Learning to Reason

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is spoken of by Jesus as the only unpardonable sin. The misunderstanding of this passage has caused many people trapped in the lies of their emotions and in homosexual sin and bondage, to despair and go back to sin because, in a fit of rage, they had cursed God or shaken a fist at Him, renounced Him or torn up and thrown away a Bible. So this Scripture, when read in a state of shame and guilt, can be misread to mean, “I have no hope – I’ve committed the unpardonable sin.” Many even think homosexuality is the unpardonable sin. This is totally false.

“Was Eve present in Adam before God created her from the rib?”

“Are we all both masculine and feminine in God’s image?”

Though Scripture has been misinterpreted since its beginning, it is essential to keep seeking for a unified understanding of truth for the sake of the Church’s stability and it’s witness in the world. Anyone overcoming addictive behavior especially needs a clear grasp of Scripture because the nagging sin problem brings feelings of condemnation and hinders one’s faith in God’s mercy and ability to fully deliver. We have often seen the perception of Scripture skewed by the emotional responses of traumatized people.

It is truly eye-opening to see the strong statements in the Bible about the power of the tongue and the import of what we say on our lives. I suppose we should not be surprised, given the fact that God spoke the world into existence, and we, being made in His image, speak our world into existence. The most powerful words to shape our lives is our confession of faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and our personal Savior. This makes us a new creation in Christ, who comes to dwell in us.

In the great eighth chapter of Romans, which is the solution to St. Paul's wrestling with his sin in chapter seven, we see a profound truth. It is that those who live according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires, set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh. But those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit, set their minds on and seek those things which gratify the Holy Spirit. So the life of the Spirit requires a mind change.

People don’t think the way they used to. I mean, they don’t reason in the same manner people did generations ago. Today, many people come to conclusions about significant things in a vastly different manner than the Bible suggests. "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). Paul was telling Timothy that he must silence false teaching ("godless chatter", vs. 16) which is of no value, ruins those who listen (vs. 14), spreads like gangrene (vs.