enlarand glason dahril
Herminia Remmen
In fact, history is filled with noble, God-fearing men and women who found their minds filled with intrusive, unwanted suggestions to deny Christ, curse God, or do something to reject the Holy Spirit.
Bunyan did suffer from what modern-day folks would call Religious OCD, and struggled fiercely against doubt, fear, and intrusive religious thoughts urging him to deny Christ. Struggling against these thoughts would take up hours and hours of time each day.
The secret that unlocked a wave of progress with his struggle involved objectifying his blasphemous thoughts. Rather than a ferocious battle to avoid these thoughts (which, in and of itself, bound his attention to them), Bunyan was able to objectify the thoughts and see them as separate from himself. He writes,
Like Bunyan, Loyola also suffered from what would today be called Religious OCD. He feared to step incorrectly, lest he place his foot by accident upon two pieces of straw overlaid in the shape of a cross. He suffered many doubts and intrusive thoughts, and fell into despair at the tortures of his thought life.
First Rule: In the persons who go from mortal sin to mortal sin, the enemy is commonly used to propose to them apparent pleasures, making them imagine sensual delights and pleasures in order to hold them more and make them grow in their vices and sins. In these persons the good spirit uses the opposite method, pricking them and biting their consciences through the process of reason.
Second Rule: In the persons who are going on intensely cleansing their sins and rising from good to better in the service of God our Lord, it is the method contrary to that in the first Rule, for then it is the way of the evil spirit to bite, sadden and put obstacles, disquieting with false reasons, that one may not go on; and it is proper to the good to give courage and strength, consolations, tears, inspirations and quiet, easing, and putting away all obstacles, that one may go on in well doing.
Friend, I know what you mean, for I have myself by hunted by this wolf. A man might as well hope to fight a swarm of flies with a sword as to master his own thoughts when they are set on by the devil.
There is more to these short quotes, and I recommend reading the entire sermon. What he expresses is groundbreaking. His emphasis on Romans 5:6 lays a foundation for truly learning to overcome blasphemous thoughts.
Climacus is best remembered for his book, Ladder of Divine Ascent, which describes an idea that was very much in vogue in the 7th century: that by asceticism and bodily denial, you could raise your soul to union with the divine.
Unfortunately, some of the young monks who went to the desert to deny their passions and find holiness through self-denial encountered great temptations along the way. One of these great temptations seemed to be blasphemous thoughts.
Hold this foe in contempt and you will be liberated from its torments. Try cleverly to fight it and you will end up by surrendering, for the man who tries to conquer spirits by talk is like someone hoping to lock up the winds.
These truths will be as a guiding light to us in our darkest moments. Write these four steps on a card and keep it in your wallet or desk drawer. When vile curses pop into our heads or urges to push God away with profanity, pull out this little card and remind yourself of what you need to do.
Determined to reunite his family and drawn by a desire to be with his beautiful, identical brother, Dominic soon embarks on a path that will embroil him with all the others in a blasphemous web of sex, revenge, and redemption.
The Bible includes a passage in the Book of Revelation that says anyone who adds to the words of the Bible will be cursed, which lead many Christians to believe that adding anything to scripture would be blasphemous, Miller said.
I got your book on the unforgivable sin. What advice can you give for those who suffer with blasphemous thoughts? I have not said anything but they are still upsetting. I am going through a lot of stress right now. I have been having this issue about 2 years now. Any advice is appreciated. I was told just not to accept them (or cry-which I have done). God bless you.
No matter what you say or do, no matter what you think, no matter how hurtful your words or thoughts, I will love you forever. My love for you will never change, will never diminish, will never fade away.
When these bad things happen, my role, my job, my task, is to do what I can to love you through them, to be with you in the pain, to suffer alongside you. This is one reason I sent Jesus. It is also why I sent the Holy Spirit.
Many people either try to deny the painful experiences they are facing, or they clam up about their pain and refuse to talk to me about it. But not you. You are honest about your pain and are willing to talk to me about it.
I am not sure if this exactly answers the question that was sent in to me, but in my years of experience as a pastor, author, and blogger, I have found that most people who have fears about blasphemous thoughts and blasphemous words, usually have one of two things going on in their life (and often both). People who think they have committed the unforgivable sin usually have a religious leader who is trying to control them, or warped and dangerous ideas about who God is and what God is like.
Once we can see that God is not like the angry, fire-hurling deity that is often taught in some churches and by some pastors, but instead looks remarkably like Jesus who loved, accepted, and forgave everybody, it is then that we begin to see how much God loves us, and that no matter what we say or do, His love for us will never change, never waver, never diminish.
The last thing God wants is for us to shut ourselves off from Him. So if we are having blasphemous thoughts toward God, the best thing we can do is talk to God about them, so that He can show us how much He loves us, and how the God we think we hate is not actually the God He truly is.
David you will be in my prayers I deal with something similar and it really comes in between the relationship we want with God and its a horrible thing but Nothing is impossible for our mighty God and just know that God loves you soo much and that may be hard to believe but he truly does just reflect on all the times that he has helped you and delivered you before and how he sent his son to die for us God is who he says he is and Iam praying that God delivers you from this.
If you are concerned about what you said, that means the Spirit is still with you, encouraging you to go to the Father and thank Him for the forgiveness you have in Jesus Christ. He is watching and waiting with open arms.
Hm. Yes. That does happen. A lot. Just remember, however, that He is not far away. He is always with you, all the time, no matter what. A day will come when He will make his constant presence known to you in a whole new way. It may take a few weeks or months or even years.
Elijah stop struggling that means you are trying to overcome in your strength the word says resist the devil and he will flee from you.We resist him when we admit to the Lord that we are weak but that in his strength we are more than conquerers.As he overcome satan so do we when we believe that in him we have overcome.You are an overcomer my friend in Christ he will strengthen you by his mighty power.brentnz
Thank you Jeremy but some thing in your article is wrong and that is what ever you say i will love you and i still love you but when you commit the unforgiviable sin he will semd you to hell to suffer forever how can somebody who behaves worse than Adolf Hitler and i swear i have met a curel person who also looks much like Adolf Hitler how ever how can a god who gives such a worse punishment for that sin love us?
That is what is going on with the unforgivable sin. God loves these people just as much as He loves anyone else. He forgives them too. They are totally forgiven. But these people have decided that they want absolutely nothing to do with God forever. And so God honors that choice they have made.
You are asking a lot of very good questions. But please know this: all of your questions are coming from a particular understanding of God which I do not accept or believe in. You have a view of God which I do not believe the Bible teaches, and all of your very good questions arise from this faulty view of God. If you develop a different view of God, you will see that these questions fade away.
It would be entirely different if you were to verbally express those thoughts that were internal, and not recognize them as evil, nor cry to Him for forgiveness. Sadly, there are people whose hearts
are so hard that they are in such a condition. They
need to repent before it is impossible for them to do
so.
I have been suffering from this for over a few years. I feel like I am losing my mind, and I am so ashamed of myself. Sometimes I wonder if I have messed up so bad God has given up on me. I read the Bible, I pray, and most times, I am repenting throughout the day. It does not stop, especially when I am anxious.
You have not messed up so bad that God will abandon or ignore you. He loves you and will always love you. Keep going to Him no matter what. He wants to be with you through your pain, fear, and uncertainty.
But even if you had said it when you were thinking it, and even if you believed it at the time, God knows our hearts and knows our thoughts, and there is no sin we can ever commit that God has not and will not forgive. The unforgivable sin is from a human perspective. It is a sin which causes a person to never want anything from God again, and never even think about God, and never desire forgiveness from God or a relationship with God.
This is very helpful. I also go through the same issues and bad thoughts. It makes no sense to me. I ask myself what do I have against the Lord? Who goes around fighting thoughts like this all the time.
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