?

Can you blaspheme something without even knowing if it is real?

I believe the understanding of it is a prerequisite for being able to blasphemy it! I also believe that there is ample other scripture surrounding this text of scripture that clearly should reveal to anyone sincerely looking that the "fruits of your tree", the way you act, clearly showns whether you are pro-Christ or anti-Christ, there is no middle ground. So, whether these people are trying to go against God, but it does not need a verbal blasphemy in order to accomplish this, but rather just a close look of your character and actions as to whether you are on the right path or not.

Should you believe in a Spirit?

In our last week's bible study, Joe and I discussed the blasphemychallenge.com project where people (mostly young kids) are stating that they deny the holy spirit (and our thus "damned to hell" as literally read from Mark 3:29). Interesting how a counter website quickly sprang up called challengeblasphemy.com. I have linked to both websites so you can make up your own mind. It saddens me to hear and see young kids, denying the holy spirit because I wonder if they really know what they are denying. Do these kids even know about the great psychologists like Carl Jung (universal archetypes and a collective unconscious) and Viktor Frankl (the unconscious God) that have expressed similar concepts to a holy spirit? Another ramification of this is to consider whether denying a holy spirit implies denying your own spirit.

So, should you believe in a Spirit?
A simplistic view of this would be to ask if you believe in anything beyond the physical world? However, this may be overly simplistic in that clearly thoughts are beyond the physical yet may not be part of one's spirit. For my own take on this, I have always believed since I was in high school in the mystical nature of the number 3. In high school, I wrote a simple poem on Man's three sides - mind, body and spirit. Plato discussed a perfect society mirroring the three parts of being. From Wikipedia, "Plato, through the words of Socrates, asserts that societies have a tripartite class structure corresponding to the appetite/spirit/reason structure of the individual soul." Our government is founded on three parts of government: executive, judicial and legislative. Does this form any sort of proof? Of course not; it is just illustrative of a widespread belief that the nature of humanity is more than just physical.

Instead of trying to meet the very high bar required of a formal logical proof, let's examine a few concepts that could be considered evidence or indicators that a Spirit exists and that it is something that should not be denied. In fact, on the contrary, we believe even these basic indicators are strong enough that the concept of a spirit is something to actively promote for our own and other sake. Here are a few indicators for your consideration:

1. Conscience and Objective Truth - what is it in ourselves that makes us upset, guilty or depressed if we have done wrong? C.S. Lewis would claim it is our spirit's awareness of an objective truth that we have violated. The objective ability to denote right from wrong. Our sense of fairness and objectivity outside of our subjective viewpoint. How is this related to the mystery of dreams and the unconscious? How is this related to Jung's universal archetypes and the collective unconscious?
   
   So, do you believe in a conscience? In cartoons, this has been depicted as a little voice that whispers in your ear or a little person that sits on your shoulder.
   Most importantly, is it something from outside yourself?
   
2. Drive to Meaning and Transcendence - Abraham Maslow presented a hierarchy of needs that humans seek to satisfy. What makes us climb this hierarchy? Viktor Frankl presented a compelling case that what drives man is not sex (proffered by Freud) or power (proffered by Adler) but a search for meaning. Interestingly, meaning is often directly in conflict with biological comfort or evolutionary success (many offsprings). Thus is there a powerful drive outside of our physical drives?
   
3. Striving for the byproducts of Love and Joy - in direct contradiction to the United States Declaration of Independence, happiness cannot be pursued directly. That is because it is a byproduct. In that same manner, Love and Joy are also byproducts. You cannot get Love and Joy directly, they only come as spontaneous, indirect gifts as byproducts of other activities. They cannot be forced or taken. And the greatest gift, even among humans, is Love. Love cannot be taken by force. Love is not amenable to physical barbarism. Why do we strive for something that is not amenable to physical means of acquiring it? Is this also not obviously beyond the physical? In fact, is this not possibly the very thing that makes life so worth living?
   Surely, something you would not want to deny.

So, in closing, even if we cannot have strict scientific proofs of a Spirit or a connection to a higher or 'holy' spirit - I would argue that Spirit is the voltage of life. It is not the amperage, not the physical matter pushed through life. It is the voltage or the force that drives us to live life more abundantly.

So, yes, I do believe you should believe in a spirit. I do.

- Mike