Blasphemy

BLASPHEMY

It seems to me too few people realize what this means: let me start with the definition from the American Heritage Dictionary: "Any contemptuous or profane act, utterance, or writing concerning God. Any irreverent or impious act or utterance. The act of claiming for oneself the attributes and rights of God. (Judaism) Any word or deed meant to dishonor or revile the being or the work of God, as a curse or profanity."

If you think about that, let it settle out in your mind, and remember your entire week, you may remember at least one instance where someone blasphemed. It's not hard for the worldly minded to do. I can't forget hearing one at a place where I worked before the station I work at now. Two were talking, one on either side of me, so I had to hear everything whether I cared or not. They were joking in a derogatory way about women, and then one of them came to a point where he said "God did something stupid and gave women a mouth." If I were a cartoon, my skullcap and scalp would have come off and hit the ceiling! I spoke up so both could hear me and said, "you know, that's blasphemy!" At that, both shut up the entire rest of the time I was there until I was ready to go to the street.

Another blasphemy I have seen twice was on a social website. Two different people posted a mockery of the Lord's prayer as a tribute to their favorite football team. I of course, deleted their posting from my wall, but when I posted on my wall in the site that what was being done was blasphemous, a woman barely older than me told me to lighten up and not judge people! Then she told me, "Sorry Ricky, don't want to seem mean, but not everyone has the same beliefs you do...I believe there has to be something, there is no proof tho, only the bible...If there is a god, then shame on him if he judges me for questioning, if anything he, she or it should be happy I have my OWN mind & thoughts, a gift that was given to us..." I told her I knew that, and that was why people who believe pray for those who don't. It is very obvious from her comment that she doesn't know the Lord (had Catholic upbringing), called Him a "she" and "it", and obviously considers the bible a mere storybook. Even blasphemed right there in her comment saying "shame on Him if He judges her!" Absolutely no fear of the Lord...and the bible calls her and those like her a fool! "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction." (Prov. 1:7)

Then there's the famous Last Supper blasphemous picture that was on a news channel, and they asked for comments whether people were offended or not. The picture's heads of Jesus and the apostles were replaced with heads from the Looney Tunes' cartoons, such as Bugs bunny and Daffy duck. One person was foolish enough to post a comment to the TV station that they were a Christian, and they saw nothing wrong with it. To every Christian who knew who that was, this person sent them a different message than what they were saying. Really? Not outraged that a picture of the head of your Savior was replaced with the head of the cartoon character Bugs Bunny?! Not the least bit upset that He who died to save you from your sins and hell and eternal flames and the second death was depicted by someone with the cartoon head of a rabbit? Can you spell "insensitive"?

So what can we gather from my experiences with those who have blasphemed? Some say they believe there is a God, and yet they can speak of Him that way. They can make fun of Him. They can even say "shame on Him"?! I once interacted with an old military associate on the internet, and when I brought up God, he didn't want to talk about Him anymore, because he associated talking about God with being equivalent to "kiddie porn"! This, too, was an unusual blasphemy, as I never would have expected anyone to equate God with kiddie porn, as he said. I was a bit surprised that so many of my old friends and associates were so removed from God being around my age as they were, and so many of them, when you bring up God as a subject, would blaspheme about Him so casually!

Shall we see some biblical blasphemies, and learn what they were about? "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in His sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised Me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the LORD, 'Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun. And David said unto Nathan, 'I have sinned against the LORD.' And Nathan said unto David, 'The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.'" (2 Sam. 12:9 -14) David would reap what he had sown in the deaths of his sons, and his son Absalom publicly appropriating his concubines, but as David's confession was immediate, so was God's gracious forgiveness, that David shoud not die; however, God's reputation was challenged by the sin of adultery, therefore God's judgment took the life of David's first child to Bath-sheba. By challenging God's reputation, being His anointed king of Israel sinning against God's law against adultery, this was a form of blasphemy, and so it was punished.

In the days of the Old Testament among the Israelites, people who heard a blasphemy took it deadly serious! "And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel: and this son of the Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp; and the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the LORD, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan:) And they put him in ward, that the mind of the LORD might be shewed them. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 'Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.'" (Lev. 24:10 -14) So this reflects how serious it was to rebel so profoundly against God!

Blasphemy has happened all throughout history, and it is a somewhat common thing among men; "But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, 'It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.'" (Acts 13:45 - 46) The gospel and salvation was initially meant only for the Jews (see Matt. 10:6, Rom. 1:16), as they were God's chosen people; unfortunately, many Jews refused to believe what Paul and Barnabas were telling them, and since they blasphemed against the truth about God, they were said of Paul to be unworthy of everlasting life by their own judgment! This was not the only time the Jews blasphemed before Paul, either! "And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, 'Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.'" (Acts 18:5 - 6)

Here is another example of a blasphemy, this one in the book of 2 Kings, and it comes from a king of Assyria, Sennacherib; "Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? Have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand? Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand? And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD. And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. And they said unto him, 'Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left." (2 Kings 18:33 - 35, 19:1- 4) As Hezekiah recognized the blasphemy before God, the Lord informed him through Isaiah that Sennacherib and his men would receive judgment from God for his reproach, and the Lord's angel killed 185,000 of the Assyrians in the camp! Sennacherib then went to Nineveh, where, while worshipping his false god Nisroch, his own sons killed him. Once again, it was a dangerous thing to blaspheme God!

Remember I wrote earlier that blasphemy is somewhat common to man; now hear it from a greater authority than I could ever be! "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man." (Matt. 15:18 - 20) Here Jesus teaches us that things like blasphemies have an origin: the human heart! One who is saved will not normally entertain these temptations, while the unsaved bring them out on a regular basis!

Jesus' enemies, the scribes and Pharisees, were always making mistakes with Him. In this instance, they blasphemed in saying Jesus was in cahoots with the devil in order to cast out devils from people. Big mistake! "Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." (Matt. 12:31- 32) While the special circumstances involved in this blasphemy cannot be duplicated today, there is one unforgivable sin; not accepting Christ as Savior to the last dying breath!

So here and now we understand about blasphemy and the severity of its nature. God guard us all to keep our tongues far from it!