Tattoos fall in the area known as doubtful things, that is, things not specifically forbidden in the Bible, but of questionable value. Here are some examples:

If you are living with a contentious spouse, we have several steps you can take:

At this point I am 65 years old. Over the course of a lifetime I have experienced many ups and downs. When God saved me it was an amazing, exhilarating victory. When my wife died of cancer, it was a crushing, agonizing defeat. Unless you are very young, you have had similar experiences. If you happen to be very young, you have only to wait and they will come (1 Corinthians 10:13).

The Bible follows the same up-and-down pattern as everyday life. On one hand we read magnificent promises of love and hope. By simple faith (belief), nothing more and nothing less, God promises eternal life:

On the other hand we read frightful passages about judgement and condemnation. By deliberately denying and ignoring God, God judges certain people and allows their minds to degenerate:

It is scary, but the ups-and-downs of Scripture reflect life as we know it. No other book does that like the Bible does it. This is one of the reasons I believe the Bible is fully true and fully reliable.

I am not an expert (to be sure!) on world religions. The way I understand it, Buddhism emphasizes love, peace, and happiness, while Islam delivers requirements, demands and punishments. The Bible presents both at once: God is loving and full of grace; He is also righteous and full of justice. The Bible explains our actual experiences of life on earth. Please read our article on the reliability and viability of the Holy Scriptures:

- The Bible: Is it a Pack of Lies?

A definition of the so-called unpardonable sin appears in three of the four Gospel books of the New Testament. It appears in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and it is defined as blasphemy against the Holy Spirit:

Noted Anglican theologian Graham Cole explains it as:

Blasphemy against the Spirit is that self-righteous persistent refusal to embrace the offer of salvation in Christ: his ministry of restoring his Father's broken creation. It is to set one's face against the Spirit's testimony to Christ as the Son of Man with the authority to forgive sins. The problem is the human heart settled in opposition to God. Without repentance there is no forgiveness.

AFTB thanks Dr. Cole for allowing us to use his precise and revealing definition. By continually refusing to hear, accept, and respond to the direct leading of the Holy Spirit, we condemn ourselves to separation from God forever. This is the sad, but true, state of affairs in many (actually most) people's lives we see today. Dr. Charles Stanley further enhances Dr. Cole's assertions by noting that the unpardonable sin is more an unpardonable state of human life, a state of continual and self-willed rejection of the Gospel message. Don't let that be you!

A Comforting Answer - One comforting answer often offered about the unpardonable sin is this: if you are worried about it, you have not done it! A conscience tender toward God where sin, any sin, produces a nagging feeling of uneasiness is, by its very nature, compliant to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Such an anxious believer is not resisting the Holy Spirit, he or she is actually embracing Him. The warnings of the Scriptural passages about the unpardonable sin are warnings, plain and simple, to help a new or drifting believer move to the right track. A good example of such a warning, as underscored by Dr. Cole, is the warning Paul gave to the sure-to-be-shipwrecked passengers and crew of the boat in Acts 27. God used the warning, and all were saved.

What It Isn't - The unpardonable sin is not experiencing doubt. We all experience doubt from time to time, and the blood of Christ covers this lack of faith. Nor is the unpardonable sin backsliding, moving away from God, or getting angry with God about some dreadful circumstance. While it is true that anything we do or say apart from faith is sin (Romans 14:23), the confessing Christ-followers has an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, whose blood cleanses from all sin (1 John 1:9 and 1 John 2:1). Only a persistent state or self-directed, godless lifestyle focused against the gentle wooing of the Holy Spirit puts a person in jeopardy of losing his or her soul, and that only after God's unmatched long suffering expires (Psalms 85:15, 2 Peter 3:9). Of Jesus the prophet Isaiah says:

If you are bruised, or if your flame is going out, the Lord is there, eager to restore you to full and abundant life upon your confession of faith. Call on Him. The Bible says He will answer.

Theology of the Unpardonable Sin - There are a number of comprehensive theology web sites on the Internet. Precept Austin is a good one. We also like John MacArthur's Grace to You site, R. C. Sproul's Ligonier Ministries, and we are kinda partial to AnswersfromtheBook.org (.org, not .com). You can go to these and other web sites and find many twists and turns about the details of the unpardonable sin. They generally wrap around distinctions between Calvinistic and Arminian theological approaches. Calvinists argue for the eternal security of believers based on God's sovereign grace. Arminian theologians believe that true believers can be lost based on human free will. Both stances have biblical back-up. For most people, theological details are not as important as practical, every day application of Bible principles. For this reason the remainder of this article deals with the 'reprobate mind' passage which Larry brings up, and how it relates to the unpardonable sin.

God is a God of order. He operates by laws and ordinances. There is a law in the Bible known as Sowing and Reaping which governs outcomes in the lives of all people. God has granted us the ability to choose our actions, but the consequences of those actions adhere to the Law of Sowing and Reaping.

As sure as God's law of Gravity holds the universe together, His Law of Sowing and Reaping creates results in our lives proportional to what we do. Galatians 6 (in the box above) presents the Law of Sowing and Reaping explicitly. In addition, time and time again in the Bible, we see the Law of Sowing and Reaping at work. When a farmer plants corn, he gets corn, not watermelons. If a man plants righteousness, he gets more righteousness. If he plants wickedness, he gets more wickedness. We do not need the Bible to tell us this because we see it every day. Instead we need the Bible to show us the invisible, spiritual engine that makes the Law of Sowing and Reaping work.

One of the best places to see the spiritual nature of the Law of Sowing and Reaping is in the first chapter of Romans, in the passage that Larry quotes. Here it is from the New American Standard Bible:

In this passage the apostle Paul describes a slow but steady deterioration of a person's life as he or she persistently and selfishly rejects the light of the Holy Spirit, that is, as a person commits the unpardonable sin. The amount of spiritual light is small at first, coming from the magnificence of the creation as a witness to the existence of God. Rejecting this light, the offender reaps a darkened heart. The process continues and, after several stages and opportunities to change (2 Peter 3:9), finally ends with a depraved mind.:

Look at the nature of the progression above. Starting with mere indifference and lack of thankfulness, the offenses grow more and more severe and the resulting harvest is more and more degenerate. The process affects the heart first, then the body, and finally the mind. Unless God intervenes substantially and dramatically, as He did, for instance, with Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9), there is less and less hope for the sinner. God is a gentleman. He will woo you and He will invite you, but He will not force Himself on you. He wants you to respond to His love.

What stage describes you? Hopefully you are at stage 0. How about the people you are praying for? Where do they stand in the progression of Romans 1? Hopefully they are in the early stages. Pray for them and talk to them accordingly.

Finally, look at the activity of God in this progression. God's hand is not mentioned in stage 1, but for stages 2 through 4 the Bible says explicitly that God gives them over, or surrenders them (Greek paradidomi) to their own desires. This is why it is important to stay tuned in to the Holy Spirit. Do not grieve Him. He loves you so much!

Thanks for your question Doreen. We hope your Sunday school classes go well. I will first relate an experience that happened to me personally, then back it up with biblical references.

Years ago, when I was young, a friend at work invited me to a lunchtime men's Bible study. 'We start around noon.' Bob said. 'It is in conference room 34C.'

Although I was secretly eager to attend, I wanted to hide my enthusiasm and held back a few days. Showing up immediately would surely signal personal weakness, so I was surprised that no one made a fuss when I arrived a few days later. At church, people always made a fuss over a newcomer. 'Come in and sit down, Paul,' someone said. 'Did you bring your lunch?'

I was no stranger to church. I had attended a small Methodist church for years, singing in the choir and participating in various activities. Now I was an engaged member of a Lutheran church, on the board of directors. I knew the ropes. As such, before eating, I bowed my head and pretended to thank God for the sandwich my wife had prepared that morning. The other people appeared to be doing the same thing, but I found out later they were not pretending!

This was different than normal church. Some of the guys seemed genuinely happy to be alive. It was a diverse mixture from the company. I was an engineer. Harold was a janitor, Larry was an aircraft mechanic, and even Joe the test pilot was there. I found out later that they had various church backgrounds, from Baptist to Roman Catholic to Methodist to Charismatic and many others. Position and background meant nothing to these men. The only thing that mattered was their relationship with God, which was certainly deeper than mine!

I was glad to see Alvin come in. 'Hi Alvin, how are you doing?' I asked. 'I am blessed and nothing less!' That was his standard reply, but Alvin never seemed normal to me. After all, normal people do not talk like that. More men came in and, one-by-one, sat around the conference room table eating their lunch and chatting about what God was doing in their lives. I sat quietly and listened.

With about a dozen men assembled, Bob said 'Let's get started.' and added for my benefit, 'We usually begin with prayer.' Somehow I thought we had already prayed because each man had bowed his head before eating. But I was wrong. I got the shock of my life.

On Bob's cue of 'Let's pray', everyone bowed their heads and started talking out loud to God. It was as if Jesus Christ Himself came in to the conference room, sat down, smiled at everyone, and said 'Hi guys, what's up?' They were telling Him! And they meant what they said. There was nothing formal about it. There was no set pattern. These people were simply talking to God as they would talk to a friend. It was as if Jesus were in earshot and, of course, He was!

Pete piped up a little louder, and everyone else lowered their voice a notch. Pete said 'I love you Jesus! Thanks so much for all Your blessings poured out on me. Thanks for being with me every day, and thanks for loving me so much You gave up Your life for me on the cross. I love you! And also, Jesus, my sister Natalie got a bad rash on her arm. It has been there a month and does not go away. Can you please heal it? I know you are a healer. The doctor doesn't know what it is, but You know!'

When Pete mentioned his sister's need for healing, all the prayers in the room focused on this one thing. 'Amen, Lord.' Steve said. 'Fix up Natalie's arm as good as new. We praise your holy Name as our God and our Provider. You are good to us!'

That was my first exposure to out-loud corporate prayer. it changed my life for the better. The only types of prayer I had encountered were the personal silent type and the formal, speaker-lead type of Methodist and Lutheran services. What I experienced at the men's lunch group was more along the lines of the old Gospel song:

1. Have a little talk with Jesus
2. Tell Him all about your troubles
3. He will hear your faintest cry
4. And He will answer, by and by

In Old Testament times prayers offered to God tended to be formal and rigid, acknowledging God as the King of the Universe and celebrating His majesty and wonderful acts. This prayer from Exodus is a good example:

From the book of Psalms we read this prayer that lifts praises to God for His greatness:

These are not silent prayers, but spoken out loud. At the end of the prayer from Psalms it says let all the people say. This does not leave much room for solitary and silent prayer. Instead it requires (i.e., commands) people to speak out loud as a group. Nevertheless, we also find solitary prayer in the Old Testament, such as Daniel praying three times a day in his window (Daniel 6:10) and Hezekiah pleading for healing:

In the New Testament, prayer is different. We do not hear 'King of the Universe' so much. Instead we hear 'Heavenly Father.' Prayer is more personal now. After the cross of Jesus Christ, which provides forgiveness of sins, and after the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), which provides the loving, in-dwelling Holy Spirit, prayer has moved from words of majesty to words of intimacy.

The Lord's prayer (verse above) comes as a culmination of Jesus' teaching on prayer in Matthew chapter 6. In that passage Jesus is most concerned with people showing off during prayer to get attention from others. Many people did this is Bible times, and many people are still doing it today. Prayer is meant to be intimate, personal communication between God and His people. It is not to be a matter of pride. To stress this point, Jesus says:

Try keeping your eyes open when you pray.

Matthew 6:6 (verse above) identifies one type of New Testament prayer: silent, individual praying. It does not rule out corporate prayer or out-loud (spoken) prayer. In fact, the corporate aspect of many people praying together is seen explicitly in the Lord's prayer. It says:

Give us this day our daily bread

It does not say:

Give me this day my daily bread

so praying in a group is to be normal, not a special occurrence.

Likewise, spoken, out-loud praying is seen especially in the book of Acts, where believers were assembled together with one accord and one purpose: the furtherance of the Gospel of God. Acts 4:24 and the verses before and after it give a wonderful example:

Sometimes things can get out of hand, and church meetings are no exception. Some people can be earnestly praying and praising God during loud group meetings, while others are cutting up and dis-respecting Him. This is not a rock concert! On godly leaders falls the responsibility of making sure that all things are done decently and in order. If you find yourself in a place that is indecent and out of order, leave.