And in the NT we arrive at aionios, which is used several times throughout the NT. When it is used, it's more significant meaning is without end, such as in
God's existence (Romans 16:26)
God's power (1 Timothy 6:16)
The Holy Spirit (Hebrews 9:14)
Salvation (Hebrews 5:9)
Even the sin that is unforgiven is described as such in Mark 3:29. If the sin cannot be forgiven, there must be a state of existence in which the soul experiences unrelenting punishment.
Your first points
God's existence (Romans 16:26)
God's power (1 Timothy 6:16)
The Holy Spirit (Hebrews 9:14)
Here aion is referring to an immortal God. I guess no one is reading my long post, so I will state clearly again, we have to study how the adjective modifies the noun, It should be clear to all that aion isn't used to define either an age or endless time, it is a common greek adjective that was used to express both in scripture and secular literature as well, it's usage determined by the noun it modifies.....You can either agree or not, but it is on you to prove it must mean eternal in all cases, but that is biblically impossible, in fact, 4/5ths of the time it is used to express "for an age". I await your reply...
The sin against the spirit must be understood. It's a difficult and confusing verse to many people, self included, opinions vary amongst most denominations and scholars. Is it a sin that will truly never be forgiven for all time?
Most Christians understand the doctrine of the ages, that God is working with man in periods, ages or more commonly referred to as dispensations. I'll qoute CL Shofield
"The Scriptures divide time (by which is meant the entire period from the creation of Adam to the "new heaven and a new earth" of Rev. 21: 1) into seven unequal periods, usually called dispensations (Eph. 3:2), although these periods are also called ages (Eph. 2:7) and days, as in "day of the Lord."
Yes, Christians debate the period of ages, some think seven, some five, another debate.
Another confusing point is latin and enlish often incorrecly translate "aion" "age" with world, so christians wrongly fall into the notion that world refers to life now and the world to come refers to life after death. In doing so they totally miss the point that Christ is working with us in ages, not just two worlds, life and afterlife.
Regarding this verse, the Greek word aion signifys age here, as it often does in the New Testament . This age means the Jewish one, and 'the age to come' means that age under the Christian dispensation. I don't believe anyone that commits this sin would even seek forgivness during these ages of life on earth, but nor do I believe they will be tortured in the last age "God's immoratal/eternal Kingdom"
The end of the world/age here took place during the time of the apostles.
'Now once in the end of the world hath he [Christ] appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.'--Heb. ix:26. 'Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.' I Cor. x:11." The gross error IMO, is that most view the world to come as eternity {last age} and not the next age to come, the Christian dispensation. The other issue is "never", the problem is "never" isn't part of the greek language.
Each gospel explains this sin with minor differences, but the more proper greek translation from the Diaglott is
"It shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the coming age"
"Whoever may blaspheme the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness to the age, but is exposed to aionian (age-lasting) judgment."
Mark's language "
hath never forgiveness" should read "
has not forgiveness to the age,"
I think it also possibly all connects to a bigger point, the expression of force used more to express the serious of this sin, not that it would be unforgivable throughout all eternity. We like to use "unpardonable" here in the eternal sense, but then other sins become unpardonable as well:
For instance, we could make the same issue with Matther 6:15
“
if you do not forgive others, neither will your father forgive your trespasses”
If we take Matthew at face value, not forgiving others would also be an unpardonable sin, because it clearly states God will offer no forgiveness for those that don't forgive. Think about it, if you as a Christian had a loved one murdered, what if you couldn't forgive right away, what happened if you died before you forgave, would Christ not forgive you and condemn you to hell, would salvation be lost? We could take many verses and make them unpardonable using the same logic as we do with the sin against the spirit.
Sin is serious, but I truly don't believe there is any sin that in the eternal sense that grace cannot deal with, the mass of scripture seems to agree with this. However, that doesn't mean God will not judge, punish, or correct sin as he works with man in the ages, but after the judgment or correction, when all sin is put away, EVERY knee will bow and praise God.
