Blaspheming the Holy Spirit?

[MysteryMama]

What does this consist of? From what I have read in the bible it's my understanding that this is the one unforgivable sin. But what is it? How do you know if you've done it?

[Bluegoat]

There is a lot of controversy over this, and there is a tendency for people to just say that it is whatever sin is really offensive to them or the group they belong to.

I think that the most probable explanation is that it involves a person willfully and deliberately turning away from God, or Truth, over a long period of time, and claiming that he is in fact doing the right thing, to the point where he finds himself unable to turn back or hear truth any more.

The the person is:
1) willfully committing acts that she knows in her heart are wrong (it doesn't matter, really, if the person realizes this has anything to do with God, as long as her conscience/reason tells her it is wrong.)
2) Claiming that what she knows is wrong is actually right.

The trick here is that as long as the person is not dead yet, it is always possible that there could be a change. Certainly, other people would have no way to tell, so I think we should always be very suspicious of claims a person has blasphemed against the Holy Ghost and cannot be forgiven.

I do think, though, that a person can, given enough effort, cut himself off from God. If we choose lies enough, we cannot see the truth, or move to do it. It's as if the person somehow subverts his own nature. Or perhaps it is a matter of having set oneself up as God, and so it becomes impossible to see anything beyond that.

In any case, I don't think it is terribly common for people to go that far with it, though we all justify wrong actions to ourselves at times. But perhaps that is the kind of sin that we should be very careful of committing.

[Full Heart]

I understand it to mean that you deny the existence of the holy ghost or you claim the works done by the holy ghost are yours. I think that salvation is known between a person and God. If you had done this you would be separated from God and would know it. I think God put a great deal of barriers in the way to stop us from doing this, as is our sin nature is to sin.

[Kidzaplenty]