Next question: When I talk to my Jehovah's Witness acquaintances who come to my door and who I’ve met over the years, that question is about the Holy Spirit. My Jehovah's Witness friends tell me that the Holy Spirit is only a force or a power – it’s God’s guiding force or power.
Now in some way by analogy I can understand some of what they say.
The Bible attributes some things to the Holy Spirit which in biblical times can only have to do with personality. He sees, He feels, He hears. We can have a parabolic microphone that in some sense – it's inanimate, it’s not a person – but it can hear. We can have sensory detectors. Although they’re creatures and have no personality, they can in some sense feel, picking up pulsations. And a camera, although it has no personality and it is not a person can in some sense see. And, I am told by my Jehovah's Witness friends, that must be something like that; I expect that's what they think. My question is this: Can you blaspheme a camera? Can you grieve a sensory detector? How can a machine, how can an inanimate force or power, how can something that is not a person with no personality, how can a non-person be blasphemed or grieved?
A sensory detector can detect pulsations, motion. You have ones that can detect heat using infrared technology, even subtle changes in heat. You have ones that can detect motion, you have ones that can detect changes in light patterns, changes in light refraction, you have machines that can do all those things. There are forces that can do things and pick things up. When you're driving on the motorway they send out a microwave beam. Go through the speed trap, there’s a change in frequency. Yeah, it can pick things up; it’s a force that has the power to detect and communicate something. Now, a speeding motorist might curse at the speed trap, he might curse at a speed camera, he might denounce it, but the camera is not going to get offended. How can someone who can get offended, that can be grieved, that can be cursed against and blasphemed not be a person? And how can a person who can be blasphemed be anyone other than God?
The Greek word is “blasphemeo”; there’s other words for “curse”, but “blasphemeo”? Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is the one sin somebody can’t be forgiven of Jesus said. (Mt. 12:31) They’re telling me that it's okay to commit murder and be forgiven, you can commit adultery and be forgiven, you can commit unspeakable things and be forgiven, but if you blaspheme a force or power that is not even a force or a person, which can't be blasphemed anyway because it’s not a person, you can’t be forgiven. How can you blaspheme and grieve a non-person to the point you can’t even be forgiven for it? Can you please answer me that? You can only blaspheme God. If the Holy Spirit is not a person and He’s not God, how can you blaspheme Him?
I think it is a reasonable and a fair question. I'm only looking for a reasonable and a fair answer. Please tell me the answer. I’m not trying to attack you or mock you or belittle you, I'm trying to find the truth. Please explain to me how you can blaspheme somebody who’s other than God, how you can grieve someone who’s not a person or something that’s not a person. That is my second question.
