SSLS 2017-03-17
2017 1st Quarter
Lesson 11, March 11-17, Grieving and Resisting the Spirit
Friday, March 17
“No one need 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.” (Ellen White, Review and Herald, June 29, 1897, emphasis added).
“They will place themselves where none of God’s ordained means will be able to set them right. Their will is not God’s will, their persistency is not the perseverance of the saints. To speak against Christ, charging his work to Satanic agencies, and attributing the manifestations of the Spirit to fanaticism, is not of itself a damning sin, but the spirit that leads men to make these assertions places them in a position of stubborn resistance, where they cannot see spiritual light. Some will never retrace their steps, they will never humble their hearts by acknowledging their wrongs, but like the Jews will continually make assertions that mislead others. They refuse to investigate evidence candidly and frankly, but like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, set themselves against the light.
“The evil heart of unbelief will make falsehood appear as truth and truth as falsehood, and will adhere to this position, whatever evidence may be produced. The terrible accusation against Christ, if perseveringly persisted in, places the guilty ones in a position where rays of light from heaven cannot reach them. They will continue to walk in the light of the sparks of their own kindling, until they will blaspheme the most sacred influences that ever came from heaven. They enter upon a path that leads to the darkness of midnight. They think they are following sound reason, but they are following another leader. They have placed themselves under the control of a power which in their blindness they are wholly ignorant of. They have resisted the only Spirit that could lead them, enlighten them, save them. They are following in the path of guilt for which there can be no forgiveness, in this life or in the life to come. Not that any degree of guilt would exhaust the mercy of God, but because pride and persistent stubbornness leads them to do despite to the Spirit of God, to occupy a place where no manifestation of the Spirit can convince them of their error. They will not yield their stubborn wills.
“In this our day men have placed themselves where they are wholly unable to fulfil the conditions of repentance and confession; therefore they cannot find mercy and pardon. The sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit does not lie in any sudden word or deed; it is the firm, determined resistance of truth and evidence.” (Ellen White, Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, 912, 913, emphasis added.)