The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 1 – 12
Every atheist in the world says the same thing: “if God exists, why isn’t He here? Why can’t I see Him?” They challenge Christians to produce irrefutable proof, and claim that they’ll gladly believe facts that prove God exists, but they refuse to accept it on faith. This is not so unreasonable, is it? Christians mumble something about God wanting you to “believe”, and atheists scoff and say that the psychics on TV just want them to “believe” too, and they have just as much actual evidence!
But the question remains: why isn’t there absolute proof, that no one can argue, that there is a God? The atheists reason that if an all-powerful Being wanted people to believe in Him, He wouldn’t have left the job of convincing them to His wide-eyed followers! Think about that! They’re absolutely right! If God’s primary purpose was getting people “saved”, as the whole world believes, God would have made it impossible not to see the truth! He would have made it EASY to find the true religion!
The way that leads to life would be WIDE, not narrow! (Matthew 7:13-14). There would be no deception, no question about who the true God was! God would be visible, present, and obvious in everyone’s day-to-day life! God knows how to use burning bushes and pillars of fire to get people’s attention! He knows that works! So the fact that He hasn’t done that today proves that getting everyone saved is not God’s purpose!
GRACE NEEDS IGNORANCE
Remember from the lesson on grace that while a person is ignorant, God does not judge their sins. This is because He knows that “they know not what they do”, and thus they are not really responsible for their actions. But that means that when they DO know what they do, they WOULD be responsible for their actions – right? John 9:41. Why? Romans 5:13. Grace only covers your sins of ignorance. Once you’re no longer ignorant, you’re no longer covered by grace! Because “the commandment has come” and “sin wakes up” and “you die” (Romans 7:9).
Would the Pharisees have had sin, if Jesus hadn’t come AND SPOKEN? John 15:22. What did Jesus say was the condemnation of the world? John 3:19. Grace comes by ignorance. If you remove someone’s ignorance, you also remove their grace for that sin! In times of ignorance, God winks at sins – so if you want God to stop winking at the sin, make the person no longer ignorant! Educate them about their sins! Did Jesus’ coming allow the world to be judged – because they were no longer ignorant? John 9:39. Did Noah also remove the world’s grace, by giving them an example and being a “preacher of righteousness”? Hebrews 11:7, 2 Peter 2:5.
Until man has been forced to make an informed choice between good and evil, he cannot be judged for his sins! Whether he is in the world or in the church, once he understands the truth, his grace is removed for that sin. I emphasize that for a reason. If you have 200 sins, and I tell you about one of them then God can no longer ignore that sin. That sin must be judged now, because you are aware of it! But the other 199 sins can still be ignored, because you are still ignorant! YOU can still be under grace, even though ONE of your sins isn’t!
KNOWLEDGE VS. UNDERSTANDING
Read John 12:47-48. This explains the difference between hearing the truth, and believing the truth. Until you read the last lesson, you couldn’t fully understand that verse! Remember that WE are judged today – because we believe God’s words! We must be judged before Jesus returns to see if we are qualified to receive our reward with Him, or if we must wait 1,000 years to be resurrected with the rest of unsaved mankind to the resurrection of judgment! That’s why verse 48 says those who don’t believe Jesus’ words today will be JUDGED by those same words in the last day! In the second day of salvation, the second resurrection! If they didn’t believe His words now, they can try again to believe them THEN!
But the main point for this lesson is that you can hear Jesus – HEAR the truth – and simply not BELIEVE Him and still receive grace! Because in a sense, you are still ignorant! Yes, you heard the truth, but it didn’t enter into your heart! You didn’t accept it, and so you cannot be judged by it to the same extent!
Think about it this way: if your wife asks you to pick up something on the way home from work – while you’re half asleep and barely conscious, or checking your email, watching the game, or in some other way obviously distracted… is it your fault that you forgot? Yes! You shouldn’t have grunted “uh-huh” if you didn’t understand what you were agreeing to! But it’s also her fault for not making SURE you understood it, by getting your attention first! So while you HEARD her request, it didn’t really enter your heart, and so you’re only PARTIALLY responsible!
So if God whispers “keep my laws”, then allows men to shout in your ear “God didn’t really mean we should keep the laws, the laws are bad for you”… is it your fault you didn’t keep the laws? Yes! But it’s also God’s fault for not making sure His voice was the loudest one!
You are to blame for your failure to hear God’s voice and obey Him (John 10:14, 26-27). For if you REALLY wanted to, you COULD have heard God whispering. But it’s also completely understandable, and therefore excusable, that you didn’t! And therefore covered by grace!
This means that if some bum holds a cardboard sign says “repent and believe God”, sure – that’s true, and you should have done it! You heard more than the savage in Papau New Guinea who never heard of God, so you’re more responsible! But are you as responsible as someone to whom God had spoken out of a burning bush? Someone whom God called out of the belly of a whale? Someone God used to call fire down from heaven?
Those people knew God better, had more proof than you have ever had! Is it fair to compare your obedience to theirs? What does the golden rule say? Luke 12:47-48. You are not as responsible for your sins as Moses because God didn’t make your hand leprous to get your attention before He gave you commands! (Exodus 4:6). Because of that, you have some doubt. You don’t KNOW for sure what God wants. You can reason out something that sounds pretty good, convincing even – and you might be right! But until you hear it from God Himself, you’ll never really be CERTAIN beyond all question!
So why hasn’t God made it possible for you to be absolutely certain what He wants? He knows that if everyone were given an open, clear understanding of who He was and what He wanted, many of those who are hesitating and uncertain would follow Him… but He also knows some people would still reject Him. How does He know? Because it’s happened before! Ezekiel 28:12-15. No one could have seen God more clearly than “the anointed cherub that covers” the throne of God (compare to Exodus 25:17-22). There was no smoke hiding the throne of God from that angel! He saw God clearly, in all His glory, and yet he still sinned! Not only that, but he may have sinned the unpardonable sin!
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN
Which of your sins are so unique and so horrible that even God can’t forgive them? Colossians 2:13. Will He forgive us ALL our sins? 1 John 1:9. Can God forgive ALL of the sins, even a whole nation’s worth? Psalms 85:2. Which of your law-breakings are excepted? Psalms 103:3. So if God is so merciful that He can forgive all this, then why do we hear of the unpardonable sin?
Because there are three passages in the Bible that appear to contradict these verses about God’s bottomless mercy, and speak of sins so horrible even God can’t forgive them. The first such verse is Matthew 12:31-32. Everyone thinks that says, “if you blaspheme the holy spirit in this life, you have to die forever”. That if you say, “the holy spirit is stupid!” God will never forgive you for it – not now, not in the second resurrection, never. But that isn’t what it says!
How many times must you die to satisfy the law? To pay for your sin, must you die ten times? Five? Two? Or does the scripture only require one death for sin? Hebrews 9:27. So many false doctrines fall apart if you only remember one simple principle: the wages of sin is death. BUT ONLY ONE DEATH!
That means if you sin in this life, if you murder, rape, pillage, commit genocide, and yes, even blaspheme the holy spirit… you earn only ONE death! And when you die, your debt to sin is paid in full! It is impossible to carry sin-debt from this world into the next because death pays for all sins!
And if God resurrects you for any reason, you’re a NEW person, with a NEW life, and NO DEBTS OF ANY KIND! But that new person can sin again in that new life! And he can blaspheme the holy spirit again in that life! And if he does it again the penalty is the same because God never changes! (Hebrews 13:8).
So how Matthew 12:31-32 should be understood is, “if you blaspheme the holy spirit in this life, you will not be forgiven in this life. And if you blaspheme the holy spirit in the next life, you won’t be forgiven in the next life either!”
But what exactly is blasphemy against the holy spirit? Read Hebrews 10:26-29. This is talking about the same situation as Matthew 12, saying anyone who “insults the spirit of grace” (NKJV) cannot ever receive a sacrifice for his sin; and without a sacrifice for his sins, he “hath not forgiveness, neither in this world or the world to come”. These verses should be merged – both are warning us about the same penalty (no hope of forgiveness) for the same crime (insulting/blaspheming the holy spirit). The message in both scriptures is the same: if you insult the holy spirit in this life you won’t be supplied with a sacrifice – receive forgiveness – in this life. And after paying for this life’s sins with your own death, if you blaspheme in the next life, you won’t be forgiven then either. How simple!
But what does it take to blaspheme the holy spirit? Read Hebrews 6:4-8. Notice the conditions you must meet in order for it to be “impossible to renew them to repentance”. Count them up! In order to blaspheme the holy spirit and be unforgivable, you must fulfill FIVE separate conditions! If you haven’t met each of those conditions, and THEN fallen away, you are in no danger!
Have you understood the complete truth of God, and been enlightened? Received the gifts of God? Received the holy spirit? Have you tasted the fruits of God’s way of life? Have you seen God’s POWER in your life? Miracles, healings, answers to prayer? If you haven’t fulfilled ALL of these conditions you could not POSSIBLY have committed the unpardonable sin! You can’t blaspheme the holy spirit if you don’t have it, or if you don’t even know what it is!
But let’s suppose you did all those things; suppose you were in the true church, saw the fruits of living God’s way, felt the power of God in your life, and then willfully sinned and blasphemed the holy spirit. It does happen! And after that, it is quite impossible for you to return to repentance, and be forgiven by God… in this life. God only calls people ONCE in a lifetime.
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO WILLFULLY SIN?
Don’t misunderstand this! Your first sin after believing in God doesn’t mean you cannot be saved! Your first complaint to God isn’t blaspheming the holy spirit! Your first ignorant sin doesn’t earn you a permanent death penalty! Yes, it is possible to turn away from God – but no one rejects God all at once, in a single day!
What happens if you begin to stray and be disobedient? Does He cast you out of His sight? Hebrews 12:5-11. Does this punishment mean God hates us? Proverbs 3:12. What happens when we break God’s laws? Psalms 89:30-34. How does He correct His sons – magically, with plagues and such? 2 Samuel 7:14.
God seldom punishes men with lightning and earthquakes and boils. He corrects us using other men. Our peace and happiness depend heavily on the favor of our government and employers and family. And when we are obeying God, we receive that favor (Proverbs 16:7). But it is just as easy for God to revoke that favor and suddenly our enemies remember they hate us and abuse us in some way or another; in this way, God “chastens us with the rod of men”. If you accept that punishment and repent, God is happy to forgive you; but if you stubbornly resist it, well… we’ll get to that in a moment.
Do people still sin after choosing this way of life? 1 John 1:8. Is there anyone who doesn’t sin? 2 Chronicles 6:36. Did Paul find it a constant battle to avoid sin? Romans 7:14-25. And what was Paul’s conclusion? Romans 8:1.
As long as you draw breath, there will be a battle in your soul between the things God’s spirit shows you, and the things your own selfish spirit lusts after. That’s the point of this life, to make you choose a side, and to teach you to battle sin. You will make mistakes, you will be weak, and you will be stupid. And then you should learn the error of your ways and do better.
And that’s what grace is for – to overlook your sins of ignorance. Read Romans 4:3-8. If you have faith, God does not count your sins against you. But that doesn’t mean you can sin all you want and have God overlook your sins! That grace only comes by FAITH. And faith only comes by knowing you have repented and knowing you are obeying God in every way you know.
Without a pure conscience, no man can have faith. If you’re knowingly sinning, you won’t have a pure conscience; therefore you won’t have faith; therefore you won’t have grace; therefore your sins are counted against you. God is remarkably patient; He understands we are made of dirt (Psalms 103:14), and puts up with a lot from us. But what He won’t tolerate is rebellion. Conscious rebellion, fully comprehending the choice before you, is the true unpardonable sin.
CONSCIOUS REBELLION
God classified sins broadly into two types in 1 John 5:16. The one for which there can be forgiveness, and the one which is beyond hope – and God expects us to know the difference! God expects us to be able to recognize an unpardonable sin! Hebrews 10:26 (Philips) Now if we sin deliberately after we have known and ACCEPTED the truth, there can be no further sacrifice for sin for us.
In this translation it’s easy to see that this verse merges with Hebrews 6; to be unpardonable, you have to have sinned deliberately AFTER knowing and ACCEPTING the truth. Now some people say, “well, I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway”. But did you REALLY KNOW?
Read 1 Corinthians 13:9, 12. Since even Paul saw God dimly, like looking at someone in a foggy bathroom mirror, none of us have perfect knowledge of God! We only “know in part”. Thus, it is impossible to commit the “perfect sin”, because to commit a perfectly willful sin, you must have perfect knowledge of God. Since we don’t HAVE a perfect knowledge of God, the worst we can do is “sin in part”!
We can only sin against what we know; and the more we know, the more God holds us accountable. (Luke 12:47-48 again). The better you know your Lord’s will when you break it, the more stern will be your penalty. Because the more you know, the more serious your rebellion. And the more you know, the more you are responsible for your sins. If God executed everyone on the spot for their first sin, none of us would survive to adulthood (Psalms 130:3-4). So when you sin in ignorance, God says to Himself, “they know not what they do”, and overlooks it completely. When you do understand and repent, He gladly forgives you on the spot.
On the other end of the spectrum, when you sin with complete knowledge of what you are doing, God refuses to pay for any of it; you knowingly chose to sin, therefore God says, “Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you” (Judges 10:14). However, no man has ever had complete knowledge of God, nor fully understood the fruits of sin. Therefore no man has ever committed the perfect sin. Therefore every man can be forgiven. We’re all deceived to some extent, all ignorant to some extent, all under pressure to sin from many sources.
None of us know enough to endanger our eternal lives. There is always some doubt, some question, some excuse that allows us to claim at least some ignorance – enough to escape instant and eternal punishment. We have to work pretty hard to alienate God beyond forgiveness even in this life (Psalms 86:15).
So now let’s look at a case in point. Suppose it’s between stealing a loaf of bread and seeing your child starve. What will you do? Will you stand on your conviction that stealing is wrong and trust God to provide? I hope so – that IS the right answer – but you might not. Any of us might not. So let’s say, “knowing” that stealing is wrong, you STOLE that loaf of bread. This was a sin. And since you knew, going in, it was a sin, it was a WILLFUL sin. Wasn’t it? No! It was an act you THINK was PROBABLY wrong; because you were told so by preachers who MAY have known what God was like; who read it in a 2,500-year-old book written by men who MAY have been inspired… by a God who MIGHT EXIST!
The only thing of which you are TRULY certain is your child is hungry! And that there is something that YOU can do about it – wrong or not! Under the circumstances, you might have been only 30% convinced that stealing was the wrong thing to do! Didn’t you believe it was more wrong to let your son starve? Were you really so convinced that stealing was wrong, in this case? You had heard stealing was wrong, but in a crisis decided it wasn’t as wrong as letting him be hungry! So you deceived yourself into thinking stealing was NOT wrong – at least, not completely wrong! And while God doesn’t condone stealing, even in those circumstances, He does understand it; read Proverbs 6:30. But even though He understands it, He still punishes you for it as verse 31 says. And that’s the point of all of this; if you break the law, you’ll pay a price. The more you know, the heavier price you’ll pay. But paying the ultimate price is very hard to do, because it’s very hard to attain ultimate knowledge.
That’s why God makes us PROVE TO HIM, with EACH STEP we take, that we LOVE the knowledge He has given us, before He gives us more! (Isaiah 28:9-10). So that our risk of punishment is as small as possible! By giving you understanding a little bit at a time, and watching how you handle it, He prevents you from fully knowing Him, and avoids risking your eternal chance at salvation by exposing you to too much, too soon.
This explains why there is no unarguable proof of God’s existence. If all He wanted was for everyone to go to the right church, He’d have made it the only church there was! But what He really wants is for as many people as possible to be saved – if not today, then in the next day of salvation!
Unarguable proof would get more people saved today, to be sure. But far fewer people would be saved overall! What’s more, by calling people this way, God is able to separate mankind into two classes – those who love the truth, and gladly hear His voice, even when it’s a whisper… and those who only like the truth, and will hear His voice only if He gets their attention first!
Thomas believed, given enough proof (John 20:24-29). But it was better for those who believed without having thrust their hand in Jesus’ side! God wants you to love the golden rule because you see that it is the only path to happiness – not because He beat you until you did it His way!
WHY DOES GOD ALLOW DECEPTION?
Read 1 Corinthians 5:1-5. This was a church member, someone who had the spirit of God, was in the church of God, and KNEW BETTER. So Paul instructed the church to put him back in the world, where he would be deceived so THE SPIRIT MAY BE SAVED AT ANOTHER TIME!! The spirit can be saved in the second resurrection because this man will be deceived, to go back to his previous condition of knowing no commandment – or at least, believing no commandment – and thus can escape further judgment from God for his sins in this life (Romans 4:15).
But how does this help save his spirit when he is resurrected? In order for you to commit the unpardonable sin, you must stand before God, understanding Him fully, with a clear mind and no deception, KNOWING that He is right… and then reject Him! But no man has ever done this! Does God control how much people understand? Isaiah 29:10. Does He prevent people from understanding His words? Isaiah 6:9-10. Why? 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12. God SENDS them a delusion! God blinds their eyes, so that they will believe a lie – as so many billions believe today! Why? So that they can be JUDGED in the second resurrection! And not killed for the unpardonable sin! If this rebellious man continued to learn the truth, and continued to break it, he might some day be in real danger of that unpardonable sin! He might become so evil, and yet understand so much, that God couldn’t even resurrect him in the second resurrection!
And so to preserve his soul from further harm, God closed his “eyes” and “ears” (John 12:40) so that the truth no longer makes sense, and lies sound better! (2 Chronicles 18:21). These delusions will convince him that the law isn’t binding, or doesn’t apply to him, or that the person who told him about it wasn’t qualified to teach him! And this “strong delusion” will once again make him an unbeliever, in effect IGNORANT of the law of God!
And when he is again ignorant, it means he will again be UNDER GRACE! Like he was before God called him. He will be worse off now because he’s been exposed to truth and rejected it – because now he is LESS ignorant than he was in the beginning, and therefore merits LESS grace! The better you understand the law when you break it, the less grace you have for that sin (James 4:17).
That is WHY the latter end of a person who is in the church and turns away is worse than the first! (2 Peter 2:20). But since NO MAN understands God PERFECTLY, no one is without at least some excuse – and therefore, not without SOME grace! But once a person has known God even a little, and rejected Him, they cannot have as much grace because they have more understanding of the law! And where the law is, there is transgression! And the more law there is, the greater the transgression! And yet despite this, they didn’t understand God fully, because NO MAN EVER HAS! So they can’t FULLY reject God, and require the immediate, eternal, unforgivable death penalty! Because even at the moment of DEEPEST understanding, we see Him in a foggy mirror!! (1 Corinthians 13:12). And because of this, BECAUSE THEY ARE STILL DECEIVED, they can still receive SOME grace! They can still receive ENOUGH GRACE to allow them to live out their lives and experience the suffering brought on by sin! Which helps to prepare them to be saved in the next life!
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
God did not create man to destroy him, but to give him life (John 3:17). God doesn’t want to destroy anyone, and won’t, without them first having every opportunity to understand and repent (2 Peter 3:9). And grace is how God justifies giving them that opportunity. God won’t LET you truly and fully know Him, in order to PROTECT YOU! To eliminate any risk of you rejecting Him if you saw Him clearly! Thus PREVENTING you from willfully sinning and causing your eternal death on the spot!
If you TRULY knew God, without deception, without lies, without temptation, and THEN, of your own free will CHOSE to sin… you would have ZERO grace – because you would then have zero ignorance! You would receive the instant, immediate death penalty! But as long as you, Eve (Genesis 3:11-13), or the man in 1 Corinthians 5 can point to Satan, and say, “The serpent beguiled me, LORD”, then God can overlook your sins until you have time to understand and correct them. But if God were to permit that man to continue understanding more and more, rebelling all the while, his spirit might not be salvageable in the future – and God has plans for him in the future! (Romans 11:32). And so God locks this mind down, and allows him to be deceived. Then he can be under grace, under the penalty of no law, for he is again ignorant!
This is one of the most beautiful purposes of grace – the protection of those who oppose themselves (2 Timothy 2:25), because God doesn’t want to lose anyone unless He absolutely has to – unless they truly INSIST on wickedness after having known the glory of righteousness! That’s why God must have deception. Because without it, the risk of our rejecting Him would be too great! He needs deception so He can watch us grope towards the truth, knowing that only those who truly love the golden rule and the doctrines derived from it will find the truth! He allows deception so that those who can find the truth today, in this most deceptive of all times, will be able to prove themselves WORTHY of being part of the first resurrection! Because only those who LOVE Jesus will be able to hear His voice over the clamor of millions of shepherds who want to have you in their flock!
For more lessons enrol in the Comprehensive Bible Study Course by Nathanial Burson The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.