The Sin Against The Holy Spirit
One of the strongest psychological restraints that was placed upon me when I was growing up in the NAC was the belief that any person who leaves the NAC is sinning against the Holy Spirit and thus committing the unforgivable sin. Thankfully, by thoroughly studying the Scriptures, this false definition of the unforgivable sin has been corrected.
The NAC has changed their teachings on this over time, and now asserts that any person who leaves the NAC and also encourages others to do the same is committing the unforgivable sin.
To understand exactly what the Scriptures teach regarding the sin against the Holy Spirit, one must first fully understand what the Holy Spirit truly is.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.
Scriptures define truth this way: Psalm 119:151 says, “You are near, O יהוה, And all Your commands are truth.”
Yahshua Messiah affirms that the Word of Yah as revealed in the Scriptures is truth and cannot be broken (John 10:35).
As Yahshua anticipated His imminent arrest, He explained to His taught-ones, as we read in John chapter 16,
"But I say the truth to you. It is better for you that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you at all, but if I go, I shall send Him to you. And having come, He shall reprove the world concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe in Me, concerning righteousness because I go to My Father and you see Me no more, concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many words to say to you, but you are not able to bear them now. But when He comes, the Spirit of the Truth, He shall guide you into all the truth. For He shall not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears He shall speak, and He shall announce to you what is to come.”
As we see here, the Holy Spirit also reproves the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.
Now, given what we know thus far regarding the Holy Spirit, let us here pause and compare these facts from Scriptures to what is taught in the New Apostolic Church.
Reproof of the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment is certainly not done in the New Apostolic Church.
The New Apostolic Church teaches that it is the Holy Spirit that speaks at the altars in its churches. Although this is a bold claim, even the NAC has admitted that its ministers have made errors while preaching from behind its altars. With this, the NAC has espoused an inexcusable contradiction. It cannot be claimed that it is the Holy Spirit that speaks from behind the altars in the NAC if the ministers have preached errors. Herewith, the NAC is attempting to have its proverbial cake and eat it, too.
The NAC thus implies that the Holy Spirit speaks only sometimes or perhaps most of the time, but how are the members of the NAC who hear the preaching to definitively know the difference?
The answer is that what is preached in the NAC churches must be compared to the objective measurement of Scripture in order to know if what is preached in the NAC is truth or not. Members of the NAC would be hopelessly imprudent to blindly trust everything that they hear preached from behind the altar in the NAC. Yet, if the members were to arbitrarily reject what is preached simply because it does not agree with them on an emotional level, they would be guilty of subjectivism. For this reason, everything that is offered over the altar in the NAC must be critically evaluated for consistency with the teachings of the entire testimony of Scriptures. Short of this disciplined methodology for discerning truth, the NAC will fall, and in fact has fallen into errors such as the demonic doctrine of calling up the dead during services for the departed, (another doctrine that has changed with time, which we will explore further soon).
In short, the NAC’s doctrine regarding the “sin against the Holy Spirit” is designed and intended to evoke loyalty to its doctrine by instilling fear into its members. It is a fear mechanism designed to keep members of the NAC “in line” and believing the church’s false assertions.
No person need fear the leaders of the New Apostolic Church, as they have been exposed as false prophets, and thus they are certainly not those who speak with the power of the Holy Spirit.
There is much more to discuss on this topic, so check back often for updates.
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