Guidelines for Living.
July 21st, 2026


What Does It Mean To Have Integrity?

Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. James 4:17, NLT.



Question: Would you hire a contractor to build a house for you who comes up with the cheapest bid, though you have read about him being sued for cheating on materials he has used for others, substituting inferior products for the more expensive ones called for in the specifications?

Would you allow a doctor to operate on you who cheated his way through med school? Or how would you feel about flying on an airplane if you knew the safety inspector had been given a bribe to sign off on safety regulations, certifying that the plane was safe to fly when, in fact, he knew there were major mechanical problems that could bring down that plane?

Foolish questions? Not really. C. S. Lewis once said that you have to know what a straight line is before you know what a crooked one is. Contractors who cheat, doctors who are incompetent, and safety inspectors who take bribes lack something that for centuries has been called integrity. No matter how modern theorists camouflage and whitewash the issues, you get very uncomfortable quickly when you think you might become the victim of someone’s lack of integrity.

P.B. Fitzwater defined integrity as “the sum and total of a person’s choices.” Your daily choices and decisions, right or wrong, define your integrity, and integrity is the backbone of your character.

Time allows a few observations and reflections that may help you bring the whole issue into clearer focus in your personal life.

First, I would like to point out that you are not born with integrity or expedience. It is something that you learn. Character is usually formed during the early years of your life as you learn that certain things are right and others are wrong. But when integrity is lacking it can be developed just as any skill or ability is. That’s what conversion is about; an understanding of right and wrong, of that which is moral and immoral, it all contributes to character development.

Observation #2: Your character is the sum total of your choices and decisions in life. Daily choices come with consequences attached to them, and when you come down on one side or the other, the sum of those consequences determines who you are. The aggregate total of what you decide to do—right or wrong—is the material that constitutes your personality and who you are.

Observation #3: Your reputation is what others think you to be, while character is what you really are. Remember that integrity is not measured in percentages as a batting average. Either you have it or you don’t.

Observation #4: Doing right is its own reward. In an airport bookstore I made a purchase with a charge card. The clerk inadvertently put both slips—the customer’s and the merchant’s in the binding of the book; it meant his boss wouldn’t get paid for the book. “Excuse me, I said, “If you don’t have the charge slip, your boss doesn’t get paid for my book.” Did he thank me? No. Instead he looked at me with a kind of “you’re really stupid” look, which, for a moment, made me feel like a sucker. But I’m not. Long ago William Shakespeare said, “To thine own self be true and it shall follow as the day the night, thou can’t not then be false to any man.” Regardless of what others choose to do, integrity is my choice, and I made it a long time ago. It’s part of who I am and part of whom I chose to be.

Finally, God blesses those who choose the somewhat less traveled path of integrity. Read Psalm 1, friend. And eventually, your enemies will recognize the difference.



Resource Reading: Matthew 7:24-29

Guidelines for Living.
July 9th, 2026

God, Why Did You Let This Happen?

Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, “What are you making?” Does your work say, “He has no hands”? Isaiah 45:9



A disclaimer is the fine print you see in a contract—it’s the documentation which protects a manufacturer from lawsuits and basically lets the contracting party off the hook when something goes wrong. So, here is today’s disclaimer. No, I haven’t had my wife walk out on me or bury my children on foreign soil. I’ve not been in an airplane that crashed or was hijacked by terrorists, and no, they haven’t pulled me from a wrecked car more dead than alive. Frankly, God has been far better to me than I deserve—a thousand times so; yet I have a strong opinion based on working with people. I’ve seen a trend so gradual and so pervasive in recent years that it seems to leave me standing in a small minority of people who tenaciously cling to some thoughts that are seldom voiced.

Here’s the bottom line. When things go wrong today—whether it is a marriage turns sour, or investments disintegrate, or a tragedy strikes or the sink gets stopped up–God gets the blame for it. We cry out, “God why did you let this happen to me?” or “where were you, God, when I needed you?” We then ask, “What good is God, anyway?” Then we point the finger at Him, convinced that we have suffered as the result of His failure or negligence, never considering the possibility that we may have invested poorly, or abused a husband or wife, or put too many potato peels down the drain.

Forget the trend of the stock market, the world economy, or the horrible hideous reality of evil in the world. “God must be held accountable,” we think. No, you can’t sue Him, but you do place the blame squarely on His shoulders.

So, what’s wrong with that attitude? After all, isn’t God there to make life comfortable for us, to make us feel good, to keep us healthy, and—yes, wealthy at the same time?

Enough of this nonsense. Where we have gone wrong is our focus and point of reference. We think that we stand on center stage and God is there for our benefit, and often mark promises in our Bible which are rich in hope for a better tomorrow. We seldom think of Him unless somebody needs to be held accountable for difficulty in the world.

Friend, we need to reverse the whole picture and focus on the Almighty, bowing before Him in humility and deep contrition, and worship Him. Frankly, we need to recapture something of His awe and majesty and grandeur and to put our relationship to Him in perspective. He is Lord, we are His subjects. He is almighty, and we are very human. He’s all powerful, we are weak and needy. He is the Father, we are the children. We have no real right to demand anything of Him.

The created cannot hold the Creator accountable for his failures any more than someone has the right to sue the mattress manufacturer when he falls out of bed and breaks his arm. God hears your outcries, but fortunately, as David wrote, “He remembers our frame, that we are dust.”

It is time that we recognized the power and ubiquitous nature of evil in the world and recognize not only is there a sovereign God, but an adversary whom the Bible calls the Devil, whose business it is to disrupt, to create chaos, and to thwart the work and will of God. But who blames him for the chaos and difficulty that confronts us?

Long ago Isaiah wrote, “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker,” (Isaiah 45:9). Wise is the person who turns to God in times of trouble. It’s your posture that makes the difference.

Resource reading: Job 3:1-26

21 CAPTIVATING STEPS TO REVIVE YOUR PRAYER LIFE.

1. Set a non-negotiable time with God – Daniel 6:10
Insight: Prayer without schedule = prayer without power. Daniel prayed 3x daily like clockwork. Put God in your calendar before your calendar fills up.

2. Kill your phone before kills your prayer – Matthew 6:6
Insight: “Shut your door” = airplane mode. If your phone is closer than your Bible, your prayer will be shorter than your scroll time.

3. Start small, but start fire – Zechariah 4:10
Insight: Don’t aim for 3hrs and quit on Day 2. 10 minutes of real fire > 1 hour of religious noise. Consistency beats intensity.

4. Use the Bible as your prayer script – Isaiah 62:6
Insight: God moves faster when you pray His Word back to Him. Take Psalm 23 and pray: “Lord, You are my shepherd, so I refuse lack ...”

5. Deal with the secret sin first – Psalm 66:18
Insight: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear”. Revival and hidden sin are enemies. Confess it, drop it, then pray.

6. Forgive someone before you ask God for anything – Mark 11:25
Insight: Unforgiveness blocks heaven’s pipeline. Release that person in prayer, then watch your own prayers get answered faster.

7. Pray loud enough to wake your destiny – Jeremiah 33:3
Insight: Silent prayer is good. Violent prayer is better. “The kingdom suffers violence”. Whisper to God when sleeping, but pray to to provoke your testimony.

8. Add thanksgiving to every prayer – Philippians 4:6
Insight: Begging makes prayer heavy. Gratitude makes prayer sweet. Thank God for 3 things before you ask for 1 thing.

9. Create a “War Room” list – Ephesians 6:18
Insight: Random prayer = random results. Write 7 areas: Family, Financial, Health, Purpose, Ministry, Marriage, Country. Attack 1 daily with focus.

10. Pray in the spirit when words fail – Romans 8:26
Insight: The Holy Spirit translates your groans. 15 minutes in tongues = spiritual gym. Weak in English, strong in Spirit.

11. Worship before you warfare – 2 Chronicles 20:22
Insight: Jehoshaphat won the battle with singers, not soldiers. Praise confuses your enemies before your prayer destroys them.

12. Find your “Upper Room” spot – Acts 1:13
Insight: Environment carries anointing. Same bed for sleep + prayer = sleep wins. Find a corner, chair, or spot that only means “God time”.

13. Pray for others before yourself – Job 42:10
Insight: Selfish prayer dries up. When Job prayed for his friends, his own captivity broke. Your miracle is tied to someone else’s.

14. Fast at least 1 day in a week/month – Matthew 17:21
Insight: Some doors only open with prayer + fasting. Food is good, but your testimony is better. 6am-6pm. Water only. Break limits.

15. Listen more than you talk – 1 Samuel 3:9
Insight: Prayer is 2-way. Talk 5 minutes, be quiet 5 minutes. God speaks in whispers. If you’re always talking, you’ll miss your instructions.

16. Pray at midnight at least 3 times – Acts 16:25-26
Insight: Midnight is when destiny chains break. Set alarm 11:59pm. 20 minutes of midnight prayer > 2 hours of afternoon prayer.

17. Keep a prayer journal of answered prayers – Habakkuk 2:2
Insight: Write it down. When doubt comes, open your journal. “God did it before, He’ll do it again”. Faith grows on evidence.

18. Pray with expectancy, not duty – James 1:6
Insight: Don’t pray like you’re filling a form. Pray like you’re expecting a call back from heaven. Doubt cancels delivery.

19. Use the ACTS pattern – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication – Psalm 100:4
Insight: Structure kills dryness. Adore His greatness, Confess your weakness, Thank Him for mercy, then ask for your need.

20. Get an accountability partner – Ecclesiastes 4:9
Insight: Lonely prayer life dies fast. Text 1 friend daily: “I prayed today”. Two are better than one. Fire needs wood.

21. Make a covenant with God – Genesis 28:20
Insight: Jacob said “If You bless me, I’ll serve You”. Tell God: “Lord, revive my prayer life and I’ll never treat prayer like last option again”. Seal it with action.

You are blessed

Ever wonder why your ears hurt so much when you're driving up a steep mountain or when an airplane is landing?

It's not just "pressure"—it's often because air gets trapped behind your eardrum.

Your middle ear connects to the back of your throat through a tiny passage called the Eustachian tube. Normally, this tube stays closed to help keep bacteria from traveling into your middle ear. But when air pressure changes quickly, it may not open as easily as it should. The result? That uncomfortable feeling of fullness, pressure, or even pain.

Many people reach for gum, but another technique may help encourage the tube to open:

Open your mouth into a big yawn.
Gently move your lower jaw forward.
Swallow if needed.

These movements can help activate the muscles that assist in opening the Eustachian tube, allowing pressure on both sides of the eardrum to equalize.

Have you ever tried this trick? Did it work for you, or do you have another method that helps? Share it in the comments!

Note: This post is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. If you have severe ear pain, hearing loss, or symptoms that don't improve, consult a healthcare professional.

#EarPain #EarPressure #AirTravel #MountainDriving #EverydayHealth #HealthTips

The Daily Price You Must Pay to Break Free from Old Appetites, Lusts & Desires

What is holiness? One, it means that I am separated unto God. I want to tell us the meaning of this one, of this meaning. That doesn't mean I don't go to work, that doesn't mean I don't go to Target, to Walmart, that doesn't mean I don't visit people, but this is what it means.

I can only do what God wants me to do. Can you see that life? As I go to the office, they may want me to do something to their accounts in order to manipulate a few things. It's unfortunate, I cannot do that because I am separated unto God.

I can only be a party to that which God approves. If God does not approve it, I'm not part of it. And I hope you know if you live that way, you might lose a few jobs.

You might lose a few jobs, you might lose favor, you might lose promotion because everyone that wants to live godly in this present world will suffer persecution. So, I am separated unto God. Only God can operate me.

So, the things that God cannot do, God would not approve, I cannot be doing because I am separated unto God. Two, God saturates me with himself. This saturation that God does, this is what changes my desires.

Are you there? Maybe before someone gave his life to Christ, he had 14 girlfriends. They were spread across the US. One in Arizona, right there.

The other one in San Francisco, El Paso. He was busy. May God give you understanding.

Now he comes to the Lord, so he has an appetite for women. But you see, because he separates himself to the Lord, and I'm not saying he may not struggle initially. You are not with me.

You see, that struggle, the struggle he is struggling, is a proof that he is born again. He fell one or two times and all of that, but he did not stay there because something inside did not allow him to stay there. That's a proof that he is born again.

Now, the reason why he will find victory is because he comes to a point in his separation when God now saturates with himself. He will now discover that the things that held him bound before, he naturally has victory. He will think that he is the one that has become more holy.

He will know that it is God that is saturating him with himself. So when God begins to, this is the organic aspect of holiness, when God begins to saturate him with himself, his desires will begin to change. Somebody that knows him, when he used to make flights, he would make flights to California, L.A., Hollywood.

So the people that know him in that ring, when they see him as a creature that is saturated by God, his desires have changed. Are you following? His perspective has changed. His appetite has changed.

You see him running for Bible study, running for prayer meeting, 10 hours. The people that knew him before would say, you see, because he is saturated with God, God is the one that is responsible for the new desires that drives him. Although he doesn't know that very heavy supernatural things are taking place in his life, but he noticed that he has desire to go for 10 hours.

He wants to be in Bible study. He almost hit someone because he was trying to make sure he arrives early. That's someone that will be in Arizona in the heat of the summer.

When plastic melts, he's dead. Amen. His desires have changed.

The reason why your desires change is because you are saturated. So he's saturating your vessel. That is the proof that he accepted your consecration.

Then he begins to saturate you. Your appetite changes. And then in one year, in two years, you yourself know you have changed.

You know, it's easy for people to know when they change becomes so much that you know. How many of you, after you started eating 7 hours prayer and 10 hours prayer, you know that you change? You see, it's the saturation. It's loud.

It's becoming intense. Your desires have changed. You know what happened to you? You have been made, that's what we call, you have been made a virgin again.

That's what we call the second hand virgin. This is a virginity that has come by reason of Holy Spirit transformation. And when we are giving you out to a guy to marry you, we know that that past doesn't exist again.

And even the man will testify. He'll come and say, ah, you gave me something. You gave me something.

May the Lord give you understanding. So, so do you now realize the man said that consecration is a direct fruit. No, no, no.

Consecration is a life of personal holiness. In which a believer is separated unto God and can no longer participate in anything that God has not inspired. Are you there? So his taste buds, taste buds, taste buds are changed.

There's this guy, there's this guy. He's one of us, but he's in another nation. He's not in the U.S. He had all the brands of cigarettes in Africa.

I don't know the brands here. He has sampled all of them. So if he smells root mass, so this is, this is, this root mass, this root mass, this root mass.

If he smells benzene ahedges, this is, this is, this is benzene ahedges. So he has been, in fact, one time he was preaching to somebody, but he had sticks of cigarettes in his throat. Oh God, oh God.

And that was how God began to saturate him and saturate him. He was able to go beyond root mass and benzene ahedges and saturate him. And the time now came, he had to counsel, I think it was, yeah, counsel with somebody in a shop somewhere.

And somebody was with cigarettes. He almost threw up. Because, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Spirit, when the Holy Spirit is done with dealing with that appetite, the things you used to enjoy before. So that life is what E.M. Barnes calls the consecrated life. It means that we cannot separate the life of personal holiness from the consecrated life.

So if you, if you are consecrated, your life will be going in the direction of holiness. He said he can no longer participate in anything that God has not inspired. Consecrated believers always sense the need to confirm if God is in a thing before getting involved.

So someone comes, they say he's a billionaire. He's been, he has five companies and money is just flowing. And he's saying that this is the lady that I want to get married.

And then the lady said, you hold on. We've seen your type before. Well, let's go and find out from the Lord if, because some of you will be happier if you, with less money.

Or you don't know. You get into that arrangement, you become a piece of furniture. At first, for the first two years, you'll be going around like a model.

Then that's all you will have. So you see, the person now goes to check. And then God now says, you know what? You cannot fulfill my purpose in that arrangement.

And you'll find the person saying no to something that looks flashy. And the rest of the people says you are mad. Consecration will make people say you are mad.

Because you have a different perspective. Don't be afraid of being called mad. Because what it means is that you are no longer like your age, your eon, your generation.

You are different. And the reason for your difference is because you are separated unto God. Every man separated unto God is called different.

If in a day where pastors are merchants, pastors are unjust, pastors are not in the service of Jesus, you look like them. It means you lost your consecration. Because in that day, you are supposed to look different.

If it is true that you are separated unto God. Sometimes the accurate might be the few. So if you are not secure enough in Jesus to be different, it means you have not embraced the life of consecration.

So holiness has two sides. So this side is sanctify yourself, that's consecration. Then the Lord will sanctify you, that is saturation.

It is these two things that make for the sanctified life. Someone that is giving himself to the Lord every day through prayer. Are you there? And then the Lord is possessing him and saturating him.

He's possessing him. That cycle is a cycle of the sanctified life. If that man stands close to the enemy, the enemy will scream.

Because he's not of this world. Satan has no plans to meet such people on earth. He's not of this world.

He's saturated with God. The things that will happen if God were present will happen in his presence. Because through the process of giving himself and God sanctifying him, him and God are becoming one.

This is the greatest gospel. And it is when people are sanctified like this. Yeah? You have a question? Okay.

Please equip him with a microphone. Yes? So as far as the consecrated life is concerned, does this mean that our personality will change? And what are some things that we can do to manage our emotions? Tell me. We must be talking what we are talking within a context.

You have a spirit. Is that true? You have a soul which consists of your mind. It consists of your will and what? Emotions.

Then you have what? A body. Is that true? Your body has what we call appetites. Is that true? These appetites, A, is the need to rest.

Rest is an appetite. B, thirst is an appetite. C, hunger is an appetite.

D, the need to see is an appetite. Need to see. That's how people got into pornography.

Because they want to see something. D, sex is an appetite. Yeah, I believe I got all of them here.

What? Sleep, that's rest. So when you are tired, your body begins to communicate. Is that true? It doesn't say, ah, I'm tired.

No, but it begins to communicate. And then you read the language. And that language, what it communicates in rest is different from thirst.

Thirst is different from hunger. You get that? Good. This body here, sin, which is a nature, the nature of Satan is what we call sin.

Sin wants to govern all of these appetites that are in your body. And then provide a legitimate ground for you to honor these appetites above the instructions of the Holy Ghost. Just like Satan came to Jesus on the appetite of hunger and said, if you are the son of God, turn these stones into bread so that you can satisfy your what? Okay, this is my class.

You are not interested in any of that. Can you say that? So the devil wants to use these appetites as a means of dethroning the Holy Spirit and refusing him a place of authority in your life. When he's calling you to pray in the night, the devil, sin will activate rest.

And this rest will be so compelling. So that you now convince yourself that, ah, I need rest now. I need rest.

You know the Holy Ghost is calling you to stand before him, but sin was able to convince you to disobey the Holy Ghost using what? Rest as an excuse. So that day, you're yielding to rest, to sleep. That day, sleep, that day was sin.

Because in accepting to sleep, you rebelled against the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Are you still following me? So I want you to see this problem. We have a problem.

This one is happening in your body, the appetites. And the devil wants to hold you captive from that standpoint. That's not all.

So when I have your mind, the old mind that you had when you were in downtown, that old mind does not leave. That old mind is still there. The old emotion that you had, are you following me? That you love, you love too much.

You love on the train, you are loving. On the airplane, you are loving. In economy cabin, you are loving, you are loving.

Jesus, may Lord help us. Now this is it. When the saturation begins, and God begins to saturate you, the object, the purpose of saturating you is to make you holy.

The first thing he will begin to do is that he will begin to work on your mind. He will begin to renew that saturation. It will begin to do what? Renew your mind.

The saturation will begin to stabilize your emotion. The saturation will begin to encourage you to surrender. Surrender your will to his own will.

Are you following me? These things will not happen. You don't know how stubborn we are. You believe that your small brain is so intelligent, so wise.

Then God will allow you to use your brain. You use it, then you will not fail. Then you will not know that you cannot depend on the brain.

Even though the brain is still there, you will still want to seek God. And then God now shows the way before you begin to apply the brain. It means your mind, you are having spiritual experiences that has informed the fact that God is beyond your brain, and you will need to still seek his face before you chart your course.

Are you following me? Now in the emotion area, you will go and love. You will love the Rolling Stone and you will love the person with all your heart because you believe that if you love enough, things will work. Then this Rolling Stone that you have invested so much love on will just walk away.

Then you will now discover that you were the only one loving. And then you will now be willing to allow God to govern your emotions. And then for the strong will type, you will now hit somebody and the person will now die.

So you will now pray and say, God if you can raise this woman. And then she will sneeze and wake up. You will now know that you need to surrender it.

All of these things are happening to you because God is saturating you. As he is saturating you, he is trying to defeat your stronghold. And it will happen through actions, activities, situations and circumstances that are beyond your control.

But he is the one that is at work. It might look serious, terrible, you are on the bed, your blood pressure has gone up. He allowed it so that he can defeat your emotion.

There is a stronghold, you have to defeat it. So that the demons that come to provoke that emotion, when it is stabilized, they can no longer relate with that realm. Are you there? So the name of that process on your mind is called renewal.

That's what it is. The name here is called surrender. The name here is called stabilization.

And then in this chamber, he drives up the authority that these chambers have. So that none of this can influence you. When the Holy Spirit says, stand before me, you are resting, you are tired, but you are obedient enough in heart to take the first step, to speak the first tongue, and to wait for him to strengthen you with might by his Spirit in your inner man.

You will now discover that that rest, that feeling of rest was a lie, was a shadow. It doesn't have true foundations. So if you rebel against it, it will fizzle out.

And that's how you feel lost. It's on you. Lost.

You are looking. It doesn't have any foundations. If you decide to ignore it, it will fizzle out.

It has no foundation. Because God has already crucified the flesh. So the flesh no longer has foundations.

You can ignore it. Nothing will happen. Because it's not real.

It's a shadow. When it begins to saturate you more, then you begin to discover that there is life beyond appetite. Are you there? He begins to saturate you more.

The things that used to control you. You can't sleep. Don't worry.

Don't worry. Don't worry. Just ask him to help you.

A day will come, your sleep will be nothing because you are saturated. This thing is not a miracle. It will be gradual as if you are growing.

And a day will come, they offer you free sex. You say no. You know why? Because you are saturated.

Nobody can make you like that, only God. And the process of him making you like that begins with you giving over yourself through the instrumentality of prayer. That's the vision that God has for every one of us.

So the man that has attained the sanctified life is somebody that Satan needs to weep about because Satan cannot manipulate him. Consecration is more than a spiritual activity. It is a lifestyle of personal holiness.

At its core, holiness means being separated unto God. This does not mean withdrawing from society or avoiding everyday responsibility. It means living with the conviction that only what God approves can have a place in your life.

A consecrated believer is not controlled by culture, pleasure, opportunities, or personal gain, but by the will of God. The journey of consecration begins when a person willingly gives himself to God. But it does not stop there.

As that surrender continues through prayer, fellowship, and obedience, God begins to saturate that person's life with his presence. This divine saturation gradually changes desires, appetites, perspectives, and priorities. Things that once seemed attractive begin to lose their grip, while spiritual things become increasingly precious.

This transformation is not merely self-discipline or human effort. It is the work of God within a yielded heart. The believer discovers that victory over old habits, sinful desires, and destructive patterns comes because God is actively shaping his nature from the inside out.

The more God fills a person, the more their lives reflect his character. Consecration also produces a different mindset. Before making decisions, the believer seeks to know whether God is involved.

Even when attractive opportunities present themselves, he is willing to walk away if they do not align with God's purposes. Because of this, consecrated people may appear strange to others, but their difference is evidence that they belong to God. The sanctified life is the combination of two realities, man separating himself unto God, and God saturating that man with himself.

As this process continues, God renews his mind, stabilizes emotions, and teaches the will to submit to his leadership. The appetites and desires that once dominated a person's life gradually lose their power. Eventually, the believer begins to live above the control of the flesh and become increasingly governed by the Holy Spirit.

Such a person becomes difficult for the enemy to manipulate because his life is no longer driven by impulses, emotions, or worldly desires, but by a growing union with God. This is the vision of consecration, a life so surrendered and saturated with God that his nature becomes visible through every aspect of a person's life. Thank you for Listening.

By: Apostle Arome Osayi

https://youtu.be/bHkz0-lo48U?si=iiOR0KQ78rcb-iUm


Please share, like, and engage this video. God bless you. Amen.

The Key to Real Wisdom

Would you ever build a house without blueprints? Or assemble an airplane without instructions? Or conduct open-heart surgery without training?

Hopefully your answer is “no.”

If we want to know how something works, we should look to the expert for insight. In a similar way, if we want to know how the world works, we should look to God.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”
Proverbs 9:10 ESV

God made the world and everything in it. He knows how life works best.

But too often, we look to ourselves or even to others to tell us who we are, what to think, and to explain to us how life works. The good news is:

Wisdom doesn’t begin with us—the created.
Wisdom begins with God—the Creator.

Are you interested in real wisdom? Genuine insight? True understanding? Look to God, study His ways, and consider His character. Examine Him closely and find what you’re searching for.

Real wisdom starts with a God-centered foundation. Everything else is built on that rock.

But as we do that, we must first honestly ask ourselves some hard questions: Do I want to learn from God, or would I rather do my own thing? Do I want godly wisdom, or would I rather be my own god?

Satan fell from heaven because he wanted more power than God. Adam and Eve struggled in the garden because they weren’t sure if they could trust God. And ever since, every human has been faced with a choice: to seek God, or seek life without Him. No one can make the decision for you, but—

If you want to be truly wise, you must choose God.

So right now, be real with yourself: Are you willing to surrender your way of thinking and genuinely look to God, or would you rather just do your own thing? If you feel a wall of pride going up within you, ask God to help you knock it down. Brick by brick, He can reestablish your foundation.

The Key to Real Wisdom

Would you ever build a house without blueprints? Or assemble an airplane without instructions? Or conduct open-heart surgery without training?

Hopefully your answer is “no.”

If we want to know how something works, we should look to the expert for insight. In a similar way, if we want to know how the world works, we should look to God.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”
Proverbs 9:10 ESV

God made the world and everything in it. He knows how life works best.

But too often, we look to ourselves or even to others to tell us who we are, what to think, and to explain to us how life works. The good news is:

Wisdom doesn’t begin with us—the created.
Wisdom begins with God—the Creator.

Are you interested in real wisdom? Genuine insight? True understanding? Look to God, study His ways, and consider His character. Examine Him closely and find what you’re searching for.

Real wisdom starts with a God-centered foundation. Everything else is built on that rock.

But as we do that, we must first honestly ask ourselves some hard questions: Do I want to learn from God, or would I rather do my own thing? Do I want godly wisdom, or would I rather be my own god?

Satan fell from heaven because he wanted more power than God. Adam and Eve struggled in the garden because they weren’t sure if they could trust God. And ever since, every human has been faced with a choice: to seek God, or seek life without Him. No one can make the decision for you, but—

If you want to be truly wise, you must choose God.

So right now, be real with yourself: Are you willing to surrender your way of thinking and genuinely look to God, or would you rather just do your own thing? If you feel a wall of pride going up within you, ask God to help you knock it down. Brick by brick, He can reestablish your foundation.

The Key to Real Wisdom

Would you ever build a house without blueprints? Or assemble an airplane without instructions? Or conduct open-heart surgery without training?

Hopefully your answer is “no.”

If we want to know how something works, we should look to the expert for insight. In a similar way, if we want to know how the world works, we should look to God.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”
Proverbs 9:10 ESV

God made the world and everything in it. He knows how life works best.

But too often, we look to ourselves or even to others to tell us who we are, what to think, and to explain to us how life works. The good news is:

Wisdom doesn’t begin with us—the created.
Wisdom begins with God—the Creator.

Are you interested in real wisdom? Genuine insight? True understanding? Look to God, study His ways, and consider His character. Examine Him closely and find what you’re searching for.

Real wisdom starts with a God-centered foundation. Everything else is built on that rock.

But as we do that, we must first honestly ask ourselves some hard questions: Do I want to learn from God, or would I rather do my own thing? Do I want godly wisdom, or would I rather be my own god?

Satan fell from heaven because he wanted more power than God. Adam and Eve struggled in the garden because they weren’t sure if they could trust God. And ever since, every human has been faced with a choice: to seek God, or seek life without Him. No one can make the decision for you, but—

If you want to be truly wise, you must choose God.

So right now, be real with yourself: Are you willing to surrender your way of thinking and genuinely look to God, or would you rather just do your own thing? If you feel a wall of pride going up within you, ask God to help you knock it down. Brick by brick, He can reestablish your foundation.

A Little Light Reading.
BEYOND MERCY,
The unpardonable sin.

Doug Bachelor.

A man visiting Scotland for the first time went to
a place on the coast featuring a beautiful bay
beach. Up along the beach, soft, sandy hills rose
up sharply into a steep, rocky cliff that dropped down
right along the narrow shore. The man was enjoy-
ing his time, meditating and studying the shells. He
noticed the tide had gone out, exposing a lot of new
beautiful rocks and shells. So he continued to walk—
the ocean on one side, the beach beneath him, and
the sheer rock cliff wall that stretched for miles on the
other side.
As he traveled up the shore, he came to a rusted
steel post in the ground hoisting a metal sign that had
words painted in bold, clear letters:
“Warning!
Danger: If you go beyond this point, you will
not be able to escape the incoming tide.”
The man looked behind him and thought, “Well,
I might not be a marathon runner, but I can surely get
back to the safe zone before the tide overtakes me. I’d
like to go a little farther. These are some of the best shells
and tidal pools I’ve ever seen.” Besides, the tide was a
good way off.
He walked on, well past the sign—preoccupied
with the starfish, seashells, and curious little crabs
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that were now skittering from hole to hole. Along the
way, every so often, he would think: I’ll just keep an
eye on the surf and, when I see it start to change, I’ll
head back to the safe section of the beach.
But once he had gone beyond that sign, he had
already gone too far. He did not realize in that part
of Scotland, during certain seasons and moon phases,
the tidal cycle is often powerful and swift. So he kept
walking, meandering along the wet sand.
Not long after, he saw the tide had changed and
the waves were beginning to come in, so he turned
around. But the tide was surging very fast, charg-
ing in like a galloping horse. He’d never seen a tide
roll in so quickly! No sooner had he turned to make
a hasty retreat, than the waves were upon him like
miniature tsunamis. He began to run, but the rising
waves slapped against his legs, repeatedly knocking
him over. Soon the waves were dragging him right up
against the rocky cliffs!
People sightseeing above the cliffs saw him strug-
gling and watched helplessly as the man was pum-
meled time and time again against the unforgiving
sheer rock.
His lifeless body was found the next day.
What happened? He had gone beyond the warn-
ing sign.
Yes—he was alive and well for a while after he
passed the warning sign, but there actually was no
hope because he had reached the point of no return.
There is, in certain situations, a very clear point of
no return. The military even has a term for it: “PNR.”
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And with good reason too. We hear about Navy he-
licopters that are sent on rescue missions. As they’re
flying out over the ocean from their aircraft carrier,
they have a special instrument labeled PNR*—the
point of no return. When they reach a certain point,
an alarm goes off. It tells them, basically, that it’s now
or never—they’ve reached the halfway point of their
fuel supply. It means that, even if they see the person
they’re trying to rescue just a little farther beyond, if
they continue to fly away from their vessel, as well-
intentioned as they might be, based on the laws of
physics, they are going to run out of fuel before they
can get back. They’ll be ditching in the ocean.
Like that man who died on the Scottish shore,
if they don’t turn around right then and there, they
might not make it home by air.
No Turning Back?
Along these same lines, the Bible teaches that there
is a point you can go to in sinning against God where
your life might still be active—your lungs are breath-
ing, your heart is beating—but you are doomed, just
as surely as if the gates of Hades had already closed
behind you. That is, it is possible for a person to have
gone so far away from God, from the promptings of
the Holy Spirit, that they have spiritually reached the
point of no return and, perhaps, even have gone well
past it.
It is called the “unpardonable sin,” and we’re deal-
ing with this because so many worried and confused
* Now also called “Point of Equal Time” (PET) or “Critical
Point” (CP).
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Christians are wondering, “Have I committed the un-
pardonable sin? What hope can you give me?”
No question, in our ministry, we frequently meet
those who have wondered if they have committed
this unforgivable sin. A man feels his prayers seem to
bounce back from the ceiling, or a woman feels there
is no hope of receiving God’s favor or forgiveness. Yet
they can’t identify any particular sinful act that severed
them from the hope of salvation. God just seems si-
lent. How can they tell if they have actually committed
the unpardonable sin? Can any person really know?
Why Does This Matter?
A few years ago the psychology department of
Duke University carried on an interesting experi-
ment. (It would never be allowed today.) They wanted
to see how long rats could swim based on hope. In
one container surrounded by sheer walls, they placed
a rat for whom there was no possibility of escape. He
swam in circles a few moments and then gave up, re-
signed to drown. In the other container, they made
the hope of escape possible for the rat. A little ladder
was placed just out of reach. The rat swam for sev-
eral hours before finally drowning. We usually say, “As
long as there is life, there is hope.” The Duke experi-
ment proved, “As long as there is hope, there is life.”
Some people believe they have committed the un-
forgivable sin and have lost hope and stopped living.
So before answering these troubling questions
about the unpardonable sin, a glorious truth first
needs to be recognized: We serve a God of infinite
love and compassion! It is not His will that anyone
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be lost. He has made provision in His Word for every
soul to be forgiven and saved. The incredible promise
of 1 John 1:9 applies to every man, woman, and child
in the world today: “If we confess our sins, he is faith-
ful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.”
On the condition of a sincere confession, God
promises to forgive any sin, regardless of its nature.
“Come now, and let us reason together,” says
the Lord, “Though your sins are like scar-
let, they shall be as white as snow; though
they are red like crimson, they shall be as
wool” (Isaiah 1:18).
Here God is saying, “You have sinned. I know that.
But I still love you and want you to have salvation so
badly that I sent my Son to die on the cross for you, to
pay the penalty for your sins. Why, therefore, don’t you
accept what I have done for you?”
What a special assurance for those who have vio-
lated every law of God and man in their wild plunge
into degradation. God loves them still! There is no
guilt too great for Him to cleanse away. He waits with
outstretched arms to receive those who take the first
step toward His forgiveness and mercy. After all, look
at what happened at the cross! The ultimate price
was paid for our redemption from sin. The God who
would do that for us wants us to have the salvation He
offers, a salvation that cost Him so much.
At the same time, however, people can commit
the unpardonable sin, which will put them out of the
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reach of salvation and eternal life. What is this sin
which heaven regards with such abhorrence? Why,
too, will God deal so severely with those who are
guilty of it?
To the human mind, a great number of depraved
and cruel acts might fall into such a category, but
which one of them would God count so heinous that
it could never be forgiven? This is the crucial question
that we are going to explore in this short book.
A Fearsome Warning
Let’s first look at what the Bible specifically says
about this sin.
Indeed, the most fearful words ever spoken by
Jesus had to do with the fateful possibility of commit-
ting the unpardonable sin. He said,
“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blas-
phemy will be forgiven men, but the blas-
phemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven
men” (Matthew 12:31).
Here it is again:
“Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be for-
given the sons of men, and whatever blasphe-
mies they may utter; but he who blasphemes
against the Holy Spirit never has forgive-
ness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”
(Mark 3:28, 29).
And again, in Luke 12:10:
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“And anyone who speaks a word against the
Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to
him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit,
it will not be forgiven.”
Let’s look at these texts closely. “I say to you,” Jesus
said, “every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven.” We
should be so thankful that the Lord is a God who
forgives “every sin and blasphemy.” After all, human
beings are capable of some pretty gruesome and de-
praved acts, are we not? And yet Jesus here is very
clear: All can be forgiven. That’s how powerful and ef-
fectual Christ’s death on the cross was. It was enough
to cover every sin and blasphemy.
But we would be remiss to end right here, because
Jesus doesn’t end right here.
He goes on to say something very grave. He says
that the “blasphemy against the Spirit will not be for-
given men.” Amazing! “Anyone who speaks a word
against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him.” Yet
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven!
Right after some religious leaders in Israel, in cahoots
with the Romans, crucified Jesus, He prayed, “Father, for-
give them.” Would Jesus have uttered that prayer if it was
not possible for them to be forgiven? Even something as
horrible as crucifying the Son of God was forgivable.
But what did Jesus say in another place? “But
whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be
forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come”
(Matthew 12:32).
That’s heavy! They could be forgiven for driv-
ing nails into Jesus’ hands and hoisting him up on a
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ragged cross but not for “speaking” against the Holy
Spirit. No forgiveness—not now, not in judgment day,
not in the resurrection…not ever!
Again, we see this same contrast in Mark: “All sins
will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blas-
phemies they may utter.” That’s encouraging; is it not?
God is so merciful that He can forgive us all sins and
blasphemy. But then we are given this warning: “But
he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has
forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”
(Mark 3:28, 29).
How much clearer could Jesus be? We obviously
don’t want to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit be-
cause it will lead to “eternal condemnation.” Thus,
how important it is that we learn two things:
• First, what does it mean to “utter blasphemy”
against the Holy Spirit?
• Second, how can we make sure that we don’t do it?
What the Unpardonable Sin Is Not
Now, whenever people hear about the unpardon-
able sin, their first question is, “What is it?”
In search of the answer, they often go the book of
Exodus and look through the Ten Commandments,
where they try to conjure up what they think is the
worst possible sin; that sin is surely, they surmise, the
unpardonable one.
For instance, one might believe that innocent life
is certainly the most important thing, and if someone
were to take an innocent life—that is, commit mur-
der—that would have to be the unpardonable sin.
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After all, once a person is dead, there’s nothing that
can be done to bring that person back.
That makes sense, of course. Murder is horren-
dous. However, we clearly find examples in the Bible of
those guilty of murder who we believe will be in heaven.
First, there’s Moses. Exodus 2:12 says the great
prophet “looked this way and that way, and when he
saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the
sand.” That was the sin of murder. God didn’t want
Moses to commit it, but God did forgive the imperfect
prophet and even used Moses to do a great work in
leading the children of Israel out of Egypt.
How about David? In 2 Samuel 12:9, the prophet
Nathan said to David, “Why have you despised the
commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight?
You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you
have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed
him with the sword of the people of Ammon.” So, be-
sides murder, we can add adultery to David’s grievous
sin. Neither murder nor adultery, bad as they are (and
they are bad), can be the unpardonable sin, because
we know from the Bible that God forgave David both
of these sins—though, of course, the king did have to
live with the terrible consequences of his sins, which
is another matter entirely.
In our culture, perhaps the worst crime is when
someone sexually abuses or otherwise harms or kills
an innocent child. Truly, how much lower can a per-
son stoop? Even Jesus says, “Whoever causes one of
these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would
be better for him if a millstone were hung around his
neck, and he were thrown into the sea” (Mark 9:42).
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If anything were the unpardonable sin, one would
think it would be harming an innocent child.
This crime is actually mentioned in the Bible too.
As a matter of fact, in some pagan nations, infanticide
was part of their worship. They would kill their chil-
dren and burn them on altars, all to supposedly ap-
pease their gods. In the Bible, it’s referred to as making
their children “pass through the fire.”
It’s referenced in Ezekiel 16:20–22 as one of the
things that was especially offensive to the Lord re-
garding the nations that surrounded Israel. But what
made matters worse was that some Israelites began
doing the same thing to their own children. Despite
all the light that they had been given, they had fall-
en into one of the most awful and degrading of all
pagan practices! “They even sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to demons” (Psalm 106:37).
Now what could be worse than that—especially for
a people who should have known better because of
all the special revelations given to them as God’s
chosen nation?
But there’s somebody in the Bible who did this,
yet, according to the biblical record, we can believe
that person is forgiven. Manasseh was a king in Israel
who was guilty of infanticide. A king! 2Kings 21:6
says: “He made his son pass through the fire, prac-
ticed soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted
spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight
of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.” It was child
sacrifice, pure and simple. But you read on and the
Bible tells us that this king fully repented, accepted the
Lord, and even implemented a reformation in Israel.
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
It’s unimaginable to us that someone, after they get
involved in child sacrifice, could be forgiven. God is,
obviously, more gracious and merciful than most of
us would be, that’s for sure!
(Maybe you’ve heard of Ted Bundy, a vicious se-
rial killer of young women. The murders were espe-
cially horrific. When he was finally caught and put in
prison on death row, he confessed and ostensibly went
through a conversion process and accepted Jesus. The
respected family counselor Dr. James Dobson went to
visit Bundy before his execution, and the Christian
leader came away believing that God can even forgive
someone who did the horrible things that Bundy did,
as unimaginable as that might seem to us.)
Thus, when Jesus says there’s a sin for which you
can’t be forgiven, it must be really bad! Worse than
adultery…worse than murder…even worse than
child sacrifice!
Could it be the act of denying Christ? Well, can
we think of somebody in the Bible who openly and
blatantly denied Christ yet was forgiven? The book
of Matthew records how Peter swore up and down
that he would be faithful to Jesus no matter what.
However, when accused of being a follower of Christ,
he openly denied it—three times, even! “Then he be-
gan to curse and to swear.” It was bad enough that he
denied Christ, but he did it with cursing and swearing
as well! (See Matthew 26:69–75.)
Publicly denying Christ, renouncing that you know
Him, and doing it with an oath and foul language…
that’s pretty bad, especially for someone who had been
as privileged as Peter, who had been part of Jesus’
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intimate inner circle for so long and who had seen so
many miracles! Could that sin be forgiven?
Obviously it can, because Peter was not only for-
given his sin, he also became a leader in the early New
Testament church. Here are the words of Jesus to him
after Jesus had been raised from the dead:
“So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said
to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you
love Me more than these?’ He said to Him,
‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ He said
to him, ‘Feed My lambs.’ He said to him again a
second time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love
Me?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that
I love You.’ He said to him, ‘Tend My sheep.’
He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of
Jonah, do you love Me?’ Peter was grieved be-
cause He said to him the third time, ‘Do you
love Me?’ And he said to Him, ‘Lord, You know
all things; You know that I love You.’ Jesus said
to him, ‘Feed My sheep’” (John 21:15–17).
If that doesn’t sound like forgiveness, what does?
What About Suicide?
This is obviously a very emotionally charged sub-
ject. Indeed, who doesn’t know, either directly or in-
directly, someone who committed suicide? Sometimes
suicidal people call our radio program asking, “If I
commit suicide, can I still be saved?” What do you
think we tell them? We discourage them in every way
possible. We suggest to them that if the last act of a
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person’s life is an act of utter hopelessness and faith-
lessness, and if the Bible tells us that without faith it’s
impossible to please God, what can we say? We do all
we can to dissuade them from the thought, reminding
them if the last act of their lives is self-murder, obvious-
ly, that wouldn’t bode very well for their eternal future.
At the same time, who doesn’t know someone
whose loved one, a child, perhaps, has taken his or
her own life? These dear people are so devastated by
the thought that a loved one’s next conscious thought
is that they are eternally lost, they do everything they
can in their reasoning to widen that gate. And, indeed,
we need to be careful not to be dogmatic about the
eternal destiny of anyone, including a suicide. Only
God knows the state of the heart and mind in those
last moments of life.
Besides, we have an example in the Bible of some-
one who committed suicide yet was still deemed faith-
ful: Samson. Judges 16:30 reads, “Then Samson said,
‘Let me die with the Philistines!’ And he pushed with
all his might, and the temple fell.” Yes, the temple fell
on the lords of the Philistines, killing them, but its walls
also fell on Samson. Some might argue, “Look, they were
getting ready to kill him anyway; he just thought to take
his enemy with him. Thus, Samson’s act of war was re-
ally a sacrifice and not a suicide. Nevertheless, Samson
knew that by knocking down the walls, he would kill
himself as well—and that is a form of suicide.
Will Samson be in heaven? In Hebrews 11, he’s
listed among the faithful. Suicide, though tragic in ev-
ery way, cannot be the unpardonable sin.
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The Horror of Hopelessness
On December 17, 1927, while surfacing, the US-
S-4 submarine was accidentally rammed and sunk by
the Coast Guard destroyer Paulding. The entire crew
was trapped in its prison house of death. Ships rushed
to the scene of disaster off the coast of Massachusetts,
where the doomed men clung to life as the oxygen
slowly gave out.
A diver placed his helmeted ear to the side of
the vessel and listened. He heard a tapping noise.
Someone was tapping out a question in the dots and
dashes of Morse code. The question came slowly:
“Is…there…any…hope?”
Sadly, despite their best efforts, there was no rea-
son for hope and all six men perished.
This seems to be the cry of humanity: “Is there
any hope?” Hope, indeed, is the basis of all human ex-
istence in Christ!
You have heard the expression, “Where there is
life there is hope.” This comes from the Bible, where
Solomon says, “But for him who is joined to all the liv-
ing there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead
lion” (Ecclesiastes 9:4).
So far we have looked at some pretty heavy sins,
and yet we have reason to believe that, as bad as these
sins are, not one of them is the unpardonable sin that
Jesus spoke so strongly about.
What, then, is the sin that is so bad that it cannot
be forgiven, no matter what? What sin is so bad that
even the death of Jesus isn’t enough to save the guilty
one from condemnation? What sin leaves them with
no hope?
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After all these years, who isn’t still disturbed by
the images from the 9/11 attacks on America? Some
are very graphic, like when photographers captured
images of those desperate and trapped workers in the
World Trade Center. They have photos of people on
the higher floors who found their way to the windows
in an effort to escape the flames. They couldn’t make
it down because the fires trapped them, but once
they got to the windows, then what? In some cases,
they were 40 stories above the ground, yet with no
other recourse, they jumped to their deaths rather
than be burned alive inside the building. Talk about
utter hopelessness!
Or what about this situation? He was a parachute
instructor who had spent so much time making sure
that his students were all suited up and cinched in
tight that one day he had forgotten, believe it or not,
to put on his own parachute. He then jumped out of
the airplane to his death! Can you imagine what he
must have felt like on the way down, knowing that
he was going to die? All that training for others…yet
he ended up doing something so careless. Again, talk
about an awful sense of hopelessness!
We use these two sad stories as an analogy for
what it must be like to have the Lord declare to a per-
son, a family, a nation, a city, or the world that there’s
no hope for them, that they are eternally lost. To still
be alive and know that your situation is hopeless is a
dreadful thought. It’s like that with the unpardonable
sin, the one sin that cannot be forgiven. So again we
ask, “What is it?”
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Blasphemy
As we saw above, in Luke 12:10, Jesus said, “Any-
one who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will
be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against
the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven” (emphasis sup-
plied). It is someone who “blasphemes” who cannot
be forgiven. Thus, we need to decipher what blasphe-
my is, because, obviously, it is a crucial component to
understanding the unpardonable sin.
In the Greek, the word is blasphemos and, accord-
ing to one dictionary’s concise definition, it means “to
vilify, to speak impiously, to defame, to rail upon, to
revile, to speak evil, to hurt or blast the reputation,
nature or works of God.” So to speak evil of God—
to defame, to vilify, to undermine Him with your
words—is blasphemy. There are some other defini-
tions, but this one is principally the one that Jesus uses
in this warning.
In the American Heritage Dictionary, blasphemy
is defined as “a contemptuous or profane act, utter-
ance, or writing concerning God or a sacred entity.”
It also gives another definition: “the act of claiming
for oneself the attributes and rights of God.” We ac-
tually believe this last one is closer to the definition
we’re looking for when the Bible speaks of blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit. But if you aren’t sure about dic-
tionary definitions, then let’s let the Bible define itself.
In the Bible, we find some stories in which blas-
phemy is cited, such as in John 10:33. At one point,
some of the leaders in Israel were trying to find a
reason to stone Jesus. “The Jews answered Him, say-
ing, ‘For a good work we do not stone You, but for
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blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make
Yourself God.’ ” Thus, man putting himself in the place
of God is a Bible definition of blasphemy, just as it was
in the dictionary.
Now look at Luke 5:21. “And the scribes and the
Pharisees began to reason, saying, ‘Who is this who
speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
alone?’ ” Now, Jesus had just said He could forgive the
sins of a paralytic. The religious leaders were angry,
because they realized that by forgiving the man’s sin,
Jesus was putting Himself in the place of God.
In other words, suggesting that what you think is
more important than what God says. Isn’t that put-
ting yourself in the place of God? Some people might
not have considered that they’re at risk of committing
the unpardonable sin because they are claiming the
prerogatives of God for themselves. They’re making
themselves their own god. They’re not listening to the
words of God; instead, they’re saying, “My reasons are
more important than the commandments of God.” A
man putting himself in the place of God. That’s pretty
heavy. If that’s not blasphemy, what is?
Of course, blasphemy itself is not the unpardon-
able sin. In fact, we all have probably committed vary-
ing degrees of blasphemy at some point or another.
After all, the apostle Paul had been a blasphemer,
and we can be assured that Paul will be in heaven. In
1Timothy 1:13, he writes: “Although I was formerly a
blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I
obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.”
God’s grace to us is exceedingly abundant; it for-
gives even blasphemy. Indeed, right in Matthew 12:31,
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Jesus says: “Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiv-
en men” (emphasis supplied). Again, God’s grace is
amazing! All kinds of blasphemy are forgiven…ex-
cept the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
Thus, in order to understand what blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit is, we also need to understand
what the Holy Spirit does. Once we grasp that, we can
then better understand what it means to blaspheme
the Holy Spirit and why it’s been deemed the unpar-
donable sin.
Three Functions
What does the Holy Spirit do? Why is His func-
tion so crucial that blasphemy against Him is so seri-
ous a sin that it cannot be forgiven?
Jesus said, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom
the Father will send in My name, He will teach you
all things, and bring to your remembrance all things
that I said to you” (John 14:26). First, the Holy Spirit
teaches us things—the things we need to know for
our salvation.
Next, besides teaching us all things, Jesus indi-
cated that the Spirit will also “guide you into all truth”
(John 16:13). Every searching student of the Word has
probably experienced this guiding influence of the
Holy Spirit. There can be no true insight into biblical
truth without the enlightenment of this Spirit of God.
Finally, the mission of the Holy Spirit is to con-
vict of sin. Jesus said, “It is to your advantage that I go
away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come
to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And
when He has come, He will convict the world of sin,
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:7, 8).
It is the special work of the Holy Spirit to reprove us
and convict us of our sin. When wrongs are commit-
ted, the conscience is pricked with a sense of guilt—
that is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Thus, we see that the Holy Spirit 1) teaches us
what we need to know, 2) guides us into truth, and 3)
convicts of sin. This is His work. It is logical, therefore,
to conclude that as long as we allow the Holy Spirit
to teach us, to guide us, and to convict us, we could
never be guilty of committing the unpardonable sin.
But suppose we refuse to acknowledge these
three operations of the Spirit in our personal expe-
rience with God? That is exactly when people begin
to approach the deadly parameters of the worst sin
on record.
A Powerful Example
It is intriguing to study the actual examples of the
unpardonable sin in the Bible record. For instance,
at one time, practically everyone in the world passed
over that point of no return. Here is what the Bible
says about the state of the world before the global
flood: “And the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive
with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days
shall be one hundred and twenty years’” (Genesis 6:3,
emphasis added). That’s a scary declaration!
God is saying that at some point, enough is
enough. Look at what the pre-flood people were like:
“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord
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was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and
He was grieved in His heart” (Genesis 6:5, 6). If every
thought of their hearts was evil, imagine what their
words and deeds were like! They were so bad that God
was even sorry that He had created them.
These texts speak of the antediluvian world,
which perished in the global flood. For more than 100
years, the Holy Spirit pleaded with that wicked gen-
eration through the preaching of Noah. Although the
imagination of nearly every heart was evil continually,
a small remnant responded to the Spirit and entered
the ark. All the rest were swept away in the raging wa-
ters, which covered every inch of the earth’s surface.
After years of patient striving, the Spirit withdrew to
leave the stubborn sinners to their chosen fate.
Could the same thing happen again? There is an
amazing parallel between the days of Noah and today.
Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be
also in the days of the Son of Man” (Luke 17:26). The
very same excesses of the pre-flood world are being
committed right now in the great cities of our world.
Perversions of the worst degree continue to mark the
carnal course of every nation under the sun as few
seek the safety of God’s hands.
It’s curious, of course. Why did the vast majority
of pre-flood people refuse to enter the ark of safety?
Many of them probably helped Noah construct that
huge vessel; they saw all the animals go aboard peace-
fully. Surely the Holy Spirit stirred them with convic-
tion, but they would not obey the message. Finally,
God said, “Let them alone. My Spirit will no longer
strive with them.”
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
Here we see a key issue that should help us un-
derstand the point of no return. God’s Holy Spirit
no longer strove among those people. That is, they
were so hardened in their rejection of the Spirit and
His pleadings with them that God finally had to say
enough is enough—no more.
We also see here at a corporate level what we’re
trying to find on an individual one: what it means to
spurn the Holy Spirit at such a level that nothing more
can be done for us because we have, indeed, reached
the PNR—the point of no return.
How crucial, then, it is for us as individuals to
make sure we don’t make the same mistake that these
people did and fall headlong into the same trap.
Conviction
The good news is that we don’t have to fall into that
trap, not as long as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit
in our lives. Remember, one of the things He does is
convict us of wrongdoing. “When He has come, He
will convict the world of sin” (John 16:8). To refuse,
to reject, and to harden yourself against the convict-
ing influence of the Spirit cannot be something good.
Indeed, as we just saw with those who lived before the
flood, it’s a big step toward crossing the PNR.
Think about it: Is it good to be convicted? If you
are standing in a house that’s caught on fire, your
nerves tell you to run. But if you ignore that pain from
the heat, you’re going to burn. Indeed, pain can be a
healthy thing if it helps you preserve your life, right?
Some unfortunate people have a disease that deadens
the pain nerves in their body. It might sound attractive
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to be unable to experience pain, but the problem is
that the people with this disease sustain all sorts of
injuries the rest of us don’t. For instance, if we were to
put our hand on a hot stove, we would instantly pull it
away. They wouldn’t pull away because they wouldn’t
feel the pain; hence, they would get badly burned in a
way we would not.
Thus pain—conviction—at the right time, in the
right place, is very important. And that’s especially
true when it comes to the work of the Holy Spirit
in bringing to us the conviction of sin. It was the
conviction of the Holy Spirit that led the men to ask
Peter, “What shall we do [to be saved]?” (Acts 2:37).
They were convicted; it was a healthy thing. Yet sup-
pose they were so hardened against the Spirit that
they ignored Peter and his powerful preaching.
One of the most important questions we can ask is,
“What must I do to be saved?” If you don’t ask it, if
you don’t care about being saved, what hope is there
for you?
Indeed, what if you had a son who was regularly
given to cursing, lying, and stealing without any feel-
ings of guilt? Would that not worry you? Wouldn’t
you want your kid’s conscience to bother him about
wrongdoing? You certainly wouldn’t want your son
to feel good, to boast in doing evil! You would want
him to be convicted and to act upon that convic-
tion of wrongdoing, right? It’s an encouraging thing
to see your child feel remorseful about doing wrong.
It’s a sign of growth. But if he’s morally calloused and
doesn’t have any conviction, that’s very dangerous and
any parent should be concerned.
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
Perhaps you remember the story in the book of
Exodus about the Pharaoh of Egypt. Talk about some-
one seeing evidence of the Spirit! What monarch saw
more miracles than he did? Moses would even come
and schedule out the miracles. He’d say there was
going to be a divine plague the next day, and it hap-
pened. Pharaoh personally witnessed the power of
God. How stubborn does one have to be to see a pillar
of fire, to see the Red Sea part, to see the Jews march-
ing through the sea, and yet be so bent on resisting
the evidence of God’s Spirit that he would still attack
His people?
Can you imagine how nervous those Egyptian
soldiers were as they saw the sea part and the chil-
dren of Israel pass through it on dry ground? They
could clearly see that God was with those people. “You
want us to do what? You still want us to attack them
after all these plagues to deliver them?” How stubborn
and ornery can someone be? It’s as if you’d have to
be possessed by another spirit, a dark spirit, to be
that obstinate.
Well, Pharaoh was that stubborn, and that is what
destroyed him in the end—along with his entire army.
He allowed his own heart to become hardened. He was
not able to acknowledge that he was wrong. Despite
all the incredible miracles he had seen, despite all the
evidence that he had witnessed, even the death of his
own first-born son, he refused to acknowledge the
power and sovereignty of the living God.
Take a moment to read these powerful words
from the writer E.G. White:
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“God had declared concerning Pharaoh, ‘I will
harden his heart, that he shall not let the peo-
ple go’ (Exodus 4:21). There was no exercise
of supernatural power to harden the heart of
the king. God gave to Pharaoh the most strik-
ing evidence of divine power, but the monarch
stubbornly refused to heed the light. Every
display of infinite power rejected by him,
rendered him the more determined in his re-
bellion. The seeds of rebellion that he sowed
when he rejected the first miracle produced
their harvest. As he continued to venture on
in his own course, going from one degree of
stubbornness to another, his heart became
more and more hardened, until he was called
to look upon the cold, dead faces of the first-
born” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 261).
We’re now seeing more clearly what this blasphe-
my against the Holy Spirit involves. We should also
start to discern that this lethal sin isn’t just one horri-
ble isolated deed, but a constant rejection of the work
that the Holy Spirit is seeking to do in a person’s heart.
John 16:13 says, “The Spirit of truth…will guide
you into all truth.” As we have seen, the Spirit guides
us, teaches us, and convicts us—but that’s just for
starters. For us to obtain forgiveness, what has to hap-
pen? “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrigh-
teousness” (1 John 1:9).
To receive God’s forgiveness, we must first re-
pent and confess. If we refuse, then we begin to head
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
toward the point of no return. But if our hearts are,
like Pharaoh’s, hardened, if we see evidence of God’s
work in our lives but consistently and repeatedly stifle
the conviction that the evidence brings, it’s not likely
that we are going to confess or repent of anything.
How could we?
The Crucial Context
The topic of the unpardonable sin should start to
be clearer now—it’s like Christianity 101. We need to
repent, we need to be convicted, we need to be guided,
we need to know that we have done wrong, and we
need to confess that wrong.
What brings about all these things in our lives? It
is the work of the Holy Spirit alone. Thus, blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit is rejecting and refusing to re-
spond to the leading, the teaching, and the conviction
of the Holy Spirit. It is closing the only door through
which we obtain forgiveness. That’s why it’s the sin
that cannot be forgiven.
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the sin for
which we will not repent and confess; hence, it is un-
pardonable, and that is why Jesus spoke so strongly
about it. Let’s look at the context in which Jesus ut-
tered one of His warnings about this sin.
Matthew 12:22 reads, “Then one was brought to
Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute.”
This person was in bad shape: blind, unable to speak,
and demon-possessed. The verse continues: “And
He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both
spoke and he saw.” The demon was cast out, and the
multitudes were amazed; they asked, “Could this be
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the Son of David?”—in other words, “Could this be
the Messiah?”
Why would they ask that? The evidence was over-
whelming that Jesus had the power of God against the
devil. He liberated and healed the man’s sight and
speech as they all stood there and watched. Imagine
if you were to see a miracle like that right before your
own eyes. Someone blind suddenly being able to see;
someone voiceless suddenly able to speak!
What, though, was the reaction of the Pharisees
when they heard about this miracle? “This fellow does
not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler
of the demons.” That was a very dangerous attitude
to have in the presence of God’s Son: to disregard the
obvious evidence of the working of God’s Spirit and to
instead call it the working of the devil!
The Pharisees called the work of Jesus the work
of a pagan deity. Beelzebub was a Phoenician god,
about the lowest of the low when it came to gods.
Beelzebub was also known as the “Lord of the Flies,” a
god of filth, because when the Phoenicians saw some
filth, or scum, or even a corpse, they noticed that flies
would land on them and, soon, worms and maggots
would appear. Not knowing about modern science,
they came to the conclusion that the filth and scum
of corpses somehow had the power to give life. They
thought some god must have put that power in there;
thus, they came to worship the “Lord of the Flies,”
Beelzebub. And this was the being that the religious
leaders said gave Jesus His power.
Talk about pushing the envelope.
Talk about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit!
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
They were denying the influence and power
of the Holy Spirit. That’s why Jesus—knowing their
thoughts—said,
“Every kingdom divided against itself is
brought to desolation, and every city or house
divided against itself will not stand. If Satan
casts out Satan, he is divided against himself.
How then will his kingdom stand? And if I
cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do
your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall
be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the
Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has
come upon you” (Matthew 12:25–28).
In other words, “If what I’m doing is of God, then
what are you men really doing and saying? What po-
sition are you taking in regard to what God is doing
in this world? You are ascribing to the devil the work
of the very God you claim to worship and serve.” They
were refusing to acknowledge the obvious demonstra-
tion of God’s Spirit. Look again at His statement in
Matthew 12:28: “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit
of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon
you.” He was pleading with them! “The kingdom of
God is come to you. Don’t reject it, don’t deny it, and
don’t mislabel it by calling the obvious signs of that
kingdom the work of the devil.”
But Jesus wasn’t finished. He continued,
“How can one enter a strong man’s house and
plunder his goods, unless he first binds the
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strong man? And then he will plunder his
house. He who is not with Me is against Me,
and he who does not gather with Me scatters
abroad” (Matthew 12:29, 30).
What was Jesus saying here? He was telling the
Pharisees, very clearly and unambiguously, that if they
weren’t recognizing His work as the power of God,
then they would eventually be filled with the power of
the devil. There’s no middle ground; we’re on one side
or the other. There is, indeed, a great controversy be-
tween good and evil, Christ and Satan, and we have to
make our choice about whose side we are going to join
in this conflict. And to be blunt: to not choose Christ
is to choose the other side—the devil’s side.
Now comes Jesus’ zinger:
“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blas-
phemy will be forgiven men, but the blas-
phemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven
men. Anyone who speaks a word against the
Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but who-
ever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not
be forgiven him, either in this age or in the
age to come” (Matthew 12:31, 32).
So now we have the full context in which Jesus
makes His statement about the unpardonable sin.
The Pharisees refused to recognize the work of
the Holy Spirit; they rejected the clear work of the
Spirit of God. Don’t miss this point: If we refuse to
acknowledge and recognize the working of the Holy
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
Spirit in our lives, then we are at risk of committing the
unpardonable sin.
Remember back in 2010, when those 33 Chilean
miners were trapped 2,300 feet below the surface? A
narrow, deep hole was dug through the rocky earth to
rescue them. If those miners refused to heed the voice
of their helpers, to escape through that tiny tunnel,
they would have surely died. There was no other way
for them to be saved!
Likewise, as we have seen, if the work of the Holy
Spirit is to guide us into knowledge and lead us to
repentance and conviction, and we reject that very
work, we are in danger of committing the unpardon-
able sin because it’s only through that work we can
be brought to repentance, which ultimately leads
to pardon.
One of the best definitions of the unpardonable
sin that I’ve read comes from E.G. White. She writes,
“No one needs look upon the sin against the
Holy Ghost as something mysterious and
indefinable. The sin against the Holy Ghost
is the sin of persistent refusal to respond to
the invitation to repent” (That I Might Know
Him, pg. 243).
That’s it…pure and simple! “The persistent re-
fusal to repent of sin.” That is the unpardonable sin.
Three Wrong Paths
Now that we better understand what the unpar-
donable sin is, the next question arises: How does it
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happen that someone gets in danger of committing it?
It’s fine that we know what it is, but that’s only part of
the issue. What’s just as important is what we need to
do to make sure we don’t commit it!
What happens, then, that causes people to com-
mit the unpardonable sin—to place themselves in a
position where they can’t be saved, where they have
crossed the point of no return? It happens like this …
Almost imperceptibly, the conscience is seared
and the heart is hardened. In fact, this is why it is
counted as such a terrible sin. Sometimes people don’t
understand why God considers this the worst thing
that can be done, but it is because the Holy Spirit is
the only way God can reach an individual with the
message of salvation. That is the way we are led to
repentance. If we did not have the Holy Spirit, there
would be no hope for us, because we have to repent in
order to be forgiven. If we have no sense of our need
of repentance, we won’t do it and, therefore, we won’t
be forgiven.
Again, it’s like a deep-sea diver. His oxygen tank
has the air he needs to live. His dive computer is al-
ways working to let him know when he’s in danger of
running out of air. But if he ignores the computer and
continues to descend when he knows he should start
ascending, he’s going to run out of air and drown. If he
obeys the warnings of his dive computer and makes
his way to the surface, he will live. But he has no way
of knowing that it’s getting dangerous for him but by
his dive computer—so is it wise for him to ignore it?
In the same way, in this sin-darkened world, the only
way God can reach us is through the Holy Spirit.
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
In our analogy, God is the air we need to live;
Jesus is the salvation at the surface. The Holy Spirit
is the dive computer—He warns us that our spiritual
tank is running out of God and we need to surface to
Jesus to be saved. But if we turn away from the Spirit,
if we refuse to listen and obey our spiritual dive com-
puter, God will have to let us go; thus, we will be lost.
And it was our choice!
This was why King David was so deeply con-
cerned in his great prayer of contrition. While pour-
ing out his heart to God in Psalm 51, David prayed,
“Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not
take Your Holy Spirit from me” (verse 11). He realized
that if God removed the Holy Spirit from his life, he
was lost. He would be left alone with no way of being
saved. That’s why Jesus said this sin is the unpardon-
able sin. When you cut yourself off and refuse to listen
to the Holy Spirit, there is no hope for you.
Now, there are three specific ways in which peo-
ple can commit this hopeless sin.
1) The first way is for a person to simply admit
in his life, “I don’t want to be saved; I don’t want to
be bothered with God and the Bible.” Once in a while,
you’ll find a person like this—but not too often. Most
people really want to be saved, but now and then you’ll
find someone who just isn’t interested at all. He’s satis-
fied with his materialistic world even though he knows
it will ultimately lead to a complete dead end for him.
Proverbs 28:13 says: “He who covers his sins will
not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them
will have

A Little Light Reading.
The Savior And The Serpent.

Doug Bachelor.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, that
whoever believes in Him should
not perish but have eternal life
(John 3:14, 15).
An Amazing Fact: It is estimated that between
30,000 and 40,000 people die from snakebites
each year, 75 percent of whom live in densely
populated India. The most deadly snakes in
the savior &
the serpent
by doug batchelor
The Savior and the Serpent Text.indd 1 12/20/11 10:19 AM 2 The Savior & the Serpent
India are the cobra, Russell’s viper, and the
Indian krait. Burma has the highest snakebite
mortality rate, however, with 15.4 deaths per
100,000 people per year. Ironically, Australia
has some of the world’s most poisonous snakes,
but the average death toll there is only six
persons per year. In South America about
4,500 people die annually from contact with
the Fer-de-lance. None of the snakes already
mentioned are found in the United States,
where the chief offenders are coral snakes,
copperheads, cottonmouths, and rattlesnakes.
Four times in one year, John Fretwell’s
air conditioning equipment com-
pany in Dallas was robbed. Fed up
with it, Fretwell went up to Oklahoma
for a snake hunt and brought back what
might be the ultimate in burglar protec-
tion: seven diamondback rattlesnakes.
During business hours, he now displays
the snakes in the window of his business
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office, labeled with a sign: DANGER:
SNAKES BITE.
Before going home at night, he frees
the five-foot rattlers to glide around the
premises. In the morning, armed with a
hooked stick and a burlap bag, he rounds
them up. The seven rattlers seem to be
working like a charm to ward off burglars.
The key to his success is that most
people find these creatures among the
most revolting and terrorizing beasts on
Earth. My mother was so deathly afraid of
snakes that she would jump around and
scream even if she saw one on TV. My
brother and I would sometimes capitalize
on her phobia by placing a rubber snake
in her dresser drawer to enjoy a cruel
laugh when she discovered it.
Why Study Snakes?
Few people relish the idea of studying
snakes. It might not sound like a very ap-
pealing subject, but these cold-blooded,
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legless reptiles are mentioned in Scripture
from Genesis to Revelation. The
Scriptures are an epic record of the battles
between our Savior and the serpent and,
ultimately, how Jesus wins the war. This is
why it is very profitable for us to compel
ourselves to consider these unusual crea-
tures, which are often used to symbolize
the enemy.
Throughout the Bible, the serpent
generally represents the devil. It was in
the form of a snake that the devil first
manifested himself to the human race
(Genesis 3:1). Through the snake in the
forbidden tree, our first parents were en-
ticed to sin, hence the symbol stuck all the
way to Revelation 20:2, where he is called
“the dragon, that serpent of old, who is
the Devil and Satan.”
There can be some great benefits to
understanding this slithery creature,
which has traits analogous to our enemy.
When I lived in the desert hills as a young
man, rattlesnakes were abundant. A basic
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knowledge about their habits and behav-
ior helped me to avoid ever being bit, de-
spite several close encounters.
The Bible says that “the serpent was
more cunning than any beast of the
field which the Lord God had made”
(Genesis 3:1). Perhaps this is why Jesus
commands us to be “wise as serpents and
harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). In
order to be as “wise as serpents,” we must
understand at least a little something
about them.
Master Counterfeiter
Snakes are the ultimate experts in cam-
ouflage and counterfeits. Whether hiding
in the grass or entwined in the branches
of a tree, they are masters at blending into
the scenery to remain undetected. When
threatened, the harmless bull snake will
coil up and vibrate its tail in the dry leaves
to sound and look like its venomous cous-
in, the rattler.
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Satan, too, is a clever counterfeiter.
In Revelation 12:9 he is called “that ser-
pent of old...who deceives the whole
world.” For every truth of God, Satan has
a convincing counterfeit. He has counter-
feit baptisms, a counterfeit Holy Spirit,
a counterfeit of speaking in tongues, a
counterfeit Sabbath, and even a counter-
feit for love.
In the Exodus story, the Pharaoh’s ma-
gicians were able—to a point—to coun-
terfeit the power and miracles of God.
So Moses and Aaron went in to
Pharaoh … just as the Lord com-
manded. And Aaron cast down
his rod before Pharaoh and before
his servants, and it became a ser-
pent. But Pharaoh also called the
wise men and the sorcerers; so the
magicians of Egypt, they also did
in like manner with their enchant-
ments. For every man threw down
his rod, and they became serpents.
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But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their
rods (Exodus 7:10–12).
Likewise, Satan is most dangerous and
effective when he is imitating God’s mir-
acles and messengers. “And no wonder!
For Satan himself transforms himself into
an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14).
Flying Dragons
In the Scriptures, the devil is called
both a serpent and a dragon. Among
many cultures around the world, stories
and legends abound regarding flying
dragons. These images can be frequently
seen in their ancient carvings and art.
Legends are generally rooted in some
element of truth, and this appears to be the
case with flying dragons. Paleontologists
have found amazing fossil evidence
all over the globe of giant flying rep-
tiles called pterosaurs, or “winged liz-
ards.” Pterosaurs were flying reptiles,
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some with a wingspan of nearly 40 feet.
(That’s about the size of a small Cessna
airplane!) They appear to be the largest
flying animals that ever lived on Earth.
They had lightly-built, hollow bones but
300-pound bodies. By comparison, the
heaviest bird alive today, a Kori Bustard, is
only 42 pounds.
The pterosaur had a long, thin beak
with toothless jaws. The neck was 10
feet long, and the legs were more than
seven feet. To someone watching from
the ground, the long legs trailing behind
a flying pterosaur might have looked
like a pointed tail. The pterosaur had a
large brain and big eyes, and a fur-like
fuzz might have even covered some of its
body. We can’t tell from the bones, but
it is also possible that some of these ex-
tinct “dragons” were red. It had a bony
crest on its head that some think acted as
a rudder for flying. Other scientists have
surmised that the chambers in the skull
could have contained chemicals, like the
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bombardier beetle, that were mixed and
expelled, spraying a fiery liquid from its
mouth. Some of these creatures might
have survived long after the Flood. The
Greek historian Herodotus wrote about
“winged serpents” living in Arabia in the
fifth century before Christ.
According to the Bible, at least one
dragon has managed to survive much lon-
ger than that! “He laid hold of the dragon,
that serpent of old, who is the Devil and
Satan, and bound him for a thousand
years” (Revelation 20:2).
The Bible itself alludes to the existence
of flying serpents. One prophecy states,
“Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia, be-
cause the rod that struck you is broken;
for out of the serpent’s roots will come
forth a viper, and its offspring will be a fi-
ery flying serpent” (Isaiah 14:29).
Genesis 3:14 even explains why we do
not see flying snakes today. “So the Lord
God said to the serpent: ‘Because you
have done this, you are cursed more than
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all cattle, and more than every beast of the
field; on your belly you shall go, and you
shall eat dust all the days of your life.’ ”
If the serpent was cursed to go upon his
belly after he tempted Eve, it is obvious
that before the curse, he propelled him-
self differently.
Satan is called “the prince of the power
of the air, the spirit who now works in the
sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2).
Just as the serpent was grounded by the
curse, the fallen angel Lucifer also had
his wings clipped when he was cast to
the earth.
Satan and the Sword
The first question found in Scripture is
actually posed by the serpent, who sought
to discredit God’s words. He asked Eve,
“Hath God said?” (Genesis 3:1).
From that first insidious query to the
present, Satan has been ever seeking to
cast doubt on the Word of God in order
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to undermine the faith of God’s chil-
dren. Sin, suffering, and death entered
the world after Satan succeeded in lead-
ing our first parents to disbelieve God’s
words. Planting seeds of doubt regarding
the dependability of Scripture remains
the devil’s primary war tactic.
Jesus explained this truth in His par-
able of the sower. “Behold, a sower went
out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed
fell by the wayside; and the birds came and
devoured them” (Matthew 13:3,4). Later,
explaining the parable, Jesus says, “When
anyone hears the word of the kingdom,
and does not understand it, then the wick-
ed one comes and snatches away what was
sown in his heart. This is he who received
seed by the wayside” (Matthew 13:19).
However, victory comes to God’s chil-
dren when they embrace and believe the
powerful promises in the Word, “by which
Heidi Smith been given to us exceedingly great
and precious promises, that through these
you may be partakers of the divine nature,
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having escaped the corruption that is in
the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4).
When Jesus did combat with the arch
villain in the wilderness of temptation, He
deflected every assault with a word from
Scripture. Indeed, the serpent trembles
when God’s people take hold of the living
sword of His Word! (See Hebrews 4:12.)
The Snake and the Seed
Genesis 3:14, 15 is where we find the
first prophecy recorded in the Bible, and
this prediction tells of the ongoing battle
that would exist throughout mankind’s
history between the woman (the church)
and the serpent (Satan). This passage
also promises the ultimate victory of the
woman’s seed (the coming Savior), who
would crush the head of the snake.
Verse 15 says, “And I will put enmity
between you and the woman, and be-
tween your seed and her Seed; He shall
bruise your head, and you shall bruise
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His heel.” The seed of the woman is, of
course, Jesus.
Now a great sign appeared in heav-
en: a woman clothed with the sun,
with the moon under her feet, and
on her head a garland of twelve
stars. Then being with child, she
cried out in labor and in pain to give
birth. And another sign appeared
in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red
dragon having seven heads and ten
horns, and seven diadems on his
heads. His tail drew a third of the
stars of heaven and threw them to
the earth. And the dragon stood
before the woman who was ready
to give birth, to devour her Child
as soon as it was born. She bore a
male Child who was to rule all na-
tions with a rod of iron. And her
Child was caught up to God and
His throne (Revelation 12:1–5).
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Notice in the Genesis prophecy that
the serpent bites the heel of the woman’s
seed, not the toe. The heel is the back of
the foot, the lowest part of the body. Satan
gets us from behind, when we are at our
lowest point. Likewise, he came to Jesus
when He was weak and tired after 40 days
of fasting.
The good news is that Satan only man-
ages to bruise the heel of Christ and the
church; the church continues to limp
along, so to speak. On the other hand, the
serpent receives a mortal wound to the
head, promising the ultimate victory of
Jesus over the devil.
Power Over Serpents
When the Lord commissioned Moses
to return to Egypt and lead His people to
freedom, at first the great leader was reluc-
tant. Then the Lord gave Moses a strange
command concerning his shepherd’s rod.
“And He said, ‘Cast it on the ground.’ So
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he cast it on the ground, and it became a
serpent; and Moses fled from it. Then the
Lord said to Moses, ‘Reach out your hand
and take it by the tail’ (and he reached out
his hand and caught it, and it became a
rod in his hand)” (Exodus 4:3, 4).
A rod in the Bible is a symbol of
power (Revelation 12:5) and protection
(Psalm 23:4). When Moses’ rod turned
into a serpent, it signaled that God would
give him power over and protection from
the forces of evil as he ventured into the
snake pit of Pharaoh’s palace. This same
power is promised to all of God’s children
who seek to work with Jesus to liberate
others from slavery to Satan.
Luke 10:19 states, “Behold, I give you
the authority to trample on serpents and
scorpions, and over all the power of the
enemy, and nothing shall by any means
hurt you.” And Psalm 91:13 declares, “You
shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall
trample underfoot.”
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Don’t Play With Snakes
A rattlesnake only two minutes old can
strike effectively. During a family picnic,
a two-year-old girl discovered a brood of
baby rattlesnakes. The unsuspecting child
began to play with what she thought were
merely pretty worms, until she had been
repeatedly bitten beyond hope.
Likewise, some people feel there is no
harm in toying with the devil. Or they be-
lieve that little sins are harmless and in-
consequential, but these “baby” sins often
prove more fatal in the long run than the
more robust transgressions.
While we should never tempt the devil,
we also should not fear him. This power
over evil is what Jesus was talking about
when He said, “And these signs will fol-
low those who believe … they will take up
serpents” (Mark 16:17, 18).
Some misguided pastors have inter-
preted this passage to mean that Christians
should double as snake charmers and
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prove their faith by collecting and han-
dling rattlesnakes or other venomous vi-
pers. For obvious reasons, the member-
ship in these congregations has always
remained small. But the New Testament
account of Paul’s shipwreck reveals how
to correctly interpret this passage:
Now when they had escaped, they
then found out that the island
was called Malta. And the natives
showed us unusual kindness; for
they kindled a fire and made us all
welcome, because of the rain that
was falling and because of the cold.
But when Paul had gathered a bun-
dle of sticks and laid them on the
fire, a viper came out because of the
heat, and fastened on his hand. So
when the natives saw the creature
hanging from his hand, they said to
one another, “No doubt this man is
a murderer, whom, though he has
escaped the sea, yet justice does not
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allow to live.” But he shook off the
creature into the fire and suffered
no harm. However, they were ex-
pecting that he would swell up or
suddenly fall down dead. But after
they had looked for a long time and
saw no harm come to him, they
changed their minds and said that
he was a god (Acts 28:1–6).
Notice that Paul did not go looking
for this snake, but after it bit him he took
it up and hurled it into the fire. Just as
God saved Paul from the venom of that
serpent, He will save us from the poison
of sin. However, we are never to delib-
erately seek out snakes to flirt with di-
saster. That would be tempting the Lord
(Matthew 4:7).
Most Famous Verse
Probably one of the most well-known,
beloved, and memorized verses in the
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Bible is John 3:16. But if you were to ask
the average Christian what the two verses
are that precede John 3:16, I would ven-
ture to guess not one person in 50 could
quote them. Yet that immortal verse we
all know is actually the continuation of a
thought begun in the preceding two vers-
es. Here they are all together:
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, even so must the Son
of man be lifted up: that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish,
but have eternal life. For God so loved
the world, that he gave his only be-
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life (John 3:14–16 KJV).
These three verses together encap-
sulate the entire great controversy be-
tween the serpent and the Lord. Let’s look
back at the original story to which Jesus
was alluding:
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And the people spoke against God
and against Moses: “Why have you
brought us up out of Egypt to die
in the wilderness? For there is no
food and no water, and our soul
loathes this worthless bread.” So the
Lord sent fiery serpents among the
people, and they bit the people; and
many of the people of Israel died
(Numbers 21:5, 6).
Remember that sin first entered the
world when the serpent succeeded in
tempting our first parents to doubt God’s
Word. Like Adam and Eve, the chil-
dren of Israel also became dissatisfied
with the food God was providing them
and wanted something more. “Nor let
us tempt Christ, as some of them also
tempted, and were destroyed by serpents”
(1 Corinthians 10:9).
In this story, after the children of Israel
rejected God’s bread (a symbol for Jesus
and the Word), the serpents bit them. It is
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the Word of God that keeps people from
sin (Psalm 119:11). Let’s read on:
Therefore the people came to
Moses, and said, “We have sinned,
for we have spoken against the
Lord and against you; pray to the
Lord that He take away the ser-
pents from us.” So Moses prayed
for the people. Then the Lord said
to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent,
and set it on a pole; and it shall be
that everyone who is bitten, when
he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses
made a bronze serpent, and put it
on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent
had bitten anyone, when he looked
at the bronze serpent, he lived
(Numbers 21:7–9).
The Lord did not immediately take
away the serpents, but He provided a
remedy. Likewise, the devil might still
be in our world, but God has provided
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healing for sin as we behold “the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world”
(John 1:29).
Snake on a Stick
But why did God ask Moses to do this,
and what did it mean? For this nation of
shepherds, the serpent lifted on a pole
served as a vivid symbol that they all well
understood. Snakes are a deadly menace
to sheep. A dog might get bit by a rattle-
snake yet survive without special treat-
ment, but sheep are much more fragile.
This is one of the reasons why shepherds
carried a rod.
When I lived in the desert wilderness,
I had a snake stick that served a couple of
purposes. If I found a venomous intrud-
er in my cave, I would club it to “bruise
his head.” But a mortally wounded snake
still might continue to thrash and writhe
for hours. So rather than grab it with my
hand, I would lift it up with the rod to
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move it far away from my premises or
a trail.
A snake on a stick is a vivid sym-
bol of a defeated serpent. Beyond this,
there is a much richer prophetic signifi-
cance to this symbol. Christian author
E.G. White writes:
All who have ever lived upon the
earth have felt the deadly sting of
‘that old serpent, called the devil,
and Satan.’ Revelation 12:9. The
fatal effects of sin can be removed
only by the provision that God has
made. The Israelites saved their lives
by looking upon the uplifted ser-
pent. That look implied faith. They
lived because they believed God’s
word, and trusted in the means
provided for their recovery. So the
sinner may look to Christ, and live.
He receives pardon through faith
in the atoning sacrifice. Unlike the
inert and lifeless symbol, Christ has
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power and virtue in Himself to heal
the repenting sinner (Patriarchs
and Prophets, p. 431).
She also writes, “The people well knew
that in itself the serpent had no power to
help them. It was a symbol of Christ. As
the image made in the likeness of the de-
stroying serpents was lifted up for their
healing, so One made ‘in the likeness of
sinful flesh’ was to be their Redeemer”
(The Desire of Ages, p. 174).
Jesus said, “And I, if I am lifted up from
the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself ”
(John 12:32). It is by looking to Jesus on
the cross that we are drawn by His love for
us. By gazing in faith at our Redeemer’s
sacrifice, we are saved from the sting of
the serpent.
Again, God did not take away the
serpents but instead provided a remedy.
This world is something of a snake pit;
as long as we are in this world, we will
have to contend with the devil. However,
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God has provided an abundance of anti-
venom in the blood of Jesus to save us
from the viper’s bite! When Jesus was on
the cross, although His heel was pain-
fully bruised, the serpent’s head was
mortally crushed.
Good Luck Charms
God did not intend for the bronze ser-
pent Moses forged and elevated on the
stick to become an idol. Nevertheless, this
bronze relic somehow managed to sur-
vive all the wanderings and battles of the
Israelites for more than 700 years. Most
of the surrounding pagan Canaanite na-
tions worshiped serpents as gods of fer-
tility and mystical power. Over time, the
Israelites began to imitate their neighbors
and to treat this symbol of God’s forgive-
ness as a deity in and of itself.
Pelumi Hezekiah removed the high
places and broke the sacred pillars,
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cut down the wooden image and
broke in pieces the bronze serpent
that Moses had made; for until
those days the children of Israel
burned incense to it, and called it
Nehushtan [something made of
copper] (2 Kings 18:4).
Like the ancient Israelites, millions
around the world today are inadver-
tently worshiping the serpent thinking
they are worshiping the Lord. They have
slowly and unwittingly been sucked into
base idolatry.
Indeed, many Christians have done
the same thing with the symbol of the
cross as the ancient Israelites did with the
bronze serpent. But as the Israelites were
not to worship the serpent on the pole,
we are not to bow down to the cross.
Neither are we commanded anywhere in
Scripture to make the sign of the cross
or to wear a cross on our persons. While
the symbol of the cross has evolved into
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a logo for Christianity, there is no mys-
tical power or virtue in praying to this
shape of the ancient Roman implement
of torture.
When Jesus said to His disciples, “If
anyone desires to come after Me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross, and
follow Me,” He was commanding His fol-
lowers to bear the cross, not to wear the
cross (Matthew 16:24).
Revelation speaks of being saved not
by the cross, but by the blood of Jesus. It
was the cross as a demonstration of Jesus’
love and sacrifice that Paul and the dis-
ciples exalted, not the revolting instru-
ment itself. Hebrews 12:2 says, “Looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before
Him endured the cross, despising the
shame, and has sat down at the right hand
of the throne of God.” The redemption
of the cross is what should be the focus
of Christians.
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The Cup of Sin
In the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul,
Turkey, there rests a very precious goblet.
In the center of the inside of that goblet
is a gold serpent. It has ruby eyes and
diamond fangs; its mouth is open, ap-
pearing ready to strike. When the goblet
is filled with wine, the red liquid covers
the snake. As the wine is drunk, suddenly
the serpent with its menacing appearance
is revealed.
Jesus, nearing the time of His cruci-
fixion, shrank from the thought of sin
and separation from the Father when He
prayed, “O My Father, if it is possible, let
this cup pass from Me” (Matthew 26:39).
Yet humbling Himself, He drank the cup
of sin down to the dregs. “Nevertheless,
not as I will, but as You will.” At Calvary,
the serpent, which had been lingering
through it all, struck with all of his dia-
bolical vengeance. The intensity of evil …
Jesus bore it all!
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Defeated Foe
Some have wondered, “If Satan was
defeated by Jesus on the cross, then why
do we still see and feel so much evidence
of his evil works?” The devil knows he
was defeated at the cross, but he is crazed
with pride and anger. In order to inflict
as much heartache on God as possible, he
continues to fight tenaciously, wanting to
take down with him as many human be-
ings as possible.
Revelation 12:12 declares, “Woe to the
inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For
the devil has come down to you, having
great wrath, because he knows that he
has a short time.” Satan is now thrash-
ing about wildly in his final death throes,
striking any and all within his reach.
However, the Bible promises that, ul-
timately, Satan and his angels will be cast
into the lake of fire. This also holds true
for those people who follow the devil.
“Serpents, brood of vipers! How can
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you escape the condemnation of hell?”
(Matthew 23:33).
The good news is that in heaven, we
will no longer need to walk through the
woods in fear. Isaiah 11:8, 9 describes a
paradise without harmful snakes:
The nursing child shall play by the
cobra’s hole, and the weaned child
shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in
all My holy mountain, for the earth
shall be full of the knowledge of the
Lord as the waters cover the sea.
In the Father’s Hands
A father and his eight-year-old daugh-
ter were driving down a busy highway one
balmy summer afternoon. Suddenly the
little girl screamed and covered her head.
A honeybee had flown in one of the open
windows and was buzzing angrily around
the cab looking for a way out.
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What so terrified the child was that,
after having nearly died from them once
before, she knew she was deathly allergic
to bee stings. The father reached for the
bee as it was buzzing, cornered between
the windshield and the dashboard. The
determined little creature escaped his
grasp and now looked even more furious.
The young girl pled, “Daddy! He’s going
to sting me! I’ll die!”
The father tried to calm her. “Don’t
worry, sweetie. He can’t hurt you now.”
“But, Daddy, he’s getting closer!”
Then the father held out his right hand
to his frightened daughter; there she saw
a little stinger in his palm. “I took the
stinger so he can’t hurt you now. All he
can do is buzz around till he dies.”
We can also rest assured Satan is
doomed. Jesus has taken the venom of the
enemy into His own body that we might
be saved. Yes, the devil might still be
rampaging through this world, but God’s
children don’t need to be frightened. Jesus
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promised, “You are of God, little children,
and have overcome them, because He
who is in you is greater than he who is in
the world” (1 John 4:4).