How I Beat the Unpardonable Sin!

Millions of people, including Christians, struggle with mental health issues and mine is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, which is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, which causes your mind to focus on your biggest fears and disgusts and repetitive behavior and sometimes a constant need for validation. This post isn’t about OCD, so I’m not going to go into a whole long thing about its causes, history, treatment, diagnosis etc. Suffice it to say that OCD sufferers are not responsible, for the most part, for the unwanted thoughts that pop in their heads no more than someone with a physical handicap or someone who is paralyzed can help their condition. Fast forward to the absolute hell I used to struggle with. If I had let the devil get his way, I would’ve been totally ineffective for the Lord and would’ve just given up.

Some well known Bible verses, though often little understood.

“But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house. He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
Matthew 12:24-32.

“And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils. And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end. No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house. Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation. Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.”
Mark 3:22-30 KJV.

Those passages are some of the most terrifying parts of Scripture. To think that there is one sin that, if committed, God will NEVER forgive you for. Well, of course, early in my twenties, with my OCD, I would have terrible thoughts that would get stuck in my head where I would cuss the Holy Ghost and have to fight it off by cussing Satan instead and saying over and over again Praise you Holy Ghost in place of the unwanted thought. This caused me great stress and turmoil and I would constantly doubt my Salvation and ask the Lord to take these thoughts away. It was absolute hell for me and even so today revisiting it. There are lots of reasons I never wanted to write/revisit this, but there it is. Upsetting the Holy Ghost is the last thing I would ever want to do at any point in my Christian life and such a thing should repulse any sane Christian. But a mental illness like OCD that Satan can use to his advantage presents a serious problem. A problem most Christian pastors and counselors are ill equipped to handle.

A couple things I want to point out about the passages on blaspheming the Holy Ghost. Number one, this was a sin of the tongue, not thoughts. Number two, it was the unrepentant Pharisees openly accusing Jesus of having an unclean spirit and doing healings by the power of Satan. Number three, no one ever mentions this sin again in the Bible AFTER the Cross. Many, including myself, believe this sin could only be unforgiven before Jesus paid for ALL sin on the Cross. Other Christian writers have dealt successfully with explaining the Unpardonable Sin such as Pastor James L. Melton and Joseph Dearing. See my Recommended Reading List.

A fourth thing to mention is that the Bible never says that any Pharisee who blasphemed the Holy Ghost was worried about what Jesus said about it. If you’re worried you’ve committed this sin, that’s a good indication you haven’t committed it at all. It is also strange that Paul would never feel the need to give people a repeat warning in any New Testament letter he wrote about the one sin that God could supposedly never forgive. I know some Charismatic and “Holiness” groups who take advantage of that fear today when confronted with their false doctrines. Some such self righteous snobs think you can lose your salvation if you fart in public!

Where I Found Help.

For the longest time, I would search in vain for help with this struggle and though I wrote to many ministries, I didn’t find any answers that were satisfying or any real help at all. Finally, I found help in two sources which really answered my problem. The first was a book titled Brain Lock: Free Yourself From Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior by Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, an expert on OCD. A huge help, Dr. Schwartz explained how and why OCD works the way it does, described other historical figures who struggled with the same thing I was dealing with and explained why an OCD sufferer is not their thoughts and can’t be responsible for a thought that they cannot control or that is totally unwelcome in the first place. As evangelist Dwight L. Moody said in Secret Power, you can’t control birds flying over your head (unwanted thoughts), but you can certainly keep them from making a nest in your head!

Brain Lock is one of the best self therapy books for OCD sufferers available. Another book that is a big help that I discovered later is Dr. Ian Osborn’s Can Christianity Cure Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? In that book, Dr. Osborn details the mental struggles of Martin Luther and John Bunyan, who most likely had OCD. As I said, there are millions of people who have struggled with this, and many Christians like me suffer in silence because they don’t have any real answers. Furthermore, many more have no Biblical training in how to conduct spiritual warfare either, to combat the devil’s tactics. I’m not saying every case of mental illness is of the devil. Not saying that at all, but Satan can certainly use such as an advantage over the Christian! I’m proof of that! Ephesians 6 KJV.

The second big help came from Dr. Peter Ruckman, one of my Christian heroes. It was around 2007-2008 that I finally got around to buying his Chalk Talk sermons on DVD and the one the Lord led me to pick first was Demons and Christians. I’ll never forget it. It was a work night (third shift) and I got up around 6PM, found it in the mail and decided to stay up and watch the whole thing before work. I was really excited because I had never seen Dr. Ruckman preach before, but just heard him on tape. A powerful sermon, and one of my favorites, about the half hour mark into it, Dr. Ruckman said something that hit me and made tears stream down my face!

Speaking of how demons can manipulate you and introduce thoughts in your head, Dr. Ruckman described being out jogging at night and hearing voices cussing the Holy Ghost. He said, “You know, it’s a good thing the Lord gives us so much to worry about sometimes and our minds just aren’t in neutral, because ANYTHING can pop in there!” He continued, “but I’ve got more sense than you’ve got, because I know that ain’t me! If it were up to me those thoughts wouldn’t be there. I know what’s going on!”. Dr. Ruckman continued to describe how unclean spirits operate, and he has some of the very best material on spiritual warfare. Since one of my all time favorite men of God went through this kind of thing, I didn’t feel so alone in the struggle as I had! This was a tremendous blessing from the Lord, very personal, and I will never forget it! God bless Brother Pete Ruckman!

Other than the inner workings of OCD, a devil, being a spirit, and Satan, being the prince of the power of the air- Ephesians 2:2, can certainly cause thoughts to pass through your head that aren’t yours. Even the Spirit of the Omnipresent Lord and the Spirit of Satan have to inhabit the same Universe! One of Satan’s favorite pass times is to get the child of God to doubt their salvation in Christ and the never ending love that the Lord has for us. Satan thrives on fear and torment. See 1 John 4:18. The best thing to do is to immediately recognize that the thought isn’t yours, rebuke it in Jesus’s Name and move on. When I finally came to the realization of the fact that these weren’t my thoughts, and that my salvation wasn’t in jeopardy, and the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ washes ALL MY SIN AWAY anyway- 1 John 1:7, Revelation 12:11 KJV, the thoughts went away completely! That’s how I beat the unpardonable sin!

So much more could be written on this, and I probably will in an expanded publication, but don’t let the devil or anyone else deceive you into thinking that the Lord won’t forgive you of certain sins, ESPECIALLY sins you don’t have much control over. The Lord is smarter and more just than that, so give God some credit, won’t you? There are also many Scriptures, some cited below, that shows the Lord has much compassion on those who are of a contrite heart over sin and mental struggles. We have complete and total victory in the Lord Jesus Christ and You too can beat the unpardonable sin!

Recommended KJB Scriptures. The best defense to combat unwanted and unholy thoughts is to saturate your mind and heart with as much of the word of God, the King James Holy Bible, as possible! Psalm 119:11 KJB. Make sure it’s the Authorized King James Holy Bible too. All modern versions are of the devil and from corrupt Roman Catholic manuscripts and only serve to further mess your mind up!

2 Timothy 1:7
1 John 1:7-10
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
Romans 7:18 (it’s important to remember that the human brain is also flesh)
1 Thessalonians 5:14.
Isaiah 26:3
Isaiah 57:15
Psalm 34:18
Psalm 51:17
Isaiah 66:2