The Unpardonable Sin & Spiritual Desire

QUESTION: What Scriptural authority have we for the statement that he who has committed the irremissible sin has no longer any desire for restoration to God's favor?

ANSWER: Ps. 145:10, "Thou satisfiest the desire of every living thing." Matt. 5:6, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled," and Isa. 55:1. Our God is too good to refuse to gratify a desire which he has inspired. He does not tantalize his spiritual intelligences in this manner.

 — from Steele's Answers p. 43.

Esau & Apostacy

QUESTION: Is Esau as described in Heb. 12:17 a type of the hopeless apostates who have committed the unpardonable sin?

Hebrews 12:17 (KJV): "For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected:for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears."

ANSWER: Some scholars say "Yes," but others say "No." I agree with the latter. Those who say that because Esau, faint with hunger, sold to his hard-hearted, selfish, grasping twin brother his birthright for a mess of pottage, he was forever afterwards incapable of that true repentance necessary to eternal salvation, are mistaken in their exegesis of Heb. 12:17. The repentance which Esau found no place for was not a change in his own mind, but a change in his father's decision, by which he might regain a double portion of Isaac's estate and the headship of the tribe which he had foolishly sold. For this he repented with tears, but they did not secure the earthly blessings which he desired. But the favor of God in the forgiveness of sin and the gift of eternal life were still attainable. Another mistake is found in answering the question, "By whom was Esau rejected?" Some say, "By God." The true answer is "by his father Isaac," when he refused to reverse his decision about the birthright. When Esau got through "sowing wild oats" he seems to have become quite a respectable man, kind and forgiving toward his brother. I hope he died in peace with God and attained eternal life.

— from Steele's Answers pp. 42, 43.

Can a Sinner Be Restored?

QUESTION: I am in great distress, having been pardoned and baptized with the Holy Spirit, a happy, aggressive Christian worker, then knowingly and deliberately committing sin and repeating it for months and years. Is it possible for me again to find acceptance with adoption into the family of God? do you think there is any hope for so great a sinner?

ANSWER: Your case is a very sad one, but I see one ray of hope. Your desire to be restored to the state from which you have fallen is an indication that the Holy Spirit has not left you. He who commits the irremissible sin has, we are told no longing for restoration. Hebrews 6:4-8 may be quoted against our position, but this text does not apply to you because you are "not crucifying (present tense) the Son of God afresh," but rather, earnestly seeking him as your Saviour. Hebrews 10:26-31 has also a present tense denoting a persistent sinning: "For if we are willingly sinning," etc.: It should also be borne in mind that the apostasy of a Christian Hebrew is the rejection of the Christian system and a return to Judaism, in which such an apostate will find no effectual sacrifice for sin. But should he return to Christ he will not cast him out.

"There's a wideness in his mercy

Like the wideness of the sea."

The adversary, the devil, often tempts backsliders to believe that they have committed the unpardonable sin. In my pastoral experience by quoting the divine promises to a dying sailor who said, "There is no mercy for me, I have broken all of God's laws," his despair was changed into faith in Christ. He found pardon and died in peace. My advice to this sorrowing inquirer is to go to Jesus saying, "If I perish I will pray and perish only there."

— Steele's Answers pp. 26-28.

The Unpardonable Sin

QUESTION: Explain the unpardonable sin as taught in Matthew 12:31-32, Mark 3:28-30 ("guilty of an eternal sin," R.V.), Hebrews 6:4-6, 10:28-29, and 1 John 5:16-17 ("sin unto death" we need not pray for).

ANSWER: This is too large a question for our single column. It is not a single, isolated, wicked act, but the culmination of a series of deliberate acts of known sin, the outcome of a willful rejection of light and a defiant resistance of the Holy Spirit's pleadings and warnings, till the capacity for repentance and saving faith has been destroyed. God does not close the door of salvation, but the impenitent man himself locks the door and throws away the key in his hatred of "recognized eternal holiness," saying, "evil be thou my good." A doctor finds a cure for the plague, a second physician prepares it, and a third applies it. While it would not necessarily be fatal to neglect or even offend the first two, it would be certain destruction to be plague-smitten to neglect the third persistently by refusing to take the medicine. This illustrates why sinning against the Holy Spirit is more dreadful than sinning against the Father or the Son.

— Steele's Answers pp. 25, 26.