How do I explain Matthew 12:31-32 to a Trinitarian?
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Hi Guys,
I am having a debate with someone he believes in the Trinity and she has raised Matthew 12:31-32 to support her case.I have told her that you can replace spirit with breath but it does not work so well with this scripture. Blaspheming the breath is a bit strange even though it is Gods breath>
Matthew 12:31-32 “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.
Any suggestions or thoughts?
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Raymond,
You ask some very good questions 🙂
The “Holy Spirit” is “the Spirit/Breath of God” the Father. So while the “Spirit/Breath” is not a Person by itself, it is both an impersonal aspect of God (such as the “hand of God”) yet it is also an extension of His Person. If the “hand of God” or “finger of God” or “arm of the LORD” is said to do something, it is still the Person of God who did that thing by extension. So it is a mistake to view the “Spirit/Breath” as either completely impersonal or completely personal (as a distinct Person).
Keep in mind that God Himself (the Father), as a whole Being, cannot be contained in any single place. He is bigger and more powerful than the entire universe, which is like a snow-globe on His desk by comparison. Solomon said in reference to the Temple, “the heaven of heavens cannot You, how much less this house that I have built” (1 Kings 8:27; 2 Chron. 2:6,18). Scripture states several times that no one has ever seen God (ex. John 1:18), that He is the “invisible God” (Col. 1:15), that He cannot be seen by humans (1 Tim. 6:16). Yet He has personally reached into the creation by His “Spirit/Breath” to accomplish many things, such as the plagues of Egypt.
Jesus stated that the Father was dwelling in Him. This was not that the Father was fully contained in a human body, but rather the Spirit/Breath of the Father dwelling in Jesus performed His works. Note that the “Spirit/Breath” of God dwelling in Jesus was called by Him “the finger of God,” which implies a limited extension of God Himself.
Matt. 12:28 (ESV) But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Luke 11:20 (ESV) 20 But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
As the “Son of Man” (the human Jesus), blasphemy against Him by Israel or its leaders could potentially be forgiven, and it was forgiven to many Jews on the Day of Pentecost (cf. Acts 2:23,37-40). But blasphemy of the Spirit/Breath of God is blasphemy against the invisible power and person behind the miracles, the invisible One who was the very source of Jesus Himself and all of the miracles that God did through Him.
John 5:19,30 (LGV) 19 Then Jesus responded and said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you, the Son is powerless to perform from himself – not even one thing … 30 I am powerless to perform from Myself – not one thing.
John 14:8-10 (LGV) 8 Philip says to Him, “Master, show us the Father and it satisfies us.” 9 Jesus says to him, “So much time I am with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? The one having seen Me has seen the Father, and how are you saying show us the Father? 10 Do you not
believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The sayings that I speak to you, I am not speaking from Myself. Also the Father, the one dwelling in Me, He is performing the deeds.Acts 2:22 (ESV) 22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know —
The context of Matt. 12:31-32 dealt with the real source of Jesus’ power, whether it was demonic or the power of the one true God. Blasphemy against God’s Agent (Jesus) was one thing. But it was a far more serious crime to attribute the power and actions of God the Father to demons.
If you think about this carefully, you should notice that this passage is very problematic for Trinitarians. If the Father, Son, and Spirit are three co-equal and co-eternal Persons as Trinitarians insist, why is the “third Person” elevated above the “second Person” explicitly and even above the “first Person” implicitly? However, when it is understood that the “Spirit/Breath” of the Father in Jesus, the “finger of God” by which He cast out demons, was an invisible extension of the Father Himself, it all makes perfect sense. One can blaspheme God’s Agent, His Messenger, and be forgiven after repentance. But to attribute the invisible power and will, the invisible source of Jesus’ miracles and power over demons, as being itself demonic, was unforgivable. This is because it effectively calls God Himself “Beelzebul” the prince of demons (Satan).
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Tim, your explanation is very logical…thank you! But I would like to piggyback a question off of this subject. Why was it necessary to include the Holy Breath in the great commission? If the Breath is an invisible extension of the Father (and I have come to believe that), it seems almost redundant to say “baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Breath.”
Thank you!
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Dave,
There is considerable doubt that the reading in our common versions of Matthew 28:19 was what Matthew actually wrote. Several early fathers stated that Matthew wrote in Aramaic, not Greek, and that the Greek copies were translated later. Eusebius had access to an Aramaic copy of the original Matthew, and he quoted this passage several times in his writings without the so-called “Trinitarian” baptismal formula. Consider the following quote from Eusebius.
“With one word and voice He said to His disciples: ‘Go, and make disciples of all the nations in My Name, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you,’ and He joined the effect to His Word; and in a little while every race of the Greeks and Barbarians was being brought into discipleship, and laws were spread among all nations opposed to the superstition of the ancients. But while the disciples of Jesus were most likely either saying thus, or thinking thus, the Master solved their difficulties, by the addition of one phrase, saying they should triumph ‘In MY NAME.’ For He did not bid them simply and indefinitely make disciples of all nations, but with the necessary addition of ‘In my Name.’ And the power of His Name being so great, that the apostle says: ‘God has given him a name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth,’ He shewed the virtue of the power in His Name concealed from the crowd when He said to His disciples: ‘Go, and make disciples of all nations in My Name.’ He also most accurately forecasts the future when He says: ‘For this gospel must first be preached to all the world, for a witness to all nations.’ But when I turn my eyes away to the evidence of the power of the Word, what multitudes it has won, and what enormous churches have been founded by those unlettered and mean disciples of Jesus, not in obscure and unknown places, but in the most noble cities – I mean in Royal Rome, in Alexandria, and Antioch, throughout the whole of Egypt and Libya, Europe and Asia, and in villages and country places and among the nations – I am irresistibly forced to retrace my steps, and search for their cause, and to confess that they could only have succeeded in their daring venture, by a power more divine, and more strong than man’s, and by the co-operation of Him Who said to them: ‘Make disciples of all the nations in My Name.’” (Eusebius – Demonstratio Evangelica: Bk. III, chs. vi-vii {AD 313}).
See: https://4windsfellowships.net/articles/God/Evolution_007.pdf pages 9-16 for many more quotes.
Another fact which argues for Eusebius’ reading and against the common reading is that throughout Acts, people were baptized in the name of Jesus alone, never in an alleged Trinitarian scheme. Similarly, Romans 6 defines the meaning of baptism as being buried with Christ and arising with Him. Paul does the same in Col. 2:12,20. Thus, baptism is about being joined to Christ. It is pretty hard to fit a Trinity into Paul’s explanation of baptism.
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Tim,
Thank you for your explanation and guiding me to your article. I should have known that you would have already addressed this. I will be more diligent to check your sources before asking. I know you must be busy with all of the work you are doing. Yet you cared enough to point me to your article…and for that thank you!
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